Oh, and I remembered a couple more things about the film - 1. Clancy Brown apparently stayed in character for the bulk of the shoot, which positively terrified the rest of the cast and crew. Clancy is a big, tall dude who is usually very nice...to have him wandering around the set between takes *as* the Kurgan was apparently very intimidating. 2. The scene where Connor takes a whiff of the bouquet from his glass of wine and starts musing over historical events turning the year of the vintage was apparently inspired by songwriter Jim Steinman (the writer of most of Meatloaf's best songs as well as Bonnie Tyler's "Total Eclipse of the Heart" and "I Need a Hero") doing virtually the same thing at a drink out with the director or producer of the film (I forget which). ...I mostly remember that last one because Jim Steinman is my favorite songwright of all time and it's kind of inspiring to me the weird antics he would get up to which no one will ever know if it was put upon for effect or if that's just the way he was. Hail the Traveler. Good Journey, Jimmy.
This was such a good contained movie that tied everything up. It would be a shame if someone were to try to make sequels that have ridiculous premises that throw the original in a ditch. "There can be only one." 😁
You're not wrong, although The Series and Endgame were pretty great. The Renegade Version of Highlander 2 was pretty good too, as another self-contained, alternate universe setting.
Exactly. It's amazing to see a movie that had no sequels whatsoever. So rare these days. Well done the studio for making a move and then leaving it alone and never trying to exploit and ruin the original
50% of the budget went to pay Sean Connorys salary. Thus movie is so influential. Every modern video game, that has a boss to fight, and everyone that when you kill someone you level up with their power, right out of this movie.
I feel like there are a few peaks of cinema - 70s was where screenwriting peaked (or at least was scene in the greatest breadth of quality), 80s is where creativity peaked as studios were only just starting to get in to the ideas of blockbusters, but they'd still fund interesting lower budget and more oddball films like this and Beetlejuice. SFX has arguably peaked in 2010s, but I think creativity and expression is well short of where it used to be
When I re-watched with my kids, they were like "Uh, what's with the completely unnecessary backflips all the way across the parking garage?" But when this came out, I was 15, and it was just awesome. Plus, my heritage is Scottish. That "Who Wants to Live Forever" song actually used to make me cry.
In the novelisation it's explained that by doing the flips between cars he is upside down whenever he passes a car, thus able to look under them and spot Mcleod if he is hiding beneath a car. It's much faster than running along the row constantly stopping to crouch down and check.
And now you've seen Highlander, the only movie ever made in this franchise. There were no more, don't search for them. But I will highly recommend the Highlander series, which was what first introduced me to this world. It was a lot of fun. Actually, to better drive my point home, here are three examples they considered about the Immortals: They have an Immortal who first died and came back as a child, they have an Immortal who first died and became one in the show as we watch, and lastly, there's an Immortal who survived being burned at the stake. The show is proper 90s TV cheese, but has some great ideas too.
@@paulcurlin2789 If you count the SyFy movie Highlander: TheSource, there are 5. Terrible movie. The 2 movies that try to explain the origin of the immortals are pretty much unwatchable
What on earth are you guys talking about ? There was clearly only one movie. One. I mena honeslty, saying there was more than one movie... not possible.
@@stevesmall2193 Actually, there are six, suffering from an inversion of the Star Trek Movie Curse. The original Highlander is a cult classic. Highlander 2 is ludicrous mess. Highlander 3 is not awful, but not great. Highlander: Endgame is riddled with plotholes and pits Duncan against Connor, which there is just no good answer to. Highlander: The Search For Vengeance is a surprisingly good anime film that makes the concept of Highlander work in a post-apocalyptic setting with robot footsoldiers and mutant Immortals. Highlander: The Source killed the franchise.
You guys get some sleep after the last one? :) Queen was approached to write one track... Queen loved the movie so much they wrote the whole damn soundtrack. Who wants to live forever. Princes' of the universe. They even did that New York, New York cover on the bridge. There are no sequels. No matter what anyone says. They wrote this movie specifically to be a one and done. And it really should have stayed that way. The TV show was pretty good. Christopher Lambert didn't speak any English when they started filming. A lot of his lines were learned phonetically. Speaking of Heavy Metal, you guys should do a watch of the original Heavy Metal from 1981. Just because it's an awesome experience. Old school animation through and through.
Yeah Highlanders are the peoples of the Scottish Highlands. Also, another suggestion "He Never Died" starring Henry Rollins. It has a semi-similar concept to this but with a different twist. I think you guys will enjoy it.
@@RKnightsDO NOT watch any more of the movies!!! The next movie is on the top lists of the worst movies ever made. Trust us, don't watch it. You can thank us later
25:53 You stop aging at the point where you 'die' for the first time, I.e. the first time you suffer what would normally be a fatal injury, like the scene where Connor gets stabbed through in battle.
In the series, there was one Immortal who was forever in the body of a 12-year-old. His only tactic was to play the innocent, become a protecee of an older Immortal, then take their head when they lower their guard. Also, the immortality is triggered only by a violent death.
@@JeshuaSquirrel Yeah, I remember that kid. Richie befriended him and almost lost his head for it. Didn’t he leave town in that episode? I don’t think his head was taken anyway.
EBAY has the Kurgan sword for sale from $1089 to $2000, it does not come apart. Connors long sword is anywhere from $80 to $200. Connors white Katana can be found for as low as $38 and as high as $6000. Some of these are made by swordmasters of Toledo Spain. The best in the world.
The Silvercup sign was the name of the studio that the movie was filmed at. So it’s possible that scenes from Spider-Man were filmed there. Queen was approached to do one song. They were shown a ruff cut of the movie and they saw the scene where Heather grew old and died this inspired the song “Who Wants to Live Forever “.
The TV series is set after this movie and completely ignores the sequel films. They basically set up that there are many more younger than mortals out there who did not participate in the Gathering. It was just for the very old and powerful immortals. In fact they talk about the events of the movie finale in the first episode.
I always read the series was treating the first film as either the first round of the Game or Kurgan''s Quickening was so strong, Connor thought it was the Prize. I don't mind the story of the third film. Some Immortals trapped in a cave, so they were out of the Game. When they are freed, it restarts. The fourth film is either after or near the end of the series. The second film is campy AF. The Renegade version of the second film has more story. The fifth film is just ... I don't know. There is an anime film that is great. There is also an animated series that ran a couple of seasons that wasn't that bad.
You couldn't have picked a better movie. This is my favorite of the thousand odd movies I've seen in almost 70 years. Although Queen did the songs, Michael Kamen did the rest of the music. I loved the two love stories from the fist time I saw this by accident in the 80s in a hotel room traveling on business. I found them both touching. In fact, I've thought about them many, many times over the decades. I have to tell you that the logical inconsistencies that you mentioned don't bother me at all. I love the story and the characters. I have by now probably seen the movie something like 60 times. Clearly your reaction is not the typical one since it developed a cult following and spawned sequels, a long running TV series, and, I'm told, a role playing game. It seems like 90% of your review was about the inconsistencies to the exclusion of every other aspect of the movie. I don't quite understand why you expected every aspect of everything to be explained. When a policeman fires a gun, he doesn't say, "This weapon ejects projectiles powered by an exothermic chemical reaction...." If you were seeing real events, everything wouldn't be explained. I guess modern movies are usually like junk food where everything is spoon fed to the viewer, but this movie isn't that. Also, I didn't understand your complaint that the sword was an anachronism and shouldn't have existed until later because that was a major plot point mentioned by both Brenda and Ramirez. The sequels are awful, but the TV series was quite nice. Whenever you see any incarnation of "Highlander," it refers to "characters created by Gregory Widen." He was an undergraduate college student at UCLA and the "Highlander" script was his class final project. Some producers who regularly pick over student scripts looking for good ones liked his script and bought it from him. Widen, who today is a successful screenwriter and director, says that the largest difference between his original script and the film was that in his original version, the Kurgan was more a very depressed person for whom the competition for the prize was a reason to get up in the morning. He has said that when the film was being shot, Clancy Brown, who played the Kurgan, would come up to him and complain that some of the scenes were dumb. He'd answer something like, "Hey, man, I'm just the author." I've seen about a dozen reactions by you over what must be something like a year. The single thing I've liked the most about your channel is that you've treated old movies and TV series with great respect. This is the only reaction that I've found disappointing.
