Escape from New York
| John Carpenter's Escape from New York | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical poster | |
| Directed by | John Carpenter |
| Written by | John Carpenter Nick Castle |
| Produced by | Larry J. Franco Debra Hill |
| Starring | Kurt Russell Lee Van Cleef Ernest Borgnine Donald Pleasence Isaac Hayes Harry Dean Stanton Adrienne Barbeau Season Hubley Tom Atkins |
| Cinematography | Dean Cundey Jim Lucas |
| Edited by | Todd Ramsay |
| Music by | John Carpenter Alan Howarth |
| Distributed by | AVCO Embassy Pictures |
Release dates | July 10, 1981 |
Running time | 99 min. |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $7,000,000 (est.) |
Escape from New York is a 1981 science fiction/action film directed and scored by John Carpenter. He also co-wrote the screenplay with Nick Castle. Set in the near future of a United States so crime-ridden that Manhattan Island in New York City has become a maximum security prison, an ex-soldier — now legendary fugitive — "Snake" Plissken, is given 22 hours to find the President of the United States, who has been captured by inmates after his plane crashed on the island.
Carpenter originally wrote the film in the mid-1970s as a reaction to the Watergate scandal, but no studio wanted to make it because it was deemed too dark and violent. After the success of Halloween, he had enough influence to get the film made and shot most of it in St. Louis, Missouri, where a significant portion of the city had been burned out in 1976 during a massive urban fire.[citation needed] Its total budget was estimated to be USD $7 million.
The film was a commercial hit, grossing over $50 million worldwide. It has since developed its own cult following, particularly around the anti-hero Plissken. A sequel followed, Escape from L.A., and a remake was tentatively announced on March 13, 2007 with actor Gerard Butler set to play Plissken.
Plot
Set in a dystopian then-future 1997, Manhattan Island has been converted into a maximum security prison, surrounded by a containment wall. Sentenced to life imprisonment, the inmates have created their own world. Air Force One is hijacked by leftist terrorists opposed to the President of the United State's police state regime and crashes onto the Island. The President (Donald Pleasance) survices in an escape pod, but is captured by the inmates.
Police Commissioner Hauk (Lee Van Cleef) attempts to negotiate the President's release, but the inmates refuse to give him up. Hauk offers a newly arrived military prisoner, "Snake" Plissken (Russell) a deal: rescue the President and retrieve a cassette tape that contains the secret to nuclear fusion technology before the important "Hartford Summit" commences in 24 hours and receive a full pardon. Hauk has him injected with micro-explosives that will kill him in 22 hours, ensuring that Snake does not abandon his mission and escape. The explosives will be defused if he returns with both the President and the tape in time for the summit.
Snake covertly lands atop the World Trade Center with a jet glider. He locates the plane wreckage and the escape pod, but the President is gone. Snake tracks the President's life-monitor bracelet signal to a movie theater where he meets Cabbie (Ernest Borgnine), who offers to help. Snake then locates the bracelet in the basement, only to find it on the wrist of an inebriated bum.
Cabbie takes Snake to see Brain (Harry Dean Stanton), a wise inmate who has made the New York Public Library his personal fortress. Brain tells Snake that a gang leader, the self-proclaimed "Duke of New York" (Isaac Hayes), has the President and that he plans an escape attempt across the "69th Street Bridge" with the President as a human shield. The Duke unexpectedly arrives to get a diagram of the land mines that guard the bridge and Snake forces Brain and his girlfriend Maggie (Adrienne Barbeau) to lead him back to the Duke's compound. Snake finds the President, but his rescue fails and he is captured as well.
The Duke gathers his people and announces the walk-out to thunderous applause. He also offers the dramatic death of Snake Plissken who is shoved into an arena to fight with a power-house brute (played by professional wrestler Ox Baker). Meanwhile, Brain and Maggie trick the Duke's men, gain access to the President, and find the tape. After killing the guards, they free the President and quickly flee to Snake's glider. Meanwhile, Snake defeats his opponent, impressing the crowd. The Duke is furious, and even moreso when he learns the President has escaped with Brain. He rounds up his men to chase them down.
In the confusion, Snake slips away and manages to catch up with Brain, Maggie and the President at the glider, but during their attempted get-away, a gang of Crazies push it off the building. Snake and the others soon find Cabbie, and Snake takes the wheel of his cab, heading for the bridge. Cabbie reveals that he has the tape. The President demands it, but Snake decides to hold on to it.
