Far Horizons: Tales of Sci-Fi, Fantasy and Horror. Issue #15 June 2015 | Page 51

However, the story has an impressive number of ideas
presented in its 105 minute run-time and possesses a
unique vision of the future that demands to be seen.

more mortal. With the collapse of the forcefield, the
Exterminators charge into the Vortex. The most of the
Eternals welcome the death the Exterminators bring,
but Zed finds he has lost his taste for vengeance. He
flees with Consuella to Zardoz, which crashed with
the destruction of the Tabernacle, making it their home
and, decades later, their tomb.

“You must know that you’re mentally and physically vastly superior to me, or to anyone else here. You
could be anything, could do anything. You must be
destroyed.” May (Sara Kestelman)

“I am Arthur Frayn, and I am Zardoz…I present now
my story, full of mystery and intrigue - rich in irony,
and most satirical…I manipulate many of the characters and events you will see. But I am invented, too,
for your entertainment - and amusement. And you,
poor creatures, who conjured you out of the clay? Is
God in show business too?” Arthur Frayn/Zardoz

In the year 2293, civilisation has suffered a catastrophic collapse due to overpopulation and pollution,
resulting in famine and disease. The survivors are divided into three groups: Eternals, a handful of immortals living in forcefield enclosed Edenic oases, called
Vortices; Brutals, who live in primitive squalor in the
wastelands that surround each Vortex; and Exterminators, men who are used by the Eternals to keep the
Brutal population in check. While both Exterminators
and Brutals worship Zardoz as god, only the Exterminators receive weapons and orders from the floating
stone head.
Zed is an Exterminator who infiltrates a Vortex. Zed
knows that he and his fellow Exterminators have been
deceived. Zardoz is not a god. Zed wants revenge for
the lies he has been told. Zed learns that the Vortex is
technologically advanced, but culturally static. Its inhabitants are bored with an existence they cannot end.
When an Eternal dies, their memories are implanted in
a cloned body by the Tabernacle, a computer system
that they cannot control.
While in the Vortex, Zed learns that he is the
end-product part of a multi-generational breeding
program devised by a pair of Eternals, Arthur Frayn
and Friend (John Alderton). They have been trying to
create an ubermensch, combining the mental development of the Eternals with the physical prowess an