Film

Zardoz

Zardoz is a 1974 sci-fi provocation that looks like nothing else: Sean Connery in a red speedo climbing out of a giant flying stone head, into a world of immortal aesthetes. It's genuinely weird, visually audacious, sometimes brilliant, sometimes baffling—the kind of film that makes you argue about it for hours afterward. For viewers hungry for something that swings for the fences.

TMDb rating3.0

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you enjoy strange, visually audacious science fiction where ideas about immortality and power matter more than tidy plotting, and you don't mind a film that feels like a fever dream from 1974.

Skip it if you need brisk pacing and clear logic, since much of the film is talky, slow and deliberately odd, and its costumes and staging can feel more curious than convincing.

What it asks of you: It runs about 106 minutes but feels longer, asking patience for long stretches of static, symbolic scenes and a tolerance for its unusual, sometimes abrupt tonal shifts.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Barbarella1968

Campy, visually inventive space opera with a similar blend of eroticism and cosmic silliness. Jane Fonda in a spacesuit fighting monsters with style and sex appeal. Pure fun and gorgeously artificial.

But The tone is lighter and more playful than Zardoz. If you're after philosophical depth, this goes for laughs instead.

Barbarella poster

A Clockwork Orange1971

Kubrick's provocative dystopia shares Zardoz's fascination with violence, control, and the morality of civilization. Equally controversial, equally committed to unsettling you and making you think.

But Extremely graphic and brutal. The rape scenes are not simulated. It's a hard watch, and some find it exploitative rather than illuminating.

A Clockwork Orange poster

The Fifth Element1997

Luc Besson's maximalist space opera channels some of Zardoz's garish, maximalist aesthetic and its concern with immortal beings and human purpose. Gorgeous production design, absurdist humor, genuine stakes.

But Tonally it's much lighter and more conventional. If you loved Zardoz's opacity and refusal to comfort you, this is too straightforward.

The Fifth Element poster

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Zardoz

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Mulholland Drive2001

Both films privilege atmosphere and visual symbolism over explanation. Both use eroticism and the female body as a locus of power and danger. Both refuse conventional three-act structure.

Lynch's fractured Los Angeles nightmare shares Zardoz's commitment to visual language over plot clarity. It's about desire, identity, and the gap between reality and fantasy. Hypnotic, heartbreaking, genuinely alarming.

But Deliberately unresolved and cryptic. The narrative actively resists interpretation. Some find it pretentious; others find the sadism toward its characters cold.

Mulholland Drive poster
More like this (7)

Flash Gordon1980

Pure pulp sci-fi with a camp sensibility and stunning visual style. It knows what it is and leans into the absurdity. Queen soundtrack. Space tyrants. Ridiculous and thrilling.

But It's fun kitsch rather than challenging. Lacks Zardoz's ambition to say something about civilization and desire.

Flash Gordon poster

Stalker1979

Tarkovsky's meditative sci-fi explores desire and meaning in a mysterious zone. Slow, hypnotic, philosophically rigorous. If Zardoz made you think about immortality and boredom, this will destroy you.

But Glacially paced. Nearly three hours of quiet contemplation. Demands active engagement; passivity will bore you to tears.

Stalker poster

Solaris1972

Another Tarkovsky masterpiece about consciousness, memory, and the limits of understanding. A woman appears on a space station. Nothing is explained. The film trusts your intelligence completely.

But Slow, philosophical, very Russian. Long static shots of landscapes. If you want plot momentum, look elsewhere.

Solaris poster

Videodrome1983

Cronenberg's reality-bending horror about media, desire, and bodily mutation. Like Zardoz, it's genuinely disorienting and asks uncomfortable questions about what we watch and why.

But Deeply gross and body-horror heavy. The narrative becomes deliberately incoherent. Not for viewers who need things to make literal sense.

Videodrome poster

The Holy Mountain1973

Jodorowsky's surrealist masterpiece is similarly uncompromising in its refusal to explain itself. Transgressive, visual, symbolic, with similar 70s weirdness. A genuine trip.

But Extremely graphic violence and sexual content. Deliberately obscure symbolism. This is not a film that wants to please you.

The Holy Mountain poster

Fantastic Voyage1966

A straightforward, colorful sci-fi adventure about a team shrunk down to explore a scientist's body. Fun design work, genuine suspense, and a simpler take on the 'journey into unknown worlds' premise.

But It's conventional and earnest. Lacks Zardoz's conceptual ambition and weird eroticism. Sometimes feels quaint.

Fantastic Voyage poster

Phantom of the Paradise1974

Both films center immortal or ageless figures who lord over communities and bend others to their will. Both use visual excess and artifice as moral language, not decoration.

Brian De Palma's glam rock horror opera came out the same year as Zardoz—both films are about power, immortality through art, and the twisted immortals who hold sway over lesser beings. A theatrical masterpiece with genuine menace and style.

But A horror-musical-melodrama hybrid that doesn't fit genre expectations. The tone is operatic and heightened. Some find it overwrought.

Phantom of the Paradise poster

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Recommended by

Barbarella, Soylent Green, Logan's Run, Robot Monster, Dune, Sleeper, Battlefield Earth, Caveman, Damnation Alley, Escape from the Planet of the Apes, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, Creatures the World Forgot, Hell Comes to Frogtown, War of the Planets, The Man in the Iron Mask, Message from Space, The Shape of Things to Come, Highlander II: The Quickening, Z.P.G., Ravagers, Battletruck