Hey ya know we can't hit all the time. It was enjoyable but for me it felt like F&F series. A bunch of fun action but no substance to the story for the whole thing.
@@julienn8844 Hi, Julien. It had enough substance to become part of my private cosmos for the rest of my life. While you were watching, you were joking around a lot. Perhaps you'd notice more on a second viewing. I can only tell you that it connected with my identity on some basic level. I'd suggest that if it were really as insubstantial as you think, it wouldn't have given rise to all that it did. Also, as I said in my comment, the TV show was quite good.
I turned 50 this year. I watch a lot of movies. This has been my favorite movie for 36 years. Real genuine actors and an epic fantasy story. I grew up reading Tarzan and Conan. This is a good goddam movie. By the way, Clancy Brown was a perfect choice, I can't think of any contemporary besides him.
This movie you have an American French actor (Christoper Lambert), who was born in New York, but his family moved to Switzerland when he was 2 years old, then he spent time in France when he was 12 years old, now playing a Scottish man. Rumor has it he wasn't fluent in English when the film started. Then you have a Scottish born actor, Sean Connery playing an "Egyptian" coming from Spain and having a Spanish name. Go figure! Telling MacLeod that he is immortal is quite a bit of misinformation because if they get their head lopped off, they will die.
The movie's editing is incredible, interecutting London with NYC. The scene outside of the bar, one side of the wall is London, the other side is NYC. The MSG parking deck is a parking deck in London, with the sides covered in canvas to make it look underground. Sean Connery's scenes were shot first, then all the other Ramirez scenes were shot with a body double, and masterfully edited together. The opening VO was recorded in a mens bathroom at a State Park were SC was filming after Highlander, giving it that distinct sound. There was a whole back story shot for the Kurgan, but it was put in to storage to focus on the McLeod story. The warehouse burned to the ground. BTW I've seen the Katana up close with my own eyes.
"Lord Commander" is in Braveheart and Troy as well. Many iconic things to say about this movie. Clancy Brown as The Kurgan was a hell of a villain. That fight against Ramirez is epic and legendary.
The most important element of Highlander is the line "There can be only one." Forget about watching the other movies or the TV series, they all flush the concept down the toilet.
I don't see that. Sure, they reset the plot in the series but "there can be only one" is still a central tenant. The other movies? Yeah, they're garbage.
Immortals stop aging when they "die" the first time. After that, they can sort of die but come back, unless they are decapitated, at which point the other immortal gets their accumulated power and energy.
@@Yakerina sure they did, even if they didn't state it out loud. "Ramirez" - Sean Connery's character, whose original name was never given us, wasn't actual Spanish. He was originally Egyptian and was a lot older than the middle-aged man he appears to be, because that's when he died the first time, many centuries earlier. So if they age, it is so extremely slowly as to effectively not be aging as we know it.
@@ernesthakey3396 No. The Kurgan was killed as a child and just stopped aging when he was about 25. Connor was killed at 18 (or 20), and continued aging until he was about 25. So perhaps if you don't happen to get killed too early, you keep aging until you stop of get killed. On the other hand, I hear Connery was first meant to play Connor.
@@Yakerina So, you are claiming something wasn't true in the movie, but was in the show - when what you really doing wasn't canon until the various comic books, one of which was the Kurgan origin story. Since all of that was AFTER the movie I assume, it isn't part of the movie either. The movie didn't say one way or another.
@@Yakerina so, digging around on the Highlander Wiki, the best info I could find on how old Kurgan was when he first died, he almost died as a child, but didn't. After that, later on: "Travels and Quickenings At the age of twelve, The Kurgan left home to join bandits preying on caravans crossing the steppes between India and the Mediterranean. As a young man, he experienced his first of "many deaths," becoming an Immortal. Eventually, he encountered another Immortal known as The Bedouin, who explained to him his true nature as an Immortal. The Bedouin became his master and his only friend, teaching him the ways of The Game." So according to that, he was "a young man", probably older than 12 as it is unlikely he died immediately upon joining the bandits, but no age was given. Definitely not a child. The aging until about 25 thing is cool, and definitely not in the show as far as I can recall.
Personal recommendation. Watch the series. It expands greatly on the lore and is fantastically fun cheese. The last season can mostly be considered optional because they wanted to make a spin off/sequel series with a female lead to they kept introducing random female characters in attempts at making a back door pilot so most of the last season isn't terrible but it is filled with wasted potential. The did finally make a spinoff with a previously established female character but apparently the producers were so awful to her during the first season she refused to ever work with them again so they had to cancel it because she was the whole show. When you finish with the series (without or without the last season and the spinoff not being needed) Watch the directors cut of Highlander Endgame. Skip all the other movies. The only exception is if you want to go down the rabbit hole try tracking down all the different cuts of Highlander 2. There are so many cuts, edits, and reshoots that different versions not only have different special effects but COMPLETELY different plots with one involving aliens and another involving time travel and a character from the first movie being brought back from the dead. It is exactly as insane a mess as it sounds like it would be.
This is the perfect comment. The Series is fantastic but needs to be taken in as an alternate universe where The Prize is still up for grabs. The DC of Endgame does a great job with the the main character of the series and the original movie. IF, a watch of Highlander 2 is in the books, I recommend the Renegade Version. That was the vision of the director without studio interference. Highlander 3 is not great, nor is The Source but it ties up the franchise fairly well. Highlander: The Raven was pretty good too.
As you asked about Connors' old friend he met on the bridge "wearing a gi" - that's not a Japanese garment at all. The movie presented enough clues to assume if he's an immortal too, he's been around some places As 'history buffs' you should be aware that there were some empires in the arabian area, so he most probably came from there. That's why he fought with a scimitar and wore those traditional, bedouin like clothes. He was a Muslim, maybe from Baghdad before Islam turned religious cult, or from the later Osman empire (or both). He could even have come from Numidia though Egypt into Persia, and so on … maybe they gave the actor some specs, but left them out of the movie, because although he was an interesting character, that would have bloated up the story too much. Connor probably had many more friendships like that fading away … That's where the TV Series went more into, showing what it means to be immortal and passing through the centuries, and it did it well. Another movie on the same topic would be "The Old Guard", but without the 'There Can Be Only One" plot point.
