Episode 154 - Highlander II: The Quickening LIVE!

[JulyDiaz 2797]

Recorded live from Largo at the Coronet in Los Angeles, Sam Richardson (HBO’s Veep, Detroiters on Comedy Central) joins Paul, June, and Jason to discuss the 1991 film Highlander II: The Quickening. They’ll talk about why there’s no need to see the first Highlander movie, Sean Connery trying on a suit, Highlander sex in the streets, the psychic cooking show, and much more. Plus, we get to the bottom of where Sean Connery’s walking around money came from and what exactly is the difference between a Highlander and an immortal during Audience Q&A!

[Royboy 430]

Much like the Fast & The Furious movies, they could do an entire run of episodes on the Highlander franchise. The Quickening is just the tip of the iceberg. Between The Final Dimension, Endgame and The Source, everyone on this show would lose their goddamned minds.

[Bumpy 1674]

This movie really was a waste of a good cast. And film stock. And time. And Lambert fingers apparently.

[ZARATHUSTRA 245]

I'm designing an app called Grindlandr for Immortals who want to find each other. I'm looking for investors, it's gonna be behind a paywall but you're gonna love it.

 

This movie was like a 12 year old kid who saw a Korean bootleg of Highlander made on Blade Runner porn sets and wrote a fan fiction about it.

 

I just re-read Naked Lunch and its story editing makes more sense. And it isn't supposed to make sense.

 

 

Takeaways

 

1. Best Random June Moment: Concern over society's decline in Penmanship

 

2. We need a June and Paul Marriage Counselling podcast

 

3. HDTGM Callback: Christopher Lambert's weird hairline discussed in Mortal Kombat

 

4. Dick Cheney level poetry:

 

"Okay, now let me just see if I can get this straight.

You come from another planet,

and you're mortal there,

but you're immortal here

until you kill all the guys from there

who have come here

and then you're mortal here

unless you go back there

or some more guys from there

came here

in which case you become immortal here

again.

 

Something like that."

 

5. I miss Roger Ebert.

 

 

Question:

 

Why was Christopher Lambert ever a sex symbol?

 

Male beauty appreciation isn't really my specialty, but I get why people liked Van Damme in the 80s. Was Lambert like a Britishname Complicated kinda wierd looking hot for people or was George Michael stubble so prized in the 80s that that's all you needed. I'm confused.

 

 

What am I doing with my life.

[Jack Frost 252]

"Fuck you! I fucking watched this movie, Bro!" - June

[FisterRoboto 7499]

OMG I didn't think June was going to be in this ep because it was recorded the same night as Escape From LA.

 

"All these words make me fucking sick."

 

I love her so much.

[greyman24 6]

YAY! Can't believe we finally get this movie!

 

Okay.

 

This film, for many years, was the quintessential bad movie for me. Just hearing it referenced in my presence caused me anger. Cross-posted this one on the "Highlander II: The Quickening" thread, more than 2 years ago:

 

It was my freshman year of college and I was broke, but I had several rare blessings. One was a VCR with a couple of tapes--including Highlander. We watched it endlessly. Another was a car. I was one of two people in our group that had one, and it had a full tank of gas.

 

When we heard a sequel to Highlander was coming out, we were all excited, but none of us had any money. 70 miles away in my home town, I worked at a movie theater over vacations and breaks and could get an employee pass for myself and two others, so we decided to do the smart thing--drive the 90 minutes from my college home to see the movie for free. Then we could crash at my mother's place.

 

So we head there. Through a blizzard. Halfway there, my car died. We walked a mile through the snow to the nearest rest stop, and discovered the Thruway Authority turns off the heat in rest stops after a certain time to discourage people sleeping there.

 

We could have gotten something to eat, but everything was closed. Also, we had no money.

 

Many hours later, we got home. We went to see the movie. And you can guess how that went. The whole trip was a complete failure, and wound up costing a ridiculous amount of money. For many years, I refused to acknowledge any Highlander property because of the scars that shitty movie left on me.

 

But at least we got to see People Under the Stairs. That was pretty good.

 

One other note that I didn't mention. The tow truck pulling my car out of the snow wound up cracking my windshield.

