Zardoz is a 1974 science fiction film written, produced, and directed by John Boorman. It stars Sean Connery, Charlotte Rampling, and Sara Kestelman. Zardoz was Connery's second post-James Bond role (after The Offence). The film was shot by cinematographer Geoffrey Unsworth on a budget of US$1 million.

In the distant future Earth is divided into two camps, the barely civilized group and the overly civilized one with mental powers. A plague is attacking the second group after which it's members cease to have any interest in life and become nearly catatonic. When Sean Connery one of the barbarians, crosses over, the tenuous balance in their world is threatened. Written by John Vogel

Brutals are told that when they die they will go to the vortex, where the Eternals live immortally. Zed, an Exterminator-class brutal who worships the stone head Zardoz, comes upon an old library where a mysterious stranger teaches him how to read. When he finds a copy of a well known book, he sets out to learn the secret of the god he worships, and disrupts life in the vortex. Written by Scott Hutchins

Zed is a exterminator, a savage warrior living in a post-apocalyptic future world. Like all exterminators, Zed worships a stone head called Zardoz as a god. Zardoz promises all those who worship that when they die, they will go to the Vortex, a community inhabited by immortal men and women. Zed finds himself in Zardoz's mouth and Zardoz arrives in the Vortex. Zed's arrival in the Vortex begins to cause disruption, as Zed sets out to discover the secrets of Zardoz. Where Zed encounters a stranger named Arthur Frayn in a library and Arthur teaches Zed to read and reveals Zardoz's secrets, which could bring about the fall of all life in The Vortex and lead Zed to giving the immortals, the gift of death. Written by Daniel Williamson