After serving an extended prison sentence for the killing of a man he was hired to investigate, an ex-private eye approaches the completion of his memoirs to set the record straight, when one night enveloped photographs with connections to the past anonymously begin to show up at his front door, along with a mysterious man who is receiving pictures of his own.
2293. Zardoz, an unseen “God” who speaks through an idol – a large stone statue of a head – leads a barbaric race called the Brutals, who live a harsh existence in the Outlands. Zardoz tells the Brutals that once they die, they will be transported to the Vortex, where they will live happily as immortals. He has armed a small group – the Exterminators – with guns, as Zardoz’s philosophy is that killing is good, and procreation is the root of all that is bad. In reality, Zardoz is Arthur Frayn, from a competing more advanced race called the Eternals who live in paradise in the Vortex. The Eternals truly are immortal as they do not age and their bodies undergo reconstruction if they “die”.
