TSJ Revisits John Carpenter’s ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK, Part 1

TSJ Revisits John Carpenter’s Escape from New York, Part 1 of 2

The film that marked Kurt Russell’s transition from child actor to the world of commercial action/adventure movies will be forty-four years old this year. It was a pivotal film for Carpenter, who proved that Halloween and The Fog were no flukes, and it also marked yet another fantastic outing for Dean Cundey, who went on to become one of the most successful cinematographers in the industry.  It also introduced many of us to a new personality in genre filmmaking, which might surprise you.  Escape from New York was a watershed film in 1981, and I wanted to take a closer look at it this week.  Here is Part 1 of my retrospective, including anecdotes, trivia, and other interesting tidbits about the film.

The Story

In the near future, crime and immoral activities have increased exponentially in the United States. In an effort to clamp down on escalating violence, the government has walled in Manhattan.  Convicted criminals are sent into the city and left to live or die. There is a society within the walls, but the new philosophy for criminal reform is Out of sight, out of mind. It’s a dystopian world within, a dog-eat-dog existence where only the strong survive. People don’t think too much about it, until that is, the president’s plane is hijacked, with him on board, and deliberately crashed within the walls.

Enter Snake Plissken, a notorious criminal set for imminent confinement in the Manhattan maximum security prison. He’s now the president’s only hope.  His mission: Go in, find the president, and get out in only twenty-four hours.

It’s a fantastic setup and a film that’s been copied a few times.  Two examples include Dredd and Lockout. There are also rumours of a remake, one that looks to now be in development hell.  At least five directors have been attached over the years, according to ScreenRant, and an even more recent director (the sixth), Leigh Whannell (The Invisible Man), now also says there’s nothing happening anytime soon.

Beware of Spoilers

Of special note is the film’s ending.  It’s dismal, resulting in a sequence of events that we are not privy to.  Earlier, a character (Lee Van Cleef, portraying Hauk) implied that the results would be dire if the president isn’t brought back safely with the secrets he’s carrying — cheap fusion generation and a great promise for all of humanity.  Plissken, however, the anti-hero, makes the decision to keep this from the world and humiliate the president on global TV.  What happens next is open for debate, although we don’t really learn anything about the next events from the sequel, Escape from LA.  Suffice to say the ending is bleak, and this is a common thread in John Carpenter’s films.  Consider the following:  in Halloween, Michael disappears, forecasting future bloodshed in Haddonfield.  The Thing’s ending was notorious for its lack of resolution. Prince of Darkness promised future horrors on Earth once the “Prince” was released.  In the Mouth of Madness also unleashed unspeakable horrors and an apocalyptic ending for humanity following the events in the movie. In They Live, characters reveal an alien presence on Earth right as the credits roll. Three of these films are actually called The Apocalypse Trilogy.

John Carpenter

For Carpenter, the pressure to perform was on. He’d hit it big with Halloween, which is considered one of the most successful films of all time.  It cost only $300,000 to make and grossed $70 million at the global box office, along with a franchise that now spans thirteen films (with more on the way), video games, and more.  The Fog was his next outing, and it was moderately successful, but nowhere near what Halloween was.  (It was originally a ghost story, and nervous executives asked Carpenter to ramp up the horror and slasher elements with additional filming.)  Then came Escape from New York, which was a bonafide hit.  It cost $6 million to produce and grossed more than $50 million.  The efforts paid off and it paved the way for Carpenter’s next film, The Thing.

There are some interesting anecdotes from the making of this film.  Carpenter was not a fan of New York City and he wanted to avoid shooting there.  The only scenes they ended up filming were at the base of the Statue of Liberty on Liberty Island! Set designers created the rest of the city in St. Louis, where there were many abandoned and derelict buildings. The overhead views of the city were of a miniature built for the film, and the scenes of the skyline were actually matte paintings.  Other scenes were filmed on sets in Los Angeles.

