Outland

Outland
original film poster
Directed by	Peter Hyams
Produced by	Richard A. Roth The Ladd Company (company)
Written by	Peter Hyams
Starring	Sean Connery Peter Boyle Frances Sternhagen James Sikking Kika Markham Clarke Peters Steven Berkoff
Music by	Jerry Goldsmith
Cinematography	Stephen Goldblatt
Editing by	Stuart Baird
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release date(s)	May 22, 1981 (U.S. release)
Running time	109 minutes
Language	English
Budget	$16,000,000 (estimated)[1]
Gross revenue	$17,374,595 (USA)[1] $20,000,000 (USA)[2]

Outland is an 1981 science fiction film written and directed by Peter Hyams.

Set on Jupiter's moon Io, it has been described as a space Western,^[3] that is, a Western set in the future, and indeed bears obvious thematic resemblances to High Noon.^[4][5]

The movie stars Sean Connery as Marshal William T. O'Niel, and Peter Boyle as the chief antagonist, Sheppard. Kika Markham plays O'Niel's wife Carol, and Frances Sternhagen plays O'Niel's sole ally, Dr. Lazarus.

Plot summary

The film's protagonist, Federal Marshal O'Niel, is assigned to a one-year tour of duty in Con Am 27, a titanium ore mining outpost on Jupiter's moon Io. When the Marshal investigates the violent deaths of miners he discovers that they have a common factor: the use of a dangerous amphetamine-type drug called "polydichloric euthimal" which enormously increases the miner's productivity but eventually causes psychosis (shown briefly in two grisly incidents). As a result, there has been a large increase in such deaths.

O'Niel follows the trail of the dealers which leads to the outpost's General Manager, Sheppard, who has been bribing O'Niel's deputy Montone to turn a blind eye to the shipping and sale of the drug. O'Niel's wife, frustrated that he considers justice more important than his family, leaves him a message pleading with him to return with her to Earth.

O'Niel confronts Sheppard, but the administrator smugly informs him that nobody else wants the drug shipments stopped; production is up, the workers are happy, the corporate owners (Consolidated Amalgamated) are also happy, therefore Sheppard is happy. O'Niel vows to expose the entire scheme and he subsequently finds Montone hanging dead in his closet, murdered by a dealer. However, following a second confrontation, Sheppard requests two assassins from his "contact" who are brought in on the next shuttle flight to murder O'Niel.

With the sole assistance of the outpost's doctor, Lazarus, O'Niel engages in a desperate kill-or-be-killed chase through the colony before dispatching the assassins.

Production

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]

Outland was the first motion picture to use IntroVision,^[6] a variation on Front Projection that allows foreground, midground 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.

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]

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 anticapitalist 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]

And 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.^[7]

DVD release

Outland was released on DVD on November 18, 1997. It was presented in both letterbox widescreen and full screen^{[disambiguation needed]} on a double sided disc with the soundtrack remastered in Dolby 5.1 surround sound. Unfortunately for fans, the picture quality of the Region 1 DVD is somewhat lacking in key features and not enhanced for widescreen televisions.

Other formats

Outland was previously released on CED disc in 1983, Laserdisc on August 28, 1991, and VHS on January 7, 1997.

Adaptations

• A comic strip adaptation of Outland illustrated by Jim Steranko appeared in Heavy Metal magazine in the June 1981, October 1981, and January 1982 issues.^[8]
• A novelization of Outland written by Alan Dean Foster was published by Warner Books in March 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.^[9][10]

Notes

External links

• Models and sets of the film
• Outland at the Internet Movie Database
• Outland at Allmovie