HIGHLANDER (1986) - Fantasizing About Fantasy Films

[@wstine79]

"It's better to burn out than to fade away."

[@allaboutmusicmovies9606]

There can be only one 😛

[@docbones213]

Happy Halloween ladies!

[@MiyaTakamura]

That line is referenced in Burnout 3 Takedown as an "ancient racing proverb"

[@darbyheavey406]

A grunge reference? Neil Young approves!

[@underwaterlaser1687]

“Hi, I’m Candy.” “Of course you are.”

[@JessicaDwyer]

I'll just say it here. Giggity. :)

[@kiba775237]

laughs in Clancy Brown'S voice

[@NeverSaySandwich1]

I think you mean I'm plenty

[@cinematicCommentary8811]

@@JessicaDwyer when I seen this comment i can hear his voice

[@shainewhite2781]

There can be only one! I wish that were true after the Sequels were released. Still its the greatest Action Fantasy Epic ever made

[@evanward4303]

Kurgen : "Happy Halloween ladies!" [turns grinning to McLeod] "Nuns. No sense of humour."

[@jasonwebb1882]

I can still remember my mother yelling at me and 1 of my friends to be quite so she could watch this movie. I know that I watched the movies with her and I think there was a tv show spinoff for it too. True shit, I miss my mom and all the times we would spend watching movies. The last movie that we got to watch together was Armageddon.

[@Freebyrd1991]

Sorry Jason, thanks for sharing. I was just telling my mom we should watch this together to see the awesome shots filmed in Ireland or Scotland or whoever owns that land this generation through ...lol

[@lillianbowen7408]

Highlander and Bladerunner are my all time favorite movies. Thank you for this channel.

[@JoBloOriginals]

My pleasure!

[@WaterborneCamper]

Highlander is one of my all-time favorite films! It's too bad all the sequels were garbage.

[@40g33k]

Agreed, but the series with Adrian Paul was pretty decent for the time. Clancy Brown(The Kurgen) was a superb bad guy as well in the movie.

[@Bozar069]

"There can only be one."

[@antonbrown3610]

Except for Endgame and the series

[@UrbanNoizeMusic]

@@40g33k Yea the series is what I actually prefer to be honest. Because of the story telling and character building. Nevertheless Christopher sis show up in the series a few times. Which was awesome

[@JnEricsonx]

@@40g33k With any luck, I'll be meeting Adrian Paul end of the month.

[@randomrangoon5476]

My dad showed me this movie when I was a kid and at the same time it introduced me to Queen😎☺️ Still really enjoy this movie

[@Ggost-ir6]

And also queen...

[@randomrangoon5476]

@@Ggost-ir6 I said that👍

[@NicVegas]

I'm excited for Cavill and the remake, but I don't know how I'll feel if they don't use those Queen songs. Princes of the Universe and Who Wants to Live Forever are masterpieces, forever bound to the Highlander franchise for me

[@silverblue73]

It would be like The Crow without The Cure

[@kirbymarchbarcena]

When they say "There can only be one!", they were saying that there should be no sequels or spin-offs about it.

[@charlesfarley28]

"I'm not Spanish! I'm Egyptian!" - Juan Sanchez Villalobos Ramirez Yeah, you sound like it, Sean.

[@Saint_nobody]

😄

[@pdzombie1906]

Critics hated the original film, and off course, time has proven them wrong... Great as usual, Thanx!!!

[@kevinconn]

The core story of HIGHLANDER, is amazing. That’s why I look forward to a reboot. And I hope they have Adrian Paul cameo.

[@garethmckeown1306]

This used to be on repeat in the 80s in my house ! Rewind the tape !!! There can be only one thanks Freddy 🤗

[@Crimson28]

I adore this film. I watched with my dad when I was a kid and been in love with it to date.

[@chibikim77]

Is it wrong that I loved Clancy Brown in this? His dynamic vocal range as the Kurgan will always be my favorite. Plus he was stellar in the game Detroit-Become Human.

[@runlarryrun77]

He was brilliant. The Kurgan is a hugely underrated movie villain.

[@orinanime]

What vocal range does he present in this movie?

[@jkdbuck7670]

He's brilliant as Mr Krabs in SpongeBob SquarePants.

[@davee.9906]

My dad let me watch this when I was very young like seven. And I still love it today.

[@diegovb1145]

It won the academy award for best movie ever made!

[@mrdth1987]

I still find it funny they cast a Frenchman as a Scot and a Scot as a Spaniard/Egpytian weirdest casting ever until Jodie Turner-Smith played Anne Boleyn.

