Meanwhile, the president's daughter is checking up on a private company that runs a prison on a space station, keeping the prisoners in stasis for the duration of their term, because she's heard reports about problems with patients kept in stasis too long. I guess boosting a prisoner into space is less expensive than feeding them in the future? Whatever, that can all be explained later, for now, this is awesome, and you could write a whole SF book or make the whole movie just about the ramifications of a prison in space. I'm totally on board with this. Or, at least, right up until the cliché "crazy inmate" being interviewed by the president's daughter manages to get hold of a gun, shoot a bunch of people, release all the prisoners (because, of course, a vital command center on the station would be readily accessible from the interrogation rooms), and (of course) threaten to rape the president's daughter. Sigh. Another, more sane, inmate takes over leadership of the jailbreak.
Back to Guy. "Good cop" wants Guy to go rescue the president's daughter from the space station prison, because, incredibly conveniently, Guy's friend Mace accidentally shot a cop (fortunately after he put the briefcase in a locker) and was already arrested, processed, sentenced, and sent to the space station prison in stasis. "Bad cop" is in charge of the situation, but brings along Guy just in case.
While assessing the situation, we discover that the space station prison has an automated defense system that shoots at other spacecraft. Because, I guess, in 2079, everyone could easily get into space and break their friends out of jail. At any rate, for a minute this movie suddenly became a Star Wars-style space battle.
On Guy's observation that the inmates don't realize they have the president's daughter captive, "Bad cop" nearly sneaks her out under the guise of "free a hostage as a gesture; any hostage will do, but injured women are best". This is actually a really good scene, until cliché crazy inmate, who hasn't gotten a chance to rape the president's daughter, insists that they send home the president's daughter's aide, and (fatally) wounds her in an effort to provide an alternate injured female. The inmates figure out that they're being hoodwinked (an inmate notices Guy wandering around outside in a space suit), and keep the president's daughter captive. Then comes the turning point of the movie.
Inmate Leader: [to crazy inmate] Do something useful. Go find that man and kill him. I don't want to see you 'til it's done.
Other Inmate: [after crazy inmate leaves, and speaking what we've been thinking since the start of the jailbreak] Why don't we just kill that lunatic?
Inmate Leader: Because he's my brother.SERIOUSLY?! You're going to pull something as tired as "he's my brother" on us? Well, from here on out, tired clichés are the norm. Guy manages to get onto the station through some outer hatch thingy and reach the president's daughter just ahead of the bad guys. As they try to escape, every one of their scenes is a stereotypical "naive spoiled girl in over her head vs. world weary adventurer" conversation. When they were in separate movies, I liked them, but when put in the same room, I hated them both. While wandering through the ship, they discover a room in which inmates have been dissected and immediately conclude the company was doing medical experiments on them... because, the company couldn't possibly have simply done autopsies on inmates who died while in stasis. They find Mace, who (of course) has fallen afoul of bad stasis, and can't tell Guy where the briefcase is. "Bad cop" finally gets permission to blow up the space prison, but not before Guy and the president's daughter get into space suits, re-enter the atmosphere, and parachute into NYC!!!!!
Guy goes back into custody, but the president's daughter, based on comments Mace made, figures out where the briefcase is, and we discover who the mole is, but we really don't care, because the whole espionage plot felt tacked on to the real plot of the prison in space. The president's daughter love-punches Guy in the face, and we don't even feel good about this because we hate both of them so much.
There is a great SF movie in here somewhere, but Lockout wasn't it.
From the A.V. Club: "Everything about Lockout is patently absurd, starting with a facility so costly and inefficient that it might as well have sharks in astronaut helmets patrolling the perimeter."
ReplyDeleteSo, they blow up the space station and....all the chunks hit New York and there's a massive fireball and they all die? One of the many fine plotholes.
My biggest problem, actually, was how sexist the whole thing was. You could have told the same story with the same characters doing the same things, but not have Pearce be some kind of massive toolbag that slaps around girls. If he had treated her like an equal (and her bleeding-heart liberal routine were written and delivered more believeably) their screwball scenes would have been fun.
Agreed: premise good, moments of goodness, but terrible as a whole.
**YES** re: the sexism. The part where he forcibly cuts her hair and colors it with a mixture that included toilet water, without ever explaining why this might be necessary to their escape, felt like a stand-in for the sexual assault that crazy inmate threatens. Rape of the lock, indeed.
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