Maximus Decimus Meridius (Russell Crowe)’s Timeline and Summary
- Maximus is in a vision, walking through tall grass.
- He snaps out of his reverie, and is back in Germania, on the eve of a major battle. He participates in the battle, and the Romans ultimately win.
- Maximus tells everybody he plans to return home, but then Marcus Aurelius puts him in a strange position by asking to be the protector of Rome after he dies. Maximus refuses, but then asks for some time to think it over.
- Maximus prays, and then seems committed to granting Marcus Aurelius his wish.
- Before he can accept, however, Marcus Aurelius is murdered. Maximus realizes this, and refuses to pledge his loyalty to Commodus as a result.
- He is captured, and he's taken to be executed. Being the superior fighter he is, however, he defeats his executioners (sustaining a wound in the process), and races home only to discover his family has been murdered by Commodus' forces.
- After burying his family, Maximus passes out and enters a semi-comatose state. He is picked by a slave caravan and taken to Africa.
- He is purchased by Proximo, but refuses to fight in training exercises. He cuts out the tattoo marking him as a member of the Roman army.
- During the first battle, Maximus realizes that he can't just stand around, and he fights like a champ, assisting his team to victory.
- The next we see of him, Maximus's scoring another big victory. This time he dispatches five or six guys with ease before shouting at the crowd, "Are you not entertained?!"
- Proximo invites Maximus to his chambers, and tells him they're going to Rome. He says Maximus can be magnificent, but he must win the crowd in Rome. He may even win his freedom as well.
- Maximus arrives in Rome with the other gladiators.
- Under his leadership, Proximo's gladiators win the day during their first battle. Commodus comes to speak to Maximus, who is forced to reveal himself. Commodus would really love to kill Maximus, but the crowd wants him alive. So he spares him.
- Lucilla visits Maximus, tries to enlist him in a plan to get rid of Commodus. He is still angry, and refuses to meet with her friend from the Senate. He's not confident he can do any good, and he tells her never to visit him again.
- Maximus fights again in the Colosseum, this time against a famous gladiator (Tigris of Gaul) who's come out of retirement, and against a bunch of tigers. Yikes. Maximus defeats them all, and when ordered to dispatch the gladiator, refuses. The crowd loves it.
- He stoically endures Commodus' gloating over the death of his family, and simply tells him, "The time for honoring yourself will soon be at an end."
- Cicero gets Maximus' attention as he's leaving the arena, and tells him where the men are camped. He gives Maximus a small bag, which contains the figurines of his family from earlier in the film.
- Maximus meets Cicero shortly thereafter, and asks him to him a favor. He doesn't say what that is, but we soon learn that Maximus has decided he will meet with Senator Gracchus.
- Lucilla sets up a meeting with Senator Gracchus. Maximus proposes a plan to him: buy his freedom, get him to Ostia, he'll return with his army and destroy Commodus.
- Maximus pitches his plan to Proximo (off screen), and meets with resistance. Shortly thereafter, Lucilla visits him, informs him that Gracchus has been arrested and that they must act quickly. She kisses him before departing.
- Maximus tries to escape, with the help of his fellow gladiators. The plot is foiled, and he is recaptured by Commodus' forces.
- Commodus confronts Maximus below the Colosseum. They chat for a bit before Commodus stabs him in the back.
- In the arena, Maximus and Commodus do battle. Despite being wounded, Maximus is still better than Commodus, and defeats him by stabbing him in the neck.
- Maximus tells Quintus to free his men, reinstate Gracchus. There was once a dream that was Rome (a republican dream, it is implied), and it will be realized. Quintus obeys him.
- Maximus says a few words to Lucilla while he's dying, and then finally he's able to join his wife and son in the afterlife, where he appears to them dressed in armor.