Weirdhouse Cinema Rewind: Highlander II, Part 1

In this classic two-part episode of Weirdhouse Cinema, Rob and Joe discuss the original theatrical cut of Russell Mulcahy’s “Highlander II: The Quickening,” starring Christopher Lambert, Sean Connery and Michael Ironside. Long live the Zeist cut! (originally published 04/ 27/24)

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hey, you 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 to the Quickening. I think if
you're a long time listener to the show, you know

(00:26):
that we have a strange appreciation for this weird, weird picture.
This episode originally published four twenty seven, twenty twenty four.
Let's dive right in.

Speaker 2 (00:40):
Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.

Speaker 1 (00:50):
Hey, welcome to Weird House Cinema. This is Rob Lamb.

Speaker 3 (00:54):
And I am Joe McCormick, and today on Weird House Cinema.
I am so excited because we're going to be talking
about the nineteen ninety one sci fi fantasy action film
Highlander to the Quickening, starring Christoph Lambert, Sean Connery, Virginia Madsen,
and Michael Ironside. This is the weird, dank, detested sequel

(01:16):
to the original Highlander from nineteen eighty six. And I
have butterflies in my stomach. I'm so happy to talk
about this today.

Speaker 1 (01:24):
Now, some of our longtime listeners might say, whoa, wha, whoa.
Didn't you guys already cover Highlander two? 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 if we really had it in our
hearts to do so. But we did not get to

(01:46):
give it the Weird House treatment.

Speaker 3 (01:48):
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.

Speaker 1 (01:55):
Yeah. Yeah, So we'll probably do less of that in
this and focus more on everything else. But fortunately Highlander
two is a film with plenty of everything else.

Speaker 3 (02:04):
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

(02:26):
split weird house movies into multiple episodes. Highlander two 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 two is a movie that I have seen

(02:49):
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 mind to watch with my friends when
I was younger. 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 two. So,

(03:11):
despite the fact that this movie is 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 two is a
movie quote almost awesome in its badness. This is not

(03:31):
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 two, 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 two is zesty, invigorating, hilarious, thought provoking,

(03:57):
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 nine from Outer Space. It's so dumb it becomes brilliant.
It's so ugly it becomes beautiful, and every time I

(04:20):
watch it it just puts a spring in my step.
I love Highlander two.

Speaker 1 (04:24):
Well, yeah, I don't disagree with the positive spin on
Highlander two at all. I will throw in there that
it's especially in some of its 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,

(04:46):
it features a train wreck with a sword fight on
top of it.

Speaker 3 (04:50):
That's right, and then it has it has one of
the most creative train related I can't even finish that
sentence here. We'll just have to get into it with
the plot. So holand or two is the story of
a man in a downward spiral of loneliness, abjection, and
physical decay. It is the story of an act of

(05:12):
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 supernatural. It's a world where magic is random and
new rules are constantly revealed, and every time you learn

(05:36):
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,

(06:00):
but in this case, to really understand Highlander two to
understand it's surprising narrative choices, it's 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

(06:21):
find such an enthusiastic fan base.

Speaker 1 (06:23):
Well, I'll try and keep it reasonably short, because we
could easily do a whole weird Outs episode on nineteen
eighty six as 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 two.
Like you forget the like three dozen backflips that one

(06:46):
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.

Speaker 3 (06:57):
The first fight is like guys who are trying to
cut each other's head off in a parking garage at
a wrestling event at Madison Square Garden.

Speaker 1 (07:04):
Is it's Madison Square Garden and it's like the fabulous
Freebirds are.

Speaker 3 (07:07):
Wrestling and 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.

Speaker 1 (07:16):
So it's a it's a film that's full of action
movie machismo, but it also both just a deliriously fun
queen soundtrack and I think is perhaps understudied as a
film potentially exploring themes and subtext of gay identity in
the nineteen eighties. I keep looking around for examples of

(07:37):
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.

Speaker 3 (07:48):
Maybe it's your destiny to.

Speaker 1 (07:49):
Write I am I'm not the person to write it,
but I would love to read someone's take on it.
But anyway, Highlander one nineteen eighty six is the tale
of a sixteenth century man in the Scottish Highlands by
the name of Connor MacLeod, who just lives seemingly ordinary
life until he suffers a fatal wound at the hands

(08:10):
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

(08:32):
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,

(08:55):
with the victor absorbing the powers of the loser, so
that Strange a mercenary that cut into him on the battlefield.
We learned that this is the Kurgan, one of the
more powerful and ruthless immortals out there, and he was
drawn to McLeod. 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

(09:17):
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.

Speaker 3 (09:34):
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 Conner.

Speaker 1 (09:46):
Yes, he's being initiated into the world of immortals 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.

Speaker 3 (10:00):
Clancy Brown by the yes.

Speaker 1 (10:01):
Yes, so fabulously over the top, like snarling, spitting performance.
So unfortunately, in the midst of all this training, the
Kurrigan returns. He wants to kill McLeod, but instead he
kills Ramirez. So then we go centuries later in mid
eighties New York City. This is where the last of
the immortals have gathered to battle it out, and of

(10:23):
course the last two end up being Connor, McLeod and
the Kurrigan. McLeod 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 the like a long running theme and myth

(10:43):
making and storytelling that immortality is also a curse because
you you know, and that's something that the film explores,
and it 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

(11:04):
told that immortals can't have children, but now he can
if he wants. 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 he can like orchestrate things, bring these
people together and try and create a brighter future for
all of humanity.

