Review of OUTLAND

OUTLAND

1981

The titanium mine on Io, one of Jupiter's moons, is a harsh and difficult place. Federal Marshal WILLIAM O'NEIL (Sean Connery) has just been assigned to that hellhole because he has a big mouth and speaks what his superiors want unsaid. The manager of the mine, MARK SHEPHARD, welcomes O'Neal with a speech in which he brags that his miners work hard and production is high, so they can also play hard.

There is a series of strange accidents. One man hallucinates spiders on his space suit, rips it open, and his insides explode in the vacuum.  Another man attacks one of the camp's prostitutes and threatens to kill her. Security forces kill him instead. O'Neil is suspicious. He consults with the camp's doctor. MARIAN LAZARUS, an acerbic wretch who never ever shows any emotion, sentimentality or caring. Usually. She agrees to help him, searches the medical records, and discovers that dozens of similar violent deaths have occurred in the past few years. Furthermore, all of the bodies were shipped off from Io without autopsies.

Unfortunately, CAROL O'NEIL, William's wife, has gotten the courage to send him a video message saying she was leaving Io to take their son, PAUL to Earth where he can live a normal life. She begs O'Neil to join her, but he has to finish his work in the mining colony.

O'Neil goes to one of the corpses still on Io, sticks a needle in its neck to extract blood, and finds a dangerous stimulant. After more digging, he finds a whole cache of the stimulant. This is what causes the high production of the mine and also the deaths. Shepard, the manager, must be responsible. O'Neil tells him he's uncovered the secret and intends to bring Shepard down. Shepard tells O'Neil he's a dead man, and arranges for assassins to come to Io to murder O'Neil. O'Neil asks the miners if anyone will help him, but they are afraid.

Oy vay.

This should be a wonderful workout film. It has an exotic setting, emotional complications, violent fights, sometimes to the death, mystery, betrayal, likeable characters, etc, etc. But, for me at least, there was no tension. Sean Connery does die in some of his films, but I never got the feeling he could in this one. Too many factors--like people about to kill themselves, Carols announcement that she's leaving, the betrayal and, of course, O'Neil's eventual victory--are all predictable. It will get your pulse up to a jog, so I'll give it +++, but I had hoped for better.