Escape from L.A. (also known as John Carpenter's Escape From L.A.) is a 1996 American science fiction action film co-written, co-scored, and directed by John Carpenter, co-written and produced by Debra Hill and Kurt Russell, with Russell also starring as Snake Plissken. A sequel of Escape from New York, Escape from L.A. co-stars Steve Buscemi, Stacy Keach, Bruce Campbell, and Pam Grier.
Plot
On August 23, 2000, an earthquake strikes Los Angeles, causing the San Fernando Valley to flood and turning a portion of California into an island from Malibu to Anaheim. An American presidential candidate (portrayed by Cliff Robertson), who is also an outspoken Christian theocrat, has been saying that L.A. is a "city of sin," and that "like the mighty fist of God, waters will rise up and separate this sinful, sinful city from our country." The candidate is shortly elected president and, by an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, his term is made permanent. The president's new policies include relocating the capital from Washington, D.C. to his hometown of Lynchburg, Virginia, and declaring that anyone not conforming to the new "Moral America" laws he creates (banning such things as tobacco, alcoholic beverages, red meat, firearms, profanity, non-Christian religions, atheism, and non-marital sex) will be deported to Los Angeles Island or can choose repentance and death by electrocution as an alternative. A containment wall is built around the island with armed guards and watchtowers posted. Those sent to the island are exiled permanently.
In 2013, Cuervo Jones (Georges Corraface), a Shining Path Peruvian Revolutionary, seduces the President's daughter, Utopia (A. J. Langer), via a holographic system and brainwashes her into stealing her father's remote control to the "Sword of Damocles" super weapon, a series of satellites capable of destroying electronics anywhere on the planet, driving target areas back into the Dark Ages. The president intends to use the system to destroy the "ability to function" of America's enemies and eventually dominate the world. While traveling aboard Air Force Three, Utopia leaves the plane in an escape pod and lands on L.A. Island to join Cuervo. With the satellites under his control, Cuervo promises to take back America with the assistance of an allied invasion force of third world nations that are standing by to attack. He claims that if the president tries to stop him, he will "pull the plug" on the country and black out the capital. In addition, Cuervo also knows a secret code that can knock out power for the entire planet, i.e. the "world code."
Snake Plissken is captured for a series of crimes and is scheduled to be exiled to the island. Upon his arrival for deportation, he meets the president and is offered the mission of retrieving the weapon in exchange for a full pardon for all the crimes Snake has ever committed if he is successful. The president indicates he does not care whether Utopia is returned or not, declaring her a traitor. To ensure Snake's compliance, he is infected with the man-made Plutoxin 7 virus that will kill him within ten hours. If he completes the mission, Snake will be given an antidote and cured of the virus. After acquiring all of the necessary equipment and making his way across the island via personal submarine, Snake meets "Map to the Stars" Eddie (Steve Buscemi), a swindler who sells interactive tours of L.A. Shortly after a failed attempt at retrieving the device from Cuervo, Snake meets up with his old friend Carjack Malone, who has since become the transsexual gang leader Hershe Las Palmas (Pam Grier). Together with Hershe and her gang, Snake stages a final assault on Cuervo's forces.
Snake defeats Cuervo at his staging area of The Happy Kingdom by the Sea and takes the remote control. He leaves the island with Utopia and some other Cuervo resistors in a helicopter. Eddie mortally wounds Cuervo, but the revolutionary fires a rocket launcher at the helicopter. Seeing the incoming rocket, Eddie leaps off the aircraft, landing on an awning. The rocket hits the helicopter and kills those in the back of the chopper; Snake and Utopia bail out before it crashes. When the president's men reach the crash site, Snake intentionally hands off the wrong remote to the president while Utopia is taken to the electric chair, despite her pleas for forgiveness. The Plutoxin 7 virus is revealed to be nothing more than a fast, hard-hitting case of the flu. The president tries using the satellites to stop a Cuban invasion force threatening Florida. Activating the remote, the president hears only Eddie's "Map to the Stars" intro over "I Love L.A.." The president orders Snake's execution, but Snake tricks him and his troops by using a holographic illusion of himself. Seeing the problem of one man having such power over the world, Snake activates the real control device and enters the secret world code, against pleas to stop. Within seconds, all electronic technology worldwide is shut down by the satellites; as a result, Utopia is saved since she cannot be electrocuted. In a forest, Snake discovers a pack of American Spirit cigarettes on the ground and lights one up. He stares at the lit match and the viewer before extinguishing it and saying, "Welcome to the human race."
Cast
- Kurt Russell as Snake Plissken
- Steve Buscemi as Map to the Stars Eddie
- Peter Fonda as Pipeline
- Cliff Robertson as President
- Valeria Golino as Taslima
- Stacy Keach as Cmdr. Malloy
- Pam Grier as Hershe Las Palmas
- Bruce Campbell as Surgeon General of Beverly Hills
- Georges Corraface as Cuervo Jones
- Michelle Forbes as Brazen
- A. J. Langer as Utopia
- Ina Romeo as Hooker
- Peter Jason as Duty Sergeant
- Jordan Baker as Police Anchor
- Caroleen Feeney as Woman on Freeway
- Paul Bartel as Congressman
- Tom McNulty as Officer
- Jeff Imada as Saigon Shadow
- Breckin Meyer as Surfer
- Robert Carradine as Skinhead
- Shelly Desai as Cloaked Figure
- Leland Orser as Test Tube
Production
The film was in development for over ten years with a script commissioned in 1985, written by screenwriter Coleman Luck. Carpenter would later describe the script as "too light, too campy". The project remained dormant following that time until the 1994 earthquake and the L.A. riots revived it. Carpenter and Kurt Russell got together to write with their long-time collaborator Debra Hill. Carpenter insists that it was Russell's persistence that allowed the film to be made, since "Snake Plissken was a character he loved and wanted to play again". Principal filming began in December 1995. Carpenter has stated that if he ever did another sequel for the Escape films he would call it Escape from Earth. Russell has also stated that out of all the characters he has done in his career, Snake Plissken is his favorite.
