Gladiator II (2024)
Ridley Scott made Gladiator II because he wanted to make another Gladiator. That's essentially the whole story behind the sequel, and it explains both its strengths and its limits.…
Full analysis belowNOT A WOKE TRAP Gladiator II is primarily a crowd-pleasing action spectacle. The film celebrates Roman honor codes, martial virtue, masculine heroism, and the bond between a man and his purpose.
Ridley Scott made Gladiator II because he wanted to make another Gladiator. That's essentially the whole story behind the sequel, and it explains both its strengths and its limits. The original Gladiator (2000) was a film about personal honor, sacrifice, and the dignity of a man who chose death over compromise. Gladiator II is a film about a young man trying to become the kind of man the original film was about. It's less mythic. It's also genuinely entertaining.
Plot Summary
Lucius (Paul Mescal) is the son of Lucilla and grandson of the philosopher-emperor Marcus Aurelius -- blood royalty of Rome, living in exile as a young soldier in North Africa. When Roman legions commanded by General Acacius (Pedro Pascal) conquer his adopted home, Lucius is captured, his wife killed, and he is sold into gladiatorial service to Macrinus (Denzel Washington), a former slave who has accumulated vast wealth and now schemes to topple the corrupt co-emperors Caracalla and Geta (Joseph Quinn and Fred Hechinger, delivering genuinely unhinged performances). Lucius fights his way up through the Colosseum's ranks while slowly uncovering his true identity -- and deciding what to do with it.
The plot is operatic in the best sense: big gestures, grand stakes, clear moral architecture. Father and mother figures pull Lucius in different directions. Macrinus is seductive and dangerous. Acacius is honorable but complicit. Lucilla (Connie Nielsen, returning from the original) carries the weight of her family's legacy and her own failures.
Trope Analysis -- VVWS Weighted Scoring
Woke Tropes
| Trope | Severity (1-5) | Authenticity | Centrality | Weighted Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anti-imperial critique -- Rome as engine of conquest and oppression (Lucius's adopted homeland destroyed) | 3 | High -- embedded in sequel premise | Moderate | 5.4 |
| Former slave as primary antagonist with sympathetic origin story (Macrinus) | 2 | Moderate -- legitimate character arc | Moderate | 2.4 |
| Emperors as decadent, degenerate villains -- institutional rot framing | 2 | High -- historically grounded | Supporting | 1.6 |
| Diverse supporting Colosseum cast used to signal multicultural Rome | 1 | Moderate | Background | 1.2 |
| WOKE TOTAL | 10.6 |
Traditional Tropes
| Trope | Severity (1-5) | Authenticity | Centrality | Weighted Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Personal honor as supreme value -- Lucius fights with dignity even in chains | 5 | High | Defining | 14.0 |
| Masculine heroism -- combat, sacrifice, physical courage centered without apology | 4 | High | Central | 8.0 |
| Family legacy and ancestral duty as motivating force | 4 | High | Central | 5.6 |
| Maternal sacrifice and devotion (Lucilla's choices throughout) | 3 | High | Moderate | 3.0 |
| Vengeance as legitimate moral response to injustice | 3 | High | Central | 3.0 |
| Order vs. chaos -- Rome's institutions, however corrupt, framed as preferable to barbarism | 2 | Moderate | Supporting | 1.6 |
| TRAD TOTAL | 35.2 |
Director Ideological Track Record
Ridley Scott is 86 years old and has been making films for fifty years. His ideological footprint is lighter than almost any director of comparable stature. He is a craftsman first. His output ranges from Alien (1979) to Blade Runner (1982) to Gladiator (2000) to Black Hawk Down (2001) to The Martian (2015). Scott does not make films with an ideological thesis. He makes films about people in extreme circumstances making choices under pressure. That's an inherently traditionalist framework even when the surface content varies.
His one overtly progressive film, Napoleon (2023), was criticized from the left for being too harsh on the French Revolution and from the right for depicting Napoleon as a ridiculous figure rather than a military genius. Scott's response to both camps was essentially: I make movies, not arguments. This is a useful frame for understanding Gladiator II. He wanted the combat. He wanted the spectacle. He wanted Paul Mescal to earn his stripes as an action lead. The ideological subtext was someone else's concern.
David Scarpa, the screenwriter, previously wrote Napoleon for Scott -- same collaboration, same mode. Scarpa is a craftsman in the prestige-historical lane. No significant ideological track record.
Adult Viewer Insight
Paul Mescal is genuinely impressive here. He came to this film as an actor known for quiet, emotionally interior performances (Normal People, Aftersun, All of Us Strangers) and had to rebuild himself from the ground up as a physical, commanding action lead. He pulls it off. The transformation is convincing. Denzel Washington, meanwhile, plays Macrinus with a kind of delicious theatricality -- he's clearly having the time of his life in a role that lets him be charismatic, sinister, and ultimately pitiable.
Conservative viewers will find the film's value system largely congenial. Honor matters. Family matters. Fighting for what is right matters. The empire critique exists but doesn't overwhelm -- Lucius is not trying to destroy Rome, he's trying to restore it to something worthy of its founding ideals. That's a conservative impulse wearing ancient Roman clothes.
The sequel is not as good as the original. The original Gladiator had Russell Crowe at the peak of his powers and a villain (Commodus) who was one of cinema's great sniveling monsters. Gladiator II has excellent craft and admirable ambition but never quite reaches the same mythic register. See it anyway.
Director: Ridley Scott
Genre-first, occasional progressive subtextRidley Scott is one of cinema's great genre architects. His ideological footprint is lighter than most auteurs of his stature.
Writer: David Scarpa
Screenwriter known for All the Money in the World and Napoleon. Works primarily in prestige historical drama.
Adult Viewer Insight
Paul Mescal is genuinely impressive here. He came to this film as an actor known for quiet, emotionally interior performances and had to rebuild himself from the ground up as a physical, commanding action lead. He pulls it off. Conservative viewers will find the film's value system largely congenial. Honor matters. Family matters. Fighting for what is right matters. The sequel is not as good as the original but is a worthy continuation of a great franchise.
Parental Guidance
Ages 14+ -- PG-13 (intense battle sequences, arena combat): - Extended gladiatorial combat including deaths -- less graphic than the original but still intense - No sexual content of note - Themes of vengeance and political intrigue appropriate for mature teens - Brief depiction of marital loss (wife killed in battle) - Denzel Washington's Macrinus makes villainy look appealing -- worth discussing with teens A solid choice for fathers and teenage sons looking for an action epic with genuine moral stakes. The honor code is front and center. VirtueVigil Editorial Team Review Date: February 2026
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