History Film / TheBladeMaster

The movie was written and directed by Creator/JoeDAmato. It stars Miles O'Keeffe as Ator, a man skilled in not only fighting, but in many other arts as well. It also stars Charles Borromel as Akronas, a wise ruler and teacher who is also called the Great One. Lisa Foster stars as Mila, the daughter of Akronas, and David Brandon as Zor -- the principal villain of the film. The film was released in theaters as ''Ator the Invincible'' and later as ''Ator, the Blade Master''. It received the name ''Cave Dwellers'' after it was re-edited by distributor Film Ventures International. It is the sequel to 1982's ''Ator l'invincible'' (with the English title ''Film/AtorTheFightingEagle''), which received the Podcast/RiffTrax treatment in 2017 and appeared on ''[=MST3k=]'' itself in 2018.[[note]]The show likely skipped the original film the first time around due to highly uncomfortable material like Ator's romantic feelings towards the woman he thinks is his sister, and an Amazon tribe who plan to rape him, which never would have flown on TV in the early '90s.[[/note]] The third film was 1986's ''Iron Warrior'', followed by ''Quest for the Mighty Sword'' (which was also released as ''Troll 3'', one of ''three'' InNameOnly sequels to ''Film/{{Troll|1986}}''.) The movies were made to [[FollowTheLeader capitalize]] on the popularity of the Conan movies which starred Arnold Schwarzenegger.

'''Arkonas:''' Wait until he is tried by the court of the League of Peaceful Lands!\\

* {{Retcon}}: Arkonas' long-winded recap of the first movie makes Ator out to be considerably more competent than actually depicted in that film, neglecting to mention that the majority of his exploits were only made possible by the help he received from his mentor Griba, "side piece" Roon, and pet bear cub Kiog. If Roon in particular hadn't kept bailing him out, he wouldn't have gotten close to defeating the spider god.

* WickedCultured: What Zor aspires to. He's not very good at it. Arkonas uses this and Zor's (limited) respect for him to manipulate him a few times, particularly when he gets Zor to show Sandor mercy by suggesting that weak men are incapable of showing mercy.

The movie was written and directed by Creator/JoeDAmato. It stars Miles O'Keeffe as Ator, a man skilled in not only fighting, but in many other arts as well. It also stars Charles Borromel as Akronas, a wise ruler and teacher who is also called the Great One. Lisa Foster stars as Mila, the daughter of Akronas, and David Brandon as Zor -- the principal villain of the film. The film was released in theaters as ''Ator the Invincible'' and later as ''Ator, the Blade Master''. It received the name ''Cave Dwellers'' after it was re-edited by distributor Film Ventures International. It is the sequel to 1982's ''Ator l'invincible'' (with the English title ''Film/AtorTheFightingEagle''), which received the Podcast/RiffTrax treatment in 2017 and appeared on ''[=MST3k=]'' itself in 2018.[[note]]The show likely skipped the original film the first time around due to highly uncomfortable material like Ator's romantic feelings towards the woman he thinks is his sister, and an Amazon tribe who plan to rape him, which never would have flown on TV in the early '90s.[[/note]] The third film was 1986's ''Iron Warrior'', followed by ''Quest for the Mighty Sword'' (which was also released as ''Troll 3'', one of ''three'' InNameOnly sequels to ''Film/{{Troll}}''.) The movies were made to [[FollowTheLeader capitalize]] on the popularity of the Conan movies which starred Arnold Schwarzenegger.

* BarbarianHero: Subverted. Ator ''looks'' like a classic barbarian hero, but is much too civilized to actually count as one.

