Outland (1981) (110 minutes)

starring Sean Connery

Io, Jupiter's innermost moon, hosts mining colony Con-Am 27, a high-tech hellhole. There Marshall O'Neill probes some mysterious deaths, among the miners. In pursuit of the truth, he is alone. In Outland, writer/director Peter Hyams depicts a chilling extension of today's corporation-driven world. Dehumanization is vividly evoked in the environments of production designer Phillip Harrison and special-effects wizard John Stears.

These are screen captures from the film. The film was "dark" -- in fact, the darkness of the film is one of the key aspects to the creation of the atmosphere of isolation/desolation that was depicted on Io. Io/Jupiter are portrayed in close to total darkness at all times. This is in contrast to the image of future life on Mars as imagined in Total Recall. Future life on Mars is shown under a brilliant sun. The issue of relative darkness of life in space is key to the plot development of Silent Running. In Silent Running the mission to save the remaining few specimens of earth's natural environment is jeopardized as the spaceship is piloted to such an extreme distance from the sun that the plants begin to die from lack of sunlight.

One has to wonder about the sustenance of life in future environments where access to both sunlight and nature is so severely limited.

The mining enterprise is situated on the moon Io of the planet Jupiter.	A view inside the greenhouse. The greenhouse is used to grow food for the workers
Inside the locker room.	Down at mining level. The harsh environment requires elaborate spacesuits for survival.
Inside the police headquarters room at the mine.	Playing squash in a conventional looking court.
The medical quarters is the only space where there is any brightness evident.	Lazarus at her desk in the medical wing.
A complete lack of privacy in the miners' quarters where metal screening is used to separate the public and "private" spaces.	The men's sleeping quarters are stacked with no privacy between the quarters and the walkways beside.
The spread of fire would be disastrous. There are fire control doors separating all sections of the facility.	The detention facility. The interior of the cells can create a zero gravity situation -- the only are of the facility where the issue of applied gravity is addressed. Elsewhere, it is assumed that gravity has been created and life in that respect is "normal".
Sam O'Neill's apartment. Not quite as brightly lit as the medical facilities, but providing a much higher amenity level than the workers' quarters.	The O'Neill's kitchen uses quite similar appliances and methods to the "modern" kitchen.
The main connecting links between sections of the facility are hexagon shaped tubes contained within what appear to be metal space trusses.	The hexagon shape is extended to the six sided symmetry of the connecting tubes.
The tubes are securely firelocked where they enter the quarters.	Inside the connecting tube.
Inside a worker's unit. Blinds open. The men can sit up but not stand.	Semi transparent shades can be drawn to give a modicum of privacy but they do not block out any light or noise from adjacent facilities.
The group washroom is portrayed quite conventionally.	The main docking entrance for the shuttle. Again the spacetruss appears as a structuring device within the space.