Con-Am 27 is a mining facility on Io, one of Jupiter’s largest moons. Six hundred million miles away, the gravity there is one sixth of what it is on Earth, and there is no breathable atmosphere. The work is hard, the bonuses big and productivity is breaking all records. But people are dying. Every so often they just snap. The secret? A drug that can keep its miners working days on end, but over time results in burn-out and psychosis. When new Marshall William O’Niel (Sean Connery) investigates, he uncovers a deadly conspiracy and finds his life under threat from a company that will stop at nothing to keep him quiet.
A chillingly prophetic depiction of corporate greed and exploitation with muscular direction from Hyams, and a stellar performance from Connery, Outland arrives on 4K UHD in a brand new restoration that is out of this world.
What We Thought:
Outland is a film I haven’t seen in decades. It’s a solid, underappreciated science fiction flick starring Sean Connery and Peter Boyle that relies on Western movie telling tropes, but in a good way. It’s jokingly been referred to as High Moon because of its storyline.
Connery plays a space Marshall sent to a moon of a Jupiter to keep an eye on the workers and those living there. There’s drinking, drugs, prostitution and more, everything you expect from a Western, but set in space. Connery’s wife and child don’t want to be there anymore and leave him. When accidents start happening too often, he soon discovers there’s a drug going around making people lose their minds and that one man (Peter Boyle) might be the cause of it. Boyle calls in reinforcements to take care of the Marshall so Connery needs to stand his ground and stop the men.
The film is from the early 1980s and both Connery and Boyle are great. Connery was still very much leading man material at this point and Boyle was always a great actor whether it was a character role, supporting role or lead. Both men are believable and hold the film together. Frances Sternhagen is also great as the doctor who discovers the drugs and who helps Connery take on the bad guys.
What I like about watching older sci-fi is seeing what the filmmakers thought the future would look like. This film is from 1981 and seeing their future space travel concepts makes me laugh. Connery communicates with typewriter type buttons and screens that looked outdated a decade later. They couldn’t even imagine touchscreens and digital displays. He still uses normal looking guns probably for the Western look, but there aren’t any laser guns or something like that. The spacesuits are pretty cool looking though and the special effect of the first guy exploding (played by John Ratzenberger) is cool too. There are many things older sci-fi gets right (like video calling) and many things they get so wrong (analog equipment). It’s always fun seeing what they thought the future would be like.
Outland isn’t sci-fi greatness, but because of Connery and Boyle it’s highly watchable. It really is just a Western in space which is great for me because I grew up on Westerns. Connery is one of film’s greatest leading men especially in action flicks so he makes the film much more entertaining than it should be. The 4K looks great and sounds great and it’s probably a film collectors will enjoy picking up.
Bonus Features:
- 4K ULTRA HD LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS
- Brand new 4K restoration from the original 35mm camera negative by Arrow Films
- 4K (2160p) UHD Blu-ray™ presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible)
- Original lossless stereo 2.0 and DTS-HD MA 5.1 surround audio options
- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- Archive audio commentary by writer-director Peter Hyams
- Brand new audio commentary by film critic Chris Alexander
- A Corridor of Accidents, a newly filmed interview with writer-director Peter Hyams
- Outlandish, a newly filmed interview with director of photography Stephen Goldblatt
- Introvision: William Mesa on Outland, a newly filmed interview with visual effects artist William Mesa
- No Place for Heroes, a brand new appreciation by film scholar Josh Nelson
- Hollywoodland Outland, a brand new visual essay by film historian Howard S. Berger
- Theatrical trailer
- Image gallery
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Pye Parr
- Double-sided foldout poster featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Pye Parr
- Illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing by film critics Priscilla Page and Brandon Streussnig
The Nerds Templar 