The movie was written and directed by Creator/JoeDAmato. It stars Miles O'Keeffe as Ator, a man skilled in not only fighting, but in many other arts as well. It also stars Charles Borromel as Akronas, a wise ruler and teacher who is also called the Great One. Lisa Foster stars as Mila, the daughter of Akronas, and David Brandon as Zor -- the principal villain of the film. The film was released in theaters as ''Ator the Invincible'' and later as ''Ator, the Blade Master''. It received the name ''Cave Dwellers'' after it was re-edited by distributor Film Ventures International. It is the sequel to 1982's ''Ator l'invincible'' (with the English title ''Ator the Fighting Eagle''), which received the Podcast/RiffTrax treatment in 2017 and appeared on ''[=MST3k=]'' itself in 2018.[[note]]The show likely skipped the original film the first time around due to highly uncomfortable material like Ator's romantic feelings towards the woman he thinks is his sister, and an Amazon tribe who plan to rape him, which never would have flown on TV in the early '90s.[[/note]] The third film was 1986's ''Iron Warrior'', followed by ''Quest for the Mighty Sword'' (which was also released as ''Troll 3'', one of ''three'' InNameOnly sequels to ''Film/{{Troll}}''.) The movies were made to [[FollowTheLeader capitalize]] on the popularity of the Conan movies which starred Arnold Schwarzenegger.

* IdiotBall: The chief of the village spends considerable effort trying to convince his villagers that Ator is wrong. Then when he fails, he suddenly becomes totally supportive of Ator and offers him a drink. Somehow it doesn't occur to Ator that anything might be amiss.

* WhatTheHellHero: Thong dicks around for no apparent reason long enough while rescuing Ator from the snake dudes' temple that all of the other prisoners are sacrificed to the giant snake.

* BaitAndSwitchCredits: In the Film Ventures International release, the film's opening and closing credits are clearly from another film.

* BreastPlate: Averted, Mila appears to be wearing a hub cap on her chest.

* ChekhovsSkill: Implied in the beginning with Mila and her way with gunpowder. Needlessly subverted with a vengeance when NONE of those skills come to play, later on and Mila just cowers in the corner of the snake-pit when she could've helped out with a gunpowder skull-bomb or grenade! Twisted in that it's Ator who seizes the Gun later on by using gunpowder bombs to distract the cannibals.

* FauxActionGirl: Mila. Sure, she's a strong-willed young lady with lots of rebellious spunk. Sure, she has some nominal experience fighting bad guys with swords. Sure, she knows everything her Dad taught her, even did a neat {{MacGyver|ing}} job with gunpower made from cave wall minerals in a test Ator had for her. However, she gets shot with an arrow, becomes a DamselInDistress with both the cannibal cavepeople AND the snake cult and cowers in the corner like a helpless blob of jello when in the snake pit with Ator.

* PreviouslyOn: The movie shows a recap of the first. As low budget as it was, it also painfully points out how the first movie had a better budget than ''this'' one.

* {{Retcon}}: Arkonas' long-winded recap of the first movie makes Ator out to be considerably more competent than actually depicted in that film, neglecting to mention that the majority of his exploits were only made possible by the help he received from his mentor Griba, "side piece" Roon, and pet bear cub Kiog. If Roon in particular hadn't kept bailing him out, he wouldn't have gotten close to defeating the spider god. Worse, nothing in the first film has a bearing on this film, so the recap is essentially useless padding.

The movie was written and directed by Creator/JoeDAmato. It stars Miles O'Keeffe as Ator, a man skilled in not only fighting, but in many other arts as well. It also stars Charles Borromel as Akronas, a wise ruler and teacher who is also called the Great One. Lisa Foster stars as Mila, the daughter of Akronas, and David Brandon as Zor - the principal villain of the film. The film was released in theaters as ''Ator the Invincible'' and later as ''Ator, the Blade Master''. It received the name ''Cave Dwellers'' after it was re-edited by distributor Film Ventures International. It is the sequel to 1982's ''Ator l'invincible'' (with the English title ''Ator the Fighting Eagle''), which received the Podcast/RiffTrax treatment in 2017 and appeared on ''[=MST3k=]'' itself in 2018.[[note]]The show likely skipped the original film the first time around due to highly uncomfortable material like Ator's romantic feelings towards the woman he thinks is his sister, and an Amazon tribe who plan to rape him, which never would have flown on TV in the early '90s.[[/note]] The third film was 1986's ''Iron Warrior'', followed by ''Quest for the Mighty Sword'' (which was also released as ''Troll 3'', one of ''three'' InNameOnly sequels to ''Film/{{Troll}}''.) The movies were made to [[FollowTheLeader capitalize]] on the popularity of the Conan movies which starred Arnold Schwarzenegger.

-->'''Joel:''' I don't believe it - they were too cheap to hire ''villains'' in this movie.

