Plot
In the future, Highlander Connor MacLeod must prevent the destruction of Earth under an anti-ozone shield.
Release Year: 1991
Rating: 3.7/10 (21,720 voted)
Director:
Russell Mulcahy
Stars: Christopher Lambert, Sean Connery, Virginia Madsen
Storyline The second "Highlander" movie, again with Christopher Lambert and Sean Connery. It's the year 2024 and all the ozone above Earth has gone. To protect people from dying, MacLeod helped in the construction of a giant "shield", several years ago. But, since there isn't left anyone Immortal after MacLeod's victory in the previous film, he has stopped being an Immortal himself. Now he is just an old man, until one day some other Immortals arrive on our planet. You see, the Immortals come from another planet...
Writers: Gregory Widen, Brian Clemens
Cast: Christopher Lambert
-
Connor MacLeod
Sean Connery
-
Juan Sánchez Villa-Lobos Ramírez
Virginia Madsen
-
Louise Marcus
Michael Ironside
-
Gen. Katana
Allan Rich
-
Allan Neyman
John C. McGinley
-
David Blake
Phillip Brock
-
Cabbie
Rusty Schwimmer
-
Drunk
Ed Trucco
-
Jimmy
Steven Grives
-
Hamlet
(as Stephen Grives)
Jimmy Murray
-
Horatio
Pete Antico
-
Corda
Peter Bucossi
-
Reno
Peter Bromilow
-
Joe
Jeff Altman
-
Doctor
Trivia: Virginia Madsen had auditioned for Heather in the original
Highlander.
Goofs:
Plot holes:
Ramirez and MacLeod enter the prison with a car. The guards shoot the car with machine guns from all sides. But MacLeod's friend Louise Marcus, in the trunk of the car, not only survives but is even unhurt.
Quotes: Ramirez:
[confused after Hamlet actor swears at him]
Shithead? What's a shithead?
User Review
Dead from the neck up
Rating: 1/10
Never in the field of human endeavour has there been an act of such
instrumental, destructive, diabolical folly as this justifiably
reviled, quasi-sequel to the original 1986 fantasy in which immortal
warriors duelled throughout the ages until one remained. Yes, its
Highlander II - a film so bad that Robert Mugabe refused to show it to
white farmers on the grounds that it would be "exceptionally cruel".
Needing to grasp on to a strand of optimism, perhaps only the thickness
of a human hair, I long ago decided that the film existed purely as a
textbook demonstration for future filmmakers on how not to make a
successful sequel to a hit movie. This theory alone explains the
cynicism on screen and the ham-fisted, slapdash, car-crash handling of
the material. Don't misunderstand; I'm not saying this thing is poor -
poor would be generous praise for a Frankenstein fantasy in which all
the invention, both visual and conceptual, inherent in the first film's
appeal is frittered to nothing. In fact, the totality of the words
already used are only the merest fraction of those required to
accurately portray the near total devastation that washed over me as I
sat through it (I'm ashamed to say not for the only time) on a stormy
night 14 years ago. Russell Mulchay deserves to be poisoned and broad
beaten with a tent pole in the male ruminations for his decision to
helm the whole sorry affair and grind his original good work to dust.
It hardly needs saying but the problem for anyone scripting a
Highlander II is that Highlander I concluded business comprehensively
with no outlet for a second episode. To get around this the makers of
The Quickening simply decided to ditch the back-story of the original
film and invent a new one which would enable them to write around the
fact that all the immortals, bar M.Lambert were, not unlike themselves,
dead from the neck up. So although McCloud was originally born in
Scotland and Ramierez in er, Egypt, now they were aliens from a planet
called Zeist; handy, because this new ancestry meant that all that was
needed to reengergise the concept was that another visitor showed up on
Earth and the games can begin again. To fully appreciate how awful an
idea this is you need only imagine a Star Wars sequel in which the
action is suddenly set in present day Earth for reasons of plot
convenience or a second instalment of Titanic in which it's revealed
that Jack and Rose are actually time-travellers and are thus able to
prevent the disaster and save all their friends. Thus Highlander II is
effectively the one line joke in the Player in which the writer of the
Graduate pitches the terrible sequel writ large and for real. We can
only imagine that the owners of the original film were desperate for
more because nothing but desperation could possibly explain how this
made it to the screen. If blame were slurry and required apportioning
by EU agricultural directive then you'd need roughly 6 tankers worth,
each containing somewhere in the region of 40,000 tonnes. The shame of
Sean Connery and Christopher Lambert is palpable and everyone who felt
any enjoyment during this picture is consciously and deliberately
complicit in its evil work. As a purely commercial enterprise with no
respect or consideration for the 1st film or its fans, we can only hope
that all involved lost millions and that having lost their deposit they
were forced to sell themselves into sexual slavery. Highlander III, not
exactly itself a great sequel, ignored this one completely as
ironically it left no outlet for a third episode but it too was a
cynical cash-in and could only continue the first film by ignoring its
ending whereas the forth in the series simply didn't bother with the
first film at all, opting instead to go with the spin-off T.V series.
That's the way the rot spread but here's where it started - now please
Hollywood...never again.
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