Welcome back to the Deep Dive. Today we are looking
at a cultural artifact that on paper sounds like
the result of a fever dream. It really does.
Or, you know, maybe a high stakes game of Mad
Libs. played by Hollywood executives and Chinese
investors during a particularly wild lunch meeting.
That's a perfect way to put it. It's one of those
projects where the elevator pitch alone must
have been like five minutes of pure confusion,
followed by a frantic, wait, really? Exactly.
Picture this. It is the Han Dynasty in China.
You have the Gobi Desert, vast, unforgiving,
ancient. Right. And in the middle of this desert,
you have martial arts legend Jackie Chan. Okay,
standard territory so far. But standing across
from him is John Cusack. In Roman armor. Wearing
Roman armor. And lurking in the background is
the big bad, Adrian Brody. It's just one of the
most unusual casting lineups in recent action
movie history. It's the kind of thing where you
have to double check the poster to make sure
your eyes aren't playing tricks on you. They're
not. You expect Jackie Chan. You absolutely do
not expect the guy from High Fidelity and say
anything to be commanding a Roman legion. We
are talking, of course, about the 2015 historical
action epic, Dragon Blade. And honestly, I've
been dying to unpack this one because it isn't
just a movie. It is a massive... collision of
worlds. A huge one. We've got a $65 million budget.
We've got Roman legions fighting Chinese protection
squads. And we have a reception history that
is completely split down the middle, depending
on which side of the planet you live on. It is
a fascinating case study. I mean, you have this
massive commercial success in China and then
this confusing, often critical reception in the
West. Right. But beyond the box office numbers,
what we really have here is a film that's trying
to do something very specific culturally. It's
attempting to blend East and West styles of filmmaking
while basing its entire narrative on this, this
sliver of historical speculation that historians
have been arguing about for decades. Exactly.
And that is our mission today. We're going to
dig into the source material, specifically the
detailed breakdown of the film's production,
its plot, its history, to figure out how this
movie got made, what it's actually about, and
the big question, did Roman soldiers really wander
into ancient China? It's a valid question, and
the answer is, well, it's more complex than a
simple yes or no, though the movie certainly
picks a lane. So grab your Gladius and your Dow.
because we're heading to the Silk Road. Let's
start with the setup, because for a movie with
such big stars, the premise is surprisingly intricate.
This isn't just good guys versus bad guys in
a field. No, it's quite political, actually,
to start with, which provides a lot of necessary
context for the era. The year is set during the
Han Dynasty period, and Jackie Chan plays a character
named Hua An. Hua An, okay. Now, usually when
we see Chan in a period piece, he's, you know,
a general or a rebel, something like that. But
here he has a very specific, almost bureaucratic
job title. He is the captain of the Silk Road
Protection Squad. Silk Road Protection Squad.
That sounds almost like a modern government agency.
It does, doesn't it? Or a specialized task force.
you'd seen, like a procedural drama. And it functions
like one. The source material describes the squad
as a peacekeeping, customs clearing organization
in the western regions. They aren't there to
conquer territory for the emperor. They are there
to stop battles between the diverse ethnic groups
in the region. So their mandate is stability,
not expansion. That's it. So he's basically a
UN peacekeeper in the year 48 BC. That is a very
apt comparison. A very apt one. The notes mention
he's stopping fights between Indians and Xiongnu
warriors. He's a super cop of the ancient desert.
Wow. And this actually connects to something
personal for Jackie Chan. How so? Is this like
reflecting his own philosophy? Very much so.
The source material highlights that Shan specifically
wanted to make this film to express a message
of peace for the world. He's quoted as saying
he wanted to make a movie called Peace because
of all the conflict he saw in the news at the
time. Okay, that makes a lot of sense then. So
Juan is really an embodiment of that philosophy.
He creates a buffer zone where trade can happen,
where different cultures can exist without killing
each other. He fights, but only to stop others
from fighting. Which is a noble goal. But...
As is tradition in these kinds of action movies,
no good deed goes unpunished. Never. You can't
have a movie about peace without a massive conflict
to kick it all off. Precisely. And the conflict
begins internally. The protection squad gets
framed. They find gold coins, bribes hidden inside
the corpses of enemies they had neutralized.
That's a gruesome place to hide money. It is.
Also. Incredibly unsanitary. It's effective,
though. It looks like corruption coming from
within the ranks. I mean, the optics are terrible
for a squad that claims to be neutral. So Juan
and his entire squad are stripped of their rank.
And this is the inciting incident that moves
us to the main location of the song. Exactly.
