Synopsis
An honest marshal in a corrupt mining colony on Io, Jupiter's sunless third moon, is determined to confront a violent drug ring even though it may cost him his life. After his wife angrily deserts him, he waits alone for the arrival of killers hired by the company to eliminate him.
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Cast
- Sean ConneryMarshal William T. O'Niel
- Peter BoyleMark Sheppard
- Frances SternhagenDr. Lazarus
- James B. SikkingSgt. Montone
- Kika MarkhamCarol O'Niel
- Clarke PetersSgt. Ballard
- Steven BerkoffSagan
- John RatzenbergerTarlow
- Nicholas BarnesPaul O'Niel
- Manning RedwoodLowell
Recommendations
- 80
Empire
This gritty sci-fi is undeservedly neglected and underrated. - 70
Variety
While there are several mile-wide plot holes and one key under-developed main character, the film emerges as a tight, intriguing old-fashioned drama that gives audiences a hero worth rooting for. - 70
The New York Times
Outland is what most people mean when they talk about good escapist entertainment. It won't enlarge one's perceptions of life by a single millimeter, but neither does it make one feel like an idiot for enjoying it so much. - 50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Even without a chronological point of reference, Outland has an intriguingly realistic look. Unfortunately, both the realism and the intrigue begin and end with the sets. [25 May 1981] - 50
The New Yorker
Peter Hyams, who directed, knows how to stage chases and fights. But he also wrote this script, which deadens everything and doesn’t even make sense. - 50
Newsweek
It doesn't help matters that Connery has been given a cardboard wife and child who--fed up with dingy space colonies-abandon him early on. They're ingredients, not characters. Once again, Hollywood's superlative technology has been squandered on an undernourished screenplay. [01 June 1981, p.91] - 50
TV Guide Magazine
Connery and Boyle are fine, but the wholesale lifting of High Noon's plot (there's even an on-screen digital readout periodically displayed, counting down the minutes until the big confrontation) certainly undermines interest. - 40
Time Out
Because both dialogue and direction are none too exciting, one's tired eyes wander endlessly over the space base sets, where there has been an overuse of that potent sci-fi movie convention which conveys 'realism' by showing that life on the outer limits will be as dingy and badly lit as a suburban subway, with all the usual vices.
