Movie Immortals?

Question

Why is it that in movies any immortal character such as vampires or the immortals in Highlander (any other examples welcome) aren't actually immortal?

If you can die by stake through the heart or by having your head lobbed off you are not immortal or am I mi-'staken' (ooooh, bad , bad, joke)?

Answer 1

They're immortal not invincible. immortal means you cannot die from old age, whereas human will. but that doesn't mean you can't be killed.

Answer 2

Well, technically, you are correct. I think immortal refers more to them not living with the fact that they will eventually die of natural causes. Ie., a vampire will not just die of old age someday. As far as the Highlander, a normal human could not kill them, only another immortal, and then they would assimilate their powers.

Answer 3

Short answer: Boring? Sort of... 'Copying Beethoven' was genius and this movie pales in comparison. Long answer: Gary Oldman was GREAT as Beethoven. The movie was slow and the writing certainly lacked the power that the music gave to the movie. The music was definitely the high point. There were also glaring inconsistencies that made the movie even less enjoyable. All in all, I am no better or worse off for having seen it but I wouldn't go out of your way to watch it.

Answer 4

I suppose it's because many of the 'immortal' characters, such as vampires, are portrayed as villains, and there has to be a way for the hero to triumph over the villain.

Answer 5

For the Highlander series: Unless beheaded they are "Sword-of" immortal...

Answer 6

i think if u have the ability to live forever regardless of being able to die then u can correctly be deemed immortal

Answer 7

if they are really immortal, then you won't have a T.V. show!!
The director and producer have to come up with something to keep the show going!!

Answer 8

True but that doesnt mean Mortal Kombat was a rubbish film does it?

Answer 9

There are many different definisions of immortality. In highlader they are immortal. There physical body dies when there heads are cut off. However they live on, there spirit lives on because it goes to the immortal who beat the and took there head. At the end only one can survive. He is immortal.
One common concept of immortality is a continued spiritual existence, after bodily death. Many people today believe in this type of immortality (a philosophy of dualism or a belief in the immortal soul), as it is a dogma of almost every sect in Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism. The Hebrew patriarchs and their like-minded descendants believed that their life or existence was originally a gift of their God; that this gift is permanent and irrevocable; and that humans will never really die in the sense of non-existence.
Others believe that they can achieve "immortality" through their "legacy", through their acts and the achievements that they leave behind (a common belief, sometimes called renown or glory). Such was a belief of Alexander the Great. This view of immortality is different from others, in that it places value not on the continuance of one's physical, spiritual, or intellectual "self", but rather on how one will be remembered by generations to come ("Their heroic works 'live on' in the world, for us to remember them by and others can emulate") — or even how the world is influenced by one's acts even if oneself is not remembered. This view of immortality is embraced in many Germanic and humanistic philosophies. Another view of immortality concentrates on leaving offspring, or immortality via evolution, which is curiously similar to Richard Dawkins' theory of the selfish gene ("you never really quite die; as long as there is some of your genetic material left behind in this world").
However, there has always been a different breed of "immortalist", one who believes it may be possible to avoid bodily death altogether. These people believe in the possibility of immortality in a physical sense; rather than, or in addition to immortality in a spiritual sense. Many European and Chinese alchemists were among such people. (Gunpowder was said to have been invented by Chinese alchemists, in pursuit of immortality). The depiction in literature of Gilgamesh was one such as this and an entire cycle, or cycles of Arthurian legend exist in the British Isles, including the Knights of the Round Table going in search for the Holy grail; supposedly, the chalice from which Jesus and his disciples drank at the Last Supper. In more recent times, some have come to believe that life extension technologies will eventually lead to rejuvenation, eternal youth and the elimination of death. Some people who believe they may not live long enough for these technologies to develop have made cryonics arrangements for their bodies to be cryopreserved upon legal death and kept at cryogenic temperatures, in the hopes that advances in medical science / technology will allow them to be revived and restored to health at some point in the future. Medical science is currently exploring the aging process and has predicted that by 2050 it may be possible to live 300 or more years with the use of stem cell treatments, and until such a time as human DNA can be altered to incorporate this change directly into the genetic material.
There is also another perspective, diffuse immortality, wherein even though your mind ceases with death, your physical body goes on to be recycled throughout the rest of time. For example, your body breaks down into its component elements, is absorbed into the soil, then into plants, then animals, and so on and so on. While "you" cease to exist in a personal sense, in another sense your body will be recycled until the breakdown of all matter through proton decay at the end of the universe.[citation needed]
In the many worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics, the wavefunction never collapses, and thus all possible outcomes of a quantum event exist simultaneously, with each event apparently spawning an entirely new universe in which a single possible outcome exists. In this physical theory, one could hypothetically live forever as there might exist a string of possible quantum outcomes in which one never dies. This theory of quantum immortality, however, is not widely regarded by the scientific community as being a verifiable or even necessarily correct offshoot of the many worlds interpretation, which itself exists as one possible interpretation of quantum mechanics among many.
There is also the possibility of a brain scan of such precision that the results could be stored in some form of media, and then one could live in an A.I. state indefinitely.

Answer 10

Same with elves. They can live forever....unless someone kills them