They aren't executed, but they are sentenced
to hard labor at a place called the Wild Geese
Gate. Which is described as a ruined fortress
on the fringe of the western regions. It's a
miserable place. You've got prisoners, peasants,
and nomads all forced to rebuild this fort under
a Turkic commander who isn't exactly friendly.
A real melting pot of misery. Dust and forced
labor. That's the vibe. So there they are, hauling
stones, rebuilding walls, probably thinking their
lives are over. And then, looking out over the
horizon, they see a dust cloud. Yep. And in a
movie like this, a dust cloud never means good
news. Enter the Romans. This is the moment the
trailer is built around. A Roman legion, battered
and exhausted, shows up at the gate in the middle
of China. And leading him is General Lucius,
led by John Cusack. Now, in the film's logic,
this is a highly tense moment. Yeah. The commander
of the wild geese gate tries to stop them and
fails. His arrows probably bounce right off the
shields. Sure. The Romans are disciplined, they
are desperate, and they are superior in formation.
So, who on? even though he's a prisoner, rides
out to duel Lucius. And I love the detail here.
It's Jackie Chan versus John Cusack, East versus
West, the G .N. Sword versus the Gladius. It's
the matchup you never knew you needed. They fight,
but the source notes it ends in a stalemate.
Why? Is it just to show they are equals? Partly
that, but there is an environmental factor. A
massive sandstorm is coming. But that's not the
only reason the fight stops. This is where we
see that character trait of Juan we mentioned
earlier, the peacemaker. Okay. He notices something
about the Roman troops during the fight. They
aren't just an invasion force. They're starving.
Starving. And they're carrying a little boy,
a blind boy named Publius. Right. This is the
humanizing moment. Publius is actually the youngest
son of Marcus Licinius Crassus. A very famous
historical Roman figure known for his immense
wealth and his disastrous military campaigns.
Right. So Huon sees the child, sees the exhaustion
in the soldier's eyes, and decides to let them
into the fortress to take shelter. Defying the
orders of the fortress commander, I should add.
It's a classic enemy of my enemy is my friend,
or rather, humanity before politics moment. This
kicks off what I think is the most wholesome
and perhaps the most Jackie Chan. Part of the
movie. We move into segment two, which I'm calling
Building Bridges. Literally. Because literally,
that's what they do. They fix the fort. It is
a full -on cross -cultural exchange montage.
The Romans are inside, they recover, and the
next day they see the Chinese workers struggling
to rebuild the fortress walls. And the Chinese
methods are not great. The film portrays them
as slow, perhaps a bit outdated in this specific
region, or maybe just disorganized due to the
prison setting. So Lucius steps up. The Romans
break out their superior engineering skills.
They start showing the locals how to lay bricks,
use pulleys, build fortifications the Roman way.
It's highly symbolic. You have these two great
empires, Han China and Rome, collaborating on
infrastructure. The source mentions this boosts
morale and happiness among all the inhabitants.
It's suggesting that if we just put down our
weapons and picked up our trowels, we could build
something amazing. Infrastructure as diplomacy.
And it cements the friendship between Juan and
Lucius. They go from enemies to bros. There are
scenes of them drinking together, training together.
Yeah, that whole sequence. Juan even sends some
of his men to help Lucius's envoys contact the
Parthian Empire. It's this great guys being dudes
moment, but on a geopolitical scale. And Juan
is even made an honorary centurion by the little
boy Publius. That's a huge deal. It implies a
deep level of trust. Being named a centurion
by a Roman noble is no small gesture. It signifies
that Juan is seen as an equal in honor and capability.
But as we know, this peace can't last. We have
to find out why a Roman legion is wandering around
the Gobi Desert. They're not on a sightseeing
tour. Right, they didn't just take a wrong turn
at Turkey. Unpack the backstory for us. Who are
they running from? They are fleeing Tiberias.
Played by Adrian Brody. And let's be honest.
Adrian Brody's making choices in this movie.
He certainly is. In the context of this film,
Tiberius is painted as an absolute monster. He's
a ruthless Roman consul. The film alleges he
murdered his own father, Crassus. His own father.
Yes. And blinded his younger brother, Publius,
and is now marching on the Silk Road with 100
,000 soldiers. Talk about family drama. He killed
his dad and blinded his little brother. That
is Shakespearean villainy. That's cartoonishly
evil. It establishes the stakes perfectly, though.
Lucius isn't just a deserter. He's a protector
trying to save the rightful heir from a usurper.
