Pompeii (2014)
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A gladiator and a noblewoman must survive the cataclysmic eruption of Mount Vesuvius while navigating a web of Roman politics and personal sacrifice.
The story
In AD 62, Roman soldiers led by General Quintus Attius Corvus capture a boy named Milo after wiping out his tribe. Seventeen years later, in AD 79, Milo has become a popular gladiator in Londinium. He is brought to Pompeii by his owner, Graecus. There, he meets Cassia, the daughter of the city governor, who becomes enamored with him after witnessing his kindness toward a horse. As Milo develops a rivalry with another champion gladiator, Atticus, the city faces growing tension from the Senator Corvus, who seeks to rebuild the city while pursuing Cassia.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
In AD 62, Roman soldiers led by General Quintus Attius Corvus capture a boy named Milo after wiping out his tribe. Seventeen years later, in AD 79, Milo is a gladiator in Pompeii. He meets Cassia, the daughter of Governor Severus, who is being pursued by the Senator Corvus. Milo and Cassia fall in love despite their social differences. Corvus, seeking to marry Cassia, orders Milo to be killed in the arena. Milo and his rival Atticus work together to survive a brutal battle where they are chained to rocks. Cassia defies Corvus to save them. During a one-on-one fight between Milo and Corvus' officer Proculus, Mount Vesuvius erupts, causing the arena to collapse. Milo frees the gladiators, and Corvus attempts to kill the injured Severus but is stabbed instead. As the city is destroyed by fire and tsunamis, Milo saves Cassia from the villa. In the final moments, they attempt to escape on a horse but are engulfed by a pyroclastic surge. They die in an eternal embrace, their bodies petrified.
- First release year
- 2014
- Runtime (minutes)
- 105
- Production countries
- Germany; Canada; United States
- Original languages
- English
- Directors
- Paul W. S. Anderson
- Writers
- Janet Scott Batchler · writer; Lee Batchler · writer; Michael Robert Johnson · writer
- Cast and characters
- Kit Harington · Milo; Carrie-Anne Moss · Cassia; Emily Browning · Ariadne; Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje · Corvus; Jessica Lucas · Aurelia; Jared Harris · Severus; Kiefer Sutherland · Atticus
- Genres
- romantic; historical; disaster; action; adventure
- Themes
- sacrifice; class struggle; survival; forbidden love
- Tone and mood
- romantic; visceral; dramatic; schlocky
- Premise and plot tags
- historical fiction; disaster movie; gladiatorial combat; interclass romance; slavery
- Source material / true-story basis
- Two letters from Pliny the Younger to the Roman historian Tacitus
- Content notes
- death; earthquakes; tsunamis
- Reception
- The film received negative reviews from critics and was described as a 'guilty pleasure' that lacked storytelling heft, though it received some praise for its visual precision and action sequences.
- Reported review scores
- Rotten Tomatoes · score: 27% · scale: percentage · review count: 170; Metacritic · score: 41 · scale: 100 · review count: 33; CinemaScore · score: B · scale: A+ to F
- Awards and nominations
- Golden Screen Award · year's top-grossing Canadian film · 2014 · win
- Production trivia
- Kit Harington underwent a grueling training regimen to bulk up for the role.; The animation team used real photographs and footage of real eruptions to ensure realism in the eruption scenes.
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
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