I came back a year later to put something on while working. This is still one of my favorite reactions you guys have done because you're not most channels. -- You don't pretend to like stuff you don't like, you guys are funny, clearly paying attention and genuinely like the humor in this movie that passes a lot of ppl by. A+
>>>There are no sequels. No matter what anyone says. They wrote this movie specifically to be a one and done. And it really should have stayed that way. The TV show was pretty good. ;) like they seid : There can only be one . One Movie and One Series ;) IF there were any other Movies , You shouldn't bother to watch 'em
It was a banging mag too, though. I had a sub to Dragon Magazine and my friend had Heavy Metal, and we'd trade over the weekends. Stunning artwork. Great stories, like The Twilight Zone, except sci-fi/fantasy mashups. And yeah, boobs and butts and fantastic sexy girls.
Don't forget National Lampoon Magazine and Penthouse Comix both are great one of my best friends had both too bad he got rid of them after he got married should've gave them to me.
I was around a junior in high school when this came out. Didn't see it till a couple years later when it was on vcr tape at video rental store. Instant classic.
Heavy Metal was published up until this year, 2023. Similarly, the original magazine, Metal Hurlant, has persisted in various incarnations. The latest issue of that was in 2022, though they mainly recycle through already published material from 1970s onward
Sean Connery, as a British agent, Has Scottish Accent. As a Spanish swordsman, scottish accent. As a Russian Submarine captain, scottish accent. Sean Connery as a Dragon, Scottish accennt, Irish copy, Scottish Accent. And I am ok with all of it.
In the great days of video you used to check out what videos people had when going to people's houses rather than checking the bookshelf. This was one film you could almost guarantee people had, certainly in my circle.
So, cool story about this movie. I was working at Disney, and we had 36” TVs at the end f every row of cubicals. They were always on. We’re a media company. One day this movie came on. I’ve the two hours, we literally had 50 people crowd in. Most of them were walking to a meeting, and stopped dead, and skipped their meeting to watch the movie.
Heeeeeeeeeeeeere were are! Always great to see some new folk introduced to the old Highlander. Fantastic 80's flick, and wonderful watch and review. You might here stories of other movies... but remember, there can be only one. Seriously, don't seek out the squeals... unless ye be quite inebriated by your vice of choice.
What was the guy with the machine gun doing? In the 1970s and 80s NYC crime was so bad people started becoming vigilantes. Which is what he was doing. As for the line It's better to burn out then fad away. That way a quote from a Def Leopard song.
The wrestling match at the beginning was between the Fabulous Freebirds (Michael PS Hayes was the guy with the Confederate flag cape thing) and Greg Gagne, The Tonga Kid, and Jim Brunzell. The Freebirds were massive in the mid-80s. Studd would’ve been more 70s.
Studd was more int he 70s, but he was in the WWF in the early days of Vince Jr's national expansion during the mid-80s, so a lot of people know him from there.
Highlander is about Connor MacLeod (Chris Lambert), who is immortal lived among Scottish Highlanders. Scottish Highlanders shunned Connors from the clan because they thought that he is the Devil. Kurgan (Clancy Brown), evil immortal, and Ramirez (Sean Connery), other immortal helps Connors in fighting skills.
Ahahahha man as a kid in the 1980's I was so obsessed with this movie. My Barbies and My Little Ponies were all highlander immortals for years of me growing up. Fun to see younger generations checking it out. (Along with someone who is a TOUCH older than me but didn't see it back then and get so into it.)
One of our favorite drinking movies when I was in college. Y’all need to watch “Big Trouble In Little China,” “The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai,” and the original “Deathrace 2000.” Nobody does “Heavy Metal” either. Great animated movie! It may seem a bit silly now, but when we watched this in the 80’s, it blew our minds! It seems that this movie didn’t resonate with you. Y’all kinda logicked all the fun out of this movie. It’s immortal guys sword fighting in NYC to Queen music. Don’t question; just enjoy. After Ricardo Montalban’s Khan Noonian Singh and Hans Gruber, The Kurgan is my favorite movie villain of all time. A Highlander is a Scottsman from the Scottish Highlands. More likely Sean Connery’s character was inspired by Puss In Boots. That story predates Highlander by a long time. The WW II scene was cut from the theatrical.
as a meme I never posted, but I took the picture from the poster of Highlander, superimposed Danny Trejo's face over Christopher Lambert's face, and below the captioning, "There can be only Juan!"
Great Movie, glad you got to see it.. It always cracks me up though listening to the accents.. We have a Scotsman with a French Accent, and a Spaniard with a Scottish Accent..err..Egyptian LMAO
You guys need to rewatch the movie. Some of the problems you had with the movie were explained in the movie. The katana was, as Connery said, created by a genius before it's time. The lady expert dated the sword to before such a weapon should have been built - as she said to Conner, like finding a 747 way before the Wright brothers. That is why she was so interested. The "prize" as Conner said at the end, was omniscience.
Great film,loved it when it came out. Loved your reaction. You asked about what highlander is. If you're from the Highlands of Scotland to the North, you're a highlander. The islands... islander Cental Scotland is the Lowlands... lowlander. Around the south and our border is the Uplands... uplander. And at the time depicted back in Scotland, there was no UK or GB. This film stired up Scots passion for our past. And then... Braveheart!!! WOW! Saor Alba gu brath 💙🏴
If you could breed underwater, and we’re in a mortal and decided to go look for Atlantis, I assume that if you go to a place with two higher pressure, it would crush your head in this cause you to die! I love this movie site and I was like teenager in the 80s.
As for the budget....... I don't know how high the budget was without looking it up, but I do know that the actor who played the villain, Clancy Brown, basically did not get paid, which is one of the reason why he did not want to appear in the sequel....... the other being that he hated the script.
I've been waiting for y'all to do this reaction just so I could comment this! Enjoy! Imagine a comedy spoof of the Highlander movies/TV series where instead of gaining their knowledge, wisdom, and skill when they decapitate another immortal, they collect their chromosomes. They just get more and more hurr durr with each kill. On top of that, science hasn't really figured out why certain numbers of chromies turn people into genius gigachads or vegetables with the processing power of an extra crispy dingleberry. This means on kill number 20, you could have the strength of a literal god shouting "There can only be one!", but on kill 21, you become a floppy mumbling and screeching mess of fecal matter, sweat, and other mysterious fluids screaming something about potatoes and butt plugs in an ungodly combination of mismatched words and you just might accidentally cut your own head off because "*HEUGH HEUGH HEUGH* FUNNY SHARP NECKLACE!" flies into your head. Either way, have fun with "THERE CAN BE ONLY POTATO!" periodically entering your brain throughout the day!
Your complaints about this movie stem from the fact that the script started out as a "romance" about an immortal hiding their existence in the modern world, who doesn't want to fall in love again because the inevitable loss is too painful, and must fight their overwrought melodramatic feelings for the woman investigating him. You may not be familiar with this genre, but it is standard that the woman is an irrational pain in the butt so that the man can forgive her out of love. Also the man being a widower is very genre trope as it allows women to live out a "he loves me more" cheating fantasy without the associated negativity. So basically, everything good about this movie came from the director realizing the story was stupid and adding in a little world building with the immortals all fighting to the death cutting off each other's heads. Also the Queen soundtrack is epic. If you want to delve deeper into this genre try Alfred Hitchcock's film Marnie starring Sean Connery. Romancing the Stone is another film in this genre I could recommend as it actually pokes fun at some of the tropes.
