Continuity mistake: Before Lucilla gets to Commodus who asks her if she knows if Gracchus has a new lover suspecting her to be his new lover, she walks by two servants. The servant on the left is looking down with his head bowed. When it cuts he is suddenly standing up straight looking after Lucilla as she walks by. (Extended version only). (02:08:35)
Continuity mistake: When Commodus screams "Am I not merciful?" in Lucilla's face, we see him holding Lucilla by her jaw bone. When it cuts his hand has moved to her chin. (02:10:05)
Continuity mistake: When Proximo is about to be killed and says "shadows and dust", the background scenery changes. It is obviously an alternate take from when he says the same thing before Maximus fights Tigris, used because of the death of Oliver Reed, but that doesn't make it any less a mistake. (02:12:15)
Continuity mistake: After Maximus comes out of the tunnel after leaving the gladiator quarters, he sees his friend Cicero. Maximus makes a bird noise to get his attention, Cicero sees him and in an attempt to warn him he yells "Maximus." He startles his horse which runs away but a noose is around his neck so he is pulled off the horse and left hanging there. As soon as the horse leaves him and he starts swinging his hands you can see they are not tied. Then when Maximus runs up to him and holds his feet up to try and save him his hands are tied up. (02:12:50)
Continuity mistake: In the final battle, there are about 20 or something Praetorians on the platform when it moves up. But when you see the platform coming up to the arena, there are suddenly enough to form the "tortoise" position; and then they have multiplied in order to arrange the circle around Commodus and Maximus (about 45 Praetorians). (02:13:05)
Continuity mistake: When Maximus grabs some earth before the final fight, you can see blood from the wound already trickle through his shirt, but when he picks up the sword it is magically gone. (02:13:55)
Continuity mistake: Commodus and Maximus are on their way up from underneath the Colosseum, the ground is covered with red rose petals. Once the guards have formed a square for the fight, there are no roses within the square. (02:14:10)
Continuity mistake: In the final fight scene between Commodus and Maximus when Commodus loses his sword and Maximus drops his, we see Lucilla stand up but when it goes back to Maximus she is sitting back down, this happens a lot during the close-ups in this scene. (02:15:55)
Continuity mistake: After the final fight scene when Maximus is on the ground, Lucilla is kneeling above him. When her face is shown, it is blocking out the sun. And yet, when the shot shows Maximus's face, there is no shadow. (02:18:50)
Continuity mistake: At the end of the movie when Maximus is lying dead, and Lucilla asks who will help carry his body. Her bracelet on her arm is positioned differently than right before she asks the question when she is looking around at the crowd. (02:20:10)
Continuity mistake: During the final scenes, when Maximus had died and his body is lying on the sand, we can see both the slaves and the Praetorians forming a semicircle around Maximus. When Quintus asks for help to carry Maximus body, during the second it takes long to raise it up (shot change), the slaves have moved and the Praetorians are forming a perfect honor corridor through which Maximus's body is about to go by. (02:20:55)
Continuity mistake: During Maximus's death scene at the end you can clearly see the entrance that Commodus and Maximus entered the arena through in the floor of the arena. After Juba is done burying the figures of Maximus's dead son and wife, you can not see the entrance anymore when he is walking away. (02:21:00 - 02:22:55)
Continuity mistake: At the beginning of the film, when the Romans are about to fight the Germanians, a shot of some soldiers standing beside a war machine is shown. In the background, you can see that the fires for the archers are already lit. The next shot then show the same fires being lit and you can tell they are in the same place as the ones previously shown.
Continuity mistake: After Maximus's family is killed and he is being taken away, he has flashbacks, but one of the images is of him being chained up against the wall, right before his final battle with Commodus - a scene which hasn't even occurred yet.
Continuity mistake: When Proximo gives Maximus his armor the horses have wings. After that they do not.
Continuity mistake: When Maximus stabs Commodus in the neck, in one shot we see his whole neck, and there's no knife in it.
Continuity mistake: When Maximus pulls a knife out of Commodus' neck, it's much smaller that it was before.
Continuity mistake: In the Gladiatorial fight scene in Morocco, Maximus throws one sword with his right hand into the stand, still holding a sword in his left hand. The next instant long shot of him shows the remaining sword in his right hand as he taunts the crowd with "Are you not entertained?"
Chosen answer: No, they are full brother and sister. They both had the same mother and father. Incest was not exactly normal at that time, but it stretches back within the imperial families as far as Caligula and possibly earlier. There is no evidence to suggest that the real Commodus was attracted to his sister, it was probably just included in the film in order to make the character seem more disturbed, and also as another reason why he would be Maximus' enemy (Maximus and Lucilla were, after all, once lovers).
The Doctor