Meanwhile, The Duke gives chase and as they drive over the bridge, Snake hits a land mine and the cab is destroyed, killing Cabbie. Brain and Maggie also die as Snake and the President keep running. Snake and the President reach the containment wall and guards lower a rope. As Snake waits to be lifted, the Duke attacks him. He evades the Duke's attack who then waits for the rope to be lowered again. Snake ambushes and disarms him. While the Duke lies on top of a car after his beating, he is machine-gunned down by the President. Snake is then lifted to safety and the implanted mini-explosives deactivated.
As the President prepares for a televised speech, he thanks Snake for saving him, but showing little emotion for those who died helping him. The President's speech commences and he offers the content of the cassette to the summit. To the President's embarrassment, the tape has been switched for a cassette of Cabbie's favorite swing music. As Snake leaves the prison, he tears apart the all-important nuclear fusion tape.
Cast
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Kurt Russell | Snake Plissken |
| Lee Van Cleef | Police Commissioner Robert Hauk |
| Ernest Borgnine | Cabbie |
| Donald Pleasence | The President of the United States of America |
| Isaac Hayes | "The Duke of New York" |
| Harry Dean Stanton | Harold 'Brain' Helman |
| Adrienne Barbeau | Maggie |
| Season Hubley | Girl in Chock Full O Nuts |
| Tom Atkins | Rehme |
| Jamie Lee Curtis | Narrator/Computer Voice |
Production
Carpenter originally wrote the screenplay for Escape from New York in 1976 during the time of the Watergate scandal. Carpenter said, "The whole feeling of the nation was one of real cynicism about the President. I wrote the screenplay and no studio wanted to make it" because, according to Carpenter, "it was too violent, too scary, too weird."[1] He has also been inspired by the film Death Wish which was very popular at the time. However, he didn't agree with the film's philosophy but liked how it conveyed "the sense of New York as a kind of jungle, and I wanted to make an SF film along these lines."[2]
Carpenter had just made Dark Star but no one wanted to hire him as a director so he figured that he would make it in Hollywood as a screenwriter. The filmmaker went on to do other films with the intention of making Escape later. After the smash success of Halloween, the small studio of Avco-Embassy signed him and producer Debra Hill to a two-picture deal. The first film from this contract was The Fog. Initially, the second film that he was going to make to finish the contract out was The Philadelphia Experiment but because of script-writing problems, Carpenter junked it for this project. However, Carpenter felt that something was missing and remembers, "This was basically a straight action film. And at one point, I realized it really doesn't have this kind of crazy humor that people from New York would expect to see."[citation needed] He brought in Nick Castle, a friend from his film school days at University of Southern California. Castle invented the Cabbie character and came up with the film's ending. While many sources write that the film's production budget was $7 million, John Carpenter himself says the budget was more around $5.5 million.
The film's setting proved to be a potential problem for Carpenter who was overwhelmed with having to create a decaying, semi-destroyed version of New York City on only a shoe-string budget. The film's production designer, Joe Alves was looking for an old bridge to double for one in New York and went with Carpenter to St. Louis to inspect a bridge and walk the streets. The bridge portrayed as the "59th St. Bridge" is actually the Old Chain of Rocks Bridge, famous for its 22 degree bend in the middle of the bridge (The bridge connects Missouri to Illinois and is now a bicycle-pedestrian bridge.). While there, they noticed all the old buildings "that exist in New York now, and have that seedy, run-down quality that we’re looking for," Alves said at the time.[3] East St. Louis, Illinois (across the river from the decidedly more wealthy St. Louis proper) had been burned out in 1976 during a massive urban fire. Carpenter and his crew convinced the city to shut off the electricity to ten blocks at a time at night and shot most of the movie in the summer of 1979 and 1980. They even found an exact replica of New York's Grand Central Terminal that was deserted and unused. It was a tough, demanding shoot for the filmmaker as he recalls, "We'd finish shooting at about 6 am and I'd just be going to sleep at 7 when the Sun would be coming up. I'd wake up around 5 or 6 pm, depending on whether or not we had dailies, and by the time I got going, the Sun would be setting. So for about two and a half months I never saw daylight, which was really strange."[citation needed] In addition to shooting on location in St. Louis, Carpenter also shot parts of the film in Los Angeles (shooting interior scenes on a soundstage and the final scenes at the Sepulveda Dam, in Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles, California.), New York and Atlanta (to utilize their futuristic-looking rapid transit system).
