THE TIMELINE

Z-CONTINUUM

 

1800s. - Progress and technology undergo an incredible speed-up which brings human race to previously unmatched frontiers. The "alternative" Earth version set in the Z-Continuum seems to be more technologically advanced than ours.

1960s. - Mankind's golden years. Man finally develope super-computers, genetic engeneering and space exploration. Note: presumibly, both the world wars in the Z-Continuum never occurred.

1974 A.C. - The very last "industrial" year. Note: according to Friend's holographic database, the Mark Ford Capri II model had still the chance to be produced.

1975 A.C. - The World War begins. The conflict engulfs all nations. Economy suffers an halt.

1980s. - The Annihilation. The batteriological war turns out of control. Society crumbles down, man feeds on man, nation collapse. Civilization is wiped-out and cities succumbe to looting, devastation, disorders, panic, violence and fire. Note: during the scene where Zed and the Exterminators are running around the library, you could spot a sign on the right saying "VIOLATORS WILL BE SHOT", and one of the buildings in the background has 'Decontamination Centre' written on it. Furthermore, an interior scene features a brief glimpse of Sophocle's quotation - "NOT TO BE BORN IS BEST" - daubed on a wall. All this stuff is lost if you watch the movie on television.

1980 A.C. - An elite of scientists and rich men fly off and find refuge in Count Wicklow (Ireland), where a complex of 9 sectors is built within a decade or so. There, they (the Elders) manage to store and preserve any significant human discovery and push even further the technological innovations of the century. The VORTEX is thus born.

1990s. - For the very first time, the Vortex rises the Periphery Shield, isolating itself from the region. The field of energy proves to be enough efficient to protect the 9 sectors. A group of survivors accidentally discovers the Vortex, but the Elders and their sons force themselves to ignore the poor people massed outside. Note: Zed could see it in May's telepathically-induced visions.

2000s. - The Dark Ages begin. The survivors, immune to the deadly virus, struggle to survive. Culture is a memory of past, and nobody (outside of the Vortex) cares about preserving it. For them, there are much more important issues to deal with, in a nearly post-holocaust world. Human race seems doomed to extinction. Note: this is the first, almost accidental 'genetic selection'.

2040s. - Fourty years since the end of the big disease and the following chaos, human race is no longer a "viable" entity. The descendents of the survivors, somewhat healthy and spontaneously-resilient to the virus, are just a bunch of "talking animals" with neither the culture nor the skills to re-activate civilization as once it was known. The following decades see the raising of the BRUTALS. Note: nothing to add. The Brutals represent the first step in natural evolution because their same conception. Basically they come from survivors bearing an outstanding and unique genome. Zardoz's providential appearance just changed the perspective of the evolutional "casuality".

2060s. - For the very first time Arthur Frayn - anthropologist, magician and trickster of the Eternals - ventures in the OUTLANDS, the vast ravaged and wasted territories beyond the Vortex. He manages to experiment new methods to keep his presence "unspoiled" into this hostile environment, and also learns to camouflage himself into one of the OUTLANDERS in order to collect infos. He also plans a system of 'genetic selection' (eugenics) based on the detection of new phenotypes. In Frayn's agenda, an adequate environmental pressure and manipolation could result in the "speeding-up" of mutant manifestations. Note: this is the second 'genetic selection', a preliminary move perpetrated until the time of the Chosen Ones.

2080s. - Time of the the Brutals. They proliferate everywhere. In need to control or at least monitor the Outlands, the Eternals engage Arthur Frayn as "filtering agent" between the two worlds. Arthur starts to build the gianteous head and plots a believable mythology for the wild masses out there. Note: surely, either the Exterminators and the Mutants should be the result of roughly 200 years of "history".

2090s. - ZARDOZ makes its first appearances.

2018 A.C. - The second generation of the Vortex submits itself to the process of morphogenetic and psychic link to one sentient centralized system called 'Tabernacle'. They rechristen themselves ETERNALS and begin to develop a new form of communal society based on their neuronic relationship. Through the genetic infos stored in its memory, the Tabernacle constitutes a caster for regenerating the body of whoever Eternal is damaged, but it works as a conglomerating "focus" for the mental pattern of each inhabitant of the Vortex too. Note: according to Arthur Frayn, they had been living for aprox. 300 years. So I assume that Eternals' "apparent age" (the physical make-up) may coincide with the vital period in which they submitted themselves to the treatment. They dwell in a range of 30-38 years of (apparent) age, if you ask me.

2093 A.C. - The first CHOSEN ONES are engaged by Zardoz and "raised from the filth". They band together and - under the guidance of the god - slowly turn into the proficient EXTERMINATORS, harbingers of death. Note: this is the third 'genetic selection'. The Chosen Ones are Brutals featuring atlethical traits, latent skills and the ability to metabolize environmental inputs in the proper way.

2103 A.C. - The first wave of Exterminators. These cold-blooded hunters are given by their god the illusion to have total freedom. The Exterminators consecrate themselves to the deliberate slaughter of all Brutals who behave or insurrect against Zardoz's wills. They act like both supervisors and executioners. Note: Brutals are just expendable pawns in the larger scheme of the things, and Frayn's first purpose is the containment of such living remnants of the former human race.

2123 A.C. - The few recalcitrant Brutal males who emerge from adversities are considered worthy to become Exterminators themselves, and soon submitted to extensive scrutiny. Periodically, Exterminators are also allowed to mate with Brutal women who are specifically "chosen" by Zardoz. However, against all the odds, pure offspring of Brutals still finds a way to come in great quantities. Note: the numerical proportions and the cyclical assassination/procreation raids of the Exterminators are indeed orchestrated by Frayn and his schedule of 'genetic selection' and inbreeding among the Brutals. It's all part of the prestabilished, big design of the things he set up long time ago.