So it makes the Romans sympathetic figures rather
than imperialist invaders. Exactly. And now that
threat has arrived at Huan's doorstep. So we
have the setup. We have the friendship. Now we
need the tragedy. And Dragonblade apparently
does not pull its punches here. I was surprised
by how dark the synopsis gets after the fun -building
montage. It takes a very sharp, very dark turn.
This brings us to the climax of the film. Juan
analyzes Tiberius as a threat to the entire Silk
Road, not just the Romans. So he leaves to get
reinforcements, thinking he can rally the other
nations. But while he's gone. Yeah. Betrayal.
Because of course. It turns out Juan's second
-in -command was the one who framed the squad
in the beginning. He wants to be the commanding
prefect, so he cuts a deal with Tiberius. He
sells out his own people for a promotion. And
this leads to an attack on the home front. And
this part sounds devastating. Quo An's wife,
she king. She's a schoolteacher for orphans.
Yes, she's like the moral center of the film.
The source describes her as a gentle woman. When
the traitor sends soldiers to attack, she tries
to save the children under her care. And she's
mortally wounded in the process. She is. And
her dying wish is for Juan to protect the orphans.
That is heavy. It shifts the movie from a fun
historical romp into a revenge tragedy. And it
gets worse for the Romans, doesn't it? Much worse
from the sounds of it. Much worse. Lucius is
betrayed and captured. He's taken to the city
of Curon where Tiberius is camped. And the film
commits to the villainy of Tiberius here. He
forces the blind boy Publius to commit suicide.
Whoa, okay. That is incredibly bleak. They killed
the kid. They did. It destroys any possibility
of redemption for the villain. And Lucius is
brutally tortured. When Huan finally breaks into
the cell to rescue him, it's too late. He's just
broken. Burnt, broken, and too damaged to escape.
This is the emotional peak the outline mentions.
Lucius begs Huan to kill him. to end his suffering.
And Juan, the man of peace, the man whose entire
creed is about saving lives, has to tearfully
agree. He performs a mercy killing on his friend.
It's a pivotal moment for the character. Sometimes
the only way to save someone from pain is to
let them go. That sets the stage for the final
showdown. You've got Juan grieving his wife and
his friend. You've got the remaining Romans who
have lost their general and their prince. And
you've got... A massive army of bad guys. The
final battle is described as overwhelming. Huan
and the Romans are outnumbered. But then we get
the cavalry arrives moment. Ah, the classic trope.
Nomadic hordes, the people Huan had befriended
earlier in the film, the Indians, the Xiongnu,
they all join the fight. It's the Avengers assemble
moment of the Silk Road. All the tribes uniting
against the tyrant. But even that isn't enough,
right? The source says they still suffer heavy
casualties. Correct. It's not an easy win. The
Shianu warriors, the wild geese gate commander,
many of them fall. It looks like they are going
to lose. But the true turning point comes from
the west. A Parthian army arrives. These are
the guys Lucius' envoys were trying to reach
earlier. The very same. The actual empire that
killed Crassus in real history. Exactly. But
in the movie, they are there to avenge Crassus.
Remember, Tiberius killed him and restore peace
between Rome and Parthia. They turn the tide.
So Tiberius realizes he's lost. He does. His
generals, seeing the Parthians and realizing
Tiberius is a usurper, tell him to surrender.
But does Adrian Brody surrender? I don't think
so. That's not how you play a villain like this.
He refuses. He fights a duel with Juan, and in
the end, Juan kills Tiberius. So the villain
is dead, the battle is won, but the cost was
massive. Which leads us to the resolution, the
aftermath. The Chinese emperor is impressed by
the bravery of these Roman survivors. He grants
them the right to establish their own city. And
they name it Regum, or in Chinese, Lichen. Which
translates to something resembling legion. This
is the key connection the movie is trying to
make. It's the whole point. The survivors of
the Wild Geese Gate join the protection squad,
and they move a shrine to this new city to honor
the fallen, specifically Lucius. But then, and
this is one of those things that I find so fascinating
about this movie, it doesn't just end there.
We get a time jump. A massive time jump. Thousands
of years. We cut to the present day. Archaeologists.
They are uncovering the ruins of this city. They
stumble upon the site. And the source mentions
they learn of its tragic history via 3D reconstruction.
Wait, via 3D reconstruction? Like they have a
hologram machine or something? The source isn't
specific on the technology, but it implies a
high -tech visualization of the past. Upon seeing
this reconstruction of the history, the bravery,
the sacrifice, the archaeologists decide to leave
the site undisturbed. They let Reckham rest in
peace. They do. It's a very sentimental way to
frame the story. It's telling the audience, this
is real history you just watched. It frames the
entire movie as a ghost story that we've just
witnessed. Which is a bold claim considering,
well, we'll get to the history in a moment. But
first we have to talk about how this thing was
actually made. Because the production context
explains a lot about the film's scale and its
quirks. Oh, absolutely. This wasn't some indie
project shot in a backyard. This was a juggernaut.
