Talos

Creator: Ray Harryhausen

Film: Jason and the Argonauts 1953

Talos was a man of bronze, made by Hephaestus, whom Zeus gave to Europa after he kidnapped her and took her to Crete.

When the Argonauts reach the Isle of Bronze Hercules and Hylas decide to hunt for some goat and end up at a place filled with giant statues one of them being Talos. Talos is set up on a chamber and it appears to have its doors open. They enter the chamber and find mounds of treasure the treasure of the Gods! Soon they find out that their trapped inside as the metal doors close behind them. Hercules with his strength opens the doors and escape the trap, but something is not right....

Talos wakes up from his slumber and attacks the Argonauts, as they try to escape the island they find themselves trapped by Talos, he grabs the Argo and destroys it. The Argonauts swim back to the island now that the ship has been destroyed but Talos attacks them once more. Jason asks Hera for help, she tells him to look unto Talos' heel for his weakness. Sure enough

Jason unlocks a knob in Talos' heel which drains out his ichor (the life blood of the gods) Talos screams as he dies and starts to crack open, as he falls Hercules drops a needle he found in the chamber and runs to safety, Hylas tries to recover the needle for Hercules but Talos falls on top of him killing him instantly.

Talos Facts

• The inspiration for Talos came to Mr. Harryhausen in the form of the Colossus of Rhodes of the 7 wonders of the ancient world.

• Guess what was used for the ichor? it was oatmeal and colored water! for the medium shots of the heel and the streaming water Mr. Haryhausen used cellophane.

• For the sequence in which Talos begins to crack Ray used a fiberglass version of the model and cut it into cracked sections the cracks were filled with clay, for the animation he shot a frame and gouged out a little of the clay and then another frame slowly creating the appearance of cracks on Talos' body.

• Mr. Harryhausen owns a version of Talos of real bronze made exactly to the dimensions of the real model used in the film. He did this because rubber deteriorates over time.

Back

Ray Harryhausen

on talos

"The sequence was filmed in a bay near Palinuro where, during my recce, I found a big natural rock arch  on the beach. Having the action take place through a natural arch allows the audiences to believe in the effects."

"At first I had intended all the statues in the valley, including Talos, to be freestanding, but when I began designing the sequence, I realized that it would be more dynamic to have Talos climb off a plinth or platform."

"The slow movement of the head turning was inspired by an image from a Japanese film in which a woman, sitting with her back to the camera, slowly turns her head. That one, almost supernatural, movement just popped into my head during the process of animation."