Fortress

Fortress is set in a future America where a strict population-control law allows families only one child. When John Brennick and his wife Karen, who is pregnant with their second child, are caught trying to cross into Mexico, they are sent to a privately run underground prison known as the Fortress. There, inmates are monitored by cameras and devices that can read thoughts and inflict pain or death, and the prison director takes a particular interest in Karen. John becomes determined to break out before their baby is born.

The film was directed by Stuart Gordon and released in December 1992, arriving between The Pit and the Pendulum and Castle Freak in a run of genre features that began with Re-Animator in 1985. Christopher Lambert plays John Brennick, with Kurtwood Smith as the prison director Poe, Loryn Locklin as Karen, and supporting turns from Clifton Collins Jr., Jeffrey Combs and Lincoln Kilpatrick. The screenplay is credited to Troy Neighbors, Steven Feinberg and David Venable, and John Davis and John Flock produced.

Made on a budget of about 8 million dollars, Fortress earned roughly 7 million worldwide, a modest return for a science-fiction action film of its period. Audiences rate it around 5.9 out of 10 on IMDb and 6.1 out of 10 on TMDB, while a small critics' sample gives it 4.9 out of 10, placing it below the viewer scores.