![]() ![]() “No, not the whole reason, it was one of the reasons,” Carpenter says. Carpenter also wanted to explore some real issues of the day, in a way that only sci-fi can allow for. Granted, surfing and hoops (Carpenter says that Russell really did make that last full-court shot!) weren’t the only reason he wanted to do the film. “Well, anyway… it got to introduce Peter Fonda’s character, which I’m very fond of, having worked with Peter. ![]() then Peter.”Įither way though, it’s just a perfectly bonkers example of the fun Carpenter and company had with this film. “Surfing came first, the idea came first. And while Fonda and Carpenter became great friends thanks to the film, the writer/director says the tsunami came before the casting. We had some things that we could do immediately, which is to get Snake surfing, which is just something I wanted to do, and hit some high points here and there… locations, villains, so forth,” Carpenter says.Īppropriately, it’s Fonda’s character that sets Snake up with a stick to ride out the impending tsunami. “Well, that was easy, it’s just a different city, but it’s my beloved city. But this was back in the ‘70s, I was a young child, and I wrote it bad guy, Snake Plisken bad world: New York prison.”Īlthough it took 15 years, making Snake bi-coastal wasn’t all that much of a stretch from that original premise. “So I just took that and started working with it. “ Escape From New York was kind of based in a way on a novel by Harry Harrison … it’s a science fiction novel where they send a bad man into a bad place, a bad planet,” Carpenter says. Carpenter says the idea for Snake's original escape came from classic pulpy sci-fi. Of course, before Snake ever dreamed about escaping from L.A., he had to make his bones (and bury a few) on the East Coast. Langer), steals the remote control to the "Sword of Damocles" doomsday weapon - and only reluctant Snake can save the day.Īlong the way, there’s a whole host of wacky characters, played by savvy vets like Stacy Keach (Commander Mac Malloy), Steve Buscemi (Map to The Stars Eddie), Pam Grier (Jack "Carjack" Malone / Hershe Las Palmas), Bruce Campbell (the plastic-faced Surgeon General of Beverly Hills) and Peter Fonda (Pipeline). The newly created island serves as a last stop for all the deportees who dare to express themselves and defy the theocratic totalitarian president (Cliff Robertson) and his new "Moral America.” Amidst this debauchery is Cuervo Jones (Georges Corraface), a Peruvian revolutionary who, with the help of the president’s daughter, Utopia (A.J. kind of feel… all with an outrageous sci-fi bent.Įscape From L.A. takes place in an earthquake-ravaged, torn-from-the-mainland Los Angeles. There’s surfing, there’s basketball, there’s all sorts of stuff like that here… pretty girls,” Carpenter says, while noting that he was “always” trying to tap into that L.A. and the environs and locale what happens in L.A. “There’s several things that are identifiable with L.A. things that writer/director John Carpenter ( Halloween) first thought of in order to bring Snake west, as the horror master told SYFY WIRE while promoting Escape From L.A.’s new 4K Ultra release. While it might seem like a stretch, Snake surfing and shooting hoops were two of the typical L.A. and he can surf! And not just casually surf, but surf tsunamis, as he does in 1996's highly underrated sequel, Escape From L.A. But, fans would have to wait another 15 years before they’d learn that Snake isn’t just tough, but he’s also got game. Bob "Snake" Plissken, as the world found out in John Carpenter’s 1981 classic, Escape From New York. There just aren’t a lot of characters as tough as Kurt Russell’s Lieutenant S.D. ![]()
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