Weirdhouse Cinema Rewind: Highlander II, Part 1
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This is an iHeart Podcast. Hey, welcome to Weird House Cinema Rewind. This is another vacation week, so we figured this is another great opportunity to re-air a past Weird House Cinema two-parter. This is going to be part one of Joe and I's discussion of Highlander 2, The Quickening.

I think if you're a longtime listener to the show, you know that we have a strange appreciation for this weird, weird picture. This episode originally published 4-27-2024. Let's dive right in. Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. ♪

Hey, welcome to Weird House Cinema. This is Rob Lamb. And I am Joe McCormick. And today on Weird House Cinema, I am so excited because we're going to be talking about the 1991 sci-fi fantasy action film Highlander II The Quickening, starring Christophe Lambert, Sean Connery, Virginia Madsen, and Michael Ironside. This is the Weird House Cinema.

dank, detested sequel to the original Highlander from 1986. And I have butterflies in my stomach. I'm so happy to talk about this today. Now, some of our longtime listeners might say, whoa, whoa, whoa. Didn't you guys already cover Highlander 2? We have not covered it for Weird House Cinema. We did a pre-Weird House Cinema Stuff to Blow Your Mind episode back when we really had to shoehorn a weird movie into a core episode of Weird

We really had it in our hearts to do so. But we did not get to give it the Weird House treatment. I think we ended up talking about some of the science of proposed geoengineering projects and stuff like that, which is a plot point in the film. Yeah, yeah. So we'll probably do less of that in this and focus more on everything else. But fortunately, Highlander 2 is a film with plenty of everything else.

Now, a little note at the top here. This episode of Weird House Cinema may well go to two parts. We don't usually do that on Weird House. We did recently do it when we talked about David Lynch's Dune and we promised it would not become a regular thing.

But David Lynch's Dune seemed deservingly massive. And while we still don't plan on making it a regular thing to split Weird House movies into multiple episodes, Highlander 2 just kind of seemed on par with Dune. You know, equally majestic, equally epic, equally deserving. So while this is still not what we're usually going to do on the show, we're going to split today's episode into part one and part two as well. It'll make more sense once we start talking. Okay, okay.

So Highlander 2 is a movie that I have seen, I don't know how many times, at least a dozen times, maybe two dozen times, if I'm honest. Many, many times going back to my high school years. This was a favorite movie of mine to watch with my friends when I was younger. I sort of, I had a VHS tape of it that I would just show to everybody. Every time I made a new friend, it's like, let's watch Highlander 2. So despite the fact that this movie is great,

infamous for its awfulness and hated by most Highlander fans. This is a movie I positively adore, and I really mean that. As Roger Ebert said in his review, Highlander 2 is a movie, quote, almost awesome in its badness. This is

Not just like your run of the mill bad movie. Bad movies can be dull. They can be off putting. They can be boring or distasteful in Highlander 2. It's like all great badness. The badness itself takes on characteristics that we really associate with greatness and specifically great storytelling.

The badness of Highlander 2 is zesty, invigorating, hilarious, thought-provoking, and emotionally powerful. This movie is completely malfunctioning in ways that make me want to live my life to the fullest.

And so in that way, I think the closest thing I could think of to compare it to is like the best films of Ed Wood. It's sort of like Plan 9 from Outer Space. It's so dumb. It becomes brilliant. It's so ugly. It becomes beautiful. And every time I watch it, it just puts a spring in my step. I love Highlander 2. Well, yeah, I don't disagree with the positive spin on Highlander 2 at all. I will throw

throw in there that it's especially in some of his best scenes it's far more technically proficient than plan nine from outer space oh yeah certainly yeah but but it is it is still a train wreck of a film not only is it a train wreck it features a train wreck with a sword fight on top of it that's right and then it has everything it has one of the most creative train related uh

I can't even finish that sentence here. We'll just have to get into it with the plot. So Highlander 2 is the story of a man...

in a downward spiral of loneliness, abjection, and physical decay. It is the story of an act of love and genius meant to save the world that instead only damns the world to a state of living hell. It is the story of people whose lives are governed by forces that can't really be understood either as natural or

or supernatural. It's a world where magic is random and new rules are constantly revealed. And every time you learn something new, Sean Connery is just standing there winking at you like, didn't you know this is how it worked? And I love that quality about it. There is a capriciousness to the rules of magic in this movie that is really intoxicating. It's like, what are we going to find out next?

So this is going to preserve our long-running tradition of jumping straight into a sequel without covering the original film.

But in this case, to really understand Highlander 2, to understand its surprising narrative choices, its little cranky little quirks, and what you might call its reception history by the fans and the general public, I think we do need to start with a basic rundown on the original Highlander. Like, what was this story about, and how did it find such an enthusiastic fan base?

Well, I'll try and keep it reasonably short because we could easily do a whole Weird Al's episode on 1986's Highlander. And we even we discussed it. We still might do it someday.

Because ultimately Highlander is a weirder and more ridiculous film than I think a lot of people remember, especially when comparing it to Highlander 2. Like you forget the like three dozen backflips that one of the immortals does in an early fight. You forget that it opens up in the bowels of a wrestling arena and so forth. There's a lot of weird choices in the film.

The first fight is like guys who are trying to cut each other's heads off in a parking garage at a wrestling event at Madison Square Garden, I think. Yeah, it is. It's Madison Square Garden. It's like the fabulous Freebirds are wrestling. Yeah. And they're trying to chop at each other. And you're right. One of them is doing backflips over the hoods of cars or something. So it's a film that's full of action movie machismo. But it also boasts just a deliriously fun Queen soundtrack. Yeah.

And I think is perhaps understudied as a film potentially exploring themes and subtext of gay identity in the 1980s. I keep looking around for examples of like cinema study scholarship that really digs into this.

And I found some like passing references to Highlander, but nobody's really gotten in there. So I keep hoping that somebody will. Maybe it's your destiny to write this book. I'm not the person to write it, but I would love to read someone's take on it. But anyway, Highlander 1, 1986, is the tale of a 16th century man in the Scottish Highlands by the name of Connor MacLeod.

who just lives a seemingly ordinary life until he suffers a fatal wound at the hands of a strange foreign mercenary on the battlefield.

But hey, it looks like he's going to die, but he miraculously recovers. Miraculously, but that's not how the locals interpret it. They think this is witchcraft because he is completely healed from a fatal wound. So he is exiled from his community. And while he's wandering in sadness, he encounters a benevolent traveling immortal by the name of Ramirez.

who, played by Sean Connery, who initiates him into the secret knowledge of the game here. So sprinkled throughout time, he learns, are individuals who can miraculously recover from almost any wound and can only be killed via beheading.

These individuals, these immortals, are drawn to each other to engage in single combat with the victor absorbing the powers of the loser. So that strange alien mercenary that cut into him on the battlefield, we learn that this is the Kurgan, one of the more powerful and ruthless immortals out there. And he was drawn to McCloud. And so this game of immortals is going to continue on through time until at some point in the future when the remaining immortals will be drawn to a place of final battle.