When it came to shooting in New York City, Carpenter managed to convince the city officials to gain access to Liberty Island. He said, "We were the first film company in history allowed to shoot on Liberty Island, at the Statue of Liberty, at night. They let us have the whole island to ourselves. We were lucky. It wasn’t easy to get that initial permission. They'd had a bombing three months earlier, and were worried about trouble.".[4]
Carpenter was interested in creating two distinct looks for the movie: "One is the police state, high tech, lots of neon, a United States dominated by underground computers; that was easy to shoot compared to the Manhattan Island prison sequences, which had few lights, mainly torch lights, like feudal England."[4]
Avco-Embassy Pictures preferred either Charles Bronson or Tommy Lee Jones to play the role of "Snake" Plissken to director/co-writer John Carpenter's choice of Kurt Russell, who at the time was trying to overcome his "lightweight" screen image gained through his appearance in several Disney comedies. Carpenter refused to cast Bronson on the grounds that he was too old. At the time, Russell described his character as "a mercenary, and his style of fighting is a combination of Bruce Lee, the Exterminator and Darth Vader, with Eastwood’s vocal-ness."[5] All that matters to Snake, according to the actor, is "the next 60 seconds. Living for exactly that next minute is all there is."[citation needed] British actor Donald Pleasence plays the President of the United States without putting on an American accent. The United States Constitution requires that the President be a "natural-born citizen of the United States" (essentially, a citizen by birth and not naturalization). Pleasence came up with an explanation for how the character came to be both born in the United States and have an English accent, but Carpenter said that film audiences would not care and would just accept what was depicted.
Certain matte paintings were rendered by James Cameron, who was at that time a special effects artist with Roger Corman's New World Pictures. When Snake is piloting the glider into the city, there are three screens on the control panel displaying wireframe animations of the landing target on the WTC and surrounding buildings. What appears on those screens was not done on computer. Carpenter wanted "high-tech" looking computer graphics, which were very expensive at the time (even for such a simple animation). To get the animation he wanted, the effects crew filmed the miniature model set of New York City they used for other scenes under blacklight with reflective tape placed along every edge of the model buildings. Only the tape shows up and appears to be a 3D wireframe animation
Novelization
Written by Mike McQuay as a movie tie-in novel, the book adopts a lean, humorous style reminiscent of the film. The novel is significant in that it includes scenes that were cut out of the film, like the Federal Reserve Despository robbery that results in Snake's incarceration. The novel also provides motivation and backstory to both Snake and Hauk -- both disillusioned war veterans -- deepening their relationship that was only hinted at it in the final film. The novel explains how Snake lost his eye during the Battle for Leningrad in World War III and how Hauk became warden of New York and of his quest to find his crazy son who lives somewhere in the prison.
The novel also fleshes out the world that these characters exist in, at times presenting a future even bleaker than the one depicted in the movie. The west coast is a no-man's land and the country's population is gradually being driven crazy by nerve gas as a result of World War III.
The novel has long since been out-of-print.
Soundtrack
| Untitled | |
|---|---|
A soundtrack album, produced by Carpenter, was released in 1981 on Milan Records and was re-released in 1991 by Varese Sarabande. It featured 13 tracks and ran just over 37 minutes in length. In 2000, an expanded and remastered edition was released by Silva Records.
Track listing
- Main Title 3:53
- Bank Robbery 3:30
- "Prison Introduction" 0:20
- Over the Wall/Airforce One 2:22
- He's Still Alive/Romero 2:12
- "'Snake' Plissken" 1:41
- Orientation 1:47
- "Tell Him" 1:46
- Engulfed Cathedral [Debussy] 3:31
- Across the Roof 1:14
- Descent into New York 3:37
- Back to the Pod [Version #1] 1:34
- Everyone's Coming to New York 2:24
- "Don't Go Down There!" 0:19
- Back to the Pod /The Crazies Come Out [Version #2] 2:09
- "I Heard You Were Dead!" 0:09
- Arrival at the Library 1:06
- "You Are the Duke of New York" 0:16
- Duke Arrives/Barricade 3:35
- President at the Train 2:28
- "Who Are You?" 0:27
- Police Action 2:27
- Romero and the President 1:43
- President Is Gone 1:53
- 69th Street Bridge 2:43
- Over the Wall 3:42
- "The Name Is Plissken" 0:25
- Snake Shake - End Credits 3:58
The "Bank Robbery" track also appears on the now out-of-print Big Trouble in Little China soundtrack that was released in 1996.
