HALLOWEEN 2K20: John Carpenter Tribute - A Review of "Escape from New York"

I've played Call of Duty pal, don't think I need to aim down my sights.

Now we're back on the sci-fi train of John Carpenter's genius. Right after the release of The Fog, Carpenter became ready to release his next feature film, and wouldn't you know it? It's another stone-cold classic of 80s cinema. Carpenter originally wrote the screenplay for Escape from New York in 1976, in the aftermath of Nixon's Watergate scandal. Carpenter said, "The whole feeling of the nation was one of real cynicism about the president." He wrote the screenplay, but no studio wanted to make it because, according to Carpenter, "it was too violent, too scary, and too weird". The film's storyline, set in the near-future world of 1997... I'll pause for a few seconds while everyone laughs at how unfortunately old they have gotten... concerns a crime-ridden United States, which has converted Manhattan Island in New York City into the country's maximum-security prison. Air Force One is hijacked by insurgents and is purposely crashed in New York City. The hero of the film sent in to rescue the president, making his debut is the wildly popular snarling gritty action hero Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell).

I want you to name every Simpsons character.
You forget one, I blow your head open like a can
of sliced tomatoes.

The severed head of the Statue of Liberty on the movie's poster sets the tone for our setting. Thank you Cloverfield for ripping that one off. Let's take a close, close look this Halloween season during my tribute to John Carpenter at what many consider to be John's tertiary magnum opus... with respect and admiration paid to our next post, but WE WILL GET TO THAT. This is Escape from New York, a movie that teaches us that a convict will sacrifice his life to rescue the President of the United States in exchange for release, so long as it isn't Donald J. Trump.

In 1988, following a 400% increase in crime, the United States has turned Manhattan into a giant maximum-security prison. A 50-foot (15 m) wall surrounds the island, bridges have been mined, and all prisoners are sentenced to life terms without the possibility of parole. The prisoners are then let loose inside Manhattan and are henceforth free to attack and kill each other at their own entertainment, as prisoners of the United States of America within this super-penitentiary. The film's setting proved to be a potential problem for Carpenter and his team, who needed to create a decaying, semi-destroyed version of New York City on only a shoe-string budget. Eventually, they decided to shoot in East St. Louis, Illinois (home state represent!) due to the city's appearance as a rundown, dismantled city sporting burnt-out looking buildings with a "seedy quality' to them. Nine years later, in 1997, while flying the U.S. President (Donald Pleasence) to a peace summit in Hartford, Connecticut, Air Force One is hijacked by terrorists... a plot line that sure as shit doesn't age that well considering... well, alright I'm bailing out of that joke. Anywho, the president is given a tracking bracelet and is handcuffed to his briefcase before being escorted to an escape pod. The aircraft crashes but the pod survives.

"Don't forget, we have to have enough time so
you can shave my balls, too." "Mr. President,
for the last time... you do that. I do not."

Police are dispatched to rescue the president. Romero (Frank Doubleday), the right-hand man of the Duke of New York (South Park's own soul-man "Chef", Isaac Hayes), the overall crime boss, warns that the Duke has the president, who will be killed if any further rescue attempts are made. To try and rescue the President, Commissioner Bob Hauk (Lee Van Cleef) offers a deal to Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell), a former Special Forces soldier convicted of attempting to rob the Federal Reserve. If Snake rescues the president and a cassette tape, Hauk will arrange a presidential pardon. I don't know how a Commissioner of the Special Forces can guarantee a presidential pardon when he himself is not the president, but hey I'm sure he and the president can work on some sort of handshake deal. To ensure his compliance, Hauk has Plissken injected with micro-explosives that will rupture his arteries within 22 hours. If Snake is successful, Hauk will neutralize the explosives.

"What time is it? It's Digiorno." "Uhh, Snake
that's now how that phrase goes."

Snake uses a stealth glider to land atop the World Trade Center's South Tower. He follows the tracking bracelet to a vaudeville theater, only to find it on the wrist of an insane old man. Convinced the president is dead, Snake radios Hauk but is told that he will be shot down if he comes out empty-handed. Snake meets "Cabbie" (Ernest Borgnine) who remained in Manhattan after it became a prison and now drives an armored taxi. Cabbie takes Snake to Harold "Brain" Hellman (Harry Dean Stanton), an adviser to the Duke and a former associate of Snake. Brain is a brilliant engineer and has established an oil well and a small refinery, fueling the city's remaining cars. Brain tells Snake that the Duke plans to lead a mass escape across the Queensboro Bridge by using the president as a human shield and following a landmine map that Brain has drawn up. Snake forces Brain and his girlfriend Maggie (Adrienne Barbeau) to lead him to the Duke's compound at Grand Central Terminal. Snake finds the president but is captured by the Duke's overwhelming forces. What sucks is that I could always trust Harry Dean Stanton, the man is a badass actor. Every character he plays is lovable. You almost hate to see that he sold out for his own pardon to betray Snake.

