Gladiator Revolt

"I'm Spartacus!"

- Everyone, Spartacus

A staple of Sword and Sandal and Lost World stories, the hero is captured and forced into the gladiatorial pits as a slave. He will be trained as gladiator (giving him a justification for becoming a badass warrior if he was not one already). He will win numerous bouts, becoming a favourite of the fans and winning the respect of his fellow gladiators. He will then incite his fellow gladiators to rise up and break out of the slave pits, leaving the hero at the head of a ready-made army of highly trained warriors with which to overthrow the Evil Overlord who condemned him to the pits.

Subtrope of Gladiator Games as well as Slave Liberation. The main alternative for captive heroes is to be a Galley Slave.

Comic Books

 * The Warlord (Travis Morgan). Early in his career he was captured and spent time as an enslaved gladiator. He earned his title leading his fellow gladiators to freedom.
 * The recent Planet Hulk storyline.
 * In the IDW Transformers Generation 1 continuity, Megatron began as a successful gladiator who recruited the greatest gladiators on Cybertron to revolt against their oppressors.
 * It's a recurring theme in Generation 1; he also led such a revolt in the Dreamwave comics, and the original cartoon has an unsuccessful gladiator revolt against the Quintessons in the Transformers' early history.
 * Barbarian Hero Slaine from 2000 AD orchestrated a revolt amongst the Cythron's human gladiators.
 * In Fantastic Four #91-93, the robot gladiator Torgo leads a gladiator revolt on the Skrull controlled planet of Kral, after the Fantastic Four arrives to rescue the captive Thing from the gladiator pits.
 * Mongul once captured Superman and forced him into Gladiator Games. Superman became champion and eventually defeated Mongul.
 * Grand finale of the Suske en Wiske album Het Geheim van de Gladiatoren.

Film

 * Spartacus which is, of course, based on the real life version of the Spartacus revolt. (Downer Ending included, if you consider Spartacus et al to be the good guys.)
 * More of a Bittersweet Ending, considering that
 * Gladiator

Literature

 * Gor has this a few times.
 * The Telnarian Histories by the same author.
 * The Kregen Planetary Romance novels by Alan Burt Akers do this a few times. It's a staple of the genre.
 * Tarzan stages one in the novel Tarzan and the Lost Empire.
 * In Edgar Rice Burroughs's The Gods of Mars, John Carter charges into the arena when women are threatened with great apes, and another prisoner leaps to join him, shouting they should all come, and they do.
 * In Chessman Of Mars: the hero infiltrates the game of the title, where the pieces are living swordsmen, and fights; he wins and leads a revolt.
 * In Ben Counter's Warhammer 40000 Grey Knights novel Hammer of Daemons, Alaric and a fellow captive Grey Knight are forced in fight in Gladiator Games to celebrate the putting down of a Gladiator Revolt. The other Grey Knight dies. To avenge his friend, Alaric Do not annoy Alaric!
 * The Spartacus incident also happens in The Death of Kings, the seconds of Conn Iggulden's Emperor series. In this case, since Julius Caesar is the Protagonist, it's a more upbeat ending than that of Spartacus.
 * In E. E. "Doc" Smith's Triplanetary, the last significant attempt to save Roman civilization was a Gladiator Revolt -- and failed utterly.
 * The Hunger Games, especially the third book, could be seen as a post-apocalyptic version of this, with

Live Action TV

 * Happened in an episode of Angel where the titular hero was captured and put into demon gladiator fights. Angel eventually breaks out and leads a gladiator revolt. Unfortunately, after the successful revolt, when the demons are freed and walking into the Los Angeles night, one of his human teammates questions if they just loosed a dozen bloodthirsty and deadly demons onto the streets of LA.
 * Similar in "The Gamesters of Triskelion" from the original Star Trek the Original Series.
 * Much the same plot occurred on Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, except Herc deliberately got himself captured in the hope of rescuing one of the gladiators.
 * Rome. When Titus Pullo is sentenced to death in the area by his friend Lucius Vorenus, Pullo instead goes on a rampage and kills several of the gladiators.
 * Thirteen!!!
 * Spartacus: Blood and Sand. Duh.

Newspaper Comics

 * Modesty Blaise does it in the "Those About to Die..." arc, where an insane millionaire had kidnapped Modesty, Willie and other elite athletes and warriors and was forcing them to compete in a Deadly Game.

Real Life

 * The Spartacus rebellion.

Tabletop Games

 * Forms part of the history for the city of Cartago in the Lands of Mystery supplement for the Justice, Inc. roleplaying game.
 * The backstory of Angron, primarch of the World Eaters, in Warhammer 40000. He grew up in the gladiator arenas of a barbaric planet and eventually led his fellow slaves to escape to the mountains. When the Emperor arrived to give Angron command of his Space Marine legion, the primarch refused, choosing to die with his brothers-in-arms, who were facing annihilation at the hands of a massive coalition. The Emperor ignored this and teleported Angron away in time to watch his comrades get slaughtered, and though the primarch would agree to lead the World Eaters, there were repercussions later.
 * The first module for Dark Sun featured this. North of the Tablelands lie a string of cities made up of ex-slaves.

Video Games

 * In the Warcraft universe, Thrall, the warchief of the Horde was raised as a gladiator by humans. Also, after the king of Stormwind washed up on the shores of Durotar after escaping his imprisionement, some orcs found him and made him fight as a gladiator.
 * Happens twice in Baldur's Gate 2. The first time, you can help the gladiators. The second time, you're one of them.
 * Ratchet: Gladiator - a Gladiator Revolt...  IN SPACE! 
 * The Thera mod for Medieval II: Total War has this as part of the background for the Uruk Dominion. The Uruks and other bestial creatures were used as gladiators and laborers for the Romuli Empire until an Uruk named Slavos won his freedom in the gladiator pits. Then the Great Torment hit the world, afflicting the planet with storms, frosts, and disease, and the Romuli Emperor sent the Legions to purge the city Slavos lived in as a plague was starting to spread. Slavos unified the gladiators and citizenry and destroyed the Legions, then contained the plague, and created a new nation.

Western Animation

 * An episode in Samurai Jack.
 * Justice League's "War World" put Superman on Mongul's titular War World. He rose to become champion, beat Mongul on interdimensional TV and overthrew his rule.
 * Spartakus and the Sun Beneath the Sea. Spartakus (as might be guessed from his name) is an ex-gladiator who escaped slavery following a revolt.