Zardoz is a 1974 science fantasy film written and directed by John Boorman and starring Sean Connery as Zed, a Brutal Exterminator. Near the start, the giant stone head worshipped as the god Zardoz descends and preaches that the gun is good and the penis is evil, urging its followers to kill. The film baffled audiences on release but became a cult favourite for its strange imagery and earnest tone. Online, that opening sermon is clipped and quoted as shorthand for overblown, nonsensical authority and weird seventies science fiction.