Highlander reboot slated for 2014

Well it makes since. If Adrian Paul played the part of Connor, then he would of been compared. And the show may have never lasted as long as it did, because of it.

Also, I think they'd have had to of put in Connors adopted daughter as well...ect...ect...

Agreed.

As to Duncan compared to Connor, well in fairness Duncan got a lot more screentime and thus character development.

Adrian Paul though showed nice versatility as an actor in the assorted flashbacks and episodes, had excellent sword training on the show, and also isn't blind as a mole without corrective glasses, no offense to Lambert on that last just stating it as it is.

Connor Macleod: Lambert did a nice job in the movies of conveying the personal agony that one can suffer due to being immortal and thus outliving everyone they meet. In the first movie I could feel the weariness of the years upon him. Had Brenda Wyatt not given him something extra to fight for I don't think he would have been able to take down the Kurgan. Movie 2 despite how bad it was, Connor at the start still showed the pain of having outlived everyone despite being mortal and then how he stepped back a bit in fearful anticipation before the quickening hit him. Movie 3: he again shows the personal pain well, but that doesn't disguise that movie 3 is a rewritten movie 1. In Endgame I thought Connor was so out of it that he needed to find a mental home on holy ground and spend a few centuries on prozac. However even though Connor rigged the fight so that Duncan would win, I suspect that Connor's beheading was a mercy for him. He was sick of it all and didn't have the inner strength to fight Kell. (Too bad too as I think one of the original plans for the big fight was for Connor and Duncan to break the rule of 'fights must be one on one only' to fight him.)

Duncan Macleod: Adrian also did an excellent job showing the personal pain that immortality can bring. Duncan however appears to be more of a positive personality then Connor and he can usually get over the pain or put it aside at least better then Connor. Duncan also seems more accepting of being immortal then Connor. Connor seemed more intent on living the life of a quiet antique dealer and not be part of society. Duncan did the antique dealer thing until Tessa was killed, then he does other things like join a dojo then buys the dojo, works as a part time teacher in a few episodes, and more. Of course he didn't need to work since over the years he learned economics rather well and amassed a nice sum of money but he still stayed active and didn't just mope around the antique shop like Connor seemed to.

One thing I didn't like in Endgame was the plot device about "Kell has the most kills of all active immortals" thus we are to think that Kell who isn't much older then Duncan is nearly unstoppable, plus had he taken down Duncan it would have been his 666th kill...... I always felt that quality of the quickening beats quantity. Duncan slew many immortals older then himself, some being ancients like Grayson and two of the horsemen. I don't think absorbing Connor's quickening was all that necessary to defeat Kell but they wanted to kill Connor.

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I think the "want" to kill Connor, was more of a Christopher Lambert is getting to old to continue playing an Immortal, and I'm sure they had planned on releasing more theatrical releases, only they didn't do a great job in the movies to get mass appeal.

Well the Source was supposed to start a trilogy but we can see how well that worked.

And yes, Lambert is too old to be Connor, or rather I should say that he doesn't appear to age as gracefully as others can. Adrian Paul doesn't quite look his years, but Lambert on the other hand looks his age.

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No prob, toss me any other Highlander questions you might have.

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The Quickening is supposed to be the lifeforce, knowledge, spirit, and allegedly any special powers that the immortal has. Generally speaking it's limited to the knowledge of the immortal and of course knowledge does equal power.

Examples of immortals getting an extra effect from a Quickening

1. Darius killed an immortal holy man and the quickening changed Darius from an evil conqueror to a holy man.

2. Duncan's old friend whose Indian tribe predated other tribes absorbed too much evil and turned evil. Duncan tried to cleanse him but failed and then cut him down. However this was a Dark Quickening and Duncan overloaded from all that evil and turned evil until Methos helped him purge it.

3. Original movie continuity: Connor gains the prize and now is an omnitelepath and can read minds across the world and who knows what else, yet is also a mortal which makes no sense. I think recent Highlander comics that link to the series retconned Kurgan's quickening into a massive power boost and a dark quickening due to Kurgan's evil.

4. Third movie: Mako's character Nakano had the power to cast illusions. Connor refused when Nakano offered his head and power to Connor. Kane takes down Nakano but Nakano uses the last of his power to seal the cave and Kane for 400 years. Kane emerges with the illusion power but Connor defeats him and allegedly now has the prize. Connor now should have the power of illusion but I doubt he'd use it.

