I guess the Krull cyclops is a fantasy standard now?

Willie the Duck · 2026-03-12T12:18:05+0000

Deset Gled said:
So, I guess Rell the Cyclops from Krull is a bit of a fantasy standard now? Have you seen this cyclops anywhere else in the wild? Any other random places Krull has popped up? The only other random Krull reference I can think of off the top of my head is a monkey in the Balloons Tower Defence phone/flash games that wields a Glaive (not a glaive).

Umbran said:
I don't think that follows. One makeup person referencing an older work does not a "standard" make.

So here's where I think I stand on this (kind of thing) --
Krull is not a masterpiece. It is, however, not a B-movie. Nothing Roger Corman, no 'Attack of the Killer ______' or 'The ______ from Outer Space.' In the pre-Peter Jackson LotR world, it was the equivalent of fantasy being taken seriously. Therefore it has a lot of love in certain places. Particularly amongst people who grew up to make movies today. It is no surprise that those people pay homage to it. Same as how every third animated series has a Rankin/Bass Christmas special homage in their holiday episode. That does not make these things 'big deals' or 'standards' in any particular way beyond that. Most cyclops I see today are probably in RPGs, computer games, and fantasy themed board games or the like, and I certainly haven't seen a whole lot of Krull-style homages.

cbwjm said:
I guess all of these people had to start somewhere, I think I just have a set decade where I know them from and so get surprised when I see them (or hear about them being in) something from before that time.

Oh for sure. Many of them seem to have shown up in Excalibur, Dune, or I, Claudius. Though always fun to see something like a pre-TNG Patrick Stewart in Lifeforce or the like (that's why people watch that movie, right?).

Ralif Redhammer · 2026-03-12T13:54:18+0000

Krull was a formative movie for a lot of people. I'm not surprised that there are now adults in creative positions that will sneak in a Krull reference.

Rell's death was particularly gruesome for an 80s fantasy flick. File it next to Artax's death in the Neverending Story.

Deset Gled said:
Rell is seen here with a young Liam Neeson:

View attachment 431697

One of the few times the 6'4" Neeson looked short. Bresslaw was only three inches taller, but I assume there was some cinematic trickery at work as well.

Deset Gled said:
Some folks may also be aware of a small movie from 2009 called Gentleman Broncos. It's a comedy about a guy whose work is stolen by a big name author. The movie-within-a-movie gave us this hilarious scene:

Gentleman Broncos is a solid movie. Quirky and funny.

Dire Bare · 2026-03-12T14:27:06+0000

Paul Farquhar said:
. . .the error in the Fallout cgi cyclops was not to do that.

Error or choice?

The cyclops mutant in Fallout was designed to be a bit silly, IMO.

Sacrosanct · 2026-03-12T14:39:20+0000

Aeson said:
View attachment 431748
And the movie Next of Kin with Patrick Swayze and Bill Paxton. If you haven't seen it, drop everything and watch it. This movie is jam packed with "he/she was in this?"

It's a good movie too.

Deset Gled · 2026-03-12T15:34:29+0000

Ralif Redhammer said:
Gentleman Broncos is a solid movie. Quirky and funny.

Dangit, that's a typo on my part. Gentlemen Broncos. Ah well, I'll go fix it.

Velderan · 2026-03-12T15:52:53+0000

Artamo said:
Even better, people forget that Liam Neeson was in Excalibur too. The guy’s been around a long time before he hit it big!

Fine, twist my arm! You win! I'll watch it again this weekend!

Mad_Jack · 2026-03-12T16:57:02+0000

Sacrosanct said:
And of course all based off of Polyphemus

View attachment 431724

For a Halloween costume/cosplay character, I created a new member of Clive Barker's Nightbreed named Eyesaac who had clairvoyance and other psychic abilities he used by opening the third eye in his forehead...
I made myself a prosthetic third eye using one of the spherical caps from a small shampoo bottle that was exactly the size of an eyeball. I designed it so that the eye was only partially open when my forehead was resting, but I could open and close it by raising and lowering my eyebrows...

Deset Gled said:
Robbie Coltrane (Hagrid) was, too.

Sacrosanct said:
And Alun Armstrong! And Freddie Jones (although he already had a well established career by then).

And Lysette Anthony, Francesca Annis and Belinda Mayne... <drool>

Benjamin Olson · 2026-03-12T22:58:35+0000

I think in the case of Gentleman Broncos the creators don't really want to say it's a Krull homage, because the scene in question is the villain's lame stolen version of the protagonist's novel (or really, more precisely if I recall, what the protagonist imagines when he reads the villain's rip-off version of his work). While it tracks that it would involve a rip-off conception of cyclopes, they aren't really "honoring" Krull by incorporating it into something which is intentionally bad.

I'll agree the SNL cyclopes are also copies of the Krull cyclops. But it's not like its the only cyclopes in media in the intervening years, these are just two instances of the Krull cyclops getting copied.

It's an homage, and perhaps using homage as an excuse to just crib someone else's homework to meet a busy production schedule (it's entirely possible the SNL make-up and costume department had to figure out how to do a cyclops on just a few days notice, and it's not like they specialize in creature make-up). But there is a genuine aspect of convenience in being able to probably hide some sort of visibility for the non-cyclopean actor wearing the make-up in those skin folds.