Press - Deleted or Never Filmed Stuff - Escape From New York (Sources: Escape From New York Shooting Script) (Minor details and some dialogue not included)
• 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.
• Female 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."
• Snake robs the Bank of the United States Colorado Federal Reserve, gets away with several billion dollars in credit cards, meets with Bill Taylor in a subway platform and travels to San Francisco. They are ambushed in the hummer station by the USPF and Taylor gets shot. Snake tries to escape but decides to go back for him and tries to talk him into giving up to save his life. Taylor refuses to surrender and gets killed. Snake surrenders, grieving. This is the famous missing "Bank Robbery" scene in EFNY.
• Rehme's introduction on the Liberty Island Station Control is here displaced by two guards having a discussion about the pilot who blows up the raft. Guard 1 says: "Was that Charly?" Guard 2 answers: "Yeah. Seventeen for Charly. Another month and he'll have a gold badge." Guard 1 says: I believe it's eighteen. Charly's bagged eighteen." Guard 2 answers: Yeah, I think you're right. Think it is eighteen."
• The Duty Sergeant sits behind a desk. He says "Hold it." to Snake and glances through several folders, picks out one and opens it. Then he says: "Mister Snake Plissken." Guards react and stare at Snake. The Duty Sergeant continues: "How are you doing tonight, Plissken?" Snake answers: "Fabulous." The Duty Sergeant smiles and says: "Not for long." 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!"
• The stewardess flying Air Force One also says: "Workers of the world. Look up into the skies. The people have won a glorious victory." She is later gunned down by a Secret Service Man who have managed to knock down the sealed cabin door. 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 and begins moving down. Someone silently follows him. Snake peers over a dilapidated guard station and sees three Indians roasting a cat in the lobby. There is also a long pole with scalps hanging on it. A fourth Indian tries to strangle Snake with a piano wire from behind. Snake jams his elbow into the Indians gut and starts to run down the corridor. The other Indians chases 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.
• A long gnarled club whaps down on Snake's shoulder while he watches the show. Snake turns around with his gun ready hidden by his body. The manager is a large, hulking man who withdraws his club and smacks it into his hand. He ask Snake how he got here. Snake answers: "The front door." Then he turns to Boyle (the sleeping ticket taker now woken) and asks him what the fuck he's doing here. Boyle answers: "Musta slipped by..." The manager whaps him with his club. Boyle answers: "Okay! Okay!" and dashes of into the lobby. The manager then tells Snake: "Two cans to see the show, three cans for a seat, another can to sleep on it. No loitering." Snake's compass homing device starts to beep. Snake turns, raises his rifle and says: "Excuse me." and moves on. The woman who is raped in the basement now giggles and seems to enjoy it. Snake fights a couple of more bums.
• Snake hands over a cigarette to Maureen in Chuck full o´ Nuts.
• The 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. 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. Cabbie also says: "Snake works for no man."
• When Snake is overrun by gypsies at the train station 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 Slag's leg during the ring fight at the Grand Central Station.
• Bob Hauk is already inside the helicopter preparing for takeoff when Rehme tells him that Snake is alive.
• After the fight with Slag: It's panic on the streets. Snake is running out from the building and looks up the World Trade Center. He yanks a gypsy out of his way and takes his car and drives away. Snake says: "Not again, Harold!"
• Bob Hauk tells Dr. Cronenberg to bring his machine and to stay on the radio. Dr. Cronenberg says: "Somehow I think you've grown fond of Mister Plissken." Bob answers: "I love him. When I see him, I'm gonna kiss him on the lips."
• Snake stops his car and runs into the 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 some more dialogue.
• Four cars instead of only the Duke follows Snake in the cab. The Duke is burned and bloody. Snake swings around some large girders under the Bridge and comes to a stop on the other side. The other cars are approaching. Snake honks his horn. The Duke hits his brakes. A gypsy car smashes into the Duke. Another gypsy does the same thing behind this gypsy's car locking them together. Snake's cab roars off in the opposite direction. The Duke and the fourth car continues the chase. Snake pulls the cab behind some girders under the Bridge once again. This time the lights go off. Snake roars forward and smashes into the fourth car, sending it spinning. Snake smashes several barricades and roars through an underpass. The Duke smashes into the rear end of the cab on the Bridge.
• Snake lights the Hartford Summit tape with his cigarette.
Escape From L.A. (Sources: Uncut Escape From L.A. Script/Production Drawings/Storyboards) (Minor details and most dialogue not included)
• Opening sequence of weapons firing and shadowing figures in a city street in L.A. Later it shows L.A. as a wasteland. An army of terrifying figures climbs atop a mountain of debris and raise their weapons into the night sky.
• Female narrator tells us: "Fearing a massive terrorist invasion from South America, the United States prepares for war. The Great Wall is built along the southern border, cutting off the flow of illegal aliens."
