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This excerpt comes from a version of the script dated 1 September
1999. The Highlander
Quill Club has the entire script, illustrated with some gorgeous
fan art.
Highlander IV: World Without End
EXT - NOTRE DAME CATHEDRAL - DAY
Duncan hops out of his Ferrari 355 Spyder, pauses before the massive
Gothic edifice, then disappears inside.
CLOSE ON A CROUCHING STONE GARGOYLE perched atop the highest balustrade.
MOVE SIDEWAYS TO REVEAL A SECOND CROUCHING FIGURE, this one human.
To many he'll be instantly familiar. He's METHOS, oldest of all
Immortals, gazing down in quiet contemplation.
Methos keeps staring at the ground below, sipping bordeaux from
a paper cup, even as Duncan joins him at the edge.
DUNCAN Methos.
METHOS So — What brings you up here to the aerie
of the lesser gods?
DUNCAN I need your help.
METHOS I'm out of the help business. No future in it.
DUNCAN I was told Connor MacLeod was killed last night.
Methos' darkens. Another one lost.
DUNCAN (cont'd) I just want to know who did it.
METHOS (sighs) In our world, does it really matter?
DUNCAN It does to me.
Methos looks down at the clotted life below.
METHOS Did I ever tell you I once kept a vineyard on the
very spot where they built this monstrosity? Glorious, the wine.
(looks up)
When did you see him last?
DUNCAN Almost ten years ago.
METHOS What did you talk about?
DUNCAN Nothing much.
METHOS Think back.
FLASH TO:
INT - PUB (FROM HIGHLANDER 1) - DAY
Connor and Duncan hunch over the bar, pounding scotch.
DUNCAN We mostly just sat around, downing shots, staring
at the beer lights above the bar. When he finally got up to go,
he looked at me like it was the last time I'd ever see him again.
No goodbye. No handshake. Just got up and left.
BACK TO SCENE:
Duncan blinks back the memory.
DUNCAN (cont'd) Nobody's seen him since.
METHOS Describe the look.
DUNCAN What do you mean?
METHOS Describe it.
DUNCAN It was like...
FLASH: CONNOR'S FACE
DUNCAN (cont'd) ... Like every death he'd ever caused
had come back to haunt him.
BACK TO SCENE:
Methos takes a thoughtful sip from his wine.
METHOS For an Immortal who comes to abhor bloodshed, there's
a solution — a way to be removed from the Game forever. The
price is unimaginably high, but you are, for all practical purposes,
protected from the violence within yourself. It's called The Sanctuary.
DUNCAN I don't understand.
METHOS Think of those Buddhist monks who came to cherish
life so much that to step on a single insect, to harm a blade
of grass was a violation of their creed. They placed themselves
into an extreme form of protective custody. A sanctuary of sorts.
(beat)
What I'm talking about is something similar. But one that doesn't
allow for a change of heart.
He opens his fingers and watches his cup plummet to the plaza below.
Wine SPLATTERS like blood on white marble.
METHOS (cont'd) Apparently it was wiped out last night.
DUNCAN By who?
METHOS I don't know.
EXT - ABOVE THE ATLANTIC - DAY
A 747 cruises at 40,000 feet.
METHOS (O.S.) He left no witnesses.
INT - 747 - DAY
Duncan stares out the passenger window as the FLIGHT ATTENDANT
sets a DRINK down.
He lifts the little plastic COCKTAIL SWORD from the glass. Yanks
it out of the olive...
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