Speaker 3 (11:25):
Highlander one a brilliant summary, Rob, I think that gets
all of the high points. Now. It's funny that I'm
much more familiar with Highlander two than I am with
Highlander one. I think I've seen Highlander one one or
two times, whereas I've seen Highlander two who knows how
many times? But you know, so I'm kind of coming

(11:45):
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 two that Connor McLeod can read
people's thoughts.

Speaker 1 (12:01):
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 Islander two,
but he brought people together to do it. So it
is kind of like, if you know, Connor McLeod is
able to realize, Okay, this person needs to work with

(12:21):
this person. We need to get these people together. 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.

Speaker 3 (12:33):
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

(12:54):
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 two 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.

(13:17):
But I found as a very helpful resource an incredibly impressive,
nearly exhaustive guide to the different cuts of Highlander two
as of the year nineteen ninety seven, 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

(13:40):
of all the different cuts of the movie, but here
are at least several major ones. First of all, you
had Highlander two 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 two released in

(14:01):
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 known as Russell Mulcahy's
Renegade version also known as Highlander two the Director's cut,
which is significantly longer, and so the major differences are

(14:21):
that the British cut has about ten 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 cutter that it contains flashbacks

(14:43):
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 sense of the events in the story, because the
theatrical release, which is the one we're going to be
is famously a quite butchered edit that like splices together

(15:05):
scenes that were not originally the same scene in the
script or in how they were shot, and makes them
the same scenes, so like suddenly in the middle of
a scene characters are wearing different clothes. Then after all that,
there's the Renegade version, which is I think eighteen minutes
longer than the American cut, has major editing differences, It
moves different scenes around in time within the story, and

(15:30):
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

(15:50):
I'm wrong, but as far as I can tell, is
not available on Blu Ray, or at least not in
US region Blu Ray. So why would this be called
the Zeist cut? Well, 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

(16:12):
it answers one of the burning mysteries raised by the
original story. It tells us where the immortals of Highlander
come from. It's got to be a huge question, right,
you know, you know Connor MacLeod in sixteenth 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

(16:33):
come from the planet Zeist. They've always been aliens, supposedly,
they've always known they were aliens, and they the specific
flavor of alien they are is Zeistians. And this is
the thing that the Renegade version cuts out of the
movie just takes out all references to the planet Zeist
and to the fact that the immortals are aliens.

Speaker 1 (16:56):
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 freemen of the planet Zeist. And then when
they cut that, they cut it so that he says
freemen of the planet, which is absolutely something no one

(17:16):
has ever said.

Speaker 3 (17:18):
Yeah. So in that so in the Renegade version, Sean
Connery is talking to guys on Earth long ago and
I don't unspecified time and place in history, but he's
just talking to people and says freemen of the planet.

Speaker 1 (17:31):
Yeah, Okay, yeah, and I'm not even gonna go down.
I mean because obviously I watched part of the Renegade
cut after I finished our cut, the Ice 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 it also, it doesn't streamline anything.
It just creates even more problems for the plot, and

(17:54):
there were already plenty of problems present now.

Speaker 3 (17:56):
Something raised in that video Watchdog article is the this
plot detailed. The fact that the immortals are aliens and
they come from the planet Zeist is something that Highlander
fans especially hated about Highland or two. This was a
detested plot innovation, but these fans were apparently the reason

(18:17):
it happened. This article quotes Bill Panzer, who was a
co writer on the script and co produced the movie,
and Panser 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

(18:37):
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 gotta say, I think Bill Panser'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,

(18:59):
it is better not to have an answer to that.

Speaker 1 (19:01):
But it's also interesting to think about how, like long term,
these things can go. Like I think a great thing
to compare this to is in the Star Wars prequels
the introduction of the Midichlorians as being this aspect oft
of the micro organisms and the blood of a forced
sensitive individuals that explains why they have the force and

(19:24):
such quantities, and it's something that can be detected and
like a blood test.

Speaker 3 (19:28):
Rob this is 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.

Speaker 1 (19:41):
But it's interesting how the how it's gone with both
of these franchises. So with Highlander, we get Highland or two.
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 are like, yeah, you're you're right,
You're we shouldn't have answered it. We'll go back, We've
changed it again, and and now we're at this point

(20:01):
where we're like, that doesn't feel sufficient. I kind of,
I mean, stick to your guns on it. And with
the Midichlorians, I think you see a similar thing in that.
When the Star Wars sequels came about, there seemed to
be this deliberate attempt to just sort of skip over
most of the prequel stuff just comment on the original trilogy.

(20:22):
And I didn't hate the sequels. I rather liked the
second one. But then you can see where the storytelling
is now in the Star Wars franchise, particularly with like
the Ahsoka A series and the Mandalorian and some of
the animated shows. They've gone back and they're they're doing

(20:43):
stuff with Mindichlorians 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
you know, sticking to your guns, on your weird choices

(21:04):
and like go with it, like make it work in
the long term.

Speaker 3 (21:08):
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.

Speaker 1 (21:23):
One of the things that they did do with Highlander
is they came back and made a third Highlander movie
that was like, okay, we ignored the sequel completely.

Speaker 3 (21:30):
Yeah, and then.

Speaker 1 (21:31):
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 of film franchise

(21:54):
has not gone anywhere great since they since they cowardly
gave in to the Highlander two criticism.

