Flash Gordon Movies in Order & How Many Are There
Flash Gordon is probably the most known to fans for its 1980 space opera movie. But, what you maybe didn’t know is that the movie is based on a comicbook of the same name, but more importantly, there is a lot more than only one Flash Gordon movie, and also, there is a show. In this article, we will let you know how many movies are there and what is the best way to watch Flash Gordon movies in order.
Flash Gordon is the protagonist of a space adventure comic strip created and originally drawn by Alex Raymond. First published on January 7, 1934, the strip was inspired by, and created to compete with, the already established Buck Rogers adventure strip.
Let us know focus on movies and the Flash Gordon TV show and see how many are there.
How many Flash Gordon movies are there?
There are currently five Flash Gordon movies and five TV shows. We will now show you in short what they are called and sort them by their release date. So, check them out.
- Flash Gordon (1936)
- Flash Gordon’s Trip to Mars (1938)
- Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe (1940)
- Flash Gordon (1954–55 live-action show)
- Flash Gordon (1979–80 animated show)
- Flash Gordon (1980)
- Flash Gordon: The Greatest Adventure of All (1982)
- Defenders of the Earth (1986–1991 animated show)
- Flash Gordon (1996–1997 animated show)
- Flash Gordon (2007–08 live-action show)
Let’s now see what is the best order to watch Flash Gordon movies. We won’t be focusing on shows in this article, but in case you want to watch them, you have them all sorted out above by their release date.
Flash Gordon movies in order
As we have mentioned, there are currently five Flash Gordon movies and now we will let you know what are they about and how they connect to each other.
Flash Gordon (1936)
It is the first screen adventure for Flash Gordon, the comic-strip character created by Alex Raymond in 1934. It presents the story of Gordon’s visit to the planet Mongo and his encounters with the evil Emperor Ming the Merciless.
Buster Crabbe, Jean Rogers, Charles Middleton, Priscilla Lawson and Frank Shannon portray the film’s central characters.
Flash Gordon’s Trip to Mars (1938)
When a mysterious beam of light starts disrupting and destroying the Earth’s atmosphere, Flash Gordon (Buster Crabbe), Dr. Zarkov (Frank Shannon), and Dale Arden (Jean Rogers) – accidentally accompanied by wisecracking reporter Happy Hapgood (Donald Kerr) – swing into action in Zarkov’s rocketship, believing that it could be coming from the planet Mongo. Once in space, however, they discover that the ray is originating from Mars.
Journeying to the fourth planet, they discover that their old enemy from Mongo, Ming the Merciless (Charles B. Middleton), whom they had believed dead, is still alive, and has formed an alliance with Azura (Beatrice Roberts), the Witch Queen of Mars. From Azura’s planet, and under her protection, he is operating a gigantic Nitron ray that is destroying Earth’s atmosphere.
Azura’s powers include the ability to transmute people into figures of living clay, condemned to live in darkened caves, and she is hated and feared by most of the population. Conversely, the Clay People, led by their King (C. Montague Shaw), know the secret of how to eliminate Azura’s power, but lack the means of escaping the caves to which their ruined bodies restrict them, to battle her.
Gordon and his party seem to hold the answer to their problem, except that the Clay People do not trust them at first, and end up holding Dale Arden hostage. Ultimately, the Earth visitors and the Clay People become allies in the tandem quest to defeat Azura and stop Ming from destroying the Earth.
Flash, Dale, Zarkov, and Hapgood do battle against Azura’s magic and her Martian space force, Ming’s super-scientific weaponry, the treacherous Forest People, and other dangers on the Red Planet. Finally, they win by the classic strategy of divide-and-conquer, showing Azura that Ming has been plotting behind her back to take power from her.
Azura’s alliance with Ming is broken, at the cost of the Queen’s own life, but the Clay People are freed from their curse. The evil emperor of Mongo, his Nitron ray destroyed and his escape cut off on all sides by the now hostile Martian forces, is finally destroyed by the accidental result of his own machinations and treachery.
Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe (1940)
A deadly plague is ravaging the Earth, known as the Purple Death because of a purple spot left on victims’ foreheads. Flash Gordon learns that Ming the Merciless is behind the plague when he spots one of Ming’s spaceships spreading the “Death Dust” in the Earth’s atmosphere.
Flash Gordon, along with Dr. Alexis Zarkov and Dale Arden, return to the planet Mongo to find a possible cure, first seeking the assistance of their old friend Prince Barin. The trio continues to battle Ming and his allies, led by henchman Captain Torch, who has been charged with stopping the Earthlings by any means.
The three eventually find an antidote, called Polarite, in Mongo’s remote northern Kingdom of Frigia. They must now get the cure back to Earth in sufficient quantities to stop the ravaging plague. Ming sends in an army of robot bombs, and he succeeds in capturing Zarkov and Dale. After their capture, Flash must return to Earth to distribute the antidote by a rocketship, the very same way the original Death Dust was first to spread.