In the end, there's going to remain only one, and that immortal individual will not only claim the accumulated power of all the immortals that ever lived before them, but they shall claim, quote, the prize. More on the prize in a second.

Okay, so this is all information that Connor does not have. He doesn't know about any of this. He's explicitly being taught about all of these magical rules by Ramirez, by Sean Connery. Yes, he's being initiated into the world of the mortals by Ramirez. And Ramirez trains him. He's like, I knew the Kurgan was after you, so I found you so that I could train you so that you could stand a chance against him.

The Kurgan played by Clancy Brown, by the way.

And of course, the last two end up being Connor McCloud and the Kurgan. McCloud is ultimately victorious and claims the mysterious prize. And we get to find out what the prize is. We are told that this prize seems to give him two main features. First of all, he's finally mortal. This playing on like a long running theme and myth making and storytelling that immortality is also a curse.

because you, you know, and that's something that the film explores. And at times rather beautifully that you end up living longer than the people that you love and the world that you love falls behind you. And therefore getting to become mortal again, getting to age and have children. We're told that, that immortals can't have children, but now he can, if he wants, um, these things are opened up to him. So that's part of the prize, but more essentially he can now read the thoughts and feelings of people around the world and

And he can like orchestrate things, bring these people together and try and create a brighter future for all of humanity. Highlander One.

Brilliant summary, Rob. I think that gets all of the high points. Now, it's funny that I'm much more familiar with Highlander 2 than I am with Highlander 1. I think I've seen Highlander 1 one or two times, whereas I've seen Highlander 2 who knows how many times. So I'm kind of coming at the series backwards, but

It's interesting that a lot of the core features of the first movie are going to be completely ignored in the second one. Is there any indication in Highlander 2 that Connor McCloud can read people's thoughts? Only, I guess, in the very beginning, there's this idea, like, he didn't himself create the key technology that saves the world and becomes a major plot point of Highlander 2, but he brought people together to do it. So it is kind of like,

Like if, you know, Connor McCloud is able to realize, OK, this person needs to work with this person. We need to get these people together. I can I know who has what knowledge, who has what sensibilities. And so he's able to sort of facilitate the whole thing. But they don't get into the details about how this actually works.

Okay. I want to have follow up on that, but actually there's something we have to address before we go any further talking about Highlander two, which is the question of which Highlander two are we talking about? Because Highlander two is a movie that does not really have a canonical form.

There are at least three major cuts, officially sanctioned cuts of this film that have been released, maybe four. I'm not sure. And it gets especially confusing because when you go looking to watch Highlander 2 today and you find a streaming option or you find a disc or whatever, it seems to me that it is often not made clear in the made clear in like the title, which cut you're looking at.

So there is a lot of confusion, but I found as a very helpful resource, an incredibly impressive, nearly exhaustive guide to the different cuts of Highlander 2 as of the year 1997, at least, written by a critic named Sean Murphy, originally published in the Video Watchdog magazine, which was like a magazine about like laser disc and video releases. So I can't keep track of all the different cuts of the movie, but here are at least

several major ones. First of all, you had Highlander 2 The Quickening, the original theatrical cut released in the United States. This is sometimes called the American version. We will have a special name for it later. Then there was also a version of Highlander 2 released in the UK. It's sometimes called the British version, which has some differences. And then significantly later, like several years later, there was a home video release called

known as Russell Mulcahy's Renegade version, also known as Highlander 2, the director's cut, which is significantly longer. And so the major differences are that the British cut has about 10 minutes more of material than the American theatrical cut. And it has a different edit. It rearranges some of the scenes in the movie in time and cuts them differently and also has a different ending, which I want to discuss when we get to that part of the outline.

But some of the differences in the British cut are that it contains flashbacks about the death of Connor's wife, Brenda. So it just has more sort of character development and backstory on Connor. And it makes some changes that are supposed to make better.

better sense of the events in the story because the uh the theatrical release which is the one we're going to be watching is famously a quite butchered edit that like splices together scenes that were not originally the same scene in the script or in how they were shot and makes them the same scene so like suddenly in the middle of a scene characters are wearing different clothes um

Then after all that, there's the Renegade version, which is, I think, 18 minutes longer than the American cut, has major editing differences. It moves different scenes around in time within the story. And most notably, it removes all references to a couple of very important plot points that we'll get to in just a moment.

So the version we are watching is the original theatrical cut of the American version, which we shall hereafter refer to as the Zeist cut. And which, as I can't be sure about this, so I'm sorry if I'm wrong, but as far as I can tell, is not available on Blu-ray or at least not in U.S. region Blu-ray. So why would this be called the Zeist cut? Well, it's because it's a movie that's

It's because the theatrical cut is in one major sense true to the script of the film, even though it deviates in other ways. And the way in which it is true to the script is that it answers one of the burning mysteries raised by the original story.

it tells us where the immortals of Highlander come from. It's gotta be a huge question, right? You know, you have Connor McCloud and in 16th century Scotland or whatever, he wakes up and he's like, Oh, I'm immortal. Why? Well, this movie has the answer. They are aliens and they come from the planet Zeist. They've always been aliens. Supposedly they've always known they were aliens and they, the specific reason,

flavor of alien they are is Zeistians. And this is the thing that the renegade version constantly

cuts out of the movie, just takes out all references to the planet Zeist and to the fact that the immortals are aliens. Yeah, oftentimes in kind of hilarious and choppy ways. For instance, there's a scene where Connery's Ramirez in the flashback is on the planet speaking to the freedom fighters and says the line, free men of the planet Zeist. And then when they cut that, they cut it so that he says, free men of the planet, which is absolutely something no one has ever said.

Yeah. So in that, so in the renegade version, Sean Connery is talking to guys on earth long ago and I don't know, unspecified time and place in history, but he's just talking to people and says, free men of the planet. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. And I'm not even gonna go down. I mean, cause obviously I watched part of the renegade cut after I finished our cut, the Zeiss cut.

And, yeah, I mean, it's like you still have them battling with gas masks on and with guns and with explosions, but it's the ancient past. It also it doesn't streamline anything. It just creates even more problems for the plot. And there were already plenty of problems present. Now, something raised in that video watchdog article is that this plot detail, the fact that the immortals are aliens and they come from the planet Zeist.

is something that Highlander fans especially hated about Highlander 2. This was a detested plot innovation. But these fans were apparently the reason it happened. This article quotes Bill Panzer, who was a co-writer on the script and co-produced the movie. And Panzer says the following, quote, The question we were most asked by fans after the first film was, where did the immortals come from?

It made sense to answer that question in the second film. What we didn't realize at the time was that the fans didn't really want to know their origins, meaning the origins of the immortals, because then the romanticism and mystery of the story was stripped away. And I got to say, I think Bill Panzer's right on the money there, that that is often how storytelling works. Fans want questions answered. And I think as a storyteller, you often have to tell the fans, no, it is better not to have an answer to that.

