Ercole al centro della Terra
The great, muscle-warrior Hercules (Reg Park) returns to his homeland in Icalia, where he is confronted by several hired assasins. But he defeats them with the help of his loyal friend Thesius. Upon arrival in the city, Hercules is distraught after hearing that his love Daianara (Leonora Ruffo) has lost her senses. He visits her, and is emotionally crushed when she no longer recognizes him. The evil King Lico (Christopher Lee), an amoral nobleman, is actually planning to sacrifice Daianara he can attain immortality. Posing as Daianara's concerned uncle, Lico suggests to Hercules that the oracle Medea might be able to help him.Upon meeting with Medea, she tells Hercules that in order to save Daianara from total memory loss and even death, he must retrieve her memories with the stone of forgetfulness from the realm of Hades. However, to gain access to the underworld, he will have to retrieve the mysterious golden apple from the Land of the Hesperides. As a sign of his complete devotion to Dianara, Hercules returns his gift of immortality and super-human strength to the gods. In this way, he is forced to fight for her as a man, and not with any special abilities.His mission set, Hercules sets out immediately on his quest, stopping first to enlist the aid of Thesius. At his point, Hercules also meets Telemachus, who happens to be the fiancé of one of Thesius many girlfriends. Telemachus volunteers to help out his friend Thesius as well as Hercules to find the golden apple, although Telemaches soon proves to be more of a hindrance then a help.The first leg of the journey finds Hercules and his two cohorts in a vast seascape as they sail by boat towards the edge of the world, against the backdrop of a blood-red sky. Suddenly, the three men become sleepy and the temptation to rest becomes too strong. When they wake up, the find that they have reached the Land of the Hesperides who are being punished for sins of their ancestors. Hercules accomplishes his goal of retrieving the golden apple from the top of a monstrous tall tree that stretches into the black, stormy sky with little difficulty. His combination of physical and mental strength comes in handy. After a failed attempt at scaling the tree trunk, he simply hurls a rock at the tree, and a prayer to the gods results in a direct hit, and the golden apple comes tumbling down.But before the mission can continue, Procrustes, a bloodthirsty stone demon who enslaves the women of the island and has been forcing them to sacrifice all intruders to him, captures both Thesius and Telemaches. Procrusted ties Thesius to a long stone bed, while Telemaches is tied to a smaller stone bed. Porcrusted decides to stretch Thesius on a rack to fill the entire length of the bed, while Telemaches is planed to be reduced in size to fit the other stone bed. Hercules comes to their rescue, and using his intellect to stop the stone monster, he hurls the creature into a stone wall, smashing it to pieces. The muscle-bound hero receives an added bonus when the stone wall collapses, revealing a pathway that descends to Hades.Hercules and Thesius leave Telemaches behind so he can watch their boat to guard the golden apple while the two of them venture into Hades to retrieve the stone. During the journey through Hades, Hercules and Thesius have to cross a wooden plank way across a huge lava bed. The pathway collapses, and Thesius is apparently killed when he falls into the lava. Hercules is forced to go on alone where he finally discover the magical stone and retrieves it from its altar. But Thesius is not dead for he later revives in the arms of the beautiful Persephone, a young woman who has been imprisoned in Hades by her father, the god Pluto. Thesius falls madly in love with Persephone and plots to smuggle her out of hell and back to the world with him. Upon meeting with Hercules again, Thesius fibs a little about Persephones origins and persuades Hercules to let her accompany them back to the world. With their mission accomplished, the three men and one woman sail for home.However, during the voyage home, a violent sea storm threatens to sink their boat, which calls for another divine intervention from Persephone, who finally reveals that she is a demi-god and that her father, Pluto, is angered that she is leaving Hades for the world. Upon arrival back home, Hercules tries to persuade Thesius to send Persephone back to Hades to avoid angering the gods more. But Thesisus is too consumed by his love for Persephone to agree.Hercules brings the magical stone to Daianara who responds to the quick power of the stone. When Lico attempts to carry on his plans, he is unmasked by Hercules as the real villain of the story all along. Lico seals himself and Dianara in a secret chamber where he calls forth an army of the dead to prepare for the ritual sacrifice during a lunar eclipse to slay her and drink her blood to become immortal. Hercules breaks into the chamber and engages in a vicious sword fight with the demons, slaying all of them. Hercules and Lico engage in a long swordfight of their own before Hercules manages to get the upper hand and stabs Lico, who then loses his powers and is set afire by his own magical energy.In the epilogue, Persephone reluctantly decides to give up her love for Thesius which has been so opposed by the gods so she can return to Hades, leaving Thesius heartbroken. However, Hercules with Daianara tell Thesius that he will find his true love someday, the awkward Telemaches makes a move into another local woman, who slaps him, and she instead turns her sights on Thesius standing nearby.
good versus evil, violence