Highlander Cut Scenes

SEASON FIVE
Episode 18: Archangel

Scenes from the DVD set's "Final Shooting Script"
that do not appear in the episode.

SCENE ONE

In the original shooting script, this scene doesn't take place until Allison is showing DM the video. (see SCENE NINETEEN)

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SCENE TWO

These lines are not in the original shooting script, when this scene takes place as the video Allison shows DM (see SCENE NINETEEN)

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SCENE THREE

This line is not in the original shooting script, when this scene takes place as the video Allison shows DM (see SCENE NINETEEN)

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SCENE FOUR

This line is not in the original shooting script, when this scene takes place as the video Allison shows DM (see SCENE NINETEEN)

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SCENE FIVE
The teaser begins here in the original shooting script.

EXT. STREET NEAR QUAI DE LA TOURNELLE - NIGHT

[Late night. Foggy. The sounds of police SIRENS echo in the air as MacLeod and Richie stroll home, dressed in elegant formal evening wear.]

RICHIE - I'm sorry, Mac, but I just don't get opera.

MACLEOD - It would help if you spoke Italian.

RICHIE - It's not that. It's just what's the point? What's opera got to say about today?

MACLEOD - The same thing it had to say a hundred years ago. The world's not that different.

RICHIE - I don't know. I think things are getting worse. Just turn on the tube.

[A POLICE CAR goes by, its light flashing.]

RICHIE - (CONT'D) [re the police car] Or take a walk.

EXT. QUAI DE LA TOURNELLE - NIGHT

[An old man, JASON LANDRY, stands in the shadows watching the barge. His breathing is labored and ragged -- he looks wild-eyed, frightened and desperate. Above him, MacLeod and Richie are coming down the stairs.]

RICHIE - Watching some fat guy sing for four hours about his lost love is not only irrelevant, it's just plain lame.

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SCENE SIX

[MacLeod stares, not believing his eyes.]

MACLEOD - You!

(This is followed by the cemetery flashback in the shooting script.)

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SCENE SEVEN

This last line is not in the original shooting script, and the rest of Jason's lines here are moved further down in the scene (see SCENE TEN).

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SCENE EIGHT

EXT. CEMETERY - DAY (FOOTAGE FROM EP. # 93222)

Horton turns to face MacLeod. He pulls a knife.

MACLEOD - [pointing to his neck] You have one chance. Right here.

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SCENE NINE

This line is not in the original shooting script.

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SCENE TEN

These lines are not in the original shooting script. Instead, Jason yells for DM to stop as DM runs off. (see SCENE SEVEN)

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SCENE ELEVEN

The teaser ends here in the original shooting script.

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SCENE TWELVE

MACLEOD - I know exactly how you feel.

CEMETERY OFFICIAL - The remains are to be shipped to the United States for re-burial.

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SCENE THIRTEEN

MACLEOD - [beat] There must have been paperwork... an official request to exhume the body.

CEMETERY OFFICIAL - In France, monsieur, paperwork is our national pastime. The body is to be shipped from Orly airport today.

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SCENE FOURTEEN
Horton does not appear in this scene in the shooting script

[BYSTANDERS and MAINTENANCE WORKERS watch in horror, except for AN ENORMOUSLY FAT MAN who seems amused. On his finger, a ring with a large RED stone that seems to GLOW in reflected light. A WHISTLE sounds and several SECURITY GUARDS approach. The Customs Man grabs MacLeod's arm.]

CUSTOMS MAN - Monsieur!

[MacLeod shakes the man off, snaps the last seal, THROWS OPEN the casket lid -- and steps back in surprise.]

[ANGLE - THE OPEN CASKET and the shocking reveal of the NEAR-MUMMIFIED REMAINS of a man in a faded suit.]

[SECURITY GUARDS grab MacLeod's arms. He doesn't resist as they start to pull him away, past the fat man with the RED ring.]

BACK to transcript.

SCENE FIFTEEN

DAWSON - [stung)] You are one sorry son of a bitch, MacLeod.

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SCENE SIXTEEN

RICHIE - First thing in the morning we'll check out the old guy. Talk to his granddaughter. [beat] Whatever it is, we'll figure it out.

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SCENE SEVENTEEN

METHOS - [beat] Dawson called me.

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SCENE EIGHTEEN

This line is not in the original shooting script.

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SCENE NINETEEN

MACLEOD - He was upset.

ALLISON - He was desperate. [beat]

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SCENE TWENTY

[Pictures of the faces of African famine are in black & white, replaced by pictures of terrorism in the Middle East. In both segments, we catch glimpses of something RED and glowing from a window or a passing car.]

NEWSCASTER (V.O.) - In Jerusalem, a terrorist bomb exploded on a busy street.

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SCENE TWENTY-ONE

[As Allison turns off the TV, MacLeod is thumbing through various books on the table.]

