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Highlander
He fought his first battle on the Scottish Highlands in 1536. He will fight his greatest battle on the streets of New York City in 1986. His name is Connor MacLeod. He is immortal.
1986 · Directed by Russell Mulcahy · 116 min · Adventure · Action · Fantasy · Screenplay in the scene database · 17 frames
Tagline
There can be only one.
Plot
In 1985 New York, Connor MacLeod encounters an old enemy, Iman Fasil, in the parking garage of Madison Square Garden. After a sword duel, Connor beheads Fasil and absorbs a powerful release of energy from his body, then hides his sword in the garage's ceiling. NYPD officers detain him on suspicion of murder but lack evidence to hold him.
Connor's history is revealed through a series of flashbacks. In the Scottish Highlands in 1536, Connor fights against the rival Fraser clan as a warrior of the MacLeod clan. The Frasers are aided by an outlander knight in exchange for his right to slay Connor. In battle, the knight fatally stabs Connor but is driven off by his clansmen. After Connor makes a complete recovery, his lover Kate and his cousin Dougal accuse him of witchcraft. The clan wants to kill him, but his other cousin, chieftain Angus, mercifully exiles him. Connor quietly settles into a new life as a blacksmith and marries a woman named Heather MacDonald.
Juan Sánchez-Villalobos Ramírez, a wandering swordsman, seeks out Connor. He explains that they and others like them are "Immortals". They possess a sixth sense known as the "quickening" and can be killed only by beheading. Each immortal must be ready to do battle with others, save on holy ground. Ramírez trains Connor in sword fighting and the two become friends. He informs Connor that as the number of immortals dwindles, they will gather in a distant land for a final confrontation until only one remains with the combined quickening of all. Immortals cannot conceive children, and Ramírez urges Connor to leave Heather so that he will be unburdened in the fight ahead. The knight that he encountered, the Kurgan, is a powerful and vicious immortal who would subject humanity to an eternity of darkness.
Plot summary from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA.
Crew
- Screenplay: Gregory Widen, Larry Ferguson, Peter Bellwood
- Cinematography: Gerry Fisher
- Edited by: Peter Honess
- Music: Michael Kamen
- Production design: Allan Cameron
- Produced by: William N. Panzer, Peter S. Davis
Cast
- Christopher Lambert as Connor 'The Highlander' MacLeod
- Roxanne Hart as Brenda J. Wyatt
- Clancy Brown as Victor 'The Kurgan' Kruger
- Sean Connery as Juan Sanchez Villa-Lobos Ramirez
- Beatie Edney as Heather MacLeod
- Alan North as Lieutenant Frank Moran
- Jon Polito as Det. Walter Bedsoe
- Sheila Gish as Rachel Ellenstein
- Hugh Quarshie as Sunda Kastagir
- Peter Diamond as Aman Fasil
Production
- Country: United Kingdom, United States of America
- Language: English
- Studios: Davis-Panzer Productions, Thorn EMI Screen Entertainment, Highlander Productions
- Budget: $19,000,000
- Box office: $12,900,000
- Themes: new york city, martial arts, swordplay, immortality, scotland, sword, sword fight, fictional war, dark fantasy, warrior
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