The Conan Completist

SOURCES: David Anthony Kraft, Envisaged, Howling Metal.
AUDIO COMMENTARY: Not.
NOVELIZATION: Yes.
COMIC BOOK: Yes.
FILMED?: Yes.
EXTRAS LAST UPDATE: ---

Whoever likes deleted scenes can find informations at multiple sources: production illustrations, successive drafts of the script, storyboards, production stills and lobby cards, behind-the-scenes footage, novelization, comic book film adaptation, DVD extras, etc. One can add to this small list the movie trailers, which often contain all kind of interesting never-before-seen shots.[1] That is precisely the case of the CONAN, THE BARBARIAN theatrical trailer (at least, the first one of the two that are included on the Collector's Edition DVD).[2]

One can indeed discover in this trailer various shots coming from the sacrificial pit scene, notably absent in the film. In one of them, Subotai says "Kill!" when he emerges from a tunnel. In another one, Conan does not notice the giant snake which rises behind him and opens its mouth wide.

It seems that Milius filmed several versions of the reptile attack. In the film, Conan turns round on his own initiative, alerted by some kind of sixth sense, and strikes the animal using his dagger.[3] Then Subotai arrives and freezes, horrified. The "new" shots seen in the trailer obviously come from an alternate version of this same scene, in which it is Subotai who warns Conan of the danger which threatens him.

One can suspect that many other shots, filmed for the needs of this sequence, were finally not included in the movie.

Schwarzenegger: "All had to be done step by step. (...) And, during the fight itself, I had to redo certain moves again many times. But it was really important to stage the fight, because there were many adjustments for each phase of it. It was also constantly necessary to go back and check the continuity before beginning a new phase." "

On some of the set photos, Conan does not impale the jaw of the snake from the bottom, as one can see him doing in the film, but directly strikes his long blade dagger right into the menacing mouth.

Of course, it is obvious that all filmed material cannot appear in the final cut. There is no question of trying here to vainly compile each and every take that Milius shot, but rather to consider the final scene in another form. For example, if one wants to believe various interviews from Ron Cobb and Arnold Schwarzenegger, the mechanical snake built by Nick Allder was capable of many more prowesses than what he is seen doing in the film:

Cobb: "Nick really wanted to create the very first believable giant movie snake, so he really worked like a dog on it. (...) He designed a hydraulic actuating cylinder (...) which could easily exert a push of 90 tons and raise Arnold from the ground!"

Schwarzenegger: "The fight took five days to film. And not only this cursed machine was heavy, but it could at will project me in the air. From time to time, controls were put out of order. (...) And other times, John disturbed them as the fancy took him. (...) And all of a sudden, I found myself in the sky, hauled up by the tail of the animal, propelled in the air without knowing what was going on."[4]

The extremely bloody aspect of the fight was perhaps also softened, following the censorship problems with the MPAA:

Cobb: "We were all under the scaffolding and the scene started. At the time of the slaughter, we heard a sword whistle, and suddenly, an enormous quantity of blood started to rain on us. It was like being under a fire hydrant! Blood streamed everywhere, on the crew, on our heads, and that lasted at least for five minutes."

Schwarzenegger: "When this scene was finished, I was really relieved. During days, I had to wade in blood, slaver and bowels. Urgh!"

ConanCompletist 2004