"Escape From New York" - stupid film, but.... Classic or Dud?

Remember being that age and making up stories that evolved as
you went along?

Exactly! Well summed up, Dan.

Watching it this evening, I could swear that guy is Michael Biehn, who'd later play in "The Terminator". IMDB disagrees, however.

Picture this dude with big frightwig hair.

"shit shit shit SHIT SHIT SHIT!"

(okay not 'escape from new york').

Also, EFNY is total classic.

i say this sheerly as an observation and without misogynist or sexist intent -- Adrian Barbeau's breasts were a thing of jaw-dropping splendor.

god i love this movie
and john carpenter
i feel like i have rediscovered something and it's changing my life all over again
and i'm not even a 12-yr-old boy!

I'm so obsessed with Frank Doubleday, how did he not get acres of work after that role?

I should say *still* obessed hah

We watched it last night (Ms. T hadn't seen it and it had been at least 10 years since I saw it last) and had to look up Doubleday afterward. Apparently he became a stage acting teacher here in LA. I had no idea that his daughters each had roles in TV shows I watched (Portia Doubleday in MR. ROBOT & Kaitlin Doubleday in EMPIRE)

I watched this a couple of weeks ago with a couple of my kids. It was a lot better when I was a drunk high schooler.

Saw it for the first time on an iPhone screen a couple of years ago, brilliant, loved it, fabulous ending, love the chandeliers on Isaac Hayes’ limo

https://moviedude.co.uk/Frank%20Doubleday%20%20Escape%20from%20New%20York%20(1981).jpg

For years I thought the Romano character was Willem Dafoe (spoiler alert: it's not)

Romero

I've always thought the ending was a bit (or more than a bit) cheap and baffling. Snake is pissed at the president, so he fucks everybody?

The ending is great

I guess? In that sort of "Ooooh, look, nihilism!" kind of way, but not all that satisfying. To me, anyway.

I mean he tricked Van Cleef with the tape? Are we talking about that film or the sequel?

I loved this film as a kid but was a little disappointed that the scene of the poster art (with the Statue of Liberty's head) wasn't in the film anywhere, that would have been rad.

The president didn't give a shit about him or the people that died rescuing him, so you know..

The novelization reveals the tape actually contained info the US was using to establish their nuclear supremacy, which I'm not using as a serious argument but otoh I don't think we get evidence that the tape is what the authorities say it is in the film either? Why would we trust them?

On a more thematic level, though, Snake is hardly just "pissed at the president" - he and his companions were gleefully used by Van Cleef and his system and spat out, this is the only way he has to make them suffer and it's cathartic to see him do it imo.

xposts

One of the all time greatest casts in this too.

Maybe I misunderstood it, but doesn't the tape contain the secret to nuclear fusion? Which would help everybody. Of course, it's a dumb plot device to think that such valuable information would be confined to a single C60 in the possession of the president.

So he makes everyone suffer.

It supposedly does but the only confirmation we have of that is from govt sources iirc.

Got to think this movie's greatest influence is in video games more than anything.

Add in Blade Runner and Mad Max and you have the bedrock for lots of video games.

So he makes everyone suffer.

― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Monday, 25 March 2024 bookmarkflaglink

Big leap to say that because there isn't going to be nuclear fusion that everyone will suffer!

Isn't it about securing the peace treaty rather than the nuclear fusion technology as such?

xp It would be a transformative technology. I think they even talk in the movie about how it will not only make life better, but avert nuclear war.

One of the all time greatest casts in this too.

― Daniel_Rf, Monday, March 25, 2024 10:23 PM (eighteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Kurt Russell
Lee Van Cleef
Ernest Borgnine
Donald Pleasence
Isaac Hayes
Harry Dean Stanton
Adrienne Barbeau

Doesn't get much more A-list than that in my book

I thought it was about the president being at the peace conference, yes.

