Question: In the director's cut (which seems to be the most widely available version these days), what's the deal with all the backflips in the opening fight? The editing is very awkward. Fasil goes from running, to doing backflips, then back to running, then back to doing backflips several times, seemingly between shots, during a short section of the fight. Is it just bad editing? Or is the movie trying to suggest that it's a different person doing the flips? Or... what? It's so confusingly edited.
lionhead
2nd Jun 2022
Highlander (1986)
Answer: I always felt the idea was given he was trying to move very rapidly whilst also being silent. In a garage with those shoes on your footsteps are very loud. Perhaps he was trying to confuse MacLeod as to where he was.
I'm not asking why he's doing backflips. I'm asking why the editing is so confusing, since he goes from doing backflips, to running somewhere completely else, then back to backflips at the first location between edits. (Look up the clip "The Highlander (1986) 1080p : Underground parking Fight Scene. Epic!" on YouTube and pay attention around 4:20.) He also loses his sword whenever we see him doing backflips, even though he's carrying it when he's running. The editing makes absolutely no sense.
7th Jun 2018
Highlander (1986)
Corrected entry: When the marine is driving around all four headlights are on, but when he pulls up in the darkened alley only two headlights are on.
Correction: He just switched to two headlights when he went into the alley. Could have done it at any time.
No need for him to drive down a well lit street with all the headlights on but when he turns into a darkened ally he turns two off, this is stupidly or a continuity mistake.
Why he does it is totally irrelevant. Its not a continuity mistake when the sequence of actions is consequential. He turns the headlights down, period.
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Answer: The Director, Russell Mulcahy, started his career making music videos. He was known for using fast cuts and tracking shots.