After being mortally wounded by the murderous Kurgan (Brown) in battle, he makes a seemingly miraculous recovery and is banished from his village under suspicion of witchcraft.

In 1985 New York, when leaving a wrestling match, Connor MacLeod encounters an old enemy, Iman Fasil, in the parking garage of Madison Square Garden.

After a sword duel, Connor beheads Fasil and triggers a powerful energy release — known as a "Quickening" — that affects the immediate surroundings, destroying many cars.

Ramírez reveals that immortals cannot have children and believes they must ensure evil people like the Kurgan do not win the Prize, or else humanity will suffer an eternity of darkness.

In 1985, the time of the Gathering approaches, and the Kurgan is compelled to come to New York City, where Connor now lives as an antiques dealer under the alias "Russell Nash," working with his confidant and adopted daughter Rachel Ellenstein.

Connor decides to leave behind the Russell Nash identity, says goodbye to Rachel and confronts the Kurgan at Silvercup Studios in Queens, rescuing Brenda in the process.

He is also now able to read the thoughts and feelings of people all around the world, and remembering Ramirez's lessons, he hopes to encourage co-operation, understanding, and peace among humanity.

Professional wrestlers Greg Gagne, Jim Brunzell, Sam Fatu, Michael Hayes, Terry Gordy, and Buddy Roberts appear as themselves in the film's opening sequence at a tag-team match.

[11][12] Gregory Widen wrote the script for Highlander, as a class assignment while he was an undergraduate in the screenwriting program at UCLA, then under the title of Shadow Clan.

[14] According to Widen, "The idea of the story was basically a combination of a riff on The Duellists – guy wants to finish a duel over years– and a visit I made both to Scotland and the Tower of London armour display, where I thought, 'What if you owned all this?

"[14] According to William Panzer, producer of Highlander: The Series, "And that's where everything fell into place — the idea that there are Immortals and they were in conflict with each other, leading secret lives that the rest of us are unaware of.

Director Russell Mulcahy was flipping through a magazine and saw a photograph of Christopher Lambert from his recent role as the title hero of Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes.

The film portrayed MacLeod as a person who has suffered loss and fears new attachment but doesn't deny the possibility of love, maintains a sense of humor about life, and tells his adopted daughter to have hope and remain optimistic.

"It's the only role that I have played that is touching on the subject of immortality, through a character carrying five hundred years of violence, pain, love, and suffering on his shoulders, who is still walking around and being positive.

Widen commented that actor Clancy Brown had similar thoughts about the Kurgan, wishing to make him more complex and interesting by dressing the villain in a bowler hat and suit, disguising his villainy rather than wearing the biker outfit he had instead.

The British rock band Marillion turned down the chance to record the soundtrack because they were on a world tour, a missed opportunity which guitarist Steve Rothery later said he regretted.

[citation needed] The eventual soundtrack includes several songs by Queen, such as "A Kind of Magic" and "Princes of the Universe" (the latter also being used for the Highlander television series title sequence).

[10] Brian May was inspired to write "Who Wants to Live Forever" after watching the love scenes between Connor and his wife Heather, and the song ultimately accompanied the film.

Furthermore, a rearrangement of an excerpt from Kamen's score (specifically, the beginning of the track "The Quickening") was eventually used as the logo music for New Line Cinema's ident between 1994 and 2011.

Most of the cuts were sequences involving a specifically European brand of humor which the distributors thought American audiences would not find funny, such as Connor being repeatedly head-butted by one of his clansmen, the duelist shooting his assistant, and the Kurgan licking the priest's hand.

[35] Alex Stewart reviewed Highlander for White Dwarf #79 and stated, "What the film does have going for it is stylish direction, a breathless pace and some exquisite camerawork.

[39] Highlander was first released to DVD in the United States in 1997, in a "10th Anniversary Edition" Director's Cut that contained the international uncut version of the film.

[42] On June 17, 2009, French distributor StudioCanal issued the film on Blu-ray[43] with identical releases following in Germany,[44] UK,[45] Holland, Australia and Japan.

The 4K disc contained new special features such as a featurette on the soundtrack, an interview with photographer David James, a featurette with Clancy Brown, a look back on the magic of Highlander, and a new audio commentary by author Jon Melville as well as the original commentary by director Mulcahy, and producers Panzer and Davis, whereas the blu ray disc contained the original blu ray release's extras.

"[35] In 2000, Matt Ford of the BBC gave the film three stars out of five, writing, "From the moody, rain-soaked, noir-ish streets of late 20th century America to the wild open spaces of medieval Scotland, Mulcahy plunders movie history to set off his visceral fight scenes with suitably rugged locations.

... What the film loses through ham acting, weak narrative, and pompous macho posturing it more than compensates with in sheer fiery bravado, pace, and larger than life action.

[52] In 2002, giving the film three stars out of five, Adam Tyner of DVD Talk wrote, "The screenplay spots a number of intelligent, creative ideas, and I find the very concept of displacing the sword-and-sorcery genre to then-modern-day New York City to be fairly inventive.

"[53] In his 2009 Movie Guide, Leonard Maltin gave the film one-and-a-half stars out of four, describing it as an "interesting notion made silly and boring", but acknowledged that "Connery, at least, shows some style."

The anime movie Highlander: The Search for Vengeance (2007), which existed in its own continuity with protagonist Colin MacLeod, received largely positive reviews.

The season two premiere episode "The Watchers" confirms Connor's battle with the Kurgan still happened in 1985 in the canon of the show, but the Prize was not won because there were still several living immortals in this version of events, including Duncan.