Red Sonja (1985)

A woman seeking revenge for her family's murder receives a divine gift of sword-fighting skills to hunt down a tyrannical queen.

First release year

1985

Runtime (minutes)

89

Production countries

United States

Original languages

English

Directors

Richard Fleischer

Writers

Clive Exton · screenplay; George MacDonald Fraser · screenplay

Cast and characters

Brigitte Nielsen · Red Sonja; Arnold Schwarzenegger · Lord Kalidor; Sandahl Bergman · Queen Gedren; Paul Smith; Ernie Reyes Jr; Ronald Lacey

Genres

sword-and-sorcery; fantasy adventure

Themes

revenge; female empowerment; fantasy

Tone and mood

campy; fantasy

Premise and plot tags

sword and sorcery; revenge; fantasy

Source material / true-story basis

Red Sonya of Rogatino by Robert E. Howard

Franchise connections

Conan the Barbarian

Reception

The film was a critical and commercial failure, receiving generally negative reviews and a low budget-to-gross ratio.

Reported review scores

Rotten Tomatoes · score: 23% · review count: 30; Metacritic · score: 35% · review count: 6; CinemaScore · score: D+ · scale: A+ to F

Awards and nominations

Golden Raspberry Award · Worst New Star · 6th · win

Production trivia

In the Italian market, the movie was re-titled Yado with Schwarzenegger on the poster.; The film was a sequel to the Conan the Barbarian and Conan the Destroyer films in terms of setting.

Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.

Your lists

Loading your lists…