This is a very good movie. They put HER in the story, because every movie needs a love interest- that the bad guy needs to kidnap. The ending??? He knows everything ( answer 42 )🤣 then he dies in 40 years
I have replicas of all of the swords used in this film as well as quite a few from the t.v. series. Approximately $30,000 worth. (Just a small fraction of my collection)
'Highlander' is a great & fun fantasy movie IMO. The campy cheese added to the fun. There was no 'Highlander 2' sequel turning a great fantasy into a really bad sci fi story. No sequels to look for ... Nope. Clancy Brown owned the role of The Kurgan. His cruel sense of humor was cracking me up at times.
Your comment about comparisons between Heavy Metal magazine and Highlander May not be far off. Both stories had their hay days in the 80’s and both have a French background. The cartoon series Highlander had the French illustrator influences.
Connery is Scottish playing Egyptian working for Spanish, while Conner McCloud was played by a French actor (who later became Tarzan). Literally I was a fan because of Clancy Brown - his first major movie (although he was payed next to nothing for it), and the Queen soundtrack.
So how you talk after the movie, that's why there was a HL2 and a TV series. Also, you get the joy of watching the whole movie. Quite a lot of the things you thought were too much weren't in the theatre release. Consequently, people were quite happy to be able to see them. Because we always want what we can't have.
I'd love to see you react to the series episodes. The first one if nothing else where they sort of pass the buck from Connor MacLeod (Christopher Lambert) to his 80-years younger kinsman and student Duncan MacLeod (Adrian Paul).
@@RKnights Yeah I think the OP was talking about the movies-there are 7 of them I believe. The actual tv series was far better than any of the films, IMHO, including the first one.
@@RKnights The movies that come after this are just... so bad. The only way to understand is to watch them. So, if you want to do an intentionally bad movie series reaction, this'd be it.
You stop aging upon your 1st death. The WW2 scene wasn't in the original release it was bonus footage that they put in the extended version and all following versions. The Prize is whatever the immortal wants it to be. Connor wanted to be mortal and have kids and the Kurgan wanted to be a god. That's why she was looking for the sword it shouldn't exist. What you wanted from this this movie is in the show.
You become immortal upon the first time you die and come back . Immortals after a certain point can sense other immortals or those with the potential to become a immortal. The more Immortals a imoral kills the stronger they become they heal faster ,they return from death faster . The marine ishas ptsd keep in mind this is at the hight of the cold war ,so hemay have washed out of the corps.
You know what gets me? COnnor comes back to life and they think it's the work of the Devil instead of a blessing from God - rising from the dead like Jesus... Being as religious as they are you'd figure at least 1 person would assume it was a holy thing instead of demonic.
Leave it at this, questions and all like we all had to growing up, lol. Number 2 is a dumpster fire, number 3 tries to get back on track, but it's too late. The series is good but you know the characters have to die before the first movie ends. Great movie just as a one and done.
Those backflips were a hilarious meme in action movies in the 80s. I forget where it started, but obviously producers demanded that directors insert backflips for no reason other than "the audience will like it." I always thought it was cringe. Very much like how Woo would put a dove in his action scenes.
one of the craziest performances by clancy brown. as for the movie, if we ignore the moments typical of eighties movies, it is still watchable. the series - good for its time, but if it comes today, I would pay attention to it. the two sequels ...horror! as if those from disney practiced before they started ruining star wars!
If you liked this movie do NOT watch Highlander 2. Well, you can watch it and without spoiling it, they completely change the lore. I love the first movie, H2 - not so much.
There is a Highlander 2... 3.... 4.... 5.... They are such absolute trash.... I normally don't warn against sequels, because hey, a person should make up their own minds on them... BUT... the 2nd movie, I worked at a movie theatre when it came out and I was SO excited to see it, being a fan of the original.... and it was like the people that made the 2nd movie didn't even watch the first one. There are fight scenes where they must have filmed different versions of them and when they cut them together to make a workable scene, you could tell the characters hairstyles and clothing were changing from edit to edit. It was one of the worst movies I have ever seen. The 3rd and 4th movies were not much better, and frankly I remember very little of them. The 5th movie I saw over at a friends place when it came out direct to video.... and I wanted to shut the movie off when the main villain started singing "Who Wants To Live Forever" in the actual movie. It haunts me to his day.... other than the first film, this series is one of the worst movie series I have ever seen - which is a terrible thing being that the original film was so good.
I love this film, but I also agree with all your criticisms. The original screenplay is much more serious in tone and explains the "rules" better. I think this is one of those films where the concept is so good, but the film doesn't fully deliver. The visuals and transitions were awesome though.
An Egyptian Spaniard with a Scottish Accent fighting with a Japanese Katana never gets old.
Being over 2000 years old, he gets around.
Not to mention a Frenchman playing a Scotsman being chased by a guy from Ohio playing a Russian barbarian.
HEY! Pretty sure he is Scythian, not Russian. 💁😹
Oh, and I remembered a couple more things about the film -
1. Clancy Brown apparently stayed in character for the bulk of the shoot, which positively terrified the rest of the cast and crew. Clancy is a big, tall dude who is usually very nice...to have him wandering around the set between takes *as* the Kurgan was apparently very intimidating.
2. The scene where Connor takes a whiff of the bouquet from his glass of wine and starts musing over historical events turning the year of the vintage was apparently inspired by songwriter Jim Steinman (the writer of most of Meatloaf's best songs as well as Bonnie Tyler's "Total Eclipse of the Heart" and "I Need a Hero") doing virtually the same thing at a drink out with the director or producer of the film (I forget which).
...I mostly remember that last one because Jim Steinman is my favorite songwright of all time and it's kind of inspiring to me the weird antics he would get up to which no one will ever know if it was put upon for effect or if that's just the way he was.
Hail the Traveler. Good Journey, Jimmy.
This was such a good contained movie that tied everything up. It would be a shame if someone were to try to make sequels that have ridiculous premises that throw the original in a ditch.
"There can be only one." 😁
You're not wrong, although The Series and Endgame were pretty great. The Renegade Version of Highlander 2 was pretty good too, as another self-contained, alternate universe setting.
I really enjoyed the series. Heck, I even enjoyed The Raven. Face it, Amanda was one of the more interesting immortals...
Exactly. It's amazing to see a movie that had no sequels whatsoever. So rare these days. Well done the studio for making a move and then leaving it alone and never trying to exploit and ruin the original
50% of the budget went to pay Sean Connorys salary.
Thus movie is so influential.
Every modern video game, that has a boss to fight, and everyone that when you kill someone you level up with their power, right out of this movie.
One of those movies that could have only been made in the 80s.
Yep. This movie has 80's written all over it.
Remake is being made with Henry Cavill
I feel like there are a few peaks of cinema - 70s was where screenwriting peaked (or at least was scene in the greatest breadth of quality), 80s is where creativity peaked as studios were only just starting to get in to the ideas of blockbusters, but they'd still fund interesting lower budget and more oddball films like this and Beetlejuice. SFX has arguably peaked in 2010s, but I think creativity and expression is well short of where it used to be
The 80's wouldn't have been complete without this movie being made.
When I re-watched with my kids, they were like "Uh, what's with the completely unnecessary backflips all the way across the parking garage?" But when this came out, I was 15, and it was just awesome. Plus, my heritage is Scottish. That "Who Wants to Live Forever" song actually used to make me cry.
In the novelisation it's explained that by doing the flips between cars he is upside down whenever he passes a car, thus able to look under them and spot Mcleod if he is hiding beneath a car. It's much faster than running along the row constantly stopping to crouch down and check.
