Line #82 Film/Zardoz


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mv5bmdg5ntyznzmtnzhmos00nzeylwjlmwmtmzuznjdhyjy2ndi3xkeyxkfqcgdeqxvynjuwmzi2nzu_v1.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:Creator/SeanConnery, as you really, ''[[FanDisservice really]]'' [[FetishRetardant don't want to see him!]]]]
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4	->''"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."\
5	[…]\
6	"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!"''
7	-->-- '''Zardoz'''
8
9	''Zardoz'', released in 1974, is neither a mindless sci-fi action movie nor a serious ScienceFiction film ''à la'' [[Creator/AndreiTarkovsky Tarkovsky]] or [[Creator/StanleyKubrick Kubrick]]. It's... hard to describe, except to say its mind-melting imagery practically defines the concept of the MindScrew. ''How'' Mind-screwy, you ask? What if we told you that it ''REALLY WAS'' [[QuirkyWork made on drugs]]? Still, a plot summary may help.
10
11	It is 2293 AD. A [[AfterTheEnd post-apocalyptic Earth]] is inhabited mostly by the "Brutals", simple soil-tilling serf types, who are in turn overseen by Exterminators. These Exterminators worship the god Zardoz, a huge, flying, hollow stone head that dispenses weaponry and ammunition by the truckload. One day, an Exterminator named Zed (Creator/SeanConnery) gets swept up into the hollow stone head and finds himself in the presence of the Eternals, an elite class who, way back in the 20th century, discovered the secret to immortality and removed themselves from all that penis-having to the rarefied heights.
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13	Life has become so meaningless for Eternals that Zed is hailed as manna from heaven. Some, however, see him as a dangerous threat to their status as higher beings. As it turns out, a lot of the Eternal scientists are female, with Consuella (Creator/CharlotteRampling) leading the anti-Zed coalition, while May (Sara Kestelman) feels that studying an odd creature like Zed will answer numerous questions about how the Eternals evolved to their exalted status. They argue all this for a while. However, other Eternals, like Friend (John Alderton), have had quite enough of being immortal and start clamouring for Zed to kill them and end their awful tedium.
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15	Fun fact: Writer-Director Creator/JohnBoorman wanted to adapt ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'', but that fell through. It's that project which inspired ''Zardoz'' (and his later ''Excalibur''). It's a trippy dystopian fantasy full of psychotropics, philosophical something-or-another, and copious shots of topless women, made by a writer/director who, as previously mentioned, was on massive amounts of drugs during filming, to the point where even ''he'' doesn't know what half of the weirdness means.
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17	Fun Fact: The Creator/DCComics superhero [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Characters/SupermanSupportingCast Vartox's]] design is an homage to Zed.
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19	----
20	!!"Meditate on these Tropes at Second Level":
21	* ActorAllusion: In his first scene, Creator/SeanConnery [[Film/JamesBond aims his gun at the camera]] [[SeanConneryIsAboutToShootYou and shoots it]].
22	* AfterTheEnd: The story takes place centuries after what was probably a [[NukeEm nuclear war]], and civilization as it was known in the 20th century isn't even a memory to anyone but the Eternals.
23	* AgeCut: [[spoiler:The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xfsu1VEn_Is final scene]] takes it further than most, aging two characters and their newborn son repeatedly until the adult son walks off and the parents remain until they're nothing but skeletons.]]
24	* AgeWithoutYouth: The exiles, aged as punishment and left in an old folks home.
25	* AllAreEqualInDeath: [[spoiler:The final scene has everyone dying, whether shot or just dying of old age.]]
26	* AndIMustScream: The Apathetics are a subset of the Eternals who have become so tired of immortality that they literally are almost catatonic.
27	* 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.]]
28	* BatmanGambit: Arthur Frayn's plan to [[spoiler:breed a line of smart Exterminators and lure them into a library in the hopes that they would find a way to break into the Vortex and figure out how to destroy it. Once he leads Zed into the library, Arthur is relying on Zed to act as he expects]].
29	* BelligerentSexualTension: An interesting little subplot that gets lost amid all the craziness is that Zed arouses Consuella's long-dormant lust, but she doesn't seem to know how to react, which is a big reason why she's so adamant about killing him.