"Come on, man. I've hit you forty-three times
with this thing. At least tell me you can't
remember basic math anymore."

While Snake is forced to fight in a deathmatch against "Slag" (professional wrestler Ox Baker), Brain and Maggie kill Romero and flee with the president. Snake kills Slag, and takes Brain, Maggie, and the president to the top of the World Trade Center to escape in the glider. After a band of crazies destroy it, the group returns to street level and encounters Cabbie, who offers to take them across the bridge. When Cabbie reveals that he bartered with Romero for the cassette tape, which contains information about nuclear fusion and is intended to be a peace offering, the president demands it, but Snake takes it. The Duke pursues them onto the bridge in his customized Cadillac, setting off mines as he tries to catch up. Brain guides Snake, but they hit a mine, and Cabbie is killed. As they continue on foot, Brain is killed by another mine. Maggie refuses to leave him, shooting at Duke's car until she is run down. Snake and the president reach the wall, and guards raise up the president via a rope. The Duke opens fire, killing the guards, but the president kills the Duke with a dead guard's assault rifle. Man, Donald Pleasance is such a badass. I'm glad he got to appear in more John Carpenter movies. Snake is lifted to safety, and the micro-explosives are neutralized after he hands over the cassette tape to Hauk.

Holy shit it's Clov-- ah I already made that
joke didn't I? Freakin' J.J. Abrams.

As the president prepares for a televised speech to the leaders at the summit meeting, he thanks Snake and tells him that he can have anything he wants. All Snake wants to know is how the president feels about the people who died saving him. The president offers only half-hearted regret and lip service for their sacrifice. As Snake walks away in disgust, Hauk offers him a job as his deputy, but Snake just keeps walking. The president's live speech commences, and he plays the cassette tape. To his embarrassment, it only plays Cabbie's song, "Bandstand Boogie." As Snake walks away, he intentionally tears the magnetic tape, out of the cassette reel, destroying the actual message that was intended to be delivered by the President...

You can really tell that John Carpenter was proud of Escape from New York. It's a gritty sci-fi adventure film through the hellish ghettos of apocalyptic New York City, redesigned as a large-scale maximum security prison. It's kind of like the ultimate endgame of the villain in Johnny English, only not quite so bonkers. Kurt Russell got to debut his all-time favorite characters, Snake Plissken, for 1980s pop culture to immediately take hold of. Snake Plissken would go on to inspire many other heroes of film and video games. Solid Snake from Metal Gear and Metal Gear Solid had his name inspired by Snake, and many 1980s and 1990s cartoon characters with eye-patches were inspired by Snake, namely characters in G.I. Joe. Kurt Russell very much wanted to Snake to continue in a long series of films, much like Sylvester Stallone with Rocky Balboa, and Harrison Ford with Indiana Jones. He was eager to play Snake, wanting to shake off his Disney image, so to speak. Thankfully he got to do it. Brilliant casting. Unfortunately, the only other film we got with Snake was the sequel, Escape from L.A. Maybe we'll review that another time.

"Snake Plissken can suck on my
chocolate salty balls."

Go check out Escape from New York if you're looking for a new sci-fi action film to check out. It's got that gritty John Carpenter Panavision widescreen cinematography we all know and love, it has yet another kick-ass John Carpenter score to it, much like his other films. It's got great characters, and interesting locale, a fun villain, and it's one wild ride from start to finish. Even the runtime feels perfectly natural. the movie isn't too long nor is it too short. It feels like it paces perfectly and ends at just the right time. It also has three of my all-time favorite actors in Kurt Russell, Donald Pleasance, and Harry Dean Stanton. Isaac Hayes brings the humorous grandiose as the Duke of New York, something you can't help but hearing Chef's voice in. "HELLO THERE, CHILDREN"... "Hey Chef." Seriously... great film, a sci-fi masterpiece and yet another one from Mr. Carpenter himself.

By now, John could do no wrong, and that trend would continue as next up, we will cover his secondary magnum opus considered by many, myself included. Get your winter gear and get ready to go to Antarctica... because the isolation is going to terrorize you.