What is “the Quickening” exactly? Well, it turns out even the people behind the Highlander fantasy series aren’t sure. In general Highlander mythology, a Quickening is the explosion of energy that happens when one immortal swordsman decapitates another. However, in the original 1986 film, the Quickening is also the process through which the Immortals discover their true nature. And in 1991’s Highlander II, a Quickening is basically a writer’s trick to get characters out of a jam: one Quickening de-ages our hero (it’s complicated), and also brings Sean Connery back from the dead (it’s very complicated) and another Quickening at the climax takes down a shield that was covering up the ozone layer. (Complicated is maybe not a strong enough word.) Perhaps they should have just called the film Highlander II: The Deus Ex Machina.
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