Outland (1981)

Apart from the fact that there isn't an alien in Peter Hyam's Outland, this may as well be Ridley Scott's Alien (1979) made by Luc Besson. The opening credits begin with a very Alien like score, followed by the slow reveal of the film's title in the background, a la Alien, before we're introduced to a titanium ore mining outpost on Io, one of Jupiter's moons. Federal Marshall William O'Niel has been assigned to a tour of duty at the outpost, one in a long line of jobs away from Earth, something that his wife has become increasingly resentful about. Early on, through video messages we learn that she's taken their son back to the Jupiter space station to await return to Earth, a home that their son has never experienced. Despite her pleas for William to join them, he stays; and the reason for doing so is Outland's plot. After a few mysterious deaths at the outpost, he uncovers a drug-smuggling conspiracy and feels that by staying on to see the job through till the end, he will finally have achieved some sort of purpose. It's no secret that Outland is fundamentally a remake of High Noon (1952) in space, and if you add to it the quite obvious influences from Alien that came two years prior, you'd be forgiven in thinking that this is something to avoid like the plague. Surprisingly, Outland fails to fall into any of the holes you might expect, and Sean Connery's gruff presence as O'Niel carries the film, as does his tough love relationship with the outpost's doctor (Francis Sternhagen). The production design by Philip Harrison is impressive (he also worked on Never Say Never Again in 1983, another Connery vehicle) and does a very decent job of convincing you that you are indeed watching something play out on a moon of Jupiter. As the film races towards it's highly predictable finale, it would take a real cynic to argue that there's not much to enjoy along the way, and although you might well be better off watching the great Fred Zinnemann's High Noon, there's certainly not a huge amount wrong with spending a couple of hours in the presence of Sean Connery as he basks (or fights) in the shadow of Jupiter. 6.9/10