But it's also interesting to think about how long-term these things can go. I think a great thing to compare this to is in the Star Wars prequels, the introduction of the midichlorians as being this aspect, this micro-organisms in the blood of force-sensitive individuals that explains why they have the force in such quantities. And it's something that can be detected in like a blood test.

Rob, I was thinking of comparisons to the Innovation of Zeist, and that is literally exactly what I thought of as the midichlorians. It's like it answers a question, but do you like having this answer now? I don't know if that improves the story. But it's interesting how it's gone with both of these franchises. So with Highlander, we get Highlander 2, they introduce an answer, and the fans decide, actually, we didn't want that answer.

And then seemingly most of the people involved in the film were like, yeah, you're right. We shouldn't have answered it. We'll go back. We've changed it again. And now we're at this point where we're like, that doesn't feel sufficient. I mean, stick to your guns on it. And with the midichlorians, I think you see the similar thing in that when the Star Wars sequels came about, there seemed to be this deliberate change.

to just sort of skip over most of the prequel stuff, just comment on the original trilogy. And I didn't hate the sequels. I rather liked the second one.

But then you see where the storytelling is now in the Star Wars franchise, particularly with like the Ahsoka series and the Mandalorian and some of the animated shows. They've gone back and they're doing stuff with midichlorians again. While at the same time, to be clear, also building on things that were introduced in the sequel trilogy, but bringing it all together and kind of like sticking to it all.

and it's all really good, and fans seem to be digging it. So I think, I don't know, there's a lesson in here somewhere about sticking to your guns on your weird choices, and like,

Go with it. Like, make it work in the long term. I think they should have stuck with their guns. Yes, it's funny. Yeah, whatever. I mean, I say to the Highlander fans in question, you got what you asked for and maybe you didn't like it, but I like it. I like the planet Zeist. Let me have that. Because real quick, one of the things that they did do with Highlander is they came back and made a third Highlander movie that was like, OK, we ignore the sequel completely. Yeah.

And then we have the TV series. And I remember rather liking various episodes of the TV series for various reasons. Like they often were in a much more limited scope in the story. Like tell a story that takes place in the past and in the present concerning an immortal character. Tended to work. Often had some nice guest stars.

But for the most part, like the Highlander film franchise has not gone anywhere great since they cowardly gave in to the Highlander 2 criticism. Right. So the director's cut slash renegade version of the movie does away with this, removes all references to the planet Zeist, removes all references to the immortals being aliens, also apparently removes all references to the quickening of

I don't know why. That's some of the funniest stuff in the movie. Come on. But I guess the deal is the Highlander fans, many of them did not want the movie to be funny. They didn't want anything that might seem silly or out of continuity with the rest of the series, which I guess I can partially understand that. But on the other hand, I think that the removal of these elements really saps the life from the film.

The theatrical cut, while quite silly, has this infectious, fun, crazy rhythm of plot developments. These weird lines of dialogue and hilarious shots in the first 15 minutes. It's just amazing. And upsetting that flow by making the movie...

less silly and less, uh, less offensive to the continuity of the rest of the series ultimately undercuts the flow of this movie as a movie. And it, uh, I, I just consider it a crime against art. Yeah. Um,

You know, I also fondly look back on Highlander 2 in part because I think this was sort of my first experience with Highlander. So to be clear, I did see Highlander 1 before I saw Highlander 2, but it was only because I vaguely remember seeing the trailers for Highlander 2 and seeing like this scene with flying apocalyptic bird dudes with swords and

and instantly being like, I'm in, I've got to see this. But I didn't get to go to the theater to see it. So I just had to go to the local video store and rent a VHS copy of Highlander. And of course that won me over. I mean, I think at the time I was just getting into Queen. I was just getting into Dungeons and Dragons. So, you know, there was plenty to love in Highlander 1.

There clearly is, though I would say I would suspect that would be a surprising experience because you see a trailer for Highlander 2. It's just full of like Blade Runner-y sci-fi weirdness, you know, porcupine headed guys flying around on rocket boots with swords and all that. And then you rent Highlander and you're like, where are the rocket boots? There's nothing sci-fi in it. I vaguely remember being kind of maybe not disappointed, but just kind of like, oh, I really thought there was going to be future stuff in this and there's not.

But it was still still amazing. And for various reasons, I think possibly because I didn't know it at the time, but I had already been introduced to the work of this director due to his work in music videos.

Oh, he's got some, some really good music videos in the wizard bag here, doesn't he? But to come back to the leap from Highlander one to Highlander two, again, for reasons related to difficulties with the production and all that and problems with the script. Yes, the movie is ridiculous and it is silly, but I respect the choices. I respect them going in a different direction with it. I like the switch to sci-fi. I think that's, that's a great idea. Uh, and it could have worked. It could have been not just like a great bad movie. It could have been a great good movie. Uh, you know, if,

realized a little bit different. And, uh, and so there was actually a quote I came across that was in that video watchdog article, um, from Russell Mulcahy, the director. And he's talking about these movies and he says, quote, all I can remember about the original Highlander is lots of guys in various eras bashing swords about that worked the first time, but Highlander two has to transcend that with more originality and the ability to turn unknown corners and,

And you know what? That is exactly what we got. There is more originality. It definitely turns unknown corners and respect for trying. I mean, that's the only way to do a sequel to a movie that wrapped everything up, you know? And I think it really isn't that all an unexpected direction to go in because I want to point to two things. First of all, again, the first movie ends with our man becoming Prince of the Earth with psychic powers and

And, you know, he's going to start bringing people together. He's like a messiah figure. And the Queen song, and I do believe that all of the Queen songs on the soundtrack for Highlander are canon and are key to understanding the film. We have those lyrics. Here we are born to be kings. We're the princes of the universe. So Highlander 2 is the natural extrapolation of those lyrics. Well said.

All right. Do you have an elevator pitch? Is an elevator pitch even necessary at this point? I got one for you. Okay. So the formerly immortal head chopper, Connor McCloud, is now mortal because he has chopped all the other immortals and now he is old.

An ancient enemy from another planet sends more immortals to Earth, thus making Connor young and strapping again. For some reason, Connor must fight this ancient enemy who for some reason also comes to Earth himself. He must also destroy a geoengineering project that he invented decades before because it sucks and is no longer necessary. Also, various people travel across space and time and come back from the dead and experience the year 2024.

Can I get that in a robot voice? The year 2024. All right, let's go ahead and have a taste of that original theatrical trailer for Highlander 2, The Quickening. Greetings, Highlander. You call? You call?

Let's have some fun. In all their centuries on Earth, nothing could have prepared them for The Quickening. Christopher Lambert, Sean Connery, Highlander 2, The Quickening. All right. Now, normally this is where we tell you exactly where to go see it. But as we've already discussed, it's a bit difficult. Yeah.

In terms of the original theatrical cut, we had to depend on YouTube for it. And I think in the past, we had to depend on a VHS tape. I know that's how I originally saw it. I've got the VHS tape of Highlander 2, The Quickening. So I have the means to view the correct cut myself if I had a functioning VCR right now.

