Highlander: A Review
A fanbase was created in the late ‘80s through the late ‘90s around a fantasy film series. This film series was about a race of people who cannot be killed by disease, gunshots, stabbings, or most other means. And once they experience their first “death” they remain that age forever and will never die of natural causes. They can only die permanently by decapitation. For all intents and purposes these people are known as immortals. This concept sparked the imaginations of millions of fans. It was somehow enough to fuel 5 films and two syndicated TV shows - most of which were critically panned. There’s an entire generation who have no awareness of these films. The franchise is mostly ignored on social media by all but 40-somethings who grew up with it. Yet, for years now there’s been attempts to revive the franchise.
This is one of a handful of franchises I grew up with. I thought it would be interesting to revisit the films with a critical eye, review them, and rank them. The first sequel, Highlander 2, has two versions that were supposedly completely different films. I will review both of them, also. Are any of these films any good? Is this a franchise worth attempting again? Let’s find out.
Highlander (1986)
Highlander has its origins as a class assignment at UCLA. Gregory Widen wrote the assignment and his instructor encouraged him to submit the script to an agent. That draft was sold for $200k. It would go through several changes, as most scripts do, before being filmed. The story follows a Scotsman (Christopher Lambert) named Connor MacLeod, born in the early 1500s who is mortally wounded in battle, but revived. He is exiled by his clan for his unnatural abilities. He begins a new life and is approached by an Egyptian (Sean Connery) who educates Connor - and the audience - on what it means to be immortal and the culture and beliefs within the immortal community. He also trains Connor to become a better swordsman in order to prepare for any future encounters with a man known as The Kurgan (Clancy Brown), another immortal who is hunting MacLeod.
There’s a lot of information to explain when describing what this film is about, especially pertaining to such things as The Quickening, The Gathering, and The Prize. Those three things are key to the mythology of Highlander. The Quickening is what an immortal experiences when nearing the presence of another immortal. The Gathering is the meeting of the final immortals where they will fight for The Prize. The Prize is what is won by the last remaining immortal after they kill their final opponent: a connection to all living things, as well as the thoughts and feelings of all humans around the world. Also, as one immortal kills another they gain the experiences and power of their victim and all other immortals their victim killed throughout time, making them a more formidable opponent.
In a way, this mythology is what makes Highlander so cool. The movie also touches on such questions as: “How is one’s perspective affected by centuries of loss, violence, and pain?”, “If two immortals became friends over time, could they bring themselves to kill each other simply because a dogma dictates they must?”, and “Could you abandon the ones you love in order to save yourselves the pain that would come in time?”. The movie isn’t greatly interested in exploring those questions with much depth. But it does suggest a lot of potential within the material.
Other strengths of the film can be found in the performances by Sean Connery and Clancy Brown. Connery’s presence elevates most material to something that’s at least tolerable and this film is no exception. Brown, however, relishes his role, a man who delights in the pain and fear of mortals. The Kurgan thinks of himself as being superior to everyone, mortals and immortals alike. He believes he is entitled to The Prize. Clancy Brown is excellent here. He takes a character whose biker gang / street punk aesthetic is somewhat a copy of The Terminator and goes big and wild and adds some spice and fun, preventing the film from completely taking itself too seriously.
Also, there is a love story in Connor MacLeod’s past that is touching, which is needed, because the film sometimes comes across as too cavalier at times.
The film, however, can be both silly and over-the-top. It loves the look of electricity and lightning bolts, sparks, and explosions. Large walls made of rock will crumble apart with the slightest bump. These will all occur throughout sword fights and other events in the film with no logic or reason. It’s ironic, because the filmmakers no doubt thought that such pyrotechnics would add to the excitement and the thrill of the fights. Instead it baffles and takes away from a scene’s intensity. This inclination to go big is probably the film’s biggest issue.
Otherwise, Highlander is a film that introduces fascinating concepts and themes and has quite a bit to enjoy despite its several failings.
Highlander 2: The Quickening (1991)
The problem with the first Highlander film is it was so self-contained that it left no room for a sequel: Connor MacLeod won the Prize. He lost his immortality and lived out his days with his lover Brenda. So, how could there be a sequel?
The answer to that question initially was a baffling one that came in the form of Highlander II: The Quickening. In this film, it turns out Ramirez and MacLeod are from another planet called Zeist and lead a rebellion 500 years ago. Against what exactly? Who knows. They are captured and sentenced to exile on the planet Earth. That condition isn’t enough. Not only are they exiled to a different planet, but they also become immortal on Earth and can only be killed by decapitation. The last survivor between the two of them wins the prize of choice: live out the rest of their days on Earth or return to their home planet with their crimes pardoned. This was guaranteed to be met with a heaping pile of “WHAT?!” by fans of the first movie. None of it makes a goddamn bit of sense.
