Fortress

Fortress (1992)

Image From IMDB

A sci-fi prison movie staring Highlander, a perverted voyeuristic Kurtwood Smith, Jeffery Combs going full Jeffery Combs, and all being directed by legendary cult director Stuart Gordon who’s trying to stretch a massively cut budget, i’m definitely in. There’s probably a fair bit wrong with Fortress, but i’m going to ignore all of that and just talk about the stuff I liked, which is a lot.

Fortress is set in the distant future of 2017 (did I write that same sentence recently for another Lambert movie?) when the human race has dipped into a dystopia and having more than one child is illegal, even if your kid died at birth, as was the case with Brennick (Lambert) and his wife Karen (Loryn Locklin) After failing to escape the country (thanks to Karen being an idiot) in order to keep the kid both are locked away in a maximum security sci-fi prison known as The Fortress. But, of course, as this is a prison movie, they’re planning to break out of the unescapable prison.

Everything about this world seems grim and nasty, and all that is really shown within the walls of the prison. There’s no prison guards because everyone has a device inside them that can explode or cause a great deal of pain if they literally step out of line. The prisoners aren’t allowed to dream. They’re all being watched by A.I and androids. The prison is deep underground and the prisoners have no rights. The prison profits off the prisoners. The cells are overcrowded. They can be brainwashed and turned into zombies on a whim. How anyone lasts more than a day in the Fortress is beyond me.

The fights are all great. Super violent and bloody as you’d expect from Gordon. The exploding stomachs never get old. The androids absolutely shot to kill. If they haven’t put a hundred bullets in you they’re not doing their job. I really do love the world building in this one. The Fortress really does feel like some futuristic dystopian nightmare prison.

Alongside the super cool setting and great genre are the performances. Christopher Lambert once again plays Christopher Lambert and I know his acting isn’t great, but there’s got to be a reason I like so many of his movies. Kurtwood Smith is awesome as always, and the same can be said for Jeffery Combs. I love both those guys and will watch pretty much anything they’re in. Clifton Collins Jr… not so much.

I did also like the simple format of everyone in the cell being enemies to begin with but slowly teaming up as the possibility of escaping became more of a reality. Can’t really go wrong with that rag-tag format. I also liked the arc of Kurtwood’s prison director Poe trying to steal Karen from Brennick. Such a dick move, which I can always appreciate in these type of films.

Fortress is shlock, but it’s a lot of fun. Maybe not in a comedy action sense. but more just the word building and griminess of everything. It’s a movie with a lot of ideas and a limited budget to show them, and I think it goes above and beyond its means. I like the concept, the characters, and the world. It’s the kind of sci-fi from that period that I really enjoy.