Warning: This post contains spoilers for “Gladiator II.”
The image of a gladiator standing tall on top of a charging rhino flying through the Roman Colosseum became one of the shining moments of the “Gladiator II” trailer — but the idea actually took more than two decades to complete.
Director Ridley Scott first came up with the idea to stage a man-versus-rhino fight for the original “Gladiator” film in 2000, but it was too dangerous to film with a real rhinoceros and too expensive to do with CGI, according to the “Gladiator II” press notes.
It was when the film’s special effects supervisor Neil Corbould found old storyboards of the rhino fight that he and Scott decided to make the scene a reality for the sequel, which premiered in theaters on Nov. 22.
“When I sat down with Ridley to talk about this film I said, ‘I’ve got something to show you,’ and pulled them out. And he said, ‘Let’s do it this time,’” Corbould recalled in the press notes.
“Gladiator II” producer Douglas Wick said the team learned “a lot from the showmen of the ancient arena” when they researched the first film.
“As we contemplated a sequel, we reached back 2,000 years for guidance on how to top ourselves,” Wick said, according to the press notes. “They had great answers. Enter the rhino.”
But is a gladiator facing a charging rhino something that could have actually happened in the Roman Colosseum? What about fending off a pack of ferocious, starved baboons, like Lucius, played by Paul Mescal, does while he’s handcuffed?
Lauren D. Ginsberg, associate professor of classical studies and theater studies at Duke University, gives TODAY.com an inside look into the historical accuracy of the three gladiator battles in the film featuring some seemingly absurd animals.
“The goal, of course, was to have the strangest animals you’ve ever seen,” Ginsberg says of the spectacles inside of the Colosseum. “And that can mean animals no one has ever seen.”
“The idea was, especially for the Colosseum, the emperor can bring the whole Roman world to you,” Ginsberg, who was not involved in the film, continues. “And also every emperor has to do something flashier and more exciting and more innovative than the previous person.”
So, enter the rhino. And baboons. But sharks? Surprisingly, only one of these animals was completely out of the question in the Roman Empire, Ginsberg says.
Could gladiators fight rhinos?
Absolutely, Ginsberg says. In fact, rhinos were a fan favorite among the Romans long before the Colosseum was even built, she says.
“I think Julius Caesar was the first person that ever exhibited one, so even way before the Colosseum, because the Colosseum was built by the Flavian dynasty in the first century,” Ginsberg says. “Rhinoceroses had been staples, but they weren’t so common as to become boring. People were always still really excited when there was a rhinoceros.”
Ginsberg thinks rhinos were so popular for two main reasons.
“They look interesting, but also because they’re really angry creatures, or at least the way they were treated made them very angry in the arena, so they were often unpredictable, which was exciting,” she says.
While rhinos were a big hit at the Colosseum and other Roman arenas, Ginsberg does say there is no evidence to support a gladiator would have ever ridden one, like in “Gladiator II.”
“No one was riding these wild animals. And part of that is that these were highly trained, very valuable athletes, so you don’t actually want to put them in harm’s way,” she explains.
What about baboons?
In Lucius’ first encounter with animals in the Colosseum, he’s handcuffed along with several other prisoners and tasked with fighting off a slew of ravenous baboons.
Wick, the film’s producer, explained that many of the scenes in the movie came directly from Scott’s mind.
“We’d be in a meeting discussing some story problem when Ridley would divine a solution. He thinks visually. We were pondering how to dramatize Lucius’ anger as his superpower in the arena,” Wick said, according to the press notes. “Ridley started to sketch Lucius in mortal battle with a ferocious baboon.”
In fact, Scott said he came up with the idea for the scene based on a real-life video of a baboon attack on a group of tourists in a parking lot in South Africa, according to the film’s press notes.
In the film, Lucius is not only able to fend off the baboons, but he eventually sinks his own teeth into one of the animals’ arms and spits out the furry flesh. Due to his victory against the primates, he transforms from a prisoner to a gladiator.
“Suddenly there’s a new alpha in the fight,” Wick said of the scene.
Ginsberg says monkeys were a possibility for gladiators to fight, but they were a relatively late development.
“The one reference that I found was Antoninus Pius was, at that time, credited with giving, like, the biggest possible Roman games of all time, which every emperor got, so every time it had to be more,” she explains.
“He brought monkeys from Africa, but they don’t seem to have been the highlight of that show,” she continues. “They were there, but they weren’t the most famous animals. He also had rhinoceroses. And people were more into them.”
Other land animals Ginsberg found took part in gladiator battles include elephants, ostriches, bears, bulls, lions, leopards, tigers, panthers and more.
Ginsberg spoke of a large industry throughout the Roman Empire dedicated to locating exotic animals and transporting them back to the emperor, as well as teams of trainers and caretakers who kept the animals alive — and ready to fight.
“There was a whole industry of people from, like, the moment you decided, ‘I want an elephant from Africa,’ that would be in charge of getting it, storing it, transporting it on a boat, getting it to where it needs to be, under the Colosseum, making sure it doesn’t die, and then making sure it’s ready to go out and give people the show that you want,” she says.
The baboon scene is also a great example of how differently gladiators were treated from prisoners, according to Ginsberg.
“Gladiators would never be handcuffed because they’re prized athletes. You came to watch them fight, and so handcuffing them would just not be interesting,” she explains. “But prisoners, you absolutely wanted them to have no escape, and you also wanted them to die in the most dehumanizing way possible.”
“As I tell my students, the Romans are jerks. Very interesting, but they’re jerks,” she adds.
Sharks?
In one of Lucius’ clashes, the Colosseum is filled with water — and man-eating tiger sharks — as dozens of gladiators fight for their lives on ships in a staged naval battle.
Ginsberg says that sharks would have never been in the Colosseum, or any ancient Roman amphitheater. “I’m willing to stake my reputation on this,” she says through laughter.
“I actually have no proof that the Romans even knew what sharks were,” she adds. “There aren’t a lot of sharks in the Mediterranean — it’s not a very common creature … but I racked my brain trying to think of anyone in the classical world that actually talks about sharks.”
Ginsberg did say that if the Romans knew that something like a great white or a hammerhead shark existed, and could find a way to transport it (Ginsberg notes there was unlikely to be any technology at the time to support such a journey), they would have “been all about it.”
“They would have thought that was fantastic, and absolutely would have used them all the time, because they especially like sea creatures,” she says. “But for sure, no.”
Ginsberg says there is evidence to support that some semiaquatic animals, like crocodiles and seals, were used in battles, as it was possible for the Colosseum to be filled with water.
She cites works from Martial, a Roman poet who described watching reenactments of Roman naval engagements, as well as evidence of pipes and drains in the Colosseum itself that seems to suggest water could have been both brought in and removed.
“I think the estimates are, like, five hours to fill it and four hours to drain it,” she says.
Ginsberg adds that prisoners were the most likely to be used in these staged historical mock battles, which mainly showed Rome being triumphant against an easily stereotyped culture, often with exotic costumes.
