60 Fun Facts About Braveheart

Which studio distributed Braveheart in the United States and Canada?

It financed a third of the budget for those rights; Fox put up the rest for the international release.

Who wrote the Braveheart screenplay, sharing a surname with its hero?

He went on to direct The Man in the Iron Mask and We Were Soldiers, and won the Writers Guild award for the script.

Which 15th-century epic poem was the film's main inspiration?

Historians do not treat it as reliable: it also claims Wallace was seven feet tall.

Which French actress plays Princess Isabelle?

The real Isabella was a child living in France at the time of Falkirk and did not marry Edward II until he was already king.

Which actor, once the star of The Prisoner, plays Edward Longshanks?

The real Edward I was a devoted husband to Eleanor of Castile and died almost two years after Wallace, not on the same day.

Who plays Wallace's secretly wed bride, Murron MacClannough?

Blind Harry gave the wife the name Marion Braidfute; the film's account of her death setting off the rebellion comes from the poem.

Which Scottish actor plays Robert the Bruce?

He returned to the part 24 years later in the 2019 legacy sequel that carries the character's name.

Which Irish actor plays Wallace's giant childhood friend Hamish?

David O'Hara plays Stephen, the Irishman who claims to talk to God, and Brian Cox is Wallace's uncle Argyle.

Which studio put up two-thirds of the budget in exchange for foreign distribution rights?

Warner Bros. had offered to fund it only if Gibson signed for another Lethal Weapon sequel, which he refused; Paramount took North America for a third of the cost.

Which director was offered Braveheart before Gibson and turned it down?

Producer Alan Ladd Jr. carried the script out of MGM when the studio changed management in 1993.

Which actor did Gibson consider for the lead when he planned only to direct?

Gibson thought he was too old for the part but agreed to star to secure the financing.

Most of the shoot moved from the UK to which country after it offered 1,600 army reservists as extras?

The reservists were allowed to grow beards, and to save money the same extras played both the Scottish and English armies.

Gibson and editor Steven Rosenblum's first cut ran 195 minutes; who asked them to trim it to 177?

Gibson has said a four-hour version exists and he would reassemble it if both studios were interested.

What rating did Gibson have to tone the battle scenes down to avoid?

The final version got an R for 'brutal medieval warfare'.

Who composed the score, performed by the London Symphony Orchestra?

It was the second of his three collaborations with Gibson as director, after The Man Without a Face, and became one of the best-selling soundtracks ever.

At which event did Braveheart premiere on May 18, 1995?

It went wide in US cinemas six days later; the European premiere was in Stirling that September.

Roughly how much did Braveheart gross worldwide?

Only $75.5 million of that came from the US and Canada; it spent nine non-consecutive weeks in the domestic top ten.

How many Academy Awards did Braveheart win from its ten nominations?

Best Picture, Director, Cinematography, Sound Effects Editing and Makeup; it was the ninth Best Picture winner with no acting nominations.

Which win first made Braveheart look like a serious Oscar contender during the 1995 awards season?

Until then Apollo 13, Sense and Sensibility and The Usual Suspects were seen as the frontrunners.

Which is NOT one of the four Best Picture winners never nominated for the SAG cast award?

Spotlight actually won the SAG ensemble prize on its way to Best Picture in 2016.

A 2005 Empire magazine poll ranked Braveheart number one on which list?

Empire readers had earlier voted it the best film of 1995, so the magazine's own audience changed its mind.

Attendance at the Stirling Castle conference jumped from 66,000 to how many in 1996, the year after release?

Later research found 55 percent of visitors to the Stirling area had seen the film.

What happened to the 1997 sandstone statue of Gibson-as-Wallace placed at the Wallace Monument car park?

Sculptor Tom Church put 'Braveheart' on the shield; after a hammer attack on the face the nightly cage made it look imprisoned, and it was described as among the most loathed public art in Scotland.

Historian Sharon Krossa's first complaint about Braveheart is that the Scots wear what, unknown before the 16th century?

She likened it to a colonial America film with men in 20th-century business suits worn back to front.

Which supposed feudal right, invoked by Longshanks in the film, do medieval scholars regard as a myth?

Practically no writer claiming the 'first night' right has ever cited a trustworthy source for it.

The film's version of the Scots' 1297 victory near Stirling omits which key feature?

Also absent is Andrew Moray, joint commander of the Scots, who was fatally wounded there.

The film's 'Irish conscripts' at Falkirk are invented; much of Edward's real army was what?

Of the 25,781 foot soldiers paid two days before the battle, more than half would have been Welsh, and Edward had put down a Welsh mutiny on the march.

Braveheart gives Robert the Bruce's father which affliction, which the real Robert allegedly had late in life?

His real title before he was king was Earl of Carrick, not 'Earl of Bruce', and he had been fighting a guerrilla war for eight years before Bannockburn.

How many years after Wallace's execution was Edward III, whom the film implies is his son, actually born?

Isabella did later depose Edward II with her lover Roger Mortimer, but not until 1326.

The film's depiction of Prince Edward as effeminate and weak drew accusations of what against Gibson?

