The 1986 fantasy film HIGHLANDER carved a niche for itself in fan circles, thanks mainly to the talents of stylist director Russell Mulcahey. The first film was a Harlequin romance novel come to life, which benefited from star turns by Sean Connery and Clancy Brown (as the Kurgan). HIGHLANDER was a surprise sleeper that borrowed from CONAN THE BARBARIAN as much as it did from romance novels. Over the years, the inevitable sequels appeared which spawned a largely female-populated demographic. Next came the popular TV series which expanded the HIGHLANDER mythos and fanbase, and even an animated Sunday morning cartoon series. The first three films chronicled the adventures of Connor Macleod (Christopher Lambert), and the TV series highlighted his protégé Duncan Macleod (Adrian Paul). The fourth sequel combines each premise into one "pass-the-torch" saga that is about as effective as STAR TREK: GENERATIONS. When HIGHLANDER: ENDGAME hit theater screens in fall 2000, it was quickly overlooked thanks to a schizophrenic, poorly edited version of the film. Buena Vista Home Entertainment attempts to undo the damage done with a lush, 2 disc DVD special edition that is highlighted by a fully restored uncut version of HIGHLANDER: ENDGAME, and plenty of extras.

SPOILER ALERT: An unseen intruder plants a bomb in a New York City loft, which kills Connor MacLeod’s mature adopted daughter Rachael (Sheila Gish). Connor Macleod (Christoher Lambert) is devastated, and opts out of "the Game"—that is, the violent lifestyle that these immortals live by ("and there shall be only one…"). He retreats onto hollow ground called Sanctuary, which is maintained by a group of enlightened mortals called Watchers. The malevolent Highlanders are forbidden to approach this Sanctuary, but a renegade immortal named Jacob Kell (Bruce Payne) breaks the rules of the Game. Jacob has an ax to grind with Connor and he intrudes upon Sanctuary and kills all the other immortals. He has also amassed his own private army of immortals to do his bidding, led by Jin Ke (Donnie Yen). Connor manages to escape the fate of his fellow Highlanders who came seeking only Sanctuary, but found death instead, at the hand of Jacob. Duncan Macleod (Adrian Paul) seeks out Connor, who is his fellow clansman and mentor.

Jacob sends his flunkies out to challenge Duncan. One of the flunkies is Kate Macleod, another immortal woman (and Duncan’s ex-wife) who has a seething vendetta against Duncan, because he is responsible for turning her immortal (forcing her to give up a normal life). Duncan is seemingly outmatched by sheer force of numbers, but a group of Watchers come to his rescue. With the help of some his friends, Duncan escapes the Watchers and locates Connor in the hallowed grounds of a cemetery. Jacob also tracks Connor down, and throws down the gauntlet to him. They don’t fight, but the stage is set for their final confrontation. Jacob orders his faithful immortals to return to his headquarters, and offers them up a special feast—before decapitating each one and absorbing their life force. Jacob is now the most powerful immortal of all time. Connor confronts his protégé and informs him that only one of them can beat Jacob; but the better fighter must decapitate the other (and absorb the other’s power) before they can face Jacob. Connor forces a fight upon Duncan who does not want to fight his mentor. But Conner forces the duel and voluntarily sacrifices his immortality so that Duncan can have a chance at defeating Jacob. He searches out the evil Jacob and attempts to extract revenge for the honor of the Macleod clan…

The one main problem in the world of HIGHLANDER is the speech patterns of the lead characters. Connor and Duncan are members of the Scottish Macleod clan. But Christopher Lambert’s French inflected Scottish accent is pretty laughable—especially in the guttural delivery that he employs. Adrian Paul is a little better, but even he goes back a forth between a faux-Scottish accent and his normal American accent. At least the hammy Bruce Payne, who gets some of the most outrageous lines in HILGHLANDER: ENDGAME delivers them with a normal British inflection. It is a true sin that Donnie Yen gets co-star billing, but he is only in the film for about 5 minutes. Out of that 5 minutes, he has about 1 minute of dialog and four minutes of fighting. He plays an immortal named Jin Ke, and the script establishes him as nearly unbeatable. Yet later in the film, they kill him off way too easy—he doesn’t even defend himself, which is totally ridiculous. Oh, and WWF fans hoping to see the wrestler called Edge, save your money—he is barely in it and only has one line of dialog! Peter Wingfield and Jim Byrnes, two regulars in the series shown up in what can only be called cameo appearances.