Regarding St. Louis, there was an area several blocks large that had been destroyed by a fire.  The train station, set for renovation, was where the fight-to-the-death with Snake occurred, as The Duke and his gang looked on. The monster Snake had to defeat was a former pro wrestler named Ox Baker. Apparently, he did not understand movie fighting versus pro wrestling in the ring, and Kurt Russell grew quite angry as the scene’s filming progressed.

The early script was good (written in 1974), but people noted that it lacked a “New York style.”  Nick Castle, a frequent collaborator of Carpenter’s, added some NY elements:  the Broadway show the city’s inhabitants are putting on and the NYC cabbie are two examples.  An interesting bit of trivia is that Carpenter is in the band, playing the violin, and Castle is the piano player. There are others from the crew in there too, apparently.

One very interesting story involves Maggie’s death.  During an early cut of the film, Carpenter realized that her fate was not very clear.  She was involved in the car wreck on the “69th Street Bridge” (which does not exist) during the climax, but what happened to Maggie?  Did she die?  It was difficult to determine.  As a result, Carpenter filmed the scene with her pinned under a car as she expired.  They did this shot one night in Carpenter’s own driveway.  It was a short bit of video, only a few seconds, but a neighbour’s son came over to watch the filming.

The name of that kid?

JJ Abrams.

Escape From New York included more than a few frequent Carpenter collaborators in front of the camera:  Adrienne Barbeau (Someone’s Watching Me, The Fog), Harry Dean Stanton (Christine), Frank Doubleday (Assault on Precinct 13), Tom Atkins (The Fog, Halloween III), Charles Cyphers (Someone’s Watching Me, Elvis, Assault on Precinct 13, Halloween, The Fog), Nancy Stephens (Halloween) and Donald Pleasence (Halloween, Prince of Darkness). And let’s not forget Jamie Lee Curtis (Halloween, The Fog) who was the computer voice in EFNY, and George Buck Flower (Starman, They Live, Village of the Damned).

Pleasence made quite the impact as the President of the US, especially considering the fact that he had a British accent.  During filming, he actually created a backstory to explain this and explained it to Carpenter:  it involved PM Margaret Thatcher waging some kind of British takeover of the United States!

And of course, we can’t forget Carpenter’s most prominent collaborator in front of the camera, Kurt Russell (Elvis, EFNY, The Thing, Big Trouble in Little China, Escape From LA.)

Stay tuned for Part 2 of my Escape from New York retrospective, coming later this week. In it, we’ll shed some light on three people who exploded into the industry, in no small part due to work on this film.  Watch this space.

— TSJ, 19 March 2025

New: Find Part 2 of my Escape from New York retrospective HERE.

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Praise for Timothy S. Johnston’s A Blanket of Steel

“Fans of Clive Cussler’s NUMA Files will be delighted with Timothy S. Johnston’s undersea novels. Truman McClusky and Dirk Pitt are cut from the same adventurer’s cloth.” — Nick Cutter, author of The Deep and The Troop

“Action that ranges from close range combat to torpedo-fueled attacks. The result is a thriller that keeps moving from confrontation to confrontation … with constant danger and the vast depths of the ocean as a setting, there is always reason to keep reading.” — Kirkus Reviews

“Read the book and prepare to be blown away by one of the best writers I have ever had the pleasure to read. Timothy S. Johnston is simply amazing.” — FIVE Stars from Readers’ Favorite

“A Blanket of Steel is not simply a ‘daring do’ thriller … It’s prescient.” — Amazing Stories

“A priority selection. An action-packed story that is hard to put down. A Blanket of Steel is outstanding.” — D. Donovan, Sr. Reviewer, Midwest Book Review

“Innovative technology, Mac taking risks no one else would dare and thinking his way through to brilliant solutions … But the stakes are higher than they’ve ever been before. This is it. The countdown to the final battle … Johnston does an excellent job of keeping the tension taut as he plays with the reader’s perceptions of characters we thought we knew and trusted …” — SFcrowsnest

“Expect to be left breathless. Trust me here. Please. I COULD NOT PUT IT DOWN.” — Michael Libling, author of The Serial Killer’s Son Takes A Wife and Hollywood North: A Novel in Six Reels

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A BLANKET OF STEEL is out now!