* {{Retcon}}: Arkonas' long-winded recap of the first movie makes Ator out to be considerably more competent than actually depicted in that film, neglecting to mention that the majority of his exploits were only made possible by the help he received from his mentor Griba, "side piece" Roon, and pet bear cub Kiog. If Roon in particular hadn't kept bailing him out, he wouldn't have gotten close to defeating the spider god.

* SuddenSequelDeathSyndrome: Sunya, Ator's bride that he spends the entire first movie rescuing, is simply stated to have died during Akronas' exposition dump. She is ''never'' mentioned in the rest of the film and frankly nothing in the first film is relevant to this one.

''Ator l'invincibile 2'' (released in English-speaking countries as ''The Blade Master'', ''Ator, the Blade Master'', ''Cave Dwellers'', and ''The Return'') is an Italian film that was made in 1984. The movie was written and directed by Creator/JoeDAmato. It stars Miles O'Keeffe as Ator, a man skilled in not only fighting, but in many other arts as well. It also stars Charles Borromel as Akronas, a wise ruler and teacher who is also called the Great One. Lisa Foster stars as Mila, the daughter of Akronas, and David Brandon as Zor - the principal villain of the film. The film was released in theaters as ''Ator the Invincible'' and later as ''Ator, the Blade Master''. It received the name ''Cave Dwellers'' after it was re-edited by distributor Film Ventures International. It is the sequel to 1982's ''Ator l'invincible'' (with the English title ''Ator the Fighting Eagle''), which received the Podcast/RiffTrax treatment in 2017 and appeared on ''[=MST3k=]'' itself in 2018.[[note]]The show likely skipped the original film the first time around due to highly uncomfortable material like Ator's romantic feelings towards the woman he thinks is his sister, and an Amazon tribe who plan to rape him, which never would have flown on TV in the early '90s.[[/note]] The third film was 1986's ''Iron Warrior'', followed by ''Quest for the Mighty Sword'' (which was also released as ''Troll 3'', one of ''three'' InNameOnly sequels to ''Film/{{Troll}}''.) The movies were made to [[FollowTheLeader capitalize]] on the popularity of the Conan movies which starred Arnold Schwarzenegger.

* HypercompetentSidekick: Thong, who ultimately offs the villain with a throwing knife.

* UnfortunateNames: ''Thong''.

* ChekhovsSkill: Implied in the beginning with Mila and her way with gunpowder. Needlessly subverted with a vengeance when NONE of those skills come to play, later on and Mila just cowers in the corner of the snake-pit when she could've helped out with a gunpowder skull-bomb or something! Twisted in that it's Ator who seizes the Gun later on by using gunpowder bombs to distract the cannibals.

-->'''Zor:''' [dueling Ator near the end of the movie] Have you lost your nerve?!\\

* AnnoyingArrows: Mila gets hit by an arrow in the heart and keeps limping on! ''The heart!''

* HollywoodHistory: Arkonas' long-winded recap of the first movie makes Ator out to be considerably more competent than actually depicted in that film, neglecting to mention that the majority of his exploits were only made possible by the help he received from his mentor Griba, "side piece" Roon, and pet bear cub Kiog. If Roon in particular hadn't kept bailing him out, he wouldn't have gotten close to defeating the spider god.

''Ator l'invincibile 2'' (released in English-speaking countries as ''The Blade Master'', ''Ator, the Blade Master'', ''Cave Dwellers'', and ''The Return'') is an Italian film that was made in 1984. The movie was written and directed by Creator/JoeDAmato. It stars Miles O'Keeffe as Ator, a man skilled in not only fighting, but in many other arts as well. It also stars Charles Borromel as Akronas, a wise ruler and teacher who is also called the Great One. Lisa Foster stars as Mila, the daughter of Akronas, and David Brandon as Zor - the principal villain of the film. The film was released in theaters as ''Ator the Invincible'' and later as ''Ator, the Blade Master''. It received the name Cave Dwellers after it was re-edited by distributor Film Ventures International. It is the sequel to 1982's ''Ator l'invincible'' (with the English title ''Ator the Fighting Eagle''), which received the Podcast/RiffTrax treatment in 2017 and appeared on ''[=MST3k=]'' itself in 2018.[[note]]The show likely skipped the original film the first time around due to highly uncomfortable material like Ator's romantic feelings towards the woman he thinks is his sister, and an Amazon tribe who plan to rape him, which never would have flown on TV in the early '90s.[[/note]] The third film was 1986's ''Iron Warrior'', followed by ''Quest for the Mighty Sword'' (which was also released as ''Troll 3'', one of ''three'' InNameOnly sequels to ''Film/{{Troll}}''.) The movies were made to [[FollowTheLeader capitalize]] on the popularity of the Conan movies which starred Arnold Schwarzenegger.