And there are various threads online with people discussing the different cuts, where to find them. I'm to understand that the French DVD is mostly the Zeiss cut. There was also recently some excitement over the fact that a British Amazon Prime stream of the film appeared to be

And I'm not certain on this, either the Zeiss cut, the theatrical cut or something close to it fitting the UK audience. I think it is. So looking at that, you can only judge by like the run times unless you're actually going to watch the whole thing. But I think that version on Amazon was the British cut, which is different than what we're calling the Zeiss cut, but does also have Zeiss. They don't take out Zeiss. That's the renegade cut that does that.

But the British cut adds in the X. It re-edits the film, adds in the extra stuff about Connor's wife dying in the past, adds in a few other character moments and has the so-called fairy tale ending where Connor McCloud and Virginia Madsen fly away into space and go to the planet Zeist.

There are also plenty of fan edits with people putting together, recutting the film to create like the ultimate Zeist cut and so forth. I saw one person who apparently had put together a Queen cut where and kudos to this individual because I very much agree there is not enough Queen music in this movie. And this person felt the same. So they added Queen music to it.

So there's a lot of stuff like that. I can't speak to its actual quality because I haven't looked at it. My advice would be kind of weird on this because not everyone needs to see this movie more than once to scratch that itch. But if you would all think you might need to or you have any nostalgia for the film, I would recommend re-watching the theatrical cut in whatever quality you can get. And it's not going to be great. And then potentially grab that renegade cut

to rewatch your favorite scenes or particular scenes in a superior picture quality. Because, as we'll discuss, there are plenty of scenes in this film that look amazing. There's some great sets, great costuming, great lighting. And it is a shame that we can't watch that theatrical cut with the best possible picture quality.

It's funny how some of the best looking stuff in the movie is kind of incidental to the story. Like the opera scene where Connor goes and watches Wagner is the sets on the set within the movie are amazing. They look really cool. And the opera house is beautiful. And there are some of like, there are clearly lots of indoor sets of streets that they created for life under the shield where they're in a sound stage where they were shooting in Argentina. And there's like streets with storefronts and all that that are interesting.

You could argue about how effective they are as sets like that. They're they look they're very dimly lit, so you don't see a lot of detail, but they do create, I think, the right kind of moody atmosphere that the movie was going for. There are other sets that feel a little more confusing because it's like you'll be on the planet Zeist, but you appear to be in like an office. Yeah, yeah. Or there's that dungeon scene where General Katana strangles an eel. Yeah.

Yeah, that's one I was thinking of. Yeah. Oh, is that an office? I don't know what that room is. Whatever it was, it felt suitably alien. And that's one that I had to go back and watch again on the Renegade cut just to see all those like all that glorious glistening, you know, blackness.

uh, in a superior picture quality. Oh, and all the executives offices in the shield corporation building. Yes. It'd be way too dark to read in this room. I don't know why anybody would work in there. Like just super dark rooms with like the only light source being a window through which moonlight is shining and there are giant fan blades cutting in front of it constantly. So it's just like an intermittent light source. Yeah. Russell McKay likes his fan blades. Uh,

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All right. Well, since we're already talking about him, yeah, let's get into the connections here, starting with the director, Russell Mulcahy.

Born 1953, Australian director who initially made his name directing some of the most, and I'm not exaggerating here, some of the most iconic music videos of the 1980s. If you were watching MTV and then later VH1 during like the 80s and 90s, you saw so much of this band's work. I'm talking some of the weirdest, most stylish examples of music video artistry, such as Duran Duran's Wild Boys.

Amazing track. Amazing video. This is the one that has post-apocalyptic windmills, you know, Simon Le Bon strapped to one of them and like strange tribes of people

of lads running around and android heads and so forth. Almost seems an inspiration for the war boys in Mad Max Fury Road. Yeah, yeah, similar vibes. And there are a number of direct connections between Wild Boys and Highlander too. Another big one, super weird, super stylish, Bonnie Tyler's Total Eclipse of the Heart.

I defy you to follow the plot of that music video, but it's so gorgeous to watch. You might not understand it, but you will feel it. Yeah. Don't forget 1979's Video Killed the Radio Star, the first music video ever played on MTV. And I didn't realize this until I was just researching it yesterday, but Hans Zimmer is in that music video. He's playing the keyboard. Huh? Yeah. I had no idea. Hans Zimmer of Dune.

fame and so many other films. So Russell McKay, plenty. I'm not even, I'm barely scratching the surface on all the artists that he worked with. Some of the biggest musical artists of the day. His first film, however, was the 1984 Australian killer pig movie, Razorback. I've seen this one. Did you watch this, Rob? I have not seen Razorback.

Razorback, I sort of hesitate to recommend it just because it is texturally gross. Like it's a cross between Jaws, but with a pig instead of a shark and an Australian version of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. So you're dealing with

just like disgusting sort of outback hillbillies who work in a dog food factory. And so there's like gross gore stuff at the dog food factory. You know, that TCM kind of slop. But also I remember some elements of the movie, apart from just the general grossness, being really compellingly funny. I mean, there is often a sense of humor sprinkled in there somewhere. Yeah, yeah.

All right. So anyway, he followed up Razorback with Highlander in 86. And he's continuing to do like high end music videos the whole time and then follows Highlander up in 1991 with its sequel, Highlander 2.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, is that the one with Alec Baldwin as the shadow? Yep, that's it, which I haven't seen since it came out. I remember finding it enthralling, but also kind of lackluster in some respects. So I don't know. I haven't revisited it.

He did four episodes of Tales from the Crypt, including the excellent People Who Live in Brass Hearses, starring Bill Paxton, Brad Dourif, and Michael Lerner. You know, it's pretty much your standard Tales from the Crypt in many ways. You know, awful things happen to awful people. But with a cast like that and with a solid director, you're good to go.

He also did the 1999 Seven inspired. This is the movie Seven, often with the numeral seven in the middle. So I guess you could technically pronounce it Seseven. Seseven inspired Resurrection. This starred Christophe Lambert and also featured David Cronenberg in a small role.

Always love it when he shows up in the cast. Yeah, yeah. This was a kind of, again, very 70 of kind of a flick, you know, had that kind of grungy, crimey, semi sort of 90s sleazy quality to it about a serial murderer trying to build a body for the second coming of Christ. Oh, okay, cool. Yeah. Sounds about right for a movie inspired by 7N. Yeah. Yeah.

Oh, and then he also did 2007's Resident Evil Extinction, which I haven't watched in full. I think I started watching at one point and didn't finish it. But I will say that it is easily the most visually appealing of the Resident Evil films. I tried one or two of the Resident Evil movies and I never could get into them. I've liked a couple of the games, though. I feel like the games...

really feel like they would adapt well into movies and it just doesn't translate for some reason. Yeah, yeah. I really enjoyed the most recent Resident Evil game. Now, this is in no way a knock on Russell Mulcahy at all, but...

in thinking about his relationship to the, the, the creative material here, it feels significant and correct to me that he did not like write the script for Highlander or Highlander two. This is not like his story, his narrative passion project that he's bringing to the screen. He is a professional director and he's realizing a, a, a story that came from somewhere else. Does that feel right to you? Yeah. Yeah, I believe so. I mean, uh,

It varies from director to director, right? I mean, exactly how much they are ultimately impacting the or influencing the shape of the story and characterizations on screen. But yeah, he does not have a writing credit on this film or the first film, no official writing credit anyway.

