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Thief, Gladiator, Warrior, King!Totally Trivia
Film facts for the 1982 Action / Adventure movie starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, James Earl Jones, Max von Sydow, Sandahl Bergman
Ben Davidson, Cassandra Gava, Gerry Lopez, Mako, Valérie Quennessen, William Smith, Luis Barboo, Franco Columbu, Leslie Foldvary, Gary Herman, Erik Holmey, Dr. Akio Mitamura, Nadiuska, Jorge Sanz, Jack Taylor, Sven-Ole Thorsen, Kiyoshi Yamasaki Update Cast
We believe the following trivia is all legit. If it's bogus or you have additional info, please update us.
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Although Conan and Valeria are shown together frequently throughout the movie, he only speaks five words to her in the entire film - and they're all in the first thirty seconds after they meet: "You're not a guard", and "No".Rewind Archive
Conan's response to the Mongol General is an abbreviation of a real quote attributed to Gengis Khan: "The greatest pleasure is to vanquish your enemies and chase them before you, to rob them of their wealth and see those dear to them bathed in tears, to ride their horses and clasp to your bosom their wives and daughters."Rewind Archive
Conan's opinion of what is best in life is not all that links him to Genghis Khan. Subotai (or Subedei Baghadur) was also the name of Great Khan's general. The fact that Conan is not only chased, but to some extent orphaned by dogs also recalls Genghis Khan's well-documented fear of that particular animal. Finally, the writers' preoccupation with steel seems oddly coincidental, given that Genghis Khan's birthname, Temujin, is frequently translated as "finest steel."Thanks to annericelover
This was meant to be the first of 7 films, with Arnold was set to be in all of them. At this time he played in the low budget "Hercules in New York" and hadn't yet done "The Terminator" When "Conan the Destroyer" didn't do as well as the studio wanted they pulled out of doing the rest.Thanks to LoverswithCassie
Director John Milius makes an unbilled cameo as a Foodseller in the Old City.Rewind Archive
The swordmaster was played by Kiyoshi Yamasaki, swordmaster for the actors in the film.Rewind Archive
There is a long-standing (yet still unproven) urban legend about the so-called "Conan toy line". The story is that the Mattel Toy Company started to make some Conan action figures, but after viewing the film, the executives realized that they couldn't afford to be associated with a film with such graphic sex and violence. They gave their doll blonde hair, called him "He-man", and thus created "He-Man and the Masters of the Universe" (1983).Rewind Archive
The name "Valeria" comes from the heroine of the novella "Red Nails." The theft of the tower in Zamora is from "The Tower of the Elephant." The speech King Osric gives about the throne room becoming a prison echoes a similar passage in "The Mirrors of Tuzun Thune," a King Kull story. The scene where Conan is crucified and kills a vulture with his teeth is from "A Witch Shall Be Born." Finally, the scene where Valeria vows to come back from the dead to save Conan and then does so is from "Queen of the Black Coast."Rewind Archive
During the scene when James Earl Jones points to one of his priestesses and she jumps to her death, a women's free fall record was set at 182 feet by stunt woman Corrie Jansen.Rewind Archive
Thulsa Doom and his warriors are patterned after the Teutonic knights from Aleksandr Nevsky (1938). The similarities between the two are very striking. From the helmets, body armor, weapons and mannerisms. Thulsa Doom even has the same pageboy haircut as the Teutonic Knight's commander.Rewind Archive
When the Wizard is ritually painting Conan to try to save his life, all symbols and runes are black, except for a certain symbol, shown once in the hands and a few times in his face, which is red. Such a symbol, a small man whose arms join over his head in a semicircle, is called "Indalo", and is a very common symbol in the region of Almeria (Spain), in which most of the movie was shot.Rewind Archive
The runes on Conan's father's sword are translated as; "Suffer no guilt, ye who wield this in the name of Crom."Rewind Archive
Conan is mentioned to be a Cimmerian. The Cimmerians were a people who inhabited lands north of the Black and Caspian Seas, in modern day Ukraine and southern Russia, in approximately 8th century to 9th century B.C; give or take a few centuries. They were mentioned in the writings of Homer and Herodotus, who considered them barbarians who lived on the edge of the known world. Their territories were the lands of "Gomer" in the Old Testament. Herodotus writes that the Cimmerians were later displaced by the Scythians, horse-riding people against whom the unmounted Cimmerians were no match. After the Scythian invasion, it is believed that the Cimmerians spread out along sea coasts, but may have fled as far away as Northern Russia and Scandanavia. Even Irish and Welsh peoples claim ethnic affinity with the Cimmerians.Rewind Archive
The scene with Conan practicing using his sword again after being resurrected by the old wizard, was inspired by the movie One-Eyed Jacks (1961), where Marlon Brando's character practices wielding his weapon of choice, this time a gun, after a near death experience.Bogus Trivia
There's often fake stuff floating round, y'know? -Like the 'ghost boy' that can allegedly be seen in "Three Men And A Baby".
But, nothing bogus that we know yet for "Conan the Barbarian".
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1982 Universal Pictures
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