FORTRESS 2: RE-ENTRY (1999)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *sociological*

Stuart Gordon didn't return for the second and last entry in the chronicle of John Brennick (Christopher Lambert), but the writers of the original FORTRESS, Troy Neighbors and Steven Feinberg, did. They managed to replay many of the essential motifs of the first film, though with a bit less emotional conviction-- partly because the film sidelines Brennick's connection with his wife and child, partly because almost every other character but Brennick is new.

Ten years have passed since the first film, and for some reason Brennick, his wife and ten-year-old boy haven't gone to ground in Canada, but have hidden in some rural section of the U.S. Members of a resistance movement against the corrupt corporation Men-Tel find their way to Brennick and try to talk him into lending them his military skills. However, Men-Tel overtakes the rebels and kills them. Brennick sends his wife and child down an escape tunnel, which gets them out of the story, while he himself is captured.

Brennick awakes in a new "fortress," this time on a space station, but again there's a quirky warden, Teller (Patrick Malahide). Like the previous prison director, this one has intermittent conversations with the AI computer, but he also nurtures dark plans to dominate the world by turning the station into an attack satellite. As in the first film, Brennick gathers a coterie of helpers who help him fight the power, among them resistance fighter Elena (Liz May Brice), a woman with whom Brennick may have had a fling prior to marriage. She poses a very brief threat to Brennick's familial loyalties, but Teller is the main foe, though he lacks the earlier villain's repertoire of cyborg soldiers and computer-monitors. Indeed, his authority is compromised by the president of Men-Tel (Pam Grier), who arrives at the station to relieve Teller. But for all the effect the Prez has, she might have been written out. Eventually Teller is defeated and Brennick is not only freed but gets to re-unite with his family, giving the grim protagonist a happy ending of sorts.