The script by sequel specialist Joel Soisson (THE PROPHECY 3, MIMIC 2, MANIAC COP 3) jettisons the last two sequels and attempts to pick up directly after the original. For instance, Connor’s love interest from HIGHLANDER THE FINAL DIMENSION (whom he risked life and limb to save and he pledged eternal love to) is thrown right out the window. Soisson weaves in characters and plot threads from the TV series, but it all comes off as highly ineffectual. True fans of the franchise expecting some big revelations may be disappointed. Soisson’s script is full of chronological inconsistencies, perplexing scenarios, and stilted dialog. He cobbles together a Sword and Sorcery patchwork of the typical HIGHLANDER movie and TV series cliches. Except for the subplot of Duncan absorbing Connor’s powers, there is nothing here that you have not seen before. Soisson even includes a bit about Connor’s ‘ghost’ living on within Duncan while the characters are swordfighting. I sort of expected to hear Connor’s spirit say, "use the force, Luke".

Though the previous sequels alienated fans and the filmmakers alike, HIGHLANDER: ENDGAME does not raise the bar of mediocrity—it merely keeps it even. Director Douglas Aarniokoski lacks any filmmaking flair, but at least he can film some decent action sequences and properly integrate bloody make-up effects. What really hurts HIGHLANDER: ENDGAME is the editing. It is so convoluted considering that six(!) editors take credit for this. Perhaps that’s that problem--the editors could not agree on the same shot, and the mess you see before you is the result. These HIGHLANDER movies rely on taking the audience back in time, which creates some annoying paradox issues if not dealt with carefully. Surely the editing inconsistencies did not help with all the flashbacks. There are also six producers associated with HIGHLANDER: ENDGAME and that is why the film meanders everywhere except straight ahead. This motion picture is also surprisingly low on digital special effects—I’ve seen TV movies with more convincing digital effects than this.

Disc 2 includes an interesting alternate version of HIGHLANDER: ENDGAME with reedited sequences, different score, different opening titles, and more. This work print is widescreen at about 1.85.1, but is not a complete cut. Special effects sequences are missing, and the quality of the print here is not good. There is even a time code running on the bottom of the screen. Disc 2 also contains the lengthy documentary that covers all areas of the film, including story progression, special effects, fight choreography, and action sequences. Included are interviews with the director, producers, and actors. This documentary is full frame (film clips are 2.35.1), Dolby Digital 2.0, and it runs 57 minutes. You can also access the DVD ROM features on this disc including character timeline, another game, and a script-to-screen feature that compares script pages to finished scenes.

Disc 1 includes the restored cut of HIGHLANDER: ENDGAME with an additional 11 minutes of new footage. From the Special Features menu, you can play the There Can Only Be One interactive quiz game, that plays scenes from the film. There is a documentary called Visual Effects: A Historical Progression, which is narrated by film editors Robert Ferretti and Michael Knue and special effects supervisor Alison Savitch. The in-progress effects footage is presented in the same style as the work print, and is not in good condition. However, all aspects of the effects are nicely covered. This documentary is full frame (film clips are 2.35.1), Dolby Digital 2.0, and it runs 36:46. Disc 1 also contains three deleted scenes. The first scene is an alternate take when Connor meets Duncan for the first time. The scene is 2.35.1, DD 2.0, and runs 1:06. The next scene consists of Jacob Krell’s lackey immortals jousting on motorcycles. The scene is 2.35.1, DD 2.0, and runs 1:32. The third surreal scene features Jacob Krell playing a harmonica, when a van crashes through his wall with an immortal lackey dead on the hood. The scene is 2.35.1, DD 2.0, and runs 2:05. None of the deleted footage does anything for the narrative, so its easy to see why they were cut. Also is the informative audio commentary—not with director Douglas Aarniokoski, mind you, but with producers Pete Davis and William Panzer, editor Robert Ferretti, and co-executive producer H. Daniel Gross. Between these four guys, a lot of insight about the genesis of HIGHLANDER: ENDGAME and the franchise itself is provided. They go into detail about location shooting in Romania and working with the cast. Then there is the Sneak Peak menu containing the following trailers:

• HIGHLANDER THE FINAL DIMENSION (FF, DD 2.0, 1:20)
• BEOWULF (FF, DD 2.0, :54)
• THE CROW: SALVATION (FF, DD 2.0, 1:11)
• Jet Li’s LEGEND (FF, DD 2.0, :36)
• SCARY MOVIE (FF, DD 2.0, 1:40)
• SCREAM Box Set (FF, DD 2.0, :30)
• FROM DUSK TIL DAWN Box Set (FF, DD 2.0, 1:58)
• REINDEER GAMES (FF, DD 2.0, 1:40)

There is no trailer for HIGHLANDER: ENDGAME.

-  Darren Collette