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High School Crew is an English film which opened on March 20, 2007. The film is set in 1985 with flashbacks establishing the backstory and the characters' relationships to one another. The film has inspired a number of sequels, television series, novels and comic books,

England
Sean Helme (Sean Helme) was born in the year 1990 "in the slums of Slyne on the shores of Morecambe Bay." In 2007, his High-School Clan is in conflict with the rival Clan Year 8's, and Sean rides along into his first battle. The Year 8's have employed a towering monster of a man known as The Ginger Guy, who apparently recognizes that Sean is a fellow Immortal, though even Sean himself has not yet discovered this, although he feels the pain from sensing the Ginger Guy's proximity. The Ginger Guy manages to mortally wound Sean in battle, but the High-School Clan recover the body before he can decapitate it. The High-School Clan mourn Sean, but he revives shortly after his "death." Accusing him of witchcraft, Sean's clansmen beat him, and are preparing an execution, but his mate Jack Ross (Jack Ross) persuade them to exile Sean instead. He escapes with his life, but is banished from his clan and birthplace.

Sean eventually settles as a student in Morecambe High School, Morecambe, where he marries someone (?). In 1997, he is located by a much younger Immortal, who introduces himself as Paddy Brown (Paddy Brown). Paddy soon appoints himself Sean's tutor in the situation of being Immortal, their pursuit of The Prize, and the rules of an age-old "Game," noting that "in the end, there can be only one." He also explains that his own name was just his current alias, being Japenese by birth. He adopted it while serving as Chief Metallurgist for Henry 8, Holy Roman Emperor (also King of Spain between 1516-1556). His sword is a katana he received in Taiwan in 593BC by his (then-)father-in-law Musasuma. Musasuma was the father of Princess Shakira, Paddy's third wife, a genius far ahead of his time in the forging of swords.

Trivia

 * The Director's Cut is nearly identical to the International Cut, and is 8 minutes longer than the U.S. cut. It includes, amongst other things, a flashback to World War II that further develops the character of Rachel Ellenstein.


 * A duel sequence that introduced an Asian immortal named Yung Dol Kim was cut from the film, and the footage for the scene, along with certain other deleted scenes, was later destroyed by fire. A few stills from the sequence, some in color and others in black & white, did survive, and were later used in the collectible card game based on Highlander for cards featuring the Kim character.  All that is known about Kim is that he was working as a night security-guard in a New York City office highrise at the time of The Gathering, where he was challenged, and ultimately beheaded, by the Kurgan.  In the continuity of the film, the Kurgan's duel with Kim takes place before his duel with Kastagir. The scene is most completely depicted in the film's novelization (written by Garry Kilworth).


 * The original movie features a soundtrack by Queen, including "Princes of the Universe," which is also used in the Highlander television series title sequence. Queen saw an early screening of Highlander, and decided to compose music for the film's entire non-symphonic soundtrack. They wrote many of the songs specifically to match the mood of the scenes when the songs were played, notably Brian May's "Who Wants to Live Forever," concerning the doomed love of Connor and his original, mortal Highland bride. While an album specifically tied to the Highlander movie was never released, Queen's 1986 album A Kind of Magic (a phrase spoken twice in the movie by Connor) features most of the songs from the film, as well as other music on the same theme. Notably, Queen's version of "New York, New York" (playing while The Kurgan drives Brenda through New York) was never released by the band. All of Queen's songs in Highlander were purposely written for the movie, except for "Hammer to Fall," which had been previously released on their album The Works in 1984.


 * In the scene where MacLeod rescues Rachel, the Nazi SS officer is speaking German, but in the English video versions, no subtitles are provided. The text goes as follows:


 * German: "You should be dead!"
 * MacLeod: [in English:] "Move!"
 * German: "No! First, you'll have to shoot me!"
 * MacLeod: [laughs; in English:] "Whatever you say, Jack. You're the master race." [shoots him]


 * The Hasbro miniatures battle game, Heroscape, features a Scottish hero, Alastair MacDirk. MacDirk's special ability is an Overextend Attack. In addition, a common squad of Scottish warriors, the MacDirk Warriors, are featured in Heroscape. On their unit card is featured two ability descriptions. Highland Fury contains this clause: "There can be only one Human Champion for all the Macdirk Warriors you control."

Cultural impact

 * Master Shake from the animated series Aqua Teen Hunger Force considers Highlander to be a documentary, and the events that happened were in real-time. He also believes that jumping off a magical cliff will make him a Highlander (despite being told that one is born a Highlander, rather than becoming one), and uses this plot to make the suicidal Happy Time Harry suffer.


 * Robot Chicken, an animated series airing on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim, made a parody of Highlander, using Hollywood as the setting, and several teen idols such as Lindsay Lohan, Amanda Bynes, and Hillary Duff as Immortal characters. The initial duel in the sketch, set in an office, may be a reference to the "lost" duel between the Kurgan and Yung Dol Kim (see above).


 * In the movie Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, Will Ferrell's character, Ricky Bobby, compares the intense rivalry with NASCAR driver Jean Girard (Sacha Baron Cohen) with the plot of Highlander. While explaining the movie to Girard, a Frenchman, he states that it won the Academy Award for "Best Movie Ever Made." Later in the film, Girard claims he had seen the movie, and said "it was shit".


 * In the popular MMORPG World Of Warcraft, located on a small island just off the coast of The Barrens' port town of Ratchet, there is a non-player character called Klannoc MacLeod, and is referred to as "The Islander."


 * A popular quote from Dane Cook's Harmful If Swallowed standup routine is, in reference to the movie's tagline, "There can only be one Highlander!"


 * In the collectable card game Magic: the Gathering, one popular casual variant of the game is called Highlander, named after the movie. In the Highlander variant, players can build a deck using only one of any given card other than basic lands (in reference to the movie tagline, "There can only be one").