“Ha, ha, ha. You have strucked Hercules!” – Come see Arnie, and his loose grasp of English, in his first ever starring role. 

 

Before he was The Terminator, John Matrix, Doug Quaid and The Governor of California, it may not surprise you to learn that Arnold Schwarzenegger was a body builder. Fact.

During his body building career, The Austrian Oak won the Mr Universe title twice and was crowned Mr Olympia EIGHT times, but his dream was to conquer Hollywood. We all know that he eventually did, but in terms of starting points, none are as bizarre as Hercules In New York.

Arnie was just 20 years old when he starred in this $300,000 ‘fantasy adventure’. Because the producers were afraid that no one would be able to pronounce his name, he is billed as Arnold Strong – which was also meant to be an amusing play on words as his co-star is the weedy Arnold Stang.

Rumour has it that Arnie only got this role because his agent blatantly lied to the director, saying that Arnold was also fresh from the Shakespeare Company of Austria. The director must have been hammered 24/7 to have believed that. Or just didn’t care. Once you see the film, you’ll probably go with the latter. 

The plot of “Hercules in New York” is simple. Hercules is exiled from Mount Olympus because he disobeys Zeus and gets into all sorts of hilarious hijinks on Earth. However all the situations are made at least 84% funnier because of Arnie’s accent.

In earlier versions, Arnie was dubbed over with a horrible generic American accent, but we will be showing the version with the original Arnie dialogue, complete with his inability to form coherent sentences. Still, he tries…

He’s also massive. MASSIVE. You probably will not have seen Arnie this big before and just to remind you of this fact, he takes his shirt off a lot. You can form a drinking game around it. We intend to.

Oh and he wrestles a bear.

When: 8.00pm, 24th July 2014

Location: Clifton College’s Redgrave Theatre, Percival Rd, BS8 3LE

Tickets: £5 (in advance)/£6 (on the door) (all profits going to Bristol Autism Support)

Advance tickets no longer available. Tickets will be on sale on the door

Arnold Schwarzenegger makes his film debut (under the name Arnold Strong) as Hercules, who tires of life on Olympus and makes for the Big Apple, where he gets mixed up with mobsters.

BBFC: Hercules in New York trailer from AKA The Prequel on Vimeo.

“Hercules comes across as a semi-retarded weirdo who can barely master the English language, let alone his lines. Whoever is responsible for this obviously hated the rest of mankind, and wanted to inflict terrible punishment.” Twisted Edge Reviews

“You haven’t seen stupid until you’ve seen Hercules in New York.” 1000 Misspent Hours

“This is film is widely considered to be one of the worst films of all time, and it certainly understandable why people why people may give it that lofty, overused title.” Tim Fife, Cinema Suicide