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Fortress
Directed by	Stuart Gordon
Produced by	John Davis John Flock
Written by	Troy Neighbors Steven Feinberg
Starring	Christopher Lambert, Kurtwood Smith, Loryn Locklin Jeffrey Combs Vernon Wells Clifton Collins, Jr.
Music by	Frédéric Talgorn
Cinematography	David Eggby
Distributed by	Dimension Films
Release date(s)	September 3, 1993 (USA)
Running time	91 min.
Language	English
Budget	$12,000,000 (estimated)
Followed by	Fortress 2
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Fortress is a 1993 film directed by Stuart Gordon. The story takes place in a dystopian future. The main character in the movie, John Henry Brennick (Christopher Lambert) and his wife Karen B. Brennick (Loryn Locklin) are sent to a maximum security prison because they are expecting a second child, which is against strict one-child policies.

Although set in the future and handling number of interesting dystopian SF subjects, such as subjecting thoughts to law and regulation, and companies running facilities such as prisons, the plot is basically a typical “big escape from prison” story.

• Christopher Lambert: John Henry Brennick
• Loryn Locklin: Karen B. Brennick
• Kurtwood Smith: Prison Director Poe
• Carolyn Purdy-Gordon: Voice of Zed-10
• Lincoln Kilpatrick: Abraham
• Jeffrey Combs: D-Day, Computer Geek
• Tom Towles: Stiggs, Maddox’s Buddy
• Vernon Wells: Maddox
• Clifton Collins Jr. (credited as Clifton Gonzalez-Gonzalez): Nino Gomez
• Warwick Capper: Brain Dead Convict

Set in a dystopian future the year 2017, in the USA, John Henry Brennick (Christopher Lambert) and his wife Karen S. Brennick (Loryn Locklin) are expecting a second child. Strict one-child policies forbid a second pregnancy, but the couple attempts it anyway because their first child unfortunately died at child-birth.

They are caught and sent to a maximum security prison that is owned and run by a company, rather than the government, called the “MenTel Corporation.”

John Brennick has to deal with an unreasonable environment; he is not allowed to dream in his sleep, and is tortured by a sadistic Prison Director (Kurtwood Smith). His unborn child is now officially owned by the MenTel Corporation (the company seems to use these children to create cyborgs).

Fortunately, Prison Director Poe has an eye on John Brennick’s wife, Karen. John befriends a Computer Geek, D-Day (Jeffrey Combs) who find a way to remove the special “intestinator” chips that are implanted in each prisoner’s intestines, and can cause great pain and even explode when set off by the security system. He also manages to convince his fellow prisoner Abraham (Lincoln Kilpatrick) that Poe will never allow his parole, and is only using it as a carrot on a stick.

This opens an opportunity to escape.

After uploading a virus on the AI computer warden Zed-10 (voice by Carolyn Purdy-Gordon) the group manages to escape.

John Brennick and his wife flee to Mexico, where they have the baby (Annika Thomas).

The movie was shot in Australia.

• Fortress 2

• Fortress at the Internet Movie Database

• Fortress on The Filmasylum