- 1 hour ago
Released in 1992, Fortress is a dark and intense sci-fi thriller that slipped under the radar for many viewers.
Set in a dystopian future, the film explores brutal prison technology, total surveillance, and the terrifying cost of control.
In this video, we break down why Fortress (1992) deserves a second look — and how it became one of the most underrated sci-fi movies of its era.
Subscribe to watchmojo.world for more forgotten movies, sci-fi breakdowns, and cult film retrospectives.
Set in a dystopian future, the film explores brutal prison technology, total surveillance, and the terrifying cost of control.
In this video, we break down why Fortress (1992) deserves a second look — and how it became one of the most underrated sci-fi movies of its era.
Subscribe to watchmojo.world for more forgotten movies, sci-fi breakdowns, and cult film retrospectives.
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Short filmTranscript
00:00When I'm asked to make recommendations, or even throw out my favorite horror directors,
00:04he usually starts with John Carpenter and his litany of hits, but it also inevitably leads
00:09to Wes Craven with stuff like People Under the Stairs or Serpent and the Rainbow.
00:14Seeing those, I'll throw out a Martin or The Crazies from George Romero, or even Life
00:19Force and The Fun House from Tobey Hooper.
00:21Those are the big-name guns, though, that everyone knows.
00:24Stuart Gordon may be primarily known for his Tour de Force HP Lovecraft adaptations reanimating
00:29in From Beyond, but the guy was a hell of a talent with a roster not unlike those previously
00:34mentioned Mount Rushmore directors in terms of number of films that fall in that eminently
00:39rewatchable category.
00:41We've given him love for some of his other horror outputs like Castle Freak, The Pit and
00:45the Pendulum, and Dolls, but today I wanted to shout out one of his excursions into sci-fi.
00:51Space truckers and robot jocks are fun, but Fortress sits in a weird spot of being really
00:56successful, but also not discussed nearly enough.
01:00Let's take a look at this under-discussed movie from an under-discussed director in 1992's
01:06Fortress.
01:07The movie itself has an interesting backstory and survived two things that usually spells
01:12doom for a movie.
01:14Having a metric crap-ton of writers and the loss of a big star.
01:18I don't just mean a big star either, but one of the biggest ever, especially in the time
01:22this movie was being made.
01:24It starts with going back to 1985 and Stuart and Gordon's most famous movie, Reanimator.
01:30That first unlucky stiff that gets to test out the bright neon green reanimation serum is
01:35a mountain of a man named Peter Kent.
01:37While the name might not ring a bell or even the way he looks, you've seen him before.
01:42That's because he was the main body double for the Austrian oak himself, Arnold Schwarzenegger.
01:48Kent got Arnie to watch the movie and he loved it so much that he screened it in his own
01:52home for a group of people, which included producer John Davis who had the rights and
01:56script for Fortress.
01:59The kindergarten cop would eventually drop out and Christopher Lambert would step in,
02:03but with that change the budget would drop from $70 million to $15 million.
02:07But with the right director in place, that's no problem and clearly Gordon was the right
02:11director.
02:12On a related note, Gordon was originally supposed to direct the 93 version of Body Snatchers that
02:17later went to Abel Ferreira, but was chosen by Arnold who ended up not even making
02:22the movie.
02:23Thanks Arnold.
02:24No problemo.
02:25Now on to that other thing.
02:27That script would be credited to a total of four people that worked on the story and screenplay,
02:32and none of them really have much else on their resume.
02:35Troy Neighbors only has today's movie in its sequel, Steven Feinberg was the same but with
02:39one additional movie after, David Venable went to TV right after this, and Terry Curtis did
02:44the same but had a few episodes of Stargate and Diagnosis Murderer on his resume after.
02:50The script these guys ended up with is a fun mix of, uh, sci-fi dystopia that also comments
02:55on the prison system and pulls some of the best parts of classic prison movies like Star
03:00Like 17, Lock Up, and even The Longest Yard.
03:04In the far off future, at least for 1992 of 2017, there are rules for families where you
03:10can only have one child or face prison time in the now-dictatorship-run United States.
03:23John Brennick and his wife are attempting to flee into Canada, which is a free state that
03:28has no laws against procreation.
03:30Even though the Brennicks lost their first child, the second pregnancy is forbidden and
03:34they are arrested at the border after trying to conceal the pregnancy with a magnet vest.
03:38They are both sent to The Fortress, which is a privately-run, inescapable penitentiary
03:43that also experiments on its inhabitants.
03:46The rest of the story follows John's quest to get his wife and get them out.
03:50Replacing Arnold Schwarzenegger with someone like Christopher Lambert may seem like a death
03:54knell for your movie, but at the time, he was still riding high.
03:58Lambert was a superstar in the early 80s internationally and became known to US audiences with his portrayal
04:04of Connor McCloud in Highlander in 1986.
04:07He would ride that wave with appearances in sequels in 1991, 1994, and 2000 with other
04:13fun movies like The Sicilian in 1987 and Gunman in 1993.
04:18For a slightly younger generation, he would also be cast as our Raiden in the first Mortal
04:23Kombat movie and I think he has yet to be bettered on screen.
04:26He gives his typically great performance here and while he wasn't a martial arts star,
04:31I lump him in with the best of Van Damme or Seagal, even if he's the best actor of the
04:35three.
04:36The cast that he leads is also full of fun characters like Kurtwood Smith, Clifton Collins, Tom Towles,
04:42Vernon Wells, and the always great Jeffrey Combs.
