Outlander (film)

{{Short description|2008 American film by Howard McCain}} {{distinguish|Outland (film)|Outlander (TV series)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=February 2026}} {{Use American English|date=January 2025}} {{Infobox film | name = Outlander | image = Outlanderposter.jpg | caption = Promotional release poster | director = Howard McCain | producer = [[Chris Roberts (video game developer)|Chris Roberts]] [[Barrie M. Osborne]] John Schimmel | writer = Dirk Blackman Howard McCain | starring = [[Jim Caviezel]] [[Sophia Myles]] [[Jack Huston]] with [[Ron Perlman]] and [[John Hurt]] | music = [[Geoff Zanelli]] | cinematography = [[Pierre Gill]] | editing = David Dodson | studio = [[Virtual Studios]]<ref name="NUM">{{cite web|title=Outlander (2009) - Financial Information|work=[[The Numbers (website)|The Numbers]]|access-date=4 April 2021|url=https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Outlander#tab=summary}}</ref> Ascendant Pictures Rising Star Productions VIP Medienfonds 4 GmbH & Co. KG | distributor = [[Third Rail Releasing]] (United States)<ref name=mojo/><ref name="NUM"/> | released = {{Film date|2008|07|11|[[Latvia]]|2009|01|23|U.S.}} | runtime = 115 minutes | country = United States Germany France Czech Republic | language = English Icelandic Latin | budget = $47 million<ref>{{cite journal | first=John | last=Hopewell | url=https://www.variety.com/article/VR1117981356.html?categoryId=2520&cs=1 | title=Wild Bunch corrals diverse slate | journal=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]] | publisher=[[Reed Business Information]] | date=2008-02-22 | access-date=2008-08-06 }}</ref> | gross = $7 million<ref name=mojo>{{cite web |url=https://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=outlander.htm |title=Outlander (2009) |publisher=Box Office Mojo |access-date=7 August 2011}}</ref> }} '''''Outlander''''' is a 2008 [[science fiction action film]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbfc.co.uk/release/outlander-q29sbgvjdglvbjpwwc0zode1mdk|title=Outlander|website=[[British Board of Film Classification]]}}</ref> written and directed by Howard McCain, starring [[Jim Caviezel]], [[Sophia Myles]], [[Jack Huston]], [[John Hurt]], and [[Ron Perlman]]. The plot is loosely based on the Anglo-Saxon [[Epic poetry|epic poem]] ''[[Beowulf]]'', adapted to a [[science fiction]] backstory involving a spaceship crashing in [[Vendel Period|Iron Age Norway]]. The film grossed US$7 million compared to a budget estimated at $47 million.

==Plot== In 709 AD, a spacecraft crashes in a lake in [[Vendel Period|Vendel]]-era [[Scandinavia]]. The only surviving occupant – a humanoid alien – 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 [[Proto-Norse language|Norse]] language and culture directly into his brain. The spaceman soon finds a recently destroyed village, where he is captured by Wulfric, a warrior from another village.

Wulfric takes him to the fortified village of King [[Hrothgar]], father of Freya, who he hopes will marry future king Wulfric. Hrothgar is concerned that Gunnar, chieftain of the destroyed village, will assume it was Wulfric's doing, as Wulfric's father (Hrothgar's predecessor) had been allegedly 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 identifies it as a "Moorwen", a predatory creature which caused his 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 slain some of the hunters, proving himself to the others who begin treating him as a part of their tribe.

Gunnar and his men attack the settlement, retreating after both sides suffer casualties. 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.

Kainan and Wulfric lure the Moorwen to the village. They cross the oil pit by running on the shields, but the Moorwen falls into the pit, and the oil is set on fire. The Moorwen is injured but nevertheless bursts out, kills several people including Gunnar, and then escapes. Meanwhile, an offspring of the Moorwen sneaks into the hall where the women and children are hiding through the village well. Erik, the orphaned boy that Kainan has begun looking after, alerts Hrothgar, who is killed as the women and children escape. Kainan realizes that they need stronger weapons to kill the Moorwen. Kainan, Freya, and the newly crowned King Wulfric return to the lake to retrieve fragments of metal from Kainan's submerged ship. While Kainan is underwater, the young Moorwen attacks the boat, taking Freya. Kainan and Wulfric return to the village, where the fragments are soon forged into weapons by the village smith Boromir. Kainan and Wulfric then assemble a small hunting party before descending the well into the Moorwen lair.

Freya awakens on a pile of bodies in the underground lair. As the young Moorwen moves toward Freya, it is distracted by the sound of Kainan's hunting party. Many of the hunters are killed by the young Moorwen, though Boromir manages to blind it before succumbing to his wounds. When it returns to attack Freya, Kainan and Wulfric pass her one of the new swords, with which she slays the young Moorwen. The cave exits to a high waterfall, where the adult Moorwen attacks. It seriously wounds Wulfric before Kainan engages it in battle. When Freya joins in, Kainan is able to knock the Moorwen over the cliff's edge to its death. Freya and Kainan return to Wulfric's side, where he passes the kingship to Kainan just before he dies.