''Ator l'invincibile 2'' (released in English-speaking countries as ''The Blade Master'', ''Ator, the Blade Master'', ''Cave Dwellers'', and ''The Return'') is an Italian film that was made in 1984. The movie was written and directed by Creator/JoeDAmato. It stars Miles O'Keeffe as Ator, a man skilled in not only fighting, but in many other arts as well. It also stars Charles Borromel as Akronas, a wise ruler and teacher who is also called the Great One. Lisa Foster stars as Mila, the daughter of Akronas, and David Brandon as Zor - the principal villain of the film. The film was released in theaters as Ator the Invincible and later as Ator, the Blade Master. It received the name Cave Dwellers after it was re-edited by distributor Film Ventures International. It is the sequel to 1982's ''Ator l'invincible'' (with the English title ''Ator the Fighting Eagle''), which received the Podcast/RiffTrax treatment in 2017 and appeared on ''[=MST3k=]'' itself in 2018.[[note]]The show likely skipped the original film the first time around due to highly uncomfortable material like Ator's romantic feelings towards the woman he thinks is his sister, and an Amazon tribe who plan to rape him, which never would have flown on TV in the early '90s.[[/note]] The third film was 1986's ''Iron Warrior'', followed by ''Quest for the Mighty Sword'' (which was also released as ''Troll 3'', one of ''three'' InNameOnly sequels to ''Film/{{Troll}}''.) The movies were made to [[FollowTheLeader capitalize]] on the popularity of the Conan movies which starred Arnold Schwarzenegger.

''Ator l'invincibile 2'' (released in English-speaking countries as ''The Blade Master'', ''Ator, the Blade Master'', ''Cave Dwellers'', and ''The Return'') is an Italian film that was made in 1984. The movie was written and directed by Joe d'Amato. It stars Miles O'Keeffe as Ator, a man skilled in not only fighting, but in many other arts as well. It also stars Charles Borromel as Akronas, a wise ruler and teacher who is also called the Great One. Lisa Foster stars as Mila, the daughter of Akronas, and David Brandon as Zor - the principal villain of the film. The film was released in theaters as Ator the Invincible and later as Ator, the Blade Master. It received the name Cave Dwellers after it was re-edited by distributor Film Ventures International. It is the sequel to 1982's ''Ator l'invincible'' (with the English title ''Ator the Fighting Eagle''), which received the Podcast/RiffTrax treatment in 2017 and appeared on ''[=MST3k=]'' itself in 2018.[[note]]The show likely skipped the original film the first time around due to highly uncomfortable material like Ator's romantic feelings towards the woman he thinks is his sister, and an Amazon tribe who plan to rape him, which never would have flown on TV in the early '90s.[[/note]] The third film was 1986's ''Iron Warrior'', followed by ''Quest for the Mighty Sword'' (which was also released as ''Troll 3'', one of ''three'' InNameOnly sequels to ''Film/{{Troll}}''.) The movies were made to [[FollowTheLeader capitalize]] on the popularity of the Conan movies which starred Arnold Schwarzenegger.

-->'''Crow:''' Jeez, Tolkien couldn't follow this plot.

* SchizoTech: A Conan The Barbarian ripoff with gliders and atomic bombs. While building a glider is not ''too'' out of place, the fact it uses forged metal components and tanned leather makes it a little ''hard'' to believe Ator could have whipped it up in 5 minutes. Nukes, on the other hand...

