Rhom Posted April 4, 2020 Share Posted April 4, 2020 Let’s start this by establishing an important fact. So as we all know, there was only one Highlander movie. Clearly there would be no reason to ever continue a movie with the entire concept being “There can be only one” when the movie ended with just one. So anyways... I was having a Zoom get together with some friends over lunch yesterday and we were talking about how hard it would be to just disappear in today’s world. And that got me speculating on how the immortals of Highlander would be able to get by in the modern world? IIRC, typically Conner MacCleod would find the birth certificate of a deceased infant/child and use that identity for a while; then wash, rinse, repeat. Perhaps you’d have to bribe a county registrar to destroy the single paper copy of a death certificate. How would an immortal get by in today’s world of digital records? Identity theft is so closely watched that you might be able to get away with it for a while, but surely it would be far more difficult than throughout the history of immortals to this day. (Yup... out of work two weeks yesterday and this is where my brain turns.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ran Posted April 4, 2020 Share Posted April 4, 2020 1 hour ago, Rhom said: Identity theft is so closely watched that you might be able to get away with it for a while, but surely it would be far more difficult than throughout the history of immortals to this day. My guess is that currently it's not hugely difficult compared to pre-internet times. A lot of records are not fully digitalized in many countries. You can buy fake EU passports that allow you to get from one country to another, you can get fake social security or national insurance cards in a number of countries that pass simple tests, and once you've got a job and an address you can start getting banking sorted and so on. I suppose trying to pass yourself up as the heir of your previous identity _could_ be difficult... but maybe not with some advance planning, laying the ground work early by arranging fake records of children whom you've allegedly fathered, perhaps with the help of corrupt hospital/county/state officials? Biggest issues would be countries that are starting pervasive surveillance and face recognition, I suppose, but then again in a place like China where you have more than a billion people... is it really strange if there's similar-looking people decades apart? Even when developed nations get fully digitalized and surveilled, there's still the developing world, I suppose, if you want a high standard of living where you can keep reinheriting your generational wealth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Argonath Diver Posted April 4, 2020 Share Posted April 4, 2020 Awesome thread. Agreed only one movie, though forgive me if I also love the show (at least the first few seasons). DNA testing would possibly be an issue assuming two "lives" being in modern times. All those crime scenes with headless bodies would surely result in the winners' DNAs going into the permanent record. So some case in 2020 Paris might get connected to a cold case in 1996 San Francisco or something. Random aside - there is an old family photo of my young grandparents and extended fam from the 30s WWII and one of Grandma's cousins looks hilariously like me. Dapper as hell I might add. I called it my Highlander photo and explained the movie to mom. I'll have to track it down, it was on my grandparents' wall of old portraits and they've been gone near a decade. I wonder which of mom's brood ended up with it, though it's a large family these days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
red snow Posted April 4, 2020 Share Posted April 4, 2020 I guess there's also the chance if you've lived a few centuries you'd have hopefully accrued some wealth and money can get you a long way. They'd possibly have to "die" every 50 years as no one would buy you being a young 60+ year old. And i suppose you'd pretend to be a long lost illegitimate child or sibling to grant your estate to. People wouldn't be surprised by the similarity. Main rule would be to stay out of the limelight - you wouldn't want to survive any plane crashes etc (although it could be a good opportunity to "die" if you were) I guess we also need to ask Keanu reeves given he doesn't appear to have aged and has been seen throughout history. Same with nic cage. Have they ever been in a movie together? Maybe because they'd duel on set? I'm still curious about a remake. If they were to do the idea again they could spread the concept over several films building up to there only being one. Or a TV show. Always seemed a waste to have such a fun concept and only make one movie. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
williamjm Posted April 4, 2020 Share Posted April 4, 2020 2 minutes ago, red snow said: They'd possibly have to "die" every 50 years as no one would buy you being a young 60+ year old. And i suppose you'd pretend to be a long lost illegitimate child or sibling to grant your estate to. People wouldn't be surprised by the similarity. Main rule would be to stay out of the limelight - you wouldn't want to survive any plane crashes etc (although it could be a good opportunity to "die" if you were) I guess we also need to ask Keanu reeves given he doesn't appear to have aged and has been seen throughout history. Same with nic cage. Have they ever been in a movie together? Maybe because they'd duel on set? I was in the middle of writing a reply with this link when I saw your post: https://www.keanuisimmortal.com/ ETA - I can't believe nobody has made a movie yet with the premise that Keanu is immortal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werthead Posted April 4, 2020 Share Posted April 4, 2020 Yeah, the movie was good but the TV show (around Seasons 2-4) was probably even better. The way it ended (setting up a spin-off no-one really wanted and then two awful films) was poor though. It's a franchise that could to with a total reboot, but I think a lot of the same ground has been covered by other properties (especially vampire fiction). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ran Posted April 4, 2020 Share Posted April 4, 2020 The TV show was great fun, indeed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
