/ / / /




    : Press - Trivia/Bloopers - Escape From New York

Avco-Embassy Pictures, the studio behind the film, preferred either Charles Bronson or Tommy Lee Jones to play the role of "Snake" Plissken to director/co-writer John Carpenter's choice of Kurt Russell, who at the time was trying to overcome his "lightweight" screen image gained through his appearance in several Disney comedies. Carpenter refused to cast Bronson on the grounds that he was too old. John Carpenter originally wanted Clint Eastwood but couldn't afford him.

The wire-frame computer graphics on the display screens in the glider were not actually computer graphics. (Computers capable of 3D wire-frame imaging were way too expensive when this was made.) To generate the "wire-frame" images, they built a model of the city, painted it black, attached bright white tape to the model buildings in an orderly grid, and moved a camera through the model city.

A scene in the beginning of the film where Snake and another criminal are robbing a high-security bank, which leads to his arrest and sentence to New York, was in the original script but was cut from the film before release. Previews can be found on the Special Edition LD and the Director's Cut vhs. The whole scene exists on the EFNY SE DVD.

Most of the movie was filmed in the summer of 1976 & 1977 in East St. Louis, Illinois. The area (essentially a large ghetto across the river from the decidedly more wealthy St. Louis proper) had been burned out in 1976 during a massive urban fire. Carpenter saw this disaster as a perfect setting for his apocalyptic vision of Manhattan Island Maximum Security Prison in the story.

The city of St. Louis allowed the production to shut down all the electricity in this part of the town.

Only the Statue Of Liberty shot in the beginning was actually filmed in New York, the rest was in St. Louis. There was still a big mess on the streets when shooting was over and the studio was billed a pretty penny to have it  cleaned up.

It was hot shooting in St. Louis and mosquitos were very enoying explains Isaac Hays.

The bridge portrayed as the "69th St. Bridge" is actually the Old Chain of Rocks Bridge, famous for its 22 degree bend in the middle of the bridge. The bridge connects Missouri to Illinois and is now a bicycle-pedestrian bridge.

In the Korean dub of the film, Snake Plissken was called "Cobra" while in the Italian version he was called "Hyena".

Debra Hill does the opening narration and the voice of the computer.

While many sources write that the film's production budget was $7 million, John Carpenter himself says the budget was more around $5.5 million.

The film grossed $25.2 million in American theaters in the summer of 1981, with same amount grossed in foreign markets, making an over $50 million mega box-office hit in ratio to John Carpenter's production budget of $5.5-7 million.

After the smash success of Halloween, the small studio of Avco-Embassy signed filmmaker John Carpenter and producer Debra Hill to a two-picture deal. The first film from this contract was 1980s The Fog and this film finished out the contract.

Initially, the second film that Carpenter was going to make to finish the contract out was The Philadelphia Experiment but because of script-writing problems, Carpenter junked it for this project, which its initial script-draft he had penned back in the 1970s, and the studio greenlighted it.

The final scenes were filmed at the Sepulveda Dam, in Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles, California.

The Duke's Cadillac Fleetwood with the fender-mounted chandeliers is a direct influence in the art car community.

William Gibson credits the character Bob Hauk as an inspiration for his character "Armitage" in the novel Neuromancer. In that novel, Armitage forces the protagonist to cooperate in a manner similar to the way Snake's cooperation is coerced.

Director Trademark: [John Carpenter] [names] Cronenberg, Romero.

The shot where the helicopter glides over Central Park were actually filmed in San Fernando. The buildings in back were painting by future director James Cameron.

Carpenter wrote the script in the 1970’s after the Watergate issue. The script made fun of presidents so bad that no studio would touch it.

When Snake is fighting the 400-pound guy, Russell was actually afraid for his life. The other actor was so into his role Russell didn’t want to work with him.

British actor Donald Pleasence originally turned down the role of the president because he didn’t think someone not from America could play the part. Carpenter finally talked him into it by saying, “Image you are the love child of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher.”

British actor Donald Pleasence plays the President of the United States without putting on an American accent. The United States constitution requires that the President be a native born citizen of the United States. Pleasence came up with an explanation for how the character came to be both born in the United States and have an English accent, but John Carpenter said that film audiences would not care and would just accept what was depicted.

The woman in the diner is played by Season Hubley, who was, at the time, Kurt Russell's wife.

Snake Plissken was the inspiration for Solid Snake, hero of the Metal Gear series, and the plot was also the inspiration for Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake (sneak into an indomitable fortress to rescue a VIP and an important tape/cartridge that determines the fate of the world). Furthermore, in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, Solid Snake goes by the alias of Iroquois Pliskin. Metal Gear also uses the same font in its logo for the first game as Escape From New York. There are several other references to Escape from New York in the Metal Gear series. Otacon, the scientist ally of Solid Snake is based off of Brain. In every Metal Gear Solid game, there is a part where your character is left with nothing after being knocked out and tortured, very similar to how Snake Plisskin escaped from The Duke. A mined area is also a trend in the Metal Gear series. In a trailer for Metal Gear Solid 4, of a fairly jokey atmosphere has Solid Snake sit down in a deck chair much like Snake Plissken does in Escape from New York and LA. Also, Lee Van Cleef, who starred in the film, serves as the basis of the MGS villain Revolver Ocelot, for his portrayal of "Angel Eyes" in The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Kurt Russell helped to design the Snake outfit.

