Fortress

Fortress

Year: 1985

Runtime: 88 mins

Language: English

Director: Arch Nicholson

DramaThrillerHorrorIntense violence and sexual transgressionTerrifying haunted and supernatural horror

A teacher and nine of her students are seized by four masked kidnappers, turning a school field trip into a deadly standoff. Faced with the stark choice of kill or be killed, the group bands together, devising a daring plan to outwit and overthrow their captors while fighting for survival.

Warning: spoilers below!

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Timeline – Fortress (1985)

Trace every key event in Fortress (1985) with our detailed, chronological timeline. Perfect for unpacking nonlinear stories, spotting hidden connections, and understanding how each scene builds toward the film’s climax. Whether you're revisiting or decoding for the first time, this timeline gives you the full picture.

1

Opening day at the Outback school

Sally Jones runs a one-room school in the Outback with nine pupils. That ordinary day, the younger children claim to have seen cartoon characters at the edges of the playground. Sally writes off the reports as childish fantasy, setting an uneasy tone for what comes next.

Outback one-room school
2

Armed intruders enter the school

Four men wearing Halloween masks burst into the school, led by a man Sally nicknames Father Christmas. They force Sally and the children into a van at gunpoint, taking control of the classroom. Sally remains calm and tries to keep the kids cooperative.

School, then van
3

Ransom threat revealed

In the van, the kidnappers openly discuss holding the school for ransom and threatening to murder one child a day until demands are met. Sally pretends innocence and asks for a rest break, while secretly ordering one of the older kids to hide in the woods to seek help. The kidnappers immediately realize one child is missing and threaten to shoot another.

In van
4

Escape into a cave and search for an exit

Sally and the remaining children barricade themselves inside a cave. One of the older boys recognizes the cave as a place he used to explore and points to an alternate exit. Sally and several of the older students explore the caverns and discover an exit across an underground river.

Cave
5

Farmhouse confrontation

The group exits the cave and heads toward the countryside, only to discover a farmhouse ahead. The kidnapping crew reaches the farmhouse first; when the old man resists, they shoot him and his wife. Father Christmas objects to the murders and kills another kidnapper.

Farmhouse
6

The barn trap and the plan to distract

Sally and the children are locked in the barn with an armed kidnapper while the others go on a supply run. The oldest schoolgirl, Narelle, distracts the kidnapper with flirtatious talk while a boy steals his shotgun. The plan works and the kidnapper is killed, but a stray shotgun blast badly injures the boy who stole the weapon.

Barn
7

Flight into the Outback and mobilization

With the kidnapper dead, the children and Sally flee into the Outback and resolve to fight back rather than wait for rescue. They abandon passivity and begin to fortify their position, planning to defend themselves against the remaining captors.

Outback
8

Fortifying a cave with improvised weapons

They discover a cave suitable for defense and begin fortifying it, drawing on Sally's classroom lessons about Indigenous hunting methods to dig a spike pit and fashion spears from school supplies. The group practices and lays traps, turning their environment into a makeshift fortress.

Cave fortress
9

Confrontation with Father Christmas

One of the kidnappers falls to the spike pit, and Father Christmas reaches the cave to confront Sally and the kids. A brutal confrontation follows as they defend themselves against the intruder.

Cave
10

Months later: investigators question Sally

Several months pass before police investigators visit the school to question Sally about Father Christmas's body. Sally maintains she has no knowledge and claims they killed him by rolling a boulder onto him. The investigators are unnerved by the presence of the children, who suddenly surround them and depart without pressing further.

Several months later School
11

The preserved heart and dismissal

Sally regards the preserved human heart on display among the school's science experiments and seems to derive a strange sense of closure from it. Satisfied, she dismisses the children for the day, signaling a fragile balance has returned to the school.

School science room

Last Updated: October 09, 2025 at 14:21

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