Reception
Escape from L.A. was a box office bomb, only earning $25,477,365 from its $50 million budgetâ€"about as much as its predecessor, but little more than half its significantly higher budget.
The film received mixed reviews from critics, and has a 53% rating from Rotten Tomatoes. Critics panned the film's gratuitous action sequences, which were significantly scaled up from the previous film, and which many critics felt added little to the film. Roger Ebert felt it was an attempt to satirize the genre while exploiting it: "[Escape from L.A.] has such manic energy, such a weird, cockeyed vision, that it may work on some moviegoers as satire and on others as the real thing."
Home video
Paramount released two DVD editions of the film in 1998 and 2006. They contained no special features except for the original theatrical trailer. The 2006 edition features different cover art. These R1 releases are also non-anamorphic transfers. The 2001 R2 release is anamorphic.
The film was released on Blu-ray on May 4, 2010.
Soundtrack
- "Dawn" â€" Stabbing Westward
- "Sweat" â€" Tool
- "The One" â€" White Zombie
- "Cut Me Out" â€" Toadies
- "Pottery" â€" Butthole Surfers
- "10 Seconds Down" â€" Sugar Ray
- "Blame (L.A) Remix" â€" Gravity Kills
- "Professional Widow" â€" Tori Amos
- "Paisley" â€" Ministry
- "Fire in the Hole" â€" Orange 9mm
- "Escape from the Prison Planet" â€" Clutch
- "Et Tu Brute?" â€" CIV
- "Foot on the Gas" â€" Sexpod
- "Can't Even Breathe" â€" Deftones
Score
The film's score has been released twice, the first on both CD and cassette by Milan Records in 1996 and again as an expanded CD release by specialty label La-La Land Records in 2014 which featured pieces of music which were recorded for (but ultimately cut) use in the film.
Comics
The Adventures of Snake Plissken
Marvel released the one-shot The Adventures of Snake Plissken in January 1997. The story takes place sometime between Escape from New York and his famous Cleveland escape mentioned in Escape from L.A.. Snake has robbed Atlanta's Centers for Disease Control of some engineered metaviruses and is looking for buyers in Chicago. Finding himself in a deal that's really a set-up, he makes his getaway and exacts revenge on the buyer for ratting him out to the United States Police Force. In the meantime, a government lab has built a robot called A.T.A.C.S. (Autonomous Tracking And Combat System) that can catch criminals by imprinting their personalities upon its program in order to predict and anticipate a specific criminal's every move. The robot's first test subject is America's public enemy number one, Snake Plissken. After a brief battle, the tide turns when A.T.A.C.S. copies Snake to the point of fully becoming his personality. Now recognizing the government as the enemy, A.T.A.C.S. sides with Snake. Unamused, Snake punches the machine and destroys it. As A.T.A.C.S. shuts down, it can only ask him, "Why?" Snake just walks off answering, "I don't need the competition."
John Carpenter's Snake Plissken Chronicles
Snake Plissken appears in John Carpenter's Snake Plissken Chronicles, a four-part comic book miniseries released in 2003 that was published by CrossGen comics. The story takes place some time after the events in Escape from New York. Snake has been given a military Humvee after his presidential pardon and makes his way to Atlantic City. Although the director's cut of the New York movie shows Snake was caught after a bank job, this story has Snake finishing up a second heist that was preplanned before his capture. The job is stealing from a casino the car in which John F. Kennedy was assassinated, and then delivering it to a buyer on a yacht in the Gulf of Mexico. The job involves Snake's partnership with a man named Marrs, who ends up double crossing him. Left for dead in a sinking crab cage, Snake escapes and is luckily saved by a passing fisherman named Captain Ron. When Ron denies Snake's request to use his boat in order to beat Marrs to the robbery, Snake decides to kill him. But when he ends up saving Ron from the Russian mob who wants money, Ron changes his mind and helps Snake. Once at the casino, Snake comes face-to-face with Marrs and his men, who arrive at the same time, ending in a high-speed shootout. Snake gets away with the car and its actress portraying Jackie Kennedy, leaving Marrs to be caught by the casino owner, who cuts him a deal to bring his car back and live. After some trouble, Snake manages to finally get the car to the buyer's yacht, using Ron's boat, and is then attacked by Marrs. Following the firefight, the yacht and car are destroyed, Marrs and Captain Ron are dead, and Snake makes his escape in a helicopter with the 30 million credits owed to him for the job.
References
External links
- Escape from L.A. at the Internet Movie Database
- Escape from L.A. at the TCM Movie Database
- Escape from L.A. at AllMovie
- Escape from L.A. at Box Office Mojo
- Escape from L.A. at Rotten Tomatoes
- Escape from L.A. at theofficialjohncarpenter.com