When released in Italy the subtitles mistranslated nuclear fission as nuclear fixation.

Snake Plissken is name after a friend of a friend who actually had a snake tattoo on his chest.

Maggies death scene was shoot in John Carpenter's and Adrienne Barbeau's old garage before they splitt up.

The cover art on the DVD release for Escape From New York features Snake Plissken in front of New York City engulfed in flames. Snake is holding a gun in his right hand, and his left bicep is exposed. On his arm is a snake tattoo, but in the movie a different snake tattoo only appears on his stomach while his left arm is conspicuously blank. He also holds a much different gun; a rifle as opposed to a silenced Ingram MAC-10.

Escape From New York is a legendary pizza parlor on Portland, OR's artistic 23rd St. It features huge wall murals with a New York City theme and pizzas (whole or by the slice) with slices over a foot in length. It's popular among Portlanders and tourists from all walks of life.

The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy have a character named Hoss Delgado. Hoss is modeled after Ash from Evil Dead and Snake Plissken. The cartoon airs on Cartoon Network. Hoss has Snake's gung ho, take no prisoners attitude as well as Ash's replaced arm. Hoss usually has a metal fist or a crossbow for shooting chainsaws. He also wears the clothing of Snake in LA.

Bloopers:

Errors in geography: New York's 59th St Bridge is referred to as the "69th St Bridge."

Miscellaneous: Italian subtitles mistranslate "fission" as "fixation."

Revealing mistakes: Walls in the "Choc full o' Nuts" building clearly made of styrofoam.

Continuity: Baseball bat falls off the head of the gladiator, but is back again in subsequent shots.

Crew or equipment visible: You can see a crew member giving Isaac Hayes a "stand-up" cue quite visibly in the left side of the screen when The Duke is quieting the Madison Square Garden crowd.

Incorrectly regarded as goofs: At the start, the scientist tells Snake they cannot neutralize the explosion until 15 minutes before the deadline. In other words, it can be neutralized anywhere from 15 minutes to a fraction of a second before the deadline, but no sooner. Therefore, it's OK that Snake lets the timer run down to 6 seconds.

Continuity: Maggie fires 7 shots from a 6 shot capacity revolver at the Duke as he bears down on her on the bridge.

Crew or equipment visible: Snake and the others return to the elevator on top of the World Trade Centre (immediately following the loss of the jet-glider). Sticking out near the jam, you can see the fingers of a crew member pushing the right-side door closed.

Incorrectly regarded as goofs: The president is clearly British. In order to qualify for US presidency you must be a natural-born US citizen and have lived in the US for 14 years, but he could have been born in the US and grown up in the UK, moving back as an adult, or even born abroad to US parents.

Continuity: Snake's time limit was stated as 22 hours, but his Master Life Clock started at 22:59:57, or 23 hours.

Crew or equipment visible: Crew fingers visible closing elevator door after failed escape run to glider. Seen on widescreen DVD edition.

Factual Errors: When Snake lands on top of the World Trade Center tower, his altimeter indicates less than 200. The tower was over 1300 feet.

   : Escape From L.A. - Trivia

At the beginning of the film, Kurt Russell wears his costume from the original film, which still fit after 15 years.

Kurt Russell practiced playing basketball between scenes as he wanted to make all of his shots legitimately in the basketball scene later on. He made all of those shots purely on his own talent, even the full-court one.

When Snake is done playing basketball and tries to escape through the gate, the bald, black guard wearing sunglasses holding a gun is actually Isaac Hayes (uncredited cameo), who played the Duke of New York in Escape from New York (1981).

In an homage to the famed studio tour where Jaws pops out of the water, a shark tries to bite the mini-sub just as it passes the sign for Universal Studios.

There are several references to Snake Plissken and the city of Cleveland. This is an in joke reference to a friend John Carpenter's who knew a guy from Cleveland named Snake Plissken where Carpenter got the name for the character when he was writing Escape from New York (1981)

During the climactic battle scene, when Steve Buscemi's character is hanging off the helicopter, several stores are visible in the matte shot behind him. One of the prominent buildings is clearly marked "Miniatures", a reference to the filmmaking technique.

The orphan in the cap that Snake Plissken makes eye contact with while being escorted down the hallway was played by 'Kurt Russell (I) 's son Wyatt.

    : Escape From L.A. - Bloopers

Continuity: When Snake first encounters Cuervo in his limousine, his head tracks at three times the speed of Cuervo's car.

Continuity: When Snake is attempting his fifth shot at the basket, the automatic timer shows 3 seconds twice.

Continuity: In the final fight scene between Snake and Cuervo, Cuervo's knife disappears occasionally from the ground.

Continuity: The wristwatch counter shows 6 hours 59 minutes. Then he is told he has seven and a half hours left.

Continuity: The size of the dot that Map of the Stars Eddie paints on the disk changes.

Continuity: When Snake approaches the Happy Kingdom amusement park on the hang glider (with the others) the sun is just coming up. Half an hour later (in the story), when Snake makes it off LA, it is dead of night.

Continuity: During the fight after the basketball game, Cuervo drops the black box twice.

Continuity: Near the end of the movie when he is escaping in the helicopter the bazooka is empty. You can see through barrel. Then four seconds later the bazooka fires.