History Film / Zardoz

->''"You have been raised up from Brutality, to kill the [[TrrrillingRrrs Brutals]] who multiply, and are legion. To this end, Zardoz, your God, gave you the gift of the Gun. The Gun is good."''
->''[…]''
-> ''"The Penis, is evil. The Penis shoots seeds, and makes new life to poison the Earth with a plague of men, as once it was. But the Gun shoots death, and purifies the Earth of the filth of '''Brutals'''. Go forth, and kill! Zardoz has spoken!"''

!! "Meditate on these Tropes at Second Level":

* DeadlyDistantFinale: [[spoiler: After Consuella pairing up with Zed, a montage of pictures of them is shown with Music/LudwigVanBeethoven's 7th Symphony as background music. They start a family, their child grows up, while they age, he eventually leaves the family, the die, they grow old and die and only their skeletons remains at the end.]]

* KillTheGod: [[spoiler: Zed was programmed to shoot Frayn.]]

* ParodyRetcon: Actually {{invoked}} by Arthur Frayn in his opening monologue, calling the story "Rich in irony, and most satirical."

-->'''Arthur''': I bred you. I led you.\\
'''Zed''': And I have looked into the face of the force that put the idea in your mind. You're bred and led yourself.\\
'''Friend''': Arthur, we've all been used.
-->'''Arthur''': And re-used!
-->'''Friend''': And abused!
-->'''Arthur''': And amused!

* SeanConneryIsAboutToShootYou: Well, of course he is. The second scene ends this way (fittingly, as this is an advertising trope after all, the trailer also includes this [[IncrediblyLamePun shot]]).

* CoolGuns: The revolver that Connery-as-Zed uses onscreen is a rare [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Webley-Fosbery_Automatic_Revolver Webley-Fosbery "automatic revolver"]], and the operation of its unusual mechanism is displayed in a scene.[[note]]This unique pistol has gained cinema fame due to being in this film and also ''[[Film/TheMalteseFalcon1941 The Maltese Falcon]]''.[[/note]]

-> ''"The Penis, is evil. The Penis shoots seeds, and makes new life to poison the Earth with a plague of men, as once it was. But the Gun shoots death, and purifies the Earth of the filth of '''[[TrrrillingRrrs Brutals]]'''. Go forth, and kill! Zardoz has spoken!"''

* BaitAndSwitchGunshot: With the Tabernacle destroyed, the Eternals are happy to be mortal again, and when Avalow asks Zed to kill her, he raises his gun, only to lower it, saying "[[ThatManIsDead All that I was is gone]].". [[spoiler:Then, suddenly, somebody does shoot her, and we see that it was one of the Exterminators that Zed was working with. Since the Tabernacle had been destroyed, the invisible shield separating the Vortex was gone, too, allowing them to enter and start killing the Eternals.]]

* ThatManIsDead: Inside the Tabernacle, Zed shoots an enforcer that turns out to be the manifestation of his old, pre-enlightened self. Afterwards, when the Eternals are mortal again, Avalow asks Zed to shoot her, but Zed lowers his gun, saying "All that I was is gone.".

* BlessedWithSuck: The Eternals' immortality. At first that seemed like a good idea until boredom set in and with no way to end it.
* BodyHorror: The immortals punish the criminal by speed-aging the offender. The more you resist, the closer you get to endless senility...

* LowCultureHighTech: The barbarian class.

-> Zardoz head: ''"You have been raised up from Brutality, to kill the [[TrrrillingRrrs Brutals]] who multiply, and are legion. To this end, Zardoz, your God, gave you the gift of the Gun. The Gun is good."''

-> Exterminators: ''"The gun is good!"''

-> Zardoz head: ''"The Penis, is evil. The Penis shoots seeds, and makes new life to poison the Earth with a plague of men, as once it was. But the Gun shoots death, and purifies the Earth of the filth of '''[[TrrrillingRrrs Brutals]]'''. Go forth, and kill! Zardoz has spoken!"''