Outland (film)

Outland
original film poster
Directed by	Peter Hyams
Produced by	Richard A. Roth Stanley O'Toole
Written by	Peter Hyams
Starring	Sean Connery Peter Boyle Frances Sternhagen James B. Sikking Kika Markham
Music by	Jerry Goldsmith
Cinematography	Stephen Goldblatt
Editing by	Stuart Baird
Studio	The Ladd Company
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release dates	May 22, 1981 (U.S.)
Running time	109 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Budget	$16,000,000 (estimated)[1]
Box office	$17,374,595 (USA)[1] or $20,000,000 (USA)[2]

Outland is a 1981 British science fiction thriller film written and directed by Peter Hyams. The film stars Sean Connery, Peter Boyle, and Frances Sternhagen.

Set on Jupiter's moon Io, it has been described as a space Western,^[3] and bears thematic resemblances to High Noon.^[4][5]

Plot

In the future, Federal Marshal William O'Niel (Connery) is assigned to a tour of duty in a titanium ore mining outpost, Con-Amalgamate 27, on the Jovian moon of Io.

Conditions on Io are difficult: gravity is 1/6 that of Earth's with no breathable atmosphere, spacesuits are cumbersome, and miners carry their own air supply. Shifts are long, but significant bonuses are paid. Con-Amalgamated mining franchise general manager Mark Sheppard (Boyle) boasts that since he took over the running of Io, productivity has broken all previous records.

Carol O'Niel feels she cannot raise their son Paul to live inside a pressurized environment. She feels it would be better for them to leave and go home to Earth where they can go outside and breathe real fresh air. She and Paul leave O'Niel and go to the space station serving the mine until they can travel back to earth.

The film begins with a miner named Tarlow suffering an attack of stimulant psychosis: he sees spiders and rips open his spacesuit, resulting in his death by explosive decompression. Later, another miner, Cane, goes outside without his spacesuit, and likewise dies from decompression.

With the assistance of Dr. Lazarus (Sternhagen), O'Niel investigates the deaths. However, another incident happens involving a worker, Sagan, who takes a prostitute hostage and threatens to kill her with a knife. O'Niel attempts to calm the man by the main door, while Montone (Sikking), O'Niel's sergeant, sneaks in via the air duct. Montone kills Sagan with a shotgun before O'Niel can talk with him.

O'Niel and Lazarus discover that Sagan had traces of an amphetamine-type drug in his bloodstream, which would allow the miners to work continuously for days at a time, until they "burn out" and turn psychotic after approximately 10 months of use. O'Niel uncovers a drug distribution ring run by a corrupt Sheppard and sanctioned by Montone.

Using surveillance cameras, O'Niel finds and captures one of Sheppard's dealers, placing him in isolation, but before he can be questioned, the dealer is killed. Montone is then found garroted. O'Niel does find and destroy the latest shipment of drugs which were hidden in a food shipment from the Jupiter space station. When Sheppard finds out what O'Niel did, he contacts his drug distributor and asks him to send in professional hitmen to kill him. O'Niel is ready, though, since he has been monitoring Sheppard's communications.

O'Niel waits as a digital clock counts down the time for the arrival of a shuttle from the space station on the other side of Jupiter. Knowing the assassins are on their way on the arriving shuttle, and with only Dr. Lazarus willing to help him, as his "last act" O'Niel sends a message to his wife Carol (Markham) and his son Paul, promising them that he will return to Earth when his "job is done".

