Escape from L.A.

Escape from L.A. (stylized on-screen as John Carpenter's Escape from L.A.) is a 1996 American post-apocalyptic science fiction action film co-written, co-scored, and directed by John Carpenter, co-written and produced by Debra Hill and Kurt Russell, with Russell also starring as Snake Plissken. A sequel to Escape from New York, Escape from L.A. co-stars Steve Buscemi, Stacy Keach, Bruce Campbell, and Pam Grier. The film received a mixed reception and was a box-office bomb.[3]

Escape from L.A.
Theatrical release poster
Directed byJohn Carpenter
Produced by
Written by
  • John Carpenter
  • Debra Hill
  • Kurt Russell
Based on
Starring
Music by
CinematographyGary B. Kibbe
Edited byEdward A. Warschilka
Production
company
Distributed byParamount Pictures
Release date
  • August 9, 1996 (1996-08-09)[1]
Running time
101 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$50 million[2]
Box office$25.5 million[2]

Plot

In 1998, Los Angeles has become immensely crime-ridden and decadent, ultimately being directly governed and patrolled by the recently created United States Police Force. Two years later, on August 23, 2000, a massive earthquake strikes the city, the San Fernando Valley floods, and the Los Angeles area turns into an island from Malibu to Anaheim. A theocratic presidential candidate declares Los Angeles to be sinful and punished by God.

When he is elected president for life, the capital is relocated to his hometown in Lynchburg, Virginia, he also declares that anyone not conforming to the new "Moral America" laws that he creates, which ban such things as tobacco, alcoholic beverages, recreational drugs, red meat, firearms, profanity, atheism, non-Christian religions, and extramarital sex will be stripped of their citizenship and deported to Los Angeles Island unless they repent and choose death by electrocution. A containment wall is built around the island, armed guards and watchtowers are posted, and those sent to the island are exiled permanently.

In 2013, Cuervo Jones, a Shining Path Peruvian Revolutionary, seduces the president's daughter, Utopia, via a holographic system and brainwashes her into stealing her father's remote control to the "Sword of Damocles" super weapon, a series of satellites capable of rendering all electronic devices anywhere on the planet useless. The president intends to use the system to destroy US enemies' ability to function and eventually dominate the world. While traveling aboard Air Force Three, Utopia leaves the plane in an escape pod and lands on Los Angeles Island to join with Cuervo.

With the satellites under his control, Cuervo promises to take back the United States with the assistance of an allied invasion force of third world nations that are standing by to attack. Cuervo claims that if the president tries to stop him, he will "pull the plug" on the country and black out the capital. Cuervo also knows the secret world code that can knock out power for the entire planet.

Snake Plissken is captured for another series of crimes and is scheduled to be exiled to the island. Upon his arrival for deportation, Snake meets the president and is offered the mission of retrieving the weapon. The president says he will give him a full pardon if he is successful. The president indicates he does not care if Utopia is returned or not, declaring her a traitor. To ensure his compliance, Snake is infected with the man-made Plutoxin 7 virus that will kill him within 10 hours; if he completes the mission, he will receive the cure.

Snake is given an assault rifle, a personal holographic projector, a thermal-camouflage overcoat, and a countdown clock for how long he has to live. He sneaks into the city using a one-man submarine that he loses when the platform it landed on crumbles, causing the sub to sink. Making his way across the island, Snake meets "Map to the Stars" Eddie, a swindler who sells interactive tours of Los Angeles. At various times, Snake receives assistance from Pipeline, a surfing enthusiast; Taslima, a woman deported to the island for her Muslim faith; and Hershe Las Palmas (formerly Carjack Malone), a transgender woman and past criminal associate of Snake.

Snake defeats Cuervo at his staging area of the Happy Kingdom by the Sea in Anaheim and takes the remote control. Snake and Eddie leave the island with Utopia and some other Cuervo resistors in a helicopter. Cuervo is shot from the helicopter by Eddie, but manages to fire a rocket launcher at the chopper before dying. Eddie jumps out of the helicopter and lands on an awning. Eddie angrily yells for Snake to come back, but the chopper flies away without him. The rocket hits the chopper and kills everyone inside, including Hershe, except for Snake and Utopia, who jump out before it crashes into a mountain.

When the president's men reach the crash site, Commander Malloy believes that Snake is trying to trick the president by giving him the wrong remote and proceeds to find another one on Utopia. After checking the disc inside, Commander Malloy announces that they will take the one that Utopia unknowingly had in her possession. The president then has his men take Utopia to the electric chair despite her pleas for forgiveness. Snake remains alive even after his countdown clock reaches zero, and learns that Plutoxin 7 is only a potent influenza virus whose effects wear off within hours of infection. The president tries to use the satellites to stop a Cuban invasion force threatening Florida. Activating the remote, the president hears only Eddie's "Map to the Stars" intro over "I Love L.A."

