!!The films:

* CompleteMonster: The Kurgan. An ancient immortal warrior with RapePillageAndBurn as his ''raison d'être''. If [[spoiler:murdering Connor's mentor, raping his wife, and later ''[[PostRapeTaunt claiming that she liked it]]'']] doesn't cement his status as in irredeemable bastard, nothing can.
* CrowningMusicOfAwesome:
** {{Queen}}'s song, "Princes of the Universe" as well as their cover of "[[FrankSinatra New York, New York]]", which has apparently never been released in its complete form anywhere. As well as "Who Wants To Live Forever?"
** MichaelKamen's score for the first movie, especially for the TrainingMontage [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgwNTle8FAY]].
* FirstInstallmentWins
* FoeYay: All over the place, but the ultimate example would have to be...
-->'''Jacob Kell''': ''What's wrong? Don't you want to be '''inside''' me?''
* HilariousInHindsight: The last line of the opening narration of the first film. "No one ever knew we were among you, until now." Well, except [[{{Retcon}} a whole]] [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness organization]] [[ContinuityDrift of Watchers.]]
** Kurgan's Alias was named Mr. Kruger. Fast forward two 2010 when ClancyBrown [[Film/ANightmareOnElmStreet2010 burns down a certain child killer to death.]]
* IAmNotShazam: There are times when the Immortals as a whole were called "Highlanders" by viewers new to the franchise.
** Website/{{Cracked}} did this in a recent article.
* MemeticMutation: "There can be only one!"
** Appending "The Quickening" or some variant of it onto parody sequel titles.
** "You have the manners of a goat."
* RetroactiveRecognition: John C. "[[Series/{{Scrubs}} Dr. Perry Cox]]" [=McGinley=] is the CorruptCorporateExecutive David Blake in the second movie.
** Speaking of Blake, he was surprisingly close enough, while at first scared of Katana, to being a CompleteMonster to stand his own a bit with Katana, even his plan to use to a descending spinning fan on the three heroes [[spoiler: manages to be able to kill Ramiez]] in the process! [[spoiler: Too bad he made the mistake of telling Katana that he "fucked up" afterwards, resulting in getting him getting grabbed by the balls by the Immortal and thrown out a big window.]]
* {{Sequelitis}}: One of the most infamous instances of it.
* SpecialEffectFailure: Connor's makeup in ''Highlander: Endgame''. Just watching the movie, you think that Christopher Lambert is horribly showing his age, and it's impossible to see him as the Immortal 18-year old Connor Macleod. Until you watch the cast interviews and see that Lambert is actually not all that bad-looking, and that they had to have made him look 70 ''intentionally''. Presumably it's to reflect how he's tired of life and ready to give up, but without any explanation, you just assume it's the actor too old for the role.
** When Connor receives the prize in the first movie, the wire holding him up is visible in multiple shots.
** In ''The Source,'' the single quickening we get is probably the most visually intense in the entire franchise, but just before the building explodes, there is a ''massive'' blue-screen failure resulting in the Guardian appearing to ''pass through'' one of the chairs in the room like a videogame character with a noclip cheat.
* UltimateShowdownOfUltimateDestiny: Connor [=MacLeod=] vs. [[{{Queen}} FREDDIE FREAKING MERCURY]] in the video for "Princes of the Universe".
** Freddie uses his iconic mic stand, and battles Connor ''to a draw.'' What does that tell you?

!!The series:

* DesignatedVillain: While there are plenty that don't fall into this category, its very easy to make a case that alot of Highlander villains are exactly this. Offscreen, other immortals are almost certainly coming for them, so they come for other immortals. If they can get an extra quickening, their odds of survival go up. A particularly notable case was [[spoiler: Tyler King]] who [[spoiler: Attempted to take the head of an idiot savant immortal, knowing that he had absolutely no chance in the game whatsoever, and was thus doomed anyway.]] To underscore this point [[spoiler: after killing King, Duncan and Richie came to the same conclusion anyway.]]
* EnsembleDarkhorse, thy name is Methos.
* HoYay: Riche has it Something ''fierce'' with Pete Wilder in ''Counterfeit''.
** You can almost hear fangirls around the world squee when he hugs Duncan goodbye at the airport, even more so after the crack about kissing him.
* LauncherOfAThousandShips: Methos again.
* MoralEventHorizon: From ''The Pharaoh's Daughter'' we have Nefetiri. [[spoiler: She carried a 2000 year grudge against a former Roman General, who was also an immortal, named Constantine. Blaming him for events out of his control (the peace between Egypt and Rome failing and Cleopatra's eventual suicide) she killed his current lover in cold blood since she was his 'entire world'. Infuriated, Duncan kicks her out and she goes to confront Constantine on Holy Ground, forcing Duncan to fight her away from it. When Duncan managed to get the upper hand, offering her one last chance for a new future based on love instead of manipulation? She stabbed him through the heart, literally. Duncan was forced to cut off her head to stop her. If she wasn't stopped, she was ''well'' on her way to [[CompleteMonster Complete Monsterdom]].]]
** Another one in ''Under Color of Authority'' we have [[LawfulStupid Mako]]. [[spoiler: A 800 year old lawman, he pursues anyone, no matter of guilt, innocence, or intent with deadly force for the bounty they have. Before the 20th century, this was an acceptable but regrettable practice. In the 20th Century, especially the ''late'' 20th century? He comes off as a man who has no real morals and even Duncan calls him out when he says "I am the law!" To get the bounty for a girl who fled Texas after she killed her abusive husband in self defense, he ''ran her over'' and showed absolutely no remorse.]]
* RetroactiveRecognition: The series contains repeated instances of this, particularly in the early seasons, including appearances by JasonIsaacs, RonPerlman, and MarionCotillard.
* TheScrappy: Richie.