When the hit men arrive, O'Niel tracks them and ambushes each, killing them one by one. The first hitman is killed when Lazarus helps by trapping him in a pressurized corridor, while he's in the corridor O'Niel (who's outside in a spacesuit) activates a bomb outside to blow a hole in the corridor causing an explosive decompression to kill the hitman. The second hitman is killed in the greenhouse structure when O'Niel drops a hatch cover down the greenhouse, the hitman takes aim all over the greenhouse window until he thinks he sees O'Niel outside but it was actually the hatch floating down. The hitman then shoots a hole in the window causing it to crack open and get him sucked outside into a vacuum getting him disintegrated. O'Niel is then confronted by Sheppard's "inside man", who turns out to be one of his own deputies, Sgt. Ballard. The two fight outside the station at the satellite power panel structure until O'Niel pulls Ballard's oxygen hose, suffocating him. O'Niel then confronts the surprised Sheppard in the base recreation bar, knocking him out with one punch. It is implied that Sheppard will now either be murdered by his own accomplices or brought to justice. O'Niel retires and he says farewell to Dr. Lazarus and leaves on the shuttle to join his wife and son on the trip back to Earth.

Cast

• Sean Connery as Marshal William T. O'Niel
• Peter Boyle as Mark Sheppard
• Frances Sternhagen as Dr. Lazarus
• James B. Sikking as Sgt. Montone
• Kika Markham as Carol O'Niel
• Clarke Peters as Sgt. Ballard
• Steven Berkoff as Sagan
• John Ratzenberger as Tarlow
• P.H. Moriarty as Hitman #1
• Doug Robinson as Hitman #2
• Sharon Duce as Prostitute attacked by Sagan
• Eugene Lipinski as Cane
• Angelique Rockas as Maintenance Woman production shot http://www.flickr.com/photos/angelique_rockas/5985315520/in/set-72157628015719341

Production

O'Niel's costumes at a convention in Stockholm, Sweden.

Outland was filmed at Pinewood Studios, Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, UK, with an estimated budget of $16,000,000.^[1] The film's working title was "Io" (the setting of the film), which was later changed because many people read it as the number 10, or "lo" ("low").^[1] Principal photography took place starting with the miniature models in May 1980 and with the actors beginning in June 1980. Post-production for the film was completed in February 1981.^[6]

Outland was the first motion picture to use Introvision,^[7] a variation on front projection that allows foreground, mid-ground and background elements to be combined in-camera, as opposed to using optical processes such as bluescreen matting. This enabled characters to convincingly walk around miniature sets of the mining colony.

Soundtrack

The mostly atonal and dissonant music to Outland was composed and conducted by veteran composer Jerry Goldsmith, who had previously worked with writer/director Peter Hyams on the science fiction thriller Capricorn One (1978). The soundtrack to Outland has been released three times on disk; 19 November 1993 through GNP Crescendo (with his score to Capricorn One), June 2000 through Warner Music Group, and a two-disc extended edition released 15 June 2010 through Film Score Monthly.^[8]

The 35mm film prints distributed to theaters featured Dolby Stereo audio and the 70mm Anamorphic Blow-Up film prints featured Six-Track Dolby Stereo audio. All 70mm prints were encoded for a Megasound option, in which theaters needed to be outfitted with the additional required speakers and sound equipment. Outland was one of only four films released by Warner Bros. to officially make use of their Megasound movie theater sound system, in the early 1980s.^[1]

Reception

The film received mixed reviews and box office reception when it was released. It opened strongly with $3,059,638 in weekend box office receipts in the U.S., but total estimated box offices receipts were between $17,374,595 and $20,000,000 (USA), just above its $16 million budget.^[1][2]

The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Sound (John Wilkinson, Robert W. Glass, Jr., Robert Thirlwell and Robin Gregory).^[9]

Gary Arnold at the Washington Post had this to say: "In Outland, writer-director Peter Hyams has adapted the plot of High Noon to an intriguing sci-fi environment—a huge titanium mine located on Io, a volcanic moon of Jupiter. But the conventions that worked for High Noon break down in the high-tech atmosphere of Outland and the story seems trite and dinky".^[4]

