Tuesday, November 8, 2016

Highlander 3, or why I don't write for a living

Since I already tried my hand at Highlander 2, why not make it an even trilogy?

Of course, since the last film would end with Connor MacLeod ruling over an alien planet, where could the story go?



We open in Japan in 1878. The Meji Restoration is in full swing and Japan is meeting the West head on. Connor (Christopher Lambert) arrives looking for the Immortal Nakano (Mako), one of Ramirez's teachers.

He finds him in a cave on the top of Mount Niri. The locals view him as a wizard and leave him alone. The pair bond and Nakano teaches Connor what he knows (science mostly, but a few sword tricks too). Plus the cave is an old shrine, so the two can study in peace.

Cain (Mario Van Peebles) arrives though, and he wants his former student's head. To lure him out of the shrine, he informs Nakano that his men will torch the village below and slaughter everyone. One funny thing about Cain though, while the fights between Immortals must be one on one, there's nothing to say a mortal/Immortal fight has to be held to the same standard. That's how Connor ends up fighting a hundred armed men while Nakano and Cain duke it out on top of the mountain. Using Nakano's teachings he manages to hold his own, but it still takes time.

Connor, battered and stuck with a dozen swords, claws his way to the mountaintop in time to see Cain take Nakano's head. The resulting Quickening, however, is powerful enough to split the mountain in half. Connor assumes Cain is killed in the resulting avalanche.

We jump ahead to 1978. Connor is now Russell Nash and living in New York City. On the other side of the globe, an earthquake shakes the mountain. Cain, battered and bloodied, crawls out of the dirt and swears to finish what he started.

Cain finds the Kurgan (Clancy Brown) working as a hitman for a local Yakuza clan. The two compare notes. The Kurgan lets it slip that Connor is living in New York. After all, he figures, win or lose, it's one less player to deal with in the Game.

Cain arrives in the USA and starts his work. He manages to build up a small group and launch a crime wave of chaos. To reintroduce himself, he kidnaps Rachael (Shelia Gish), but gives her up when Connor agrees to the duel. One on one, the place?

The roof of Madison Square Garden. Connor figures with the Queen concert going on, no one's likely to notice two guys trying to off each other with swords. One guy does though; Freddie Mercury himself.

The sight of the fight so inspires him he writes 'Princes of the Universe' on the spot and we end with the song as Connor fights and wins.

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