ALLISON - I keep it on just for noise, but I think the news just makes me more depressed.

[There's a battered, leather-bound NOTEBOOK on the table. Landry's journal. MacLeod leafs through it, his eyes falling on various entries.]

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SCENE TWENTY-TWO

MACLEOD - [pressing] What are you talking about? Where is this from?

[She picks up a VIDEO CASSETTE from the table and slides it into the VCR DECK by the TV.]

ALLISON - Right out of the "X-Files."

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SCENE TWENTY-THREE

The scene from the teaser is here in the original shooting script. [See SCENES ONE through FOUR]

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SCENE TWENTY-FOUR

This addition is not in the original shooting script.

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SCENE TWENTY-FIVE

MACLEOD - (V.O.) It was 1625. I'd been Immortal almost three years, but I still didn't know what I was, why I was still alive. I'd survived two hard winters with no clan, no family. No one had taught me about the Game, about what we are.

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SCENE TWENTY-SIX

HERMIT - For six hundred years, I have waited in this place for you. [beat] You think I'm a mad old man, don't you? [a soft smile] Remember it well. Sometimes the truth sounds like madness.

[The Hermit reaches out and scoops up the BONES. He shakes them and scatters them in the circle.]

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SCENE TWENTY-SEVEN

[The words hang ominously in the air. MacLeod is dubious, yet drawn in by the Hermit's intensity. He rises to his feet.]

MACLEOD - What evil? Tell me its name?

[The Hermit stands also, meeting MacLeod's gaze across the fire.]

HERMIT - It has no name. None I can speak.

BACK to transcript.

SCENE TWENTY-EIGHT

HERMIT - When the time comes, you will need my strength.

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SCENE TWENTY-NINE

HERMIT - ...and my burden. They are yours. When this thousand years are over, it will be you who faces him.

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SCENE THIRTY

[The Hermit reacts swiftly, raising his own sword.]

HERMIT - You must kill me, Highlander -- or die.

[He attacks, driving MacLeod back with surprising strength. MacLeod is on the defensive, hard-pressed. And then, he sees an opening, and swings-- The old man falls, beheaded. And MacLeod is engulfed in a Quickening.]

EXT. CAVE - SCOTLAND - 1625 - FIRST LIGHT

[MacLeod steps from the cave into the forest, still shaky and confused from the Quickening. As he does, he feels an unwelcome sensation -- THE BUZZ. Still not knowing what it means, he puts a hand to his sword and looks up to see -- MAN ON HORSEBACK in a GAP between two great trees. The rising SUN behind him casts a blinding halo, obscuring his face -- but we can make out long hair, a Scots warrior's dress, the MACLEOD TARTAN.]

MACLEOD - I am Duncan MacLeod of the Clan MacLeod.

[THE RIDER stretches a HAND down to meet MacLeod. MacLeod looks up at the powerful figure looming over him--]

MACLEOD - (CONT'D) Connor!

[The two Immortals clasp hands.]

MACLEOD - (CONT'D) What are we?

BACK to transcript.

SCENE THIRTY-ONE
In the shooting script, the act ends after the fire at Landry's apartment, not here.

MACLEOD - [beat] Or... if it is.

BACK to transcript.

SCENE THIRTY-TWO

Act Two ends here in the original shooting script.

BACK to transcript.

SCENE THIRTY-THREE

ACT THREE

[FADE IN:]

EXT. STREET - DAY

[Mid-scene. Richie, Dawson and Methos walk and talk.]

METHOS - Millenium theory is nothing new, but I'll tell you something. I've seen good years. I've seen bad years. It doesn't have much to do with the calendar.

RICHIE - But you should see this guy's journal. It's pretty convincing stuff.

BACK to transcript.

SCENE THIRTY-FOUR

METHOS - Demons come to destroy the Earth... Champions sent to protect it. [beat] It's a comforting thought, but Richie, I've lived five thousand years, I've never seen a demon.

BACK to transcript.

SCENE THIRTY-FIVE

DAWSON - You're sure this is the place? [off Richie’s nod] Well, so much for good intentions. Anything that might have helped us is toast.

BACK to transcript.

SCENE THIRTY-SIX

MACLEOD - [into phone] Hi, Richie... [looking at Allison] You're sure? [hangs up the phone] You're dead.

ALLISON - Does it matter?

[He closes his eyes tight for a moment as if to shut her out.]

MACLEOD - [tight] You're not real.

[He opens them again and sighs with relief to find THE BED empty.]

BACK to transcript.

SCENE THIRTY-SEVEN

In the shooting script, the act ends after the fire at Landry's apartment, not here.

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SCENE THIRTY-EIGHT

In the original shooting script, after the restaurant scene Richie sees Joe with Horton, then Act Three ends.

