Conan The Barbarian (2011)
Many years ago, sorcerers crafted the Mask of Acheron and dark forces of Acheron conquered the world. However, the barbarians vanquished Acheron warriors and broke the Mask into pieces and divided among the tribes. The barbarian Cimmerian village of chief Corin is attacked by the evil warlord Khalar Zym that wants the last piece of bone of the Mask of Acheron to resurrect his wife. When his witch daughter Marique finds the hidden piece, he slaughters the villagers and the Corin's son Conan is the only survivor. Conan swears revenge against Khalar Zym. Years later, the warrior Conan is a pirate and he decides to release slaves from a field. When he is celebrating in a tavern with his friends, he sees a thief being chased by a guard and Conan recognizes him as Lucius, the Khalar Zym's soldier that he cut the nose out. Conan let the guards capture him and once in the prison, he forces Lucius to tell him where Khalar Zym is. Meanwhile Khalar Zym attacks a monastery where Marique believes that a pure-blood descent of Acheron lives. But the monk sent the descent Tamara back to her homeland. She is chased by Khalar Zym's soldiers, but Conan saves her. Now Conan intends to use Tamara to reach the evil Khalar Zym. Will he succeed in his intent?
Enter An Age Undreamed Of
Conan: I live, I love, I slay, and I am content.
Pernik, Bulgaria
Bolata, Dobrich, Bulgaria
Blue Grotto, Zurrieq, Malta
(sea side)
New Boyana Film Studios, Sofia, Bulgaria
Jason Momoa enrolled in an intense six-week training program at a stunt and martial arts academy in Los Angeles for his part while still finalizing negotiations for the film.
Jason Momoa is by his own admission afraid of horses, so all his horse riding scenes had to either be faked or filmed with doubles.
Dolph Lundgren, then Mickey Rourke, were in talks to play Corin, Conan's father, but Rourke turned it down to do Immortals (2011) before Ron Perlman was cast.
While in pre-production, Conan was a temporary title for the film, until it was changed to Conan 3D. Finally, early in December 2010, the title was changed to Conan the Barbarian, the same as the 1982 film.
The $90 million budget was almost double that of the original Conan the Barbarian (1982) when adjusted for inflation (?46.6m in 2011), but recouped less than 23% of its predecessor's inflation-adjusted take during its theatrical run.
Continuity
(at around 1h 11 mins) The fight on the ship starts out at night but finishes in daylight.
(at around 45 mins) During the chase scene, just after Tamara disconnects the coach she was riding from the horses that she is now riding, you see the coach tip forward, roll, and shatter apart. In the next shot, the coach is whole again and lands on the front and shatters for a second time.
(at around 31 mins) When Ela Shan, the escaped prisoner, first appears at the bar and sits down to hide, he puts his right hand up to obscure his face with no manacle present; subsequently, when Conan goes to arm wrestle him with his right arm, he has a manacle on his wrist.
In the opening scene, the baby's umbilical cord disappears.
(at around 46 mins) During the chase scene when Tamara flees the temple, Conan's sword repeatedly disappears and reappears in between shots as he pursues Remo.
Factual errors
(at around 58 mins) Shortly after Conan kidnaps Tamara, he puts her on the back of his horse with her hands tied behind her back. Riding like this would be impractical to the point of impossible. Assuming she didn't immediately fall off and break her neck, she'd be in unbearable agony within minutes of bouncing around in that position.
Revealing mistakes
Set in a primitive era thousands of years before the rise of the known ancient civilizations, the women have shaved legs and armpits.
(at around 1h 35 mins) In the climax when Khalar Zym and Conan are fighting, Conan hits Zym on his face with the back of his sword and he bleeds. Then Zym is shown with no blood on his face, but in the subsequent scene the blood is back on his face.
(at around 1h 35 mins) During the final battle, Conan's sword is pressed up against his arm yet it doesn't cut him at all.
When Conan and Tamara are waiting for Khalar Zym at the Outpost of Shaipur, the face of Tamara's stand-in can be seen in two blurred shots.
(at around 1h 30 mins) During the fight with Zym, Conan falls backwards onto an obviously rubber rock.
Crew or equipment visible
(at around 1h 12 mins) During the fight on the ship, Conan is thrown back onto a raised platform in the cargo hold. When his legs fly up, you can see the rubber soles of the athletic shoes built into his leggings.
Plot holes
(at around 1h 17 mins) When Tamara is ambushed by Zim's men in the forest, she does not notice the first rider until he is only a few yards from her, despite having a very clear line of sight for a few hundred yards in every direction and despite there being no noise louder than birdsong to mask the thundering hooves of a galloping horse. Similarly, the foot soldiers were quite clearly not lying in wait - the trees in the forest are too skinny for them to have hidden behind and there is no other cover around - yet they are upon Tamara within a couple of seconds of the horseman attacking.
(at around 1h 17 mins) With no apparent way of knowing where Conan's ship has laid anchor, and with no way of knowing that Tamara would be on land with Conan and not still aboard the ship, Zim's soldiers nevertheless are able to set up a perfect ambush to try and capture Tamara after she leaves Conan's chamber and wanders through the forest.