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We open with narration from Dilios (David Wenham), a Spartan warrior who has lost his eye in battle. The film unfolds as Dilios's recounting of King Leonidas's last stand at the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BCE. The narrative structure is canonically Frank Miller's foundational creative choice — the entire film is being narrated by a Spartan storyteller to a Spartan war-council, framed as a retrospective heroic narrative rather than as objective historical chronicle. The Spartan-narrator framing allows the film's intentional historical-inaccuracies (mythological-creature warriors, mystical Persians, supernatural-massive Persian armies) to be presented as canonically the storyteller's exaggerations rather than as historical claims.

The film's introduction establishes the canonical Spartan culture. Spartan male infants are inspected at birth — those with cosmetic-deformities are abandoned to die at the city walls. Survivors are removed from family homes at age 7 to begin formal military training. By age 18, they are full-status warriors. The cultural-context establishment is approximately 8 minutes of screen time and is widely cited as one of the most-effective single-cultural-introduction sequences in any 2000s film. The cinematography uses Frank Miller's foundational graphic-novel aesthetic — deeply-stylized lighting, hand-illustrated background tableau, deliberate use of slow-motion violence in the warrior-training sequences.

Cut to: 480 BCE. King Leonidas (Gerard Butler) is the king of Sparta. He receives a Persian emissary delivering an ultimatum from Xerxes I — surrender Sparta to Persian rule or face Xerxes's million-soldier army. Leonidas's response is the film's most-iconic single moment: he kicks the Persian emissary down a massive well at the center of the Spartan agora. The 'THIS IS SPARTA!' line — accompanied by the slow-motion kick — became one of the 2000s' most-meme'd cinematic moments. The line has been referenced across thousands of subsequent films, advertisements, and internet memes.

Leonidas, unable to formally declare war without the Spartan Council's approval (the Council includes religious leaders who have been bribed by Persian agents), leads 300 hand-picked Spartan warriors to confront Xerxes's army at the Thermopylae mountain pass. The 300 are canonically the most-elite warriors in Sparta — each individually-selected for both combat-skill and personal-loyalty to Leonidas. The march to Thermopylae is approximately 12 minutes of screen time; the cinematography emphasizes the Spartans' canonical-warrior discipline and the broader Greek landscape.

The 300 arrive at Thermopylae and immediately encounter Xerxes's advance force. The first day's engagement establishes the canonical 'phalanx' formation — interlocked Spartan shields creating a defensive wall, with spears extended through the shield-gaps for offensive thrust. The phalanx allows the Spartans to repel waves of Persian soldiers despite the substantial numerical disadvantage. The combat choreography combines slow-motion violence, hand-illustrated visual-effects backgrounds, and Frank Miller's canonical graphic-novel framing. Director Zack Snyder has stated in interviews that the phalanx-combat sequences were 'the most-meticulously-pre-visualized' single setpieces in his career.

Xerxes arrives at Thermopylae personally. He approaches Leonidas's command tent for a personal audience — the canonical 'God-King' Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro) attempting to negotiate Leonidas's surrender through personal-charisma and the promise of regional autonomy under Persian rule. Leonidas refuses. Xerxes responds by deploying his army's most-elite forces — the Immortals (canonically the Persian Empire's elite warriors), giant elephants, and various exotic-creature warriors. The second day's combat is substantially more elaborate than the first day's; the choreography is approximately 25 minutes of continuous battle sequences.

Ephialtes (Andrew Tiernan) — a hunchbacked Spartan-born outcast whom Leonidas had refused to admit to the 300 due to his physical deformity — betrays Leonidas to Xerxes. He shows Xerxes a secret mountain path that allows the Persian army to bypass the Thermopylae chokepoint and encircle the Spartans. The betrayal is canonical to Frank Miller's source comic; the historical-Battle-of-Thermopylae actually was lost when a Greek named Ephialtes (the canonical historical figure) showed the Persian army the secret path. The film's depiction is therefore historically-grounded.

Leonidas faces the inevitable defeat. He sends Dilios back to Sparta as a messenger — Dilios will canonically recount the battle to the Spartan war-council and rally Sparta for the broader war against Persia. The remaining 300 Spartans prepare for their final stand. They die in a brutal final battle on the morning of the third day at Thermopylae. The final battle is approximately 18 minutes of screen time. Leonidas is killed by Persian arrows during a final attempt to assassinate Xerxes. The remaining 299 Spartans die alongside him.

The film's epilogue. Dilios delivers the news to Sparta. The Spartan war-council, hearing the canonical story of Leonidas's sacrifice, rallies a 10,000-warrior army for the larger war against Persia. The Battle of Thermopylae becomes Sparta's foundational rallying narrative. The film closes with Dilios leading the 10,000 Spartan army into a final battle against Xerxes at the Battle of Plataea — the canonical historical battle where the broader Greek alliance defeated the Persian Empire. The narrative thesis — that the 300 Spartans' sacrifice enabled the broader Greek victory — is canonically completed.

Commercial and critical reception. 300 grossed $456 million worldwide on a $65 million production budget — strong commercial success and one of 2007's biggest box-office hits. Critical reception was mixed (Rotten Tomatoes 60%); critics praised Zack Snyder's directorial style and the film's commitment to Frank Miller's source-comic aesthetic, but were divided on the film's depiction of Persian forces (which many critics felt slipped into orientalist stereotypes). The film's commercial success directly enabled Zack Snyder's broader Hollywood directorial career — without 300, there would be no Watchmen (2009), no Man of Steel (2013), no Snyder-led DCEU. The film also established the canonical 'graphic-novel direct adaptation' aesthetic that would inform multiple subsequent productions.

The 300 sequel and broader influence. 300: Rise of an Empire (2014) — a sequel set during the broader Greco-Persian Wars — was directed by Noam Murro and grossed $337 million worldwide. The sequel's commercial performance, while solid, has been canonically considered a substantial decline from the original. The 300 franchise has been retired since 2014; no third film has been announced. The original 300's broader cultural impact extends beyond superhero/comic cinema — the 'THIS IS SPARTA!' meme, the slow-motion-violence aesthetic, the phalanx-combat-choreography template, the deeply-stylized lighting approach — all have been canonically referenced across thousands of subsequent films, television series, and advertisements through the 2010s and into the 2020s.