Continuity mistake: Near the end of the movie, just before the final battle scene, Leonidas drops his weapons and shield to the ground. He was holding the shield in the usual manner, and pushes it away to his left. When it hits the ground however, it is suddenly reversed and falls nearby with the front of the shield upward.
Continuity mistake: When the adolescent boy is facing off with the wolf, he is holding stick. At first, his left hand is about a foot from the left end of the stick. Cut to the immediate next shot, it is now holding the very end. (00:04:00)
Continuity mistake: When the old man is inspecting the baby at the very beginning of the movie, in close-up shots, his left hand is cradling the baby's head. In other shots, the hand is now under the shoulder. (00:01:15)
Answer: When Leonidas and Xerxes are talking earlier in the film, Xerxes tells him that no one will remember who Leonidas was. Leonidas tells Xerxes that they will know that free men fought to remain free (or something like that) and that a god-king can bleed. So by wounding Xerxes before he, Leonidas, died, he made good on his taunt.
Phixius ★