• We are introduced to New Las Vegas in Thailand. A supertanker has transformed into a floating resort. The following billboard ads can be seen: Nuclear Nights in Havana (An extravaganza with fabulous showgirls and laser recreations of Fidel's final night.), Museum of Night Club Arts (A virtual reality tour featuring legendary Vegas entertainers.) Free Enterprise World (A virtual Disneyland for the whole family.) Snake is the star in a betting game with a fat Chinese in a crowded alley. A cobra is milked from its poison. The poison is placed in a glass by a salesman. Then he jabs an ice-pick into the snake's throat and fills a second glass with its liquid. Then he slits open the cobra with a knife and cuts out the heart and liver. He squeezes them with his finger and fills a third glass with its juice. He stirs the three glasses. A titanium white tube floats above the center of the table. A laser beam of light shines from one end. The game begins. Both drinks the none poisoned glasses. The third spin ends up pointing at the fat Chinese who withdraws his hand from the poisoned glass. Snake smiles and drinks it instead. Bets are off. Instead they have dual. Snake shoots him and grabs his take of the money. Afterwards a "cigarette girl" pricks his skin with her nails (Plutoxin 7 virus) while he buys a pack of cigs. USPF Helicopters emerges and catch Snake with a steel net.
• Tops of buildings, the tail of an airplane and a radio tower also sticks up above the surface in the San Fernando Sea.
• Firebase 7 also has a large asphalt field called Rotor City where many Police Helicopters are parked. Policemen are cheering. Snake arrives in a big helicopter. Snake is bruised, badly beaten, heavily secured and guarded.
• Brazen tells the President that Snake hit "...the bottom of the curve." on a database of 5 million sociopathic personalities. Malloy responds: "Perfect for the mission. Nobody else can pull it off -- not an army, not a man." Brazen continues: "Zero emotional developments. Total lack of compassion. A highly developed psychopathic instinct to survive."
• Malloy tells Snake that Utopia has a kidnap chip implanted in her arm. Brazen also tells him that L.A. gets weapons, drugs, fuel and choppers from heavy third world connections.
• Snake, Brazen and Malloy travels to the sub in Brazen's command helicopter.
• During the sub sequence Snake also passes the wreckage of the Universal Studios Tour. The sub zips through the King Kong ride into Back to the Future, passing 1950's signage from that film, dodging a rusting Delorean. It slams into the open mouth of Jaws, shattering the model into a million pieces.
• The sub lands on a hillside and starts to slide backwards towards the water while Snake is still inside.
• Shells of houses stand nearby Mulholland Drive and it has started to rain.
• The rain stops while Snake is on his way down a hillside of the Hollywood Bowl. Snake looks back and sees a huge mudslide coming toward him. Snake races down the hill, but the mudslide catches up with him making him rumbling and sliding down the hill. Snake is completely mud-covered and climbs out of he goo in a flat area near a stand of trees. Snake is trapped in a gang war between The Black Cowboys Gang and the K.K.K. (Ku Klux Klan). The gang war begins when a member of Black Cowboys fires a grenade launcher at a burning cross on Hollywood Bowl's stage during a K.K.K. ceremony. Snake meets Spinal who is the leader of the Black Cowboy Gang and fights of four members of K.K.K. who attacks him from behind.
• Gangs celebrates and parties. A hooker also struts in front of Snake in Hollywood Boulevard at Highland. She gives him a sensuous puff. A polypropylene orifice attached to the inside of her lips expands outward like a small, pink balloon. She sucks it back in and puckers, kissing the air. Snake hears car engines rising. Cuervo Jones caravan comes rolling down Hollywood Boulevard led by two Mescalitos on horseback. He sits in a Cadillac ten feet off the ground on monster truck wheels. Busses are also present. Behind Utopia stands Delgade (Cuervo's Jones second-in-command). Mescalitos on Harleys rides with their women and some also have swords. Snake hides in an alley watching the caravan passing him by. Snake meets another hooker who tells him Cuervo Jones and his Mescalito Justice gang will take down the police tonight.
Alternate Bike Sequences
The Horse Sequence
• Snake follows the caravan to Sunset Boulevard and fires at Cuervo's Cadillac on his motorbike. Two Mescalitos pull up on either side of him. One swings a chain at him. Snake grabs it and kills this Mescalito with his submachine gun. The other Mescalito behind him also swings his chain toward him. Snake does the same thing making both chains snap together. (Snake hitting the brakes making the Mescalito fall off his bike is featured in the movie.) The Mescalito on the horse bullets makes Snake's tire blow up. Snake loses control, leaps and climbs onboard this horse and wraps around the reins around the Mescalitos neck, squeezing until his eyes bursts. Snake also slams his arm against him, throwing him off the saddle. Then he uses a lasso to pull out a biker and uses the bike himself. The horse drags the biker. When jumping from car to car Mescalitos leans out their car windows and fires at him. Snake's submachine gun is taken from a hand from a car window. Cuervo Jones leaps from the Cadillac and takes Snake down to the roof. Then they have a little fight. A Mescalito on a bike instead throws the bolas around Snake's neck throwing him off the car onto the pavement. Instead of playing Bankok Rules he lies here longer and then stands alone on a deserted street with ruins of supermarkets, cheap motels and liquor stores. His pocket walkie is broken and he checks his two 9mm handguns before slipping them into his holsters. Utopia's compass homing device is silent.
