Why Stuart Gordon’s Fortress (1992) Deserves Way More Love
When I get asked to make recommendations or toss out my favorite horror directors, I usually kick things off with John Carpenter and his litany of hits. But the conversation always drifts to Wes Craven with stuff like The People Under the Stairs or The Serpent and the Rainbow. You’ve seen those, right? Then I’ll throw out Martin or The Crazies from George Romero, or even Lifeforce and The Funhouse from Tobe Hooper. Those are the obvious heavy hitters, the Mount Rushmore names everyone already knows. Stuart Gordon may be most known for his tour-de-force H.P. Lovecraft adaptations Re-Animator and From Beyond, but the guy was a hell of a talent with a filmography that sits comfortably next to those big names in the “eminently watchable” category. We’ve already given him love for Castle Freak, The Pit and the Pendulum, and Dolls, but today I want to shout out one of his sci-fi excursions. Space Truckers and Robot Jox are fun, but Fortress sits in that weird zone of being really successful yet barely talked about.
So let’s look at an under-discussed movie from an under-discussed director: 1992’s Fortress.
The movie’s production history is almost as interesting as the film itself. It survived two major things that usually spell doom: a ton of writers and the loss of a huge star. And I don’t mean “big star,” I mean one of the biggest of all time, especially for the era.
It all starts back in 1985 with Re-Animator. The first unlucky stiff who tests out that neon-green reanimation serum is a mountain of a man named Peter Kent. The name might not ring a bell, but you’ve absolutely seen him before: he was the main body double for the Austrian Oak himself, Arnold Schwarzenegger. Kent showed Arnold Re-Animator, and Arnold liked it so much he screened it at home for a group that included producer John Davis, who had the rights and script for Fortress. Arnold was originally supposed to star… and then he dropped out. Christopher Lambert stepped in, and because of that change, the budget plummeted from $70 million to $15 million. Thankfully, with the right director in place (Stuart Gordon) that wasn’t a death blow. Fun fact: Gordon was originally supposed to direct the ’93 Body Snatchers before Abel Ferrara took over, and that was because Arnold picked Gordon… for a movie he didn’t even end up doing. Thanks, Arnold.
The script was credited to four people – Troy Neighbors, Stephen Feinberg, David Venable, and Terry Curtis – none of whom ended up with much else on their résumés. But what they created is a fun mix of dystopian sci-fi, commentary on the prison system, and the best bits of classic prison films like Stalag 17, Lock Up, and The Longest Yard.
In the far-off future of 2017 (look, it was 1992), America is a dictatorship with strict one-child laws. John Brennick and his wife Karen try to flee to Canada, a free state without procreation laws, after losing their first child and now expecting a second. They attempt to hide the pregnancy with a magnet vest, but they’re caught at the border and sent to a privately run, “inescapable” prison called The Fortress, which also runs experiments on inmates. The rest of the story is John’s mission to survive, find his wife, and escape.
Replacing Arnold Schwarzenegger with Christopher Lambert sounds like a death sentence for your box office, but honestly? Not in the early 90s. Lambert was still riding high from international stardom and, of course, his iconic role as Connor MacLeod in Highlander (1986). He followed that with sequels in 1991, 1994, and 2000, plus fun genre films like The Sicilian (1987) and Gunmen (1993). And for a younger generation, he was our Raiden in the Mortal Kombat movie (and is still unbeaten in that role, in my opinion). Lambert delivers his typically great performance here. He wasn’t a martial arts star, but I lump him right alongside Van Damme and Seagal. He’s the best actor of the three, frankly.
The supporting cast is full of gems: Kurtwood Smith, Clifton Collins, Tom Towles, Vernon Wells, and the always-fantastic Jeffrey Combs. Carolyn Purdy (Gordon’s frequent collaborator and wife) shows up as the computer voice, and Loryn Locklin plays Karen Brennick, just a couple of years after she worked with Wes Craven on Night Visions. Kurtwood Smith stepped in for Richard E. Grant and plays the villainous prison director Poe. He’s not quite as iconic as his RoboCop baddie, but he’s fun, especially once you find out he’s a cyborg and creepily in love with Brennick’s wife. (Shout-out also to his role in Star Trek VI with the heavy makeup.) Tom Towles still chills from Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, and Vernon Wells is forever tied to The Road Warrior and Commando. But honestly, I grew up with his fun roles in Weird Science and InnerSpace.
As usual, Jeffrey Combs steals every scene as D-Day. If you haven’t seen him in the underrated Would You Rather (2012), go fix that.
Interestingly, a chunk of the film was shot in an actual prison, and the cast had to sign waivers and wear protective gear. Gordon was drawn to the project because he wanted to highlight the U.S. prison system’s shift from rehabilitation to punishment, and that theme definitely sticks.
There’s instantly recognizable prisoner posturing when John arrives, but the cast gels fast. Lambert insisted on doing many of his own stunts, which caused some friction with Gordon, but Lambert was also hired as a consultant, so he had a little clout to flex.
The film mixes classic prison tropes with hard sci-fi and a dose of horror. Between the one-child laws, internal devices that cause pain or execution, Poe being a cyborg, newborns being turned into cyborgs, mind-wipe tech, and zombie-like guards, the world-building leans heavily dystopian in all the right ways.
Even though I mostly saw this on TV growing up and missed a lot of the uncut stuff, the movie does not shy away from its R rating. There’s sex, nudity, blood, and gore sprinkled throughout, whether in dreams the inmates aren’t supposed to have or in the many violent encounters. Exploding squibs from gunfire? Check. Gooey android guts from Poe and other cyborg guards? Check. The internal combustion device? Absolutely. One new inmate tries to escape (in a moment eerily similar to something that happens in The Shawshank Redemption years later) and gets a painful jolt before being blown apart entirely.
Another standout: the fight between Lambert’s Brennick and Vernon Wells’s Maddox. Brennick refuses to kill Maddox, so the prison system blows a massive hole in Maddox’s stomach. Wells looks down, touches the wound, and then drops lifelessly down the central shaft of the prison. It’s gnarly and great.
Of course, Brennick is the only person who manages to come back from a mind wipe, through sheer love and determination, and the escape sequence is a blast. The film moves fast, the 95 minutes fly by, and it’s just pure fun.
The movie also performed shockingly well, especially internationally, making almost $65 million on a $15 million budget. Plans for a TV series and sequel followed, but those fell apart due to lack of critical praise (imagine a studio refusing a profitable sequel because of critics…). Eventually, we got the straight-to-video sequel Fortress 2: Re-Entry.
Fortress 2 went straight to video, and I haven’t seen it, but honestly I’m not sure it’s necessary. Sadly, the original hasn’t gotten the love it deserves from companies like Arrow or Scream Factory, just a sometimes-available DVD and an out-of-print barebones Blu-ray. You can watch it for free on Tubi, but Fortress deserves a glossy Blu-ray or even a 4K release.
Arnold eventually made a prison-themed movie with Stallone, Escape Plan, but man, imagine what Fortress would’ve been if he’d stuck with it. Even without him, I’m grateful we got this action-sci-fi, borderline-exploitation gem from one of our best horror directors and a wonderfully fun cast.
Let me know what you think of Fortress. And remember… dreams are forbidden.
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