B-Movie Inspirations: The Eagle (2011) & Centurion (2010)

There is this new trend on the various social media outlets that says men think about the Roman Empire almost on a daily basis. I probably represent this because I watch a lot of movies or shows set in that time period. One of my favorite shows of all time is Spartacus (2010). Sometime back, I watched a movie with Channing Tatum, The Eagle (2011) And more recently I watched a movie called Centurion (2010) with the venerable Michel Fassbender. Both are about the legend of the Ninth legion fateful mission into northern Britain. I enjoyed them both and see the pair as a series.

If you watch them, watch Centurion first because as it is quite literally the prequel to The Eagle. Centurion takes place in 117 AD. Haydrian’s Wall has a big role in The Eagle and it was built in 122 AD. The Eagle takes place in 149 AD.

There is also a phenomena within Hollywood where movies about the same thing tend to come out in pairs in the same year or close to it. It happened in 1998 with Deep Impact and Armageddon. Or Tomestone and Wyatt Earp. And there are many others. Although these were a year apart, I still put these in the same category.

Centurion is the story of the Ninth Legion lead by Titus Flavius Virilus (Dominic West) going into Northern Britain to battle the Pictish tribes. Fassbender is a Centurion who is already captured by the Picts and is saved by the Legion. After finding Fassbender’s character, the Legion is nearly all wiped out by a massive Pict surprise attack and the survivors must get out before they are hunted down by the tribes.

The Eagle tells the tale of a young Centurion Marcus Flavius Aquila who is son of the Senior Centurion of the Ninth, 20 years after it’s disappearance. This is based on a 1954 novel The Eagle of the Ninth. Marcus, along with a a Pictish slave Esca, journey to find the golden Eagle of the Ninth, to regain his father’s honor. Of course, they nearly meet the same fate if it wasn’t for the survivors of the Ninth who they find. Once they find the Eagle, they too have to escape the lands of the Picts as they are chased by the savage tribal warriors.

Like I said, I enjoyed both these films and found them inspirational. From an RPG point of view, there are many fantasy setting a wild region and a wall or border structure of some kind that contains them. A Game of Thrones is just one example. I had this epic idea of running a one shot inspired on these films. First, hand the players character sheets for soldiers of the Ninth or whatever equivalent works for your setting. Have them attacked by savage tribes (use the better scene in Centurion as a good example) and have them nearly be wiped out. Maybe the characters survive and hide out in the Highlands of this world.

Then take the character sheets away and hand them new ones of new soldiers sent out to find the legion or their standard or their magic item or whatever golden Eagle works for the setting. This could be 20 years later or the following week, whatever works. They journey into the wilds, battling savages, maybe battling the living dead of the legion, and whatever else to find their Eagle as well as their surviving characters. Now they play two characters, double the size of their party, giving the GM free reign to throw whatever he wants at them. That would be fun!

Legends hold some of the best stories and this is a good one. I highly recommend checking these movies out and drawing whatever inspirations you want.