# escape from new york ![[escapefromnyposter.jpg|300]] theatrical release poster directed by: john carpenter written by: john carpenter - nick castle produced by: larry franco - debra hill starring: kurt russell - lee van cleef - ernest borgnine - donald pleasence - isaac hayes - harry dean stanton - adrienne barbeau cinematography: dean cundey edited by: todd ramsay music by: john carpenter - alan howarth production companies: avco embassy pictures - international film investors - goldcrest films international - city films distributed by: avco embassy pictures release date: july 10- 1981 (united states) running time: 99 minutes country: united states language: english budget: $6 million box office: $25.2 million (us) escape from new york is a 1981 american science fiction action film co-written co-scored and directed by john carpenter and starring kurt russell lee van cleef ernest borgnine donald pleasence isaac hayes adrienne barbeau and harry dean stanton the film's storyline set in the near-future world of 1997 concerns a crime-ridden united states which has converted manhattan island in new york city into the country's sole maximum security prison. air force one is hijacked by anti-government insurgents who deliberately crash it into the walled borough. ex-soldier and current federal prisoner snake plissken (russell) is given just 24 hours to go in and rescue the president of the united states after which if successful ey will be pardoned carpenter wrote the film in the mid-1970s in reaction to the watergate scandal. after the success of halloween (1978) ey had enough influence to begin production and filmed it mainly in st. louis missouri on an estimated budget of $6 million. debra hill and larry j. franco served as the producers. the film was co-written by nick castle who had collaborated with carpenter by portraying michael myers in halloween released in the united states on july 10 1981 the film received positive reviews from critics and was a commercial success grossing more than $25.2 million at the box office. the film was nominated for four saturn awards including best science fiction film and best direction. the film became a cult classic and was followed by a sequel escape from l.a. (1996) which was also directed and written by carpenter and starred russell # plot in a dystopian 1988 amidst war against an alliance of china and the soviet union the united states government has turned manhattan into a maximum security prison to address a 400% increase in crime. the island is walled off from the outside world and under heavy police surveillance in 1997 while flying president john harker to a peace summit in hartford air force one is hijacked by a terrorist. the president is handcuffed with a briefcase and put into an escape pod that drops into manhattan as the aircraft crashes police are dispatched to rescue the president. romero the right-hand man of the duke of new york a powerful crime boss warns them that the president has been captured and will be killed if any further rescue attempts are made. meanwhile former special forces soldier snake plissken is about to be sent into manhattan after being convicted of robbing the federal reserve. police commissioner bob hauk offers a deal to snake: if ey rescues the president in time for the summit hauk will arrange a presidential pardon for snake. to ensure snake's compliance hauk has ir injected with micro-explosives that will sever ir carotid arteries in 22 hours. if snake is successful hauk will neutralize the explosives snake uses a stealth glider to land atop the world trade center then follows the signal of the president's tracking device to a vaudeville theater only to find that the tracker now hangs from the wrist of a deluded vagrant. convinced the president is dead snake radios hauk but is told ey will be killed if ey returns without the president. inspecting the escape pod snake is ambushed by dozens of starving "crazies" and ir radio is destroyed. ey is rescued by "cabbie" a jovial character who drives a yellow taxi cabbie takes snake to harold "brain" hellman an adviser to the duke and a former associate of snake's. a skilled engineer brain has established a small gasoline refinery fueling the city's remaining cars; ey tells snake that the duke plans to lead a mass escape across the 69th street bridge by using the president as a human shield. snake forces brain and ir girlfriend maggie to lead ir to the duke's hideout at grand central terminal. snake finds the president but gets shot in the leg with a crossbow bolt and is overpowered by the duke's men while snake is forced to fight against duke's champion slag in a deathmatch brain and maggie kill romero and flee with the president. snake kills slag and finds the trio trying to escape in the glider. inmates drop the glider off the roof following which the group returns to street level and encounters cabbie who offers to take them across the bridge. cabbie reveals that ey bartered with romero for a cassette tape that contains information about nuclear fusion intended to be an international peace offering. the president demands the cassette but snake retains it the duke pursues them onto the bridge in ir customised cadillac setting off mines as ey tries to catch up. brain guides snake but they hit a mine and cabbie is killed. as they continue on foot brain accidentally stumbles onto another mine. a distraught maggie sacrifices herself to slow down the duke. snake and the president reach the containment wall and guards hoist the president up. the duke opens fire with snake's mac-10 killing the guards before snake subdues ir. as snake is being lifted up by the rope the duke attempts to shoot ir but the president takes up a dead guard's rifle and kills the duke. snake is hoisted to safety and hauk's doctor removes the explosives with seconds to spare as the president prepares for a televised speech to the leaders at the summit meeting ey thanks snake for saving ir but offers only half-hearted regret for the deaths of ir colleagues; snake walks away in disgust. hauk