Outlander (film)
| Outlander | |
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Promotional release poster
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| Directed by | Howard McCain |
| Produced by |
Barrie M. Osborne Christopher Roberts |
| Written by | Dirk Blackman Howard McCain |
| Starring |
James Caviezel Sophia Myles Jack Huston Ron Perlman John Hurt |
| Music by | Geoff Zanelli |
| Cinematography | Pierre Gill |
| Edited by | David Dodson |
| Distributed by | The Weinstein Company |
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Release date
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Running time
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115 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English Icelandic French |
| Budget | $47 million |
| Box office | $7,033,683 |
Outlander is a 2008 American science fiction action film directed by Howard McCain and starring James Caviezel. The plot is loosely based on Beowulf, adapted to a science-fiction backstory involving a spaceship crashing in Iron Age Norway. The film was a box-office failure, grossing USD $7 million compared to a budget estimated at $47 million.
A spacecraft crashes in a lake in Vendel-era Scandinavia. The only surviving occupant – a human – retrieves a distress beacon and a computer which explains that he is on Earth, a "seed" colony that his people have abandoned. The computer downloads the local Norse language and culture directly into his brain. The spaceman soon finds a freshly destroyed village, where he is captured by Wulfric, a warrior from another village.
Wulfric takes him to the fortified village of King Rothgar, father of Freya, who he hopes will marry future king Wulfric. Rothgar is concerned that Gunnar, chieftain of the destroyed village, will assume it was Wulfric's doing, as Wulfric's father (the king before Rothgar) had been killed by Gunnar. Wulfric interrogates the "outlander", who identifies himself as Kainan, claiming he is from the north, and states that he is hunting a dragon.
The village is attacked that night by an unseen creature, which kills several men. Kainan tells them it is a "Moorwen", a predatory creature which caused his (space)ship to crash and now will hunt men and animals alike. When Kainan is taken with a hunting party to find the Moorwen, he kills a gigantic bear that had killed some of the hunters. The warriors now treat Kainan as part of their tribe.
Gunnar and his men attack the settlement, retreating after casualties on both sides. They soon return, pursued by the Moorwen, and enter the safety of the village. Kainan devises a plan to build a huge pit just inside the village entrance, fill it with whale oil and leave wooden shields floating on the surface.
Freya becomes increasingly attracted to Kainan. He explains to her the Moorwen's origin—Kainan's people invaded its land (planet), slaughtered it in the billions and built a colony there. This Moorwen, now the last of its kind, massacred everyone in the colony, including Kainan's wife and child. When his "ship" returned to the colony, the Moorwen snuck onboard and later caused the crash. After listening to Kainan's tale, Freya gives him a family sword, saying she was told that she would know what man to give it to.
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Wikipedia