A beast of a production. U .S. $65 million budget.
That's huge for a non -Hollywood production in
2015. It was financed by a consortium including
Sparkle Roll, Hawaii Brothers, and Tencent. At
the time, this was a record -breaking budget
for a Chinese -financed movie. They were swinging
for the fences, trying to prove they could make
a blockbuster that looked and felt as big as
anything coming out of Los Angeles. And they
filmed it in the real -deal locations. The Gobi
Desert. Dunhuang. This wasn't all sound stages.
No. And the conditions were reportedly grueling.
Right. Extreme heat, sand getting into everything,
heavy costumes. You can just imagine John Cusack
and Adrian Brody in full Roman regalia armor,
capes, heavy leather, sweating it out in the
Gobi Desert. Oh, man. That adds a layer of realism
or perhaps exhaustion you can't get on a green
screen. And the release strategy was aggressive.
They dropped this movie on February 19, 2015.
Which is the first day of the Chinese New Year.
That is the prime slot. It's like releasing a
movie on Christmas Day in the U .S., but bigger.
It's the time when families go to the cinema
together. And in IMAX 3D. Maximizing the ticket
price and the spectacle. I noticed in the notes
that the U .S. release was a bit different. Lionsgate
premiere picked it up later in September, but
they took some scissors to it. They did. The
original runtime was 127 minutes. The U .S. version
was cut down to 103 minutes. That's nearly 25
minutes of footage gone. 24 minutes. 24 minutes.
That's an entire act of a movie. That's a massive
amount of content. It is, and usually those cuts
come at the expense of character development
and pacing, which might explain some of the reception
issues in the West. If you remove the bonding
scenes, the building bridges moments, the slow
conversations between Keysak and Chan. The ending
tragedy feels less earned. Exactly. It becomes
just an action movie rather than a character
drama. Well, let's talk about that reception
because this is truly a tale of two markets.
The divide is stark. It really is. In China,
Dragon Blade was a monster hit. Opening day,
$18 .7 million. Opening weekend. $33 million.
It topped the box office. In total, it earned
over $120 million in China alone. By financial
standards, this was a massive success. It validated
Jackie Chan's pivot to these grand historical
epics. It showed that the Chinese audience was
hungry for this kind of East meets West spectacle,
seeing their own history intertwined with the
great Roman Empire. For sure. But then we look
at the Western critics. And oh boy, it's like
they watched a completely different film. A different
story entirely. On Rotten Tomatoes, it sits at
a 36 % approval rating. The phrases used are
pretty brutal. Hot mess, dull story, choppy editing.
IGN gave it a 6 out of 10, calling the story
rubbish, but praising the fight scenes. Classic
Jackie Chan caveat. The plot makes no sense,
but look at him go. Movie Exclusive was even
harsher, calling it a spectacular misfire for
Cusack and Brody. There seems to be a disconnect
where Western critics couldn't get past the tonal
shifts. You know, Jackie Chan movies often oscillate
between slapstick, melodrama, and serious action,
or the editing, which was likely exacerbated
by that U .S. cut we mentioned. Right, that cut
is huge. Whereas the spectacle and the sentiment
resonated much more with the domestic audience
in China. Although Variety and The Hollywood
Reporter were a bit nicer. They praised the technical
details in the battle scene. So it wasn't universally
hated, just mixed. They appreciated the craft,
if not the story. There is one other reaction
we need to mention, which is the Indian media
response. Right. The source notes this was overwhelmingly
negative. Yes. The Hindu criticized the lack
of subtlety, calling the characters cardboard.
And there were accusations of the film being
Chinese propaganda. Propaganda? Why? Likely due
to the portrayal of the Silk Road Protection
Squad as these benevolent peacekeepers of the
region, imposing order on the unruly tribes like
the Indians and Xiongnu. I can see that. Yeah.
It's interesting how a movie about peace managed
to annoy so many different groups of critics
for different reasons. That's the nature of international
co -production sometimes. Cultural nuances don't
always translate. What looks like patriotism
and stability in one market looks like propaganda
and control in another. Okay, we've delayed it
long enough. We have to address the elephant
in the room. Or rather, the Roman in the room.