Gibson said Longshanks throwing the prince's lover Phillip out of a window 'has nothing to do with him being gay' and that the king is simply a psychopath.

What does Wallace shout at his execution instead of begging for mercy?

The magistrate urges him to submit for a quick death; he refuses even while being disemboweled and sees a vision of Murron in the crowd.

Which two nobles withdraw from Falkirk after being bribed by Longshanks, and are later slain by Wallace?

Alun Armstrong plays Mornay; the film's Falkirk is also where Wallace discovers Robert the Bruce fighting for the English.

Which English city does Wallace sack in the film, though the real Wallace never got that far south?

The real raid of 1297-98 ran from Newcastle to Carlisle; the film also has him kill Edward's nephew, which never happened.

At which 1314 battle does the film end, with Robert leading the Scots to victory?

The real Robert defeated a much larger army under Edward II there, but it was hardly spontaneous: he had been king since 1306.

Who was the co-commander alongside Wallace at the real 1297 victory near Stirling?

The two men became joint Guardians of Scotland afterwards; Moray died of his wounds by November.

What was the first act definitely known to have been carried out by the real Wallace, in May 1297?

William de Heselrig was the victim; Blind Harry's poem turned it into revenge for the killing of Wallace's wife.

Which Scottish knight handed Wallace over to the English at Robroyston in August 1305?

Wallace was carrying letters of safe conduct from the kings of Norway and France, which were delivered to Edward.

Where in London was Wallace hanged, drawn and quartered on 23 August 1305?

He was dragged there naked behind a horse from the Tower; his tarred head went on a spike atop London Bridge.

After Falkirk, Wallace resigned as Guardian in favour of Bruce and which nephew of King Balliol?

The two co-Guardians were bitter rivals; Bruce would kill Comyn in a Dumfries church and be crowned weeks later.

What was the real Wallace's father's name, according to Wallace's own seal?

The film calls him Malcolm and erases any hint of gentry, presenting Wallace as a Highland farmer.

The Wallace Monument, erected in 1869, stands close to the site of which victory?

It houses the Wallace Sword, parts of which were made at least 160 years after his death.

Where is the real Robert the Bruce's heart buried, separately from his body?

His body lies at Dunfermline and his embalmed organs at St Serf's in Dumbarton; the heart went on crusade first with James Douglas.

The real Robert the Bruce was crowned King of Scots on 25 March of which year?

Weeks earlier he had killed John Comyn, which got him excommunicated by Pope Clement V.

Who directed the 2019 sequel Robert the Bruce, in which the original actor returned to the role?

It is a character piece about Robert sheltered by a peasant family; Jared Harris plays John Comyn.

Which Scots formation, a hedgehog of long spears, did Wallace's army use at the real Battle of Falkirk?

Four of them, about 1,000 men each, held off the cavalry but were shot to pieces by Edward's archers.

Gibson said a horse nearly did what to him during a battle scene, before his stunt double saved him?

Filming ran from June 6 to October 28, 1994, in the British Isles.

Which IFTA honour did Braveheart receive in 2010?

Despite two major studios distributing it, the film was produced independently by Gibson's Icon Productions and The Ladd Company.

Which Scottish star was approached to play King Edward in Braveheart but declined?

Gibson later joked that Connery's pronunciation of 'goulash' helped him find his own Scottish accent.

Warner Bros. offered to fund Braveheart on the condition that Gibson signed for what?

Gibson refused, and the money eventually came from Paramount and 20th Century Fox instead.

Which producer took the Braveheart script with him when he left MGM in 1993?

Ladd had picked up Randall Wallace's screenplay at MGM-Pathé before the studio's management changed.

How did Gibson keep costs down when staging Braveheart's battle scenes?

The Irish Army reservists were allowed to grow beards and swapped uniforms for medieval garb.

In a 2016 interview Gibson said a version of Braveheart of what length exists?

The first cut ran 195 minutes before Paramount asked for it to be trimmed to 177.

Which director cited Braveheart as an influence on his Lord of the Rings trilogy?

Historian Robert Bartlett, by contrast, judged the film's portrayal of the English to be Anglophobic.

Braveheart was the ninth film to win Best Picture without what?

It did win Best Director, Cinematography, Sound Effects Editing and Makeup on the same night.

In which Irish studio complex was part of Braveheart shot?

The plan was 12 weeks in Ireland and five weeks on location in Scotland.

In reality, with whose help did Isabella of France depose Edward II in 1326?

The film foreshadows this with her threat to the dying Longshanks, though it happened over 20 years after Wallace's death.

What was the real Robert the Bruce's title before he became king?

The real Bruce had also been waging a guerrilla campaign for eight years before Bannockburn, which the film compresses.

Besides Brad Pitt, which actor did Gibson consider for the role of William Wallace?

Gibson originally intended only to direct before reluctantly taking the lead himself.

How many stars out of four did Roger Ebert give Braveheart?

Ebert likened it to Hollywood swordplay classics crossed with 'the grungy ferocity of The Road Warrior'.

In the film, who raises young William after his father and brother are killed?

The boy leaves home with Argyle after witnessing the aftermath of Longshanks' execution of Scottish nobles.