ALIEN OUTPOST (2014)

Studio:       IFC Midnight
Director:    Jabbar Raisani
Writer:       Jabbar Raisani, Blake Clifton
Producer:  Laurie Cook, Jason Newmark, Trevor Engelson
Stars:     Joe Reegan, Reiley McClendon, Scott Miller, Matthew Holmes, Rick Ravanello, Doug Tait

Review Score:

---

Summary:

Ten years after Earth is invaded, two journalists document an infantry squad’s ongoing battle against stranded alien forces at a Middle Eastern military outpost.

---

Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

June 13th, 2021 – Earth was invaded by armed alien forces that came to be called “Heavies” during an event known as the First Earth War (FEW). By 2022, most of the Heavies retreated, leaving thousands of their soldiers stranded with ammunition unable to be resupplied. Meanwhile, Earth developed a satellite system of Orbital Defense Sentries to protect against future airborne attacks from alien spacecraft. In 2023, the USDF created military outposts to seek out and destroy all Heavies remaining on the planet. 10 years later, the reduced and dismantled outposts are left undermanned and underfunded.

USDF Airfield, Iran – August 09th, 2033 – Journalists Savino and Roger Hollis begin filming a documentary with Specialist Alex “Omo” Omohundro, Private Frankie “Fingers” Forello, and PFC Ryan Andros as the three soldiers are assigned to serve as reinforcements at Outpost 37 near the Durand Demilitarized Zone between Pakistan and Afghanistan. The men make it to the outpost and become embedded with other soldiers including CO Spears, First Lieutenant Grant North, Sergeant John Wilks, SPC Tyrone “Bones” Ridell, Corporal George Harty, Staff Sergeant Debrickshaw “Brick” Odigwe, Tech Specialist Theo “Mac” MacNamara, and SPC Daren “Zilla” Nakamura.

Although interhuman conflict previously ceased when the aliens invaded, Outpost 37 still fends off attacks from local insurgents who feel their sovereignty threatened, in addition to battling scattered Heavy forces. During one such battle, a soldier named Duke is wounded. Spears tasks North with escorting Duke to Mako, the closest USDF base which is over 20 miles away. SPC Alderich “Hans” Heilbronner arrives at Outpost 37 in the meantime to replace Duke. North promptly returns.

Local informant and Pakistani translator Saleem visits the outpost. Saleem escorts several of the men down into Ghrem to pacify a potential revolt by locals who blame the soldiers for the destruction of livestock. An entranced local boy arrives at the scene and explodes unexpectedly as the soldiers realize Saleem unknowingly led them into a Heavy ambush. Most of the men escape the resulting firefight, but North is captured.

Spears takes the video recovered from North’s helmet camera directly to General Dane at Mako. In his absence, a PMC squad arrives at the outpost to investigate the encounter at Ghrem.

A drone shows Saleem being chased by a rogue Heavy. The soldiers mobilize to rescue Saleem and end up capturing the wounded Heavy. Spears returns to the outpost and admonishes his men for disobeying orders before personally executing the Heavy.

To repay the soldiers for saving his life, Saleem begins his own investigation into North’s disappearance. When Saleem returns to the outpost later, he arrives in a trance similar to the local boy at Ghrem and kills Frankie. Saleem is swiftly executed.

The research left behind by Saleem leads the soldiers to explore a connection between the Heavies using mind control on humans and Saleem’s village. The soldiers find North alive in the abandoned village, although he is wounded and in an unconscious state of paralysis.

Back at the outpost’s infirmary, one of the soldiers realizes that North is communicating map coordinates via tap code using REM eyelid blinks. North also communicates the words “steel rain” before animating unexpectedly and attempting to kill Spears. Spears shoots North dead in self-defense shortly after North pleads “kill me.”

Local insurgents and Heavy soldiers descend on Outpost 37. Spears contacts General Dane and receives orders to fall back to Mako. Andros rigs the outpost to explode while Wilks extracts an alien artifact embedded in North’s neck. Most of the soldiers escape the attack and resulting explosion.

Spears and his men violate Dane’s orders and investigate the coordinates given to them by North. At the location, they discover an alien craft shaped like a spire protected by a Heavy assault team and engage in another firefight. Inside the base, the soldiers find the missing locals and PMC soldiers being weaponized with mind control devices. Andros rigs the spire to explode, but the detonator is handed over to another man when Andros’ hands become severed.

The spire sends a beam into space. The soldiers destroy the spire, but the beam remains up long enough to disrupt the USDF’s Seraph Defense System, allowing hundreds of “Ammo Pods” to resupply the Heavies stranded on Earth. The remote defense grid is restored, but the remaining Heavies are now rearmed and the ongoing battle is renewed. “Steel rain” is revealed to be the term for the second wave of the alien invasion.