But wait - there’s more: in the year 1999 MacLeod somehow became part of an experiment to shield the planet from the sun with a literal shield. Twenty-five years later in the year 2024 (!) Connor is an old man. But the General he rebelled against on Zeist decides to send two of his goons to Earth to kill MacLeod. Why? Who knows. How is General Katana (Michael Ironside) still alive 500 years later and aware of MacLeod’s existence? No clue. Now, there’s a subplot where the head of the corporation (John C. McGinley) in charge of the shield wants to keep it in operation forever, regardless of if the ozone layer repaired itself after 25 years. There’s also a group who is trying to destroy the shield and uncover the corruption led by Louise Marcus (Virginia Madsen) who ropes MacLeod into their cause.
This is a very different movie from the first one. And it’s rough! I don’t just mean from a script perspective. There’s an endless list of baffling choices throughout: If the film takes place in 2024 then why do all the cars look like they’re from the ‘40s and ‘50s? How does Ramirez get a plane ticket to fly over the Atlantic? There are some really odd cuts that make it feel like so much got left on the cutting room floor (more on that soon). It just feels odd.
Apparently, Sean Connery stars due to Lambert’s insistence, so the screenwriters needed to make up a way for him to return, which was a tough sell and not only ends up changing the original film’s mythology, but makes no damn sense. He was still decapitated hundreds of years ago by The Kurgan in the first movie. This film claims he could be resurrected simply by MacLeod calling his name. His death near the end of this film is nearly as baffling.
It is nearly unwatchable as a film on its own terms. As a Highlander movie it’s a steaming pile of crap. But it’s also completely unavailable to view in the United States, which makes it a bit of a forbidden fruit. Due to lack of interest (because of the next film) production of the original theatrical cut was ceased after the VHS copy. It was never printed on DVD in the United States. It was never revived on Blu-ray. It is not available to stream. The only way you can view the original theatrical cut is by obtaining a Region 2 European DVD and having the equipment to play it, which I did and do. All of this makes Highlander 2: The Quickening a fascinating relic, a curio.
There is, however, a version you can see in the United States…
Highlander 2: Renegade Version (1995)
Okay, so the producers of Highlander 2 and director Russell Mulcahy took a beating once the film was released in 1991. Eventually, they came out and blamed the financiers for the theatrical cut of the film. They claim the film was going over budget due to an economic collapse in Argentina, the country it was filmed in, so the insurance company backing the production took over the film, removed creative control from Mulcahy and that resulted in the change in mythology from immortal humans to aliens on another planet. Mulcahy and the producers somehow got the ability to recut the film and even shoot a scene or two to make something closer to their intended project. That version is what’s known as The Renegade Version. However, this raises a bunch of questions.
But first a rundown of this film’s concept. It’s still sort of two films combined into one. The first is about a group of rebels 500 years in the past who were captured and punished. Ramirez (Sean Connery) and MacLeod (Christopher Lambert) are considered the leaders and they are sent to the future where they will become immortal and fight to the death by decapitation. The survivor will either remain in the future as a mortal and eventually get old and die or go back to the past with his crimes forgiven. Meanwhile, a general named Katana (Michael Ironside) in the past gets pissy about MacLeod choosing to live out his days in the future and sends his goons and self to the future to kill him. That’s the first movie.
The second movie is about the ozone layer and a corporation that controls a shield around the entire planet that protects everyone from the sun’s rays.
Now back to the questions the whole “our movie was taken from us” complaint invites:
At what point in the production did the financiers take over? If it was long enough for them to go over budget then they must have been pretty far into production. That means a significant portion of what we see on screen was part of the original plan.
Their original vision was for Ramirez and MacLeod to come from the distant past? This still breaks from the mythology of the first movie greatly. What about the other immortals in the first movie? There’s no mention of them in this movie.
Those aren’t the only problems in this movie. Why does Marcus suddenly have sex with MacLeod in the street once he becomes young again shortly after they first meet? If Katana’s goons are from the past then how do they have technology that allows them to fly? Plus, there’s still some of the same problems the theatrical cut had with logic, set design, and world-building.
