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The following FAQ entries may contain spoilers. Only the biggest ones (if any) will be covered with spoiler tags. Spoiler tags have been used sparingly in order to make the page more readable.
Highlander: The Source is a sequel to Highlander: Endgame (2000), which itself is a sequel to Highlander III: The Sorcerer (1994) and Highlander (1986). Highlander II: The Quickening (1991) subverts the original story to the future and follows an entirely different storyline. The screenplay for The Source was co-written by Stephen Kelvin Watkins and Mark Bradley. A sixth Highlander movie, Highlander, said to be a remake of the original Highlander, is planned for release in 2010.
Since Connor MacLeod (Christopher Lambert) opted out of the game in Endgame, the focus in this movie is on his clansman, Duncan MacLeod (Adrian Paul). Watcher Joe Dawson (Jim Byrnes) and 5,000 year old Immortal Methos (Peter Wingfield), both of whom have been imported from the Highlander TV series (1992-1998), are also back.
We are given no time frame. Endgame is estimated to have taken place in 2004, but all we are given in The Source is that the world has fallen into chaos and decay with no law or justice, only death and destruction, perhaps even the start of the Apocalypse, all of which probably takes a few years to happen, and no explanation or timeframe is given for the happening. There also must have been a sufficient number of years passing for Duncan to get over his Endgame wife Kate and meet, fall in love with, marry, and separate from his Source wife Anna (Thekla Reuten). Yet, Joe Dawson is there. Dawson is mortal, so not too many years could have passed. Best guess is maybe 5-10 years.
In episode Highlander: The Darkness (#2.4) of the TV series, a gypsy foretold that Duncan would have many lovers but never marry. Apparently, gypsy fortune tellers aren't always right. Duncan was married to Kate in Endgame, and he refers to Anna as his wife in The Source.
Although Anna claims that Duncan is the only man she ever loved, she left him because, she as a mortal and he as an Immortal, he could not give her a child.
The Source is described as "a holy grail of peace and salvation". It is not a being but an event, a time when all the celestial bodies in our galaxy, the Milky Way, will line up with the central sun, allowing the earth to be bombarded with cosmic radiation, thought by many scientists to have been the trigger for "life", that is, the moment when life is created out of previously inert matter. Some Immortals, like Duncan MacLeod, think the Source is a myth. Others, like Methos, Zai Jie (Stephen Rahman Hughes), Reggie Weller (Stephen Wight), and Cardinal Giovanni (Thom Fell) believe it to be real. Consequently, they band together to seek it, along with Joe Dawson and Anna, who claims to have seen the Source in visions. First, however, they have to get past the Guardian (Cristian Solimeno).
The Guardian is described as a "riddle that cannot be solved" and a "force that cannot be defeated." Millennia ago, before recorded time, possibly even before Methos, another band of Immortals also sought the Source. All but two of them perished along the way, because Immortals lose their immortality as they get closer to the Source. They killed the reigning Guardian of the Source, but neither of the remaining two were chosen by the Source. One was cursed to become the new Guardian, and the other was cursed to a life of decay, now looked after as "the Elder" by the Brothers of Doleo at the Zagora Monastery.
Methos says that the astonishing alignment of the planets could be due to "orbital wobble." When two objects, like the earth and the moon, orbit each other, they share a barycenter or "center of mass", the point at which the two objects would balance if supported at that point only. When the two objects are approximately equal in mass, that barycenter is halfway between them, like two people of equal weight sitting on opposite ends of a seesaw. If the mass of one of the items is greater than the other, the barycenter begins to move closer to the heavier object. If the larger object is so massive that the barycenter falls within the object itself, the larger object will seem to wobble in its orbit. This is one method by which astronomers are able to detect the presence of a smaller object, e.g., a moon, that is affecting the orbit of a larger object, e.g., a planet. However, Reggie denies orbital wobble as an explanation for all the planets suddenly lining up because "it's outside the laws of celestial mechanics". Conclusion: it's the Source.
Reggie pinpoints the alignment over an island. No coordinates are given, but the Source Seekers hop a boat called the Rekyva, which sounds like it could hail from someplace like Iceland or Russia. Unfortunately, when they reach the island, they find that it is inhabited by cannibals.
The Guardian leads Anna towards the Source, leaving behind Giovanni, Duncan, and Methos, who have been captured by the cannibals and strung up for meat. Giovanni manages to free himself but refuses to free Duncan and Methos, believing this to be a sign that he is the One. Duncan gets free, and he frees Methos. When the cannibals find that their meat has escaped, they go in pursuit. Duncan and Methos come upon Giovanni being beaten by the cannibals. Methos wants to leave him, but Duncan jumps in to help Giovanni. Realizing that Duncan is more uncorruptible than himself, Methos orders Duncan to keep going towards the Source, jumps on a horse, and leads the cannibals away. Giovanni is subsequently beheaded by the Guardian. Duncan catches up with Anna, who is watching the planets moving into alignment. Suddenly, the Guardian leaps between them and reminds Duncan that he must still kill him, too...for there can be only One. As the planets move into alignment, Duncan and the Guardian battle each other, until Duncan is placed in the position of beheading the Guardian. Duncan refuses, saying, "I'm done with this." The Guardian implodes. Duncan joins Anna in the light of the Source. In the final scene, which takes place sometime in the future, Anna tells Duncan that she can feel his child growing within her. The Prize was the ability for Duncan, an Immortal, to father a child.
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