Xenovember - Highlander II: The Quickening (1991)
Welcome to another episode of Death Don’t Do Fiction, the AIPT Movies podcast! The podcast about the enduring legacy of our favorite movies! It’s November, so that means it’s time for our “Xenovember” series, where we cover movies from another world! In this week’s episode, Alex, Tim, and guest Chrissy Kurpeski discuss one of cinema’s most infamous sequels, 1991’s Highlander II: The Quickening! Competitive bullet wound counting! Corporate greed! Ozone layer fears of the 90s! Excessive use of a dam in Argentina! Giant fans! Set in the exotic future of 2024! Bald men speaking telekinetically maybe! A train decapitation! A dummy being tossed out of a window! Unexpected punishment for wanting to smoke! Sudden bagpipes! A Pretty Woman-style tailoring montage! Plentiful bone cracking sound effects! Music from the band Queen! Amazing scene transitions! An incredibly destructive Quickening! An iconic walking-out-of-flames shot! Reckless train driving! A violent board meeting! Unnecessary mistreatment of a cab driver! Public oxygen machines! A psychic cook! A terrifying airline safety video! Fantastic steampunky-future designs and sets, with fun, although-dated special effects! A cast that includes Christopher Lambert doing a creepy old man voice, an underused Virginia Madsen, Dr. Cox from Scrubs, Sean Connery either having a blast or making a fool out of himself, and Michael Ironside playing a character so over the top evil that he's named after a sword! Director Russell Mulcahy going all out for better or worse! All that and more in this sequel that takes more big swings than the ending of Signs and was such a dramatic departure from the original film that they released a new version of the movie in an attempt to make people forget the theatrical cut ever existed! Are they aliens or ancient humans? We may never know! In addition, Chrissy shares her spoiler-free thoughts on In the Mouth of Madness, Alex does the same for the 2025 I Know What You Did Last Summer requel, Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein, and Edgar Wright’s The Running Man. Also, Tim and Alex went to see Predator: Badlands!
Audio is streamed directly from the publisher (cdn.simplecast.com) as published in their RSS feed. Play Podcasts does not host this file. Rights-holders can request removal through the copyright & takedown page.
Show Notes
Welcome to another episode of Death Don’t Do Fiction, the AIPT Movies podcast! The podcast about the enduring legacy of our favorite movies! It’s November, so that means it’s time for our “Xenovember” series, where we cover movies from another world! In this week’s episode, Alex, Tim, and guest Chrissy Kurpeski discuss one of cinema’s most infamous sequels, 1991’s Highlander II: The Quickening!
Competitive bullet wound counting! Corporate greed! Ozone layer fears of the 90s! Excessive use of a dam in Argentina! Giant fans! Set in the exotic future of 2024! Bald men speaking telekinetically maybe! A train decapitation! A dummy being tossed out of a window! Unexpected punishment for wanting to smoke! Sudden bagpipes! A Pretty Woman-style tailoring montage! Plentiful bone cracking sound effects! Music from the band Queen! Amazing scene transitions! An incredibly destructive Quickening! An iconic walking-out-of-flames shot! Reckless train driving! A violent board meeting! Unnecessary mistreatment of a cab driver! Public oxygen machines! A psychic cook! A terrifying airline safety video! Fantastic steampunky-future designs and sets, with fun, although-dated special effects! A cast that includes Christopher Lambert doing a creepy old man voice, an underused Virginia Madsen, Dr. Cox from Scrubs, Sean Connery either having a blast or making a fool out of himself, and Michael Ironside playing a character so over the top evil that he's named after a sword! Director Russell Mulcahy going all out for better or worse! All that and more in this sequel that takes more big swings than the ending of Signs and was such a dramatic departure from the original film that they released a new version of the movie in an attempt to make people forget the theatrical cut ever existed! Are they aliens or ancient humans? We may never know!
In addition, Chrissy shares her spoiler-free thoughts on In the Mouth of Madness, Alex does the same for the 2025 I Know What You Did Last Summer requel, Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein, and Edgar Wright’s The Running Man. Also, Tim and Alex went to see Predator: Badlands!
You can find Death Don’t Do Fiction on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. As always, if you enjoy the podcast, be sure to leave us a positive rating, subscribe to the show, and tell your friends!
The Death Don’t Do Fiction podcast brings you the latest in movie news, reviews, and more! Hosted by supposed “industry vets,” Alex Harris and Tim Gardiner, the show gives you a peek behind the scenes from two filmmakers with oddly nonexistent filmographies. You can find Alex on Twitter, Bluesky, or Letterboxd @actionharris. This episode’s guest, Chrissy Kurpeski, can be found on Instagram @absolutelyicebox or Letterboxd @farthouseflix. Tim can’t be found on social media because he doesn’t exist. If you have any questions or suggestions for the Death Don’t Do Fiction crew, they can be reached at [email protected], or you can find them on Twitter or Instagram @aiptmoviespod.
Theme song is “We Got it Goin On” by Cobra Man.