Spoiler alert! We’re discussing plot points in ‘Gladiator II’ (in theaters now), so if you haven’t seen it yet, back off.

Pack up your dusty sandals and brutal weapons, folks. It’s time for “Gladiator II” and our collective return to the glorious if savage ancient Rome. (And if you really like it, “Gladiator III” may be on the way.)

Get ready for bloody scenes of gladiators battling mad monkeys, oversized rhinos, hungry sharks and… wait, what? Were there sharks swimming around the Colosseum?

“Well,” says director Ridley Scott when asked about the film’s accuracy, “the short answer to that is, were you there?”

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This time, the plot takes place 16 years after we closed the book on Russell Crowe’s valiant gladiator Maximus, who shuffled off this deadly spiral in late 2000’s “Gladiator,” leaving behind his lover Lucilla (a returning Connie Nielsen) and young son. Lucius (now a buff twenty played by Paul Mescal).

To wrap up a couple of hours of brutal combat (the Colosseum has never looked more dangerous) and vicious treachery (courtesy of Denzel Washington as the savage conman Macrinus), “Gladiator II” finds Lucius a captive slave for whom victory in the Roman arena is the only promise of freedom.

This is how “Gladiator 2” massages history in the name of cinematic drama:

Were there ever sea battles with sharks in the Colosseum?

Unknown. But Scott is willing to believe that it was within the realm of possibility, especially since the Colosseum and other parts of ancient Rome, such as what is now Piazza Navona, were actually flooded to accommodate flat-bottomed boats and scene re-enactments of ancient sea battles.

“Have you been to the Colosseum? It would be a challenge to build it today, let alone back then,” he says. “So if they could do that, could they get water in there? Sure. And if you could do that, I’m sure you could get a damn shark in there.”

Did gladiators really take on rampaging monkeys and men riding rhinos?

It is well known that the Colosseum hosted brutal fights to the death between gladiators. But another category of fighter, not a gladiator but more of a hunterwould sometimes be put into the arena and challenged to hunt a wide variety of beasts that would appear in the ring. These may include rhinos and monkeys. Lions are of course most associated with the arena and often find innocent Christians as their prey.

In “Gladiator II,” a fighter is seen riding into the Colosseum on a giant rhinoceros. This is unlikely to have happened, given that the animals were mostly there to be tracked and killed.

Did the twin emperors Caracalla and Geta really exist? And let one kill the other?

Yes and no. In AD 211, probably also when “Gladiator II” takes place, brothers named Caracalla and Geta briefly ruled as double emperors of Rome after their father, Septimius Severus, named them as such on his deathbed.

But the boys — who are depicted as twins, though the story suggests they were separated by a year — disliked each other, and without their father as a buffer, they spiraled out of control. Eventually, Caracalla had his brother murdered in front of his mother, as shown in the film. “Their father (Septimius) wasn’t a bad guy and actually did some decent things,” says Scott. “But the two sons were as crazy as everyone else in the Sex Pistols.”

Was a monkey really a Roman emperor’s right-hand man (OK, paw)?

One of the most striking scenes in “Gladiator II” is when Caracalla, who became sole emperor after killing his brother, he announces his right hand before a rapt audience of Roman senators. His choice? Not any of them, but rather his pet Capucin monkey, Dundus.

“Dundus was good, wasn’t it?” Scott asks. Although there isn’t much in the history books about a monkey being part of the ruling class of ancient Rome, the director’s gesture almost feels like a poke in the direction of current American politics.

“There it is, dude, that was intentional,” he says, laughing. “But if you want to ask me which (political) side I land on, I won’t say.”

This article was originally published on USA TODAY: Is ‘Gladiator 2’ real history? The true story behind the film