• Map to the stars Eddie is in his late 50's. He sits on a beach chair and listens to radio. He asks for Snake's autograph. Snake's tracer starts to beep. The old Beverly Hills sign is painted over. Now it says: "Quiet - Surgical Zone - Stay Out." Snake walks by ruined mansions.
• A surgical freak sees Snake from a window and reports. Snake is "welcomed" by a Gatekeeper and gets his head bashed in by a lead pipe in Beverly Hills and is overrun with patients. Snake is then being carried on a cross in Rodeo Driveon (A bizarre marketplace of body parts). Gucci and Armani offers bizarre deals. Snake's cross in anchored in the middle of the street. Here he meets Taslima who is also on a cross. They auctions for Snake's and Taslima's 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. He walks around the cross and examines them. When free the Doctor falls from a ladder and Snake cuts Taslima loose. Snake and Taslima runs longer while being hunted. They come to a dead end and climbs into a broken window inside a CAA (Creative Artists Agency) building and end up in the second floor balcony. They climb dilapidated stairs and move along the balcony railing. A Roy Lichtenstein hangs crocked on a wall. Offices are wrecked and scripts lies everywhere. They stop at a dark hallway. Taslima warns him about bold cats. The Doctor maneuvers Snake and traps his hands. The doctor's claw dagger moves closer and closer toward Snake's good eye. Taslima gives him his 9mm and Snake shoots him. Then he rolls away. They move to the rear exit and gets out.
• Snake and Taslima is overrun by patients in the sewer. A loud screech makes them go away. A man 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. He turns out to be a Mexican guy who is blind on one eye. Patients are coming back. He takes Snake and Taslima through dark passages to the remains of an mammoth underground control center where only Hispanic people lives. Before entering it they drive into a guarded narrow tunnel. Pandejo Bob asks Snake if he needs anything. Guns etc. Then he also tells them that he own this place and that he used to work here and decided to stay when the big one hit L.A. Snake asks him how to get to Venice (where Cuervo is).
• Armed Hispanics also climbs up the sewer and then drives away in cars. On the Santa Monica Freeway there is a also an 80-year-old sitting in a Mercedes with sunglasses and drinking from a bottle. A pickup truck is full of old illegal aliens. Someone cooks from a barbecue grill. An RV. An old man sits in the opened doorway and stares at Snake as he passes. Two old ladies in housecoats also stare at him through the windows. A storm of Mescalitos comes firing. A garbage truck with a mounted 50-calliber machine gun is behind them. Atop the truck is Delgado (Cuervo's right-hand man) who wears a flame thrower on his back. Snake fires at them and rolls under a car etc. People jump out of their cars and start to fire at the Mescalitos too. The garbage truck heads toward Snake. Snake reaches the edge of the freeway and enters bushes and comes to a side street. Mescalitos on foot chases him. Snake fires at them. Snake dives into Map to the Stars Eddie's Cadillac while Delgado is firing his machine gun on the Garbage Truck. The Cadillac smashes two junk cars in an intersection.
• Cuervo lives in Bradley Terminal behind the L.A. Airport. The airport is full of burned out cars and airport shuttles. The wrecks of old 747s lie twisted and bent across the tarmac. Bradley Terminal is surrounded by Mescalitos. It has a sign reading: Mescalitos Justice Hall. Mescalitos is watching the 207th Annual Academy Awards from Carefree, Arizona on a big TV. Cuervo offers Snake carrot juice and has a lot more dialogue with Snake. Speaking about Snake's typical American idealism and that Americans hate him because they remind them what they used to have: freedom and individuality. He also asks him if he want to join the revolution etc. Cuervo also shows Snake that he takes care of and feeds people in a courtyard. He also tells Snake that they want liberation and that it's their turn now. Utopia casts a contemptuous glance at Snake. He also introduces Snake to her. Snake is being dragged to a sealed baggage claim area room in an industrial wasteland where he get to fight Delgado. Snake rips off an edge guard from the baggage carousel and defends himself with it. Snake kicks him hard and kills him by throwing one of Delgado's dropped machete through his body. Cuervo and Utopia climbs onboard the monster truck Cadillac and roars away with his caravan. Snake shinnies down an electrical wire from on top of the Bradley Terminal and takes out a guard. Then he grabs his rifle and follows the caravan through dark streets.
