Table of contents
1. Arnold Schwarzenegger Trained Like a Real Barbarian for Months 2. James Earl Jones Was Absolutely Terrifying as Thulsa Doom 3. The Movie Was Inspired by More Than Just the Original Conan Stories 4. The Soundtrack Is Considered One of the Greatest Fantasy Scores Ever 5. Real Vultures Were Used During the Tree of Woe Scene 6. Conan's Success Changed What Hollywood Would Risk on Fantasy 7. Arnold Schwarzenegger Still Calls Conan One of His Favorite Roles
Before Arnold Schwarzenegger became the biggest action star on the planet, he swung a sword, crushed villains, and helped create one of the most unforgettable fantasy movies of the 1980s.
Released in 1982, Conan the Barbarian wasn't just another sword-and-sorcery movie. It became a cult classic that helped define the fantasy genre for an entire generation of VHS-loving movie fans. Between Arnold's breakout performance, the brutal action scenes, and that legendary soundtrack, the movie still feels larger than life over 40 years later.
If you remember renting this on a Friday night in 1984 or catching it on late-night cable when you were supposed to be asleep, these behind-the-scenes facts are going to hit different. Packed with nostalgia, weird movie trivia, and enough barbarian energy to make Crom proud.
1. Arnold Schwarzenegger Trained Like a Real Barbarian for Months
Long before Marvel actors transformed for superhero movies, Arnold Schwarzenegger went through intense training to become Conan.
The production team reportedly put Arnold through months of horseback riding, sword fighting, climbing, and endurance training before filming even started. He also had to learn how to fight convincingly with massive weapons that were far heavier than they looked on screen.
According to widely circulated production trivia, Schwarzenegger trained with an 11-pound broadsword for two hours a day over three months.
Director John Milius wanted Conan to feel raw, brutal, and believable instead of polished like traditional Hollywood fantasy heroes. Arnold's bodybuilding background made him perfect for the role, but he still had to adapt to the physically demanding action scenes.
By the time filming started, Schwarzenegger looked less like a bodybuilder and more like a mythological warrior ripped straight from an ancient legend.
2. James Earl Jones Was Absolutely Terrifying as Thulsa Doom
KITT is not just a cool name, it is an acronym. The car’s official title is Knight Industries Two Thousand, a nod to the Knight Foundation that built the car and the futuristic technology powering it.
3. The Movie Was Inspired by More Than Just the Original Conan Stories
Many fans assume the film followed Robert E. Howard's Conan stories exactly, but the movie actually borrowed ideas from several different sources.
Director John Milius mixed elements of mythology, samurai films, Viking stories, spaghetti westerns, and Nietzschean philosophy to create the movie's darker, more serious tone. Milius was openly influenced by Nietzsche's ideas about struggle, power, and the will to survive — and it shows in the way Conan's story is framed less as adventure and more as a mythological ordeal. The film even opens with a Nietzsche title card: "That which does not kill us makes us stronger." It's not window dressing. That philosophy drives the entire movie.
The result was a fantasy film that felt darker, stranger, and more serious than most sword-and-sorcery films of the early 80s — and it helped pave the way for grittier fantasy that followed.
4. The Soundtrack Is Considered One of the Greatest Fantasy Scores Ever
If you've ever watched Conan the Barbarian, you probably remember the music.
Composer Basil Poledouris created an epic orchestral score that became one of the most beloved movie soundtracks of the 1980s. In many scenes, the music carries the emotional weight more than the dialogue itself — and that was intentional.
Arnold Schwarzenegger was still early in his acting career and had a very thick accent, so the movie relied heavily on visual storytelling and music to create emotion and atmosphere. Poledouris delivered something that sounded less like a movie score and more like an ancient war hymn. It gave the film a mythological weight that most fantasy movies never achieve.
Even today, fans still rank it alongside classics like Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and The Lord of the Rings.
5. Real Vultures Were Used During the Tree of Woe Scene
One of the movie's most iconic moments happens when Conan is nailed to the Tree of Woe and left to die in the desert.
To make the scene feel more realistic, the filmmakers used actual vultures. Yes — real vultures. According to production stories, Arnold had to interact with live birds during filming, which made the already brutal scene even more uncomfortable.
The sequence became one of the defining images of 80s fantasy cinema and is still instantly recognizable to longtime fans. It also perfectly captured the movie's harsh survivalist tone — this wasn't a fairy tale. Conan's world was trying to kill him at every turn.
6. Conan's Success Changed What Hollywood Would Risk on Fantasy
Conan the Barbarian didn't just find an audience — it proved something to the studios.
Before 1982, the conventional wisdom was that dark, violent, R-rated fantasy was too niche to justify a serious budget. Conan blew that assumption up. It grossed nearly $70 million worldwide on a $20 million budget, and Hollywood took notice.
The ripple effect was real: studios greenlit sword-and-sorcery projects throughout the mid-80s that never would have gotten made without Conan clearing the path first. Some became cult classics. Most didn't. But the genre existed at that scale because Conan proved the audience was there.
7. Arnold Schwarzenegger Still Calls Conan One of His Favorite Roles
Even after starring in blockbuster hits like The Terminator, Predator, and Total Recall, Conan remains one of the most important roles of Arnold Schwarzenegger's career.
The movie helped transform him from a bodybuilding superstar into a legitimate Hollywood leading man. It introduced audiences to the larger-than-life Arnold persona that would dominate 80s action movies for the next decade.
And honestly? Nobody else could have played Conan the way Arnold did. The physical presence, the intensity, the unforgettable one-liners — it all became part of movie history.
Why Conan the Barbarian Still Rules the 80s Fantasy Genre
More than four decades later, Conan the Barbarian still stands out because it committed fully to its world. The movie feels gritty, dangerous, weird, and epic in a way modern CGI-heavy fantasy films struggle to capture.
Practical effects. Massive sets. Real stunts. Over-the-top action. Unforgettable villains. Iconic music. It's everything that made 80s filmmaking special — and it's all right there in one two-hour movie.
For fans of classic fantasy, it's essential viewing. For 80s nostalgia lovers? Pure barbarian perfection.
The riddle of steel may never truly be solved… but one thing is certain: Conan the Barbarian remains one of the most metal movies the 1980s ever produced.