ESCAPE FROM ... SURVIVAL ZONE is a surprisingly effective sci-fi psychodrama, composed of equal parts BLADE RUNNER, BATMAN and "The Twilight Zone." Long on atmosphere and angst, it's regrettably short on production values, which in many ways weakens the punch.
The year is 1998 and the US is on the brink of a nuclear war due to a white hot confrontation in the Persian Gulf. Broadcast news has become what NETWORK once satirized--a series of shock sound bites that devote as much time to reporting on the death of the President's dog as it does to the
mounting tensions in the Persian Gulf. TV news cameraman Jack Slater (Terence Ford), recently returned from covering the conflict in the Persian Gulf, spends most of his time drowning his nightmarish recollections of the televised death of his soundman in a vat of alcohol. Kath Hanzaker (Paris
Jefferson), the spunky reporter of the stricken unit, wants Slater to snap out of his stupor but she too is haunted by the soundman's death. Enter Benjamin Gibson Jr. (Raymond Johnson), who, seeing what wrecks Slater and Kath are, suggests they join him on a four-week survival training course on
the obscure Survival Island in order to be prepared for the next emergency the team may face covering the impending war. Kath agrees to go and, although skeptical, Slater goes along.
Once there, the trio is victimized by Lewis T. Holden (Ivan Rogers) and Sean McBain (Truce Mitchell), the paranoid ex-Marines who run Survival Island. Suspicious, Slater and Ben sneak into Holden and McBain's barracks and discover that the former was once on trial for murder and had written a
rambling, psychotic treatise on post-nuclear war survival. As Ben reads the news clippings of Holden's murder trial, a hidden figure lobs a hand grenade at him, killing him. Slater and Kath determine that the camp is run by a bunch of lunatics and attempt an escape. The real madman turns out to be
McBain, who kills Holden and tries to kill Slater so that he and Kath can survive the impending nuclear war together. Slater returns and kills the maniacal McBain, but not before Kath is killed. As Slater leans on the entrance to a rescue helicopter in a shocked stupor, a news team runs up to him
and the reporter recognizes him. Looking at Slater's stunned countenance he asks him, "I thought you were in the Gulf covering the peace talks."
ESCAPE FROM ... SURVIVAL ZONE manages to convey the mental terror of a world seized by apocalyptic terror. This is accomplished not by ornate special effects or a baroque musical score, but by concentrating on individual characters who must come to grips with the chaos surrounding them.
Kath and Slater register their hopelessness and desperation by going about their duties with helpless resignation. Slater drinks to blunt his pain and Kath spends nights awaking from nightmares. Director Chris Jones centers on these two tortured souls by beginning scenes with roving close-ups of
their personal belongings, much in the way that Hitchcock gave audiences a sense of James Stewart's character at the beginning of REAR WINDOW. Jones intimates through small touches the sense of a world at a breaking point: signs that say "The end of the world is here" and "All firearms to be
checked at bar before service"; Ben paging through Guns Magazine like someone flipping through the latest issue of Vanity Fair; and a desolate highrise Marriott Marquis headquarters for Callington Communications.
Mark Talbot-Butler and Jones's screenplay compliments the latter's direction in its sparse, barking dialogue (a mugger tells his partner, "When you're in this town, you gotta think violence"; a crazed gunman holding a hostage shrieks "Money puts this guy way above the law"). Together they almost
compensate for the film's jarringly low production values. Given the budget of a BATMAN or a TOTAL RECALL, ESCAPE FROM ... SURVIVAL ZONE could have been molded into a disturbing, bleak science fiction masterpiece. Although Jones is more often than not effective in creating a mood of malaise and
moral bankrupcy, how much grander the film could have been with conceptual artist Syd Mead or production designer Lawrence G. Paull working with the director.
ESCAPE FROM ... SURVIVAL ZONE is a film trapped in its own Survival Zone. Never theatrically released and relegated to the ongoing sludge of video releases, this is one film that deserves to be rescued from video limbo. Even given its limitations, it's still much better than most of the grade A
releases unspooling in suburban multiplexes. (Violence, profanity, adult situations.) leave a comment
