There are films that underperform at the box office that go on to have critical revivals, but they rarely start franchises. Even if audiences who missed The Shawshank Redemption upon its theatrical release eventually caught up with it on home video, it wasn’t the first entry in an expanded universe that included sequels, spin-offs, and merchandising. The 1986 film Highlander is the rare cult film that was almost immediately resurrected as a legitimate multimedia property with a strong cultural impact; even those who’ve never seen the 1986 fantasy action film could recognize the phrase “there can be only one” or hum the tune to Queen’s “Princes of the Universe.”
On March 7, 1986, the original Highlander was released. It wasn’t widely loved at the time, but it became an immortal cult classic anyway. Today, the franchise is getting ready to make a huge comeback with Henry Cavill in a new reboot, and when you revisit the original film, you can see why.
