Conan the Destroyer (1984)
Trivia
The production had a hard time finding a horse for Wilt Chamberlain to ride. He was so tall that his feet touched the ground. They ultimately found one in Spain that was big enough and imported it to Mexico.
Wilt Chamberlain and Grace Jones didn't get along on set. Chamberlain had to keep asking Jones to turn down her boom box.
John Milius, the director of Conan the Barbarian (1982) was unavailable to direct this film. The studio took a more active role than they had on the first film, which led to some serious mistakes, according to Schwarzenegger in his latest autobiography. After the phenomenon of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), Universal thought this film would make more money if it were family entertainment. Schwarzenegger argued against this change but they overruled him. Director Richard Fleischer agreed with Schwarzenegger, but complied with Universal's wishes to make this sequel more like a comic book. Although it out-grossed the first movie, it didn't do as well in the US, because it was more family-friendly, just as Schwarzenegger and Fleischer feared. He later expressed the same fears in Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) when the Terminator was forbidden from killing anyone. Both Schwarzenegger and Dino De Laurentiis washed their hands of the series, with Schwarzenegger opting to only do contemporary movies from now on.
Grace Jones put two stuntmen in the hospital by accident with a fighting stick; she trained for 18 months to prepare for the film.
Wilt Chamberlain and Grace Jones did 90 percent of their own stunts.
Just like his character, Wilt Chamberlain was very protective of the young Olivia d'Abo on set. He told her if anyone gave her a hard time, "Wilt will take care of it."
Some scenes were filmed in the same location and at the same time as scenes from Dune (1984).
Arnold Schwarzenegger was set to return once again as Conan for the spin-off film Red Sonja (1985) and the abandoned third instalment "Conan the Conqueror". However, in 2014 Schwarzenegger announced he was finally going to return as Conan for the first time in 30 years in "The Legend of Conan", which is rumoured to take place many years after Conan the Barbarian (1982) and it will ignore this film as if it never happened.
Writers Roy Thomas and Gerry Conway, who wrote the original story treatment for this movie, were deeply displeased by the final screenplay by Stanley Mann and the finished film, so they made their story into the graphic novel "Conan: The Horn of Azoth", published in 1990, with art by Michael Docherty. The names of the characters were changed to untie the graphic novel from the movie: Dagoth became Azoth, Jehnna became Natari, Zula became Shumballa, Bombaata became Strabo, Toth-Amon became Rammon, and the characters of Queen Taramis and The Leader were combined into sorcerer Karanthes, father of Natari.
Richard Fleischer's one complaint about the first movie was that Arnold Schwarzenegger's body was too clothed. For the sequel, he says, "I made sure that Arnold was undressed 99 percent of the time."
Offscreen, Arnold Schwarzenegger taught Olivia d'Abo how to defend herself.
Roger Donaldson was originally chosen to direct but producer Dino De Laurentiis moved him over to The Bounty (1984). John Milius recommended Richard Fleischer who had worked with De Laurentiis before, and who had directed The Vikings (1958), one of Milius' favourite movies.
Wilt Chamberlain was late to production because he was a last-minute replacement for another actor.
Arnold Schwarzenegger found the script too childish. He tried to convince producers to make a more serious movie but failed, and was unhappy with the result This is one of the reasons that a third film did not follow this sequel, as he lost interest in Conan.
Grace Jones threw a party to commemorate her casting and served steak tartare. She says, "Zula was purely primal in Conan. So I felt we should all eat raw meat."
To create the hilltop city of Shadizar, the crew built a tiny model and placed it in front of the camera. The model is known as a foreground miniature.
Arnold Schwarzenegger's commitment to this movie delayed production on his next movie, The Terminator (1984). However, this turned out to be a blessing in disguise: it allowed writer/director James Cameron to write additional drafts of his Terminator screenplay, which became a critical and financial success. The delay also gave Cameron time to write Aliens (1986), which he was also allowed to direct on the strength of The Terminator's success. The consolidation of Cameron's career led to his and Schwarzenegger's teamup for Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), which arguably promoted both men into super-stardom.
To create the illusion of cold breath, the actors put dry ice in their mouths. Because dry ice is dangerous to touch, little mesh Cage's were made to hold it safely.
The sequence which Conan fights Thoth-Amon/monster in the chamber of mirrors was influenced by the famous hall-of-mirrors final battle between Lee and Han in Enter the Dragon (1973), where Lee smashed the mirrors to foil Han's illusions, allowing him to defeat Han. Conan defeats Thoth-Amon/monster by breaking all the mirrors.
Olivia d'Abo says she learned to scream better thanks to this movie.
The part of Malak was originally assigned to David L. Lander. Due to both his deteriorating health from the onset of Multiple Sclerosis, and difficulties with the director, Lander was let go, and the part was recast with Tracey Walter.
During his lifetime, Wilt Chamberlain claimed sexual encounters with over 20,000 women. Ironically, in this movie Queen Taramis charges Chamberlain's character Bombaata with protecting Princess Jehnna's virginity.
Arnold Schwarzenegger, with the help of Will Hatty, put on an extra 5 kilograms (10 pounds), at Richard Fleischer's request, to play Conan in this film.
At the time, Olivia d'Abo didn't realise there was someone inside the monster costume.
Many believe this was the film debut of Olivia d'Abo, but she said herself that she made Bolero (1984) before this one and both were released the same year. Her role in Bolero is more controversial and remembered because she appeared fully nude even though she was only 14 at the time.
Roy Thomas conceived the character of Zula as a black male warrior. Zula is an actual African male name since people from the Black Kingdoms are supposed to be the ancestors of Black Africans. Producers thought the character was female because the name ended in "A", contacted Grace Jones and designed costumes for her. When Roy Thomas noticed the mistake they did, it was too late and due to budget restrictions and the signed contract with Grace Jones, he was forced to adapt the script to change the gender of the character.
Maria Shriver visited the set and rode with Arnold Schwarzenegger up into the mountains on horses where they had a picnic.
Olivia d'Abo won a Golden Raspberry for worst actress of the year for this and Bolero (1984) the same year.
A deleted scene exists in which Sarah Douglas' Queen Taramis seduces Arnold Schwarzenegger's Conan before she sends him on his journey. This was deleted to ensure the PG rating the film was intended to have.
Malak the cowardly thief was a nod to the character of Vila Restal from Blake's 7 (1978).
Spoilers
When Bombatta and Zula are fighting, Grace Jones actually bit Wilt Chamberlain's ear - that is real blood running down his neck. The shocked look on Wilt's face is genuine. This was Jones's first movie role and she had never done stunts before.
Conan is seen in an epilogue sitting on a king's throne many years after the events of this film. He is decorated as such and has by his side two weapons, a spear/staff and a sword. The sword is not the Atlantean sword he discovered in the first film, which he uses throughout out that film and this one. It is in fact the sword being made by his father in the prologue of Conan the Barbarian (1982), intended to be given to Conan but stolen after his parents were killed. The sword was rediscovered and broken by Conan himself during a duel many years later, and the broken sword was used to behead Thulsa Doom, who was responsible for the deaths of Conan's family. The sword was then discarded and left to burn along with the ruins of Thulsa Doom's castle and was never seen again.
