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(4: From the French EFNY Ιdition Collector DVD)

Multimedia - Deleted or Never Filmed Scenes & Alternate Versions - Escape From New York

(According to some sources, there is a TV version of EFNY featuring the following scenes. I still need more clarification and info on this, so don't hesitate to e-mail me if you know something more about this.) 

1: Deleted Bank Robbery Scene (Confirmed/TV version?)

Description: "Snake robs Denver Federal Reserve Depository, gets away with several billion dollars in credit discs. Meets with Taylor in Atlanta Hummer Station and they travel on the hummer (underground tube-train) to San Francisco. This is the famous missing "Bank Robbery" scene in EFNY.  They are ambushed in the hummer station by USPF. Taylor is shot and Snake tries to go back for him, tries to talk him into giving up to save his life. Taylor refuses to surrender. William Taylor is killed. Snake surrenders, grieving."

Info
History: This scene was cut because John Carpenter didn't wanted to introduce Snake Plissken as a sympathic character. He felt this story wasn't necessary and didn't fit in the rest of the movie. This scene was reported to be lost in its entirety until the work print was turned up in the Hutchinson, Kansas salt mine film depository a while ago.
Running Time: 10:04
Availability: Escape From New York SE DVD RI (MGM, 2003), Escape From New York SE R2 (Momentum Pictures Home Ent, 2005), Escape From New York Director's Cut VHS (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, 1994) (only parts), Escape From New York Collector's Edition Laserdisc (Pioneer USA, 1994) (only parts) etc
Misc: John Carpenter scored new music for this scene for the EFNY SE DVD.

2: Extended Snake going through the processing area scene.

Description: "The Duty Sergeant said: "Hold it." Snake stopped and looked at him with uninterest. The scene doesn't stop there, it continues. The Duty Sergeant looks at Snake's profile. "Snake Plissken." he said and asked how he was doing. Snake responded: "Fabulous." The Duty Sergeant said: "Not for long.", then he is led (or pushed) to another hallway toward a doorway with a sign above saying: "Goodbye, Charlie. Don't think it hasn't been fun!" (Not confirmed/TV version?)

Credits say: Duty Sergeant: Bob Minor

3: Hauk and the Secretary of State having a conversation in the Executive Conference Room.

Description: "Instead of it starting with the Secretary of State on the phone with the Vice President saying: "Yes. He's right here, Mr. Vice President." Hauk picks up the phone and talks to him. The scene was longer. There was some talking before that scene came and more talking afterwards and I think Dr. Cronenberg and a Police Officer showed up in the scene." (Not confirmed/TV version?)

Indians roasting a cat in the Lobby of the World Trade Center

(Confirmed/TV version?)

Photo 4 by Kim Gottlieb-Walker. www.Lenswoman.com (Used with permission from the author)

4: Snake almost "Garroted" by an Indian in the lobby of World Trade Center.

Description: "After Snake Plissken lands on the World Trade Center tower, there is a scene showing him going to the lobby inside the World Trade Center. He sees some Indians down in the lobby ahead and walked over to them. They were cooking a cat for dinner. One of the Indians came behind him and tried to strangle Plissken with a piano wire. Plissken fought back and ran out of the World Trade Center with the Indians running after him."

(Confirmed. Since it takes place right after the Snake almost "Garroted" scene, it's most likely this scene was shoot too. Several Lobby Cards also features this scene./TV version?)

5: Snake running from the Indians in the World Trade Center Lobby.

Description: "He loses them by running through the dark streets."

6: Altercation with the manager in the theater. (Not confirmed/TV version?)

Description: "Snake inside the theater. When he goes to the auditorium, he had an altercation with the theater manager and the ticket taker."

Credits says: Theater Manager: Borah Silver, Theater Assistant: Tony Papenfuss

(Confirmed. On the second disc of the EFNY SE DVD in the photo section you can see a crew shooting this scene. This photo is also featured in the French SE DVD booklet/TV version?)

7: Snake running out after the fight with Slag at Grand Central Station.

Description: "This is Snake running out of the building where he fought the Slag while the inmates are running around looking for Harold Hellman and the President. Snake steals one of the inmate's car and drives to the World Trade Center."

(Confirmed with some concern. Since there is two lobby cards of this scene, I think it's safe to say it was shoot/TV version?)

8: Four cars chasing Snake in cab.

Description: "Three other cars besides the Duke chases Snake. One of the cars rams another car from behind and an explosion occur."