---

Review:

By the year 2033, a decade has passed since the first invasion of Earth by a hostile alien race known only as “Heavies.”  The main forces have been repelled and the primary fleet has retreated to whatever world from which they came.  Still, scattered pockets of stranded alien soldiers litter the landscape, unwavering in their fierce commitment to eradicate humanity and in their deadly desire to strike without warning.

“Alien Outpost” is the tale of what takes place at Outpost 37, one of several formerly fortified bases dedicated to the planet’s protection.  Having lapsed into a state of near-abandonment following fatigue from the ongoing interplanetary struggle, two journalists travel to the remote outpost in the DMZ between Pakistan and Afghanistan.  There, the documentarians embed themselves with an infantry unit whose assignment is to seek and destroy lingering Heavy warriors in the region.  What no one yet knows is that a renewed insurgence has developed fearsome fighting tactics threatening to tilt the balance of power towards the alien army’s favor.

One could read the above and barely begin counting off the outer space invasion and human resistance mashups that “Alien Outpost” sounds like before quickly running out of fingers.  It’s an understandable presumption, not at all unjustified, yet perhaps premature if writing the movie off as having nothing to offer in the stylized entertainment department.

Stan Winston Studio staffer and “Game of Thrones” visual effects supervisor Jabbar Raisani settles into the director’s seat for his feature film debut with “Alien Outpost.”  Already in possession of a seasoned eye for visual flair with credits like “Fantastic Four” and “Fright Night” dotting his résumé, Raisani taps into earnest enthusiasm from his cast and crew to construct a project counteracting its mimetic premise with the professional passion of an underdog indie effort.

Presented as a faux documentary about the lives of soldiers stationed at a Middle Eastern military outpost, the film fashions itself as a gritty modern warfare action drama with a sci-fi spin sharing more in common with Gareth Edwards’ “Monsters” than “District 9” or “Battle: Los Angeles,” despite the description.  “Alien Outpost” doesn’t have the checkbook of its blockbuster counterparts, but this isn’t the phoned in work of a made-for-cable “Starship Troopers” clone, either.  Not unlike the ragtag brotherhood of assault rifle army men it features, the film knows how to efficiently tackle goals without overreaching scaled down scope or resources, and keeps its near-future fantasy grounded in frontline combat realism during the meantime.

Portions of the fiction are undeniably sketchy.  Think on it too long and the harder it is to understand how ten years can pass after a thwarted invasion, yet enough abandoned alien outcasts remain to persistently threaten mankind’s existence.  Motiveless, speechless, and barely glimpsed save a few choice battle sequences, the Heavies themselves are about as faceless a villain as any movie can muster, too.  Flip over that coin though and clarity comes that the focus is never meant to be on the aliens’ identity, or even the purpose of their conflict.  Rather, the average military men at the center of the struggle are what powers the story’s core.

While the script relies on audiences looking ahead willfully instead of peering down quizzically when gaps rear up, the character set leans in a direction of dudebro stereotypes decked in dog tags and wife beaters that run the predictable description gamut from wide-eyed rook to battle-hardened vet.  Cut from the same cloth as Schwarzenegger’s platoon in “Predator,” among others, these men burst with that particular brand of cinematic machismo where truncated surnames (e.g. “Mac” for MacNamara and “Brick” for Debrickshaw) provide all the creativity necessary for drafting endearing nicknames.

Yet for all the familiarity inherent in their photocopied biographies, “Alien Outpost” injects a fair deal of context into the routine “guy stuff” to give its Alpha Male collective affable personality.  When the boys pull a gag on a newbie using a photo of mom and a centerfold pinup, the stunt reeks of a redundant haw haw about tough guys teasing each other past the point of hazing humor and into offensive insensitivity.  Then “Alien Outpost” takes the time to follow up such moments with background, as a lieutenant explains to the pranked private how the men only mean to ensure they can trust him to have their backs, and that he is worth them having his.  Scenes like these create a sense of camaraderie making these men believable as a unit that has toured together since well before the opening credits rolled onscreen. 

Playing Outpost 37’s commanding officer, Rick Ravanello comes fresh from “Dark Haul” (review here), where he played a similarly stoic squarejaw who doesn’t speak so much as bark through grinding molars.  Chewing charcoal chunks in his throat with a cigarette in one hand while the other grips a sidearm, the difference here is that Ravanello puts on a performance subtly different enough from the relative silliness of a Syfy channel creature feature to deliver a tinge of genuinely grim gravity.  That’s a hat tip to the direction for pitching performances at a tone where the military action feels authentic because the actors take the fiction seriously.

Occasionally spotty digital blood sprays and muzzle flash animations don’t always work, although the impressive fireworks and generous gunfire keep the action frenzied while committed acting maintains the energy.  There might be some meaning missing as a meaty fight-for-survival narrative, but “Alien Outpost” ticks plenty of boxes for bullet-pumping action with a satisfying shot of sci-fi tracer fire laser-lighting the screen.

NOTE: There is a post-credits scene.

Review Score:  75

---