Outland (1981)
Taking its cue from the dirt under the finger nails working class astronaut slaving away for a big corporation,Outland (1981) borrows a lot from the first Alien movie with its industrial setting and disgruntled workforce.Federal Marshal William O'Niel (Sean Connery) is a new Marshall on mining colony run by Conglomerates Amalgamated,the running of which is over seen by manager Mark Sheppard (Peter Boyle). When a string of what looks like suicides start happening, Marshal William O'Niel uncovers an organised drug trafficking operation that is selling the drugs to the workforce to try and get there productivity up.Unfortunately the drug has some major psychotic side effects that send its users over the top and eventually mental.Federal Marshal William O'Niel then finds out that the whole drug operation is run by Mark Sheppard (Peter Boyle) ,which eventually leads to a showdown between the Marshal and a group of hired killers. Its no secret that Peter Hymams wanted to make a western,so combining High Noon with a bleak industrial sci-fi landscape make for a rather interesting concept and one of the more interesting science fiction films of the 1980's. Sean Connery as Marshal William T. O'Niel is his usual reliable good self,playing the lone law-man up against the odds.In fact he gives a fairly unstated performance,leaving his bond persona behind and actually playing a three dimensional character. Peter Boyle of course is marvellous as the head bad guy,although he doesn't get that much screen time his character in the film is always omni present.Outland has a nice gritty atmosphere to it,and the feel and the design of the mining colony creates a realistic setting.Of course one of the reasons I fondly remember the film was for its splattery moments,head explosions,gunshots and the perils of what can happen when decompression takes its toll.Like Alien id say that Outland (1981) has had its influences over the years,Event Horizon and even the recent Moon directed by Duncan Jones share similarities and themes,that said Outland is still a good old fashioned science fiction thriller.
Marshal William T. O'Neil:
Because... maybe they are right. They sent me here to this pile of shit because they think I belong here. I want to find out if... well if they're right. There's a whole machine that works because everybody does what they are supposed to. And I found out... I was supposed to be something I didn't like. That's what's in the program. That's my rotten little part in the rotten machine. I don't like it. So I'm going to find out if they're right. 20392_7.jpg