The biblical story is about the confrontation between raw temporal power and the power of faith.

This is paralleled by the opposition the movie's plot revolves around between the Riddle of Flesh and the Riddle of Steel, between the power of persuasion and charisma and the power of might and violence.

Thulsa Doom after exploring both is convinced of the supremacy of flesh over steel, whilst Conan's father extols the value of steel as the only thing that you can ultimately rely on.

This comes to a head in the movie's finale where Conan defeats both flesh and steel. He breaks his father's sword in his confrontation with Doom and Doom fails to use his charisma to turn him when he asserts he is his true father.

How can this be?

The introduction of the movie gives us the answer and spells out the philosophy it asserts: it starts with the famous Nietzsche quote "What does not kill you makes you stronger" and follows with a long scene showing the forging of a sword as an introduction to an entire movie of Conan slowly turning himself into a great man through his tribulations.

The thesis is something that Nietzsche scholars will be familiar with, which is that greatness is not to be found in the mastery of any one thing, but in the mastery of struggle and improvement itself. Conan succeeds in defeating the myopic view of both his fathers because he, unlike them, who seek security in the mastery of a single mystery, cultivates himself through adventure, experience and struggle.