Highlander 2 (1991) InterStar/Fantasy-Action-Adventure RT: 109 minutes Rated R (strong violence, some sexuality, language) Director: Russell Mulcahy Screenplay: Peter Bellwood Music: Stewart Copeland Cinematography: Phil Meheux Release date: November 1, 1991 (US) Cast: Christopher Lambert, Virginia Madsen, Michael Ironside, Sean Connery, John C. McGinley, Allan Rich, Phil Brock, Rusty Schwimmer, Ed Trucco, Stephen Grives, Jimmy Murray. Box Office: $15.5M (US) AKA: Highlander II: The Quickening
Rating: ***
NOTE TO READERS: This is a review of the 2004 version of Highlander 2 commonly referred to as the “Renegade Version”. It is approximately 19 minutes longer than the original 1991 US theatrical release. Scenes are added, moved or removed for the sake of continuity. The main difference is the removal of all references to the planet Zeist and the notion that immortals are alien beings. It’s still a bad movie, but at least now it makes a little more sense.
As a fan of the original Highlander, I stood beside fellow devotees in their contempt for Highlander 2. When it was revealed that immortals are alien beings from a fictional planet called Zeist, I felt betrayed. It’s a great big middle finger to the original movie and its fans. It’s dumb. The first movie works so well because it doesn’t try to explain their origin. Some people are just born immortal, that’s it. It’s one of life’s mysteries. Why not leave it at that?
In the newer version of Highlander 2, immortals are inhabitants of an ancient society that punishes traitors by sending them to various points in the future where they will ultimately fight each other until only one remains. That individual has the option of returning to his own time to live as an immortal or staying in the future where he will grow old and die. That’s the dilemma faced by Connor MacLeod (Lambert, Greystoke) in 2024. Now old and mortal, he hasn’t yet decided whether or not he will return to his own society in the distant past. He and his friend Ramirez (Connery, The Untouchables) were exiled for leading a failed rebellion against tyrannical ruler Katana (Ironside, Total Recall). Worried that McLeod might return to finish what he started, Katana sends a couple of alien assassins to kill him. They fail, but MacLeod becomes young once again as a result of absorbing their energy after he beheads them. Remarking that old adage about wanting something done right, Katana transports himself to ’24 to deal with McLeod personally.
What’s life like in 2024 according to Highlander 2? It’s a waking nightmare. The entire planet lives under “The Shield”, an electromagnetic covering designed to protect Earth’s inhabitants from solar radiation made deadly after the depletion of the ozone layer circa ’94. MacLeod helped create it. It went up in ’99 and life hasn’t been the same since. It’s always dark. It’s always extremely hot and humid. Crime is rampant. People are miserable. An environmental terrorist group called COBALT is trying to take down the Shield and the corporation that owns and operates it. The leader Louise Marcus (Madsen, Dune) makes a shocking discovery while raiding their New York facility. Somehow, the ozone layer has repaired itself, a fact The Shield Company tries to conceal as it will render their services unnecessary.
Yes, MacLeod and Marcus team up to disable the Shield. That’s a given. They also “hook up” within minutes of meeting each other for the first time. I’m guessing he hasn’t been laid since his wife Brenda died along with thousands of others of solar radiation poisoning in ’94. That’s 30 years of pent-up sexual energy. It’s just one of many nutty things in Highlander 2. Here’s another. Ramirez returns to help MacLeod fight the good fight despite being killed in the 16th century in the first movie. How can that be? It’s easy. Ramirez is a sorcerer who uses his magic to create a magical bond between them that supersedes death. All MacLeod has to do is call out his name and he’ll come. MacLeod calls and Ramirez comes. He appears in modern-day Scotland where he interrupts a production of Hamlet, buys a new suit and takes a plane to NYC. How does he know where MacLeod is? I guess it’s a “kind of magic”.
There’s no two ways about it. Highlander 2 is completely ludicrous. The plot is incomprehensible. The special effects are cheesy. It looks like an Ed Wood movie with a big budget. The acting is hammy. This is especially true of John C. McGinley (Point Break) who plays the villainous head of the Shield Corporation. How bad is he? He should be decorated with pineapple slices and cherries. Ironside achieves the highest level of camp with his depiction of the evil immortal Katana. This guy is a first-rate whack job! His appearance in modern day is marked by him crashing through the roof of a NYC subway and hijacking it. Talk about a wild ride! He’s great, but Clancy Brown is still the king of the Highlander bad guys. Connery treats this acting gig like the joke it is. He delivers a mischievous, tongue-in-cheek performance as Ramirez. Lambert looks annoyed a lot of the time while Madsen does her best to keep a straight face.
Highlander 2 is easily one of the dopiest sequels in the history of cinema. That’s what makes it so fun. I have to give returning director Russell Mulcahy credit for trying to salvage it with his Renegade Cut even though it’s only slightly more comprehensible than the theatrical cut that pissed off so many fans. I wish that he would have included the “Fairy Tale Ending” seen only in European versions (it’s one of the DVD’s deleted scenes). It would have ended the movie on the exact right note had Mulcahy left it in.
I just can’t bring myself to hate Highlander 2. It’s too weird and bizarre to dismiss as yet another failed sequel. It’s one of those movies you watch in speechless disbelief like Exorcist II: The Heretic. It’s the cinematic equivalent of the inmates running the asylum. It’s great bad movie fun.