[ZARATHUSTRA 245]

Not much of a Correction and Ommission but I can confirm that you would look like that if you were exposed to an excess of UV radiation. Low exposure and you tan as a defense, higher exposure you sunburn, peel etc. Sunburn is just a radiation burn from UV. Exposure to UV also damages the DNA in your cells, leading to skin cancer. If there was no ozone at all, everything would die. High UV exposure and everyone would have sunburn and develop cancer. Whiter skinned people would die first, particually the freckled ones. Skin would also look really aged. Earth would basically just be a giant capsule made of cancer, otherwise known as a tanning bed. Except if you stayed indoors, out of the sun and wore sunscreen. I assume in this world they do these things.

 

Source: I come from the skin cancer capital of the world and I sat through 3000 educational videos as a kid.

 

If you put up some kind of vague sci-fi "electromagnetic" shield to keep the UV out, this might trap the heat in as is shown in the film. So basically a greenhouse. Except its always dark. If its dark that means you're filtering out most of the light, which you dont need to do, just the UV. The ozone layer does this now, it absorbs most of the UV light but other wavelengths get through. If for some reason they need to filter out nearly all light, explaining the darkness, then it would cool and everyone would die since nothing would grow and everyone would have Vitamin D deficiency (the skin produces this from UV exposure). This is all conjecture since who cares this movie is stupid.

 

June would also be concerned as alot of animals can see UV wavelengths, not just birds and insects, but some mammals too. They need it for hunting, courtship etc. You know that CSI forensic blacklight where you see all the fluid stains? Alot of animals can see that and can spot urine etc. So you're gonna get alot of dead or confused animals if there's no UV light at all.

 

TL,DR : Alot UV kill, no UV kill, movie dumb. Wear sunscreen you assholes.

[FisterRoboto 7499]

It's funny that this cut of the movie is called the Renegade edition. I didn't make the connection until Paul said "Lorenzo Lamas" during the ep, but the Highlander TV series, which follows the adventures of Connor MacLeod's clansman and protégé, Duncan MacLeod, used to play on USA every afternoon when I was in high school. My dad would come home from work and watch, Hercules, Xena, Highlander, and Renegade.

 

The TV show was originally supposed to be about Connor MacLeod, but Adrian Paul requested that they make a whole new character so that he wouldn't be compared to Christopher Lambert and so that he could develop the character on his own without having to feel like he had to mimic all of Lambert's (somewhat questionable) choices.

 

The only thing I really remember about the show was that every episode pretty much had a flashback to Duncan fucking different chicks in different eras.

 

Edit: I should also note that both the TV series and the other sequels basically ignore Highlander 2 in terms of continuity.

[Jack Frost 252]

YAY! Can't believe we finally get this movie!

 

Okay.

 

This film, for many years, was the quintessential bad movie for me. Just hearing it referenced in my presence caused me anger. Cross-posted this one on the "Highlander II: The Quickening" thread, more than 2 years ago:

 

 

 

One other note that I didn't mention. The tow truck pulling my car out of the snow wound up cracking my windshield.

 

I remember reading this while I was going through the recommendations one day!

[tomspanks 9039]

Did anybody Google "quickening" to see if it was a real word? The first link was to describe a pregnancy term: quickening is the moment in pregnancy when the pregnant woman starts to feel or perceive fetal movements in the uterus.

[danpinto 17]

This movie was so confusing it made me doubt whether I had even seen the first Highlander.

[jarrycanada 2483]

 

 

What am I doing with my life.

 

i have what the lnside of that suv looks like..

 

 

it's spacious and roomy! and you can hold your sword in the door fame.

 

I figured out this movie last night, it's parallel universe. all of the events in the first one had taken place in one universe but in highlander two it's another universe. and that explains why none of this movie makes fucking sense!

 

ands down the best scene is when Sean Connery shows up and goes to the Scottish gentleman's store..if it's not Scottish it's crap! he stole the movie in that 5 min time frame.

[IMAHUGEHDTGMFAN 1837]

 

 

[Wil Dride 121]

So, will Earwolf make Nerdist pay for the paywall?!?

[Elektra Boogaloo 3371]

When June said she didn't understand this movie and didn't care to, I agree. I would kind of rather spend another hour googling where the butt starts and images of naked dolls.

 

I'm probably going to scroll past any legit corrections and omissions for this movie, I kind of don't care.

