Set your watches to Zeist time, readers, to enjoy some unclassic movie action. Highlander II, one of the poorest-received sci-fi sequels of the 1990s, was set in 2024. It's so bad that the director's recut Highlander 2: Renegade Version is the only version available. It's still not very good, but worth it for John McGinley and Michael Ironside as zany villains.
In the 1990s, industrial pollution has destroyed Earth's ozone layer, leading to millions of deaths due to the sun's unfiltered rays, including Brenda Wyatt MacLeod, whose death inspires her husband, Connor MacLeod, to use his wealth to save the world. By 1999, Connor supervises a scientific team headed by Dr. Allan Neyman, who create an electromagnetic shield to protect the Earth from radiation. The shield saves the Earth, but with side-effects of condemning the planet to constant darkness, high temperatures and humidity. Humanity loses hope and the shield falls under the control of the corrupt Shield Corporation and its chief executive David Blake, who imposes heavy fees on countries for continued protection from solar radiation.
In 2024, Connor, now mortal, is a frail old man. While watching an opera performance, he has a flashback from five hundred years ago on the immortals' distant home planet of Zeist.
It's funny that in 1991, dystopia in 2024 was imagined as "climate change is solved, but by an evil corporation."
Here are some scenes that suggest "so bad it's good" without quite getting there.