The "temp death" made sense. They only die for real when decapitated but that doesn't mean a bullet in the heart won't put them down for a few minutes until they regenerate, and being immortal doesn't mean "feel no pain" either. It's a good weakness to slow them down enough for the final kill.

Yes, the lack of a Methos spin off was disappointing.

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This is in the Director's cut of the original film, if you can find it on DVD. Connor becomes omniscient and all-powerful. I don't think him becoming mortal was mentioned. The Prize was godhood, not mortality. (Mortality's kind of a sucky prize, after all.)

Haven't seen the directors cut of the original highlander, however, in the theatrical release, it was mortality, and that he could have kids.

Have to agree, the mortality is kinda sucky. It always made me wonder why any of the evil immortals would want the prize.

"I'm the last! I've gotten all this power!"

*BAM BAM BAM*

"Oh crap! I've been shot and I'm dying slowly!"

Actually, there are two different "flavors" of immortality between the movies and the series.

In the original movie and pre-series sequels, immortals are pretty much invincible to mundane injury. Connor gets "drowned" in a lake but doesn't need to breathe and just walks out across the bottom. The Kurgan gets shot to cheese with an SMG and it barely slows him down; the wounds obviously heal in a matter of moments.

The series and subsequent movies, OTOH, use the "die and get better" approach. Probably because it gives more narrative freedom to challenge the characters.

Also, movies immortals seem to be just born that way. Series immortals only have the potential and require a violent death to kick-start the process; it is also implied, though never definitively established, that they're all foundling orphans.

I'm just kind of curious which approach the reboot may take.

Also, personal nitpick -- "Kurgan" is not the character's name, it's his tribal affiliation. So he's "the Kurgan" just as MacLeod is "the Highlander." His personal name is never revealed.

I always took it as implied that the transition to mortality was a choice for the victor to make, part of the Prize.

Connor became mortal because that's what he wanted: to be able to live, love, grow old and have kids with his wife.

The Kurgan, OTOH, loved immortality, power and the ability to inflict pain, so that's probably the Prize he would have gotten.

In both the theatrical and director's cut he tells Brenda that he is like her now, mortal, can grow old and have kids.

Yet he's also omniscient......

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Connor did not become immortal until he died after the Kurgan sliced him up in the battlefield. Dying is still needed to activate the immortality.

As to Connor not drowning in the movie, vs immortals "drowning" in the series.... that one is open to interpretation. An immortal regenerates injuries and wounds but I doubt their power manufactures oxygen and immortals still need to breathe. So if Connor used up all the air in his lungs he could "drown" until being removed from the water where his power would revive him.

Kurgan taking the SMG rounds and not being slowed, well he is the Kurgan and is a bit tough, but this was likely changed for the series. A gun shot wound will hurt an immortal and a shot that is fatal to us only temporarily stops them. Also they DO feel the pain and could conceivably black out from the agony of a bullet in the heart or head. Cut an immortal and they will briefly bleed until the wound seals up. Cut off an arm and it won't grow back, such as when Duncan "disarmed" Xavier St Cloud in Season 1, though if Xavier had been able to retrieve his severed arm and hold it in place, maybe it would have reattached but that is speculation.

Throat wounds, if deep enough will leave a scar on an immortal and likely damaged their vocal cords, Kurgan and Kalas are examples of that. This would be due to a throat wound being dangerously close to decapitation.

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The Prize is open to speculation as to what it truly is. The only valid description is that it is all the quickenings and knowledge of all the immortals combined into the last one. Knowledge IS power, yes. But what else would the Prize do? Is it wish fulfillment, thus becoming mortal in the case of Connor, and an eternity of darkness if one like Kurgan gets it? Also what would happen if the recipient of the Prize were to be killed, either be being decapitated or ground to pieces, or dying of old age?

It's all speculation, and even METHOS doesn't know. 5000+ years old and even he doesn't know for sure what the game is all about or the true nature of the Prize. Either none of the first immortals ever knew or the secrets were lost.

And no the Prize is not going home to Planet Zeist

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Except that Connor did feel the presence of the Kurgan before the battle even began, which series proto-immortals never did.

Also, Connor's wound was fatal but never actually killed him; we see him lying agonized but alive after the Kurgan is driven away. Cut to the scene later that night where he is up and uninjured while his clansmen look on suspiciously. At no time does anybody say "You were dead!" They express disbelief that he didn't die.

