“Hither came Conan, the Cimmerian, black-haired, sullen-eyed, sword in hand, a thief, a reaver, a slayer, with gigantic melancholies and gigantic mirth, to tread the jeweled thrones of the Earth under his sandalled feet.”. 

These iconic words from Robert E. Howard’s “The Phoenix on the Sword” conjure an image that has thundered through the ages of pulp fiction and beyond. Conan. The name itself is a byword for raw power, untamed spirit, and a certain brooding intensity that, let’s be honest, was cool long before anti-heroes became mainstream.  

But let’s be clear: there’s only one Conan. He’s the legend, the Cimmerian who defined “barbarian hero” for generations. 

However, like a particularly potent ale, his spirit has a way of intoxicating other stories, other heroes, across a wide spectre genres. Let us then explore these films and show you how, by cutting through societal pretense and embodying a raw – and often brutal – honesty, the characters in these movies offer a vicarious escape from civilization in a way that is similar to Conan.  

What Makes a Movie like Conan the Barbarian?

So, what does make a character “Conan-esque”? After doing some long hard thinking about it, we can distill the essence into five key pillars:

1. Fierce Individualism & Self-Reliance
   
   At his core, Conan is an existentialist, a man who forges his own destiny and defines his own purpose. He’s not fulfilling a prophecy or born to nobility. This fierce individualism means he is often a lone wanderer, a “stoic antihero, driven by personal glory rather than conventional morality”. Characters echoing this pillar are often outsiders, rebels imposing their own justice, beholden to no one but themselves. 
   
2. Personal Code vs. “Civilized” Hypocrisy
   
   Conan’s word is his bond, a stark contrast to the “civilized hypocrisy” he so often encounters and despises. He sees civilization as a “fragile veneer”, famously quipping that “Civilized men are more discourteous than savages because they know they can be impolite without having their skulls split”. This pillar is about an internal moral compass, forged in the crucible of experience, that may not align with societal laws but is adhered to with unwavering, often violent, conviction. 
   
3. Primal Prowess & Survival Instinct
   
   Born on a battlefield, Conan is a warrior of “great strength, combativeness, intelligence, agility, and endurance”. His movements are often described as “catlike” or “panther-like,” his senses so acute they surpass those of wild animals. Thus, to be Conan-esque, characters must display physical strength as well as an innate capacity to survive and thrive in the most hostile environments by whatever means necessary.
   
4. The Wanderer’s Spirit & Eclectic “Career”
   
   Conan is famously a “thief, a reaver, a slayer”. His life sees him embody a variety of roles: pirate, mercenary, bandit chieftain, and eventually, king. This “restless need for action” and a lineage that includes a wandering grandfather means he rarely stays in one place for long. “Conan-esque” figures often share this eclectic resume, their paths shaped by circumstance, a thirst for new horizons, or flight from a shadowed past. 
   
5. A Touch of the Philosopher-Barbarian
   
   Crucially, Conan is not a mindless brute. He possesses “gigantic melancholies and gigantic mirth”, a “complex and fascinating worldview shaped by the harsh realities of the Hyborian Age”. He’s been known to listen to sages and make up his own mind, embracing the raw pleasures of existence not as simple indulgence but as an expression of his spirit. This capacity for introspection, for profound joy and sorrow, and a unique, often cynical, wisdom elevates the character, bridging the gap between thrilling action and genuine depth.  

So, grab your  broadsword, and let’s explore some modern champions, anti-heroes, and downright dangerous individuals who, while not Cimmerians themselves, definitely carry a spark of Conan’s untamed fire. 

What Characters and Movies are Like Conan the Barbarian (1982)?

We’ve sharpened our critical axes and consulted the ancient scrolls to bring you our collection of some of the most Conan-esque movies and characters. 

Remember, this is all in the spirit of appreciating that Cimmerian spark wherever we find it. Disagreements are welcome – that’s what the comments section is for! 

Let the lamentations of your keyboards begin!

1. The Northman (Amleth)

Amleth, Prince of the Jutes, is practically a Cimmerian cousin separated by a few centuries and a whole lot of frostbite. He is driven by an all-consuming vengeance that becomes his sole purpose. His transformation from a boy witnessing his father’s murder to a hardened Viking warrior, a “beast of burden” forged in slavery and bloodshed, mirrors Conan’s own harsh upbringing.

Amleth’s existence is a brutal testament to survival in a savage world. While Conan might be skeptical of gods, Amleth is deeply enmeshed in Norse pagan spirituality, his fate seemingly guided by seers and visions, which provides a different flavor of the supernatural encounters common in sword & sorcery. His single-minded dedication to his oath, “I will avenge you, Father. I will save you, Mother. I will kill you, Fjölnir,” is a barbarian’s vow, absolute and unyielding. The film’s depiction of a “violent, pre-modern world” feels intensely Howardian in its unforgiving nature.

The berserker raid on the Slavic village is a standout moment of the movie. Amleth and his fellow warriors, clad in wolf pelts, engage in a ritualistic frenzy, howling and fighting with inhuman ferocity, embodying pure, untamed barbarian rage. Another potent sequence is the retrieval of the magical sword, Draugr, from the barrow of a long-dead warrior. Amleth engages in a spiritual battle with the undead guardian before claiming the blade, a scene reminiscent of Conan discovering ancient, powerful artifacts. 