[@ytndndrummer]

Bubba Ho-Tep has a black elderly JFK and I love that, too. Cheers!

[@runlarryrun77]

It was weird yes, but it just worked somehow.

[@jkdbuck7670]

John Wayne as Ghengis Khan.

[@FatNorthernBigot]

One million dollars for seven days of Sean Connery is great value for money.

[@tomhahnl1927]

Love this movie, at the time one of the best and it still holds up!!!

[@glazdarklee1683]

I watched this at a very impressionable time in my life. The scene I remember best involves the line, "Hi, I'm Candy..."

[@fistimusmaximus6576]

Highlander doesnt need a remake, they wont be able to recapture the magic. Look at all the recent remakes like robocop or total recall, they were bad.

[@alidaraie]

Plus no Freddie, no sell (There can be only one Freddie)

[@Zeithri]

RoboCop was alright. It had some scenes that I praise it for though brief, like when minor characters talk about cybernetic enhancements and their issues to connect with their loved ones after that. And that's what is so sad with the 2014 RoboCop. It has a good premise burried under rubble. The reason RoboCop's armor is black? Because it's a reference to the TV series Prime Directive where they introduced RoboCop Unit 2, aka Cabel. Stuff like that. It's still an adequate popcorn flick, but it doesn't hold candle to the original nor TV series that followed. Even the more kid friendly TV series ( called Robocop TV Series ) has more feeling to it, especially when RoboCop comes face to face with his father, who had been suspecting RoboCop's true identity. A cheesy 90's pop-rnb ( not sure ) theme called _Future to this Life_ ends each episode and it fits so well. So that is why I think that it is sad they didn't really 'get' RoboCop with the new movie, or they didn't do enough, they didn't explore the complications and society enough. Unlike the new Total Recall that's just shit lol.

[@purefoldnz3070]

I would argue a remake could be good. The fight scenes in the original were clumsy as well

[@fistimusmaximus6576]

Not saying the film was perfect but all these remakes fail to capture what made them good. The soundtrack aswell helped.

[@purefoldnz3070]

@@fistimusmaximus6576 Sure and no reason why they couldn't use Queen again. More of a budget and better fight scenes could make for a better Highlander movie. Plus a new generation of Highlander fans. As long as Disney nor Rian Johnson are involved to shove gender politics down our throats.

[@cuff2860]

With the reboot, I really hope we can see Christopher Lambert and Adrian Paul make an appearance. When it's rebooted, it needs to be true to the source material because too many films have gone in completely different directions (looking at you, "Total Recall"). If Lambert did return, a fun way to mention Ramirez would be to have Conner nod to a photo of Sean Connery and declare his surprise at how much the two look alike.

[@iLLWiLL173]

Seeing this with my brother in the late 80s was a blast..I remember wanting to be in this world... Admittedly I haven't seen this movie in over 20s years ... definitely need to watch it again

[@paul_321]

30 seconds in and I got that song in my head

[@danielwilliamson6180]

Highlander is a classic. There are lots of reasons why Highlander is a classic. Christopher Lambert was perfectly cast as Connor McLeod and he brought charisma, charm sadness and heart to the role. The late Sean Connery was the ideal choice to play Juan Vila Lobos Ramirez and he has great chemistry with Christopher Lambert and you can tell that they were really getting along and were having fun making the movie. Clancy Brown is badass as The Kurgan and he makes The Kurgan a truly despicable and menacing memorable antagonist. Roxanne Hart is good as Brenda Wyatt and she did look good with Christopher Lambert. Beatie Edney (Heather McLeod) had real chemistry with Christopher Lambert and they looked as if they could really had been in love with each other and you feel for McLeod when Heather dies. The movie had a great story and it had good writing especially when it came to Connor McLeod's mixed accent where it hinted that Connor McLeod had travelled and lived in different countries over the centuries. Ramirez pleading with Connor to leave Heather and sparing him the pain of watching her grow old and die which Connor learns that lesson when Heather does die of old age and the sleazy hotel owner saying to Kurgan "I hope you get your head chopped off" was a clever foreshadowing of the ending. Russell Mulchay did an excellent job directing the movie and the movie had beautiful photography and Russell Mulchay really gave the movie an unique visual storytelling style and he seemed to understand the characters and the world of Highlander. Michael Kamen and Queen provided an outstanding soundtrack. One of my favourite songs in the movie was "One Year of Love" in the scene which Connor McLeod meets Brenda Wyatt at the pub and it truly reflects on McLeod's loneliness as McLeod has spent most of his immortal life alone and won't allow any mortal woman to get close to him and love him. The background music used in the climatic swordfight between McLeod and Kurgen is pure epic. London was the ideal filming location for the scenes set in present day New York and with the efforts of the production team you'd really think that it was NYC. Despite it's slow pace, Highlander had some well choregraphed action sequences and the climatic sword fight between McLeod and Kurgan is truly the best action sequence in the movie. Highlander had the perfect ending and like Terminator 2: Judgment Day, the story should had ended there. Highlander is a classic fantasy film and it has aged well in the last 35 years and in my opinion, it's the best movie of Christopher Lambert's acting career.