Speaker 3 (22:02):
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. I don't
know why it's that's some of the funniest stuff in
the movie, come on, But I guess the deal is

(22:24):
the Highlander fans, many of them, did not want the
movie to be funny like. They didn't want anything that
might seem silly or like or out of continuity with
the rest of the series, which I get. Okay, I
guess I can partially understand that, But on the other hand,
I think that the removal of these elements really SAPs

(22:44):
the life from the film. The theatrical cut, while quite silly,
has this infectious, fun, crazy rhythm of plot developments. So
these weird lines of dialogue and hilarious shots in the
first fifteen minutes it's just amazing and upsetting that flow
by making the movie less silly and less offensive to

(23:08):
the continuity of the rest of the series, ultimately undercuts
the flow of this movie as a movie, and I
just consider it a crime against art.

Speaker 1 (23:18):
Yeah, you know, I also fondly look back on Highlander
two in part because I think this was sort of
my first experience with Highlander. So I to be clear,
I did see Highlander one before I saw Highlander two,
but it was only because I vaguely remember seeing the
trailers for Highlander two and seeing like this scene with

(23:41):
flying apocalyptic bird dudes with swords 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

(24:02):
plenty to love in Highlander one.

Speaker 3 (24:04):
There clearly is, though I would say I would suspect
that would be a surprising experience because you see a
trailer for Highlander two, it's just full of like Blade
runnery 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.

Speaker 1 (24:25):
I vaguely remember being kind of maybe not disappointed, but
just kind of like, Oh, I really thought there was
gonna 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.

Speaker 3 (24:49):
Ooh, he's got 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 a

(25:10):
great idea and it could have worked. It could have
been not just like a great bad movie. It could
have been a great good movie, you know, if realized
a little bit different. And so there's actually a quote
I came across that was in that video Watchdog article
from Russell mulcahy, the director, and he's talking about these
movies and he says, quote, all I can remember about

(25:32):
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 you know what, that
is exactly what we got there is more originality. It
definitely turns unknown corners and respect for trying.

Speaker 1 (25:53):
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

(26:14):
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 cannon and arked to understanding the film.
We have those lyrics here we are born to be Kings,
were the princes of the universe. So Highlander two is
the natural extrapolation of those lyrics, well said, all right,

(26:36):
do you have an elevator pitches? An elevator pitch even necessary?

Speaker 3 (26:39):
At this point, I got one for you. Okay. So
the formerly immortal head chopper Connor MacLeod 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,

(27:01):
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 twenty twenty four? Can
I get that in a robot voice?

Speaker 1 (27:22):
The year twenty twenty four? All right, let's go ahead
and have a taste of that original theatrical trailer for
Highland or to the Quickening.

Speaker 4 (27:46):
Greeting Chila, that's some fun. In all, there's centuries long burst.

(28:08):
Then nothing could have prepared them for lug quickening. Christopher
Lambert Sean Connery, Highlander two lugged quickening.

Speaker 1 (28:26):
All right. Now, normally this is where we tell you
exactly where to go see it, but as we've already
discussed it's it's a bit difficult in terms of the
original theatrical cut. We had to depend on on like
YouTube for it, and I think in the past we
had to depend on a VHS tape. I know that's

(28:46):
how I originally saw it.

Speaker 3 (28:48):
I've got the VHS tape of Highlander to the Quickening,
so I have the means to view the correct cut
myself if I had a functioning VCR right now.

Speaker 1 (28:57):
And there are tons of 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
Zeice 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

(29:19):
the Zeice cut, the theatrical cut, or something close to
it fitting the UK audience.

Speaker 3 (29:23):
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 Zeice cut, but does also
have Zeist. They don't take out Zeis. That's the renegade
cut that does that, but the British cut adds in
the x it re edits. The film adds in the

(29:46):
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 MacLeod and Virginia mads
and fly away into space and go to the planet Zeist.

Speaker 1 (29:58):
There are also plenty of f 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

(30:22):
there's a lot of stuff like that. I can't speak
to its actual quality because I haven't looked at it.
In 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 like rewatching the theatrical

(30:44):
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 we'll discuss like, there are
plenty of scenes in this film that look amazing. There's
some great sets, great costume and great lighting, and it

(31:06):
is a shame that we can't watch that theatrical cut
with the best possible picture quality.

Speaker 3 (31:12):
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

(31:33):
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 You could argue about
how effective they are as sets like that there 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.

(31:53):
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 off Yeah.

Speaker 1 (32:01):
Yeah. Or there's that dungeon scene where General Katana strangles an.

Speaker 3 (32:05):
Eel and that's what I was thinking of.

Speaker 1 (32:07):
Yeah, oh, was that an office?

Speaker 3 (32:09):
I don't know what that room is.

Speaker 1 (32:11):
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 in a superior picture quality.

Speaker 3 (32:25):
Oh, in all the executives' offices in the Shield Corporation building. Bands, 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,

(32:46):
so it's just like an intermittent light source.

Speaker 1 (32:48):
Yeah. Russell McKay likes his fan blades. There there's more
than there are at least two major scenes in this
that have big, big rotating fan blades. All right, Well,
since we're already talking about him, Yeah, let's get into
the connections here, starting with the director, Russell Makay born

(33:11):
nineteen fifty three, Australian director who initially made his name
directing some of the and most and I'm not over
I'm not exaggerating here some of the most iconic music
videos of the nineteen eighties. Like if you were watching
MTV and then later vh one during like the eighties
and nineties, you saw so much of this band's work.
I'm talking some of the weirdest, most stylish examples of

(33:33):
music video artistry, such as Duran Durand's Wild Boys amazing track,
Amazing video. This is the one that has post apocalyptic windmills,
you know, Simon Labon strapped to one of them, and
like strange tribes of lads running around and android heads

(33:54):
and so forth.

