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".



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."



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."



Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sandahl Bergman did their own stunts, as suitable body doubles couldn't be found.



To give the characters' costumes a more authentic and "lived-in" look, Dino De Laurentiis had the cast members wear their costumes both during rehearsals and the actual scene shoots.



Arnold Schwarzenegger had to tone down his workout, as his arm/chest muscles were so big that he couldn't wield a sword properly.



The swordmaster was played by Kiyoshi Yamasaki, swordmaster for the actors in the film.



The fake blood used in the film came in the form of a concentrate, which had to be mixed with water prior to use. Due to the cold weather, it was mixed with vodka (as an anti-freeze) instead. In the scenes in which the actors were supposed to spit the blood, they would swallow it instead, then go back to the special effects man for more.



The script called for Conan to throw a torch into the palace's central window/balcony. Schwarzenegger missed on the first attempt, but no retake was possible as the set proceeded to burn to the ground, as intended.



There is an enduring 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). The legend is most likely false though since the first He-man action figures were published in 1981.



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."



During the scene when Thulsa Doom (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.



Thulsa Doom and his warriors are patterned after the Teutonic knights from Aleksandr Nevskiy (1938). The similarities between the two are very striking. From the helmets, body armor, weapons and mannerisms. Thulsa Doom's even has the same pageboy haircut has the Teutonic Knight's commander. Milius even went on to use the same Prokiev score for the work prints and pre-release trailers while Poledouris's score was still being worked on.



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 symbol, a small man whose arms

Continuity

(at around 1h 5 mins) When Conan leaves the wizard to go to the mountain on the camel, he carries a bunch of purple flowers. By the time he reaches the mountain, the flowers are white.

(at around 1h 30 mins) During the battle at the orgy, the camouflage body paint on the three warriors keeps changing patterns and alternating between fresh and dull.

(at around 10 mins) Conan's mother is pointing the sword at the attackers' leader with both hands on the hilt. We cuts to a shot of Conan standing beside her holding her hand, then back to her with both hands on the hilt.

When the trio prepares to invade Doom's mountain, they camouflage themselves with 'war paint' (but Rexor recognizes Conan anyway), with black 'slashes' across their faces and torsos. Subotai adds cream-colored paint between his black marks, and Valeria applies it under Conan's left eye. But once inside, no one has cream paint--only black slashes and natural flesh colors. Strangely, it reappears later at 01:41:25, after Valeria has been shot with the snake arrow.

(at around 1h 50 mins) When the princess is chained to the rock, the clasps around her wrist keep changing shapes. Either way, she could easily slip her hands through them at any time.



Factual errors

At the intro to the film, Conan's sword is shown being cast. Swords and knives are always forged. A cast sword or knife, would have limited strength, be difficult to sharpen, and would crack or shatter easily.



Incorrectly regarded as goofs

(at around 3 mins) During the opening scene after Conan's father is finished forging his sword, Arnold Schwarzenegger's arms are shown sharpening the sword with a stone. That's not a sequential scene. That's a flash forward (prolepsis).

(at around 1h 35 mins) During the Orgy fight, one of the pillars has a crack visible before the warrior breaks it with his war-hammer. The pillar is initially cracked by the giant soup pot that Conan rolls down the steps.

(at around 1h 30 mins) While sneaking into the orgy, Valeria slowly and quietly makes her way over a low ledge on her way to the main area of the cave. At one point, her foot kicks a set of large hanging chains, causing them to swing. In the very next shot of her, presumably after only mere seconds of a cutaway shot, she is in the same position as last we saw her, but the chains are completely still.



Revealing mistakes

(at around 1h 30 mins) During the battle at the orgy, Conan slashes a guard across his chest. The actor, with his back to the camera, may be throwing fake blood on himself as he falls.

(at around 1h 30 mins) During the fight at the orgy, Conan appears to strike a guard with the pommel (hilt) of his sword. The strike clearly misses, but the guard reacts as if it connected.

When escaping the temple (at about 1 hour 37 minutes and 57 sec.), Valeria's shadow on the left side of the cave is not in sync with her movements. Also, when the other characters run past this same spot, their shadows do not appear on the wall to the left as they run past. With the way the lighting is in the cave, a stand-in must have been positioned for Valeria near an unseen light to project this shadow.

During the escape at 1:36:50 -the camera is being jostled right and left.

Set in a primitive era, thousands of years before the rise of the known ancient civilizations, the women have shaved legs and armpits.



Anachronisms

When waiting for the final battle, Conan awaits Doom's army on a hilltop at 1:46:00. Just to the left of Conan on the horizon is a telephone pole in the distance, almost lost in the grain of the film. When he moves further left, you can see more poles appear to the left of his head when the camera moves. If they are barely made out in the distance, identifying them as telephone poles is questionable. They may be dead trees or poles waiting for Doom to mount heads on.

During a battle, the archers get the command to "fire". That is a modern term, typically used for firearms, which do not exist in the barbarian age. For an archer, the command would be "release" or "loose".



Audio/visual unsynchronized

At the end of the film the text crawl appears to be a transcript of what the Wizard / Chronicler is saying, but the last sentence of the text reads "but that is another story," although he actually says "this story shall also be told."



Crew or equipment visible

(at around 29 mins) When Conan emerges from the crypt and cuts his leg irons, a hand can be seen reaching up to snatch the chain out of the way. (No hand can be seen on the R2 DVD special edition.)

When Valeria uses the guard as a counter-weight to pull her to the top of the tower on the rope, she has a black safety line attached to her body.

At around 1:55:08, you can see a director (maybe John Milius) standing right next to Thulsa Doom, waiving his right hand in direction to the actor walking up the stairs (priest).



Plot holes

It is unclear: just how does one "nock" a snake in order to shoot it as an arrow.