Zardoz story

movie: Zardoz (1974) · 1974-02-06

The film depicts a future world where a stone image called "Zardoz" instructs the "Brutals" to kill each other for eternal life.

14 total · 10 major · 4 minor

Theme	Level	Motivation
democracy	major	The Immortal society was founded on a form of real-time direct democracy. All political and judicial decisions were arrived at in this manner.
human sexuality	major	The Immortals subjected the link between erotic stimulation and erection to extensive study. Consuella, in particular, used the savage Zed as a subject for her scientific experiments on the nature of sexuality.
organized religion	major	The Brutals worshiped the giant stone head Zardoz as a god.
post-apocalyptic dystopia	major	The Brutals lived as wretches in a land where a giant stone head commanded exterminators to cull the Brutals. It turned out this land was the Earth in the year 2293 and that these people were living among the ruins of our civilization.
romantic love	major	Zed and Consuella.
social inequality	major	The luxury in which the Immortals lived was contrasted with the miserable conditions under which the Brutals lived in the outlands.
telepathic ability	major	The Immortals transmitted knowledge and practiced direct democracy using crystal mediated telepathy.
the flip side of immortality	major	Nonconformists in Immortal society were, in extreme cases, aged to the point of senility, but kept to live forever. They were longing to die as a result. The film concluded with the Immortals celebrating Zed having liberated them from their immortality. The Exterminators subsequently slaughtered them all.
the quest for immortality	major	The giant stone head Zardoz promised eternal life to those who exterminated the Brutals. The Immortals were unafflicted by the aging process. But they did use aging as a punishment.
utopia	major	The Immortals lived in some sort of utopian community based on a synthesis between technology and direct democracy.