Why Is The Highlander Quickening So Hard On Cars?

You know the Highlander movies and television shows and whatever? The ones about those immortal people who all seem to believe that there can be only, if my math serves, one? I happened to see parts of the first movie, from 1986, and noticed that the Quickening, a poorly-explained set of phenomena that seems to accompany the death of an immortal by the hand of another immortal, usually via decapitation, is also really hard on cars.

Seriously, the Quickening absolutely trashes cars! I had completely forgotten that the real victims in this movie were the poor saps who unwittingly parked their 70s and 80s iron in the presence of a full-on immortal-on-immortal battle in some nondescript New York parking garage.

Here, watch this fight scene that happens in an underground parking deck:

There’s a good number of interesting cars in that deck, and those two immortals have absolutely zero respect for any of them.

Look up there, tucked in between those GM offerings: that’s a Peugeot 504 there, with Euro-spec headlights as opposed to the quad round lamps most US-spec cars had.

Weirdly, that’s not the only car with Euro-spec lights; look at this Mercedes-Benz 280 SE:

If you can ignore the exploding windshield (more on that soon) you’ll note that this car features the wonderful European lighting units, not what was normally installed on US-market cars.

But we’re here to talk about the considerable damage these immortals cause to cars. First, there’s strange amount of damage a sword strike has on a parked car, far beyond what would happen if, say, you or I whacked a car hood with a sword. Look what happens when immortals do it:

Look at that! Sparks everywhere! There’s some sort of chemical-ish reaction happening there, where the metal-to-metal contact results in some sort of release of energy, demonstrated by all of those luminescent sparks. I’m sure it’s terrible for the paint, too.

But that’s just the start! When this happens:

…when an immortal and their head have their longtime association dissolved and they go their separate ways, the full Quickening happens, which seems to be some kind of energy transfer from the now head-unburdened to the head-removing immortal, which visually seems to resemble a lightning storm, with the lightning arcs traveling over the exterior surfaces of surrounding cars, causing electrical systems to activate:

This is the part that I’m most confused by; how does this actually work?

Cars in a very wide radius around the quickening activate their lights, and starter motors begin to turn, solenoids engage, and the cars start up, even to the point of going into gear, releasing parking brakes and moving forward! How the hell does the Quickening do this?

I suppose the wiring of the cars can act as a conductor of whatever this Quickening-electricity is, and guide it into lighting fixtures and electric motors. Wipers, strangely, didn’t seem to turn on, which surprises me, but parts of cars would explode, like windshields and hoods blowing off:

I think the strangest side effect, though, seems to be how the Quickening affects oil pan integrity:

The camera in this scene makes a point of showing that oil is getting blasted out of the oil pan of one of the cars; maybe the oil filters are getting blasted off? Maybe the oil pans are cracking? It’s not clear, as is the case with most Quickening phenomena, which is still quite poorly researched to this day.

Here’s the takeaway, though: be extremely careful if you park in an area where you suspect immortal activity may be taking place. The Quickening causes severe and perhaps irreparable damage to cars, especially their electrical systems, glass integrity, and oil retention, and that’s the kind of hassle you don’t need.

I’m not sure of the current status of immortals on Earth; is there only one now, as they so often shout about, or is there still a community of them, roaming around, potential threats to vast numbers of cars? Who knows? But, as car enthusiasts, it’s worth always being aware of, and avoiding immortal fights whenever possible.

Stay alert!