Is any of this true? Right. Did Romans actually
fight alongside the Han Dynasty? Because if this
is real, my history textbook skipped a really
cool chapter. This is where we get into the historical
truth segment. The short answer is almost certainly
not like this, but it's not completely made up
either. But there is a theory, right? The movie
didn't just pull this out of thin air. Correct.
The film relies heavily on a hypothesis proposed
by a historian named Homer H. Dubs in 1941. Okay,
let's unpack the Dubs theory. Because it's a
fun one, even if it's controversial. So go back
to 53 BC, the Battle of Cara. This was a disastrous
defeat for Rome against the Parthians. Marcus
Licinius Crassus, the father of the blind boy
in the movie, was killed there. One of Rome's
worst days. Definitely. And the theory goes,
what? That some of the prisoners escaped the
Parthians. Dubs speculated that Roman prisoners
of war were moved by the Parthians to their eastern
border to serve as border guards, basically mercenaries.
And eventually these men might have clashed with
Han troops or even defected to China to escape
their Parthian captors. And the evidence for
this is the town name. That's a big part of it,
yes. There is a town named Likin in Gansu province.
Dubs argued that Likin sounds like legion and
therefore it was founded by Roman legionaries.
That feels like a stretch. Likin sounds like
legion. That's the smoking gun. Well, Dubs tried
to connect a few other dots. There were historical
records of a specific military formation used
by foreign troops in a battle around that time
that looked like a fish scale formation. Okay.
Dubs interpreted this as the Roman testudo or
tortoise formation where soldiers lock shields
over their heads. Okay. That's a bit more compelling.
Fish scales, tortoise shells. I can see the visual
link. And there have been claims of local villagers
in that region having Caucasian features, green
eyes, lighter hair, aquiline noses. This has
fueled the local tourism industry significantly.
But does that hold up to modern science? Not
really. Genetic testing has been done, and while
it shows some mixed ancestry, the results have
been inconclusive or attributed to other Silk
Road travelers. You have to remember the Silk
Road was a highway for jeans as well as silk.
So people from all over were there. Sogdians,
Persians, Turks, they were mixing there for centuries.
The expert consensus today is pretty clear. Most
historians do not accept the dub's theory as
fact. So no lost legion building fortresses with
Jackie Chan. Archaeological evidence is lacking.
No Roman armor. No coins found in the specific
context that would prove a legion was there.
The first undisputed contact between Rome and
China didn't happen until much later, 161 A .D.
That was an embassy sent by Emperor Antoninus
Pius or Marcus Aurelius. So Dragon and Blade
is basically taking a very loose what if scenario
and turning it into a definitive historical blockbuster.
Precisely. It takes a footnote of speculation
and builds an entire city named Ragam out of
it. It prioritizes the myth over the math of
history. It's creating a legend. But you know
what? Even if it's fake, it's such a a cool concept.
The idea that these two ancient superpowers touched
fingertips in the desert. It is, and it serves
a narrative purpose. So, bringing this all together,
Dragon Blade is a weird beast. It's a massive
hit in China, a critical flop in the West. It
stars three major actors who feel like they're
in different movies. They really do. Kan is doing
a noble epic, Cusack is doing a solemn drama,
and Brody is doing something very intense. And
yet... It represents something significant. It's
an attempt to bridge the gap between Hollywood
storytelling and Chinese blockbuster filmmaking.
It's messy, yes, but it's ambitious. It's trying
to say that these two cultures, which often view
each other with suspicion, have a shared history
of cooperation, even if they have to invent a
little bit of it to make the point. It's definitely
not boring. If you want to see John Cusack teaching
Roman engineering to Han Dynasty laborers, well...
Adrian Brody chews the scenery so hard there's
no set left. This is your movie. And it leaves
us with a provocative thought. Even if the history
is debunked, why does the idea of a lost legion
in China fascinate us so much? Why do we keep
coming back to this specific theory? Yeah, why
do we want this to be true? I think it speaks
to a desire to find ancient connections in a
globalized world. We want to believe that even
2 ,000 years ago, East and West weren't just
isolated islands. We want to believe they met,
they fought, and maybe... Just maybe they understood
each other. Even if we have to invent the story
to make it happen. We want validation that globalization
isn't new. That is a great point. We want the
world to be smaller than it was. We want to find
that shared DNA. Exactly. It makes the world
feel more connected. Well, if you have a chance,
look up the images of the Roman armor fighting
alongside Han armor. Historical accuracy aside,
it looks incredible. Yeah. That's wrap on Dragonblade.
Thanks for joining us on this trip down the Silk
Road. We'll see you on the next deep dive.