The Extremely Graphic, R-Rated Sci-Fi That The 1990s Forgot

By Robert Scucci
| Updated 1 hour ago

If you have memories of watching 1992’s Fortress, can’t remember the name, and try describing it to your friends, they’ll probably assume you imagined the whole thing during a fever dream while home sick from school on a random Tuesday. Fortunately, you’re not insane, and what you’re remembering is a real B-movie blockbuster starring Christopher Lambert, Loryn Locklin, Kurtwood Smith, and a whole slew of colorful inmates that look and act the part. It’s a gritty cyberpunk prison break, chock-full of explosions, government surveillance drones, intense staredowns, and intestinators. More on those later. 

Fortress was a financial success, earning $65 million against its reported $15 million production budget. It was enough to spawn an equally ill-fated sequel in 2000, but that’s chump change compared to The Fugitive, which pulled in nearly six times the box office during the same month. Financials aside, Fortress wasn’t exactly a critical darling upon release, and still sits in the trenches with a punishing 38 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.

While Fortress is very much a real movie that exists and is readily available for streaming, its reputation may deter you from hitting play, which is a shame. It’s one of the strangest movies of the 90s to try and capture a mainstream audience, and for that reason alone makes it worth your time.

A Retro-Futuristic Jailbreak Plot

Set in the year 2017, Fortress introduces us to our hero, John Henry Brennick (Christopher Lambert), and his wife, Karen (Loryn Locklin). While attempting to cross the US border into Canada, the couple is apprehended when it’s revealed that Karen is pregnant, something that’s strictly forbidden in this dystopian hellscape. Under no circumstances is a couple allowed to have a second baby, even if their first one dies, which is exactly the situation John and Karen find themselves in. They’re not technically contributing to the overpopulation problem when you look at the numbers, but the law is the law, and they’re living in a tyrannical police state that doesn’t mess around.

In the future, according to 1992 logic, prisons are run by the Men-Tel corporation, and inmates are subjected to slave labor to keep the prison-industrial complex alive and well. John is thrown into one such facility, known as the Fortress, where he’s introduced to a ragtag group of inmates, including by-the-books longtimer Abraham (Lincoln Kilpatrick), disgraced technical wizard D-Day, young cutup Nino Gomez (Clifton Collins Jr.), resident bully Maddox (Vernon Wells), and his mean-mugging right-hand man Stiggs (Tom Towles).

Each inmate in the Fortress is fitted with a stomach-annihilating implant known as an intestinator, which will blow out their insides if they step out of line. Literally. Controlling the entire operation behind closed doors is Poe, the forever scowling and morally bankrupt prison director portrayed by Kurtwood Smith.

Unbeknownst to John, though he won’t stay in the dark for long, Poe also has Karen in custody in another section of the prison, with plans to incinerate her unborn child once it’s brought to term. He’d terminate the pregnancy sooner, but in this future abortion is illegal, and child murder is the workaround. Determined to reunite with his wife and become a father again, John Henry Brennick rounds up the troops and starts plotting his escape, despite pushback from Abraham, who is a little close to parole for comfort.

There are brawls, mind-wiping gyrospheres, laser cages, and moving platforms in the Fortress, all monitored and controlled through the Zed-10 computer system. Poe, who has disturbing intentions toward Karen, stands as the immovable link between salvation and certain death, and John Henry Brennick is up for the challenge, consequences be damned.

Too Weird To Live, Too Rare To Die

Fortress always felt destined to be a forgotten relic, but it might have had a different fate with more star power attached. The script was reportedly written with a more traditionally jacked action star in mind, like Arnold Schwarzenegger, but director Stuart Gordon wanted an everyman, which brought Christopher Lambert into the equation. And when it comes to a singular lead role, there can be only one!

While a megastar like Schwarzenegger might have put more asses in seats, it’s hard to imagine Fortress with anyone else leading the charge. Lambert’s intense gaze doesn’t just look into your soul, it looks through it. For what is essentially a B-movie with a disproportionately large budget, it feels right just the way it is. 

Fortress is dystopian, campy, and incredibly violent, striking a strange balance between too weird for mainstream audiences and not weird enough to fully cement itself as a cult classic. It also embodies all of the tried-and-true action tropes that critics had by 1992 grown tired of, becoming just one of hundreds of action thrillers making their rounds, all trying to do the same thing. 

Still, it deserves a second look because its ambition outweighs its reputation, and it’s a solid popcorn flick whether you remember it or not. As of this writing, Fortress is streaming for free on Tubi.