[@solidsnake3861]

watched this many times as a kid and cried man

[@thedarkonestaint6105]

John wick director and one of the greatest fantasy actors of the generation on board for a reboot!? Sign me up!

[@aluinie]

One of my all time favourite films. Yes the swordplay was not the best and the way the actors was chosen was bizzare but you know what it did not matter as all the cast gave their all to the movie. If they do reboot the movie there is no way they could get someone to beat Clancy Browns preformance as he was just fantastic in his role.

[@irishinnj72]

One of the reasons for the less than great sword fights, is that Christopher Lambert is legally blind without his glasses and he can't wear contacts. So he had to memorize the fight scenes and then basically do them blind when filming. He suffered numerous injuries making the movies, including nearly getting part of his finger chopped off in a fight scene with Michael Ironside in Highlander 2.

[@Cinnabar_and_Chalcanthite]

@@irishinnj72 😮 I had no idea.... what great info and he did such a fantastic job in spite of this! Thank you! French Zatoichi!

[@joribremer5260]

If a new highlander film only uses queen music ;) , These are the days of our lives is i think a fitting song..

[@sebastiansoto3826]

Too much information can spoil a good story it's better to tell enough and keep the Curiosity as a mystery

[@jkdbuck7670]

Connery stole the show. The scenes with him are magic.

[@chriscostello117]

Great work JoBlo!

[@bonghunezhou5051]

5:34 "...banded..." BANDIED about Milestone: aside from this film marking Connery with portraying another character for more than one entry (i.e. JBond; Ramirez) it blazed a path for his portrayals of 'elder mentor/statesman' in films for the remainder of his career (e.g. The Untouchables, Russia House, The Hunt for Red October, Entrapment).

[@silverblue73]

The first time I heard Queen was the intro to Highlander the series and I couldn't believe how amazing it was

[@michaelj6392]

Highlander is a documentary, based on events that happened in real time.

[@orinanime]

Thank you Ricky Bobby

[@inversionesincia5754]

One of the perks of immortality, or at least a huge life span, is the sense of superiority these guys got, as compared to regular people, the centuries of experience, knowing scientists, military leaders, etc, even helping them. That made the immortals a superior class, also tending to abuse their power.

[@guaposneeze]

People love to dunk on the second film. Look, I'm not saying it was a great classic. But there was a huge ambition in trying to mix up style and genre. I can't tell any of the last five Jurassic or Transformers movies apart. You can't forget Highlander 2, or mix it up with the first one. It manages to set itself apart. Admittedly maybe too far apart, and not all in good ways. But modern filmmakers seem like cowards when they approach a sequel and just try to make The Same but Moreso. Better to try and add something new but fail, than to try not to add anything new. At least the failure has a point. The Repeats don't even aspire to add anything new, so I feel like there's just no point in them even if they succeed at the goal.

[@runlarryrun77]

It also didn't help that the 2nd film mainly existed as a giant tax dodge. Making a film wasn't the producers priority. It's amazing it was ever completed really.

[@williepirie5329]

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 this was an amazing movie to grow up with in Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

[@FloppyFred]

One thing that saddens me is that we probably never see an Complete Score for the Soundtrack. That is because the Sources got burned in a fire, that´s what i heard. There is however an extended Release, but it´s still missing music.

[@OutOfPrintGM]

I allways thought the sequel movies should have been set after Heather's death and before the gathering they had plenty of scope to work with

[@LeonardoKlotz]

RIP Michael Kamen RIP Sean Connery

[@allaboutmusicmovies9606]

I love the first one, one of my favourites, but is there anyone who like the quickening? Anyone at all? 😂

[@tmoore4075]

I can't not think of Talladega Nights now. "It won the Academy Award." "Really? For what?" "The greatest movie ever made." lol

[@rydastyle9875]

"I've seen the Highlander. IT WAS SHIIIT!" 🤣🤣🤣

[@zu_1455]

Love this narrator and her low-key lisp!

