Highlander II - The Quickening

Christopher Lambert and Sean Connery Return For Movie Sequel

Oct 10, 2009

Christopher Lambert, Sean Connery and director Russell Mulcahy return for this science-fiction sequel to Highlander.

It is the year 2024. Connor MacLeod (Christopher Lambert) is now ageing and close to death. The world has gone to hell thanks to a shield invented by McLeod and another scientist to protect the Earth from the radiation pouring through the damaged ozone layer. Now the place looks like a cross between a Blade Runner style dystopia and Russell Mulcahy’s video for Duran Duran’s single ‘Wild Boyz.’

Connor McLeod is an AlienMcLeod remembers his past on the planet Zeist where his involvement in a rebellion against the evil General Katana resulted on his banishment to Earth. After winning the Prize in Highlander McLeod is mortal and willing to accept death, but Katana sends men after him to kill him for sure. McLeod’s youth is restored after one of the assassins loses his head and he gains power from a process called The Quickening.

Eco-terrorist Louise Marcus (Virginia Madsen) infiltrates The Shield Corporation and discovers there is no longer any need for the Earth to be protected from radiation. Shield’s cynical CEO David Blake (John C. McGinlay) is profiting by keeping the information secret and insisting the world still needs protection. Louise tracks down McLeod, but he needs help from his old friend Ramirez (Sean Connery) to destroy Shield.

By making McLeod an alien and explaining his origins the producers removed much of what made the original so popular. There are flashbacks in Highlander II but none of them relate to McLeod having lived through the centuries as an immortal. Instead they are about the events that led to his banishment from his home planet. There are a few pictures in his home showing him at different points in history, but disappointingly no actual filmed sequences.

Highlander II is not a complete write-off. Mulcahy does provide some inspired touches in his direction such as the impressive opening sequence with a crane shot tracking through an opera house until it finds McLeod on the balcony sleeping through the show. There are amusing TV ads for a TV show called ‘The Psychic Cook’ and an even better in-flight safety advertisement showing all the worst things that could happen to you on a plane. That’s it really.

Christopher Lambert has a nice moment when he explains to Louise how beautiful the sky is, but the rest of the film passes him by. Virginia Madsen is beautiful and probably used to starring in Sci-fi turkeys after working on David Lynch’s Dune (1984). Connery’s entrance during a performance of ‘Hamlet’ is amusing, but there is no reason for him to even be in this movie.

Michael Ironside is a great actor and made a fine villain in Scanners (David Cronenberg 1981) and Total Recall (Paul Verhoeven 1990) but there is nothing he can do with a character like Katana. John C. McGinlay (Scrubs) is better though as the sarcastic evil executive of The Shield Corporation.

A director’s cut of Highlander II is available on DVD which alters the film considerably. The most notable change is the removal of McLeod’s alien origins. Instead of being from the planet Zeist, McLeod is now from Earth’s distant past and banished from his own time into the future. The launch of the Shield programme is now part of a flashback shown later in the film, rather than as a scene-setter at the beginning.

There is also a lengthy fight on top of a truck sequence filmed a couple of years after the original opened in cinemas and a moment where Louise sees the blue sky for the first time. These changes aren’t enough to save Highlander II – The Quickening. The first movie provided the kind of ending that was fairly definitive; McLeod won the Prize and there was nobody else left to fight. There really should have been only one.

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