Not much of this movie makes sense. And yet, it’s at least watchable. It’s an awful sequel to the original film. But it is a fascinating watch on the basis of its behind-the-scenes turbulence and as a document of a filmmaker trying to make something out of the ruins of his vision. It happens to also be the only version you can see in the United States.
Highlander: The Final Dimension (1995)
Somehow a third film came along. There isn’t a lot of information about the development or production of this film. But it was written by Paul Ohl and Renee Manzor, with a pass by Brad Mirman. None of those writers are of note and it’s a wonder how it is they got the gig in the first place. A music video director, Andy Morahan, got the directing gig. Morahan has directed dozens of music videos and many of them are excellent. However, based on this and the rest of his filmography, his filmmaking skills leave a lot to be desired.
This film immediately makes it clear Highlander 2 - no matter what version you prefer - did not exist. But also, Connor MacLeod didn’t actually earn The Prize in the original film either. It turns out there are three other immortals (Mario Van Peebles plays the leader) who were buried and frozen in a mountain in Japan around the 16th century. They are awakened and continue their search for MacLeod. Somehow they know immediately how long they’ve been away and that MacLeod is still alive. Anyway, an archeologist of sorts (Deborah Unger) is involved with the project that freed the villains and she can’t help but get to the bottom of what’s going on, which leads her (of course) to MacLeod who is in New York City posing once again as Richard Nash the antique dealer.
So, you have a villain, Van Peebles’s Kane, running around New York wanting to kill MacLeod to claim The Prize, the cops giving MacLeod a hard time about a couple decapitations, and a woman who gets caught up in it all and falls for MacLeod. It’s basically a worse version of the first movie. The biggest difference is probably the most baffling: before being turned into a popsicle, Kane killed a new mentor of MacLeod’s, a sorcerer whose death passed on his sorcerer ways to Kane. So, now Kane can apparently turn himself into birds and create illusions. I guess the writers figured the villain needed something to make him cool and interesting. It doesn’t accomplish that so much as introduce a new element that stretches beyond what was established in the original film and just feels weird and confusing.
Ultimately, this movie has a lot of problems and is very difficult to enjoy. There’s so many plot and logic holes and terrible dialogue. Even the fight scenes, which attempt to add flair through swinging sword fights and illusions, fall flat. So far in this franchise there can be only one… good movie.
Highlander: Endgame (2000)
By the end of the decade the syndicated TV series starring Adrian Paul ended, as did its spin-off Raven. There was enough of an interest in seeing that character transition to film at the time that drafts of the script were being written around the time the series ended. The project ended up being one that would bring the Highlander from the films (Christopher Lambert) and the Highlander from TV (Adrian Paul) together. Most of that works well.
Like the previous film, Endgame pretends no other movies happened. In Final Dimension, Connor had an adopted son and Rachel, a character Connor adopted during WWII, was out of the picture. This film basically erases both Highlander 2: The Quickening and Highlander: The Final Dimension. In this film, Connor’s antique store and adopted daughter Rachel are blown up sometime around 1990. Afterwards, Connor voluntarily submits to something called The Sanctuary, a secret location run by a sect of the Watchers where immortals voluntarily get put into a coma, thereby ensuring the Prize can never be won by any immortal. The Watchers are an organization created in the TV series who record the lives and activities of immortals, but never interfere. But because this happens in the movie it means that the first two sequels are retconned.
At any rate, as is the case in other films, there is someone from Connor’s past who is the big bad, Jacob Kell (Bruce Payne), an immortal who dismisses all rules and traditions in order to slay immortals to become too powerful for Connor MacLeod to defeat. This makes for possibly the most interesting villain in the series since The Kurgan in the original film.
There are a handful of missteps that prevent the film from being the best of the series. There is a subplot involving a subset of Watchers that want to kidnap immortals to maintain The Sanctuary. This plot is nearly forgotten halfway through the film save for a moment in the climax and is greatly undercooked. The film also introduces a cast of villainous immortals working with Payne’s Kell that includes Donnie Yen. They are pretty interesting, but are ultimately wasted by being bumped off all at once. Aside from that there’s just little quibbles to be made about some on-the-nose reminders of past events via flashes and voice-overs that the film could do without.
The strength of Endgame is the degree with which it honors the original film and the extent with which it establishes a centuries-long friendship between Connor and Duncan MacLeod. When asking fellow fans how they remember Endgame brought the two characters together nobody could recall exactly. The truth is the film says they’ve been friends all along! Much of the film’s runtime is devoted to their relationship over the centuries and that is so strong that when the end of the road comes for one of them it’s actually rather touching.