The president orders Snake's execution, but Snake previously activated his hologram projector, and the Snake who gets shot is an illusion. Snake activates the real control device, entering the world code and ending all technological activity on the planet, against pleas to stop. At the deportation center, Utopia expresses her delight that Snake shut down the Earth and thus saved her. Snake lights a cigarette and blows out the match used to light it, uttering, "Welcome to the human race."

Cast

Production

Development and writing

The film was in development for over 10 years. At one point, a script was commissioned in 1987 and was written by screenwriter Coleman Luck, with Dino De Laurentiis's company producing. Carpenter later described the script as "too light, too campy".[4] In time, Carpenter and Kurt Russell got together to write with their long-time collaborator Debra Hill. Carpenter insists that Russell's persistence allowed the film to be made, since "Snake Plissken was a character he loved and wanted to play again."[5]

Music

Soundtrack
Escape from L.A.
Soundtrack album by
Various
ReleasedJuly 15, 1996
GenreAlternative metal,[6] industrial rock[6]
LabelLava/Atlantic
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[6]
  1. "Dawn" – Stabbing Westward
  2. "Sweat" – Tool
  3. "The One" – White Zombie
  4. "Cut Me Out" – Toadies
  5. "Pottery" – Butthole Surfers
  6. "10 Seconds Down" – Sugar Ray
  7. "Blame (L.A) Remix" – Gravity Kills
  8. "Professional Widow" – Tori Amos
  9. "Paisley" – Ministry
  10. "Fire in the Hole" – Orange 9mm
  11. "Escape from the Prison Planet" – Clutch
  12. "Et Tu Brute?" – CIV
  13. "Foot on the Gas" – Sexpod
  14. "Can't Even Breathe" – Deftones

Score
Main article: Escape from L.A. (score)

The film's score has been released twice, the first on both CD and cassette by Milan Records in 1996 and again as an expanded CD release by specialty label La-La Land Records in 2014 that featured pieces of music that were recorded for but ultimately cut from the film.[7]

Release

Home media

The film was released on Blu-ray on May 4, 2010.[8]

Reception

Box office

Escape from L.A. grossed $25,477,365 from its $50 million budget, about as much as its predecessor but little more than half its significantly higher budget.[2]

Critical reception

The film received mixed reviews and has a 53% approval rating from Rotten Tomatoes based on 51 reviews, with an average score of 5.57/10. The site's consensus reads: "Escape from L.A. has its moments, although it certainly suffers in comparison to the cult classic that preceded it".[9] Roger Ebert gave the film three-and-a-half stars out of a possible four and wrote that the movie felt it was an attempt to satirize the genre while exploiting it: "[Escape from L.A.] has such manic energy, such a weird, cockeyed vision, that it may work on some moviegoers as satire and on others as the real thing."[10]

Todd McCarthy of Variety wrote, "A cartoonish, cheesy, and surprisingly campy apocalyptic actioner, John Carpenter's Escape From L.A. is spiked with a number of funny and anarchic ideas, but doesn't begin to pull them together into a coherent whole."[11]

Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly rated it C+ and wrote, "Carpenter never was the filmmaker his cult claimed him to be, but in Escape From L.A., he at least has the instinct to keep his hero moving, like some leather-biker Candide."[12]

Stephen Holden of The New York Times wrote that the film's in-jokes "go a long way toward keeping afloat a hopelessly choppy adventure spoof that doesn't even to try to match the ghoulish surrealism of its forerunner."[13]

Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times wrote, "With much humor and high adventure, John Carpenter's Escape From L.A. brilliantly imagines a Dante-esque vision of the City of Angels."[14]

Peter Stack of The San Francisco Chronicle rated it 3/4 stars and called it "dark, percussive and perversely fun."[15] Esther Iverem of The Washington Post wrote that the film "tries but fails to be an action-hero flick or even a parody of one."[16]

Marc Savlov of The Austin Chronicle rated it 3/5 stars and wrote, "Loud, rollicking, alternately ultraviolent and hilarious, Escape from L.A. is Snake redux, and what more do you need, really?"[17] Nigel Floyd of Time Out London wrote, "After 15 years of computer-generated effects, apocalyptic sci-fi and Arnie movies with flippant kiss-off lines, the sequel feels hackneyed and pointless."[18] Kim Newman of Empire rated it 2/5 stars and wrote, "Apart from a few good characters, this is really not up to scratch in most departments especially the ludicrous plot."[19]

