Before his Hollywood success with Universal Soldier, Independence Day and Godzilla, Roland Emmerich directed this German-financed sci-fi thriller about a cop (Michael Paré) going undercover as a convict on an industrial planet to investigate ongoing sabotage. Over-plotted, cliché-ridden and highly derivative, this mining mess certainly benefits from Emmerich's talent for getting every dollar on screen, and both the effects and production values belie its origins. But so little of it makes any sense - particularly an unpleasant rape subplot. Emmerich's ambitious approach deserves praise, but Dean Heyde and Oliver Eberle's muddled script doesn't do him any favours. The director's regular writing and producing partner Dean Devlin has a major role as Paré's nerdy navigator.

Year 2038: The mineral resources of the earth are drained, in space there are fights for the last deposits on other planets and satellites. This is the situation when one of the bigger mining corporations has lost all but one mineral moons and many of their fully automatic mining robots are disappearing on their flight home. Since nobody else wants the job, they send prisoners to defend the mining station. Among them undercover agent Stone, who shall clear the whereabouts of the expensive robots. In an atmosphere of corruption, fear and hatred he gets between the fronts of rivaling groups.