The Kurgan is a fictional character from the first Highlander film. He is portrayed by Clancy Brown. He is an Immortal and the main antagonist to Connor MacLeod in Highlander, and the latter's ultimate opponent in the Gathering. The Kurgan (in Russian, a kurgan, курга́н, is a barrow-hill)—who was taken in by the Kurgan tribe and named Victor—was born in what is now Russia on the border of the Caspian Sea. His tribe, the Kurgans, Juan Ramírez notes, are infamous for their cruelty, and were known to "toss children into pits full of starved dogs, and watch them fight for [the] meat" for amusement. In 1536, the Kurgan hires himself out to Clan Fraser in their battle with the MacLeod clan, in exchange for allowing him to be the one to kill Connor MacLeod. In the midst of the battle, the Kurgan challenges MacLeod and runs him through with his broadsword. However, Connor's cousins Angus and Dougal beat the Kurgan back, rescuing Connor from beheading. The Kurgan screams: "Another time, MacLeod!" Five years later, another Immortal, Ramírez, seeks out MacLeod as the only hope of defeating the Kurgan. However, the Kurgan discovers this and tracks them down to MacLeod's home. MacLeod is away, but Ramírez and Heather MacLeod, Connor's wife, are there. He battles Ramírez, who slices Kurgan's throat (though not deep enough to behead him) before being impaled and decapitated. After taking Ramírez's Quickening, the Kurgan rapes Heather and departs.
The Kurgan and Connor MacLeod meet again in 1985, in New York City, where the Gathering is to take place. During this time, the Kurgan uses his status as a New York City criminal skinhead gang leader as a fake background and goes by the alias "Victor Kruger." The last six Immortals are Victor, MacLeod, Sunda Kastagir, Iman Fasil, Osta Vasilek, and Yung Dol Kim. Vasilek is beheaded by the Kurgan in New Jersey before he learns of Fasil's death in Madison Square Garden at the hands of MacLeod. He then defeats both Kim and Connor's friend Kastagir, leaving just him and McLeod. In order to throw Connor's concentration off, the Kurgan kidnaps his then-girlfriend, Brenda Wyatt, and takes her to the Silvercup Studios building. MacLeod follows them to the site, where he and the Kurgan face each other in combat. MacLeod beheads his foe, his essence passing to the Highlander, winner of "The Prize". The novelization of the film by Garry Kilworth expands on the Kurgan's early life. His first death occurred in 970 BC when his drunken father crushed his head with a rock. Upon returning to life, the Kurgan forced his father to swallow a searing hot stone, killing him. He then went off to join a group of bandits that raided caravans. He eventually encountered another Immortal, "The Bedouin", who revealed to him his true nature, and who became the only person who could be labeled as his friend. During the intervening centuries, the Kurgan took an incalculable number of Immortal heads. Circa 410 AD, the Kurgan joined the Vandals, Goths, and Visigoths in attacking Rome and other Roman settlements, also fighting with the Goths against the Huns. He would then later ally himself with the Huns directly, fighting alongside Attila, around the year 453. From the fifth to thirteenth centuries, the Kurgan would spread terror with the Tatars of the Gobi and Turks/Turkish People, as well as with Viking raiders and the Mongol horde of Genghis Khan.
