While not a real weapon like the Honjo Masamune, the Atlantean Sword is an icon of Hollywood; a brutish, muscular piece of cutlery befitting its wielder—Conan the Cimmerian. I love this sword and I can draw it, or at least one of the version, the seond one, from memory as you can see above (not a great sketch by any means, but this is a doodle from a notebook I carry with me in to jails and prisons to kill the time while waiting for clients). It deserves a deep dive. The story behind the sword is almost as good as the movies it comes from—Conan the Barbarian (CTB) and Conan the Destroyer (CTD).
If you are a person of certain age, let’s say between 55 and 40 (in 2024) and you like edged weapons you probably know what I am talking about just by the phrase above. Few movie props are more crucial to a story than this sword, maybe Narsil/Anduril, but the Atlantean Sword is a bit different because it was made by one of the most talented custom makers ever to craft a sharpened blade, Jody Sampson. The sword was so critical to the movie that the opening credits start with it being forged. You see the sword before you see Arnold. That should tell you who the real star of the movie is. The story of this prop is just incredible and so I wanted to do a deep dive and share some cool facts.
This article was inspired by a story told on Mark of the Maker by Andrew Bawidiman and by the recent passing of the great James Earl Jones (great bit: James Earl Jones doing a Letterman Top 10, my favorite is number 2). Coincidentally, after listening to the episode I realized that Andrew went to my high school and was a year ahead of me. Small world. Before reading this post, go listen to that episode, which can be found here. And, if by some odd chance you have never seen Conan, may as well go do that too. There is a functional, highly authentic version of the sword (really the sword from CTD, more on that later) found here for a staggering $3,200. I can’t vouch for the quality but it is clearly not a United Cutlery POS. More on it below..
I haven’t seen either of the Conan movies. My favorite Schwarzenegger movies are Commando and Predator, with an honorable mention to True Lies. But of course these don’t have James Earl Jones.
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