[@peterpidrak9501]

I heard an interesting story from someone involved in the merchandising before the movies. Apparently they had believed that there was no way they would have Sean Connery in the movie he would be much too expensive. So they, when asking for manuscripts, said no Ramirez. Then they apparently got an offer for overseas markets to carry the film for a guaranteed amount of time producing a guaranteed amount of money if it had Sean Connery at it for a certain amount of time. Only one script had thrown out the idea of not having Ramirez and had put him in and that was the script that gave us Highlander two. Apparently, they needed to have a script to move forward with the contract so they grabbed it rolled with it and could only alter it so much. So Ziiced

[@methos1999]

Having the director of a John Wick movie is key for making a new Highlander movie. IMHO, one of the things that keeps the Highlander TV series hold up was the fight scenes. Unlike so many TV shows it feels like Highlander the series showed how well an immortal could fight.

[@UrbanNoizeMusic]

Funny enough the tv show is my favorite over the movie. But Christopher Lambert is awesome. And I'm glad he also showed up in the show.

[@40g33k]

Michael Kamen also worked with Metallica on S&M

[@brazenbull636]

If there must be a remake. I'd love to see this ONE film spread across 3 parts/installments. With emphasis placed on the passage of time over the ages, and the growing of wisdom and experience. This, combined with periodic encounters with the Kurgan leading to the final battle in a Luke/Vader-esque fashion. Could be FUCKING epic..

[@ftuT]

Nice piece. Very entertaining movie. The concept is quite interesting, they could go deeper, philosohpically (please never try to explain their origin again), without messing too much with the lore and action aspects. The original ideas seemed great, the villain having a background (Clancy was great with what he had), being able to have children. They could all work for a deeper approach in the new one. I don't like Cavill as an actor, it would be better to use someone with the chops for it.

[@adriennereyes5405]

Loved this film 🤟🤟 🎥

[@Panthror]

Great video, but you forgot to mention the TV-series had a spin-off series called 'The Raven', which follows the female immortal Amanda Darieux (Duncan McLeod's on and off again love interest). And there was the direct to DVD 'Highlander 5', which sees Duncan McLeod finally getting "the prize", which is not what Highlander fans hoped it would be.

[@ourkeving]

She said two t.v. shows, but not named. I had no idea there had been any animated spin-offs.

[@Panthror]

@@ourkeving Oh yeah, the animated series even has two seasons, and there's an anime movie. And by my count there were 3 TV shows, 2 live-action and one animated.

[@thatdrewrivers]

I actually have a good time with Highlander 2, especially the Renegade Cut. Though it always comes as surprise when Sean Connery utters the line on the airplane with his thick Sean accshent, "It'sh true that the dair haired ladiesh like to shit on mensh facshes!" Cracks me up everytime. I wonder whether that was in the script or just Sean trying it on.

[@Dohsoda]

This may be my favorite guilty pleasure movie. I can't say this is a good movie, but there is plenty to like, including a excellent soundtrack by Queen and score from Michael Kaman.

[@irishinnj72]

Actor Marc Singer of Beastmaster fame was going to take the role of Connor MacLeod after Kurt Russell, but he was forced to bow out due to scheduling conflicts with his sci-fi t.v. show V. He later however, did play an Immortal on the Highlander t.v. series named Caleb Cole, in the Season 1 episode Mountain Men.

[@SkyFly19853]

A true masterpiece...

[@JohnDoe-ug3su]

Highlander was the movie that made me, a kid at the time, think maybe living forever is not that good. Weird how an action flick can make a deep question

[@No1ofConsequence]

My thoughts on what the origin should have been would have come from the "No fighting on holy ground" rule. Its said its a rule none of them will break (We will ignore Endgame, it was shit anyway) It's also kind of hinted that its a rule that they can't break. Say what you will of the third movie, it at least played a bit more on the mystical idea of The Immortals. So maybe, like the characters call it themselves, it's a game. But The Immortals are not the players. Gods from the past created a ever continuing game that periodically pops out champions on different corners of the Earth, the regions themselves all had their own gods at one point or another. But, now the gods are gone, but the game continues, a forgotten ritual from a long forgotten past. Just my thoughts, but at least better than "They're Aliens!"

[@SGT_STOIC]

I see them messing up the remake but it would be a welcomed suprise to see them smack it out of the park too.

[@Zombiesnyder13]

I'm still waiting for Chad Stahelski to bring this amazing story back

[@mariasanchez-pb4fz]

We really liked the series we watched it all the time we even bought merch from that series all well it would be nice that they come up with a new series after the hopefully up coming new movie love the content keep it coming 😀

[@HAYAOLEONE]

Highlander & Ladyhawke = instant escape

[@beatslacker8627]

Happy Halloween ladies!!