Though clearly does have creative influence and has some sense of ownership over the creative direction. Because again, as we saw in that quote he said earlier, like he felt like Highlander 2 had to go in a different direction, had to turn those unknown corners. Yeah. So let's talk about the folks who are credited on Highlander 2. And it's kind of telling. So first of all, we have a character credit for Gregory Wyden.

born 1958. This is an American screenwriter who wrote the screenplay for the original Highlander initially as a class assignment in the screenwriting program at UCLA. So basically the idea is, you know, he wrote it for class, his instructors and other folks encouraged him on the project and said, hey, you should, you know, fix this up a bit and start submitting it places. And so eventually it saw the light of day with some other writers involved as Highlander.

Subsequent credits included 1991's Backdraft, 1995's The Prophecy. This is the angel movie with Christopher Walken in it, which I'm very tempted to revisit on Weird House. And yeah, he also directed that one. And he also wrote 2017's Other Life. You know, thinking about him writing both Highlander and The Prophecy, it seems that he's got a

an attraction to the idea of these like outsider beings who have special powers and knowledge, but sort of are limited in their interactions with the human world and must sort of wander among us. And I don't know, exploring themes of alienation in some way, people living among us with like special abilities and special destiny, but, but not really being able to be a part of us. Yeah. Yeah. I think so. And, and there, there are a number of things you can compare on the prophecy films and the,

Highlander franchise. You know, right down to, if I remember correctly, you have to kill the angels in a special way. They only die if you, like, rip their heart out or something. It's been a while. Could have that wrong. Yeah, I don't know. I like how he got to do a movie with both Christophe Lambert and Christophe Walcang. Ha ha ha.

Now, the story credit, one of the story credits here on Highlander 2 goes to Brian Clemens, who lived 1931 through 2015, British screenwriter and producer with credits going back to the late 1950s. He did a lot of great TV work, including 32 episodes of The Avengers, and he's a

He also worked on a number of 1970s horror films, including Robert Foyst's And Soon the Darkness in 1970, See No Evil, and the sex-flipping Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde. Both of these last two were 71. He also worked on 73's The Golden Voyage of Sinbad and 1974's Captain Kronos Vampire Hunter.

We can also go ahead and throw in Walt Disney's 1980 chiller Watcher in the Woods. So a very established name here, at least in TV and B cinema of the 60s and 70s. Oh, yeah. A lot of good titles in there, man. The Golden Voyage of Sinbad is fun. Yes. Yeah, absolutely. That's an all-timer.

That's got some really fantastic Ray Harryhausen stop motion monsters in it. All right. We also have William N. Panzer credited with a story credit. He is also one of the producers. So, yes, we have a producer in the story credits here, which is which is sometimes something to give you pause.

I'm not saying all producers that have story credits or writing credits are overreaching, but I think at the very least you have to wonder if that is the case when you encounter it. And this is certainly a film where there are stories about producers becoming involved and so forth in troubled production. Yeah. If you want to know more about the troubled production, there's plenty you can read online about that. But famously, it was...

shot in Argentina, I think for financial reasons. And, uh, there were, there was some various, uh, changing of hands of creative control over the movie and what, what official, uh, what cut was eventually released. So Panzer was, uh, lived 1942 through 2007. He was mostly a producer with hands in everything Highlander. So like he, he was definitely like one of the, the helmsman of the Highlander franchise. And he has story credits on, um,

the third film and the fourth film in addition. His only other writing credit is for 1979's Steel, which he also produced. And then finally on the writing side of things, we have Peter Bellwood on the screenplay. Bellwood also worked on the screenplay for Highlander, having previously written on 1980's Phobia and 1981's St. Helens.

Now, I think it's time we get into the cast because there are some wonderfully charming actors in this movie, even if they don't always seem like they really understand what's supposed to be going on in the scene or not. But right at the top of the cast list here, Highlander 2 has the same star as the original Highlander, which is

Christophe Lambert, as I've been calling him, that is the sort of the French pronunciation of his name. But it's OK if you call him Christopher Lambert. He said that in interviews. He doesn't mind the American pronunciation either. Yeah, I mean, that's how I always thought it was pronounced when I was a kid. It's like, oh, Christopher Lambert's great. I want to see more Christopher Lambert films. I mean, I'm sort of half joking when I call him Christophe Lambert, even though I guess that is what they call him at home.

Yeah, so born 1957. Actually, U.S. born, technically, French actor, seen here playing a Scottish man.

whose credits in French cinema go back to 1979, but his first big international break came with the Academy Award-winning 1984 Tarzan movie, Greystoke, The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes. This, of course, we previously mentioned this in our Dragon Slayer episode because it co-starred Sir Ralph Richardson, among several other big names.

Ian Holmes in that too. Yeah. Yeah. It's got a great cast. I've never seen it, but it was highly thought of at least at the time. This is one of those I caught parts of on TV back in the day. But

But it was apparently this role as Tarzan, you know, his unique look and I think ultimately his just natural ability to play this sort of outsider character, like a charming, like it's weird that he hasn't played a vampire, right? Because all these things we're talking about with Christophe Lambert, these are the qualities of casting a great vampire as well, like slightly aloof, a little bit weird, but also very, very handsome and charming and charismatic. Yeah.

There's a very strange duality to Lambert in the way he, specifically in the way he plays the Connor McCloud role, which is that he alternates between

Being very kind of sad and doe-eyed, having this kind of tearful, herbivorous sort of demeanor, and then shifting out of that into a twinkle-in-the-eye, wisecracking guy who just reacts to everything with a joke, saying like, something like that.

Oh, yeah. His little laugh is wonderful, creepy, almost Peter Lorre-esque laugh. Yes, I love it. You get it in most of his roles. And I think it's kind of key to the energy of Lambert because I feel like everything he's in, he feels at least slightly miscast.

in part because he, like his co-star here, is not exactly known for his Kamoolean-like ability to take on different accents and nationalities in his performances. You know, he's always Christophe Lambert, always a bit weird, always feels a bit like an

odd character actor who just somehow came out a little too handsome to play anything but leads. I like that. Yes. Yeah. And like I say, I see this energy in most of the films that come to mind. Like just to name a few here. In 1987's The Sicilian, he plays an Italian mobster.

Perfect. In 1992's Night Moves, that's spelled like night, like in armor, he plays a womanizing, I think, American chess master. Okie dokie. 1995's Mortal Kombat, he plays a fictionalized, highly fictionalized Japanese thunder god. Wait, is he supposed to be a Japanese thunder god? He plays Raiden, right? Is that Japanese in origin? Raiden is loosely related to an actual thunder deity in Japanese mythology. I didn't know that.

heavy emphasis on the loosely here because we're talking about Mortal Kombat. I just assumed invented for the Mortal Kombat mythos. But yeah, a resident of Outworld or maybe beyond Outworld. Oh, he's a god of Earth. Yeah. He's an Earth god. He's an Earth god. Okay, I apologize. But he's... So Mortal Kombat, the 1990s Mortal Kombat is also really funny to go back and watch. I think maybe we could do that on Weird House one day. But Lambert in it is just...

