| Multiple Mirror Effects in Movies | ||
Zardoz (1974) |
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| Spoiler Alert ! Some of these pictures and descriptions may give away plot details that you might not want to know before watching the film. |
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In the post-apocalyptic world of 2293, a highly-evolved race known as the Eternals who can never die live in the Vortex which is sealed off by force fields to protect them from the Brutals, poor disadvantaged mortals who are used as slaves for the Eternals. The Eternals control the population of the Brutals with a giant flying stone God known as Zardoz. Zardoz gives guns to religious zealots called Exterminators. Their job is to kill any people they encounter. Zardoz is actually controlled by an Eternal known as Arthur Frayn, whose secret project is to selectively breed superior Exterminators, then educate one of them, so he can be used to destroy the Eternals. The educated Exterminator, named Zed (Sean Connery), eventually learns the truth about Zardoz and sneaks into the Vortex to destroy the Eternals. The Eternals call him a monster and keep him in a cage overnight. During dinner on a large mirrored table one day, a psychic Eternal woman says "The monster is a mirror." Long before Zed goes into the house of mirrors one of the Eternals takes him into a pyramid made of mirrors with more mirrors inside of it where she studies Zed's DNA and discovers that due to Frayn's manipulation of his ancestors he is an advanced mutant, mentally and physically vastly superior to the Eternals, but still mortal. Like most of the Eternals, she wants to die, so she teaches Zed all of the knowledge held by the Eternals so he can find a way to destroy the Tabernacle, the artificial intelligence that controls the Vortex and heals or animates the Eternals when they are injured or killed. Another Eternal calls him "the One, the Liberator." Eventually Zed takes possession of a giant diamond crystal and figures out that it contains the Tabernacle, then he has a conversation with it. The Tabernacle knows that Zed is trying to destroy it, so it traps him inside the center of the crystal, which looks like a large house of mirrors. Zed runs back an forth calling out for the Tabernacle and seeing all sorts of reflections of himself and of some of the Eternals, who are screaming in agony. Zed shoots his pistol then the Tabernacle tells him "You have destroyed us. You found the flaw in the crystal. We are gone. You are alone." Zed then shoots and kills an image of himself in his Exterminator mask, and he is found sitting in the same place he was before he was trapped. Like most mirror rooms, this one shows up in the climax near the end of the movie, beginning at about 1:30:45. |
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