Upon his return to Mongo, Flash is able to free Zarkov and Dale. They continue their struggles against Ming, Captain Torch, and his men through a series of close encounters, deadly escapes, and rescues, all the while continuing to thwart Ming and his allies.
Ming and his minions are eventually locked away by one of his men in the high control tower of his castle. Unknown to them, Flash is piloting a rocket ship that is speeding directly toward that tower. He parachutes away just in the nick of time, and in a daring aerial maneuver, Flash is successful in boarding Barrin’s nearby rocketship, which has Dale and Zarkov aboard.
Flash’s unmanned spaceship is actually a flying bomb, having been loaded with highly volatile Solarite. Its rapid forward momentum carries it directly into the castle’s control tower, where the large explosion that follows ends Ming’s tyrannical reign forever. Prince Barin soon takes his rightful place as the peaceful ruler of Mongo.
Ming’s last words to Flash were “I am the universe!” Zarkov observes that with Ming’s death “Flash Gordon has conquered the universe”.
Flash Gordon (1980)
Ming (Max von Sydow), the supreme ruler of the universe, spends his time destroying planets and his next target is Earth. Soon the entire planet finds itself under the influence of floods, tornadoes and earthquakes that slowly but surely destroy everything in front of them.
Only the eccentric scientist Dr. Hans Zarkov (Topol) sees who is behind climate change, but no one believes him.
By chance, Flash Gordon (Sam J. Jones) and his beautiful girlfriend Dale Arden (Melody Anderson) break into his laboratory. Together with them, Dr. Zarkove headed for Ming’s planet. Minga catches Dale’s eye and kidnaps her with the intention of marrying her, while Flash tries to unite the warring tribes in the fight against the evil emperor in order to save the Earth
Flash Gordon: The Greatest Adventure of All (1982)
During World War II, Flash Gordon is on a mission in Warsaw, which is suffering heavy bombing. He arrives too late and his contact, who is near death, says he has a message for Doctor Zarkov, but can utter only one word, “Mongo”, before he dies.
Flash travels to find Zarkov and meets feisty ‘girl reporter’ Dale Arden, also on her way to interview him. They are bombarded by meteorites, which damage their plane and force them to bail out. On the ground, they flee lava flows, and find a secret cave and a rocket ship. Doctor Zarkov, having no time for introductions, ushers them on board and they blast off. When safely in flight, he explains he is on a mission to the wandering planet Mongo to convince their leaders to call off their attack on Earth (by force if necessary, using a gravity weapon of his own invention). For their part, Flash and Dale agree to help him.
Before they can make contact, hostile ships shoot them down, and they make a crash landing. After barely surviving the attack by two clashing dinosaurs, they are captured by animalistic savages and dragged to a giant idol to be sacrificed. They barely escape to the outside, where they meet the virtuous King Thun of the Lion Men and help him escape Amazonian hunters led by Princess Aura.
Flash and company are forced into a war against Mongo’s leader and Aura’s father, the maniacal Emperor Ming, and his robotic army of metal men. To help their cause, the heroes lead an alliance formed from freedom fighters led by King Thun, as well as Prince Barin of Arboria; and King Vultan of the Hawkmen.
Thun explains Ming is too clever to conquer Earth by force alone, and that he would use the Mongo strategy of ‘separate and attack’ which Flash notes is the same as the Earth expression “divide and conquer”. Ming reveals he has secretly given military technology to Hitler, the leader of the Nazi Party.
Ming sends his Mole Men to attack the kingdom of Arboria by destroying the roots of the trees of the forested land which provides camouflage. Thanks to Zarkov warning Flash and friends, the attack is repulsed and Flash and his allies use the captured drilling machine to attack Ming’s palace. They are overwhelmed by Ming’s forces, but Prince Barin insists on his right to a trial by strength. With a flaming sword and ion blaster in hand, Ming duels against Flash in an epic fight. However, Ming turns out only to be an android imposter and the real Ming escapes.
With only seconds before Mongo collides with Earth, Flash damages the planet’s drive mechanism on Zarkov’s advice. With that move making Mongo safely go off course with no way to return to Earth, Flash tells Dale that they have nothing to regret since they are together on a new home of wondrous adventure.
Do you need to watch Flash Gordon movies in order?
If you want to watch Flash Gordon movies in order, you should watch the first three movies by their release date, as they are part of the same series. Other movies are not connected to it, so you can watch them in any order.
Will there be more Flash Gordon movies?
There will almost certainly be more Flash Gordon movies in the future. An animated film was under development at Disney/Fox with Taika Waititi writing and directing. In August 2019, the animated film was believed to be canceled, but in July 2021, producers John Davis and John Fox revealed that Waititi was still working on the film, albeit it would now be live-action instead of animation.