Speaker 3 (33:56):
Almost seems an inspiration for the war Boys in Mad
Max Fury Road.

Speaker 1 (33:59):
Yeah, yeah, similar vibes, And there are a number of
direct connections between Wild Boys and Hylander two, 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.

Speaker 3 (34:17):
You might not understand it, but you will feel it.

Speaker 1 (34:20):
Yeah, don't forget nineteen seventy nine'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, idea Hans Zimmer of Doune Fame
and so many other films, so Russell McKay plenty. I'm

(34:42):
not even I'm barely scratching the surface on all the
artists that he worked with, some of the biggest music
artists of the day. His first film, however, was the
nineteen eighty four Australian killer pig movie Razorback.

Speaker 3 (34:54):
I've seen this one. Did you watch this rope?

Speaker 1 (34:57):
I have not seen Razorback.

Speaker 3 (34:59):
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 Massacres. So you're dealing
with just like disgusting sort of outback hillbillies who work

(35:19):
in a dog food factory, and so there's like gross
gore stuff at the dog food factory, you know, that
tcum kind of kind of slop. But also I remember
some elements of the movie, apart from just the general grossness,
being really compellingly funny.

Speaker 1 (35:36):
I mean, there is often a sense of humor that
sprinkled in there somewhere.

Speaker 3 (35:40):
Yeah, yeah, all right.

Speaker 1 (35:42):
So anyway, he followed up Razorback with Highlander in eighty six,
and he's continuing to do like high end music videos
the whole time, and then follows Highlander up in nineteen
ninety one with its sequel Highlander two. Now afterwards, Okay,
continue to direct TV and film through pretty much today.
Recent credit was twenty twenty three's teen Wolf, the movie

(36:03):
spinning off from the TV series Teen Wolf that he
directed forty episodes of. So he's remained highly prolific and
I've read no indication that he's done. Other credits of
note include nineteen ninety four as the Shadow.

Speaker 3 (36:16):
Oh is that the one with Alec Baldwin as the shadow.

Speaker 1 (36:19):
YEP, that's it, which I haven't seen since the since
it came out. I remember it being 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 Doriff,

(36:40):
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 nineteen ninety nine seven inspired This
is the Movie seven, often with the numeral seven in
the middle, so I guess you could technically pronounce it

(37:02):
seven seven inspired Resurrection. This starred Christoph Limbert and also
featured David Cronenberg in a small role.

Speaker 3 (37:12):
I always love it when he shows up in the cast.

Speaker 1 (37:14):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (37:14):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (37:15):
This was a kind of again very seventy of kind
of a flick, you know, had that kind of grungey, grimy,
semi sort of ninety sleezy quality to it. About a
serial murder trying to build a body for the Second
Coming of Christ.

Speaker 3 (37:29):
Oh okay, cool, Yeah, it sounds about right for a
movie inspired by seven.

Speaker 1 (37:34):
Then yeah, oh, and then you know. He also did
two thousand and seven'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.

Speaker 3 (37:51):
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.

Speaker 1 (38:03):
Yeah, yeah, I really enjoyed the most recent Resident Evil game.

Speaker 3 (38:06):
Now, this is in no way a knock on Russell
Mulkahee at all, but in thinking about his relationship to
the creative material here, it feels significant and correct to
me that he did not like write the script for
Highlander or Highlander Too. This is not like his story,
his narrative passion project that he's bringing to the screen.

(38:27):
He is a professional director, and he's realizing a story
that came from somewhere else. Does that feel right to you?

Speaker 1 (38:34):
Yeah? Yeah, I believe so. I mean it varies from
director to director, right, I mean exactly how much they
are ultimately impacting 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.

Speaker 3 (38:55):
Though clearly does have creative influence and has some sense
of ownership over the career direction. Because again, as we
saw on that quote he said earlier like he felt
like Highlander two had to go in a different direction,
had to turn those unknown corners.

Speaker 1 (39:09):
Yeah, so let's talk about the folks who are credited
on Highlander two, and it's kind of telling. So first
of all, we have a character credit for Gregory Widen
born nineteen fifty eight. This is the American screenwriter who
wrote the screenplay for the original Highlander, initially as a
class assignment in the writing program at UCLA. So basically

(39:32):
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 fix us up a bet
and start submitting it places, and so eventually it salve
the Light of Day with some other writers involved as Highlander.
Subsequent credits included nineteen ninety one's Back Draft, nineteen ninety

(39:53):
five's The Prophecy, This is the Angel movie with Christopher
Walkin in it, which I'm very tempted to revisit on
Weird House, and yeah, yeah, he also directed that one,
and he also wrote twenty seventeen's Other Life.

Speaker 3 (40:08):
You know, thinking about him writing both Highlander and The Prophecy,
it seems that he's got 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,

(40:29):
people living among us with like special abilities and special
destiny but not really being able to be a part
of us.

Speaker 1 (40:37):
Yeah, yeah, I think so. And there are 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 died to like rip their heart out or something.
It's been a while, could have that wrong.

