Highlander II: The Quickening

Highlander II: The Quickening
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Russell Mulcahy
Screenplay by	Peter Bellwood
Story by	Brian Clemens William N. Panzer
Based on	Characters by Gregory Widen
Produced by	Peter S. Davis William N. Panzer Jean-Luc Defait[1]
Starring	Christopher Lambert Virginia Madsen Michael Ironside Sean Connery John C. McGinley Allan Rich
Cinematography	Phil Meheux
Edited by	Hubert de La Bouillerie Anthony Redman
Music by	Stewart Copeland
Production companies	Davis/Panzer Productions[2] Lamb Bear Entertainment
Distributed by	InterStar[2]
Release dates	12 April 1991 (1991-04-12) (UK) 1 November 1991 (1991-11-01) (US)
Running time	100 minutes[3]
Countries	United States[4] France[5] Argentina[6]
Language	English
Budget	$34 million
Box office	$15.6 million (US)[7]

Highlander II: The Quickening is a 1991 American-French-Argentinian science fiction film directed by Russell Mulcahy and starring Christopher Lambert, Virginia Madsen, Michael Ironside and Sean Connery. It is the second installment in the Highlander film series and sequel to the 1986 fantasy film Highlander. Set in the year 2024, the plot concerns Connor MacLeod, who regains his youth and immortal abilities and must free Earth from the Shield, an artificial ozone layer that has fallen under the control of a corrupt corporation.

The film was shot almost entirely in Argentina before and after the country's economy crashed; as the local economy experienced hyperinflation, the film's investors and completion bond company took direct control of production and final edit, removing director Mulcahy and his creative influence while changing parts of the story.^[8][9] The resulting film contradicts the established canon of and alters the concept of the "Quickening".

Highlander II was panned by critics and fans, and is considered to be one of the worst films ever made.^[10][11] The original theatrical edition was released on 12 April 1991 in the United Kingdom (in an eight-minute longer cut)^[12] and 1 November 1991 in the United States, and was also a box-office bomb grossing $16 million in the US on a production budget of $34 million.

In 1995, an alternate director's cut called the Renegade Version was released to home video that attempted to address the many story problems, such as removing all mention of Zeist and the idea that immortals are aliens. This was followed by a Special Edition DVD release in 2004, which was largely the same cut as the Renegade Version but with some altered special effects. The sequel Highlander III: The Sorcerer follows the events of the first film, in the process contradicting and completely ignoring the events and revelations of Highlander II.