In a 2013 retrospective, Alan Zilberman of The Atlantic called Snake Plissken "a pro-nostalgia antihero, disgusted by the world around him." While contrasting the film's then-futuristic plot elements against modern-day reality, Zilberman writes that the film's ending is more profound today, as Plissken would be annoyed by our fascination with technology, citing the example of two friends who ignore each other while transfixed with their smart phones.[20]

John Carpenter later reflected:

Escape from L.A. is better than the first movie. Ten times better. It's got more to it. It's more mature. It's got a lot more to it. I think some people didn't like it because they felt it was a remake, not a sequel... I suppose it's the old question of whether you like Rio Bravo or El Dorado better? They're essentially the same movie. They both had their strengths and weaknesses. I don't know–you never know why a movie's going to make it or not. People didn't want to see Escape that time, but they really didn't want to see The Thing... You just wait. You've got to give me a little while. People will say, you know, what was wrong with me?[21]

He reiterate his statement in another interview: "It is a better movie. It didn’t do what the first one did for some reason. Maybe it was too dark, too nihilistic. I don’t know. They didn’t dig it as much as the first one. It did okay, but it just wasn’t a hit."[22]

Other media

Comic books

Marvel Comics released the one-shot The Adventures of Snake Plissken in January 1997.[23] The story takes place sometime between Escape from New York and his 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's really a set-up, he makes his getaway and exacts revenge on the buyer for ratting him 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 their personalities upon its program in order to predict and anticipate a specific criminal's every move. The robot's first test subject is Snake. After a brief battle, ATACS copies Snake to the point of fully becoming his personality. Now recognizing the government as the enemy, ATACS sides with Snake. Snake punches the machine and destroys it, reasoning, "I don't need the competition."

Cancelled projects

Video games

An Escape from L.A. video game was announced for the Sega Saturn, Sony PlayStation, Panasonic M2, and PC in 1996[24], but was later cancelled.

References
  1. Spelling, Ian (1996-07-19). "Now Director John Carpenter `Escapes From L.a.'". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 2010-11-18.
  2. "Escape from L.A.". The Numbers. 1996-09-14. Retrieved 2010-06-30.
  3. https://thedissolve.com/features/movie-of-the-week/931-john-carpenters-other-sillier-escape/
  4. Gilles Boulenger, John Carpenter Prince of Darkness, (Los Angeles, Silman-James Press, 2003), pp.246, ISBN 1-879505-67-3
  5. Boulenger, pp. 246
  6. Ankeny, Jason. "Escape from L.A. [Original Film Soundtrack] - Various Artists". Allmusic. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved 2013-06-30.
  7. "Escape from L.A. [Original Score] - John Carpenter, Shirley Walker Releases". allmusic.com. Rovi. Retrieved 2014-09-07.
  8. Tyner, Adam (May 4, 2010). "Escape from L.A. (Blu-ray)". DVD Talk.
  9. "John Carpenter's Escape from L.A. (1996)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2019-11-03.
  10. Ebert, Roger (1996-08-09). "Escape from L.A. >> Reviews". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 2011-12-09.
  11. McCarthy, Todd (1996-08-12). "Review: 'John Carpenter's Escape from L.A.'". Variety. Retrieved 2015-09-16.
  12. Gleiberman, Owen (1996-08-23). "Escape From L.A." Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2015-09-16.
  13. Holden, Stephen (1996-08-09). "Escape From L.A." The New York Times. Retrieved 2015-09-16.
  14. Thomas, Kevin (1996-08-09). "This Makes SigAlerts Seem Tame". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2015-09-16.
  15. Stack, Peter (1996-08-09). "FILM REVIEW -- The Ocean Falls Into L.A. / Drowned city stars with Kurt Russell in "Escape' sequel". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2015-09-16.
  16. Iverem, Esther (1996-08-09). "'Escape From L.A.': Doom & Dumber". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2015-09-16.
  17. Savlov, Marc (1996-08-09). "John Carpenter's Escape From L.A." The Austin Chronicle. Retrieved 2015-09-16.
  18. Floyd, Nigel. "John Carpenter's Escape from L.A." Time Out London. Retrieved 2015-09-16.
  19. Newman, Kim. "Escape From LA". Empire. Retrieved 2015-09-16.
  20. Zilberman, Alan (2013-08-08). "Escape From L.A., Today: How a 1996 Sci-Fi Thriller Imagined the Year 2013". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2015-09-16.
  21. ""It's Always the Story" - The Craft of Carpenter". creativescreenwriting.com.
  22. https://www.flashbackfiles.com/john-carpenter-interview
  23. "The Adventures of Snake Plissken #1 (Marvel)". Comicbookrealm.com. Retrieved 2010-06-30.
  24. "Celebrity Sightings". GamePro. No. 92. IDG. May 1996. p. 21.
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