John Carpenter’s Escape from L.A.

• Co-Written, Co-Scored, and Directed by John Carpenter
• August 9, 1996

Snake Plissken must recover a superweapon from the autonomous island of Los Angeles before time runs out.

John Carpenter’s Escape from L.A. is a somewhat satirical follow-up to the classic Escape From New York. While it doesn’t have the following or the general love of its predecessor it certainly should not be as neglected as it is. It is a film with a few things to say and does so with some wit that gets past your defenses. You may not agree with all of it but this film gets those points to you without putting message before narrative.

America has become a Christian theocratic nation controlled by morality police and a president for life. All immoral people (whatever that constitutes) get dumped outside of American borders which in this case is the city of Los Angeles which has been separated from the rest of the country by a massive earthquake in the year 2000.

Much like the last one there is an insane vibe about the whole movie once they enter the prison area. Here Los Angeles is portrayed as a dark parody of itself. There are dangerous celebrity guides. There are surfer dudes. There are no sacred cows and John Carpenter seems to be taking aim at just about everything that irritates him. And if you do not see what he is going for you still get a delightfully weird movie from a filmmaker in his prime.

Escape from L.A. takes a stab at plastic surgery by having a Surgeon General of Beverly Hills played by Bruce Campbell who is unrecognizable underneath make up. You’ll recognize his voice though. He is an over worked on character leading a bunch of individuals who are desperate to keep up their superficial appearances. But that’s not the only thing bordering on camp in this movie.

I really don’t think you could get away with Pam Grier as Hershe Las Palmas today. She’s played as a tough character but also is a bit of a punchline in the movie as Hershe was once Jack “Carjack” Malone. A few jokes are made aimed at Hershe and they would cause a huge uproar today.

Kurt Russell returns as Snake Plissken and is just a bit more of an asshole here than he was the last time. He still has a disdain for authority and civilization in general. He is as much more in charge of the situation (whatever it is) than previously depicted. Plissken has to work against another ticking clock as he is infected with a deadly virus which will kill him in a matter of hours unless he gets a control device back.

The decided upon limit bothers given all involved elements. Plissken has about 10 hours to navigate through unfamiliar territory with almost no intelligence info and get out again. While such things add tension, 10 hours seems like too little time to get everything done. Maybe another 24 hours?

Our villain in all this is Cuervo Jones (Georges Corraface) who has convinced the president’s (Cliff Robertson) daughter (A.J. Langer) to turn on him in order to get a control device to a weapons platform. This is a big deal as the US is on the brink of invasion by nations from around the world.

This films major drawback comes with the special effects. The movie came out at a time when CGI was being used more but still not of even a mediocre quality. They attempt to marry that with some more practical effects and the CGI comes off as low-grade videogame stuff and the practical effects don’t cover the weakness of the CGI.

However they make that less of an issue of those things by just having a bonkers movie. Fun and entertaining can do that. And it’s a bonkers movie with an all-star cast. Along with the aforementioned names we also have Steve Buscemi, Stacy Keach, and Peter Fonda in significant roles.

The script is witty and satirical. New York was just an insane future prison. This is more like an insane world. It’s clearly much more political given the content so it doesn’t miss on the social issues. It puts story first followed by any message and that’s how you do a good message film or a film with a lot of messages. This seems to be the latter and not the former. You give people something good to watch and say what you need to say.

John Carpenter’s Escape from L.A. is a great follow up to the original that doesn’t get quite the love that the original did. I say it’s as good as its predecessor with a little more substance than the last one had. If you like John Carpenter or Escape From New York this is a must see!