Which is why jazz music is kinda better than whatever boring stuff was in that tape.

xp - the people saying this built the world that has a prison in the middle of NYC. I would trust Snake much more than them!

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.

OK, but that doesn't come through in the film, at least not as far as I could discern.

Really, I think it's just a giant middle finger to everyone. Which is fine, it's just always bothered me.

Another example of why it's importabt to read up on things rather than believing everything you see on the telly!

This movie is perfect. Lotsa John Carpenter movies end with the end of the world.

but yeah as I said the movie doesn't reveal this but also imo gives us zero motivation to believe the nuclear fusion thing is legit xpost

This kinda gets foregrounded in the sequel where it’s much more clear that the US has a orbital doomsday weapon, and Snake just EMPs the planet(or at least the continent) to burn it all down.

Bit overdone that he stares at a single lit match as the screen fades to black, of course, but Carpenter was pretty much done as a director by that point and ready for his 420-24/7 & video games retirement for the following decades

I will say, seeing Carpenter & Sons playing music live in the pre-pandemic world(including Dave Davies’ son on guitar), you felt it HIT when they played that theme in front of the crowd

It's such a banger. Italo version o Assault On Precinct 13 my all time Carpenter fave tho.

Kurt Russell
Lee Van Cleef
Ernest Borgnine
Donald Pleasence
Isaac Hayes
Harry Dean Stanton
Adrienne Barbeau

Season Hubley as "Girl in Chock Full O' Nuts"

Farewell, Girl in Chock Full O' Nuts. We hardly knew ye.

Very weird and cool that this thread was revived today! I watched the first two Mad Maxes this weekend in preparation for a run through the glut of (mostly Italian) Maxploitation flicks that followed in their wake but then realized, what with titles like 1990: The Bronx Warriors and 2019: After the Fall of New York and, uh, y'know, Escape from the Bronx, that the release of Escape from New York was probably nearly as influential an '81 milestone as The Road Warrior on the post-apocalyptic mini-genre. So this one is on the docket (along with the earlier films of Cirio Santiago, who I only just realized contributed no fewer than four Mad Max-inspired films to our culture).

iirc Season Hubley was Kurt's girlfriend at the time

Lee Van Cleef's look in this scene, so good

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMGI0YzE1ZjUtZWE2Yy00NmQ5LThlMTgtZDFhOWRiNTE5MDkxXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMjUyNDk2ODc@._V1_.jpg

This film did have the same gritty, surreal atmosphere as The Warriors, an undisputed classic.

I like The Warriors more but I love both of them. I'm pretty much a sucker for dystopian New York movies of the '70s and early '80s, even lesser ones like Fort Apache the Bronx.

I hadn’t considered the idea of the tape recording as a threat. I like that interpretation. Even in the movie, where it’s not spelt out, you can easily read the President’s intended announcement as an implicit threat to China and the Soviets. That fits a lot better with what we see of this President and government.

As for the ending, Snake is ultimately just doing what he warned he was going to do the whole time, which is not to cooperate except under compulsion. It was their dumb mistake to assume they had more leverage over him than they did. He’s also not irrevocably dooming the world (nor irrevocably thwarting the U.S.’s plans for world domination, if you prefer that interpretation). They can probably create another copy of this nuclear fusion information, I assume? Maybe they couldn’t do it within 23 hours, for some reason? In any case, I figured the reason it was so important to get the President and tape in front of the cameras by that time is just that this is what the U.S. had announced (threatened) previously, and they need to project strength and competence. Snake’s basically just allowing them to screw themselves, and leaving it to them to clean up the mess.

I remember liking Escape from LA and find myself surprisingly not hostile to the idea of an "Old Man Snake" sequel.

I'd really like to find a book with something like this movie's style and approach to dystopian world-building. Genocidal Organ by Project Itoh seems like a possibility? The author wrote a Metal Gear novelization anyway.

To me the movie kind of reads like an 80s Wm. Gibson caper but like 20% more flamboyant?