The Thing in the Crypt Scene

I'm glad Milius decided not to animate the Atlantean king Conan took the sword from. He's right: it would have been cheesy. What was cool about the scene was when the corpse shifted after Conan took the sword. You thought at first it was going to come to life, but instead it seemed to bow its head as if to say "death has vanquished me. Therefore you must now take my sword, and wield it while you live".

"Crom", indeed.

Agreed. I'm perfectly happy with the way the scene turned out. IMO, that is just one more result of Milius' genius at work.

I love how the film is more grounded in "reality", as opposed to the comic book (or even Conan the Destroyer film) where magic dominated (or at least played an inflated part) in the storyline.

I noticed that in most of REH stories, you can still use the plot even if you remove the "magic part". I believe that is one of the reasons why the movie worked and also why it still works after 20 years.

Quote :

Then Conan's gaze dropped to the great sword. It was a terrific weapon: a broadsword with a blade well over a yard in length. It was made of blued iron - not copper or bronze as might have been expected from its obvious age. Many battles had this sword seen in the dim past, for its broad blade, although still keen, was notched in a score of places. Stained with age and spotted with rust, it was still a weapon to be feared.

Conan felt his pulses pound. The blood of one born to war seethed within him. Crom, what a sword! With a blade like that, he could more than hold his own against the starving wolves that padded, whined and waited without. As he reached for the hilt with eager hand, he failed to see the warning flicker that moved within those shadowed eye sockets in the skull-head of the ancient warrior.

Conan hefted the blade. It seemed as heavy as lead - a sword of the Elder Ages. Perhaps some fabled hero-king of old had borne it - some legendary demigod like Kull of Atlantis, king of Valusia in the ages before Atlantis foundered beneath the restless sea...

Seems the sword was supposed to be special and perhaps belong to Kull himself.

Chrysagon wrote:

I noticed that in most of REH stories, you can still use the plot even if you remove the "magic part".

This one isn't exactly a good example, Chrys.
The author of The Thing in the Crypt was not REH, but the Lyon Sprague De Camp/Lin Carter duo...

BTW, it was first intended to be a Thongor story (a Conan "clone" created by LC) before being rewritten and inserted in LSDC's artificial Conan "continuity".

Yeah not a good example in this one but Chrys is right as Reh wrotte some stories without any magical part at all, and in some of the ones that had it sometimes it looked like some "commerial" adding more than a true essential part of the storyline. A nice example of this are all these "final monsters" Conan must kill in the last chapter, for example in "A witch shall be born".

"Black Colossus" would be another good example as REH had tons of pages describing the actual desert battle which is really the central part of the tale, being the chose of Conan as general of the army the literary "excuse" to follow the plot and take us to the battle. And all the magic stuff there could be removed, it's just FX.

I guess the editors of the magazines asked for "magic" in the stories, that way is explained why the 90% of these stories have the same structure again and again.

Not for anything but most of Howards stories were rewritten/reworked Myths plucked from all over. Without the magic, your left with a typical middle ages or Western historical battle or something.

What kinda name is Thongor anyhow? Sounds like a militant "thong".

I think it was Milius novice status, reluctance on special effects and fickle attitude which ultimately made CONAN less of what it shouldve been. If you read his scripts and and his morphed "Half the Sky" stuff you would know he wanted more 'fantasy" in CONAN. Like pre-historic creatures and maybe even Dragons since he loved Stout's Dragon work. I think he sold CONAN short of its full potential when he learned of other fantasy films coming along the way while was working on CONAN, then the whole Harryhausen "Sinbad" weighting over his head in his mind, which led him to drop "The Beast with Eyes" and who knows what else, as he got cold feet. Even "Raider's of the Lost Ark" led him to downscale the film, namely at "The Mounds". I dont think he had much faith in CONAN, and its success surprised even him later on.


The Crypt Skeleton in the movie was very nicely done, more mystical rather than magical I suppose, however it couldve had better shots and taken advantage of the wonderfully built Cobb set which we dont see much of sadly. Milius or whoever filmed that scene I dont think did it very well. The Chamber shouldve had more vibrant colors, like some ancient Mycenaean or Cretan temple, and not so dull and dry which is typical in movies.

A Skeleton battle wouldve been appealing, but not a real battle. More like a test to see if Conan is worthy to carry the sword of power and of course they shouldve had Conan battle the wolves with the chains instead of whine to much and made his sound effects while falling down into the chamber. But the only way to have managed this all back then was through Stop-Motion and Animatronics . I think if Milius put more effort into the movie it couldve been done. I mean just watch the amazing effects of "John Carpenter's THE THING or "RAIDERS OF THE ARK".

Phil Tippet and Rick Baker AND ILM were needed on CONAN, they supposedly had the budget but fuck knows what happened.

The truth is that I like the wy The Cryp scene was filmed, not showing too mch of it -being such a great set- anyway you can feel better than see, and that made the scene work in the mystery way it did. It looked, at least for me, prett convincing. I mean, look at these "indiana" tomb sets we are all use to, they are and look like plastic. And I'm glad the man did not put too much magic on his child, specially in this scene. It made the movie deeper, in my opinion, as what we got is a litle narration about irrational fears, and the reaction of a man in front of death. A pretty poetic scene, in the way of the thoughts of a Reh's Kull: this is my destiny, to become a king, and then, die. What's left? Only ashes, and a crown over a head of old bones. A lot of Reh poetry was into that.