[Wil Dride 121]

If you didn't see Highlander, Highlander 2 will make no sense. If you did see Highlander, Highlander 2 will actually make a negative amount of sense. It will literally make you ununderstand things, and that's not even a word.

[Wil Dride 121]

Quick Highlander correction, by the way: Ramirez the Scottish Spaniard with a Japanese katana is actually an Egyptian -- Just so you know.

 

Pretty sure Michael Ironside's performance in this got him this ad:

 

 

"The official beer of long haired weirdos who hang around cliff side during lightning storms for no apparent reason." - Ultimate Ice

[AdamDriggers 58]

It's weird because even though I found it a lesser film, Highlander 2 both made sense as a stand alone and as an entry into the continuity of the Highlander films. I guess at the end of the day--the way my mind works--I get the editor of the final cut's vision? Here's how it worked for me--all drawn from dialog in the films:

 

This film is both prequel and sequel to the original. Never in this film do we return to the time period/events covered in the first film--but this film expects you to understand they took place. Lambert and Connery are banished from their home planet to Earth, which serves as a kind of prison for beings from their planet because immortality is a curse--they wander without being able to raise a family without fear of watching them grow old and die. Lambert asks Connery if they will know each other and he says "not at first." Now you need to understand at this point in the story we go back to the first film and they both wake up on Earth and don't remember their home planet or each other. Also, they are sent to different countries and different times.They take on their lives until they remember they are immortal. Connery (who is Egyptian and then lives another life in Spain) remembers first and searches Earth for Lambert for centuries until he hears of him in the Highlands. He trains Lambert to fight the other immortals and then gets killed. Lambert kills all other immortals (this is the end of the first film) and then in the second film we see he is given mortality as The Prize ( he got his choice between mortality or going home to his planet) and then lives until he grows old. After growing old more immortals come to Earth making him immortal again as he is no longer the last survivor. Because of the blood oath they took on their home planet Connery and Lambert are forever bonded and Connery told him if he called to him he would come no matter what. He calls to him when the immortals return and this bring Connery back to life. Then Connery and Lambert fight the other immortals until Lambert is again the last one left.

 

Not great, but if you pay attention to every word its all there. But why should you have to?

[Wil Dride 121]

Highlander II: The Baffling!

[tomspanks 9039]

Highlander experts, please help me. Are all Highlanders male? Are they all infertile? Then how are Highlanders born? When does immortality kick in? Some highlanders are young, some are older.

[Wil Dride 121]

Highlander experts, please help me. Are all Highlanders male? Are they all infertile? Then how are Highlanders born? When does immortality kick in? Some highlanders are young, some are older.

 

Highlanders are people from the Highlands of Scotland, which is where MacLeod just happens to be from. I can't recall any female Immortals depicted in the original movie, but there certainly were in the TV series. But they would all be infertile. Immortality kicks in when you first receive an injury that would kill a human. In the series there's at least one shown as being perpetually about 10 years old.

 

--

 

Anyway, the original movie lays out a world and a set of rules, but Highlander 2 denies almost all of this and replaces the explanation of the world with a new, nonsense one. The recut of the movie then disavoys this new explanation, to a large extent. Highlander 3 completely denies the events of Highlander 2 and introduces a new reason to ignore the results of the original film instead. But don't get to used to that because the series disavoys both sequels and most of the original movie to create another version. The fourth movie maintains that continuity and uses it to largely trample on the original film. Any of the further this than that are just too complicated and stupid even for this explanation.

 

Hope that clears this up for nobody. Enjoy.

 

[Jack Frost 252]

But don't get to used to that because the series disavoys both sequels and most of the original movie to create another version. The fourth movie maintains that continuity and uses it to largely trample on the original film.

 

So, the fourth movie maintains the continuity of the T.V. series?

[tomspanks 9039]

I wanted to expand on Zarathustra's earlier post about this whole electromagnetic shields and UV rays. I can buy that this cockamamie shield blocks electromagnetic waves, including UV rays, but I don't think it would block out all light from the sun. Light has both wave-like and particle-like properties. A shield that blocks electromagnetic waves wouldn't be able to block out light. You'd need a physical block like Mr. Burns' contraption.

 

[PatrickHothersall_62099 6]

 

This was Roger Ebert's pic for worst movie of 1991. I think he nails it this movie.