He's like a he's got an attitude. You know, he's got that 90s movie attitude. So like the bad guy comes and does something and he suddenly the camera cuts to him sitting there and he wags a finger and little like lightning bolts come out of it and goes, I don't think so. Let's see. Nineteen ninety nine's Beowulf is some sort of a futuristic Beowulf.

That's a movie. I can never make it through this one because the sort of like the futuristic grungy aspect of it, like some sort of like futuristic medieval sci-fi, that always draws me in. And then I get to the part with the CGI and it's just like truly terrible CGI. It's the worst of that like 1999 CGI. It's really bad. The Grendel monster, I recall, looks terrible. The Grendel,

The grindles. Yeah, it's it's it's very dark and confusing and nothing much happens in it from what I recall. But it's been a long time. Yeah. Box art is promising, but it does not meet expectations. Let's see. In 2001's Druids, he plays a gall and he also plays the president of the United States in 2013's action Nosferatu spy movie Bloodshot.

This one also has Brad Dourif in it. I think we've looked at this one before, but are not brave enough to actually check it out.

Doesn't he play, does he play like a film director or something in Hail Caesar? He does. Yeah. I mean, there are some other credits of note. 2016's Hail Caesar, a Coen Brothers film. There's a two-part sci-fi franchise, Fortress, that a lot of people like. 92 was the original and then they did a 2000 sequel. And then, of course, as we mentioned earlier, he's in Resurrection playing the cop in this Seven-esque film.

I got to see some more of these B movie outings by Lambert. So I, let's see. I don't know if I could try to watch the Beowulf again. Druids is more of like a historical drama. I don't, and I don't have a good read on that one. If it's at all fun or, or indeed great. I just don't know much about it. And bloodshot, uh,

Oh, I don't know. I'm just not I don't know if I'm it's got to be a special. We have not watched a film from the 20 teens for Weird House. And I think there are reasons for that. I don't think Bloodshot is going to be our first selection from that decade. OK.

Well, anyway, my short review on Lambert in Highlander 2 is he has some surprisingly poignant moments of acting that don't really fit in with how hilarious the rest of the movie is. But there are moments where you really get that doe-eyed sadness coming through. You feel for him. You feel the pain of

his immortality and now the immortality being lost that he's just sort of decaying physically while being emotionally alone and it really is kind of sad but also he does the wisecracking attitude Raiden thing saying little like ridiculous one-liners you can't believe the lines he says everybody all the immortals in this film are just here for a good time and just cutting up like crazy General Katana has all sorts of laughs and

The assassins, the bird guys also are real cut-ups. There's really too much of it. Oh, and of course, lest we forget, one of the greatest of the Wisecrackers, Ramirez. That's right. Played by the great Sean Connery. He lived 1930 through 2020.

legendary Scottish actor. Obviously, there's a lot to discuss with Sean Connery's career, very long career, one of the most famous actors of his generation. But I will say there was an old Mystery Science Theater 3000 sketch that had Mike and the bots plot the careers of Sean Connery and his brother Neil Connery in response to the 1967 Italian Bond ripoff, "OK Connery" AKA Operation Kid Brother that they were watching on the show.

So they have like the line graphs of the ups and downs of their careers. And the big gag was that Highlander 2 is the only point at which Sean's career trajectory dips below Neal's. And I think, you know, I was looking at Sean Connery's filmography in full here, and you can kind of look at it in terms of pre and post Highlander 2. Though to be fair, it's a very long career with various shifts and changes. Yeah.

I have seen him in movies that I enjoy far, far less than I enjoy Highlander 2. He gets second billing as the voice of the dragon in Dragonheart, the movie that I was getting confused with Dragon Slayer when we were doing Dragon Slayer on the show. I saw that in the theater as a kid. I mean, I haven't seen it recently, but I recall that being just a mess. And Highlander 2 is so much a much better use of your time than watching Dragonheart.

Yeah, Dragonheart was a 96 film. That was post-Highlander 2. And indeed, you look at some of the other post-Highlander 2 films, and they include, well, there was Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves the same year. He has an uncredited cameo in that. But then it's stuff like

92 is Medicine Man, 93 is Rising Sun, 95 is First Night, The Rock in 96, The Avengers in 99. And I'm sorry, The Avengers in 98, Entrapment in 99, Finding Forrester in 2000. And then finally, 2003 is The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. And we don't have to talk about 2012 Sir Billy. That was his final vocal performance.

Yeah, that that 90s to early 2000s Connery arc is a little rough. Yeah. So not to say that there weren't entertaining or even great films. I mean, Finding Forrester got a lot of great reviews at the time. But does anyone the rock is really fun. The rock is fun. But does anyone consider these great Connery films? I don't know that they do.

Meanwhile, just looking at his pre Highlander two films going back no further than 1980. There's a lot of great stuff in there. There's 1981's Outland, the sci-fi Western. There's Time Bandits from the same year. There's 87's The Untouchables, 89's Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, 1990's The Hunt for Red October. In 1986,

is alone pretty impressive because you have Connery playing both the dashing mentor Ramirez, who I think, if I'm using the term correctly, is like in pure zaddy mode in Highlander 1. Yeah.

So you have you have that role as a mentor. But then at the same year, he's playing Sir William of Baskerville in The Name of the Rose. And I think these are both peak, you know, and also rather different performances from Sean Connery. It is hard to believe he made Highlander 2 the year after he made The Hunt for Red October. Yeah.

Yeah. And I, I haven't seen the hunt for October in a while, but I have a friend who just very recently was, was just insisting that it is, it's really, really good. And, um, you know, it's like the military thriller is not really my genre of choice, but I got to give it credit. Like as an example of that genre, I think it's top notch. Yeah. Okay.

Well, anyway, I think Sean Connery may come up again on Weird Al Cinema at some point in the future. So we're going to leave the rest of his filmography for later. But suffice to say that his pre-1980 filmography is perhaps best known for his defining performances as James Bond. But even then, there's still a lot of weirder and more daring work sprinkled throughout that time period. You know, like he was playing Bond, but he was also at times trying some really weird things. Not everything worked. There's some strange choices in there as well.

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So you want to start a business. You might think you need a team of people and fancy tech skills, but listen to me when I say you don't. You just need GoDaddy Arrow. I'm Walton Goggins, an actor, and I like the sound of starting my own business, Walton Goggins Goggle Glasses. But I couldn't do this on my own.

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All for less money than I spend on deep tanning lotion while sunbathing off the Amalfi Coast. You know what that sounds like? A plan. Get started at GoDaddy.com. Terms apply. Going through the rest of the cast here of note, Virginia Madsen is in it playing Louise Marcus. She's our environmental terrorist slash love interest for Connor.

