Outland

Day 134 - 5/14/09 - Movie #133

BEFORE: Enough animation for a while - this Sean Connery film fits with my theme, because I've heard it described as "High Noon" in space (which reminds me to add "High Noon" to my want list...) Connery plays the new sheriff in a mining town - but the town is on Io, a moon of Jupiter.

THE PLOT: In the distant future, a police marshal stationed at a remote mining colony uncovers a drug-smuggling conspiracy, and gets no help from the populace when he later finds himself marked for murder.

AFTER: It's more like a mystery as Connery tries to figure out who's smuggling contraband onto the space station. The other crime taking place is that Frances Sternhagen nearly steals the movie, playing a world-weary but sassy doctor/coroner...

Since this movie was made in 1981, the vision of the future is a little off - apparently in the future everyone will be using Commodore 64 computers again. Plus, it seems like they can put a man on the moon (of Jupiter) but they can't seem to improve weapons technology beyond the basic shotgun. What, no lasers?

In the 2nd part of the film, I can really see the references to "High Noon" - when the gang of thugs is arriving on the next space shuttle (train) and a big digital readout shows the time until their arrival (standing in for the big clock tower in a Western town).

Bonus for "Cheers" fans - in addition to Frances Sternhagen, who played Cliff Clavin's mother, John Ratzenberger himself has a small role. Bonus for "Star Wars" fans - in addition to Ratzenberger, who had a small role in "The Empire Strikes Back", there's also an appearance by Angus MacInnes, who played Gold Leader in the Death Star battle in "A New Hope".

RATING: 6 out of 10 space-suits