It is the year 1250 B.C. during the late Bronze age. Two emerging nations begin to clash after Paris, the Trojan prince, convinces Helen, Queen of Sparta, to leave her husband, Menelaus, and sail with him back to Troy. After Menelaus finds out that his wife was taken by the Trojans, he asks his brother Agamemnon to help him get her back. Agamemnon sees this as an opportunity for power. So they set off with 1,000 ships holding 50,000 Greeks to Troy. With the help of Achilles, the Greeks are able to fight the never before defeated Trojans. But they come to a stop by Hector, Prince of Troy.
This is the sword used by Brad Pitt as 'Achilles' in the epic fight with Hector (Eric Bana).
Eight sword like this were used in the fight, all them were safe versions made of a hard rubber composite, the handle being very hard with the blade a bit softer. There is a broad metal armature, which runs down the centre, almost to the tip. There was also a stiffer piece of plastic inside the rubber, to keep the tip from bending. These safe versions were considered hero during the production as the real bronze swords were incredible heavy and soft, they were never used to fight, only appear in a few close up shots or promo shots (never in the Hector's fight). There were no aluminium swords. All the Achilles' swords that he used in all fights were rubber, almost each one was smashed or damages as the actors were really going for it. There are small cuts on the rubber edge from use, and a crack across the blade where the centre metal armature ends. This type of damages can be observed also in the movie and promotional pictures, even used swords without tip.
From that fight only three swords survived the filming without being broken. The fight was filmed after the film wrapped by a small UK team in Mexico and after a hurricane did destroy most of the original set and unit base. This swords were made exclusively in UK for this fight. In Mexico they had a limited workshop with no model or mold-makers, so there was no way to make any more swords to use on the set. All the swords were used by Brad as after each take, they had to change to another one and repair, or repaint the previous one as there would be black marks on the blades from hitting against another rubber sword.
The fight between Brad Pitt and Eric Bana was real and very 'full on', the stunt men only were used in the long shots of the walls of Troy. Proof of that is that Eric got a cut across the nose from the very tip of one of this Achille's swords.