[@Zeithri]

Highlander is soooo good

[@JoBloOriginals]

Highlander 3 may be one of the worst movies I've ever seen.

[@rosemaryfarell5264]

Id say Sean Connery is ALWAYS gonna be Scotland's biggest movie star.

[@retsukaioh4571]

Theres also a excellent anime movie; highlander in search for vengeance. The first bad guy use a chainsaw as a sword, is pure 90s madness.

[@oobrocks]

I've noticed today utube is now hiding their ads :(

[@heliosapollyon4391]

The most punk rock villain of all time

[@robertdochter277]

You forgot to mention the anime film, Highlander: The Search for Vengeance from 2007. Other then that great video!

[@jliller]

Explaining the immortals' origin wasn't a terrible idea, but the explanation we got was atrocious.

[@SparkyMarkyMark23]

Awesome👏🏻🤩😎!

[@mostmagicalcat1978]

great video. Scotsman and a big fan, if you want to say it scottish phonetically Hi-lin-dir and roll yir R. ofc, thank you for the video, and i dont care,just thought you may get a kick out of the phonetics.

[@frill4real]

That was SssHhhuper anoying!

[@terryfloyd3505]

I've always been annoyed with some friends about this movie, all they have ever told me is that its an action movie with people getting their heads chopped off. But its much deeper than that, its about and immortal who doesnt want to be immortal, he just want to live and grow old and have kids and die with someone he loves. The game is just something he is forced to do, with the hope that in the end the prize will be worth it:P

[@fistimusmaximus6576]

Their can only be one!.....highlander film ignore all else. It is such a classic film.

[@dfsw]

You forgot to talk about the most important part of the story, the sausage sandwich with sauce. Hopefully that will be in the next part.

[@adamwiggins9865]

Had to watch this after the wooden Jerry immortality scene

[@jeffscott8088]

When is the Skyfall video coming?

[@alexbailey5211]

I love this movie and I hope the henry cavill reboot happens because itd be cool to see a new take on this mythology

[@andrewgardner8972]

Kurt Russell also turned down the lead role in ladyhawke too in which he would have went up against Rutger Hauer in both movies. But Hauer didn’t want to play the villain marquet, so he chose the hero Navarre instead which was good.

[@journeyman1218]

The renegade cut of highlander 2 does help. A lot it's not great but it's watchable.

[@marcgoecke9401]

I doubt a reboot would be able to catch the melancholie the story and the character. I bet it would be very action based and a lot of "fish out of the water" for some reason.

[@RadioofHorror]

Adrian Paul the Tv Highlander is coming on my show The Dead Tv Podcast soon

[@magicker8052]

Clancy was never paid a penny for his role

[@Sand-Walker13]

That really sucks. He was great in Highlander.

[@jamiepratt9247]

I was going to start off with " arguably the greatest film ever made". Actually, there is no argument. This "is" the greatest film ever made. It ticks all the boxes.

[@Muscats1980]

Did you record the last part in your bathroom?

[@JessicaDwyer]

I didn't but Connery might have.

[@tammy6610]

I like highlander 2 for the action scenes and Michael Ironsides. Ironsides bad guys are always fun.

[@Nixx0912]

If instead of a remake they could make something new set in Highlander univers I would be in. It's not like it's missing the possibilities, or use one of the plots from the series. Like the Horsmen story in the movie format would make a cool movie.

[@onurbsenutna1261]

I'm glad i never saw the sequels! I am perfectly happy with just the original movie, the 90s tv show, the cartoons and comic books of the time. Definitely not interested in a corny reboot! There is no reboot better than the original when it comes to movies, so why spoil it?

[@taelorwatson9822]

The sequels should and could have been so much better. They should have been made into historical movies. I think I watched Highlander 2 once.

[@tammy6610]

I owned both the soundtrack on cassette and CD. Sadly after a horrible move I lost some of my music collection.

[@DRATERI]

Minty did an episode about Westworld and now this about Highlander is everybody watching Rick and Morty? or is it just cosmically adding up?

[@williamblake2962]

Had to watch this after Rick and Morty S:5 E:2 referenced it lol... "There can be only one"

[@erichtomanek4739]

You pronounced Lambert correctly!

[@alexandruarnautuvraciu]

Great movie.

[@haroldellis9721]

They never made a Highlander 2. Never. Highlander, Highlander 3, and the TV show, that's it.

[@JoBloOriginals]

If only!

[@orinanime]

When you listed the various spin-offs, you left out the Anime movie, Highlander: The Search for Vengeance

[@Briansgate]

The funny thing is how Connor is supposed to be 18, and Lambert at the time was about 36, heh