Speaker 3 (40:53):
Yeah, I don't know. I like how he got to
do a movie with both Christoff Lambert and Christoff Walkong.

Speaker 1 (41:01):
Now the story credit. One of the story credits here
on Highlander two goes to Brian Clemens, who lived nineteen
thirty one through twenty fifteen. British screenwriter and producer, with
credits going back to the late nineteen fifties. He did
a lot of great TV work, including thirty two episodes
of the Avengers. He also worked on a number of
nineteen seventies horror films, including Robert Foist's and Soon the

(41:22):
Darkness in nineteen seventy See No Evil and the sex
Flipping Doctor Jekyl and Sister Hide. Both of these last
two were seventy one. He also worked on seventy threes,
The Golden Voyage of Sinbad in nineteen seventy four's Captain
Cronos Vampire Hunter. We can also go ahead and throw
in Walt Disney's nineteen eighty chiller Watcher in the Woods.

(41:43):
So a very established name here, at least in TV
and B cinema of the sixties and seventies.

Speaker 3 (41:48):
Oh yeah, a lot of good titles in there, man,
The Golden Voyage of Sinbad is fun.

Speaker 1 (41:52):
Yes, yeah, absolutely, that's an all timer.

Speaker 3 (41:55):
That's got some really fantastic Ray Harry Housen stop motion
monsters in it.

Speaker 1 (42:00):
All right. We also have William In Panser 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 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

(42:21):
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.

Speaker 3 (42:30):
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 there was some various changing of hands of creative
control over the movie and what official what cut was
eventually released.

Speaker 1 (42:50):
So Panzer lived nineteen forty two through two thousand and seven.
He was mostly a producer with hands and everything Highlander,
so like he was definitely like one of the helmsmen
of the Highlander franchise, and he has story credits on
the third film and the fourth film. In addition, his
only other writing credit is for nineteen seventy nine Steel,

(43:11):
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 nineteen eighty's Phobia in nineteen eighty one's Saint Helen's.

Speaker 3 (43:25):
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 two has the same star as the original Highlander,
which is Christoph Lambert as I've been calling him. That

(43:47):
is the sort of the French pronunciation of his name,
But it's okay if you call in Christopher Lambert. He
said that in interviews he doesn't mind the American pronunciation either.

Speaker 1 (43:55):
Yeah, I mean that's how I always thought it was
pronounce when I was a kid. It's like a Christopher
Lambert's great I want to see more Christopher Lambert films.

Speaker 3 (44:02):
I mean, I'm sort of half joking when I call
him Christof Lambert, even though I guess that is what
they call him at home.

Speaker 1 (44:08):
Yeah. So born nineteen fifty seven, actually us born technically
a French actor seen here playing a Scottish man whose
credits in French cinema go back to nineteen seventy nine,
but his first big international break came with the Academy
Award winning nineteen eighty four Tarzan movie Gray Stoke, The

(44:30):
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 others, several among
several other.

Speaker 3 (44:38):
Big names, Ian Holmes in that too.

Speaker 1 (44:41):
Yeah, yeah, it's got a great cast. I've never seen it,
but it was highly thought of, at least at the time.

Speaker 3 (44:47):
This is one of those I caught parts of on
TV back in the day, but.

Speaker 1 (44:51):
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 Christopher Lumbert. These
are the qualities of casting a great vampire as well,

(45:12):
like slightly aloof a little bit weird, but also very
very handsome and charming and charismatic.

Speaker 3 (45:19):
There's a very strange duality to Limbert and 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 dough wide, having this kind of you know, tearful,
herbivorous sort of demeanor, and then shifting out of that
into a a twinkle of the eye, wise cracking gunna

(45:44):
get who just reacts to everything with a joke, saying
like something like.

Speaker 1 (45:49):
That, Oh yeah, his little laugh is wonderful, creepy, almost
Peter Laurie esque laugh. Yes, I love it, you get
it in most of his roles, And I think it's
it's kind of key to like 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

(46:10):
star here, is not exactly known for his chameleon likability
to take on different accents and nationalities and his performances,
you know, He's always Christoph 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.

Speaker 3 (46:29):
I like that.

Speaker 1 (46:30):
Yes, yeah, And like I said, I see this energy
in most of the films that come to mind, like
just to name a few here. In nineteen eighty seven's
The Sicilian he plays an Italian mobster perfect. In nineteen
ninety two's Night Moves that's spelled like night like an Armor,
he plays a womanizing I think American chess master Oki Doki.

(46:51):
Nineteen ninety five's Mortal Kombat, he plays a fictionalized, highly
fictionalized Japanese thunder god.

Speaker 3 (46:56):
Wait, is he supposed to be a Japanese thunder god?
He plays Raiden? Right? Does that right? He's in origin.

Speaker 1 (47:01):
Rayden is loosely related to an actual thunder deity in
Japanese mythology. But I didn't know that heavy emphasis on
the loosely here because we're talking about Mortal Kombat.

Speaker 3 (47:11):
I just assumed invented for the Mortal Kombat mythoughs. So yeah,
a resident of outworld or maybe beyond out world.

Speaker 1 (47:17):
Oh, he's a god of Earth.

Speaker 3 (47:19):
Yeah, he's an earth guy. Okay, I apologize, but he
he's so Mortal Kombat. The nineteen nineties 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 and it is just perfect. He's like a
he's got an attitude, you know, he's got that nineties

(47:40):
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, heck, I don't think.