Reaction
The film grossed $25.2 million in American theaters in the summer of 1981, with a similar amount grossed in foreign markets. This resulted in a $50+ million box-office hit, a revenue-to-production ratio of $5.5-7 million.[6]
Newsweek magazine praised Carpenter's "deeply ingrained B-movie sensibility — which is both his strength and limitation. He does clean work, but settles for too little. He uses Russell well, however."[7] In Time magazine, Richard Corliss wrote, "John Carpenter is offering this summer's moviegoers a rare opportunity: to escape from the air-conditioned torpor of ordinary entertainment into the hothouse humidity of their own paranoia. It's a trip worth taking."[8] Vincent Canby, in his review for the New York Times, wrote that the film "is not to be analyzed too solemnly, though. It's a toughly told, very tall tale, one of the best escape (and escapist) movies of the season."[9]
DVD releases
Escape from New York has been released three times on DVD, twice by MGM and once by Momentum Pictures. One of the MGM releases is a bare bones edition containing just the theatrical trailer. The other version is the Collector's Edition, a two-disc set featuring a newly remastered transfer with a 5.1 audio track, two commentaries (one by John Carpenter and Kurt Russell, the other by producer Debra Hill and Joe Alves), a making-of featurette, a comic book, and a ten-minute deleted opening sequence.[citation needed]
MGM's special edition of the 1981 film wasn't released until 2003 because the original negative had disappeared. The original work print containing deleted scenes finally turned up in a Midwestern storage facility, formerly used as a salt mine. The excised scenes feature Snake Plissken robbing a bank, establishing the backstory of the film. "After we screened the rought cut, we realized that the movie didn't really start until Snake got to New York. It wasn't necessary to show what sent him there."[10]
The cover art on the DVD special edition MGM release for Escape from New York features Snake Plissken in front of New York City engulfed in flames. Snake is holding a gun in his right hand, and his left biceps is exposed. On his arm is a snake tattoo, but in the movie, a different snake tattoo only appears on his stomach while his left arm is conspicuously blank. He also holds a much different gun; a rifle as opposed to a silenced Ingram MAC-10.[citation needed]
Momentum Pictures released a Region 2 special edition with extras, but only on one disc.
Remake
According to a March 12, 2007 article in Variety magazine, Gerard Butler is close to signing a deal where he will play Snake Plissken in a remake of Carpenter's movie.[11] Neal Moritz will produce and Ken Nolan will write the screenplay which will combine an original story for Plissken with the story from the 1981 movie, although Carpenter has hinted that the film might be a prequel.[12] An article in the Hollywood Reporter revealed that New Line Cinema has acquired the rights to the film from co-rights holder StudioCanal who will control the European rights and Carpenter who will serve as an executive producer and is quoted as saying, "Snake is one of my fondest creations. Kurt Russell did an incredible job, and it would be fun to see someone else try."[13] Russell has recently commented on the remake and his thoughts on the casting of Butler as Plissken: "I will say that when I was told who was going to play Snake Plissken, my initial reaction was "Oh, man!" [Russell winces]. I do think that character was quintessentially one thing. And that is, American."[14]
References
- ^ Yakir, Dan (October 4, 1980). "'Escape' Gives Us Liberty". New York Times. Retrieved 2007-03-10.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help); Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ Maronie, Samuel J. (April 1981). "On the Set with Escape from New York". Starlog. Retrieved 2007-03-10.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help); Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ Maronie, Samuel J. (May 1981). "From Forbidden Planet to Escape from New York: A candid conversation with SFX & production designer Joe Alves". Starlog. Retrieved 2007-03-10.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help); Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ a b Osborne, Robert (October 24, 1980). "On Location". Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2007-03-10.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help); Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ Hogan, Richard (1980). "Kurt Russell Rides a New Wave in 'Escape' Film". Circus magazine. Retrieved 2007-03-10.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help); Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ "Escape from New York". Box Office Mojo. May 4, 2007. Retrieved 2007-05-04.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help); Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ "A Helluva Town". Newsweek. July 27, 1981. Retrieved 2007-05-30.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help); Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ Corliss, Richard (July 13, 1981). "Bad Apples". Time. Retrieved 2007-05-30.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help); Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ Canby, Vincent (July 10, 1981). "Escape from New York". New York Times. Retrieved 2007-05-30.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help); Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ Hulse, Ed (2003-11-24). "A newfound Escape". Video Business. 23 (47). Reed Business Information: 33. ISSN: 0279-571X.
{{cite journal}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help); Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ Fleming, Michael (March 12, 2007). "Butler has 'Escape' plan". Variety. Retrieved 2007-03-16.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help); Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ Epstein, Daniel Robert (March 20, 2007). "John Carpenter". SuicideGirls.com. Retrieved 2007-03-23.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help); Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ Kit, Borys (March 16, 2007). "New Line cuffs 'Escape' redo". Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2007-03-16.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help); Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ Nashawaty, Chris (March 20, 2007). "Remake the Snake?". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2007-03-23.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help); Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help)