And now you've seen Highlander, the only movie ever made in this franchise. There were no more, don't search for them. But I will highly recommend the Highlander series, which was what first introduced me to this world. It was a lot of fun.
Actually, to better drive my point home, here are three examples they considered about the Immortals: They have an Immortal who first died and came back as a child, they have an Immortal who first died and became one in the show as we watch, and lastly, there's an Immortal who survived being burned at the stake. The show is proper 90s TV cheese, but has some great ideas too.
There were two other movies in the franchise. IMHO the second was totally crap :-)
I was wrong. There were 4 Highlander movies.
@@paulcurlin2789 If you count the SyFy movie Highlander: TheSource, there are 5. Terrible movie. The 2 movies that try to explain the origin of the immortals are pretty much unwatchable
What on earth are you guys talking about ? There was clearly only one movie. One. I mena honeslty, saying there was more than one movie... not possible.
@@stevesmall2193 Actually, there are six, suffering from an inversion of the Star Trek Movie Curse.
The original Highlander is a cult classic.
Highlander 2 is ludicrous mess.
Highlander 3 is not awful, but not great.
Highlander: Endgame is riddled with plotholes and pits Duncan against Connor, which there is just no good answer to.
Highlander: The Search For Vengeance is a surprisingly good anime film that makes the concept of Highlander work in a post-apocalyptic setting with robot footsoldiers and mutant Immortals.
Highlander: The Source killed the franchise.
You guys get some sleep after the last one? :)
Queen was approached to write one track... Queen loved the movie so much they wrote the whole damn soundtrack. Who wants to live forever. Princes' of the universe. They even did that New York, New York cover on the bridge.
There are no sequels. No matter what anyone says. They wrote this movie specifically to be a one and done. And it really should have stayed that way.
The TV show was pretty good.
Christopher Lambert didn't speak any English when they started filming. A lot of his lines were learned phonetically.
Speaking of Heavy Metal, you guys should do a watch of the original Heavy Metal from 1981. Just because it's an awesome experience. Old school animation through and through.
Yeah Highlanders are the peoples of the Scottish Highlands.
Also, another suggestion "He Never Died" starring Henry Rollins. It has a semi-similar concept to this but with a different twist. I think you guys will enjoy it.
Plenty of sleep that night 🙂🙂🙂
Yes it's a classic, SEX, ROCK N ROLL
Yes, Heavy Metal!
@@RKnightsDO NOT watch any more of the movies!!!
The next movie is on the top lists of the worst movies ever made.
Trust us, don't watch it. You can thank us later
The Highlander movie was supposed to be a one-off film. But they made a total of five movies, one anime series, two tv series, and one anime movie.
In the first sword fight, I think Fasil's flipping is to look for Connor under and over the cars easier without having to keep stooping to move.
That was the reasoning in the book, yeah, so fits
25:53 You stop aging at the point where you 'die' for the first time, I.e. the first time you suffer what would normally be a fatal injury, like the scene where Connor gets stabbed through in battle.
In the series, there was one Immortal who was forever in the body of a 12-year-old. His only tactic was to play the innocent, become a protecee of an older Immortal, then take their head when they lower their guard.
Also, the immortality is triggered only by a violent death.
@@JeshuaSquirrel Yeah, I remember that kid. Richie befriended him and almost lost his head for it. Didn’t he leave town in that episode? I don’t think his head was taken anyway.
EBAY has the Kurgan sword for sale from $1089 to $2000, it does not come apart.
Connors long sword is anywhere from $80 to $200.
Connors white Katana can be found for as low as $38 and as high as $6000.
Some of these are made by swordmasters of Toledo Spain. The best in the world.
The Silvercup sign was the name of the studio that the movie was filmed at. So it’s possible that scenes from Spider-Man were filmed there. Queen was approached to do one song. They were shown a ruff cut of the movie and they saw the scene where Heather grew old and died this inspired the song “Who Wants to Live Forever “.
The TV series is set after this movie and completely ignores the sequel films.
They basically set up that there are many more younger than mortals out there who did not participate in the Gathering. It was just for the very old and powerful immortals. In fact they talk about the events of the movie finale in the first episode.
I always read the series was treating the first film as either the first round of the Game or Kurgan''s Quickening was so strong, Connor thought it was the Prize.
I don't mind the story of the third film. Some Immortals trapped in a cave, so they were out of the Game. When they are freed, it restarts.
The fourth film is either after or near the end of the series.
The second film is campy AF. The Renegade version of the second film has more story.
The fifth film is just ... I don't know.
There is an anime film that is great. There is also an animated series that ran a couple of seasons that wasn't that bad.
You couldn't have picked a better movie. This is my favorite of the thousand odd movies I've seen in almost 70 years. Although Queen did the songs, Michael Kamen did the rest of the music.
I loved the two love stories from the fist time I saw this by accident in the 80s in a hotel room traveling on business. I found them both touching. In fact, I've thought about them many, many times over the decades. I have to tell you that the logical inconsistencies that you mentioned don't bother me at all. I love the story and the characters. I have by now probably seen the movie something like 60 times. Clearly your reaction is not the typical one since it developed a cult following and spawned sequels, a long running TV series, and, I'm told, a role playing game. It seems like 90% of your review was about the inconsistencies to the exclusion of every other aspect of the movie. I don't quite understand why you expected every aspect of everything to be explained. When a policeman fires a gun, he doesn't say, "This weapon ejects projectiles powered by an exothermic chemical reaction...." If you were seeing real events, everything wouldn't be explained. I guess modern movies are usually like junk food where everything is spoon fed to the viewer, but this movie isn't that. Also, I didn't understand your complaint that the sword was an anachronism and shouldn't have existed until later because that was a major plot point mentioned by both Brenda and Ramirez.
The sequels are awful, but the TV series was quite nice.
Whenever you see any incarnation of "Highlander," it refers to "characters created by Gregory Widen." He was an undergraduate college student at UCLA and the "Highlander" script was his class final project. Some producers who regularly pick over student scripts looking for good ones liked his script and bought it from him. Widen, who today is a successful screenwriter and director, says that the largest difference between his original script and the film was that in his original version, the Kurgan was more a very depressed person for whom the competition for the prize was a reason to get up in the morning. He has said that when the film was being shot, Clancy Brown, who played the Kurgan, would come up to him and complain that some of the scenes were dumb. He'd answer something like, "Hey, man, I'm just the author."
I've seen about a dozen reactions by you over what must be something like a year. The single thing I've liked the most about your channel is that you've treated old movies and TV series with great respect. This is the only reaction that I've found disappointing.
Hey ya know we can't hit all the time. It was enjoyable but for me it felt like F&F series. A bunch of fun action but no substance to the story for the whole thing.
@@julienn8844 Hi, Julien. It had enough substance to become part of my private cosmos for the rest of my life. While you were watching, you were joking around a lot. Perhaps you'd notice more on a second viewing. I can only tell you that it connected with my identity on some basic level. I'd suggest that if it were really as insubstantial as you think, it wouldn't have given rise to all that it did. Also, as I said in my comment, the TV show was quite good.
@brandonflorida1092 the TV show we knight do. I'll watch it a second time on my end and get back to ya.
I turned 50 this year. I watch a lot of movies. This has been my favorite movie for 36 years. Real genuine actors and an epic fantasy story. I grew up reading Tarzan and Conan. This is a good goddam movie. By the way, Clancy Brown was a perfect choice, I can't think of any contemporary besides him.
