Fortress 2: Re-Entry (2000) is the sequel to Fortress.
Ten years after escaping the MenTel Corporation's maximum security prison the "Fortress", John Brennick (Christopher Lambert) and his allies are once again tracked down by the tyrannical government and sent to an even more inescapable prison... IN SPACE!
This film provides examples of:
- 20 Minutes into the Future: The sequel is from 2000 and set in 2027.
- The Alcatraz: This movie ups the ante by having the prison placed in orbit.
- Camera Spoofing: After they discover that the implant inside them taps into the optic nerve and turns them into walking cameras, the prisoners are able to hack into one of them to transmit a loop of them in the shower so they can have conversations in peace. The people in charge of watching the feed don't notice because they are too busy ogling the prisoners.
- Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: Warden Poe from the first film, while the director of a Hellhole Prison, is Affably Evil, has several hints of humanity when he clearly starts to fall for Karen, and is ultimately revealed to be an Artificial Human and as much a victim of the MenTel Corporation as the prisoners, with ZED as The Man Behind the Man. Warden Teller from the sequel is an ice-cold, Faux Affably Evil and fully organic man who is in no way being controlled by ZED, and is only interested in expanding his own power.
- Greater-Scope Villain: Peter Teller, the Warden of Fortress 2, clearly explains that he was once the Director of Prison Facilities for the MenTel Corporation until Brennick's escape from the first Fortress caused his demotion. This makes Teller the boss of Warden Poe from the first film, although here he steps down to Big Bad.
- Kill Sat: What the Warden of the Prison Ship was working to turn it into. Fired twice: once to destroy a shuttle full of escaping (backstabbing) prisoners and the second time fired by Brennan to overload the prison's solar panels and destroy the prison itself.
- La Résistance: While in hiding, Brennick is meeting with members of the resistance movement that has formed against the MenTel Corporation and their government cronies.
- No Prison Segregation: The new prison houses men and women together in the same cramped living quarters. They even shower together! As you might expect, Prison Rape is hinted at, although not shown. Since it's a Prison Ship orbiting the Earth, there presumably is no room to even bother. That, and because the inmates are already condemned to death, the administrators are not concerned for their safety either.
- Numbered Sequels: Fortress 2 is the sequel to Fortress.
- Prison Ship: The prison is revealed to be a satellite orbiting the Earth.
- Punishment Box: Brennick is sent to one after being caught stowing away in a cargo crate bound for a supply shuttle. It is a very small cell that is cut off from the temperature control system of the prison, with a cupola window that gives him a pretty scenic view of the Earth, and that's not when he is subjected to the blinding light, extreme heat, and solar radiation from the Sun, or the frigid cold and darkness from the empty void of space.
- Recycled In Space: The sequel is once again set in a high tech prison like the original, but it's a space prison this time.
- Tactful Translation: The leader of The Mafiya group on the prisoners only speaks Russian and is extremely crass with his words, and his translator translates it to polite (although equally slimy) requests almost always prefaced with "Mr. Kerensky says…". Example: when he tells his goons to get rid of a double-agent, he says "kill this bitch!" and the translator literally tells her "Mr. Kerensky says that You Have Outlived Your Usefulness".
- Thrown Out the Airlock: Several prisoners are executed in this manner, blown out into space after being forced into the chemical waste disposal. Brennick himself survives being spaced by floating towards another exit that was nearby.
- Vasquez Always Dies: There are quite a few female inmates on Fortress 2, but one that stands out in particular is a muscular, burly woman who is executed several minutes after arriving for attacking one of the guards. Brennick's more attractive and feminine partner lives through to the end.
