o one has ever known we were among you … until now.” At a Madison Square Garden wrestling match – the kind with an overenthusiastic announcer and colorful costumes – antiques dealer Russell Edwin Nash (Christopher Lambert) can’t seem to focus on the over-the-top entertainment. Instead, he daydreams about ancient Scottish battles with medieval weapons on a grassy highland. In the parking garage, a man in sunglasses and a black suit approaches Russell, challenging him to a duel – with broadswords. After sparring atop the hoods of cars and slashing water pipes to create a humid, smokey environment for combat (with the suited man somersaulting to and fro across the asphalt), Nash comes out on top, decapitating his assailant. Once the encounter has concluded, the vehicles in the lot start up, gush oil, and then explode – from some type of otherworldly energy surge.

“Are you scared, Connor?” The film then transitions to 1536, when Connor MacLeod (also Lambert) and his clan prepare to ride off into battle at a foggy mountainside, where enemy leader Victor Kurgan (Clancy Brown) awaits with his army. But this is once again something of a vision; when Connor is slain on the battlefield, his mind returns to current day New York, where he’s now being questioned by the police for his proximity to the scene of the garage crime. They don’t have enough to hold him, however, enabling him to return to the streets, where a modern version of Kurgan – dressed and acting like a Terminator – prepares to hunt down the sword-wielding Nash.

“There can be only one!” Clearly, MacLeod has multiple lives – or he’s immortal. Either way, the narrative is a mess; by using flashbacks that appear as if two stories unfolding side by side, Connor’s existence remains an enigma for much too long. There’s even a separate flashback for a background character, Nash’s secretary, shown mere moments after she’s introduced, as if that would grant a deeper concern or connection. Plus, there’s something of a love story with a forensic investigator, Brenda J. Wyatt (Roxanne Hart), who wants to get to the bottom of Nash’s involvement with the string of headless bodies turning up in the area, providing perspective for confused audiences (solving the mystery more slowly than the flashbacks do). Eventually, Juan Sanchez Villalobos Ramirez (Sean Connery), chief metallurgist to King Charles V of Spain, materializes as an instructor, to teach MacLeod about his divine potential. He possesses a wealth of uncanny powers that must be harnessed and honed. “It’s the devil’s work!”

With an explanation of his circumstance being plainly unexplainable, Connor is also told about the “quickening” and the “gathering,” inherent pulls that will eventually drive his fellow undying brethren to duke it out in a never-ending quest to be the last survivor (to what end exactly, and why should there be only one?). For some reason, he must also become proficient with a sword – perhaps because his immortality doesn’t extend to losing his head. And if Kurgan wins, mankind will be plunged into a hellish darkness, turning Connor’s mission into one that will decide the fate of humanity. So many questions arise, but they’re all problematically dismissed with a phrase like “it’s tradition,” or other stated expositions that don’t allow for inquisitiveness. This is the kind of picture that hopes viewers will simply accept the various concepts and visuals presented to them, without stopping to wonder what the rules and limitations are.

Unfortunately, when information is withheld or hopelessly ambiguous, the characters and their plights feel inconsequential – and haphazardly made up as the plot progresses. It’s difficult to invest in a mythology and motives that have no sensible justifications, especially when Kurgan comes and goes for years at a time, injuries aren’t given explicit healing periods, and the gathering of immortals has no distinct timeline. Additionally, present-day Connor is cryptic, unfeeling, and uncharitable; his stern joylessness doesn’t make him a hero worth rooting for. 16th-century Connor is more human, but only for one action – that of staying with his aging first love, Heather (Beatie Edney), against the advice of Ramirez – an unoriginal but momentarily touching scene.

As the climax approaches, this sci-fi/fantasy blend tends to bore, struggling to turn sword-fighting and an inevitable showdown for an undefined “prize” into excitement. It’s ponderous and too simple, since the immortality gimmick is basically only utilized to pit the last two eternals against one another for a clash that just won’t come soon enough (despite a surprisingly complex set piece with water and electricity and explosions). Even the romance is unconvincing; Brenda would be frightened and skeptical rather than aroused by Connor’s claims about his 400-year timelessness. But at least the occasional soundtrack song by Queen is curiously fitting. Nevertheless, this film was inexplicably successful enough to spawn multiple sequels, as well as a television series and other media releases – despite failing to establish hardly anything concrete or enjoyable about the universe it hopes to shape.

– Mike Massie