In the Boston Globe, Michael Blowen was more favorable: "The parallels between Outland and Fred Zinneman's 1952 western High Noon are apparent. Writer-director Peter Hyams has transported the characters and motifs from the dusty frontier town of Gary Cooper to the frontiers of space. While Hyams keeps the story barreling along, he also develops a corollary anti-capitalist theme. Io is an outpost for exploitation, and it doesn't make any difference whether the miners are digging gold in the Colorado hills or titanium on Jupiter's moon, the greed of the corporate class will prevail. Outland marks the return of the classic western hero in a space helmet. His outfit has changed and his environment has expanded but he's still the same. When Connery stares down the barrel of that shotgun, you'd better smile".^[5]

Desmond Ryan at the Philadelphia Inquirer called it: "A brilliant sci-fi Western. In many ways, Hyams has made a film that is more frightening than Alien, because he surmises that space will change us very little and the real monsters we are liable to encounter will be in the next space suit.^[10]

Home media

DVD release

Outland was released on DVD on November 18, 1997. It was presented in both letterbox widescreen and full screen on a double sided disc with the soundtrack remastered in Dolby 5.1 surround sound. The Region 1 DVD is not enhanced for widescreen televisions. A "making of" featurette, cast and credit notes, plus a theatrical trailer are included as special features on the disc. The film was released on DVD in the UK (Region 2) in 1998. This version is anamorphically enhanced for widescreen televisions, as is the Region 4 release.

Blu-ray release

Outland was released on Blu-ray Disc on July 10, 2012. The film is presented in an aspect ratio of 2.40:1 with an English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround sound mix. The disc also features a brand new commentary audio-track with director Peter Hyams.

Other formats

Outland was first released for home video on VHS, Beta, and V2000 videotape formats in November 1982.^[11] The film had many re-issues on VHS and between 1982 and 1998, including a widescreen NTSC VHS on January 7, 1997.^[12] Home Videodisc releases were the CED disc in August 1983^[13] and the LD on August 28, 1991.

Pay Television (North American)

Outland debuted on Pay-TV in the U.S. in September 1982 on the HBO and Showtime channels.^[14][15] In Canada, the film was first shown in October 1983 on Superchannel.^[16] The film was broadcast uncut, commercial-free, and periodically over several months, in both countries.^[17] These Pay-TV broadcasts of Outland used the same source as the initial NTSC home video release.

Network Television (North American)

The Network-TV premiere for Outland was on May 19, 1984 via CBS in the U.S. and was simulcasted on CTV in Canada.^[18][19] This re-edited version of the film, broadcast exclusively on these networks, utilized cut footage not seen in the theatrical/home-video version. One notable example is an extended scene showing a more lengthy exit from the station for O'Niel and also Ballard suited-up exiting, near the end of the film. These cutting-room-floor scenes were made available for the network to extend parts of the film; which, in turn, allowed them to sell more commercial time-slots to advertisers. The inclusion of left-over footage (if made available) was common practice during the 1970s to 1980s, for network film premieres and subsequent licensed broadcasts. This version was labeled "edited for television" to comply with U.S. network television censorship standards of the time and never released to home video.

Adaptations

• A comic strip adaptation of Outland illustrated by Jim Steranko appeared in Heavy Metal magazine in the June 1981 to October 1981, and January 1982 issues.^[20]
• A novelization of Outland written by Alan Dean Foster was published by Warner Books in March 1981.
• A large-format photo-novel titled - Outland: The Movie Novel: Edited by Richard J. Anobile From the screenplay by Peter Hayms was published by Grand Central Publishing in 1981.
• A song based on Outland called "High Moon" was written by Star One (A Side project of Ayreon composer Arjen Lucassen) for the Space Metal album.

Remake

On August 18, 2009, studio Warner Brothers announced that director Michael Davis had been hired to direct a remake of the film from a script by Chad St. John. No casting or start date information was announced.^[21][22]

References

External links

• Models and sets of the film
• Outland at the Internet Movie Database
• Outland at Rotten Tomatoes
• Outland at allmovie