@@kevinhope561 Me too. I think they were joking over a lot of the information in the movie.
According to the storyline, your first death, is the age you remain until you die
This movie you have an American French actor (Christoper Lambert), who was born in New York, but his family moved to Switzerland when he was 2 years old, then he spent time in France when he was 12 years old, now playing a Scottish man. Rumor has it he wasn't fluent in English when the film started. Then you have a Scottish born actor, Sean Connery playing an "Egyptian" coming from Spain and having a Spanish name. Go figure! Telling MacLeod that he is immortal is quite a bit of misinformation because if they get their head lopped off, they will die.
The movie's editing is incredible, interecutting London with NYC. The scene outside of the bar, one side of the wall is London, the other side is NYC. The MSG parking deck is a parking deck in London, with the sides covered in canvas to make it look underground. Sean Connery's scenes were shot first, then all the other Ramirez scenes were shot with a body double, and masterfully edited together. The opening VO was recorded in a mens bathroom at a State Park were SC was filming after Highlander, giving it that distinct sound. There was a whole back story shot for the Kurgan, but it was put in to storage to focus on the McLeod story. The warehouse burned to the ground.
BTW I've seen the Katana up close with my own eyes.
Yes, a Highlander would refer to the people who live in the Scottish Highlands up north
Remember, her point about the katana was it shouldn't exist.
A "Highlander" is a person from a region in Scotland known as "The Scottish Highlands".
"Lord Commander" is in Braveheart and Troy as well. Many iconic things to say about this movie. Clancy Brown as The Kurgan was a hell of a villain. That fight against Ramirez is epic and legendary.
James Cosmo has had a long list of roles in films and TV.
The most important element of Highlander is the line "There can be only one." Forget about watching the other movies or the TV series, they all flush the concept down the toilet.
I don't see that. Sure, they reset the plot in the series but "there can be only one" is still a central tenant. The other movies? Yeah, they're garbage.
Immortals stop aging when they "die" the first time. After that, they can sort of die but come back, unless they are decapitated, at which point the other immortal gets their accumulated power and energy.
The bit about die the first time, that was part of the TV show. The movie didn't do that.
@@Yakerina sure they did, even if they didn't state it out loud. "Ramirez" - Sean Connery's character, whose original name was never given us, wasn't actual Spanish. He was originally Egyptian and was a lot older than the middle-aged man he appears to be, because that's when he died the first time, many centuries earlier. So if they age, it is so extremely slowly as to effectively not be aging as we know it.
@@ernesthakey3396 No. The Kurgan was killed as a child and just stopped aging when he was about 25. Connor was killed at 18 (or 20), and continued aging until he was about 25. So perhaps if you don't happen to get killed too early, you keep aging until you stop of get killed. On the other hand, I hear Connery was first meant to play Connor.
@@Yakerina So, you are claiming something wasn't true in the movie, but was in the show - when what you really doing wasn't canon until the various comic books, one of which was the Kurgan origin story. Since all of that was AFTER the movie I assume, it isn't part of the movie either. The movie didn't say one way or another.
@@Yakerina so, digging around on the Highlander Wiki, the best info I could find on how old Kurgan was when he first died, he almost died as a child, but didn't. After that, later on:
"Travels and Quickenings
At the age of twelve, The Kurgan left home to join bandits preying on caravans crossing the steppes between India and the Mediterranean. As a young man, he experienced his first of "many deaths," becoming an Immortal. Eventually, he encountered another Immortal known as The Bedouin, who explained to him his true nature as an Immortal. The Bedouin became his master and his only friend, teaching him the ways of The Game."
So according to that, he was "a young man", probably older than 12 as it is unlikely he died immediately upon joining the bandits, but no age was given. Definitely not a child.
The aging until about 25 thing is cool, and definitely not in the show as far as I can recall.
I love when ppl watch this for the 1st time and figure out that Kurgen is Mr Crabs. Blows their mind lol
Naw. For me he'll alway be Rawhide from 1984's Buckaroo Banzai.
@@nightthornkvala94132 "Laugh-a while you can, monkey-boy!"
you are right Highlander is a term for people from the north of Scotland known as the Highlands because its full of mountains
Personal recommendation. Watch the series. It expands greatly on the lore and is fantastically fun cheese. The last season can mostly be considered optional because they wanted to make a spin off/sequel series with a female lead to they kept introducing random female characters in attempts at making a back door pilot so most of the last season isn't terrible but it is filled with wasted potential. The did finally make a spinoff with a previously established female character but apparently the producers were so awful to her during the first season she refused to ever work with them again so they had to cancel it because she was the whole show.
When you finish with the series (without or without the last season and the spinoff not being needed) Watch the directors cut of Highlander Endgame. Skip all the other movies. The only exception is if you want to go down the rabbit hole try tracking down all the different cuts of Highlander 2. There are so many cuts, edits, and reshoots that different versions not only have different special effects but COMPLETELY different plots with one involving aliens and another involving time travel and a character from the first movie being brought back from the dead. It is exactly as insane a mess as it sounds like it would be.
This is the perfect comment. The Series is fantastic but needs to be taken in as an alternate universe where The Prize is still up for grabs. The DC of Endgame does a great job with the the main character of the series and the original movie. IF, a watch of Highlander 2 is in the books, I recommend the Renegade Version. That was the vision of the director without studio interference. Highlander 3 is not great, nor is The Source but it ties up the franchise fairly well. Highlander: The Raven was pretty good too.
I would have much preferred a spinoff that followed Methos instead of Amanda. There was so much more potential in his many lives.
It's crazy Ray hasn't seen this before.
As you asked about Connors' old friend he met on the bridge "wearing a gi" - that's not a Japanese garment at all.
The movie presented enough clues to assume if he's an immortal too, he's been around some places
As 'history buffs' you should be aware that there were some empires in the arabian area, so he most probably came from there.
That's why he fought with a scimitar and wore those traditional, bedouin like clothes. He was a Muslim, maybe from Baghdad before Islam turned religious cult, or from the later Osman empire (or both). He could even have come from Numidia though Egypt into Persia, and so on … maybe they gave the actor some specs, but left them out of the movie, because although he was an interesting character, that would have bloated up the story too much. Connor probably had many more friendships like that fading away …
That's where the TV Series went more into, showing what it means to be immortal and passing through the centuries, and it did it well.
Another movie on the same topic would be "The Old Guard", but without the 'There Can Be Only One" plot point.
Shoot you are right. I just assumed the Gi.
I came back a year later to put something on while working. This is still one of my favorite reactions you guys have done because you're not most channels. -- You don't pretend to like stuff you don't like, you guys are funny, clearly paying attention and genuinely like the humor in this movie that passes a lot of ppl by. A+
Thanks bro, that was a fun reaction
It's not Jimmy Snuka, it's The Tonga Kid (Rikishi's brother). Blonde guy was Michael "P.S." Hayes, leader of The Fabulous Freebirds.
Two of my favorite male wrestlers growing up. The Tonga Kid is also relative to The Rock.
>>>There are no sequels. No matter what anyone says. They wrote this movie specifically to be a one and done. And it really should have stayed that way.
The TV show was pretty good.
;) like they seid : There can only be one .
One Movie and One Series ;)
IF there were any other Movies , You shouldn't bother to watch 'em
The machine gun guy. It was the 80s. He was basically a punisher wannabe. They existed, basically mall ninjas.
