equel to 1993's Fortress, Fortress 2 continues the story of John and Karen Bennick and their illegally born son, Danny. Ten years have passed since the couple's escape from the Fortress, a high-tech underground prison operated by the seethingly evil Men-Tel Corporation. They are fugitives living a rustic life in the country, but their good luck runs out when a Men-Tel commando squad storms their house. John draws the soldiers away, blowing up a helicopter in the process, and Karen and Danny escape.
But John is captured and dumped into a new prison. As in Fortress, he's injected with a remote-controlled pain-inducing implant, but this time it's not in his stomach but in his brain. Cameras and a supercomputer called Zed constantly monitor the prisoners, looking away only when the sadistic guards want to have a little fun. The security system does allow for numerous coed shower scenes, though. But the big shocker comes when John learns that the prison is actually in Earth orbit, 26,000 miles up. It's a solar power satellite being built by fossil-fuel-starved Men-Tel, with prisoners serving as cheap labor in the highly dangerous environment.
Peter Teller, the prison's warden, is all too happy to have John aboard, since John's destruction of the original Fortress derailed his career. He shows John that Men-Tel is closing in on Karen and Danny. This proves to be a mistake, of course, because it spurs John to plan another escape. But how can he escape a prison that's floating in airless, irradiated vacuum? Actually, escape is only one of his problems: There are also the guards, Russian mobsters, crazed shuttle pilots and more.
Surprisingly good SF
Despite the direct-to-video sound of some of this movie's dialogue, it's actually a pretty fun flick. Most of the acting is restrained, even clever, with Lambert being the main exception. He sternly broods his way through the picture and shows all the range of a two-by-four. But the dynamic between the warden Teller and Zed is quite a treat. Their dry jabs at one another are reminiscent of a married couple that's been together too long.
Prison clichés abound (except, perhaps, for the coed shower scenes), including nasty guards, tough hombres, brawls and a prim warden, but some elements are creatively futurized. The dreaded "hole," for instance, is updated to be a Plexiglas blister on the outer wall of the prison. Inside, John bakes while in sunlight and freezes while in shade.
The sets artfully combine prison and space station asthetics, and most of the outer space scenes are realistically majestic. It's a shame, actually, they can't be seen in a movie theater. But the biggest surprise of all is how the twisty plot integrates with the scientific and technical elements. The gadgets really are necessary, and they are put (for the most part) to believable use. So what starts out as a typical prison flick becomes a fairly exciting techno-thriller that relies a good deal on science.
The last half of the film weaves together numerous plot strands in some surprising ways, and delivers more than enough shootings, explosions, blow-outs and agonized screaming. These days, when so many big-budget flicks turn out utterly disappointing, it's nice to catch a film that delivers for just $10 million.