Born in 1961, we recently talked about her because she is Princess Irulan from David Lynch's Dune, Oscar-nominated actress for 2005's Sideways, whose credits also include 1992's Candyman, 1995's The Prophecy, the angel one, to be sure, not the mutant bear one, and then various TV projects as well.

I think her relationship with Connor McCloud in this movie is one of the most unearned romances in all of movie history. They literally just, they don't know each other. They just meet and like get into a fight with some aliens who fly in from out of nowhere. And within moments they are kissing. It is unbelievable. Yeah, it is ridiculous. So it's, this is...

as is often the case with films like this. Not a great showcase for her talents, but she is as good as you might expect in this role. Yeah, Virginia Madsen's a great actress, and she brings a levity to this role. And, like, there's even a part where she's

quite literally just a scene where she is explaining back the premise of the movie to, to Christophe Lambert in his apartment and commenting on the fact that it doesn't make any sense. And he just replies by quoting the name of a queen song that's mentioned four or five times in the movie. He's like, it's just kind of magic. Yeah.

It's a great song. It's a great song. Yeah. But yeah, so in a way, she's sort of like the the the regular the observer character who's like looking on this with the audience and being like, what what what are you saying here? They come here and now you're immortal again. But if you chop their heads off, you become mortal. OK. Yeah. Without her, everything makes even less sense because there's no one to explain it to.

All right. So when it comes to villains, how do you top Clancy Brown as the Kurgan for just sheer over-the-top evilness? I would argue that you don't. But what you can do is cast Michael Ironside and let him absolutely dial everything he does up to 11.

Rob, I am offended. How dare you say 11? He is at 26. There is not a single line he says in this movie where you don't see his teeth. He's just like, and it's all like,

he's in full clown mode. Yeah, I've seen interview snippets from him where he was like, yeah, didn't like the script. Nobody liked the script. But, you know, I was going to make sure that I was the most memorable part of any scene I was in, you know. And you got to admire that, you know, someone who's like, they're not going to phone it in. They are going to make sure that they are just delivering it completely gift wrapped to you. The full Michael Ironside experience.

Now, we previously discussed Ironside in our episode on 1981 Scanners in which he played the rogue scanner Daryl Revick. And that's the film that helped propel him into villain roles like this one, like Total Recall and so forth. I think he's without a doubt one of the best heavies of all time and certainly of this time period. Like this is the type of villain role that he could just absolutely inhabit.

He is an all time movie villain. Gotta love Michael Ironside. Gotta love the menace he brings. And I love how in all of his movies from this period, he plays a character whose name could be the name of a knife company. So he's always he's Richter. He's Katana. He's Revik, like all the names that have like these hard angles in them and suggest cutting. Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, even his actual name, Ironside. Yeah. Yeah. Could be a knife company.

But yeah, and certainly his performances cut there. He's always a treat in anything he's in. And there are a number of other Ironside films on the sort of waiting list for Weird House Cinema that we'll have to get to. All right. A couple of other actors worth mentioning in passing here, at least Alan Rich plays the character Naaman. This is one of the scientists of the S.H.I.E.L.D. Corporation. He lived 1926 through 2020. Character actor with credits stretching from 1953 till 2014. He's a

His roles include roles in such films as 73 Serpico, 94's Disclosure and Quiz Show. He also did a little directing, I think mostly like some short film projects. He does a really unceremonious cinematic insta-death in this movie where, you know, he just delivers a final, a bittersweet final line. And this then goes, uh, falls over. Okay. Done with him.

All right. Then we also have John C. McGinley in this playing the character Blake, who's like what the CEO of Shield Corp. I don't know what John C. McGinley is doing in this movie. This is one of the weirdest performances in it. It's not as like up to 11 or up to 26 as Michael Ironside, but he's doing something strange. Yeah, this is an American actor, perhaps best known to many for his long running role as what one of the doctors on the TV series Scrubs.

but he was also in 86 is platoon 87th wall street 91th point break. And he was actually in 1995, seven, uh,

He was also in 1996's The Rock. Wow. So a number of connections here. So much crossover. Yeah, and 1999's Office Space. I would say he's definitely a guy who's great at playing a good suit. You know, when you need like that suit character, that management, slimy CEO type, this is your guy. He, I mean, yeah, he generally is, though in this movie, he's a little weirder than you would expect for that kind of character, isn't he? Like there are scenes where he's,

he's kind of hamming it up. He, you know, when general Katana walks into the board meeting, he's like, Oh, I've had enough of you. Yeah. I mean, it's almost like they realize like, this is unbelievable. Like this, this straight up space barbarian has walked into your boardroom and you're going to pretend that you're still in charge. Like there is a comic energy to this that needs to be enhanced, not ignored. Um,

Or at least that was my read on the situation. I think that's right. I think that's what he's going for. It just John C. McGinley gives me the vibe, whereas like Michael Ironside's playing the role pretty consistently in that it's always cranked to like 26 with dashes of clown. John C. McGinley seems to be trying something different in all of his scenes. Yeah, see what sticks.

All right. Finally, the music on this one. So Michael Kamen did the score for the first film. And this time around, it is American musician and composer Stuart Copeland, born 1952, best known as the drummer for The Police. Got to respect the drummer from The Police. If you listen to them, they've got some really complicated, difficult drum parts. Copeland knows what he's doing. I have to go back and listen to some Police tracks.

But he's also done a lot of film scoring as well. His first score was for 1983's Rumblefish, directed by Francis Ford Coppola. And he went on to score such films as Wall Street and Good Burger, but then a lot of other stuff as well. No slam on Good Burger. I know people who are big fans of Good Burger. They couldn't get Hans Zimmer for Good Burger? No.

Hans Zimmer has directed, as we've said, a lot of films. I imagine some of them are maybe in the same stratosphere as Good Burger. Can you imagine the trailer? Welcome to Good Burger, home of the Good Burger. Brrrah!

Now, I would say in general, this film suffers from a lack of Queen tracks. There was, upon rewatching it, there is more use of Queen music than I remembered, but it's still not enough. You can't fault Copeland for this, though. But interestingly enough, the police were also originally considered for the Highlander 1 soundtrack before they ended up going with Queen. Oh, that would have been a different feeling, wouldn't it? I don't want to imagine it.

You know, all respect in the world of the police, but I mean, that's Queen's movie. It's not even Highlander without that awesome soundtrack by Queen. I listened to the full It's a Kind of Magic album yesterday whilst working on some of these notes. And it's just a treat. Here we are.

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All for less money than I spend on deep tanning lotion while sunbathing off the Amalfi Coast. You know what that sounds like? A plan. Get started at GoDaddy.com. Terms apply. All right, let's start getting into the plot here a little bit. Let's start discussing Highlander 2 in earnest.

Knowing that we will have to break for time soon, but I think we'll find a natural place to do that. That's right. So because the first act of this cut of the movie is so relentlessly excellent, I admit I might be a little too detail oriented in recounting it. We'll see. But I do want to capture in this episode and the next, like the rhythm of plot developments, especially once you get to the year 2024, at least up until the part where Connor McCloud becomes hot again. Yeah.