30	* BirthDeathJuxtaposition: [[spoiler:Again, the final scene has people being gunned down while Consuella gives birth.]]
31	* BlessedWithSuck: The Eternals' immortality. At first, that seemed like a good idea... until boredom set in, with no way to end it.
32	* BodyHorror: The immortals punish the criminal by speed-aging the offender. The more you resist, the closer you get to endless senility.
33	* BreakingTheFourthWall: Arthur Frayn's opening prologue.
34	* CargoCult: The Exterminators worship Zardoz because he keeps them well-supplied with guns and ammo.
35	* CarpetOfVirility: Zed in his {{Stripperiffic}} outfits.
36	* CharacterTitle: OneWordTitle due to the titular god having OnlyOneName.
37	* TheChessmaster: Arthur Frayn, who created Zed and brought him to the vortex to destroy the Eternals.
38	* TheChosenOne: Zed, chosen by Frayn to end the Eternals' misery.
39	* CrapsaccharineWorld: The Vortex. It certainly ''looks'' cleaner than the irradiated wasteland of the Brutals, but Zed inevitably learns that looks aren't everything.
40	-->'''Zed:''' This place is built on lies and suffering!
41	* CreatorCameo: Boorman appears as a Brutal who gets shot in the head.
42	* {{Crossdresser}}: The Renegades need to get Zed away from rioting Eternals that want to kill him... so they dress him up in a wedding dress.
43	* CrystalSpiresAndTogas: {{Subverted}}, in that the film presents this as a {{Dystopia}}.
44	* CulturedBadass: Zed is quoting T.S. Eliot by the end of the film.
45	* DatingCatwoman: [[spoiler:Zed and Consuela. She sees him as a threat to the Eternals but also clearly wants to have sex with him.]]
46	* 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.]]
47	* DefectorFromDecadence: Friend, who winds up with the Exiles before helping to destroy the Eternals.
48	* DomedHometown: Where the Eternals live.
49	* DudeShesLikeInAComa: Zed grabs one particularly good-looking Apathetic, throws her down on the hay, and starts pawing at her. Friend urges him to take her, but he stops.
50	* {{Dystopia}}: The Eternals can live forever, but have become so bored that the Vortex is now their hell.
51	* {{Fanservice}}: In that very special '70s "But-nudity-is-just-''natural''" sort of way.
52	* GainaxEnding: [[spoiler: After most of the Eternals are killed, Consuella abruptly pairs up with Zed and gives birth to their son. He is shown growing up as they age, then leaves as they fade into nothing, leaving only skeletons beside Zed's rusted revolver, with handprints on the wall.]] All of this is accompanied by Beethoven's Seventh Symphony without dialogue, bits of which had been heard throughout the film prior to this. [[MindScrewdriver One could see it as]] [[ItMakesSenseInContext a contrast with the Eternals' immortality and a cycle of life image]], but... what?
53	* GunNut: Zardoz is very big on firearms, to the extent that his version of "showering blessings" involves automatic rifles.
54	* GunPorn: Much more literal than most examples. Note the scene where a fountain of guns [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything spills out of the giant floating head]].
55	* HallOfMirrors: The Tabernacle is represented in this way.
56	* HeWhoFightsMonsters: Zed quotes the TropeMaker, Friedrich Nietzsche.
57	* HistoricalInJoke: The handprints at the very very end of the film are a reference to the hand prints found in [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pech_Merle Pech Merle]].
58	* HumanAllAlong: Zed learns that Arthur Frayn is [[spoiler:Zardoz]]. Subverted in that Frayn ''wanted'' Zed to discover this and [[KillTheGod react appropriately]].
59	* ImmortalityHurts: Because no Eternal can die, the only available punishment is aging the offender into senility.
60	* InMediasRes: The scenes after the prologue. It cuts to Zed after he's gained knowledge and shed his Exterminator identity.
61	* InterruptedIntimacy: It was ostensibly to help Zed recover his memories, but May's interrogation of him, underneath a sheet, was very sexually-charged. Consuella walks in on them, and reacts to May in utter disgust.
