Outland 1981 Directed by: Peter Hyams Cast: Sean Connery, Peter Boyle, Frances Sternhagen, James Sikkin, Kika Markham

Written by: Matt Booth August 6,2007

Like many of you, I enjoy a little Sci-Fi action some of the time and the classic movie "Outland" fills the bill.

Sean Connery stars, as Marshall William O’Neil, a Federal Marshall on a fictional mining colony located on IO, which is Jupiter's inner most moon. Connery's character is like a Wyatt Earp in space. He and his family are assigned to Con-Am 27 a mining colony known for its high production levels, but also a series of mysterious deaths.  Something is causing the miners to freak out and commit suicide, so O’Niel decides to get to the bottom of the mystery. This does not go over well with Sheppard, the mining colonies manager played with kind of a diabolical smirkness by the late Peter Boyle.

Sheppard is only concerned with the mines Productivity numbers and manages with the philosophy  " Work Hard and Play Hard", so a few casualties every so often does not bother him, so long as everyone gets PAID.

However, O’Neil won't play along at any price $$, so a good guy (Connery), bad guy (Boyle) battle ensues. Marshall O’Neil discovers with the help of the colony doctor Lazarus, played by Frances Sternhagen (Cliff's Mom from Cheers) that the reason the miners work so hard, is because they are being drugged with an illegal Amphetamine? O’Niel manages to cut off the source of the drugs and put the drug dealers in jail. Sheppard with the endorsement of the home office, so to speak, arranges for a couple of assassins to come to the colony to Kill Marshall O’Niel.  All hell breaks loose from here, with O’Niel using the colonies surveillance system to plan his escape and to get the bad guys.

This movie has some neat special effects, and the movie set created effectively creates what it must be like on a dreary moon breathing manufactured Air all the time. Sean Connery was the perfect choice for his role. He seems to enjoy the character and I'll bet they had fun making this movie. James B Sikking is good as a Deputy who befriends O’Niel, even though he has looked the other way in past. Another coal is thrown into O’Niel’s fire, when his wife and son decide to head back to earth, leaving him alone on the colony.

There are a few gruesome death scenes, so you may not want the younger members of the family to view this film, but I give the rest of you:

Spend some quality time in space!