'''Tom Servo:''' What is this, BC Law?\\

!''The Blade Master'' has these examples:

* AnachronismStew: Neanderthals, barbarians, a 17th century castle and an atom bomb going off?
-->'''Tom Servo:''' Well, looks like he flew into 17th century Bulgaria and that's Mad Ludwig's castle right there.
** Also pointed out in the ending;
-->'''Crow:''' Hey look, tire tracks!

-->'''Joel:''' Oh, I suppose he's got a tank in the courtyard now.
-->'''Crow:''' [[Series/GilligansIsland Yeah, and it's made outta coconuts.]]

-->'''Akronas:''' No, Ator! You can't! Zor is disarmed. If you kill him now, you'll be guilty of murder!
-->'''Crow:''' What?
-->'''Arkonas:''' Wait until he is tried by the court of the League of Peaceful Lands!
-->'''Joel:''' Oh, he's making that up!
-->'''Tom Servo:''' What is this, BC Law?
-->'''Akronas:''' They will make him pay for his crimes, but for us to take the law on our hands puts us on the level of the barbarian!\\

-->'''Crow:''' Well, this is neat, but what the heck does it have to do with the movie?
-->'''Tom Servo:''' Uh.... Your guess is as good as mine. Think they ran out of things to do.
-->'''Joel:''' Yeah.
-->'''Tom Servo:''' Throw a little Oppenheimer in here right now. Hey, I see a president's face up there!
-->'''Crow:''' I see a bunny.

-->'''Tom Servo:''' Oh, but enough of this, let's escape to Wisconsin!
-->'''Joel:''' Yeah. Looks like he traded in his hang glider for a horse. He probably built that horse too if you think about it.
-->'''Tom Servo:''' Out of mud and sticks...
-->'''Crow:''' Raised it from a pup.
* SameLanguageDub: Miles O'Keefe's voice was dubbed over to sound more mature and heroic. The voice actor was Greg Snegoff who uses a voice very much like the one he used for Scott Bernard in ''{{Robotech}}''.

** [[Literature/TheLastOfTheMohicans Straight as an arrow flying into the sun.]] Shout Out or plagiarism? Your call.

-->'''Zor:''' [dueling Ator near the end of the movie] Have you lost your nerve?!
-->'''Joel:''' Oh, come on, yeah! He ran to The Ends of The Earth, he invented the wheel, he's had a long day!

-->'''Joel:''' Actually, Mrs. O'Leary's cow kicked it over. So uh... Yeah.
-->'''Tom Servo:''' Mankind, you make me want to vomit. Go away, just go away. I'm so sick of you, get out of here. Come on!

* BigNo: Several, actually. Said in a fairly goofy manner, however.

-->'''Akronas:''' They will make him pay for his crimes, but for us to take the law on our hands puts us on the level of the barbarian![[note]]'''Crow:''' We ''are'' barbarians![[/note]]

-->'''Crow:''' "Is 'Charles in Charge' over? Thanks for showing up!"

* SameLanguageDub: Miles O'Keefe's voice was dubbed over to sound more mature and heroic. The voice actor was Greg Snegoff who uses a voice that sounds very much like the one he used for Scott Bernard in ''{{Robotech}}''.

* WickedCultured: What Zor aspires to. He's not very good at it. Arkonas uses this and Zor's respect for him to manipulate him a few times, particularly when he gets Zor to show Sandor mercy by suggesting that weak men are incapable of showing mercy.
-->'''Zor:''' *dueling Ator near the end of the movie* Have you lost your nerve?!

-->'''Tom Servo:''' Oh, but enough of this, let's Escape to Wisconsin!

* ChainmailBikini: Mila wears one in the promotional poster...though not in the film itself.

* ImAHumanitarian: The cave dwellers of the AndShowItToYou variety.

* BrotherSisterIncest: The first film in the series opens with Ator asking his father for his sister's hand in marriage. His father happily gives it, revealing that Ator was adopted, and thus he and his sister are NotBloodSiblings. Ator, of course, [[{{Squick}} had no way of knowing this]].

%%* FatherIWantToMarryMyBrother: See BrotherSisterIncest above.

* HollywoodHistory: The long-winded recap glosses over the fact that Ator wasn't nearly as competent as Akronas claimed in the first movie - if his companions (none of whom appear or even get mentioned in the sequel) hadn't kept bailing him out, he wouldn't have gotten close to defeating the spider god.