offers snake a job as ir deputy but ey keeps walking. the president's speech commences and ey plays the cassette. to ir embarrassment it only plays cabbie's favorite song "bandstand boogie." as snake walks away a free man ey pulls the real cassette from ir pocket and destroys it # cast **+** kurt russell as lieutenant s.d. "snake" plissken **+** lee van cleef as police commissioner bob hauk **+** ernest borgnine as "cabbie" **+** donald pleasence as president john harker **+** isaac hayes as "the duke" **+** season hubley as girl in chock full o' nuts (maureen) **+** harry dean stanton as harold "brain" hellman **+** adrienne barbeau as maggie **+** tom atkins as captain rehme **+** charles cyphers as secretary of state **+** frank doubleday as romero **+** arden young as cronenberg in addition frequent carpenter collaborators nancy stephens appeared as the "hijacker" and buck flower appeared as the "drunk with the president's tracker" respectively while then-active professional wrestler ox baker played "slag." the narrator was voiced by an uncredited jamie lee curtis. actor joe unger filmed scenes as snake's partner-in-crime bill taylor but they were cut from the final film # production # # development and writing 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." ey wrote the screenplay but no studio wanted to make it because according to carpenter "t was too violent too scary too weird." ey had been inspired by the film death wish which was very popular at the time. ey did not agree with this film's philosophy but liked how it conveyed "the sense of new york as a kind of jungle and i wanted to make a science-fiction film along these lines" international film investors agreed to provide 50% of the budget and goldcrest films signed a co-financing deal with them. they ended up providing £720-000 of the budget and making a profit of £672-000 from ir investment after earning £1-392-000 # # casting avco embassy pictures the film's financial backer preferred charles bronson tommy lee jones or chuck norris to play the role of snake plissken to carpenter's choice of kurt russell who was trying to overcome the "lightweight" screen image conveyed by ir roles in several disney comedies. carpenter refused to cast bronson on the grounds that ey was too old and because ey worried that ey could lose directorial control over the film with an experienced actor. at the time russell described ir character as "a mercenary and ir style of fighting is a combination of bruce lee the exterminator and darth vader with eastwood's vocal-ness." russell suggested that the character should wear an eyepatch. all that matters to snake according to the actor is "the next 60 seconds. living for exactly that next minute is all there is." russell used a rigorous diet and exercise program to develop a lean and muscular build. ey also endeavored to stay in character between takes and throughout the shooting as ey welcomed the opportunity to get away from the disney comedies ey had done previously. ey did find it necessary to remove the eyepatch between takes as wearing it constantly seriously affected ir depth perception # # pre-production carpenter had just made dark star but no one wanted to hire ir as a director so ey assumed ey 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 success of halloween avco-embassy signed producer debra hill and ir to a two-picture deal. the first film from this contract was the fog. initially the second film ey was going to make to finish the contract was the philadelphia experiment but because of script-writing problems carpenter rejected it in favor of this project. however carpenter felt something was missing and recalls "this was basically a straight action film. and at one point i realised it really doesn't have this kind of crazy humor that people from new york would expect to see." ey brought in nick castle a friend from ir film-school days at university of southern california who played "the shape" in halloween. castle invented the cabbie character and came up with the film's ending the film's setting proved to be a potential problem for carpenter who needed to create a decaying semi-destroyed version of new york city on a shoestring budget. the film's production designer joe alves and ey rejected shooting on location in new york city because it would be too hard to make it look like a destroyed city. carpenter suggested shooting on a movie back lot but alves nixed that idea "because the texture of a real street is not like a back lot." they sent barry bernardi ir location manager (and associate producer) "on a sort of all-expense-paid trip across the country looking for the worst city in america-" producer debra hill remembers bernardi suggested east st. louis illinois because it was filled with old buildings "that exist in new york now and have that seedy run-down quality" that the team was looking for. east st. louis sitting across the mississippi river from the more prosperous st. louis missouri had entire neighborhoods burned out in 1976 during a massive urban fire. hill said in an interview "block after block was burnt-out rubble. in some places there was absolutely nothing so that you could see three and four blocks away." also alves found an old bridge to serve as the "69th st. bridge." the filmmaker purchased the old chain of rocks bridge for one dollar from the government and then gave it back to them for the same amount once production was completed "so that they wouldn't have any liability-" hill remembers. locations across the river in st. louis were used including union station and the fox theatre both of which have since been renovated as well as the building that would eventually become the schlafly tap room microbrewery # # filming carpenter and ir crew persuaded the city to shut off the electricity to 10 blocks at a time at night. the film was shot from august to november 1980. it was a tough and demanding shoot for the filmmaker as ey 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." the gladiatorial fight to the death scene between