2141 A.C. - Vortex: the Elders become instable and rebellious, they start to refuse the connection with the Tabernacle. In spite of this, the Eternals dispose them to age at a very accellerated rate. The Elders go confined in a security area located in the larger Vortex 4. They are soon forgotten. The RENEGADES are thus born. Note: since the Renegades are either children of the pre-holocaust world and fathers of the Eternals, they are somehow much more affected by the "empathic side" of their former lives. That's why the Tabernacle didn't succeed in taming them as part of the whole.

2193 A.C. – Now, a small, hungry and well-focused armada of Exterminators rules the Outlands.

2230s. - First manifestations of catatonia in the Vortex. Few Eternals start to refuse their endless condition and the subjugament to the Tabernacle. Their minds fall in a disrupted state, and they become hollow, zombie-like creatures, aimlessly wandering in the sectors of the Vortex.

2249 A.C. - One more Exterminator and one more Brutal woman are picked-up by Arthur Frayn for his special project aimed to produce the next step in human evolution. The couple’s spawn is the 2,030th codified "product" of the agenda: a child destinated to become Exterminator just like his father. In the first years of his turbulent childhood, ZED - as he has been named - shows both augmented intelligence and enhanced physique. Frayn gradually realizes the child could be the bearer of the genetic mutation he was trying to achieve, and keeps an eye on the subject in order to explore his deviant nature. Note: of course, Zed is supposed to be 44 years old as actor Sean Connery was at the time the movie was released in the theatres (February 1974). Besides, in the 2nd draft of the Zardoz screenplay dated back to December 1972, Zed is simply referred as '2030', as you can read from this excerpt: "One man raises his face to ZARDOZ and forces himself to watch. We shall know to come him as 2030, the hero of this tale".

2250s. - Another two MUTANTS sprout from that specific session of inbreeding. They will become Zed's most close fellows. Note: the fellows look slightly younger than Zed, and they all wear black leather boots as elite Exterminators.

2266 A.C. - As their spontaneously-enhanced physiologies grow-up and define, Zed and his two fellows discover to be different from the other Exterminators' neophytes. Note: generally speaking, the 18th age is the one marking the emergence of many ereditary traits.

2276 A.C. - Zed and the fellows are fully recognized by the Exterminators community as being top markers and hotshots. After they had proved their unique abilities one more time, Zardoz orders them to wear red masks and black boots (the "special" Exterminator outfit).

2279 A.C. - Zarday 3/2/1. Zed rapes a Brutal woman during a ruthless hunt. Many Brutals are also shot, slaughtered and sacrificed to Zardoz. Note: as seen in one of the memory scannings the Eternals did on Zed.

2285 A.C. - The hinder expansion of the APATHETICS is affecting either the economy and the social dinamics of the Vortex. In need of supplies, Arthur Frayn/Zardoz orders the Exterminators to use the more proficient Brutals as slaves, making them work on the fertile territories of the Outlands. Quite abruptly, the Exterminators are forced to eat wheat and to not revolve enterely on Brutals and animals to substain themselves. The vast majority of the food the Brutals grow is "offered" to Zardoz. Note: this implies: 1) Exterminator's regular "full diet" was originally based on cannibalism; 2) Zed must have developed some suspects on Zardoz at this very point, when the god disappointly turned the "hunters" in "farmers" (it should be noted that he points that during the movie).

2289 A.C. - Zed "lost his innocence" in a library where he was searching for some Brutals: led and taught by a mysterious presence, he'd eventually learn to read. After a while, he also discovers the truth behind the 'Zardoz' mythos. Note: as seen in the memory scanning Avalow did on Zed.

2293 A.C. - The fall of the Vortex. Zed inseminates Consuella and May, along with her six 'muses'; two crossed-up moves that will generate the future outcast of the SUPERIORS. Note: The events depicted in the movie. At that point, Zed was no longer a "simple" Mutant but a Superior, since he had managed to elevate his full genetic potential to incredible levels.

2323 A.C. - Time of the Superiors. ZEN - the spawn of Zed and Consuella - choses to lead the seven main Superiors (children of May and her female accolytes), being him the most powerful among them. They all together will provide to either sedate or eliminate the remaining Exterminators (no longer a menace, since they aren't equipped with ammo or weapons anymore). Zen's ultimate purpose is to make Brutals raise from the filth and their intellectual ignorance. Zen and the seven Superiors are the harbingers of the past culture, the owners of the maximum power ever been. Note: conjecture. It should be noted that the Superiors may not be lonely in their crusade. The two remaining Mutants, Zed's fellows, could have produced more Mutants in the decades following Zardoz's fall as well. Of course, there's a big difference between a 'Mutant' and a 'Superior'.

2350s. - The recovering of the Brutals. The Superiors multiplicate. Zen's son, ZEE, is the new leader. Mutants are still present among the Brutals. The three races live in harmony, helping each other to substain Zen's dream which envised the achievement of an human splendour never reached before. Note: fan fiction by me.

2373 A.C. - Zen dies of natural causes. The Brutals acquire the right to be renamed as INDIVIDUALS. Their recovering process is almost complete. Note: fan fiction by me.

2400 A.C. - The dawn of a new world.
 

Written by Tiziano Caliendo, based on John Boorman's movie and screenplay.