04:46Frequent collaborator and, you know, wife of Stuart Gordon, Carolyn Purdy Gordon would show
04:50up as the computer voice and Lori Lachlan in her only notable appearance plays Karen Brennick.
04:56Edward Smith, who stepped in for Richard E. Grant after the actor was considered first,
05:00plays a villain here and while he's not as good as his Robocop baddie, he's fun as the
05:05prison director named Poe, who is later revealed to be a cyborg and in love with Brennick's
05:10wife.
05:11He's had an amazing career and I'll also shout out his makeup-heavy role in Star Trek
05:156.
05:16Tom Towles is still chilling in Henry Portrait of a Serial Killer and Vernon Wells will forever
05:20be associated with the Road Warrior in Commando, but I grew up with his more funny and creative
05:25roles in Weird Science and Inner Space.
05:27The star of the movie, as he usually is with his constant scene-stealing, is Jeffrey Combs
05:33as D-Day.
05:34I've been lucky enough to talk about him in many of his most famous roles, but check
05:38him out in 2012's Would You Rather for an Underseen Gem.
05:41The cast elevates the boilerplate story and lets them play in a playground that is much more
05:46confined than they make it feel.
05:48They build a rapport and are easy to root for as they try for their escape.
05:52Interestingly enough, according to some sources, a good chunk of filming took place in an actual
05:56prison where the cast and crew signed waivers and were given protective clothing.
06:01This actually fits the vibe as Gordon was drawn to the production when he wanted to point
06:06out how the U.S. prison system seemed to have shifted from rehabilitation to punishment
06:10and that certainly comes across on screen.
06:13The camaraderie may come to no one's surprise as the typical posturing of the existing prisoners
06:18on John's arrival until he proves himself is typical, but the actors and characters bond
06:23well.
06:24Fight and action scenes included Lambert insisting on doing his own stunts, which created some
06:29tension with Gordon.
06:31But Lambert was also hired on as a consultant, so he had a modicum of power to metaphorically
06:36flex in the decision-making process.
06:39While the movie takes a lot of cues from classic prison movies with its tropes, it's also hard
06:44sci-fi with some horror thrown into boot.
06:47The premise alone is sci-fi enough with its restrictions on childbirth, but then you also
06:52get the small devices inserted into the prisoners to either give them enough pain to stop what
06:56they're doing or just execute them, as well as Poe being a cyborg.
07:00And we also find out that any child born in the prison is also turned into one of the
07:04cyborg guards.
07:06There's also this mind-wipe technology that makes you into a zombie-like state, and you
07:10can also be used as one of the cyborg guards in the prison, if you're lucky.
07:15A lot of the dystopian stuff lends itself well to the horror side of things, too.
07:19The gore and effects stand out nicely for Fortress.
07:22I remember watching this a ton on TV when I was growing up, so I never saw the whole
07:26thing, but the movie doesn't shy away from its R rating.
07:29In addition to the sex and nudity that's sprinkled in, either in real-time or dreams
07:33that the inmates are forbidden from having, nearly every dangerous interaction has some
07:38blood and gore to accompany it.
07:40From wonderfully exploding squibs as a result of gunfire, to the gory android parts that
07:46we see from Poe and the other guards, to my favorite, which is the use of the internal
07:49combustion device.
07:52We see what it's capable of early on when a new fish, something that happens eerily
07:55similar a couple years later in Shawshank Redemption, can't take being in prison and
08:00tries to get out.
08:01He's at first administered just some pain to put him back in line, but eventually is
08:04killed off with a lethal pop.
08:08The other standout gore centerpiece is when Vern Wells' Maddox and Brennick have their
08:12big fight, and when Brennick won't kill Maddox, the prison blows a huge hole in his midsection.
08:18Wells looks down and touches the wound before having his lifeless body falled
08:21down the main shaft of the prison.
08:23Brennick is of course the only man to come back from that mind wipe thing we talked about
08:27earlier through the power of love and determination, and the escape planning and execution is just
08:32a great time.
08:34The 95 minute run time moves by really quickly, and the movie is just a blast.
08:38I know there are other fans out there, and I'm happy to give it a shout out.
08:42The movie did shockingly well too, especially internationally, with the total box office adding
08:47up to nearly $65 million on that $15 million budget.
08:52The movie was so big that a TV series and sequel were planned to follow the two, well, three
08:58with the baby, survivors of the first movie.
09:00This later fell off due to lack of critical praise.
09:03Can you imagine a studio not making a sequel due to critic response, even if it was profitable?
09:09Eventually though, it was picked up and turned into a straight to video sequel called Fortress
09:132 Reentry.
09:15That sequel would be released, like I said, straight to video, and while I haven't seen it, I'm
09:19not sure it's necessary.
09:22Another terrible aspect of this is somehow, this movie has not been picked up yet by Arrow,
09:28Game Factory, or one of the other big physical media companies, and only a sometimes available
09:33DVD and barebones Blu-ray that's out of print exists for us.
09:38While you can still watch it for free on our friends at Tubi, Fortress deserves a big glossy
09:42Blu-ray or 4K.
09:45Funny enough, Arnold would eventually go on to make a fun prison-themed movie with his one-time
09:50rival Stallone in Escape Plan, but who knows what would have happened had he stuck with Fortress.
09:56While that never came to be, I am forever grateful to have this action, sci-fi, borderline exploitation
10:01flick from one of our best horror directors in a hell of a fun cast.
10:06Let me know what you think of Fortress, and remember, dreams are forbidden.
10:26Rest of all the horrific bible.
10:28Shut up!
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