Speaker 1 (47:50):
So let's see nineteen ninety nine's Beowolf as some sort
of a futuristic Beowolf, a film 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

(48:11):
me in. And then I get to the part with
the CGI and it's just like truly terrible CGI.

Speaker 3 (48:16):
It's that it's the worst of that, like nineteen ninety
nine CGI. It's really bad. The Grendel Monster, I recall,
looks terrible. The Grendel's 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.

Speaker 1 (48:33):
Yeah, box Art is promising, but it does not meet expectations.
Let's see, in two thousand and one's Druids he plays
a gol and he also plays the President of the
United States in twenty thirteen's action Nosferatu spy movie Bloodshot.
This one also has Brad Dorif 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?

Speaker 3 (48:55):
Does he play like a film director or something? In
Hail Caesar?

Speaker 1 (48:58):
He does? Yeah, I mean there are some other credits
of note. Twenty sixteens Hail Caesar Coen Brothers film. There's
a two part sci fi franchise, Fortress that a lot
of people like. Two was the originally NATed A two
thousand sequel, and then, of course, as we mentioned earlier,
he's in Resurrection playing the cop in this seven esque film.

Speaker 3 (49:23):
I gotta see some more of these B movie outings
by Lambert, so let's see. I don't know if I
could try to watch the Beol Wolf Again, Druids is
more of like a historical drama.

Speaker 1 (49:32):
Yeah, I don't and I don't have a good read
on that one. If it's at all fun or indeed great,
I just don't know much about it. And Bloodshot, ooh,
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 twenty teens the 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.

Speaker 3 (49:52):
Okay, well, anyway, My short review on Lambert in Highlander
two is he has some surprisingly the poignant moments of
acting that don't really fit in with how hilarious the
rest of the movie is like, but there are moments
where you really get that dough eyed sadness coming through.
You feel for him, You feel the pain of his

(50:13):
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
wise cracking attitude raid and things saying little like ridiculous
one liners. You can't believe the lines he says.

Speaker 1 (50:33):
Oh, 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. The assassins, the
bird guys also are real cut ups. Yeah, there's just
there's really too much of it.

Speaker 3 (50:49):
Oh and of course, how lest we forget one of
the greatest of the wise crackers, Ramirez.

Speaker 1 (50:54):
That's right, played by the great Sean Connery. I lived
nineteen thirty through twenty twenty, very Scottish actor. Obviously, there's
a lot to discuss with Sean Connery's career, very long career,
you know, one of one of the most famous actors
of his generation. But I will say there was an
old Mystery Science Theater three thousand sketch that had Mike

(51:14):
in the Bots plot the careers of Sean Connery and
his brother Neil Connery in response to the nineteen sixty
seven 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 two

(51:35):
is the only point at which Shawn's career trajectory dips
below Neil'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 two. Though to be fair, it's a very
long career with various shifts and changes.

Speaker 3 (51:54):
I have seen him in movies that I enjoy far,
far less than I enjoy Highlander two. He's the like
get second billing is the voice of the dragon in Dragonheart,
to 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

(52:15):
just a mess and Highlander two is so much a
much better use of your time than watching Dragonheart.

Speaker 1 (52:22):
Yeah, Dragonhart was a ninety six film that was post
Highlander two. And indeed you look at some of the
other posts Highlander two films and then include well, there
was Robin Hood Prince with Thieves the same year. He
has an uncredited cameo in that. But then it's stuff
like ninety two's Medicine Man, ninety three's Rising Sun, ninety
five's First Night the Rock in ninety six, The Avengers

(52:42):
in ninety nine, and I'm sorry, The Avengers in ninety eight,
and Trapman in ninety nine, Finding Forrester in two thousand
and then finally two thousand and threes, The Leave Extraordinary, Gentleman.
And we don't have to talk about twenty twelve, Sir Billy,
that was his final vocal performance.

Speaker 3 (52:58):
Yeah, that nineties, early two thousands Connery arc is a
little rough.

Speaker 1 (53:02):
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 nineteen eighty, there's a lot

(53:25):
of great stuff in there. There's nineteen eighty one's Outland,
the sci fi western. There's Time Bandits from the same year.
There's eighty seven's The Untouchables, eighty nine's Indiana Jenes and
the last cru said nineteen ninety is The Hunt for
Red October and nineteen eighty six is alone pretty impressive
because you have Connery playing both the dashing mentor Ramires,

(53:47):
who I think, if I'm using the term correctly, is
like impure zady mode in Highland Er one, so you
have that role as a mentor. But then at the
same year he's playing Sir William of Basterville in the
Name of the Rose, and I think these are both peak,
you know, and he also rather different performances from Sean Connery.

Speaker 3 (54:07):
It is hard to believe he made Highlander two the
year after he made The Hunt for Red October.

Speaker 1 (54:13):
Yeah, and I haven't seen The Hunt for October in
a while, but I have a friend who just very
recently was just insisting that it is. It's really really good, and.

Speaker 3 (54:22):
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.

Speaker 1 (54:31):
Yeah, Okay, Well, anyway, I think Sean Connery may come
up again on Weird House Cinema at some point in
the future. So we're gonna leave the rest of his
filmography for later, but suffice to say that his pre
nineteen eighty filmography is perhaps best known for his defining
performances as James Bond, but there's even then, there's still
a lot of weirder and more daring work sprinkled throughout

(54:52):
that time period. You know, like he was 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. Going through the rest of the cast.