Uh, because everything up to that point is just like a relentless tickle of my brain and it, it, it's so good. Yeah. And then once, when he gets hot again, that's in the, in the midst of one of the best sequences in the entire film. Yes.

Okay, so we open on an accursed opaque sky filled with poisonous orange smog, and there's a dissonant minor chord playing on the soundtrack, and the title reads August 1999. And we hear the voiceover of a newscaster who says, Good morning. Today's top story is the ozone layer. Can you imagine that being the top story in the news?

It says, Today's top story is the ozone layer. It continues to disintegrate, taking with it our protection from the sun's rays. Then more voices join, and we hear different news reports playing over one another about how it's too dangerous to go outside, the White House has declared a national emergency, etc. Now, quick note here. If you want to hear us talk more about the ozone layer aspect of this plot,

Go back into the archives and find the stuff to blow your mind episode about Highlander 2. And that's where you'll find extended discussion on that aspect of the film. So then some newscaster says in Africa, where shelter from the sun is almost non-existent, the dead and dying number in the millions. I found that confusing. It's like we're shelter. There are buildings with roofs in Africa. What are they talking about?

But anyway, we're told that people are dying from exposure to the sun. And we see what looks like a giant warehouse full of patients in sickbeds with nurses running around. And a sign tells us this is the solar radiation ward. Then another newscaster comes in and says, it's just a few months now until the ozone layer is completely gone.

A team of international scientists led by Dr. Alan Naiman and supervised by Connor McLeod work around the clock. This may be the last chance for planet Earth. And here we see Christopher Lambert as Connor McLeod wearing a suit and tie. He's gathered with other scientists in some kind of concrete bunker with light pouring in from a horizontal window on the side. Like they're about to observe the Trinity test. It looks like that. One of the, you know, nuclear observation bunkers.

A shorter man in a bow tie hugs Connor and says, they'll remember this day for a thousand years. The day we protected the planet from the sun. I don't know why that's so funny, but it is from the sun.

Uh, so we, we hear a countdown began and they're, they're preparing to activate the shield, which is going to protect the earth from the sun. Uh, and we see dudes in yellow Devo suits sprinting away from the direction of a giant concrete pyramid. Uh, I don't know why they have to sprint again. This seems like a planned event, so they could be on a car or something. Uh, but a, a satellite in space rotates into position, uh,

And we see technicians and operators in a command center all confirming that they are ready to go. I have to say a lot of the technicians really are dressed like LDS missionaries, like the crisp white shirt and the black tie. Yeah, yeah.

That's a choice. And then we see we see the pyramid and the there's like the big concrete pyramid with sort of skyscrapers on top of the pyramid. And then a giant beam of energy starts shooting out of it, goes up into the sky and the shield is turned on.

And so it looks kind of like a lightsaber beam going out of the pyramid into space. It connects with the beam from a satellite and establishes some kind of multicolored laser Aurora net that spreads out over the surface of the earth, blocking the sun's rays and shrouding the earth in darkness. I want to throw in that, um,

If you watch carefully, at least one of these sci-fi ground command guys is Russell McKay in a director's cameo, which is pretty fun. Oh, I don't know which one, though. He he says a line or two. So he's he but he's just one of the one of the crew there behind a computer screen. Wonder if he's the guy with the ponytail. This one in the the still that you have in the outline. Yes, that's not him. No, it's another guy. But he's in there somewhere.

So as far as the prologue goes, this is a success story, right? This is essentially how Connor McCloud uses the prize to save the world. He's able to orchestrate this massive technoscientific effort to save the world from its own depleted ozone layer and protect it from solar radiation. I really appreciate your reading of how the prize is actually used

being used in the setup of the movie here. I had never put that together before, but it makes sense. If he can read everyone's minds to establish peace and harmony, he would be a great, uh, well, actually, I don't know. Maybe I'm taking this for granted that that would make one a great organizer of people, but it seems like it could. It seems like it could. Yeah. Like once you get down to the nitty gritty of it, I don't know. You're still dealing with very difficult problems of international cooperation and corporate interests and, and,

public sentiment and so forth. But if anybody can do it, it's the immortal guy who can read everybody's mind. That's right. So he gets all of the scientists together and they're ready to protect the Earth. But as we learn, as the film progresses, this protective shield does succeed in its goal. It does protect the Earth from the sun, but it comes with a lot of downsides and those downsides will ultimately make everyone hate Connor McCloud and

make him be, make him very alone. And literally people come up to him in the streets saying like, you put that puke in the sky. I hate you. You ruined my life. It makes me wonder if, um, the screenwriters here were perhaps dipping a little bit into, uh, some of the themes in the, the dune sequels where, uh, you know, like in dune Messiah and then also in, uh, God emperor of dune and post, uh, God emperor of dune books where, you know, you're dealing with, uh,

interpretations of, of rulers and, you know, major players in history, uh, that then cast them as devils and tyrants and so forth, you know? Um, and it's like, Connor does save the world and does the world thank him? Uh, no, they, they really get sick of his solution. They literally throw bottles at him in bars. Yeah. Yeah.

But it's also funny because it presumes anybody would know what a like scientist looks like or the administrator of a scientific project looks like like 25 years after it's over. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. I guess he was that big of a celebrity. Like it's like, it's like knowing what Einstein looked like, except, um, uh, I don't know, except more handsome. So I think we're going to have to end part one of our discussion of Highlander to the quickening, but we will be back with more because we,

Right after what we've gotten to in the plot, it cuts to 25 years in the future to the year 2024. That's right. This is a contemporary story. We're going to have to leave you wondering until next week how future events such as these will affect you in the future.

That's right. So make sure you go ahead and tune in. And hey, if you listen to this entire episode and you still haven't watched Highlander 2 in full, here's a great chance to do it. Fill the time between this episode and the next watching some version of Highlander 2. Preferably the theatrical cut, the Zeist cut, but hey, work with what you got because some of these sequences are still going to be mindlessly stupid or just amazingly awesome. So you'll still be able to relate to what we're talking about.

It'll be a good time no matter what. Yeah. All right. Well, just to remind you here, the Stuff to Blow Your Mind is primarily a science and culture podcast with core episodes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, listener mail on Mondays, short-form episode on Wednesdays, and on Fridays we set aside most serious concerns to just talk about a weird film on Weird House Cinema. If you want to see a complete list of everything we've talked about so far and sometimes a peek ahead at what's coming up next, go on over to Letterboxd.com. That's L-E-T-T-E-R-B-O-X-D.com.

Once you're there, you can look for our username. It's weird house. You'll find a list of everything we've covered. It's a pretty remarkable little website. You know, you can...

essentially, you know, blog and social media about the various films that you've watched or want to watch. And it's a great way to just see in a glance what we've been up to as well. Huge thanks, as always, to our excellent audio producer, JJ Posway. If you would like to get in touch with us with feedback on this episode or any other to suggest a topic for the future or just to say hello, you can email us at contact at stuff to blow your mind dot com. Music

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