In the first Highlander movie, when Ramirez first meets MacLeod, and they get to training, there is a brief bit where Ramirez introduces MacLeod to the ‘Quickening’. Lightning flashes, MacLeod cringes in pain, yada yada yada…
I understand the Quickening to be the lifeforce (?) of the killed immortal going into the killer. How in the name of all that is good does Ramirez introduce the Quickening to MacLeod? Does he keep an immortal in his pocket, and behead him right when he needs it?
And furthermore, why aren’t there any female Highlanders (out of curiousity, and I haven’t seen all of these movies, so I may have missed one or two)?
There are female immortals in the tv series. A spin off called Highlander: The Raven has an immortal female lead. It’s not very good, sorry to say.
I assume the explanation for the Quickening was meant to make it dramatic and they try to be mystical about it beyond just “cut his head off and suck up his energy.” Ramirez does the “lift up the spinning blades of death using the quickening” bit in the second movie. The second movie did suck royally and I wouldn’t recommend it either. The third one was bad… but at least it was watcheable. In that one the bad guy had goofy magic tricks too.
So, there are female immortals, just not in the movies. And the lighting effects (which I always thought overdone) are just eye candy anyway.
I’m reminded of the Transformers comic I read as a kid. Someone wrote in to Soundwave’s letters page, asking why there were no female Transformers. His reply: “They would only get in the way.”
A female Transformer duly appeared in Transformers The Movie. I have no proof, but I believe Soundwave was kicked upstairs to the House of Lords, where any further statements to the Press could be dismissed on the grounds of senility.
I should also mention that Highlander was the ONLY Highlander movie ever made. There were no others.
There weren’t any female immortals in the movies probably because it would/could screw up the storyline. MacLeod couldn’t lose his love if she’s immortal.
As for the Quickening? If some guy were standing next to me on a seaside cliff & got struck by lightning, I think I’d cringe too. You’ve got to remember that the training is set in Olde Scotland… People (MacLeod probably, too) were in awe of acts of nature. And it was his first time seeing the Quickening (even though I don’t remember if there was another killed at that time or not).
Err… then I’m right in assuming that the recently-released Highlander: Endgame was not a Highlander movie? That movie’s poster in the local video rental had a picture of Connor MacLeod wielding that one-metre razor he uses. And I saw bits of Highlander II. Both were full of the swashbuckling, broadsword wielding action that draws me to these movies…
I think Ross is saying that all the sequels, TV shows, etc, taint the original and should be disregarded, much like Godfather III.
As for the OP, I always thought “The Quickening” was the sensation that immortals get when another one is nearby. When Ramirez said that quote in his first appearance, he was saying that b/c another immortal was close to him, Connor was experiencing “the quickening”. The lightning was just a byproduct - maybe it went towards Connor b/c Ramirez has taken other heads so he doesn’t conduct electricity. Later in the movie, Connor said that he’d felt the Quickening once before, when the Kurgan almost killed him in battle. That same sensation is why Connor left the wrestling match - b/c he knew another immortal (Fasil) was around somewhere.
That’s what I always thought, anyway. And again, I base this on the first movie only, not later movies where they totally break the rules anyway.
Just to nitpick a bit…“Highlander” was not a term coined by the filmmakers to describe immortals…Connor MacLeod was a “Highlander” because he was from the Highlands of Scotland.
So, just because somebody can be described as a Highlander does not mean he’s immortal, although if you indulge in enough Highland Single Malt Scotch, by God you can feel that way!
The movies and the TV show are not particularly weighed down by concerns about consistency. If the problem you give were the only one between all the various Highlander products, it would be far above average in terms of not biting its own tail. As it is, you just need to let go and enjoy the ride.
I can see you haven’t watched the TV show much. You have missed some of the sexiest babes on TV, in very skimpy clothes. Someone already mentioned Amanda, played by Elizabeth Gracen of “I boinked the president” fame. Joan Jett played an immortal in another episode, as did Sheena Easton (Highlander: Rest Home for Past It Rock Stars). Tracy Scoggins played an old time Immortal with a hypnotic voice that could get anyone to do what she said (hell, I’ll do anything she says without hypnosis).
In short: get with it, man. Find who is playing that show and watch. The TV show was better than any of the movies.
I second the notion of the TV show being better than the movies…But I saw the movies after being a fan of the show and they just weren’t the Highlander I was used to, so that probably played a part. I guess the TV show was less serious, but I like that, heh…even an immortal has got to lighten up after a couple hundred years…
I don’t remember the Quickening introduction part of the movie, so I’d be totally guessing at it, heh…as for females, as dlb said, there are a bunch in the TV series.
Tsugumo (erggh…now I wish I had taped some episodes so I could watch them again)
People (MacLeod probably, too) were in awe of acts of nature. And it was his first time seeing the Quickening (even though I don’t remember if there was another killed at that time or not).