Kainan tells Freya to wait for the rest of the warriors and kisses her before he heads back to the lake. Night falls as Kainan retrieves some items from his ship, says goodbye to his wife's submerged coffin, then destroys his distress beacon just as Freya sees a rescue spaceship approaching, leading her to believe that Kainan was sent by the [[Asgard|gods]]. The rescue ship departs without Kainan, who stays as king, weds Freya, and adopts Erik as his own son.

==Cast== * [[Jim Caviezel]] as Kainan, an alien warrior. * [[Sophia Myles]] as Freya, daughter of Rothgar * [[Jack Huston]] as Wulfric, nephew and heir of Rothgar, King of Heorot * [[John Hurt]] as [[Hrothgar|Rothgar]], King of Heorot * Cliff Saunders as Boromir, Heorot's smith * [[Ron Perlman]] as Gunnar, king of the neighbouring village * [[Aidan Devine]] as Einar * Bailey Maughan as Erik, a young orphan

==Production== In 1998, director Howard McCain met screenwriter Dirk Blackman, who re-designed a story originally written by McCain in 1992.<ref name="ign">{{cite news | author=stax | url=http://movies.ign.com/articles/726/726840p1.html | title=From Pathfinder to Outlander | publisher=[[IGN]] | date=2006-10-21 | access-date=2006-10-21 }}</ref>

According to McCain, [[Renny Harlin]] expressed interest in directing ''Outlander''. For a time, the film was to be financed independently, with effects designed by [[Weta Workshop]] and to be filmed on the [[South Island]] of [[New Zealand]], but this plan fell aside. By 2004, production company Ascendant Pictures and producer [[Barrie M. Osborne]] had stepped in with financing.<ref name="ugo">{{cite news | author=Troy Rogers | url=http://www.ugo.com/ugo/html/article/?id=16070&sectionId=2 | title=Howard McCain, Outlander Interview | publisher=[[UGO]] | date=2006-11-21 | access-date=2006-11-24 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090812234039/http://www.ugo.com/ugo/html/article/?id=16070&sectionId=2 | archive-date=2009-08-12 }}</ref>

In May 2005, [[The Weinstein Company]] announced the addition of the project to its distribution slate, with McCain as director. At that time [[Karl Urban]] was in talks to star in the film,<ref>{{cite news | author=Ian Mohr | url=https://www.variety.com/article/VR1117922651.html?categoryid=13&cs=1 | title=Weinsteins nab sci-fi alien epic | work=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]] | date=2005-05-12 | access-date=2006-11-03 }}</ref> but [[James Caviezel]] emerged as the lead when production was finally announced in September 2006. By this point, the production had settled on [[Halifax Regional Municipality|Halifax]] and [[Nine Mile River, Nova Scotia]], [[Canada]], with a 10-week shooting schedule beginning in October 2006.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=16625 | title=James Caviezel Boards ''Outlander'' | publisher=ComingSoon.net | date=2006-09-22 | access-date=2006-11-03 | archive-date=2007-12-08 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071208140307/http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=16625 | url-status=dead }}</ref> Some scenes were filmed in the [[Bay of Islands, Newfoundland and Labrador|Bay of Islands, Newfoundland]], as it possessed an [[inlet]] that served as a [[fjord]] for the film.<ref>{{cite news | author=Cliff Wells | url=http://www.thewesternstar.com/news.aspx?storyID=52645 | archive-url=https://archive.today/20120912213153/http://www.thewesternstar.com/news.aspx?storyID=52645 | url-status=dead | archive-date=2012-09-12 | title= Little Lark Harbour becomes Hollywood North | publisher=[[The Western Star (Corner Brook)|The Western Star]] | date=2006-10-20 | access-date=2007-01-12 }}</ref> Photography was completed on 5 January 2007.<ref name="principal">{{cite news | author=The Weinstein Company | url=https://comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=17337 | title=''Outlander'' Principal Photography Started | publisher=ComingSoon.net | date=2006-11-02 | access-date=2006-11-03 | archive-date=2007-12-05 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071205225654/http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=17337 | url-status=dead }}</ref>

The conceptual design was shaped by [[Iain McCaig]], whose Ninth Ray Studios helped set up [[concept art]], [[storyboard]]ing, animatronics, and set design.<ref name="ugo" /> Costume designer Debra Hanson hand crafted costumes for the main characters, using designs from Ninth Ray, while she provided leftover costumes from her previous collaboration, ''[[Beowulf & Grendel]]'', to dress the extras.<ref name="ugo" />

