Credits
Distributed by
Dimension Films (North America and Japan; through Miramax Films)[1]
Roadshow Film Distributors (Australia)
Columbia TriStar Film Distributors International (International)
Production companies
Davis Entertainment
Village Roadshow Pictures
Directed by
Stuart Gordon
Written by
Troy Neighbors
Steven Feinberg
Produced by
John Davis
John Flock
Starring
Christopher Lambert
Kurtwood Smith
Loryn Locklin
Lincoln Kilpatrick
Clifton Gonzalez Gonzalez
Vernon Wells
Cinematography
David Eggby
Edited by
Tim Wellburn
Music by
Frédéric Talgorn
Synopsis
In 2017, ex-army officer John Henry Brennick and his wife Karen are attempting to cross the Canada-United States border to Vancouver to have a second child. A strict one-child policy forbids a second pregnancy, even after the loss of the firstborn, so Karen wears a magnetic vest to conceal her pregnancy from the security scanners. A guard notices the vest and raises the alarm. Brennick is caught, believing Karen to have escaped, and sentenced to thirty-one years at the Fortress, a private 30-level maximum security prison run by the Men-Tel Corporation. Brennick and other arriving prisoners are shown a video introduction informing them that they will be used as slave labor to further expand the Fortress as part of the prevailing prison-industrial complex. To maintain discipline, all inmates are implanted with "Intestinators" which induce severe pain or death as a form of physical control and mental conditioning. The prison is run by Director Poe, who oversees Zed-10, a computer that monitors day-to-day activities. The prison is located underground, in the middle of the desert, inside a deep pit that can only be crossed by a retractable bridge, while the prisoners are kept in overcrowded cells secured by laser walls.
Poe, infatuated with Karen, tells her that if she lives with him, he will treat John well and release him from the mind-wipe chamber. She accepts to help John. Poe is revealed to be a cyborg, powerfully enhanced by Men-Tel cybernetics. Four months later, a heavily pregnant Karen manages to use her access to the prison computer in Poe's quarters to help John by restoring him from his mind-wiped state. Karen steals a holographic map and gives it to Abraham to give to John. Meanwhile, D-Day dismantles Maddox's Intestinator and uses a magnetic component to pull out the others' Intestinators.
During their next work shift, John's group puts their Intestinators in an air-duct and stage a brawl, causing Zed to trigger the devices and blow the duct open to prepare their escape. Poe promptly flushes the duct with steam and sends in "Strike Clones", networked cyborgs armed with flamethrowers and machine guns. Stiggs surrenders and gets shot dead, but the rest of the group kill a Strike Clone, steal its weaponry and use it to destroy the remaining Clones. Zed alerts Poe of Karen's actions. He reveals to her that her child, like all Men-Tel-owned babies, will be extracted in a fatal Caesarean to be made a cyborg. Abraham and Karen try to resist but are powerless against the cyborg Poe, and Abraham dies of strangulation. Hijacking one of the gun turrets and using it as an elevator, John's group travels to Zed's control room. John takes Poe hostage and orders him to release Karen. Poe gives the order, but Zed refuses the command, stating that Men-Tel does not engage in any negotiations during hostage situations before a gun turret blasts Poe, blowing him to pieces and leaving John's group with no leverage. Once brought over to the core computer, D-Day hacks into Zed and accesses a powerful feedback virus confiscated at the start of his sentence. He manages to activate the virus after being shot and incapacitated, triggering a complete system crash and causing all automated security to fail, releasing all of the prisoners who promptly escape. John and Gomez rescue Karen, hijack a truck, and they escape to Mexico where Karen enters labour in an abandoned barn and gives birth to her and John's child.
24 фев 2023