It seems pretty clear to me: Ramirez rocks the boat, throwing Connor overboard and rows away while Connor is thrashing in the water, unable to swim. Cut to Connor sitting calmly on the bottom of the lake, looking around and laughing. (Air bubbles come out of his mouth when he laughs but that was just a practical matter of filming the scene.) Cut to Connor creeping out of the water at the lake's shore, trying to sneak up on Ramirez. Nowhere does it show Connor suffering from lack of air, or "dying" until retrieved.

But in the series, it explicitly shows drowned immortals not reviving until air hits their lungs. An obvious difference.

It is quite possible that despite laughing underwater that Connor did not use all his air supply.

In any event, yes the series did alter some things and clarify a few others such as the fights being one on one only, and gave expansion on the holy ground rule other then "it's tradition". So it's all good.

Fights are one on one since the power only goes to the one that did the beheading: in season 1 when Amanda first appeared, Duncan beats down the villain of the week but before he beheads him Amanda stepped in and cut down the villain and the power went to her while Duncan stood and watched. This was shown again in ep 100 when Duncan cuts down Caspian and dives off the bridge with the power flowing to him and not to Silas who was only a few feet away. At first my impression was that fights were one on one out of an unspoken code of honor until these two events showed why.

Holy Ground: not just "tradition" but a major implication that the heavens do not take kindly to an immortal killing another immortal on holy ground. Whether this applies to an immortal killing a mortal on holy ground isn't known, but it doesn't apply when a mortal kills and immortal on holy ground as shown when the Hunters killed Darius in his church.

Makes one wonder if the immortals are angels and devils fighting for control of Earth for their respective side.....

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I recall one episode where a watcher cut off an immortals head, and Duncan and another Immortal got the quickening.

That was back in late Season 4 when the Watcher's were experiencing many deaths of their agents and blamed Joe telling Duncan of the Watchers and put Joe on trial.

Duncan intervened and spoke for Joe in the trial under the condition that if Joe is guilty so is Macleod and both would die. Much evidence was brought against them and evidence was brought out to show that if Joe and Duncan hadn't allied with each other that Horton and Kalas wouldn't have been stopped. The head of the tribunal though was a stubborn idiot and was ignoring alot of it then stopped the trial and had summary judgment rendered when he learned that his son was just killed.

Turns out that during Horton's hunts, an immortal named Jacob Golati and his immortal wife were attacked. Horton took her head and Jacob got her power but escaped, and then later learned of the Watchers and began hunting them. He was captured with the aid of Joe and the head of the Watchers beheaded Jacob and Duncan was within range and received the power. Duncan escaped and later came back to hunt the head of the tribunal and easily go to him and "convinced" him to cease and desist any more retributive hunts against the immortals with a few scare tactics. Later Joe tells Duncan that teh Watchers are reorganizing and that the head of the tribunal was retired. This incident though put a heavy strain on their friendship that wasn't mended until Season 5.

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This on oh so many levels.

Yeah, Connor felt the Kurgan, and the feeling in the movie was described akin to sudden nausea, or feeling ill. But the strange thing about Connor and the Kurgan’s first meeting is that the Kurgan already knew that Connor was immortal or would be immortal. He even knew his name, and had made a deal so that no others would kill him. I’m of the opinion that Connor may have already been immortal, because the Kurgan tried to take Connor’s head right there on the battlefield.
However, Connor didn’t feel Ramirez the first time they met. At least not for about 10 seconds. But then again, he was busy with Hether at the time. Funny how both the Kurgan and Ramirez seemed to know who and what Connor was before they met. Now I can kinda see Ramirez wandering the Highlands and hearing stories when he stops in Glenfinnen, then deciding to see what they were all about. But just HOW did Kurgan know about Connor beforehand?


Having done a rewatch this evening, I can say that this scene is rather ambiguous. Yeah, we see Connor on a bed wrapped up in bandages and his two-faced girlfriend wailing over (He’s a Highlander by God. The last thing he hears should not be that of a wailing woman!) his body. However, the priest also gave him last rights and Connor’s eyes are wide open and he’s awfully pale. If you listen carefully, you hear very shallow breathing, almost a ‘death rattle’. And then we pull out with a electrical type flashing to the next scene. Couple this with somewhere in one of the movie versions of learning that Ramirez first died by being run over by a card in Egypt, and we could probably conclude the Connor breathed his last and the flashing was his immortality kicking in. I’m not saying that’s right, but it’s one interpretation.

