This thrilling picture tells the story of Marshall William T. O'Niel (Sean Connery as the ultimate and overwhelming hero figure) at a far planet standing against impossible odds , he is married to Carol (Kika Markham) and has a little boy promising to leave his risked job and settle down for a peaceful existence . In this distant future , the police marshal is stationed at the remote mining colony on the Jupiter moon of Io , there happens weird events when miners begin suffering from confuse visions and rare breakdowns , as well surprising outbreaks and spells of insanity . The marshal starts an investigation that threatens the colony's survival . Marshal William T. O'Niel uncovers a drug-smuggling conspiracy run by Mark Sheppard (Peter Boyle) , as the latter has sworn revenge against William . The security marshal gets no support from the populace when he later finds himself marked for killing and nobody is willing to help him . A team of bounty killers and will arrive in moon base at high noon . A doctor , Dr. Lazarus (Frances Sternhagen) , ultimately risks death to give him a hand .

A particular rendition of ¨High noon¨ set in outer space on a volcanic moon of Jupiter , stars Sean Connery alone versus a planet-wide drug ring . In fact , this one is no more or less than a Western in space , replacing Gary Cooper by Sean Connery . This enjoyable Sci-Fi is plenty of suspense as the dreaded noon hour approaches and the protagonist realizes he must stand alone , but asking his base fellows for help , nobody is willing to help him . An agreeable Science Fiction movie full of emotional thrills , action and suspense , though the science is rather poor . It is a highly mysterious thriller , filled with non-stop action , including a spectacular denouement in its final part . The narration is adjusted in real time , from the beginning to arrival of the enemy aircraft , at a final showdown and it is approximately developed in ninety minutes as the many on-screen ticks clocks will check . It might make a catching double feature along with ¨High noon¨ . Connery is perfect as the flawed hero who faces off professional killers . He gives first-rate acting as a tough agent who takes on vicious hired killers , facing alone after being abandoned to his fate by the gutless population . Suppport cast is pretty well , giving brief but decent acting , such as : James B. Sikking , Steven Berkoff , Clarke Peters , John Ratzenberger , Angus MacInnes , Eugene Lipinski and Peter Boyle is just right as a heinous villain . And special mention for Frances Sternhagen as the veteran doctor who helps Connery , she steals the show , thanks to her sympathetic and valiant performance .

The motion picture contains an excellent cinematography by cameraman Stephen Goldblatt . Rousing and suspenseful musical score by the great Jerry Goldsmith , performed by London symphony orchestra . The yarn was compellingly directed by Peter Hyams . Peter is an uneven filmmaker who has directed all kinds of genres with successes and flops , such as Adventure : ¨Musketeer¨ ; Terror : ¨The relic¨, ¨End of days¨ ; Action : ¨The Presidio¨, ¨Sudden death¨, ¨Timecop¨ , ¨Narrow margin¨ ; Sci-fi : ¨2010 , the year we make contact¨ , ¨Capricorn one¨, ¨Sound and thunder ¨; Drama : ¨The star chamber¨, ¨Our time¨ ; and Comedy : Running scared¨, ¨Stay tuned¨

Eschewing the fantastic likes of sci-fi such as STAR WARS, OUTLAND goes for a grim and gritty approach to man's exploration of the universe – it has a similarly realistic look to it as ALIEN. OUTLAND goes one step further, actually, seeming more like the prison planet of ALIEN 3 in its depiction of a corrupt and all-too-real world, where everybody wants a quiet life, nobody's on your side, and turning a blind eye is a daily event. Into this world comes Sean Connery in one of his best, non-hammy roles as a tough marshal who begins investigating a series of suicides and soon discovers a sinister conspiracy of silence at work.

The film is regarded as a remake of HIGH NOON, with a few sci-fi updates; for instance, the hero awaits his killers who arrive by space shuttle rather than a train. Nevertheless it works very well as a western in outer space, as the story is universal and the location doesn't matter so much. Peter Hyams works hard as director, creating a convincing atmosphere of menace and really building the suspense well as the film leads up to the climax – this is light years ahead of the rubbish like THE RELIC that he ended up directing in the 1990s. The film also benefits from a spooky, outer-spacey score by ace composer Jerry Goldsmith.

However, this film isn't perfect by any means. The pacing is a little too slow and the running time a little too long. Also, after the huge build up to the climax, it's a bit of a let-down – not action packed by any means. Connery resorts to trickery to take down his foes, rather than any face-to-face confrontations, so it's more of an anticlimax than anything else. The miniature special effects of the space station are very good indeed for the time, although the cheesy exploding heads made me laugh rather than wince (SCANNERS this ain't). Still, with Connery at the top of his game – he's never been so darned likable as he is here – and with great support from Sternhagen, Boyle, Sikking, Berkoff and a nice cameo from P. H. Moriarty – OUTLAND is a good and unusual thriller.

Marshal W.T. O'Niel (Sean Connery) is newly assigned to a mining colony on Jupiter's moon Io. His wife isn't happy and leaves with their son to Earth. Sgt. Montone (James Sikking) is his second in command. Mark Sheppard (Peter Boyle) is the head of the operation who wants him to let the men operate smoothly without interference. However miners are acting weird and getting killed. Dr. Lazarus (Frances Sternhagen) discovers that the last dead miner has taken an amphetamine drug which lets people work day and night until they have a psychotic breakdown. Sheppard provides the drugs with Montone looking the other way.

I like the design of the camp which reminds me of 'Alien'. I like the gritty underbelly feel of this realistic future world. It moves a bit slow at times which is its biggest problem. This is a sci-fi western compared most notably to 'High Noon'. This keeps getting compared to other movies but always comes up a little shorter. It's still a good movie.