Synopsis for
Conan the Barbarian (1982) More at IMDbPro »

The opening credits roll as an unseen blacksmith creates a masterwork sword. The sword is completed, and it is clear that the blacksmith is Conan's father (William Smith). Conan's father explains to young Conan (Jorge Sanz) that he should not trust men, woman, or beasts, "But this you can trust," indicating the sword he has crafted.

Cut to Conan's forest village. It is winter, and Conan is still young (8-10 years). Mysterious black riders, bearing a strange standard of a serpent with a head on each end surmounted by a black sun and moon suddenly and savagely attack the village. The villagers fight bravely, but they are not soldiers, and do not last long. Conan's father kills several of the attackers, but eventually succumbs himself.

As the brutal attack winds down, Conan's mother (Nadiuska) is the only adult still alive. She stands guard over Conan with the beautiful sword her dead husband crafted holding the little boy's hand. The leader of the attackers, Thulsa Doom (James Earl Jones), a mysterious black man with straight hair and piercing blue eyes, approaches the pair and suddenly wheels and decapitates Conan's mother. A grief stricken and terrified Conan watches as Thulsa Doom takes the sword his father made.

Conan and the village children, the only survivors, are led away in chains as slaves while their village burns.

Conan and some of the children are sold to a yound red-haired man, and join other children at a gigantic outdoor grain mill, called the wheel of pain. They begin pushing the spokes of the wheel, and time passes quickly. The child Conan becomes an adult (Schwarzenegger), and the camera pans out to show that he is now the only person pushing the wheel. Conan is now enormous.

The red-haired man seemingly decides the almost deserted wheel is wasting Conan's talents, and brings him to his gladiator complex.