Have you ever seen something so horrible, so grotesque, so disturbing, that you can close your eyes and still see it even decades later? I can’t shake the memories of my time working as an usher at a movie theater and finding truly disturbing things left behind by guests to the point I can’t see Hugh Jackman’s Van Helsing without dry heaving.
I also can’t stop reliving Highlander: The Source, a made-for-TV SyFy movie that continued the excellent, if cheesy, series starring Adrian Paul. I saw the movie once, but certain moments have haunted me ever since, forever warping how I view the entire franchise.
The only good shot in Highlander: The Source
Highlander: The Source is set years after the end of the series, when Earth has fallen into a state of anarchy. How it happened is never explained, and it certainly seems like almost everyone is a raging wasteland outlaw straight out of Mad Max. Every scene has a strange orange tint, with most of them taking place in the same wasteland desert environment.
Duncan MacLeod (Adrian Paul) is called into duty when his fellow Immortals pinpoint the location of The Source of Immortality, but before they can make progress, they are attacked by The Guardian, a leather-bound monster who moves faster than the eye can see and is nigh-invulnerable. It’s another attempt to recreate the original magic of The Kurrgan from the first film. Found by Joe, one of The Watchers, humans who observe the Immortals as they play The Game (that whole “there can only be one” thing), Duncan meets up with the other Immortals, led by Methos (the world’s oldest Immortal), at a Monastery where he comes face to face with Anna.
Adrian Paul as Duncan MacLeod wandering the orange wasteland
Don’t recognize Anna? She’s his long-lost love, his mortal wife, the only woman who finally tied down Duncan after his centuries wandering the Earth. She also never appeared in the series and was created entirely for Highlander: The Source. If you watched Highlander: Endgame, you’ll remember Kate, Duncan’s wife, unlike Duncan, who never mentions her.
For all the ways that Highlander: The Source mangles the mythology of Highlander, it saves the worst for last. Don’t read on, as the ending is about to be spoiled, and I swear this was shot to film, edited, and released by SyFy, in what was either an elaborate tax scheme or a monumental misfire of epic proportions that makes Highlander II: The Quickening look good.
Spoiling The Horrific Ending Of Highlander: The Source
There’s a climatic showdown at the end of Highlander: The Source between Duncan and The Guardian, but good luck making sense of it as it’s intercut with random shots of Anna joining The Source (I think) until Duncan can channel its power, and starts moving as fast as The Guardian, spinning around and pounding the monster straight into the ground like a Looney Tunes cartoon. That’s not the worst part.
Duncan goes full Looney Tunes
The movie ends with Duncan joining Anna in the light of The Source until we see a baby, showing that Duncan is the only Immortal capable of having a child, with the voice of Adrain Paul saying that “he is The One.” Cue an entire fanbase howling in anger.
Instead of launching a new movie trilogy, Highlander: The Source was so horrible that critics and fans have savaged it for over a decade. After finding out the whole point of The Great Game, the only solution was to have a child was to burn down the whole franchise and start over again. Even that, with Henry Cavill as the next MacLeod, is seemingly cursed, but after watching the original end of the franchise, maybe it’s for the best that we never talk of this again.
Highlander: The Source is streaming for free on Pluto, Tubi, and Amazon Prime.
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