(Confirmed. A camera is seen filming this scene.)

9: Snake lights the Hartford Summit tape with his cigarette.

Escape From New York Shooting Script

1: Shooting Script (pdf) (The John Carpenter Forum)

Stuff never filmed or cut out:

• Opens with newsreel footage with prison riots and SWAT teams moving through the streets. We also see a big emblem of an American eagle against a red background saying The United States Police Force underneath.

• Narrator tells us: "During the Summer War of 1991, fought between the agencies of law enforcement and the criminal element, the United States Police Force was formed. As large and well-equipped as the armed forces, the Police Force won the war."

• The narrator continues: "In 1994 there were not enough prisons to harbor the three million plus population of convicted criminals. In 1995, extreme measures were taken to insure law and order in the United States."

• More activity inside the helicopter that blows up the raft in the beginning of the film.

• Rehme's introduction on the Liberty Island Station Control is displaced by two guards talking about how many the helicopter pilot now has killed.

• Snake meets the Duty Sergeant who says: "Hold it." Snake is surrounded by guards and responds: "Fabulous." The Duty Sergeant glances through folders and picks one and have a brief conversation with Snake. A guard nudges Snake forward and he continues down a corridor towards a doorway with a sign above it: "Goodbye, Charlie. Don't think it hasn't been fun!"

• There is some more dialog from the stewardess flying Air Force One. She is later gunned down by a Secret Service Man. Then the plane flies into a skyscraper and explodes.

• Bob Hauk asks Dr. Cronenberg about the microscopic capsules Snake is injected with. Cronenberg says it's an experimental unit and that is hasn't been used on a man before. Then Bob asks the Police Sergeant to bring Snake into his office.

• Bob Hauk defends himself with a gun when Snake is trying to strangle him.

• The GulfFire glider is located inside an hangar under eerie neon lights. Two cops roll it out. Snake lights a cigarette in the glider. The control stick starts to jiggle and shake in the air. The glider vibrates too.

• After have landed on the World Trade Center, Snake switches things off inside. Then he closes the cockpit. The wind is like a hurricane on the roof. He kicks up a roof door. He looks down the stairwell. Someone silently follows him. He sees three Indians roasting a cat in the lobby. There is a long pole with scalps hanging on it. He is almost "garroted"  by a fourth Indian with a piano wire. He starts to run with the other three Indians coming after him. Snake pulls out a flare gun and fires. The Indians dive for cover. Snake runs out and ducks behind a concrete wall. The Indians search for him, but Snake is gone.

• In the theater Snake meets the manager who talks briefly to him having a club in his hand. The ticket-taker is next to him. Snake raises his rifle and moves on. The woman who is raped in the basement now giggles and seems to enjoy it. Snake fights a couple of bums.

• Snake hands over a cigarette to Maureen in Chuck full o΄ Nuts.

• A dresser Snake has blocked the window with running from the crazies to the apartment flies out of the window. A crazy leaps in. Snake is surrounded by crazies and rushes into the bathroom. He fires a hole to another apartment and escapes through a window. Then Cabbie explains that he locked up his taxi before being sent in.

• Snake shoves the rifle's silencer right into Brains mouth in the library. The chair crashes against the map and Brain sprawls on the floor.

• Another gypsy is guarding the President in the train. Snake cracks his neck. While outside Brain waves to Snake. When Snake is overrun by gypsies the President tries to sneak away.

• Gypsies explores snake's stuff at the Grand Central Station. The Red Bandana Gypsy pockets Snake's tracer. The Duke is sitting on a hood of a car shooting at the President.

• Bob Hauk is wearing a backpack and is loading his rifle.

• Snake whacks his bat with nails into Slags leg during the ring fight in Grand Central Station.

• Bob Hauk is already inside the helicopter preparing for takeoff when Rehme tells him Snake is alive.

• After the fight with Slag: It's panic on the streets. Snake is looking up to the World Trade Center. He yanks a gypsy out of his way and takes his car and drives away. Snake says: "Not again, Harold!"

• Secretary of State tells Bob Hauk that we've got to go in. Bob tells him: "Just Try." Bob then speaks to Dr. Cronenberg. He tells him to bring his machine and to stay on the radio.