Finally, the climactic duel with Fjölnir at the fiery Gates of Hel is a spectacle of brutal, elemental combat. Naked and covered in ash and blood, they fight to the death, a raw expression of vengeance fulfilled, echoing Conan’s own philosophy: “I live, I love, I slay, and am content”.

2. Pitch Black (Richard B. Riddick)

Richard B. Riddick, the “dangerous, escaped convict”, is the quintessential outsider and survivor. His surgically altered eyes, granting him night vision, are a futuristic parallel to Conan’s agility and preternatural senses. Riddick operates by his own brutal, pragmatic code, initially focused solely on self-preservation (“They say most of your brain shuts down in cryosleep. All but the primitive side… the animal side. No wonder I’m still awake.”). This mirrors Conan’s often self-serving motivations that can lead to inadvertently heroic outcomes. His disdain for the panic and hypocrisy of the “civilized” survivors is palpable. 

Riddick’s escape during the chaotic crash landing that happens in the film, and his subsequent evasion of Johns, immediately establish his resourcefulness and dangerous nature. A defining sequence is when he guides the terrified survivors through the pitch-black, creature-infested landscape. His calm, brutal assessments and willingness to make hard choices (like confronting Johns over the idea of using Jack as bait) showcase his survivalist mindset. His evolution from a purely self-serving entity to one who, however reluctantly, protects the vulnerable (Jack, and ultimately Fry, whose sacrifice deeply impacts him) also echoes Conan’s own path from reaver to king.

3. Black Sails (Captain Flint & Charles Vane)

Captain James Flint is a figure of immense complexity, a pirate king waging a war against civilization. His desire is not simple plunder, but a desire to create a new, free society in Nassau. 

This grand, rebellious ambition aligns with a personal code that challenges civilized hypocrisy and touches on the wanderer’s spirit in his transformation from naval officer to pirate legend. Intelligent, ruthless, and haunted by a past betrayal that fuels his crusade. 

Charles Vane is the raw, untamed id of the pirate world, embodying fierce individualism and a brutal interpretation of personal honor. Described as “violent but honorable, following the pirate code even when he didn’t follow laws”, Vane’s commitment is to absolute freedom. For him, civilization is a “yoke”, a force that seeks to crush the individual spirit. His past as a slave fuels his unyielding defiance. 

Flint and Vane are two sides of the Conan coin. Flint is the Cimmerian as king, the brooding strategist and nation-builder, fighting to carve out a realm free from the corruption of larger powers. Vane is Conan the reaver, the untamable spirit who bows to no one. 

4. Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (Max Rockatansky)

The world of Mad Max 2 is pure barbarism, where gasoline is the ultimate prize and life is cheap. In the desolate, sun-scorched ruins of civilization, Max Rockatansky is the ultimate lone survivor.  Max, a “burnt out former Australian policeman”, is laconic, driven by the instinct for self-preservation. He is still capable of forming uneasy alliances and, ultimately, aiding those weaker than himself, making him a classic reluctant hero. 

The film’s opening chase sequence immediately establishes Max’s driving skill, his resourcefulness (the booby-trapped Interceptor), and the sheer brutality of the marauders he faces. The entire final chase sequence is a maelstrom of vehicular carnage, a rolling battle where Max, despite grievous odds and personal loss, pilots the booby-trapped tanker, ensuring the settlers’ escape. Lord Humungus’s chilling offer, “Just walk away… and there will be an end to the horror,” met by Max’s silent, steely resolve, perfectly captures his stark defiance in the face of those he doesn’t respect.

Max is simply a warrior adrift in an age where society has crumbled and only the strong or the cunning endure. The barbaric world of The Road Warrior, with its tribal gangs, desperate fight for scarce resources, and constant threat of violence, directly mirrors the savage landscapes and primal struggles Conan often faced. Max’s fierce independence, his skill with machines rather than swords, and his ultimate, protection of those weaker than him make him a true spiritual descendant of the Cimmerian.

5. WAYNE (Wayne McCullough)

Wayne McCullough Jr. is a modern-day, angst-ridden (albeit unlikely) barbarian in a tracksuit.

Described as a “16 year-old Dirty Harry with a heart of gold”, Wayne is fiercely loyal (in his own destructive way) and driven by a singular, almost sacred quest: to retrieve his deceased father’s stolen 1979 Pontiac Trans Am. His disregard for societal norms, authority figures, and often, basic personal safety, is profound. 

The scene that truly announces Wayne’s unique brand of justice is when he bites off Del’s father’s nose during a brawl in the very first episode. It’s shocking, brutal, and utterly Wayne. Another defining moment is when he learns his construction site employer is exploiting immigrant workers; Wayne’s response is to nail the man’s hands to his van in a swift, violent enforcement of his personal code. 

And who can forget that in the dream sequence in the final episode, Wayne literally meets Conan the Barbarian (played by Derek Theler), who tells him , “Thanks for not being a giant pussy about all this,” echoing his own father’s dying words.