Next, we have Conan in action, like saying, "all right, now is now, i am breathing, i have a way out of this, not the time of dying yet, let's do what I have to".

I like that scene too. it`s very authentic and pretty thrilling, yet there is no action. It´s not that often that you can say this about a scene in a film.
I remember, I even got a bit frightened, when the skeleton started to move.
It´s one of these scenes which don`t loose charisma, no matter how the special effects are developing. The set was just fantastic, pretty dark and intimidating.

I like that Stallone warrior one Torian, its very King Kull like and his scars match the character more so. One of my favorite images is Kull batting the serpent-men in his bed chamber and wiping them off the face of the earth. It wouldve been cool to have Conan discover a Serpent-man's skull in the chamber.. It wouldve also made good reason for Doom to fear Conan, the second coming of Kull-- his arch-nemesis.

Actually one of my thoughts while Watching CONAN was that Doom wanted to stop the production of steel or its secret from gaining widespread usage among the Hyborian peoples. So with Doom possessing the only true Steel sword of the era, that of the father.. Conan discovers another--given to him by his ancestor/god which is the same sword which would defeat him once more.

An interesting thought takes me to another, does Conan know how to make steel? He watched his father doing his job, we can suppose since he was born. He never tried, but surely he remembered the lessons... The question is, why not killing each cimmerian, including the children? Mako gave an explanation, as the riders of doom could not imagine he would survive to mature age.

I suppose if he did, he wouldve saved the sword and reforged the blade. Looked like such a terrible waste breaking the sword and then later dropping the sword after going through all that trouble to repossess it. It also made Conan appear like he gave up being a warrior and had no further purpose after the events of the first movie. If you take only the first movie as being legit, it works out that way. Also much in all the publicity(excluding posters) featured the Father's sword, not the Atlantean, hell the Father's sword is main title trademark too.

Not sure off hand if in the KING CONAN script reviews is there any mention that he makes his own Sword or Battle Axe, I think he has the typical RE Howard of just picking them up on some quest.

I read somewhere, i think in some Milius' interview, that supposedly Conan had a new sword in KING CONAN, some kind of roman spatha.

Keeping the atlantean with him during his whole life has no sense, while being a super-sword capable of breaking the finest cimmerian steel, it's not too realistic that a man who lived so much "high adventures" would not lost it somewhere.

Conan making his own weapons is a nice idea, takes me to the old myths like Sigfrid and so. A lot of symbolism there, -(now it also reminds me the "return of the jedi" where Luck made his own saber, in words of Doom's-Voiced-Vader, that's the time where the warrior's training is completed).

In KING CONAN, I think it was a special Axe, possibly acquired from one of the Frost Giants? Or maybe something Aquilonian, really dont recall at the moment off hand.

My only thoughts on the Atlantean, is that it was made from some unearthly metal like adamantium(I have a theory/thread on it somewhere around here even).
I rather liked the idea of him having one sword, as every hero has one sword. Wonder though of Milius' first script, if there was one sword or two? Early pre-production featured only the one, even right up to some Publicity King Conan shots, they had the Father's sword, never the Atlantean.

I founded the article were Milius talks about the weapons in King Conan.

http://web.archive.org/web/20021005211000/albionarmorers.com/milius1.htm


He said the Atlantean would be the main weapon of the king. But he would also have an Axe in frazetta style. Something like this I suppose:

http://runeusa.com/images/frank_frazetta_deathdealerIII.jpg

He said this axe would be impossible to handle so had to be reduced in size. I guess this would be similar to the King Conan's one:

www.filmswords.com/frazetta/dealeraxe.htm


In some articles around the web they talked about the axe:

Quote :

A specially designed battle-axe dubbed "The Aqualonean Spatha."

WTF?

In Arnoldfans.com they got it right, and there is were I read King Conan would have a new roman sword:

Quote :

The NEW Conan sword is already designed and has a title. Are you ready Conan fans? It’s called... The Aqualonean Spatha!

But this is unsure, what is true is that the Albion guys who built the Conan swords made a roman spatha as a gift to Milius. He owned this sword by the time he finished writting King Conan. Maybe a confusion? Anyway would be nice to see Conan holding a different kind of sword.

Also, Milius mentions a part of the script were King Conan is thinking about teaching to the picts how to make steel.

I really dont see how or why he would need/use a Roman Spatha for when he has the Atlantean sword-- nothing can top that in design and majestic imagery .

That Frazetta axe is nice, but nothing special, his battle axe he used on CTD was excellent and great.

Milius I think was missing some grains there, his wheel was grinding cobwebs.

Conan teaching the Picts blacksmithing is rather dopey, and seems outve LOTR's with the orcs with Saruman cutting down the forests to make weapons of iron from the earth. I am also sure they wouldve picked up on it since the 25-30 years since Conan killed Doom and everyone was using Steel or Wrought Iron in CTB anyhow, even Columbu as the Pictish scout. With Romano-Aquilonians cutting through Hyboria, sure they dont Cimmerians to learn of steel or somehow be threatened by it like star-metal.

https://conancompletist.forumactif.com/conan-the-barbarian-f3/john-milius-interview-fimswords-magazine-2002-t1023.htm

Milius mentions the big aluminum axe in CONAN 3 there.^

Hey Turd, maybe the sword belonged to the giant Gonra of the Sword?

http://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix3/gonraofthesword.htm