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Movies that feel like Highlander (1986)

If you loved Highlander, the closest films we have are The Scorpion King (2002), Conan the Barbarian (1982) and A Touch of Zen (1970). All three share Highlander's epic and kinetic feel, which is what we rank on before quality. 10 of the 12 picks below are included with a subscription right now on Netflix, HBO Max and Amazon Prime Video and others, checked against today's data.

He fought his first battle on the Scottish Highlands in 1536. He will fight his greatest battle on the streets of New York City in 1986. His name is Connor MacLeod. He is immortal.

🍅 70% Rotten Tomatoes7 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Russell Mulcahyepickineticdreamlike
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If Highlander hit the spot, these will too

The Scorpion King poster
The Scorpion King
2002 · dir. Chuck Russell
🍅 40%5.5action · adventure · fantasy

Two things both keep coming back to: sword fight and fictional war

The difference: Reviewed a good deal more coolly

In ancient Egypt, peasant Mathayus is hired to exact revenge on the powerful Memnon and the sorceress Cassandra, who are ready to overtake Balthazar's village. Amid betrayals, thieves, abductions and more, Mathayus strives to bring justice to his complicated world.

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Conan the Barbarian poster
Conan the Barbarian
1982 · dir. John Milius
🍅 68%6.9adventure · fantasy · action

Epic and kinetic in the same breath

A horde of rampaging warriors massacre the parents of young Conan and enslave the young child for years on The Wheel of Pain. As the sole survivor of the childhood massacre, Conan is released from slavery and taught the ancient arts of fighting. Transforming himself into a killing machine, Conan travels into the wilderness to seek vengeance on Thulsa Doom, the man responsible for killing his family. In the wilderness, Conan takes up with the thieves Valeria and Subotai. The group comes upon King Osric, who wants the trio of warriors to help rescue his daughter who has joined Doom in the hills.

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A Touch of Zen poster
A Touch of Zen
1970 · dir. King Hu
🍅 97%7.5action · adventure · fantasy

The same preoccupation in both: martial arts

Yang Hui-zhen, a mysterious princess on the run from corrupt government officials, is joined in her endeavors by skilled Buddhist monks and an unambitious painter named Gu Sheng-zhai.

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Ne Zha 2 poster
Ne Zha 2
2025 · dir. Jiao Zi
🍅 91%7.9animation · action · fantasy

Both are built on the same subject: dark fantasy

The difference: Leans harder into animation than Highlander does

After a catastrophic event leaves their bodies destroyed, Ne Zha and Ao Bing are granted a fragile second chance at life. As tensions rise between the dragon clans and celestial forces, the two must undergo a series of perilous trials that will test their bond, challenge their identities, and decide the fate of both mortals and immortals.

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The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor poster
🍅 13%5.2adventure · action · fantasy

One thread runs through both: sword

The difference: 22 years apart, and the 2000s show

Archaeologist Rick O'Connell travels to China, pitting him against an emperor from the 2,000-year-old Han dynasty who's returned from the dead to pursue a quest for world domination. This time, O'Connell enlists the help of his wife and son to quash the so-called 'Dragon Emperor' and his abuse of supernatural power.

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Big Trouble in Little China poster
Big Trouble in Little China
1986 · dir. John Carpenter
🍅 64%7.2action · adventure · comedy

Both keep coming back to the same thing: martial arts

Truck driver Jack Burton gets embroiled in a supernatural battle when his best friend Wang Chi's green-eyed fiancée is kidnapped by henchmen of the sorcerer Lo Pan, who must marry a girl with green eyes in order to return to the human realm.

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Warcraft poster
Warcraft
2016 · dir. Duncan Jones
🍅 29%6.7action · adventure · fantasy

Common ground: warrior

The peaceful realm of Azeroth stands on the brink of war as its civilization faces a fearsome race of invaders: orc warriors fleeing their dying home to colonize another. As a portal opens to connect the two worlds, one army faces destruction and the other faces extinction. From opposing sides, two heroes are set on a collision course that will decide the fate of their family, their people, and their home.

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Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon poster
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
2000 · dir. Ang Lee
🍅 96%7.9adventure · drama · action

Both are built on the same subject: sword

Two warriors in pursuit of a stolen sword and a notorious fugitive are led to an impetuous, physically-skilled, teenage nobleman's daughter, who is at a crossroads in her life.

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A Chinese Ghost Story poster
A Chinese Ghost Story
1987 · dir. Tony Ching Siu-Tung
🍅 70%7.4fantasy · action

Dreamlike action, and it commits to that

The difference: None of the scale Highlander is built on

A naïve young tax collector for the imperial government winds up spending the night in a haunted temple. There he falls in love with a beautiful woman who, unfortunately, is dead. With the aid of a powerful Daoist Swordsman, he must defeat undead hordes, overcome a sinister Tree Demoness, and descend to the pits of hell, to fight for the spirit he loves.

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The Mummy Returns poster
The Mummy Returns
2001 · dir. Stephen Sommers
🍅 46%6.4adventure · action · fantasy

Both lean on scale more than on adventure

Rick and Evelyn O’Connell, along with their 8-year-old son Alex, discover the key to the legendary Scorpion King’s might: the fabled Bracelet of Anubis. Unfortunately, a newly resurrected Imhotep has designs on the bracelet as well, and isn’t above kidnapping its new bearer, Alex, to gain control of Anubis’s otherworldly army.

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The Mummy poster
The Mummy
1999 · dir. Stephen Sommers
🍅 64%7.1adventure · action · fantasy

Kinetic fantasy in both cases

Dashing legionnaire Rick O'Connell stumbles upon the hidden ruins of Hamunaptra while in the midst of a battle to claim the area in 1920s Egypt. It has been over three thousand years since former High Priest Imhotep suffered a fate worse than death as a punishment for a forbidden love—along with a curse that guarantees eternal doom upon the world if he is ever awoken.

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Lara Croft: Tomb Raider poster
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider
2001 · dir. Simon West
🍅 21%5.8adventure · action · fantasy

Adventure with a pulse of dream logic, in both cases

Orphaned heiress, English aristocrat and intrepid archaeologist, Lara Croft, embarks on a dangerous quest to retrieve the two halves of an ancient artifact which controls time before it falls into the wrong hands. As an extremely rare planetary alignment is about to occur for the first time in 5,000 years, the fearless tomb raider will have to team up with rival adventurers and sworn enemies to collect the pieces, while time is running out. But, in the end, who can harness the archaic talisman's unlimited power?

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The best-reviewed films that share Highlander’s defining feeling.