• Snake stops his car and runs into World Trade Center. Snake blocks the roof top door. The Duke sits on the engine taken from inside the car in the lobby. The Duke has more dialogue. 3 Gypsy cars plus Duke's car is parked outside. All four cars follows Snake in the cab. A gypsy car smashes into the Duke. Another gypsy does the same thing behind this gypsy's car. They are now locked. The Duke and the fourth car continues the chase. Snake smashes the fourth car. Duke smashes into the rear end of the cab.

• Snake lights the Hartford Summit tape with his cigarette.

The Escape From New York Novel

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 back-story 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 Steri-Chamber and a character called Sergeant Duggan is also added. It also tells us more what happened in Kansas and with Fresno Bob. 

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.

Links: Multimedia - Memorabilia/Merchandise - Books

Escape From L.A.

(Confirmed. This scene is featured in the 6:47 minute Making of EFLA here: 1:45-1:47) (I believe this is the place)

1: Plissken reaches old Mulholland Drive and hears gunfire?

Description: "A scene that was suppose to be after Snake's first meeting with Pipeline." (Not confirmed, but most likely.)

(Confirmed. This scene is featured in the 6:47 minute Making of EFLA here: 6:00-6:02. You can also see a crew shooting it.)

2: Snake rides and slides down the hills of Hollywood Bowl on mud and gets covered with it. "A scene that was suppose to be after Snake's second meeting with Pipeline." 

Escape From L.A. Script

1: Movie Script Uncut

Stuff never filmed or cut out. (Most noticeable)

• We are introduced to New Las Vegas. Snake is involved in a betting game, drinking venom from cobras with another man etc. He then has a dual with him. Afterwards a "cigarette girl" pricks his skin with her nails (Plutoxin 7 virus). The United States Police Force catch Snake with a steel net. Snake is then being transferred to Firebase 7 in a big helicopter. Snake is bruised, badly beaten, heavily secured and guarded.   

• Snake slides on mud down a hill, get's covered with it and is later trapped in a gang war between The Black Cowboy Gang and K.K.K. (Ku klux Klan) in Hollywood Bowl. He meets a guy called Spinal (The leader of the Black Cowboy Gang) and fight of a member of K.K.K. who attacks him from behind. Snake meets Spinal later in the Queen Mary while meeting Hershe.

Cuervo's Cadillac The Horse Sequence

• Cuervo is sitting in a Cadillac ten feet off the ground on monster truck wheels in Sunset Boulevard. Snake is being fired by Mescalitos in cars. Snake pulls himself up on a horse, ties the reins on the Mescalito on it, slams his arm against him, throwing him off the saddle. Then he uses lasso to pull out a biker and uses the bike himself. Snake manages to get to Cuervo and has a little fight with him. A Mescalito on a bike throws the bolas around Snake's neck. 

• Snake is "welcomed" by a Gatekeeper, is overrun by surgical freaks and get his head bashed in by a lead pipe in Beverly Hills. Snake is being carried on a cross in Rodeo Driveon (A bizarre marketplace of body parts). The General Surgeon of Beverly Hills has no lower jaw. Instead, there is a rusting metal grid attached beneath each ear that never moves. He speaks through a metal box attached to his windpipe. They are also outside. Snake and Taslima runs longer while being hunted. They comes to a dead end and climbs into a broken window inside a building. Inside the doctor maneuvers Snake. Taslima gives Snake his 9mm. Snake shots the Doctor. Snake and Taslima is overrun by patients in the sewer. A loud screech makes them go away. A guy called Pendejo Bob comes driving a golf cart. The cart has a huge lighted eye attached on a metal pole and salsa music comes from loudspeakers from the sides. He scares of patients etc this way. Patients are coming back. He takes Snake and Taslima to an Underground Control Center where people lives. He tells them he used to work here and decided to stay when the big one hit L.A.

• A storm of Mescalitos comes firing in the Santa Monica Freeway sequence where Taslima is shoot. A garbage truck with a mounted 50-calliber machine gun is behind them. Atop the truck is Delgado (Cuervo's right-hand man). Snake fires at them. So are other people. Snake dives into Map to the Stars Eddie's Cadillac while Delgado is firing his machine gun.  

• Cuervo lives in Bradley Terminal which is surrounded by Mescalitos. It has a sign reading: Mescalitos Justice Hall. Cuervo talks more with Snake. He asks him if he want to join the revolution etc. Cuervo feeds his people in a courtyard. Snake is being dragged to a baggage claim area where he get to fight Delgado. Cuervo and Utopia climbs onboard the monster truck Cadillac and roars away. Snake takes out a guard and follows Cuervo.