Kainan's opponent, the creature called the Moorwen, was designed by creature designer [[Patrick Tatopoulos]] for free for the film. "Moorwen" was a play on the word [[Morlock]] from [[H. G. Wells]]' ''[[The Time Machine]]''. The director and the creature designer created the Moorwen to be like an animal, only perceived as a monster by those who were threatened. McCain praised Tatopoulos: "He brought the right amount of fierceness, sensuality, the sense of personality and a sentient kind of intelligence to [the Moorwen] that was perfect." The creature was designed to possess [[bioluminescence]], using light to draw its prey.<ref name="ugo" />

For the film, McCain constructed a replica Viking village and ship. The ship was modeled after the [[Oseberg ship]] and deployed at [[Little Port, Newfoundland and Labrador|Little Port, Newfoundland]] for filming as a funeral pyre. The Viking village was built on a farm near Nine Mile River, Nova Scotia. The crew logged their own trees, and hired a logging crew and truck to construct a [[parapet]] 800 feet long and 20 feet tall. The Viking village took three months to build.<ref name="ugo" />

==Reception==

===Critical reception=== On [[Rotten Tomatoes]], the film holds an approval rating of 37% based on {{nowrap|62 reviews}}, with a [[weighted average]] rating of 4.90/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Schizophrenic in subject and lackluster in execution, ''Outlander'' might have trouble finding the cult audience for which it was built."<ref name="rottomatoes">{{cite web |title=Outlander (2009) - Rotten Tomatoes |url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/outlander/ |website=Rotten Tomatoes.com |publisher=Fandango |access-date=8 April 2025}}</ref> On [[Metacritic]], the film has a weighted average score of 40 out of 100, based on 11 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/outlander | title=Outlander (2009): Reviews | publisher=Metacritic | access-date=2009-01-29}}</ref>

Ray Bennett of ''[[The Hollywood Reporter]]'' said, "it's entertaining nonsense with major league special effects, larger-than-life characters and inventive monsters that draw on the 'Aliens' and 'Predator' models, being terrifying but also vaguely sympathetic."<ref>{{cite journal | last = Bennett |first =Ray | title = Film Review: Outlander | journal = [[The Hollywood Reporter]] | date = August 15, 2008 | url =https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/outlander-125893/ | access-date = January 29, 2009 }}</ref>

Derek Elley of ''[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]'' said that the "script tries to build up a full range of heroic characters in conflict but is let down by workaday dialogue and direction that doesn't conjure any special atmosphere. Only Hurt, who can always be relied on to turn the most basic dialogue metal into something resembling gold, comes close to giving the picture any verbal style. But despite a couple OK action sequences, the first hour largely passes before delivering any serious mano a mano with the mean Moorwen... Color processing has a cold, grungy look in daytime exteriors and a slightly fuzzy, amber-drenched look in interiors. Geoff Zanelli's score is off-the-shelf heroic-action wallpaper. However, production and costume design do sport an impressive authenticity, and effects work does the job in a genre-ish way. Alas, Patrick Tatopoulos' monster simply recalls elements of other, more famous aliens."<ref>{{cite journal | last = Elley |first =Derek | title = Outlander Review | journal = [[Variety (magazine)|Variety]] | date = August 15, 2008 | url =https://variety.com/2008/film/reviews/outlander-1200507714/ | access-date = January 29, 2009 }}</ref>

===Box office=== ''Outlander'' had a limited release on January 23, 2009, at 81 theaters and grossed $59,581 at the U.S. box office in its opening weekend. As of August 2009, it had earned $166,003 in the U.S. and $6,192,098 worldwide, against a reported budget of $47 million.<ref name=mojo/>

==References== {{Reflist|2}}

==External links== * {{IMDb title|0462465}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Outlander (Film)}} [[Category:2008 films]] [[Category:2000s action horror films]] [[Category:2000s fantasy adventure films]] [[Category:2008 adventure films]] [[Category:2000s monster movies]] [[Category:American monster movies]] [[Category:2008 science fiction horror films]] [[Category:American action adventure films]] [[Category:American action horror films]] [[Category:Adventure horror films]] [[Category:Films about alien invasions]] [[Category:Films about ancient astronauts]] [[Category:Films about extraterrestrial life]] [[Category:American fantasy adventure films]] [[Category:American science fiction horror films]] [[Category:American science fiction action films]] [[Category:Films based on Beowulf]] [[Category:Films scored by Geoff Zanelli]] [[Category:Films set in Norway]] [[Category:Films set in the 8th century]] [[Category:Films set in the Viking Age]] [[Category:Films set on fictional planets]] [[Category:Films shot in Nova Scotia]] [[Category:Films shot in Vancouver]] [[Category:Films shot in Washington (state)]] [[Category:2008 English-language films]] [[Category:2008 American films]] [[Category:English-language action horror films]] [[Category:English-language science fiction horror films]] [[Category:English-language action adventure films]] [[Category:English-language fantasy adventure films]]