Yessssss. Heavy Metal. Its what we teens at the time used before we could get Play Boy magazines. lol
"The Heavy Metal Movie" was the perfect cinema embodiment of the mag. The guys should give it a watch, too.
It was a banging mag too, though. I had a sub to Dragon Magazine and my friend had Heavy Metal, and we'd trade over the weekends. Stunning artwork. Great stories, like The Twilight Zone, except sci-fi/fantasy mashups. And yeah, boobs and butts and fantastic sexy girls.
@@willcool713 I was subbed to Dragon mag, too!
Don't forget National Lampoon Magazine and Penthouse Comix both are great one of my best friends had both too bad he got rid of them after he got married should've gave them to me.
I was around a junior in high school when this came out. Didn't see it till a couple years later when it was on vcr tape at video rental store. Instant classic.
Heavy Metal was published up until this year, 2023. Similarly, the original magazine, Metal Hurlant, has persisted in various incarnations. The latest issue of that was in 2022, though they mainly recycle through already published material from 1970s onward
I have always theorized they stop aging when they take their first mortal wound.
Sean Connery, as a British agent, Has Scottish Accent. As a Spanish swordsman, scottish accent. As a Russian Submarine captain, scottish accent. Sean Connery as a Dragon, Scottish accennt, Irish copy, Scottish Accent. And I am ok with all of it.
Yup
Scottish IS a British accent. And there are dozens of different accents in Scorland too.
In the great days of video you used to check out what videos people had when going to people's houses rather than checking the bookshelf. This was one film you could almost guarantee people had, certainly in my circle.
The Highlands is a historical region of Scotland. It covers the north west part of Scotland while the Lowlands cover the south east part of Scotland.
So, cool story about this movie.
I was working at Disney, and we had 36” TVs at the end f every row of cubicals. They were always on. We’re a media company.
One day this movie came on. I’ve the two hours, we literally had 50 people crowd in. Most of them were walking to a meeting, and stopped dead, and skipped their meeting to watch the movie.
Heeeeeeeeeeeeere were are!
Always great to see some new folk introduced to the old Highlander. Fantastic 80's flick, and wonderful watch and review. You might here stories of other movies... but remember, there can be only one.
Seriously, don't seek out the squeals... unless ye be quite inebriated by your vice of choice.
What was the guy with the machine gun doing? In the 1970s and 80s NYC crime was so bad people started becoming vigilantes. Which is what he was doing. As for the line It's better to burn out then fad away. That way a quote from a Def Leopard song.
The wrestling match at the beginning was between the Fabulous Freebirds (Michael PS Hayes was the guy with the Confederate flag cape thing) and Greg Gagne, The Tonga Kid, and Jim Brunzell. The Freebirds were massive in the mid-80s. Studd would’ve been more 70s.
Studd was more int he 70s, but he was in the WWF in the early days of Vince Jr's national expansion during the mid-80s, so a lot of people know him from there.
Highlander is about Connor MacLeod (Chris Lambert), who is immortal lived among Scottish Highlanders. Scottish Highlanders shunned Connors from the clan because they thought that he is the Devil. Kurgan (Clancy Brown), evil immortal, and Ramirez (Sean Connery), other immortal helps Connors in fighting skills.
Prize is to become mortal.
Sean Connery recorded the opening narrative in his bathroom, which accounts for the echoing effect.
The wrestlers were the Fabulous Freebirds.
Ahahahha man as a kid in the 1980's I was so obsessed with this movie. My Barbies and My Little Ponies were all highlander immortals for years of me growing up. Fun to see younger generations checking it out. (Along with someone who is a TOUCH older than me but didn't see it back then and get so into it.)
One of our favorite drinking movies when I was in college. Y’all need to watch “Big Trouble In Little China,” “The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai,” and the original “Deathrace 2000.” Nobody does “Heavy Metal” either. Great animated movie!
It may seem a bit silly now, but when we watched this in the 80’s, it blew our minds! It seems that this movie didn’t resonate with you. Y’all kinda logicked all the fun out of this movie. It’s immortal guys sword fighting in NYC to Queen music. Don’t question; just enjoy.
After Ricardo Montalban’s Khan Noonian Singh and Hans Gruber, The Kurgan is my favorite movie villain of all time. A Highlander is a Scottsman from the Scottish Highlands. More likely Sean Connery’s character was inspired by Puss In Boots. That story predates Highlander by a long time. The WW II scene was cut from the theatrical.
as a meme I never posted, but I took the picture from the poster of Highlander, superimposed Danny Trejo's face over Christopher Lambert's face, and below the captioning, "There can be only Juan!"
You guys cracked me up so much during this- loved it!
This movie was a lot of fun
In Scotland there three divisions of the territory, the Islands, the Lowlands (close to and bordering England), and northern areas, the Highlands.
Great Movie, glad you got to see it.. It always cracks me up though listening to the accents.. We have a Scotsman with a French Accent, and a Spaniard with a Scottish Accent..err..Egyptian
LMAO
You guys need to rewatch the movie. Some of the problems you had with the movie were explained in the movie. The katana was, as Connery said, created by a genius before it's time. The lady expert dated the sword to before such a weapon should have been built - as she said to Conner, like finding a 747 way before the Wright brothers. That is why she was so interested. The "prize" as Conner said at the end, was omniscience.
Great film,loved it when it came out. Loved your reaction.
You asked about what highlander is.
If you're from the Highlands of Scotland to the North, you're a highlander.
The islands... islander
Cental Scotland is the Lowlands... lowlander.
Around the south and our border is the Uplands... uplander.
And at the time depicted back in Scotland, there was no UK or GB.
This film stired up Scots passion for our past.
And then... Braveheart!!! WOW!
Saor Alba gu brath 💙🏴
If you could breed underwater, and we’re in a mortal and decided to go look for Atlantis, I assume that if you go to a place with two higher pressure, it would crush your head in this cause you to die! I love this movie site and I was like teenager in the 80s.
As for the budget....... I don't know how high the budget was without looking it up, but I do know that the actor who played the villain, Clancy Brown, basically did not get paid, which is one of the reason why he did not want to appear in the sequel....... the other being that he hated the script.
you stop aging when you die the first time in the tv series you saw female, children and old imortals
The World War 2 scene was actually cut out of the theatrical version.
Heeerree we arrrreeee born to be kiiiinnngggs. We are the Princes of the uuuuniverrrrrse!
Excellent sound track
I've been waiting for y'all to do this reaction just so I could comment this! Enjoy!
Imagine a comedy spoof of the Highlander movies/TV series where instead of gaining their knowledge, wisdom, and skill when they decapitate another immortal, they collect their chromosomes. They just get more and more hurr durr with each kill. On top of that, science hasn't really figured out why certain numbers of chromies turn people into genius gigachads or vegetables with the processing power of an extra crispy dingleberry. This means on kill number 20, you could have the strength of a literal god shouting "There can only be one!", but on kill 21, you become a floppy mumbling and screeching mess of fecal matter, sweat, and other mysterious fluids screaming something about potatoes and butt plugs in an ungodly combination of mismatched words and you just might accidentally cut your own head off because "*HEUGH HEUGH HEUGH* FUNNY SHARP NECKLACE!" flies into your head. Either way, have fun with "THERE CAN BE ONLY POTATO!" periodically entering your brain throughout the day!
Mainland Scotland is divided into mountains (highlanders) and coast (lowlanders).
A friend of mine has a replica of the Clan McCloud broadsord seen at the beginning.