62	-->''So this is your scientific investigation? There's another word for it: [[BestialityIsDepraved bestiality]]! For this you will be aged 50 years, no less! No man, woman or beast will ever desire you again!''
63	* ItIsDehumanizing: Several of the Eternals (chiefly Consuella) view Zed as subhuman and refer to him as "it" or "the monster".
64	* {{Jerkass}}: Friend, before turning into a JerkassWoobie.
65	* KillTheGod: [[spoiler:Zed was programmed to shoot Frayn.]]
66	* KineticWeaponsAreJustBetter: The gun is ''good''.
67	* LargeHam: It's set in a WorldOfHam, but Arthur Frayn's over-the-top personality stands out.
68	* LoveTriangle: Consuella explicitly identifies herself as May's lover, but from the start May is attracted to Zed, and Consuella's jealousy fuels her hatred of him. But as the film goes on Consuella becomes interested in him as well (though, since it's been centuries since the Eternals have actually experienced love, a lot of this plays out in subtext).
69	* LowCultureHighTech: The Exterminator class. Zardoz alleges that he has raised them from Brutality to serve his will... but they're still uneducated killers and slavers.
70	* MeaningfulName:
71	** Zed - whose name is identical to the final letter of the alphabet [[spoiler:is the one who brings the finality of death back to the Eternals]].
72	** Friend, who becomes Zed's friend.
73	* MindRape: This happens to Zed.
74	* MindScrew: The whole movie, from beginning to end. What's more, this seems to have been Boorman's intention. In interviews at the time he said that the film was supposed to depict the "Twilight level of the dream and the unconscious."
75	* MrExposition:
76	** The floating head of Arthur Frayn at the beginning (the studios insisted on this).
77	** The scene where Zed pulls Friend in a cart around the Vortex is there mainly so Friend can give us a rundown on the life of the Eternals and the different subgroups among them.
78	* NeverTrustATrailer: The trailers feature the titular entity saying "The gun is good...". Audiences who saw the film were understandably weirded out by the omitted second part, "The penis is evil".
79	* {{Novelization}}: By writer/director Creator/JohnBoorman with Bill Stair. Clears up quite a lot of the incoherent story and adds some backstory, including Zed's childhood.
80	* OneWordTitle: CharacterTitle of a god, who has OnlyOneName.
81	* OnlyOneName: The [[CharacterTitle titular]] god.
82	* ParodyRetcon: Actually {{invoked\|Trope}} by Arthur Frayn in his opening monologue, calling the story "Rich in irony, and most satirical."
83	* PropheticName: Friend.
84	* PsychicPowers: The Eternals have them, mostly in the form of being able to exert their will on Brutals.
85	* PublicDomainSoundtrack: They get a lot of mileage out of Beethoven's Symphony #7.
86	* QuirkyWork: The original name of this trope was "What Do You Mean It Wasn't Made on Drugs?" Well, this is a film that was ''literally'' made on drugs.
87	* RageAgainstTheReflection: Zed shooting his former Exterminator self inside the Tabernacle.
88	* RageHelm: The Exterminators wear grimacing Zardoz masks.
89	* RapeAsDrama: Zed has a flashback about "taking" a Brutal woman, in Zardoz's name.
90	* RealMenEatMeat: According to Zed, the Exterminators hated having to make the Brutals start cultivating wheat for the Eternals.
91	-->'''Zed:''' Zardoz betrayed us! We were hunters, not farmers!
92	* ResurrectiveImmortality: One aspect of the Eternals' immortality.
93	* RhymesOnADime: This exchange late in the film.
94	-->'''Arthur:''' I bred you. I led you.\
95	'''Zed:''' And I have looked into the face of the force that put the idea in your mind. You're bred and led yourself.\
96	'''Friend:''' Arthur, we've all been used.\
97	'''Arthur:''' And re-used!\
98	'''Friend:''' And abused!\
99	'''Arthur:''' And amused!
100	* RingOfPower: All the Eternals have them.
101	* SceneryPorn: The rolling Irish hills sure are gorgeous.
