Plot
In the future, Federal Marshal William O'Niel (Connery) is assigned to a tour of duty in a titanium ore mining outpost on the Jovian moon of Io.
Conditions on Io are difficult: gravity is 1/6 that of Earth's with no breathable atmosphere, spacesuits are cumbersome, and miners carry their own air supply. Shifts are long, but significant bonuses are paid. Sheppard (Boyle) boasts that since he took over the running of Io, productivity has broken all previous records.
The film begins with a miner named Tarlow suffering an attack of delirium tremens ripping open his work-suit, resulting in his death by decompression. Later, another miner, Cane, goes outside without his spacesuit, and likewise dies from decompression.
With the assistance of Dr. Lazarus (Sternhagen), O'Niel investigates the deaths. However, another incident happens involving a worker, Sagan, who takes a prostitute hostage and threatens to kill her with a knife. O'Niel attempts to calm the man by the main door, while Montone (Sikking), O'Niel's sergeant, sneaks in via the air duct. Montone kills Sagan with a shotgun before O'Niel can talk with him.
O'Niel and Lazarus discover that all of the deaths had one thing in common, traces of an amphetamine-type drug in the bloodstream, allowing the miners to work continuously for days at a time, until they "burn out" and turn psychotic. O'Niel uncovers a drug distribution ring run by Sheppard and sanctioned by Montone.
Using surveillance cameras, O'Niel finds and captures one of Sheppard's dealers, placing him in isolation. But before he can be questioned the dealer is killed. Montone is then found garroted. O'Niel does find and destroy the latest shipment of drugs which were hidden in a food shipment from the Jupiter space station. When Sheppard finds out what O'Niel did he calls in professional hitmen to kill him. O'Niel is ready, though, since he has been monitoring Sheppard's communications.
At this point, the movie evolves into a High Noon scenario as O'Niel waits as a digital clock countdowns the time for the arrival of a shuttle from the space station on the other side of Jupiter. Knowing the assassins are on their way on the arriving shuttle, and with only Dr. Lazarus willing to help him, as his "last act" O'Niel sends a message to his wife and son, promising them that he will join them on the trip home to Earth.
When the hit men arrive, O'Niel tracks them and ambushes each, killing them one by one. He is then confronted by Sheppard's "inside man", who turns out to be one of his own deputies, Sgt. Ballard. The two fight outside the base until O'Niel pulls Ballard's oxygen hose, suffocating him. O'Niel then confronts the surprised Sheppard in the base recreation bar, knocking him out with one punch. It is implied that Sheppard will now either be murdered by his own accomplices or brought to justice. O'Niel retires and leaves on the shuttle to join his wife and son on the trip back to Earth.
Read more about this topic: Outland (film)
Famous quotes containing the word plot:
“The westward march has stopped, upon the final plains of the Pacific; and now the plot thickens ... with the change, the pause, the settlement, our people draw into closer groups, stand face to face, to know each other and be known.”
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924)
“After I discovered the real life of mothers bore little resemblance to the plot outlined in most of the books and articles I’d read, I started relying on the expert advice of other mothers—especially those with sons a few years older than mine. This great body of knowledge is essentially an oral history, because anyone engaged in motherhood on a daily basis has no time to write an advice book about it.”
—Mary Kay Blakely (20th century)
“The plot was most interesting. It belonged to no particular age, people, or country, and was perhaps the more delightful on that account, as nobody’s previous information could afford the remotest glimmering of what would ever come of it.”
—Charles Dickens (1812–1870)