Your complaints about this movie stem from the fact that the script started out as a "romance" about an immortal hiding their existence in the modern world, who doesn't want to fall in love again because the inevitable loss is too painful, and must fight their overwrought melodramatic feelings for the woman investigating him. You may not be familiar with this genre, but it is standard that the woman is an irrational pain in the butt so that the man can forgive her out of love. Also the man being a widower is very genre trope as it allows women to live out a "he loves me more" cheating fantasy without the associated negativity.
So basically, everything good about this movie came from the director realizing the story was stupid and adding in a little world building with the immortals all fighting to the death cutting off each other's heads. Also the Queen soundtrack is epic.
If you want to delve deeper into this genre try Alfred Hitchcock's film Marnie starring Sean Connery. Romancing the Stone is another film in this genre I could recommend as it actually pokes fun at some of the tropes.
This is a very good movie. They put HER in the story, because every movie needs a love interest- that the bad guy needs to kidnap. The ending??? He knows everything ( answer 42 )🤣 then he dies in 40 years
I have replicas of all of the swords used in this film as well as quite a few from the t.v. series. Approximately $30,000 worth. (Just a small fraction of my collection)
36:26 But that story had to change in order for them to knock out a few sequels.
According to lore, you stop aging at your first death.
The ww2 scene is only in the director cut
Not sure if it's mentioned, but, you become immortal after the first time you die and some back.
Clancy brown was great as the villain
'Highlander' is a great & fun fantasy movie IMO. The campy cheese added to the fun. There was no 'Highlander 2' sequel turning a great fantasy into a really bad sci fi story. No sequels to look for ... Nope.
Clancy Brown owned the role of The Kurgan. His cruel sense of humor was cracking me up at times.
Your comment about comparisons between Heavy Metal magazine and Highlander May not be far off.
Both stories had their hay days in the 80’s and both have a French background. The cartoon series Highlander had the French illustrator influences.
This movie had that Heavy Metal magazine vibe
Connery is Scottish playing Egyptian working for Spanish, while Conner McCloud was played by a French actor (who later became Tarzan). Literally I was a fan because of Clancy Brown - his first major movie (although he was payed next to nothing for it), and the Queen soundtrack.
Highlander wasn't Clancy Brown first major movie it was Bad Boys in 1983
So how you talk after the movie, that's why there was a HL2 and a TV series. Also, you get the joy of watching the whole movie. Quite a lot of the things you thought were too much weren't in the theatre release. Consequently, people were quite happy to be able to see them. Because we always want what we can't have.
I'd love to see you react to the series episodes. The first one if nothing else where they sort of pass the buck from Connor MacLeod (Christopher Lambert) to his 80-years younger kinsman and student Duncan MacLeod (Adrian Paul).
There can be only one... movie that is. The rest of the series is... regrettable.
I knew there was a series, and I think more than one movie. I never knew if they were any good or not
@@RKnights Yeah I think the OP was talking about the movies-there are 7 of them I believe. The actual tv series was far better than any of the films, IMHO, including the first one.
@@RKnights The movies that come after this are just... so bad. The only way to understand is to watch them. So, if you want to do an intentionally bad movie series reaction, this'd be it.
@@Raktus To quote the late great film critic Roger Ebert re:the second film-"HIghlander 2: The Quickening-What a title!"
You stop aging upon your 1st death.
The WW2 scene wasn't in the original release it was bonus footage that they put in the extended version and all following versions.
The Prize is whatever the immortal wants it to be. Connor wanted to be mortal and have kids and the Kurgan wanted to be a god.
That's why she was looking for the sword it shouldn't exist.
What you wanted from this this movie is in the show.
This was a great theater experience. It helps that it has one of the greatest movie villains of all time. I didn't like the first sequel.
I did not quite like #2, but #3 was good. The TV series is very good.
Great to see you guys!
Nice shirt Julian, my color.
Thank you
You become immortal upon the first time you die and come back .
Immortals after a certain point can sense other immortals or those with the potential to become a immortal.
The more Immortals a imoral kills the stronger they become they heal faster ,they return from death faster .
The marine ishas ptsd keep in mind this is at the hight of the cold war ,so hemay have washed out of the corps.
You know what gets me? COnnor comes back to life and they think it's the work of the Devil instead of a blessing from God - rising from the dead like Jesus... Being as religious as they are you'd figure at least 1 person would assume it was a holy thing instead of demonic.
Leave it at this, questions and all like we all had to growing up, lol. Number 2 is a dumpster fire, number 3 tries to get back on track, but it's too late. The series is good but you know the characters have to die before the first movie ends. Great movie just as a one and done.
Queen had an album with most of the songs from the soundtrack on, called "News Of The World"
No, it was called "A Kind of Magic". "News of the World" was released in 1977 and "Highlander" came out in 1986.
@@Easy_Skanking I was trying to remember without having to look it up
@@Easy_Skanking Facts 💯
There can be only one!
Only one push of the like button for each viewer.
There can only be one channel!
@@miller-joel we are the princes of the algorithm!
@@miller-joel If that were true, CZcams would be a much better place indeed.
@@miller-joel Oddly enough, I have a sword...
@@miller-joel 😜
Ignore the sequel!!!!!!!!
Those backflips were a hilarious meme in action movies in the 80s. I forget where it started, but obviously producers demanded that directors insert backflips for no reason other than "the audience will like it." I always thought it was cringe. Very much like how Woo would put a dove in his action scenes.
What does ‘incompetent’ mean?
What does ‘baffled’ mean?
One of the best movies ever!
So... we don't talk about the other movies.
one of the craziest performances by clancy brown. as for the movie, if we ignore the moments typical of eighties movies, it is still watchable. the series - good for its time, but if it comes today, I would pay attention to it. the two sequels ...horror! as if those from disney practiced before they started ruining star wars!
If you liked this movie do NOT watch Highlander 2. Well, you can watch it and without spoiling it, they completely change the lore. I love the first movie, H2 - not so much.
You need to do Christopher Lambert in "Greystoke Legend of Tarzan"
One of my favorite movies
The second movie was so atrocious they made like four different versions from different cuts to try to improve it.
I have the katana from this movie and the one from the TV show
There is a Highlander 2... 3.... 4.... 5....
They are such absolute trash.... I normally don't warn against sequels, because hey, a person should make up their own minds on them... BUT... the 2nd movie, I worked at a movie theatre when it came out and I was SO excited to see it, being a fan of the original.... and it was like the people that made the 2nd movie didn't even watch the first one. There are fight scenes where they must have filmed different versions of them and when they cut them together to make a workable scene, you could tell the characters hairstyles and clothing were changing from edit to edit. It was one of the worst movies I have ever seen.
The 3rd and 4th movies were not much better, and frankly I remember very little of them.
The 5th movie I saw over at a friends place when it came out direct to video.... and I wanted to shut the movie off when the main villain started singing "Who Wants To Live Forever" in the actual movie. It haunts me to his day.... other than the first film, this series is one of the worst movie series I have ever seen - which is a terrible thing being that the original film was so good.
Called my son Connor after this haha,he did become Scottish jnr kickboxing at 12yrs tho so maybe the name did something 😂
The Original Tron not the newer one
I love this film, but I also agree with all your criticisms. The original screenplay is much more serious in tone and explains the "rules" better. I think this is one of those films where the concept is so good, but the film doesn't fully deliver. The visuals and transitions were awesome though.