It’s not quite Connor getting falling out of the boat, Ramirez paddling away (you can’t drown you fool, you’re immortal!), and then Connor on the bottom. There’s a several seconds of him sinking to the bottom – screaming all the way! By the time he reaches the bottom and starts to look around himself in wonder and start laughing, there shouldn’t be any air in his lungs. We’re not really given how long he was underwater, but it was enough time for Ramirez to get back to shore, start a fire, and have it burn down quite a ways. Connor was pretty much dropped off in the middle of that lake. There’s no way that he should have had any oxygen in his lungs by the time he got to shore.

Now on to some other topics, since I'm on a roll here:
One thing that I noticed in my quick re-watch is that the two quickening we see the Kurgan gain do not have the flashy electrical effects that we see with Connor’s. When he defeats Ramirez, he stretches out his arms and slowly, with what looks like great effort, brings his hands together in front of his chest around his sword hilt. He does this again after taking Kastagir’s head in the alley. It’s not until after he does this that a single lightning bolt strikes the tower he is standing on in Ramirez’s case. And there’s no lightning at all in Kastagir’s case, just a whole lot of exploding glass. It’s almost as if he is somehow resisting the whole lightning effect with his ritualized actions. Weird.

As for Holy Ground, Ramirez’s line is “You’re safe only on Holy Ground. None of us will violate that law. It’s tradition.” Right there we don’t know if it’s actually a rule or tradition. But the Holy Ground part really isn’t explored in the movie, other than that scene with Connor and the Kurgan in NYC.

At the very end of the movie, while Connor is receiving the Prize he speaks these lines: “The Quickening is what powers me! I feel everything! I know! I know everything! I am everything!”

And lastly:
In the movie, it seems like when two Immortals get together there is atmospheric disturbances. Both the first time Connor ‘met’ the Kurgan, and within seconds of meeting Ramirez the sky clouded up and lightning struck all around and rain started. In fact, I think every time in the first movie that Immortals fought there was rain and lightning. This gathering of power, it’s disturbances, and the sensation it produced in Connor was what Ramirez actually called the Quickening – at least in their first meeting. Later in the training montage there’s brief, maybe 30 second, scene-lette where Ramirez shows Connor a stag. He then proceeds to give Connor some sort of telepathic/empathic lesson where they “feel the stag.” I don’t believe that I have seen anybody expound on this little snippet of the movie.

Many things in the movie were not explained such as just how Kurgan knew Connor. the proximity sense that alerts immortals that another is nearby is pretty short ranged so Kurgan would have to be in the Macleod village to sense Connor as an immortal and someone like Kurgan would stick out like a sore thumb in the village. As for Kurgan trying for Connor's head in the battle field, well that IS the only way to kill an immortal and would guarantee that a pre-immortal wouldn't regenerate and arise.

As to the atmospheric disturbances, I chalk that up to dramatic license for the movie as well as the fact that they didn't expect Highlander to become a money making franchise.

As to the quickenings early in the movie not having lighting, I chalk that up to budget problems and not having properly defined what the Quickening is at the time.

Holy Ground was expanded upon a bit in the Third movie and the Season 5 episode "Little Tin God". basically the implication is that the heavens will frown upon an immortal beheading another on holy ground.

Connor was dying from Kurgan's wound, while the scene is a bit ambiguous I think it's safe to say he died and then regenerated.

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I'd agree with you if not for a few quibbles. First, Ramirez's and Kastagir's quickenings weren't early in the movie. Ramirez was about half way through and Kastagir was about 2/3. Kastagir did have the glowing, floating body, however.

Second, if it was a budget issue or ill-defined concept, when Panzer/Davis went back over the movie for the 10th Anniversary edition in 1996, or the Immortal Edition in 2002, those things could, and probably should have been added. And yet they weren't. The fixes that Panzer/Davis made to H2 in the Renegade and Special editions prove that if they had the money and will, they would make changes. But they didn't. By the time the 10th anniversary and Immortal editions were made for H1, the series had been out for four seasons and had established quickenings pretty well. Yet they leave the quickenings that the Kurgan recieves the same as the original movie. Wierd, huh?