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Highlander (1986)

Directed by: Russell Mulcahy

Cast: Christopher Lambert, Sean Connery and Clancy Brown

 IMDb page about Highlander

Studio(s): Silvercup Studios - Jacob Street Studios

  • Silvercup Studios: The climactic fight scene was shot on the rooftop of the Silvercup Studios building. A third-scale reproduction was built and destroyed at a warehouse in Greenwich, London.
  • Jacob Street Studios: The interior of the Croft and the New York loft of Russell Nash were shot at Jacob Street Studios.

    • Much of the movie was shot on location in New York and Scotland. Some sequences were shot at Jacob Street Studios, a former Dog Biscuit Factory in London docklands.

    The Wrestling match at the start of the movie features a breathtaking helicopter-style shot through the stadium, ending up with a close-up on Russell Nash. This was accomplished using a system called Skycam, which is now regularly used on sports events, which was designed by Garrett Brown, the inventor of Steadicam. A camera is suspended from 4 wires which run to the 4 corners of the building. A computer controls the 4 wires using 4 motors all working together, to enable the smooth movement of the camera anywhere through three-dimensional space. The bulk of the shot is done with a wide angle lens, but the final part of the shot is shot with a different lens, from a crane-mounted camera. The cut is disguised by a single white frame during a barrage of camera flashes from the sports fans.  

    In the 'Making of Highlander: The Visual Style' documentary on the Immortal Edition DVD, Allan Cameron the production designer says that Jacob Street Studios was still showing it's industrial past - the studios were not properly soundproofed, and there were a number of structural columns supporting the roof of the stages, which had to be incorporated into set designs. 

    The interior of the Croft was shot at Jacob Street Studios.

    The New York alley where the Kurgan attacks the man was shot in a run-down area of London docklands called Shad Thames.

    It was originally planned to build the interior of the castle keep at Twickenham Studios, but it was too tall, so had to be built inside a disused warehouse in Greenwich. The same warehouse was the location for a scaled-down version of the roof of Silvercup Studios in New York.  It was originally built in 1914 as a cyanide factory, and was beehive-shaped, so that bombs would bounce off the roof. 

    The climactic fight was originally due to take place on a rollercoaster in Coney Island, with the rollercoaster structure being destroyed. 

    The fight between Kurgan and McLeod in the New York warehouse was shot in a disused warehouse in London docklands. The exploding windows were built in front of a translite (large scale photograph, 100 feet wide x 30 feet high) of the New York skyline which was backlit.  

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