red snow Posted April 4, 2020 Share Posted April 4, 2020 6 hours ago, williamjm said: I was in the middle of writing a reply with this link when I saw your post: https://www.keanuisimmortal.com/ ETA - I can't believe nobody has made a movie yet with the premise that Keanu is immortal. They could even get Keanu in the film - he'd probably see the funny side 5 hours ago, Ran said: The TV show was great fun, indeed. Amazon prime has it and I've deabtated a rewatch as I only saw seasons 1-3 on and off back in the day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heartofice Posted April 5, 2020 Share Posted April 5, 2020 Yeah I’ve thought about this a few times before as well. Firstly you’d have to be constantly moving around, anyone could recognise you and you’d be exposed. Your digital footprint would mean you really don’t wanna be having any sort of social media presence, especially Instagram! Thinking about it you could potentially use aging software to just make yourself look older in photos to get around it. All this means essentially isolating yourself completely so that people don’t get to know you. Those old times where your in a Scottish village and people realise you’re the devil are over. If you get caught then the world is gonna want to experiment on you to get that secret. The real danger is in that connected world if people figure it out then news will spread very quickly. So even with digital passports and some way of fooling technology I don’t think you’d be able to hide it for long. I feel like there were episodes of the tv show that dealt with this stuff, can’t remember. Do seem to remember someone using long life to build up large amounts of money through interest. That’s probably the best thing to do. But then there was also that vampire movie who’s name i forget where they are mainly concerned with music and art and realising that everything is really derivative of something else. That to me seems like a depressing reality of immortality Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rhom Posted April 5, 2020 Author Share Posted April 5, 2020 5 hours ago, Heartofice said: But then there was also that vampire movie who’s name i forget where they are mainly concerned with music and art and realising that everything is really derivative of something else. That to me seems like a depressing reality of immortality Well, as we all know there was only one Highlander movie... but if there had been a TV show which was arguably better than the movie, there would have been an episode dealing with immortals and music. In this hypothetical episode, an immortal would recognize a talented musician with the immortal trait. They would kill them at the height of their talent; and the new immortal would lose their creative genius. The lost element of risk made them unable to create art. So they would make up for it by walking around without a sword and bringing risk back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Myrddin Posted April 5, 2020 Share Posted April 5, 2020 18 hours ago, red snow said: Amazon prime has it and I've deabtated a rewatch as I only saw seasons 1-3 on and off back in the day. I was a pretty big fan of the show back in the day. The first online community I joined was around HL and to this day I still use the same Internet name I chose for that forum. But I don't recommend rewatching the show. I did about 5 years ago. It... hasn't aged well. Some of the top episodes do (with the Watchers and Methos) but by an large, it looks and feels dated. Who wants to live forever when love dies... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Veltigar Posted April 6, 2020 Share Posted April 6, 2020 You just move to the UK. That's what all the undocumented immigrants passing through the EU want to do :p Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ran Posted April 6, 2020 Share Posted April 6, 2020 On 4/5/2020 at 10:48 AM, Heartofice said: But then there was also that vampire movie who’s name i forget where they are mainly concerned with music and art and realising that everything is really derivative of something else. That to me seems like a depressing reality of immortality Is that Jim Jarmusch's Only Lovers Left Alive? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heartofice Posted April 6, 2020 Share Posted April 6, 2020 Just now, Ran said: Is that Jim Jarmusch's Only Lovers Left Alive? That’s what I was thinking of thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martell Spy Posted April 7, 2020 Share Posted April 7, 2020 The presence of so many cameras would be a huge problem for all those sword duels. Imagine if it was in the UK. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jen'ari Posted April 7, 2020 Share Posted April 7, 2020 Just ask the vampires how they do it, they’ve been getting away with it for centuries . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martell Spy Posted April 7, 2020 Share Posted April 7, 2020 37 minutes ago, Jen'ari said: Just ask the vampires how they do it, they’ve been getting away with it for centuries . Well, they have The Masquerade. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jen'ari Posted April 7, 2020 Share Posted April 7, 2020 1 hour ago, Martell Spy said: Well, they have The Masquerade. That’s true, but they seem obviously more resourceful to me, I mean they’ve opened Nightclubs,Detective Agencies, endlessly repeat high school without anyone noticing, Highlanders definately need their legal team . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A True Kaniggit Posted April 8, 2020 Share Posted April 8, 2020 7 hours ago, Jen'ari said: Just ask the vampires how they do it, they’ve been getting away with it for centuries . Hypnotism. That’s how. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jen'ari Posted April 8, 2020 Share Posted April 8, 2020 3 hours ago, A True Kaniggit said: Hypnotism. That’s how. Fair point!. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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