Gladiator II

In 2000 director Ridley Scott gave us Gladiator, and this November—after almost 25 years—he returns with Gladiator II. The trailer opens with a five-second microteaser featuring a sample of the word “bloodstains'' rapped by Jay-Z (more on this below), repeated 3 times, along with a series of trailer triplets, and quick cuts between 7 scenes from the film, introducing several lead characters.

Gladiator II is set one generation after the first film and tells the story of Lucius (Paul Mescal), an heir-to-the-empire-turned-slave. The first 50 seconds of the trailer feature no music, leaving space for Lucius to narrate his backstory, shown in faded flashbacks from the first film. At 0:18 Macrinus (Denzel Washington) asks Lucius a question and a distant drumroll begins. A low and ancient-sounding horn blows (a type of BRAAAM sound) at 0:27 at the reveal of the Paramount logo. The sound of cheering crowds fades in from 0:30 as we see shots of preparations for a mock sea battle inside the Colosseum in Rome, and that roar continues in the background until 1:52, even as the scenes establish the life of a gladiator.

When an intertitle showcases Ridley Scott’s name at 0:51, a pulsing rhythm enters, evoking a quickening heartbeat. For the next 20 seconds, as General Acacius (Pedro Pascal) speaks with emperors and fights battles of conquest, we hear an occasional chanted vocal accent in time with this pulsing rhythm. The action shifts at 1:08 to show a gladiator training montage. The pulsing rhythm continues, now with the impacts of body blows synched to the beat at 1:11 and 1:13.

At 1:25 there’s another BRAAAM sound as Lucius enters the colosseum, and the pulsing drum rhythm cuts out. A few drum accents build to a charging rhino attack at 1:39, accompanied by fast triplet rhythms.

A new tempo sets us up for the arrival at 1:58 of “No Church in the Wild” - the opening track from Jay-Z and Kanye West’s 2011 album Watch the Throne. It’s one of those moments when a trailer and a song feel like they were destined to be together. The lyric “will he make it out alive?” from this track, sung by Frank Ocean, is heard at 2:04, just before an epic gladiator-versus-general showdown in the colosseum. At 2:13 we hear Jay-Z’s line “blood stains the Colosseum doors.” This is one of several recent trailers we’ve covered which use hip hop as an energetic soundtrack (Stormzy in Heart of Stone, Notorious B.I.G in The Instigators).

Going back to Hans Zimmer’s score for Gladiator, Lisa Gerrard is featured as a solo vocalist, in cues such as the beautiful “Now We Are Free.” In what seems to be a tip of the hat to Gerrard’s vocal aesthetic, a clear and plaintive solo voice enters at 2:26 in this trailer, and is heard again at 2:38.

To close out this long trailer, at 2:47 we have a string of trailer triplets—underscoring the words “The gods have spoken”—leading to a cut to silence at 2:50. The final two bars of music in the trailer feature drums and more Lisa Gerrard-esque vocals and then the sound of Lucius decapitating someone in gladiatorial combat, synched to the beat at 3:04.

25 years after the concept’s initiation, can we experience this story without some attention directed to the current political climate in the U.S.? There’s a lot to live up to, but if this trailer is anything to go on, I think _Gladiator II _will deliver. You can look forward to seeing it in theatres November 22.

— Jack Hui Litster