6. Thief (Frank)

Michael Mann’s Frank is a master safecracker operating in 1980s Chicago, a modern man who treats the city’s underworld like his personal hunting ground. Years in state prison transformed him from a small-time thief into someone who survived by becoming emotionally dead inside – “You gotta get to where nothing means nothing,” as he explains to a potential romantic partner. This philosophy of radical detachment became his armor against a brutal system, but also his operating principle for life on the outside.

Frank approaches existence with the precision of his profession. He cracks safes with surgical skill, plans every detail of his life like a heist, and views relationships as transactions to be negotiated rather than bonds to be formed. When he decides he wants a family, he doesn’t court a woman so much as present her with a business proposal: here’s my criminal history, here’s my plan for the future, take it or leave it. His brutal honesty is both refreshing and unsettling – he refuses to pretend to be anything other than what he is.

What makes Frank truly barbarian is his absolute intolerance for anyone trying to own or control him. When organized crime figures attempt to make him a permanent employee rather than an independent contractor, when adoption agencies judge him unfit to be a father, when anyone tries to put chains on him – however gilded – his response is volcanic. He doesn’t negotiate or compromise, but instead burns everything down. In the film’s climax, faced with threats to the life he’s building, Frank destroys his own businesses, demolishes his own home, sends away everyone he cares about, and emerges stripped of all attachments, ready for war.

This scorched-earth approach to freedom captures something essential about the barbarian spirit. Frank would rather rule over ashes than serve in comfort. His safecracking tools are his weapons, his small crew of specialists his war-band, and Chicago’s rain-slicked streets his wilderness. By the end, walking away into the night with nothing but the clothes on his back and blood on his hands, Frank achieves the terrible freedom of the true outsider – completely alone, but completely his own master. 

7. The Head Hunter (Father)

The unnamed protagonist of The Head Hunter – known only as “Father” – represents the sword and sorcery hero stripped down to its barest essentials. He’s a lone monster slayer living in a desolate medieval world, where supernatural threats lurk beyond every hill and humanity clings to survival by its fingernails. His life has been reduced to a single purpose: hunting the creatures that plague this cursed land, and more specifically, finding and destroying the beast that killed his daughter.

He lives alone in a fortified hovel, surrounded by the mounted heads of his kills – a grotesque gallery that serves as both trophy room and reminder of an endless war. His days follow an iron routine: maintaining weapons, brewing healing potions from monster parts, responding to distant horn calls that signal new threats, and returning bloodied but victorious to add another head to his collection. There’s no glory here, no treasure, no grateful villagers – just the next hunt, and the next, and the next.

This is the barbarian hero at his most existentially bleak. Father embodies what happens when the wandering warrior has no more roads to travel, no companions to share the burden, no adventures beyond survival and revenge. He’s Conan if the Cimmerian had lost everything and kept fighting anyway – not for gold or glory or even justice, but because stopping would mean confronting the emptiness where his life used to be. 

8. Fire and Ice (Darkwolf & Larn)

Fire and Ice exists as a living Frank Frazetta canvas. The film presents two complementary barbarian heroes – Darkwolf and Larn – navigating a prehistoric fantasy world where glacial fortresses ruled by dark sorcerers threaten the few remaining free peoples, and survival depends on strength, cunning, and sheer will.

Darkwolf is essentially a Frazetta warrior brought to life, his design, physique, and demeanor embodying the powerful, primal heroes seen in Frazetta’s iconic paintings. This mysterious, axe-wielding warrior, often masked by a wolf pelt, is as barbarian as they come. He is a man of few, grim pronouncements, such as, “Don’t hunt for death boy. It finds us all soon enough”. And in the face of death, he still appears – alone.

Larn represents the barbarian-in-making, a young survivor whose village’s destruction sets him on the warrior’s path. He begins as many sword and sorcery heroes do: thrust into a hostile world with nothing but his wits and will to survive. His evolution from frightened refugee to capable fighter traces the classic arc of the genre as he learns to navigate savage landscapes and discovers reserves of strength he didn’t know he possessed. 

Set in a world that feels both ancient and timeless, where every vista could be a painting and every battle a myth in the making, Fire and Ice perfectly captures the genre that Conan popularized. It’s a world where heroes are larger than life, villains are absolute in their evil, and the difference is settled with steel and sinew rather than words and compromise.

So, You Like Your Heroes Barbaric? The Original Awaits…

Quite the lineup of brooding brutes, cunning survivors, and rebels with causes (and occasionally, just rebels without them). 

But while these characters are fantastic echoes, Robert E. Howard’s Conan the Cimmerian is the original thunder. The raw power, the intricate world-building of the Hyborian Age, the surprisingly nuanced characters like Conan, and the sheer pulp poetry of Howard’s prose offer an experience these homages can only hint at. 

Don’t just take our word for it. If these modern barbarians have stirred your blood, why not experience the source? Discover why Conan is an archetype, a force of nature, the one and only genuinely legendary barbarian by watching the original 1982 Conan the Barbarian movie!

Begin your journey into the Hyborian Age. Crom commands it!