A field of defeated rebels is offered a deal: name your leader and avoid crucifixion. Instead, one by one, they stand and claim to be him. This episode explores the biography of Spartacus, the 1960 epic that grew out of Kirk Douglas's humiliation at losing Ben-Hur to Charlton Heston. We follow Douglas optioning Howard Fast's novel through his company Bryna Productions, the arms race with Yul Brynner's rival gladiator project, the firing of director Anthony Mann in Death Valley, and the hiring of 30-year-old Stanley Kubrick to run a $12 million production with a cast of over 10,000.

We dig into the most explosive element of the film: blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, one of the Hollywood Ten, writing under the name Sam Jackson until Douglas publicly credited him, the American Legion boycotts, and President Kennedy crossing a picket lin ...