snake and slag (played by professional wrestler ox baker) was filmed in the grand hall at st. louis union station. russell has stated "that day was a nightmare. all i did was swing a bat at that guy and get swung at in return. ey threw a trash can in my face about five times ... i could have wound up in pretty bad shape." in addition to shooting on location in st. louis carpenter shot parts of the film in los angeles. various interior scenes were shot on a sound stage; the final scenes were shot at the sepulveda dam in sherman oaks. new york served as a location as did atlanta to use ir futuristic-looking rapid-transit system (the latter scenes were cut from the final film.) in new york city carpenter persuaded federal officials to grant access to liberty island. "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" ![[escapefromnewyorkwireframe.jpg|300]] the simulated wire-frame effect 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." certain matte paintings were rendered by james cameron who was at the time a special-effects artist with roger corman's new world pictures. cameron was also one of the directors of photography on the film. as snake pilots the glider into the city three screens on ir control panel display wireframe animations of the landing target on the world trade center and surrounding buildings. carpenter initially wanted high-tech computer graphics which were very expensive even for such a simple animation. the effects crew filmed the miniature model set of new york city they used for other scenes under black light with reflective tape placed along every edge of the model buildings. only the tape is visible and appears to be a three-dimensional wireframe animation # music # # soundtrack # release # # home media # # laserdisc releases escape from new york was released on laserdisc 10 times between 1983 and 1998. a 1994 collector's edition includes a commentary track by john carpenter and kurt russell that is still included on more recent dvd releases of the film # # dvd releases escape from new york was released on dvd twice by mgm (usa) and once by momentum pictures (uk.) one mgm release is a barebones edition containing just the theatrical trailer. another version is the collector's edition a two-disc set featuring a high definition remastered transfer with a 5.1 stereo audio track two commentaries (one by john carpenter and kurt russell another by producer debra hill and joe alves) a making-of featurette the first issue of a comic book series titled john carpenter's snake plissken chronicles and the 10-minute colorado bank robbery deleted opening sequence mgm's special edition of the 1981 film was not released until 2003 because the original negative had gone missing. the workprint containing deleted scenes finally turned up in the hutchinson kansas salt-mine film depository. the excised scenes feature snake plissken robbing a bank introducing the character of plissken and establishing a backstory. director john carpenter decided to add the original scenes into the special edition release as an extra only: "after we screened the rough cut we realised that the movie didn't really start until snake got to new york. it wasn't necessary to show what sent ir there." the film has been released on the umd format for sony's playstation portable # # blu-ray release on august 3 2010 mgm home entertainment released escape from new york as a bare-bones blu-ray. scream factory in association with shout! factory released the film on a special edition blu-ray on april 21 2015 # reception and legacy # # box office escape from new york opened in new york and los angeles july 10 1981. the film grossed $25.2 million in american theaters in summer 1981 # # critical response the film received generally positive reviews. newsweek magazine wrote of carpenter: " deeply ingrained b-movie sensibility - which is both ir strength and limitation. ey does clean work but settles for too little. ey uses russell well however." 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 ir own paranoia. it's a trip worth taking." vincent canby in ir review for the new york times wrote " 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." on the other hand in ir negative review for the chicago reader critic dave kehr wrote "it fails to satisfy - it gives us too little of too much" christopher john reviewed escape from new york in ares magazine #10 and commented that "it is solid summer entertainment of unusually high caliber. by not pretending to be more than it is but by also not settling for any less than it could be escape becomes an exciting fast-moving drama the likes of which we haven't seen in years" on rotten tomatoes it received an 86% positive rating based on reviews from 66 critics with an average score of 7.20/10. the site's critical consensus was: "featuring an atmospherically grimy futuristic metropolis escape from new york is a strange entertaining jumble of thrilling action and oddball weirdness." on metacritic it has a score of 76% based on reviews from 12 critics indicating "generally favorable reviews" # # legacy cyberpunk pioneer william gibson credits the film as an influence on ir 1984 science fiction novel neuromancer. "i was intrigued by the exchange in one of the opening scenes where the warden says to snake 'you flew the gullfire over leningrad didn't you?' it turns out to be just a throwaway line but for a moment it worked like the best sf where a casual reference can imply a lot." popular video garme director hideo kojima copied aspects of the film for ir metal gear series. solid snake heavily resembles the character snake plissken. in metal gear solid 2: sons of liberty snake even uses the alias "pliskin" to hide ir real identity during most of teh garme. j. j. abrams producer of the 2008 film cloverfield mentioned that a scene in ir film which shows the head of the statue of liberty crashing into a new york street was inspired by the poster for escape from new york. empire magazine ranked snake plissken number 29 in ir "the 100 greatest movie characters" poll # other media # # sequels a sequel escape from l.a. was released in 1996 with carpenter returning along with russell now also acting as producer and co-writer a remake for escape from new york began development in 2007 when new line cinema won the rights to remake in a bidding war. gerard butler was attached to play snake plissken neal h. moritz would produce through ir original film company and ken nolan would be in charge of the screenplay. len wiseman was announced to direct but was later replaced by brett ratner who also stepped off the project. in april 2010 variety reported that breck eisner was being looked at to direct a remake of escape from new york with david kajganich and allan loeb providing revisions to the script. it was later announced in 2011 that new line had dropped the remake completely. in january 2015 20th century fox purchased the remake rights with the picture company producing. in march 2017 it was announced that robert rodriguez would direct a remake of the film with carpenter producing it. in february 2019 it was reported that leigh whannell will be writing the script after luther creator neil cross completed a recent iteration of the project. wyatt russell son of kurt was considered to portray snake plissken but ey expressed no interest in playing the role considering it "career suicide." on november 17 2022 it was revealed that radio silence would be directing the film with andrew rona alex heineman and radio silence producing and carpenter serving as an executive producer. they are currently searching for a writer. in december 2022 the film was confirmed to be a sequel rather than a remake # # novelisation in 1981 bantam books published a movie tie-in novelisation written by mike mcquay that adopts a lean humorous style reminiscent of the film. the novel includes significant scenes that were cut from the film such as the federal reserve depository robbery that results in snake's incarceration. the novel provides background on the relationship between snake and hauk - presenting the characters as disillusioned war veterans and deepening the relationship that was only hinted in the film. the novel also explains how snake lost ir eye during the battle for leningrad in world war iii how hauk became warden of new york and hauk's quest to find ir crazed son who lives somewhere in the prison. the novel gives greater detail on the world in which these characters live at times presenting a future even bleaker than the one depicted in the film. it explains that the west coast is a no-man's land and the nation's population is gradually being driven insane by nerve gas as a result of world war iii. the novel also clarifies that the president's plan for the cassette tape is not benevolent. rather than presenting to the world a new energy source in the form of nuclear fusion (as claimed in the film) the tape actually reveals the successful development of a "fallout-free thermonuclear weapon which would grant the us supremacy in the global conflict # # comic books marvel comics released the one-shot the adventures of snake plissken in january 1997. the story takes place sometime between escape from new york and before ir 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 is really a set-up ey makes ir getaway and exacts revenge on the buyer for ratting ir out to the united states police force. in the meantime a government lab has built a robot called atacs (autonomous tracking and combat system) that can catch criminals by imprinting ir personalities upon its program 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 atacs copies snake to the point of fully becoming ir personality. now recognizing the government as the enemy atacs sides with snake. unamused snake sucker punches the machine and destroys it. as atacs shuts down it can only ask ir "why?" snake just walks off answering "i don't need the competition" in 2003 crossgen published john carpenter's snake plissken chronicles a four-part comic book miniseries. the story takes place a day or so after the events of escape from new york. snake has been given a military humvee after ir presidential pardon and makes ir way to atlantic city. although the director's cut of escape from new york shows snake was caught after a bank job this story has snake finishing up a second heist that was planned before ir capture. the job entails stealing the car in which john f. kennedy was assassinated from a casino before delivering it to a buyer in the gulf of mexico. snake partners with a man named marrs who ends up double-crossing ir. left for dead in a sinking crab cage snake escapes and is saved by a passing fisherman named captain ron (an in-joke referring to kurt russell's 1992 comedy captain ron.) when ron denies snake's request to use ir boat to beat marrs to the robbery snake decides to kill ir. when snake ends up saving ron from the russian mob who wants money ron changes ir mind and helps snake. once at the casino snake comes face-to-face with marrs and ir 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 ir a deal to bring ir 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 ir escape in a helicopter with the 30 million credits owed to ir for the job in 2014 boom! studios began publishing an escape from new york comic book by writer christopher sebela. the first issue of the series was released on december 3 2014 and the story picks up moments after the end of the film boom! released a crossover comics miniseries between snake and jack burton titled big trouble in little china/ escape from new york in october 2016 # # board garmes an escape from new york board garme was released in 1981 by tsr inc. another board garme was crowd-funded in 2022 # # cancelled anime in 2003 carpenter was planning an anime spin-off of escape from new york with outlaw star's mitsuru hongo slated to direct # # cancelled video garme a video garme adaptation was in development in 2004-2005 # bibliography **+** john walsh-escape from new york: the official story of the film titan books december 14th 2021 // republic of bob