(55:13):
Here of note, Virginia Madsen is in it playing Louise Marcus.
She's our environmental terrorist slash love interest for Connor born
nineteen sixty one. We recently talked about her because she
is Princess Roulan from David Lynch's doune Oscar nominated actress
for two thousand and five Sideways, whose credits also include

(55:33):
nineteen ninety two s Candy Man, nineteen ninety five's The Prophecy,
The Angel one to be Sure not The Mutant Bear one,
and then various TV projects as well.

Speaker 3 (55:42):
I think her relationship with Connor MacLeod 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. Within
moments they are kissing. It is unbelievable.

Speaker 1 (56:03):
Yeah, it is ridiculous. So 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.

Speaker 3 (56:14):
Yeah, Virginia Madison is 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 Christuff
Limbert in his apartment and commenting on the fact that
it doesn't make any sense. Yeah, and he just replies

(56:35):
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.

Speaker 1 (56:43):
It's a great song. It's a great song.

Speaker 4 (56:45):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (56:45):
But yeah, So in a way, she's sort of like
the regular the observer character who's like looking on this
with the audience and being like, what are you saying here?
They come here and now you're immortal again. But if
you chop their heads off, you become mortal. Okay.

Speaker 1 (57:01):
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 Kuragan for to shear 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 eleven.

Speaker 3 (57:23):
Rob, I am offended. How dare you say eleven? He
is at twenty six? 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.

Speaker 1 (57:40):
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

(58:02):
gift wrapped to you, the full Michael Ironside experience. Now,
we previously discussed Ironside in our episode on nineteen eighty
one Scanners, in which he played the rogue scanner Darryl 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

(58:24):
heavies of all time and certainly of this time period.
Like this is the type of villain role that he
could just absolutely inhabit.

Speaker 3 (58:31):
He is an all time movie villain. Got 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
revoc like all the names that have like these hard

(58:52):
angles in them and suggest cutting.

Speaker 1 (58:55):
Yeah, I mean even his actual name Ironside, Yeah, yeah,
could be a knife company, but yeah, And certainly his
performance is 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

(59:16):
least Alan rich plays the character name in this is
one of the scientists of the Shield Corporation.

Speaker 3 (59:21):
Mm hmm.

Speaker 1 (59:23):
He lived nineteen twenty six through twenty twenty character actor,
with credit stretching from nineteen fifty three till twenty fourteen.
His roles include roles in such films as seventy three, Cerpico,
ninety four's Disclosure, and Quiz Show. He also did a
little directing, I think mostly like some short film projects.

Speaker 3 (59:40):
He does a really unceremonious cinematic ins to death in
this movie, where you know, he just delivers a final,
bittersweet final line and this then goes uugh, All's over, okay,
done with him?

Speaker 1 (59:54):
All right? Then we also have John C McGinley in
this playing the character Blake, who's like what the sea
EO of Shield corp I.

Speaker 3 (01:00:01):
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 eleven or up to twenty
six as Michael Ironside, but he's doing something strange.

Speaker 1 (01:00:15):
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 eighty six is Platoon, eighty seven's Wall Street,
ninety one's Point Break, and he was actually in nineteen
ninety five to seven. He was also in nineteen ninety
six Is the Rock Wow. A number of connections here,

(01:00:36):
so much crossover, Yeah, and nineteen ninety nine'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.

Speaker 3 (01:00:50):
He I mean, yeah, he generally is, though in this
movie he's 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. You know,
when General Katana walks into the board meeting, he's like, Oh,
I've had enough of you.

Speaker 4 (01:01:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:01:09):
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 gonna pretend that you're still in charge.
Like there is a comic energy to this that needs
to be enhanced, not ignored, Or at least that was
my read on the situation.

Speaker 3 (01:01:28):
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 twenty six with dashes of clown.
John C McGinley seems to be trying something different in
all of his scenes.

Speaker 1 (01:01:47):
Yeah, see what sticks all right. Finally the music on
this one, So Michael came in did the score for
the first film, and this time around it is American
musician and composer Stuart Copeland born nineteen fifty two, best
known as the drummer for the Police.

Speaker 3 (01:02:04):
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.

Speaker 1 (01:02:11):
I'll 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 nineteen eighty three's Rumblefish, directed
by Francis Ford Coppola, and he went on to score
such films as Wall Street and Good Burger than a
lot of other stuff as well. No slam on Good Burger.
I know people who are big fans of Good Burger.

Speaker 3 (01:02:34):
They couldn't get Hans Zimmer for Good Burger.

Speaker 1 (01:02:38):
Hans Zimmer has directed, as we've said, a lot of
films and not I imagine some of them are maybe
in like this same stratosphere as Good Burger.

Speaker 3 (01:02:47):
Can you imagine the trailer Welcome to Good Burger, Home
of the Good Burger.

Speaker 1 (01:02:54):
Now, I would say in general this film suffers from
a lack of Queen tracks. There was a 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 one soundtrack before they ended up

(01:03:15):
going with Queen.

Speaker 3 (01:03:16):
Oh that would have been a different feeling, wouldn't it.

Speaker 1 (01:03:19):
I don't. 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, and it's not even Highlander without that
awesome soundtrack by Queen. I listened to the full uh,
it's a kind of magic album yesterday whilst working on
some of these notes, and it's just it's just a
treat here. We are, all right, let's let's start getting

(01:03:49):
into the plot here a little bit. Let's start discussing
Highlander two in earnest.

