HIGHLANDER (1986): Celebrating 40 Years Of Immortality!

By Glen Dower

Introduction

Few films during the 1980s captured lightning in a bottle quite like Russell Mulcahy’s Highlander (1986). The film blended historical epic, dark fantasy, and heavy metal music-video visuals perfectly. It also defied initial box-office struggles to become a cult classic. Now, celebrating its 40th anniversary with a stunning 4K Ultra HD restoration and an upcoming big-screen reboot directed by Chad Stahelski (John Wick) starring Henry Cavill, Highlander remains as vital, audacious, and unforgettable as ever. And with the film’s legacy of inferior sequels, it proves why there can be only one!

Beginnings

The genesis of Highlander began not in a Hollywood boardroom, but in a UCLA classroom. Screenwriting student Gregory Widen drafted a spec script titled Shadow Clan. This was inspired by a visit to Scotland and a dark curiosity about what it would actually feel like to live forever, watching every friend, spouse, and child age and die while you remain untouched by time.

Highlander
Sean Connery and Christopher Lambert star in “Highlander” (1986). Photo courtesy of 20th Century Fox.

When optioned by producers Peter S. Davis and William N. Panzer, screenwriters Peter Bellwood and Larry Ferguson were brought in to polish Widen’s bleak original vision. They made Highlander into a grander, high-concept mythology that centered on three unbreakable rules:

The Decapitation Rule: Immortals can only die by beheading. Upon death, their essence and power pass to the victor via The Quickening, a violent, apocalyptic burst of lightning, wind, and atmospheric energy.

Sacred Ground: Immortals are forbidden from fighting on holy ground (churches, temples, sanctuaries). It remains the lone rule of honor respected across centuries.

The Gathering: As the centuries wane and the number of living Immortals shrinks, a force draws the survivors together to fight until “There can be only one.” The last standing absorb the collective knowledge and power of all who ever lived: The Prize.

“From the Dawn of Time we came… moving silently through the centuries, living many secret lives until an age-old prophecy is fulfilled: That there can be only one.”

Russell Mulcahy 

Before Highlander, Australian director Russell Mulcahy was world-famous for the MTV videos he directed. He helmed landmark music videos for Duran Duran (“Hungry Like the Wolf”), Elton John, and The Buggles (“Video Killed the Radio Star”). When handed the reins to Highlander, Mulcahy unleashed every camera trick in his arsenal to blur the line between time periods.

Highlander
Clancy Brown stars in “Highlander” (1986). Photo courtesy of 20th Century Fox.
Rather than traditional cuts, Mulcahy pioneered the match-cut. A camera sweeps up from an inside shot of a 1985 parking lot, outside of Madison Square Garden, to magically emerge outside of a damp 16th-century Scottish castle. An antique oil painting of Clan MacLeod slowly dissolves into the flickering streetlights of 1980s Manhattan. Using Louma crane shots, atmospheric smoke, backlighting, and low-angle tracking perspectives, Mulcahy’s vision elevated what could have been a standard B-movie into high art.

Lambert, Connery, and Brown

On paper, the main cast of Highlander reads like a bizarre casting experiment. On screen, it produced pure lightning. Christopher Lambert as Connor MacLeod was believed to be French-born. However, the actor was actually born in Long Island, but left for France at a young age with his family. Despite speaking virtually no English when cast, Lambert brought a gravelly voice, intense gaze, and tragic detachment that perfectly suited a man burdened by four centuries of grief. With an accent that legitimately sounded like he was from ‘lots of places’.

Sir Sean Connery as (deep breath) Juan Sánchez-Villalobos Ramírez has Scotland’s greatest icon playing an ancient Egyptian who served the Spanish court. Yes, you read that right. Hired for a whirlwind seven-day shoot, Connery’s iconic mentor charm was seen as an investment by the filmmakers to bring the same weight and class as Sir Alec Guinness brought to Star Wars (1977). And he got to have fun wielding an ivory-handled Katana forged by Masamune.

Clancy Brown as The Kurgan was A 6’3″ powerhouse who turned the primary antagonist into a terrifying, leather-clad force of nature. Playing a being of pure evil, Brown improvised some of the film’s most infamous beats, including harassing real churchgoers in character.

Sparks, Steel, and Bob Anderson

The fight choreography in Highlander holds a special place in action history. The production hired legendary British Olympic fencer and master swordsman Bob Anderson. Anderson was responsible for the dueling choreography in The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and The Princess Bride (1987). He faced an immediate challenge as Lambert suffered from extreme myopia (profound shortsightedness) and could not wear contact lenses while filming. He was performing full-contact sword choreography while practically blind without his glasses.

To compensate, Lambert and Brown trained rigorously for months. To heighten the visual impact of the steel duels, the crew wired car batteries under the actors’ costumes, attaching thin cables to real steel blades. When the swords made contact, live electrical circuits were activated, sending cascades of real, blinding sparks flying across the frame. This was a dangerous, practical effect that no modern CGI could replicate.

Highlander
Christopher Lambert and Beatie Edney star in “Highlander” (1986). Photo courtesy of 20th Century Fox.

A Kind of Magic

Originally, Mulcahy approached British rock legends Queen to record just a single theme song. However, after viewing a rough twenty-minute cut of the film, the band was so spellbound that every member insisted on writing music for it! Indeed, guitarist Brian May was so overwhelmed by the tragic sequence where Connor holds his mortal wife Heather (Beatie Edney) as she ages and dies that he wrote “Who Wants to Live Forever” in his car on the ride home from the screening room.

The soundtrack for the film became a masterpiece. Queen’s pop-rocking “Princes of the Universe” (the immortal anthem), “A Kind of Magic”, “Gimme the Prize”, and “One Year of Love” were all stellar additions to the soundtrack. If you didn’t leave the theater wielding an imaginary sword, you were rocking an air guitar. Michael Kamen’s symphonic score used classic orchestral elements combined with Freddie Mercury’s operatic vocals. The result was an emotional backbone that defined the film.

The 4K UHD Restoration

To commemorate the 40th anniversary, StudioCanal executed a meticulous 4K restoration scanned directly from the original 35mm camera negatives. The transfer in HDR10 and Dolby Vision breathes fresh vitality into the film. The vivid emerald greens of Glen Coe and the mist-laden lochs gain unprecedented depth and fine detail. The deep black levels and vibrant neon lights of the Manhattan alleyways contrast dramatically, preserving the rich film grain while removing decades of dirt and scratches. Queen’s soaring guitar riffs and Kamen’s swelling strings surround the viewer with Dolby Atmos Audio, making the quickening electricity crackle with terrifying, room-shaking immersion.

The Reboot and Future Legacy

While Highlander spawned a franchise, including four film sequels, an anime feature, and the wildly successful 1990s television series starring Adrian Paul as Duncan MacLeod, fans have long awaited a modern feature-length revival. That revival is now at hand, with director Chad Stahelski (John Wick franchise) helming a large-scale reboot starring Henry Cavill as Connor MacLeod. Stahelski’s vision aims to combine the grounded, hyper-stylized sword combat of John Wick with an expanded deep-dive into international Immortal lore, drawing heavily on weapon martial arts, historic longsword technique, and Queen’s original music library.

Four decades after Russell Mulcahy first yelled “action” in the cold rain of Glen Coe, Highlander proves that true mythologies never fade.

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