The image Stone posted on Instagram on July 4 references the film 300, a fictionalized account of the 480 B.C. Battle of Thermopylae, which pitted a small number of Spartan warriors against Persian King Xerxes I.
Jackson is depicted as Xerxes, the film’s main antagonist, and Stone is shown as a sword-wielding Leonidas, the leader of the Spartans. (At the climax of the film, Leonidas attempts to kill Xerxes by throwing a spear at him, but succeeds only in wounding him, before he and the rest of his men are overwhelmed by the Persian army.) The image references a line often used by Stone while discussing his criminal proceedings — his claim that he will not “bear false witness” against President Donald Trump. Continue reading.