102	* ScienceFiction: An odd mix of old school Creator/HGWells-type speculative fiction (''Literature/TheTimeMachine'''s influence is obvious), colorful Creator/EdgarRiceBurroughs-ish adventure, and a more modern mode of WorldBuilding as a way of exploring philosophical, moral and political issues, in the vein of Creator/ArthurCClarke and Creator/RobertAHeinlein.
103	* SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale:
104	** The reason the Tabernacle was created was because scientists explored the universe and discovered that nothing existed outside of Earth. The problem is the universe is both massive and constantly expanding, so it's almost impossible that they were able to explore the entire universe, let alone prove that mankind was alone in the universe.
105	** The Eternals are a society of immortals who are [[WhoWantsToLiveForever bored with life and just want to die]] after a mere ''300'' years. While this is about 4 normal human lifespans, it still seems like a ridiculously short time to get bored with ''everything.'' To name just one thing: the number of ''TabletopGame/{{Chess}}'' games is estimated to be about 10^120 (1 followed by 120 zeros). If you could play a million games a year, it would still take 10^114 years to play every possible game[[note]]Though, admittedly, most of those games would be really bad and both players would have to be losing on purpose[[/note]]. And there are obviously a lot more activities in life than chess.
106	* ScrewYouElves: Zed is extremely angry at how the Eternals live in relative comfort while everyone else suffers.
107	* 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 [[{{Pun}} shot]]).
108	* TheSeventies. Very much so.
109	* SexIsEvil: In the opening scene Zardoz vomits up a huge pile of firearms and calls on the Exterminators to murder the Brutals to keep their numbers down (if Zardoz had given them a huge pile of condoms instead, he could have avoided all this trouble).
110	-->'''Zardoz:''' 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!
111	* ShoutOut: A salute to [[spoiler:Film/{{The WiZARD of OZ}}]] becomes a pretty major plot point.
112	* SingleTear: Shed by May as [[spoiler:she watches the destruction of the abode of the Eternals when she leaves the Vortex for the last time]].
113	* SlapSlapKiss: More or less the film's entire attitude to romance.
114	* StrawFeminist: The future women (and possibly men) who speak constantly about how horrible and violent sex was, but at the same time, obviously want to get into Connery's pants.
115	* {{Stripperiffic}}:
116	** What else would you call Connery in this movie? Striphorrific?
117	** The Eternal women wear midriff-baring two piece outfits with low necklines that look like some sort of ''Series/IDreamOfJeannie''-themed summer collection at JC Penney.
118	* 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."
119	* {{Thoughtcrime}}: Eternals that project "negative auras" in second level meditation are punished by aging.
120	* TheTrickster: Arthur Frayn, though he functions as a TricksterMentor to Zed.
121	* TrrrillingRrrs: Arthur Frayn, as part of his LargeHam stage magician-like persona.
122	* TwoFaced: Friend is either half-geriatric or slowly succumbing to being aged. Half of his face is old while the other is unchanged.
123	* TurnedAgainstTheirMasters: The Exterminators eventually slaughter all the Eternals, except for Consuella and a few others who escape to make new lives outside.
124	* TwistEnding: Zardoz is... [[spoiler:The Wi'''Zard''' of '''Oz''']].
125	* WatchItStoned: Possibly the only way to understand this movie, except Boorman [[DoNotDoThisCoolThing admits he used drugs]] during filming and even ''he'' finds it confusing.
126	* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: The majority of the film takes place at Vortex 4 and there are at least 9 Vortexes in total. We don't know what happens to the other Vortexes once the Tabernacle is destroyed.
127	* WhoWantsToLiveForever: The Eternals long ago succumbed to ennui. Most simply want to die, but can't.
128	* XtremeKoolLetterz: Some of the text displayed by the Tabernacle, such as "Karatz" (carrots), "Solt" (salt) and "Lethur" (leather).
129	* YourPrincessIsInAnotherCastle: The scene where Zed reveals how he learned Zardoz was actually [[spoiler:''The Wi'''Zard''' of '''Oz''''']] makes you think the movie's wrapping up when, in fact, there's still almost an hour to go.

Context Film / Zardoz