45 Years Ago, Sean Connery Made a Sci-Fi Cult Classic Remake of an All-Time Great Western

Sean Connery has played some of the most iconic characters in cinema history. He’s often remembered as James Bond, Henry Jones Sr. from the Indiana Jones franchise, or Ramirez from the Highlander films. However, I argue he made some of his boldest moves in the sci-fi genre. While I’m not diving into Zardoz, I would say Connery’s wardrobe alone is worth a look. Instead, I want to highlight one of his most underrated roles as Federal Marshal William O’Niel in 1981’s Outland.

Playing a tough law enforcement officer investigating a drug trade operation seems right up Connery’s alley, aligning with roles like Jim Malone in The Untouchables. In Outland, he’s stationed on a mining colony on Jupiter’s moon Io, taking a familiar setup and placing it in a bold new frontier. The movie received mixed reviews and holds a 58% on Rotten Tomatoes. Still, it has become a cult classic, with many fans enjoying the mix of genres. I know because I’m one of them, loving the appeal of Connery’s lawman pulled right from a Wild West story and put in the claustrophobic confines of space. Outland never shied away from its Western influences, with many seeing it as a sci-fi remake of a classic.

Sean Connery & Peter Hyams Turned ‘High Noon’ Into an Underrated Sci-Fi Western

Sci-fi and Westerns go together better than some may think, with filmmakers like John Carpenter openly discussing genre influences on his movies like Ghosts of Mars. Outland director Peter Hyams wanted to make a Western, but he faced little interest, with many feeling it was time to put the genre out to pasture. Thankfully, he had the foresight to adapt the genre’s established tropes to a mining colony in space, which he discussed with Empire in 2014.

“I wanted to do a Western. Everybody said, ‘You can’t do a Western; Westerns are dead; nobody will do a Western’. I remember thinking it was weird that this genre that had endured for so long was just gone. But then I woke up and came to the conclusion – obviously after other people – that it was actually alive and well, but in outer space. I wanted to make a film about the frontier. Not the wonder of it or the glamour of it: I wanted to do something about Dodge City and how hard life was. I wrote it, and by great fortune Sean Connery wanted to do it. And how many chances do you get to work with Sean Connery?”

Hyams adapted parts of High Noon, pitting Connery’s O’Niel against similar circumstances. Outland trades a small town in New Mexico for the metallic confines of a gritty mining colony and cumbersome spacesuits. Still, some of the story elements are directly pulled from High Noon. O’Niel embodies a character with similar sensibilities to Gary Cooper’s Marshal Will Kane, with both men facing their spouses’ departure and villains who want them dead. The endings of each movie share notable parallels, with O’Niel facing killers hired to take him out and Kane up against Frank Miller and his gang. Outland also features fun genre swaps, like turning the noon train into the next shuttle.

One difference is the pace at which the lone, duty-bound lawmen are abandoned by those around them and marked for death. High Noon sets that plot in motion from the start. Outland spends time on world-building and a police-style investigation, with the ticking clock of death starting much later. Cooper’s Kane spends the film seeking anyone who can help him stop Miller, who has sworn revenge against the marshal. Each person he asks refuses to help or will only do so if it benefits them, with High Noon being a commentary on the failure to defend one’s values.

Outland weaves a drug plot that speaks to corporate control and its lack of empathy toward workers. O’Niel gets little help from others in the colony, as administrators and miners are corrupt or look the other way. While the law enforcement officers in each story remain steadfast, the movies’ overall thematic messages don’t quite align.

High Noon is arguably the better film, having won four Academy Awards, including Best Actor for Cooper. It also holds a 94% on Rotten Tomatoes. Still, I can’t recommend Outland highly enough, as it’s a fun sci-fi Western that feels like an outlier in Connery’s career. Hyams continued to explore bold genre ideas with flawed law enforcement characters, like Jean-Claude Van Damme’s Timecop and Arnold Schwarzenegger’s End of Days. He sadly never reached the acclaim of High Noon. Thankfully, Connery’s cult classic still has a loyal fanbase 45 years later that still enjoys rewatching Outland.

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  Outland

  
  

  Release Date

  May 22, 1981
  

  Runtime

  109 Minutes

  Director

  Peter Hyams

  Writers

  Peter Hyams

  
  

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  High Noon

  
  

  Release Date

  June 30, 1952
  

  Runtime

  85 Minutes

  Director

  Fred Zinnemann

  Writers

  Carl Foreman, John W. Cunningham