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SCENE THIRTY-NINE

These lines were not in the original shooting script.

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SCENE FORTY

In the original shooting script, this scene takes place immediately after the restaurant scene and is at the end of Act Three.

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SCENE FORTY-ONE

MACLEOD - ...and it's getting worse, not better. It's his influence. I have to fight him.

METHOS - How?

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SCENE FORTY-TWO

RICHIE - I think they headed into the catacombs.

(also MacLeod's response is "catacombs", not "old racetrack")

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SCENE FORTY-THREE

In the original shooting script, this confrontation takes place in "Catacomb Tunnels" and "Main Catacomb Chamber", not at an abandoned racetrack.

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SCENE FORTY-FOUR

[Methos knows what he wants. Maybe what he needs. He takes the katana, holds it a moment. Then--]

METHOS - No.

[Methos draws the sword, and backs away. MacLeod waits that way a moment -- then seems to accept this. His punishment is living. He rises slowly, looks once more at Richie -- then he turns and walks out. His eyes are flat and lifeless, containing his pain, refusing to let it go.]

(NOTE: Please shoot the following so that it can be cut with or without dialogue.)

DAWSON - Where are you going?

[MACLEOD keeps walking.]

DAWSON - Mac... Mac...

[MacLeod turns and responds with an air of finality.]

MACLEOD - I'm done.

[He turns to walk away. Methos turns away, looking at nothing. Dawson watches MacLeod go. Finally he looks down at Richie and he can't fight the tears any more. He leans into the cold stone of the wall and lets them come. MACLEOD moves down the tunnel, away from them, framed in a dim halo of light, growing smaller in the distance.]

INT. SECLUDED ROOM SOMEWHERE - DAY

[Spare, dimly lit, furnished with only a few rustic items -- a low wood table, some quilted pillows -- it could be the quarters of a monk. A small OIL LAMP sputters on the table. Seated on a rug before it -- MACLEOD. Motionless, he seems to be meditating. On the table before him -- Landry's NOTEBOOK, tattered and yellowed with age. As he sits, he gets the BUZZ. He looks up, but does not rise. He waits calmly. A moment later, POUNDING at the door. Then from without--]

METHOS - (O.S.) MacLeod?

[MacLeod doesn't move.]

METHOS - (O.S.) (CONT'D) I know you're there. I'm not going away.

[MacLeod closes his eyes, says nothing. He pushes a button. THE DOOR opens upward pneumatically, into the ceiling, admitting a shaft of light. A shadowed figure moves into the room, behind MacLeod -- it is Methos. They stay that way a LONG BEAT.]

MACLEOD - What do you want?

[Not unfriendly, just disinterested -- a man keeping people at bay.]

METHOS - Me? Nothing. [beat] But I brought someone to see you.

[As he says this, there's a LOW SCRAPING SOUND as someone, or something, enters. MacLeod finally opens his eyes. He turns now, and we see -- JOE DAWSON sitting in a wheelchair. His hair is now SILVER -- we can see he's over sixty years old. There's a CLOTH-COVERED OBJECT across his legs. Dawson looks at MacLeod quietly. There's no recrimination, no accusation.]

DAWSON - Hello, MacLeod. It's been twenty years.

(NOTE: Please also shoot as:
DAWSON - Hello, MacLeod. It's been a long time.
END NOTE)

MACLEOD - [beat] Why did you come?

[Dawson slowly unfolds the cloth, revealing MacLeod's KATANA. He raises it in two hands, holds it out to MacLeod. And OFF this, as they face each other, the sword between them--]

ALTERNATE SCENE:

INT. SECLUDED ROOM SOMEWHERE - DAY

METHOS - (O.S.) MacLeod?

MACLEOD - In here.

[He pushes a button. THE DOOR opens upward pneumatically, into the ceiling, admitting a shaft of light. A shadowed figure moves into the room, behind MacLeod -- it is Methos. They stay that way a LONG BEAT.]

METHOS - Where have you been?

MACLEOD - Around. [beat] Did you bring it?

METHOS - I brought a friend.

[As he says this, there's a LOW SCRAPING SOUND as someone, or something, enters. MacLeod turns and we see -- JOE DAWSON sitting in a wheelchair. His hair is now SILVER -- we can see he's over sixty years old. There's a CLOTH-COVERED OBJECT across his legs. Dawson looks at MacLeod quietly. There's no recrimination, no accusation.]

DAWSON - Hello, MacLeod. It's been twenty years.

(NOTE: Please also shoot as:
DAWSON - Hello, MacLeod. It's been a long time.
END NOTE)

MACLEOD - And now I'm ready.

[Dawson slowly unfolds the cloth, revealing MacLeod's KATANA. He raises it in two hands, holds it out to MacLeod. As MacLeod takes the sword--]

[FADE OUT.]

[TO BE CONTINUED...]

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