Outland (1981)

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Plot Summary

The face of space justice.

William T. O'Niel (Sean Connery) has spent his life traveling from one outpost to another acting as a law enforcement officer. His son has never seen Earth, and his wife is tired of living on the outskirts of humanity. When O'Niel is sent on a one year assignment to Io, his wife leaves him, saying that although she still loves him, she cannot live that kind of life anymore. O'Niel stays, and discovers that there is a large number of suicides on the mining colony. Suspicious, he begins to investigate, and uncovers a drug trafficking ring that provides the workers with performance-enhancing drugs. Those drugs, however, begin to negatively affect the user, eventually causing the suicides. O'Niel realizes that the drugs are allowed by higher ups in the company, despite the resulting casualties, and takes it upon himself to break the conspiracy. However, none of the other law enforcement officers will support him, as they are too afraid of the influence of the company, and O'Niel finds himself preparing for a fight against assassins sent to get rid of him.

Similarities with High Noon

Outland is essentially a direct remake of High Noon, but with a few differences, the biggest one being that it is set in space. Both movies focus on a marshal trying to convince others to help him while he waits for the arrival of three criminals that are planning to kill him. The marshal in both is totally abandoned by everyone in town, including their respective wives, although the reasons why are slightly different. Also, both movies are set in outposts away from the rest of civilization, although in High Noon it is an actual town, not a mining facility.

Special Effects and Visual Style

Because Outland is set in space, a great deal of effort was put into achieving the proper visual style. It was the first film to use Introvision, a filming technique which allowed actors to be placed in front of the elaborate backgrounds of a moon-based mining facility. This method of Front Projection replaced the older use of bluescreen technology, but was in turn eventually replaced by digital effects.

The visual appearance is in many ways similar to that of the Alien, as the interiors of the buildings have a sparse, practical appearance with similar lighting patterns. This 'Space Trucker' aesthetic is one that has been used in many sci-fi films since. The director of Outland, Peter Hyams, also directed the film 2010, another movie set in space, and both films share many visual similarities in the architectural designs of the ships, both interior and exterior.