Speaker 3 (01:03:54):
Knowing that we will have to break for time soon,
but I think we find we'll find a natural place
to do that.

Speaker 1 (01:03:59):
That's right.

Speaker 3 (01:04:00):
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 twenty twenty four, at least
up until the part where Connor McLeod becomes hot again,

(01:04:22):
because everything up to that point is just like a
relentless tickle of my brain and it's so good.

Speaker 1 (01:04:28):
Yeah, And then when he gets hot again, that's in
the midst of one of the best sequences in the
entire film.

Speaker 3 (01:04:34):
Yes, Okay, So we open on a cursed opaque sky
filled with poisonous orange smog, and there's a dissonant minor
chord playing on the soundtrack, and the title reads August
nineteen ninety nine, 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

(01:04:56):
in the news. It says, today's top story is the
ozone l 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.

Speaker 1 (01:05:17):
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 two, and that's where
you will find extended discussion on bad aspect of the film.

Speaker 3 (01:05:33):
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,
where 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

(01:05:54):
what looks like a giant warehouse full of patients and
sick beds, with nurses running around and a sign tell
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 doctor Allan Naman and supervised by

(01:06:15):
Connor McLeod work around the clock. This may be the
last chance for planet Earth. And here we see Christopher
Lambert as Connor MacLeod wearing a suit and tie. He's
gathered with other scientists and 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

(01:06:35):
like that one of the 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. So
we hear a countdown began, and they're preparing to activate

(01:06:57):
the shield which is going to protect the Earth from
the Sun. And we see dudes in yellow devo suits
sprinting away from the direction of a giant concrete pyramid.
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, but a satellite in space rotates

(01:07:17):
into position. 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.

Speaker 1 (01:07:32):
Yeah, yeah, that's a choice.

Speaker 3 (01:07:34):
And then we see the pyramid and 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

(01:07:55):
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.

Speaker 1 (01:08:08):
I want to throw in that 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.

Speaker 3 (01:08:19):
Oh I don't know which one though.

Speaker 1 (01:08:21):
He says a line or two. So, but he's just
one of the one of the crew there behind a
computer screen.

Speaker 3 (01:08:29):
I wonder if he's the guy with the ponytail.

Speaker 1 (01:08:32):
This one in the still that you have in the outline. Yes,
that's not him. It's another guy, but he's in there somewhere.
So as far as the prolog goes like, this is
a success story, right, this is essentially how Connor McLeod
uses the prize to save the world. He's able to
orchestrate this massive technoscientific effort to save the world from

(01:08:55):
its own depleted ozone layer and protect it from solar radiation.

Speaker 3 (01:09:00):
Really appreciate your reading of how the prize is actually
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, and maybe
I'm taking this for granted that that would make one
a great organizer of people, but it seems like it could.

Speaker 1 (01:09:20):
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 public sentiment and so forth. But if
anybody can do it, it's the immortal guy who can
read everybody's mind.

Speaker 3 (01:09:38):
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 mcleoughd, make him

(01:10:01):
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.

Speaker 1 (01:10:10):
It makes me wonder if the screenwriters here were perhaps
dipping a little bit into some of the themes and the
Dune sequels where you know, like in Doune Messiah and
then also in God Emperor of Dune in Post God
improv of Doom books, where you know, you're dealing with
interpretations of rulers and you know, major players in history

(01:10:33):
that then cast them as devils and tyrants and so forth,
you know, and it's like Connor does save the world
and does the world thank him. No, they really get
sick of his solution.

Speaker 3 (01:10:44):
They literally throw bottles at him in bars.

Speaker 1 (01:10:46):
Yeah yeah, But.

Speaker 3 (01:10:48):
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 twenty five years after it's over.

Speaker 1 (01:10:58):
Yeah yeah, I don't know. I guess he was that
of a celebrity. It's like knowing what Einstein looked like,
except I don't know, except more handsome.

Speaker 3 (01:11:06):
So I think we're gonna have to end part one
of our discussion of Highlander two the Quickening, but we
will be back with more because right after what we've
gotten to in the plot, it cuts to twenty five
years in the future, to the year twenty twenty four.

Speaker 1 (01:11:22):
That's right, Like this is a contemporary story.

Speaker 3 (01:11:25):
We're gonna have to leave you wondering until next week
how future events such as these will affect you in
the future.

Speaker 1 (01:11:31):
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 two in full, here's a
great chance to do it. Fill the time between this
episode and the next watching some version of Highland or two,
you know, preferably the theatrical cut, the ice cut. But hey,
work with what you got because some of these sequences

(01:11:51):
are still gonna be mindlessly stupid or just amazingly awesome,
so you'll still be able to relate to what we're
talking about.

Speaker 3 (01:11:59):
It'll be a good time no matter what.

Speaker 1 (01:12:01):
Yeah, all right, well just remind you here. The Stuff
to Blow Your Mind is primarily a signs and culture podcast,
with core episodes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, listener mail and
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,

(01:12:23):
go on over to letterbox dot com. That's l E
T T E R bo x D dot com. Once
you're there, you can look for our username it's weird House,
and 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

(01:12:44):
been up to as well.

Speaker 3 (01:12:46):
Huge thanks as always to our excellent audio producer, Jjposway.
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 that's Stuff to Blow
Your Mind.

Speaker 2 (01:13:07):
Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For
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