Snake Plissken is once again called in by the United States government to recover a potential doomsday device from Los Angeles, now an autonomous island where undesirables are deported.Snake Plissken is once again called in by the United States government to recover a potential doomsday device from Los Angeles, now an autonomous island where undesirables are deported.Snake Plissken is once again called in by the United States government to recover a potential doomsday device from Los Angeles, now an autonomous island where undesirables are deported.
- Director
- Writers
- John Carpenter(characters)
- Nick Castle(characters)
- Debra Hill
- Stars
- Director
- Writers
- John Carpenter(characters)
- Nick Castle(characters)
- Debra Hill
- Stars
- Awards
- 3 nominations
- Cuervo Jones
- (as George Corraface)
- Director
- Writers
- John Carpenter(characters)
- Nick Castle(characters)
- Debra Hill
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaAccording to an interview with John Carpenter, Kurt Russell not only came up with, but wrote the entire ending of the movie.
- GoofsThe wristwatch counter shows 6 hours 59 minutes. Then he is told he has seven and a half hours left.
- Quotes
Snake Plissken: Got a smoke?
Malloy: The United States is a no-smoking nation. No smoking, no drinking, no drugs. No women - unless of course you're married. No guns, no foul language... no red meat.
Snake Plissken: [sarcastic] Land of the free.
- SoundtracksEscape from New York - Main Title
Written by John Carpenter & Alan Howarth
Both films have essentially the same premise; corrupt government officials send criminal tough guy "Snake" Plissken to infiltrate the ruins of a once-great city and retrieve some MacGuffin for them. In both films, Snake is reluctant to cooperate, but the government secures his compliance by threatening his life. So, Snake duly treks off to an urban wasteland, wasting thugs and meeting a variety of wacky characters on his way to completing his desperate mission.
Because the two films are so similar, I find "Escape from L.A." tedious - it simply doesn't break enough new ground. And, to make matters worse, this tepid sequel does everything worse than the original movie. The villain is inferior, the president is inferior, and even the special effects are inferior (note the positively laughable CGI when Snake pilots his submarine to L.A.; the approach to New York in the first film is infinitely classier.)
And, though both films are comedies (of a sort), I find that the jokes in the first are simply better. In "L.A.," there are some attempts at social satire, but by and large they don't work. For instance, the much-praised "plastic surgery" segment feels really isolated and pointless to me. It's a one-joke sequence that goes nowhere and contributes nothing to the plot. Ultimately, I think the first film has the edge in the comedy department because it was co-written by Nick Castle, who reportedly lightened up the script and was quite a wit in general (though Castle is credited on this movie, I believe it's only because he wrote the original film.)
Perhaps the crowning aggravation of "Escape from L.A." is its exceedingly preachy social commentary. Now, I happen to be fairly liberal, so I agree with some of this film's criticisms of the religious right - but I also find the presentation of these criticisms to be superficial, condescending, and obnoxious. To be perfectly blunt, this movie is not literate enough to have serious political aims. It's just too silly and in-your-face; it doesn't have the subtlety to work as a satire, and it certainly lacks balance. Suffice to say, if you're conservative, this movie will annoy you, and even if you're an open-minded liberal, it will probably still annoy you by representing your views so poorly.
Yeah, this is basically a dud, though I sort of enjoy the Luddite-like sentiments in the concluding scenes. It's got some good cameos, a few decent scenes, but in the end...it just ain't the original. What a waste of 50 million bucks!
- dr_foreman
- Jun 27, 2007
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Languages
- Also known as
- John Carpenter's Pako L.A.:sta
- Filming locations
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $50,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $25,477,365
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $8,912,557
- Aug 11, 1996
- Gross worldwide
- $25,477,365
- Runtime1 hour 41 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 2.39 : 1
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