Treknicalities

The forth and (hopefully) final Highlander continues (and, we hope, concludes) the tradition set in the first three Highlander films. It completely ignores facts established in its predecessors.

While I will admit that I recall seeing this movie once, I was so disgusted with it that I, honestly, had forgotten a lot of the details and had to look up the plot summary online. One gets the impression that this film was intended to be a bridge between the Highlander movies and the television series staring Adrian Paul.

The film takes place at a point in time before the end of the first Highlander film. Connor McCleod has not yet won the Prize and is still fighting evil Immortals in hopes of becoming the last remaining Immortal.

In 1555AD, Connor returns to Scotland to save his mother from an evil priest named Kell. Connor is unsuccessful and Kell executes Connor’s  mother for witchcraft. Connor kills Kell and his father, Rainey. Kell is reborn as an Immortal and vows to get revenge on Connor for killing Rainey.

Kell spends the next four centuries killing people Connor cares about. He amasses great power by ignoring the rules of the game and recruiting Immortals to overpower other Immortals so that Kell can behead them. By 1900AD, Kell has killed 661 Immortals, compared to 262 for Connor McCleod and 174 for Connor’s cousin, Duncan McCleod.

Ten years before this film’s “present day”, Kell kills Connor’s adopted daughter. Connor is heartbroken and goes to “The Sanctuary” where a group of “watchers” makes certain that Immortals there stay out of The Game.

Adopted daughter? Sanctuary? Watchers? None of these were mentioned in any of the other movies but, what the heck, why not just rewrite history to help push our story along.

This brings us to present day when Kell attacks the Sanctuary and kills all the Immortals there, although he manages to not get Connor. Duncan learns that Connor has gone to the Sanctuary, but refuses to believe that Connor would go there and just quit The Game. Duncan flies from New York to Connor’s old residence in London. He finds that it was destroyed 10 years ago in the explosion that killed Connor’s daughter. He also runs into Kate, Duncan’s wife from 200 years ago.

So, what’s this woman, Duncan’s wife, doing at Connor’s place, anyway? And, for the record, I just love the way nobody has to come up with any money for all these international flights. There must be an airline that specializes in free flights for people over 200 years old … “no working capital financing needed!”

Kell’s henchmen arrive on the scene and ignore the one-on-one rule of The Game.

…in much the same way the writers of the Highlander movies ignore all the pre-quels…

Kell arrives and the fighting stops. One of Kell’s goons shoots Duncan who falls and lands on a spike and appears to be dead. Kell takes the head of his trigger-happy goon and, as the Quickening begins, a van drives up to where Duncan fell, and takes him away.

Duncan wakes up to discover that The Watchers have taken him to The Sanctuary so as to keep him from winning The Prize.

WHY? did Duncan manage to really piss them off sometime in the past?

Two old friends, Methos and Joe, release Duncan.

I love the way “old friends” show up wherever they’re needed, at exactly the right time to help our character. Explanation, Schmexplanation. The writers need him there, so he’s there. Don’t ask why. Just watch the movie.

He discovers that Kell spared Connor so that he could continue tormenting him. Kell wants to kill Duncan to make Connor even more miserable. Connor is too wrapped up in grief over losing all his loved ones that he won’t confront Kell.

Give me a break! Connor is a 400+ year old Immortal. You can’t be Immortal without outliving a few people. If he’s that grief-stricken after all this time, then that man needs some serious help.

Duncan later confronts Kate (now using the alias “Faith”) at a fashion shoot, and asks her why she is with Kell. She tells him how much she hates the fact that she will never have children or grow old and die, and believes that Kell understands her pain.

So, what does that have to do with Duncan? Apparently, in *this* version of history Immortals are somehow made that way by other Immortals? So, where’d the first one come from?

Duncan must earn her forgiveness, or face her as an embittered part of Kell’s faction. Later on in Duncan’s hotel room, Kate arrives after having a chat with Kell, and the two make love. Though it would appear that she has forgiven him, it is not the case, and she tells Duncan that she will never forgive him, but Duncan tells her that it is never to late for redemption, and that he will wait, even if it takes years or centuries.

Kell puts on a parody of  The Last Supper where he kills all of his Immortal henchmen to gain their power. Connor manages to convince Duncan that he must take Connor’s head to gain enough power to defeat Kell. Duncan finally agrees and kills Connor.

HOLD THE PHONE! Connor McCleod is DEAD? They just took the ending to the only decent Highlander movie and flushed it down the toilet! Check Please! I’m done.

Duncan soon meets up with Kell and snatches victory from the jaws of defeat when, at the last minute, he jumps over Kell and decapitates him as he turns around. Duncan absorbs all of Kell’s massive power. He then goes to Glenfinnan, Scotland to bury Connor next to Connor’s first wife Heather. The Producers’ Cut ends with the revelation that Kate/Faith is still alive. Calling herself Kate again, the two Immortals seem to rekindle their romantic relationship.

And, if there are still two Immortals alive, then NOBODY wins the prize. Smart move, guys.

I had hoped that Highlander III: The FINAL conflict would have been the last of these sorry knock-offs of a good movie. I would say that with this movie they’ve butchered the original story so much that you can’t pull another sequel out of its ashes, but that hasn’t stopped anybody yet.

I heard a rumor that there’s a remake of the first Highlander film in the works. I hope that rumor is not true. That was the only one of these movies that I really enjoyed and I don’t want to see it mutilated so some studio can squeeze a few more bucks out of a franchise they’ve already ruined with so many conflicting story lines.

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