It’s worth noting that Endgame has almost as interesting a story behind it as Highlander 2. Apparently, Dimension Films demanded cuts to Endgame and so the theatrical cut is around 90 minutes. This is the version that earned the film much critical slandering and a Tomatometer score of 11% on Rotten Tomatoes. However, the producers were most displeased with this and so when the film was released on DVD the theatrical cut was nowhere to be seen. The DVD was released with a longer cut that restored several moments and a few scenes involving Duncan and a love interest named Kate (Lisa Barbuscia). This also includes a happy ending that is nice, but makes an earlier scene involving Kate and Kell confusing. It is uncertain to me if you’re able to find the theatrical cut on VOD, but the DVD and Blu-ray both only feature this longer version.This is the only version I was able to procure.
Ultimately, Endgame is a fairly satisfying sequel to the 1986 film despite its flaws. So far one could pretend this is the only sequel to the original film and live a happy life.
Highlander: The Source (2007)
Work on a sequel that focused on Duncan MacLeod started in 2001. However, a number of problems related to rights holders and convincing either Christopher Lambert or Adrian Paul to return for another film delayed any serious progress on the project until 2005. Filming wrapped by year’s end. But issues with post-production and release dates led to the film ultimately being dumped to a TV release on The Sci-Fi Channel on September of 2007. All of this is to say this film was doomed. It was bad enough the director of The Lawnmower Man, Virtuosity, and The Man-Thing (which also had theatrical release plans scrapped in favor of a premiere on The Sci-Fi Channel) was hired to direct the film.
But Brett Leonard’s directing credits are not enough to prepare anyone for how awful this movie truly is.
The film is set in some dystopian future. Society has fallen similarly to what was seen in Highlander 2. Except, where previous movies asserted there is no cause for the existence of immortals - they just are - this film asserts there is an actual source of immortality and a group of immortals (with the help of Duncan MacLeod… you know, of the Clan MacLeod) are on a quest to find it. Meanwhile, a villainous character known as The Guardian is hunting them.
I don’t know how to begin to tell you all of the ways in which this film is truly awful. Let’s start with The Guardian, who, by the way, breaks from tradition by being the first villain whose name doesn’t start with the letter K. In the first film it was The Kurgan. The second it was Katana. In the third it was Kane. The fourth villain was Kell. Now it’s The Guardian. Anyway, so this character is introduced with an upside down cone around his neck to protect from being decapitated. We eventually learn two things about The Guardian: 1) he is the Guardian of the Source of Immortality. Why he travels as far away from The Source, theoretically leaving The Source unguarded, eludes reason. 2) The Guardian is actually cursed and wants to be killed so he can pass his curse to someone else. Why he wears a cone to protect against being killed also eludes reason.
The Guardian also has super speed. Any time actual super powers or magic is introduced to the Highlander mythology it goes poorly. The Source is no exception. This gets to another significant issue with the film: its visual effects are horrendous. Apparently, this film needed a budget larger than $13 million to make its visual effects remotely close to convincing.
What is most galling about The Source is that it insists on pissing all over the original movie, the TV show, and Endgame. It completely changes lore much like Highlander 2 did. It kills off characters from the TV show. And it has the audacity to use ‘Princes of the Universe’ and ‘Who Wants to Live Forever’ - not by Queen, mind you, rather by the lead singer of Lone Star, John Sloman. “Who?!” you may ask. That’s the appropriate response. This movie doesn’t earn the right to even utter the words “A kind of magic”, let alone play any songs by Queen.
Highlander: The Source is the kind of movie that’s so bad your head hurts for some time afterwards and one actually needs to recover from the experience.
The Ranking:
Highlander
Highlander: Endgame
Highlander 2: Renegade Version
Highlander: The Final Dimension
Highlander 2: The Quickening
Highlander: The Source
So, that’s a look at the Highlander film series. Unfortunately, the development of the sequels are often more interesting than the actual movies as there are only two movies worth recommending to any casual viewer. There is a lot to mine from the premise that the films failed to fully explore, so I do think a remake of the original or a reboot of the franchise would be worthwhile. Henry Cavill has been working with Chad Stahelski (the John Wick series) on a remake. Ryan J. Condal (House of the Dragon), Michael Finch (Predators), and Kerry Williamson (Alex Cross) have been working on the script with additional work by David Abramowitz, who worked on the ‘90s TV series. Fingers crossed!
What do you think? Have you seen all of the Highlander films? If so, do you agree with my reviews and rankings? Which is your favorite? Comment below.