• Cuervo's caravan comes rolling down Manchester into a vast parking lot toward the Forum. Crowds pour into the entrance. The caravan pulls up at the Forum Club entrance and they all enter. Snake enters the Forum through a large crack. He ends up in a backstage area. In a hallway comes two Black Muslims carrying a body on a stretcher. The body is wearing a bloody basketball uniform full of bullet holes. Snake then peers into the main arena. A basketball game is underway. The Korean Dragons sit on one side and the Black Muslims on the other cheering for their teams. Pipeline is also sitting in the audience. 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. Players use slashing fists, spin-kicks, elbows and hard back-hands. The referees wear bullet-proof body suits and helmets. Trainers with stretchers stand by. Cuervo sits by Xi-Pong (The Leader of the Korean Dragons) and asks him to join him. A player called Jamal tells Snake his brother knew him. Snake replies by saying he died owing me. He also tells him he needs to get across the court without drawing any attention. Snake gets to play with them. He is recognized. Snake scores, leaves and whacks Map to the Stars Eddie across the jaw and brings him with him. Snake asks him where the caravan is heading. Snake knocks him down unconscious. Cuervo and Xi-Pong rolls away in the 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. Snake and Utopia lands on top of a car roof. The Cadillac crashes into a the remains of a hot dog stand. Utopia uses her teeth and nails to fight Snake. The car then breaks and throws them off the roof. The caravan collides and Cuervo tells his men to kill Snake. Snake brings Utopia to the manhole opening.
• Snake pushes Utopia backwards to a drop-off in the sewer, but can't kill her. Map to the Stars Eddie also shoots Snake in the shoulder. He is then aiming the pistol at Snake's head. Snake dives of an edge. While handling over the prototype to Cuervo (who is also in the sewer), Map to the Stars Eddie slips and drops the prototype to the floor and it opens. A voice is telling them its 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 is hanging in wires in a black pit. Pandejo Bob tries to help him up. Snake enters a storm drain. A small earthquake makes Snake fall into rushing water.
• Pipeline comes driving in a buggy. Choppers fills the sky at the Wilshire Canyon. Pipeline tells Snake that Hershe hangs with the Black Cowboys (not Saigon Shadows) and lives with someone called Mojo Dellasandro. Before the tsunami comes another earthquake strikes making the canyon walls crack and pieces of buildings fall off etc. Snake and Pipeline is thrown on the ground. Map to the Stars Eddie drives a van. Snake lands on the roof and steers the van with his left hand. The van hits a chunk of concrete.
• Cuervo tells the Firebases to abandon their stations at 0500 hours and to have the media standing by for his coronation etc on a TV screen.
• The Queen Mary also have shops. Spinal is also here. Mojo Dellasandro is a Jamaican Voodoo witch doctor. Hershe wears a bathing suit. She talks in Issac Hayes voice. Mojo Dellasandro helps everyone to strap into his own hang gliders and gives out weapons to them.
• A bracero family is seen waving from a skyscraper, a male is singing a Barbara Streisand hit to a background track, a beautiful girl is dancing and waving a scarf during the hang glider sequence.
• An army of vehicles and people pours in into Disneyland. The overhead tram lies broken on the ground. Cuervo rides in a limousine down past the train and around the square in Main Street. Around the broken fairy castle lies thrill rides tossed in to a jumbled mass. At Main Street around 100 battered old Chevy's lined in a wall greets him loudly. At the end of the Main Street is an army of helicopters parked. Three Black Muslims also greet Cuervo. One of them is called Bivouac. Cuervo asks him later to kill Map to the Stars Eddie. There is also female gangs and gangs of children present. Snake says that the Helicopter is overloaded. All stares at Map to the Stars Eddie. Finally it starts to rise. The helicopters right skid is ripped off from its front mounting when colliding with the top of the Matterhorn Mountain. Cuervo and other enemies follows Snake with helicopters and surrounds them. One fires a mounted harpoon through Snake's chopper. Cuervo jumps on Snake's chopper and fights with him at the door. Enemy choppers open fire. Spinal, Hershe and Black Cowboys are hit. Cuervo pulls Snake off the seat and out hanging from the skid. Utopia takes over the controls. Map to the Stars Eddie shoots and kills Cuervo and is being killed himself by fire power from enemy helicopters. Both falls down to the water. Police battle choppers takes out the enemy choppers. Snake crashes violently, gets out, is on fire and rolls across the ground while the chopper explodes.
• The President hurls away the real prototype believing it's fake. Snake gives him the fake one and activates the real prototype while no one sees him. 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 behind him. 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.
Links: Multimedia - Deleted Scenes/Press - Scripts