• Cuervo's caravan stops outside a sport arena and they all enter. Pipeline is sitting in the audience. The Korean Dragons sit on one side, the Black Muslims on the other. Snake sneaks in. The ones in the game (a mix of basketball and kung-fu) who misses gets shot by either The Korean Dragons or The Black Muslims. Cuervo sits by Xi-Pong (The Leader of the Korean Dragons) and asks him to join him. A player tells Snake he knew his brother. Snake replies by saying he died owing me. He also tells him he needs to get across the court without drawing any attention. Snake get's to play with them. He is recognized. Snake scores, leaves and meets Map to the Stars Eddie. Cuervo and Xi-Pong goes outside to a horde of vehicles. The caravan is then led by Cuervo's Cadillac. Snake climbs onboard underneath and shoots Xi-Pong and the driver. Cuervo ducks. Snake enters and takes away Utopia and the prototype (The Black Box) from Cuervo's hand and gets out. The Cadillac then crashes.

• Map to the Stars Eddie also shoots Snake in the shoulder in the sewer. He is then aiming the pistol at Snake's head. Snake dives of an edge. While handling over the prototype to Cuervo, Eddie slips and drops the prototype to the floor and it opens. A voice is telling them it's ready for use. Hundreds of helicopters fills the sky. Cuervo says: "They're all mine." He is getting ready to invade. The helicopters are heading towards Orange County and roars over the top of the Twin Towers of Century City. A group of vagrants cluster around a camp fire on the top floor of one of the towers. They're watching a futuristic big-spin lotto on a large screen TV. Firebase 7 is also getting ready for battle.

• Before Snake is flushed out in Wilshire Canyon, he's hanging in wires in a black pit. Pandejo Bob tries to help him up. Snake enters a storm drain, but a small earthquake makes Snake fall into rushing water.

Waving Family Beautiful Girl Dancing

• A family is seen waving from a skyscraper, a male is singing a Barbara Streisand hit, a beautiful girl is dancing during the hang glider sequence.

Female Gang Children's Gang (In the storyboard there is three helicopters instead of one arriving at the Happy Kingdom.)

• At the Happy Kingdom there is also female gangs and gangs of children. Cuervo and other enemies follows Snake with helicopters. Cuervo and Snake fights in the air. Map to the Stars Eddie kills Cuervo and is being killed himself by fire power from enemy helicopters. Police battle choppers takes out the enemy choppers. Snake crashes violently.

Third World Warriors (I believe this is the scene)

• After Snake has shut down the Earth, Police helicopters falls from the sky. Duty Sergeant tells Malloy that we're being attacked. All of L.A. has arrived at the wall in boats. They start to pour over the wall. Pendejo Bob leads the charge. Pipeline is also here. Cops tries to repel the horde. The World War 3 has begun. Cops are being panicked. The Third World warriors frees Utopia who joins them. Snake tosses away the prototype down a ravine, and walks away into the sunset.

 Alternate Versions

Gary Coleman's EFLA Script

Two different Escape From L.A screenplays were written before the movie was made: One by Coleman Luck in 1985/86, the other by English screenwriter Peter Briggs, of "Aliens vs Predator" fame.

Back in the late 1980s, Carpenter and Russell decided that it was time to try and make a second Snake Plissken film. They set the project up at DeLaurentis Studios and ended up commissioning screenwriter Coleman Luck to write a draft of Escape From LA. Supposedly Carpenter & Russell were somewhat pleased with the script, but had wanted to do a rewrite. Unfortunately, it never came to be because Dino De Laurentis' company went under so the project died. The Coleman Luck version was based on an outline by Carpenter & Russell. Carpenter would later describe the script as "Too light, too campy."
  The Peter Briggs version was written "on spec", meaning he did it on his own, without getting paid for it, in the hope of selling it to the rights owners. However, they, (the right owners & Carpenter & Russell), never got to read it, as it wasn't distributed or promoted at all.

The two versions have not made it to the general public. However, in a Looker exclusive, Peter Briggs have kindly agreed to shed a little light on his own take. So here's a cursory description of the much longer and denser plot. (The script originally was 115 pages long).

  1: Coleman Luck's Escape From L.A. Script (Review) By Merrick, Ain't It Cool News
  2: Peter Briggs Original Synopsis (From 1997 to 2013 Page) The Alternate EFLA!