Gladiator is a 2000 American film directed by Ridley Scott and starring Russell Crowe, Joaquin Phoenix, Connie Nielsen, Ralf Möller, Oliver Reed, Djimon Hounsou, Derek Jacobi, John Shrapnel and Richard Harris. Dreamworks SKG was distributed only to North America, while Universal Pictures distributed worldwide. Crowe plays the loyal general Maximus Decimus Meridius, called Spaniard in the film, who is betrayed when the emperor's ambitious son, Cómodo, kills his father and takes the throne. Reduced to a slave, Maximus ascends through gladiator struggles to avenge the death of his family and the former Emperor.