WATCH THE GRIPPING BOOK TRAILER HERE.

FOR PURCHASE OPTIONS CLICK HERE

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A Blanket of Steel from Timothy S. Johnston and Fitzhenry & Whiteside, Ltd.

Book Cover & Jacket Copy:

AN UNSTOPPABLE THREAT!

A mysterious assassin has murdered Cliff Sim, Chief Security Officer of the underwater colony, Trieste. Cliff was a mountain of a man, highly trained, and impossible to defeat in combat. And yet …

Someone brutally beat him and left his broken body in a secret Chinese facility at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.

And included a calling card for Truman McClusky, Mayor of Trieste.

Taunting him.

Mac has led the underwater colonies in their fight against the world’s superpowers. Climate change has devastated the surface; nations suffer famine, drought, rebellion, rising waters, and apocalyptic coastal flooding. But now, as Mac leads the underwater colonies to freedom and independence, he’s faced with the gravest threat of his life: a Russian assassin, hellbent on killing Mac and everyone he cares for. Now Mac must uncover the identity of the killer, face him in combat, and at the same time lead people in battle against the largest underwater force ever assembled. It’s Mac’s final test, and to win the war, he must use every tool at his disposal, including the most surprising and devastating underwater weapons ever invented.

If Mac fails, all hope is lost for the future of human colonization on the ocean floors.

But the assassin could be anyone …

Watch your back, Mac.

A Blanket of Steel is the most gripping thriller yet in The Rise of Oceania.

FOR PURCHASE OPTIONS CLICK HERE

The other books in The Rise of Oceania series by Timothy S Johnston:

The War Beneath 9781771484718
The Savage Deeps 9781771485067
Fatal Depth 9781554555574
An Island of Light 9781554555819
The Shadow of War 9781554556007

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TSJ’s Awards

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THE WAR BENEATH:  FIRST PLACE 2018 GLOBAL THRILLER Action / Adventure Category Winner, 2019 Silver Falchion Award Finalist, 2018 CLUE Award Semi-Finalist, 2019 Kindle Book Awards Semi-Finalist, & 2019 CYGNUS Award Shortlister

THE SAVAGE DEEPS:  FIRST PLACE 2020 CYGNUS Award Winner, 2019 GLOBAL THRILLER Awards Finalist, 2022 Kindle Book Awards Semi-Finalist; 2019 CLUE Award Shortlister

FATAL DEPTH: FIRST PLACE 2021 GLOBAL THRILLER Award Winner, 2022 Silver Falchion Award Finalist (Best Action Adventure), 2021 CYGNUS Award Semi-Finalist

Praise for THE WAR BENEATH

“If you’re looking for a techno-thriller combining Ian Fleming, Tom Clancy and John Le Carré, The War Beneath will satisfy … a ripping good yarn, a genuine page-turner.” — Amazing Stories
“One very riveting, intelligent read!” — Readers’ Favorite
“If you like novels like The Hunt for Red October and Red Storm Rising,
you will certainly enjoy The War Beneath.” — A Thrill A Week
“If you’re here for thrills, the book will deliver.” — The Cambridge Geek
“… an engaging world that is highly believable …” — The Future Fire
“This is a tense, gripping science fiction/thriller of which Tom Clancy might well be proud . . . When I say it is gripping, that is the simple truth.” — Ardath Mayhar
“… a thrill ride from beginning to end …” — SFcrowsnest
“… if you like Clancy and le Carré with a hint of Forsyth thrown in,
you’ll love The War Beneath.” — Colonel Jonathan P. Brazee (RET),
2017 Nebula Award & 2018 Dragon Award Finalist
“Fast-paced, good old-fashioned Cold War espionage … a great escape!” — The Minerva Reader