Other Titles • Highlander: Endgame • Highlander 4: The Search for Connor • Highlander IV • Highlander IV: World Without End • Highlander: A New Order • Highlander 4
He continues: "No other character I have ever played compares to the complexity of Duncan. He is a man who is not afraid to love, cry or stand up for the things in which he believes. He is a man who is peaceful by nature but a warrior by blood."
Adds Christopher Lambert: "We are both looking back to the beginning of these characters and to their future. Through flashbacks in time, you learn a lot about Connor and Duncan and how they've become who they are at this crucial moment."
Director Doug Aarniokoski, who was inspired by the chance to work with the two HIGHLANDER legends, summarizes: "Both actors know their characters so well. They each bring so much to the table in terms of vision and energy. And of course from a story-telling point of view, it's just fantastic to bring these two characters who are both so interesting and yet so different together. Now instead of having just one Highlander, you have two battlers on the same side, which adds a whole different light to the original concept. It's so exciting, it just rocks."
The enthusiasm is shared by the film's compelling supporting cast. Bruce Payne, who plays the devastatingly powerful Kell, had loved the concept of immortals ever since seeing the first HIGHLANDER. "The original HIGHLANDER wasn't just an action movie, but a story with some real depth to it," he observes. "Behind the warrior clashes there was a subplot about men having to face themselves, having to answer for their legacy. I loved that and this script seemed to dive right back into this fascinating mix of thrills and moral inquiry."
Kell oversees an entire "posse" of immortals, each alone presenting a formidable foe to the Highlanders. "I loved having a posse," admits Payne. "It reminded me of an artist's salon in the 1930s where you have all these remarkable talents trying to become the favorite, only of course their art is killing one another. Everyone in the posse is trying to get in my favor -- and it's all about who will dare to take on the MacLeods."
Another potential adversary in HIGHLANDER: ENDGAME is Duncan MacLeod's love interest: Faith, the women he once loved and whose fate he changed forever. Duncan first met Faith in the 17th century, when she was an alluring but mortal woman named Kate. Now she is an immortal with a lust for vengeance. Playing both women was a challenge welcomed by singer-actress Lisa Barbuscia. "I liked getting to be two almost opposite women in one," she says. "The contemporary Faith is strong and edgy, filled with hatred. She feels betrayed by Duncan and she's fed up with her immortal life. Kate is the same character, but a mortal in the 17th century, who is a lot softer and completely in love with Duncan."
Also joining the cast as immortal posse member Jin Ke -- one of the most powerful yet honorable of his ilk -- is acclaimed Hong Kong martial artist and actor Donnie Yen, who also served as the film's fight-scene choreographer. Yen uses a fluid, balletic, hyperkinetic style that takes traditional Kung Fu to the next extreme, bringing a distinctively current flavor and style to his martial arts choreography. Following in the footsteps of his idol, Bruce Lee, Yen has forged a distinctively cinematic style of expressive movement. "Many people try to distinguish between action and drama, but I don't," explains Yen. "For me, martial art is a form of expression that comes from the soul to your hands and feet. It's a part of the story-telling."
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