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The story of
Fortress takes place in drastically overpopulated America of the year 2017, where each woman is allowed only one pregnancy. John Brennick (Christopher Lambert) and his wife Karen (Loryn Locklin) flee to Mexico when she becomes pregnant after the death of their first child. They are captured by border police and sent to the Fortress, a subterranean high-security prison owned by the Men-Tel corporation and operated by "Zed-10," an omnipotent computer system, and a sadistic, genetically "enhanced" warden (Kurtwood Smith) who has nefarious plans involving Brennick's wife and unborn child. Along with his cellmates (including Jeffrey Combs, a favorite of director Stuart Gordon), Brennick plots a breakout, and
Fortress shifts into auto-pilot action mode.
After making his reputation with such audacious horror films as From Beyond and Re-Animator, Stuart Gordon graduated to a bigger budget with Fortress, but his penchant for exploitation remains deliriously intact. While borrowing elements from a variety of better sci-fi movies, Fortress indulges every prison-flick cliché, but does it with such enjoyable B-movie vigor that it qualifies as a bona-fide guilty pleasure (indeed, it deserves to be ranked with James Cameron's original Terminator in terms of its budgetary ingenuity). Featuring such giddy (and gory) devices as "intestinators" (deadly obedience devices implanted in prisoners' bodies) and a torturous "Mind Wipe Chamber," this is really just a drive-in action movie with lofty ambitions, and the schlocky script hasn't a prayer of rising above the level of juvenile popcorn fodder. But there's no denying the energy and enthusiasm that Gordon brings to the film, which understandably became a global box-office hit and spawned a 1999 sequel starring Lambert and Pam Grier. --Jeff Shannon
Product Description
After losing their first baby John and Karen Brennick dare to have another. Caught trying to cross the border the ex-war hero and his pregnant wife are sentenced to a sadistic futuristic prison buried 33 stories beneath the earth. Computers control inmates' bodes and minds and newborn infants are being used to create a new breed of human robots. No one has ever gotten out alive. But not even the most overwhelming technology can extinguish one man's passionate love for his wife and child.System Requirements:Starring: Christopher Lambert Kurtwood Smith Loryn Locklin and Lincoln Kilpatrick Directed By: Stuart Gordon Running Time: 95 minutes Color Presented in "Standard" formatFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: SCI-FI/FANTASY Rating: R UPC: 012236116059 Manufacturer No: 11605
