TSJ Revisits John Carpenter’s Escape from New York, Part 2 of 2
I’m writing about Escape from New York this week on my blog, Life After Gateway. This is Part 2 of 2 (find Part 1, here). Today we’ll look at some of the personalities who emerged from the making of this movie: Kurt Russell, Dean Cundey, and James Cameron.
This film was a watershed moment in their careers. For Kurt Russell, it marked his transition from childhood roles. For Dean Cundey, it was his continuing rise through the ranks in cinematography; a career which really began with the massive success of Halloween. And for James Cameron, it was his work on the effects that helped make him a notable figure in the industry. On this movie, he was known as the ‘resident genius,’ and his work made heads turn.
You’ll learn more about these three in this article.
Kurt Russell
Kurt was well known for being a child actor, especially for Disney. He also appeared in a variety of TV shows like Police Story and Hawaii Five-O. But as a teenager and a new adult, he knew that at some point he had to make the transition from child actor frequently cast in relatively family-friendly fare to a serious actor featured in action films and dramas. The question was, how best to do that?
He’d already filmed the TV mini-series Elvis with Carpenter, and then this role came up. “You were the only one who would really take a chance on me,” Kurt said to Carpenter (found on the director’s commentary). The studio wanted Tommy Lee Jones in the role, but Jones turned it down. Carpenter wanted Russell, and he got his wish.
Once Kurt was cast, he wondered if the character would even work. Would he seem intimidating? Would he come across as a reputable action star? Would audiences accept him as a cold-hearted anti-hero? Or would they always remember him as the child from The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes?
One anecdote from the filming occurred in downtown St. Louis. Kurt had done a great deal of preparation for the role. He’d worked out steadily in the months leading up to the filming. Once he arrived on set in St. Louis, he was all decked out in his Snake gear, along with a prop-machine gun, and he decided to stray from the set onto the streets. He noted there were even “bums” on the streets in the area, loitering around set. There were also some local toughs there, and Kurt stood staring at them. They had no idea who he was, but here was this guy in camo pants, an eyepatch, and a muscle shirt. He was several meters away …
He turned to the side so the light glinted off the machine gun at his side …
And they ran for their lives.
Kurt went back to Carpenter and said something along the lines of, “Hey — I think this is gonna work!”
Needless to say, the character of Snake Plissken is now iconic. His outfit, his tattoo, his eyepatch, and most important, his attitude. Kurt loves the character. In fact, it is his favourite character, according to Debra Hill (from the audio commentary on the special edition Blu). When time came to reprise the roll, in Escape from LA, Kurt still had the costume he’d worn some seventeen years earlier. It still fit perfectly. He is proud of the character he created. Early iterations had Snake wearing green army fatigues, but Kurt felt uneasy and realized it was not at all what he envisioned. He came up with the shirt, the jacket, the eyepatch, the boots.
Another interesting anecdote was that Snake’s camouflaged pant design (black, grey, white) did not exist at the time. Carpenter thought, since Snake had military experience in Siberia, that he might have camo that would work well in the snow and wilderness of Northern Russia. So, he invented the camo, which is now a common design worldwide.
Escape from New York was a magnificent vehicle to help Kurt transition into the realm of the adult action star. Some of his next films included The Thing, Silkwood, Swing Shift (a romantic comedy), and The Best of Times. The character Snake Plissken is also famously the basis of Solid Snake from the video game series Metal Gear Solid. I’m not sure when Kurt reached the heights of success. It might have been around the time of Backdraft, Tombstone, or Executive Decision. All were in the early to mid-1990s. He’s now considered a living legend, idolized by many others like Quentin Tarantino, who ended up casting Kurt in Deathproof, The Hateful Eight, and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
Kurt’s success continues today, with prominent roles in The Christmas Chronicles on Netflix, and Monarch, along with his son, Wyatt Russell, on Apple TV. He continues to act and his iconic performances resonate to this day.
Dean Cundey
One of the figures who emerged from these early Carpenter films was famed cinematographer Dean Cundey.
Dean Cundey (pointing)
His career in film began in 1973, but I think it’s fair to say that his first hit was Halloween in 1978. He began working on Carpenter’s projects from that point on. He worked on The Fog, Escape from New York, Halloween II, The Thing, Halloween III. He continued working with Carpenter after that, including Big Trouble in Little China, but he also began collaborating with other big name directors on some massive box office hits. Here is a short list, but you can check out his IMDB list of credits here.
- Romancing the Stone
- Back to the Future
- Who Framed Roger Rabbit
- Road House
- Back to the Future Part II
- Back to the Future Part III
- Jurassic Park
The visuals on Escape from New York were breathtaking. The setting — the dilapidated city, debris, garbage, rubble … basically what you’d expect in a walled-in prison — looked realistic and threatening. The plane crash, lit by fires bathed in smoke and nestled in a crumbled building, was art. The fuselage and tail of the plane, the grandiose nature of the image, was simply stunning. That is Dean Cundey’s doing, working with Carpenter on that film, along with set Production Designer Joe Alves, who purchased the plane for $8,000 to cut up for the set. Cundey lit the movie as well. The train station, the broken-down buildings, the refuse and rubble and bodies and violence manifested as a set, all looked real. Each evening, the crew spread garbage across the streets for filming, Cundey lit it all and added unique lighting and sporadic firelight, and then the crew cleaned it up in the morning (to accommodate the city’s regular traffic!), just to redistribute it all later for the next evening’s shoot. For the crew, it was grueling.
Cundey, in the commentary on the films, often speaks about leaving empty space in the frames. Dark areas. It might seem empty, but viewers’ eyes are drawn to those places. They’re expecting something to emerge … or something to jump out. Sometimes it does, but often it doesn’t. It adds tension, which becomes a slow burn that builds to white hot energy. He did it often in Halloween, The Fog, and in Escape from New York. He also believes that important characters deserve notable introductions, so the audience can infer that these people are meaningful to the story in some way. Consider Cabbie’s first appearance, in the theatre watching the ‘Broadway’ show. Or, Maggie’s appearance as the door to Brain’s lair opens. He lingers on the characters for a touch longer than normal. Of special note is the scene when Snake, Brain, Maggie, and Cabbie march down the stairs from Brain’s, just before they reveal The Duke’s car. It’s a fantastic shot — an introduction to the ‘team.’
Cundey is an incredible talent, and he and Carpenter found themselves collaborating at just the right times in their careers.
Here’s the crash site in the film, as lit and filmed by Cundey. His skill made it look like a bigger budget movie than it really was. Credit to japantoine on YouTube. Apologies for the low res:
James Cameron
Carpenter was simply not going to film in NYC. Perhaps it was because they didn’t have the budget. Perhaps it was because he was not a fan of the city. Regardless, filmmakers would have to create the city in other locations. I already mentioned St. Louis in this article. There were also sets in Los Angeles and at Sepulveda Dam. But what about the city’s famous skyline and buildings? How to make the film look like the action was actually happening in Manhattan? They solved part of this problem with the miniatures built for the grander views, like during the opening sequence and the glider scenes. You saw that in Part 1 earlier this week. The scenes from within the city, however, were shown using matte paintings by none other than James Cameron. (There is one exception in the film: the scene of Hauk, on Liberty Island hours after Snake has infiltrated Manhattan, watching the real skyline of NYC on a foggy morning.)
Cameron worked on this movie following his stint directing Piranha 2. Very quickly, people on the set began to call him the ‘resident genius,’ because he knew how to get realistic effects done (perhaps because of his work with Roger Corman), or at least he had ideas on how to solve problems on the fly. In addition to his many skills as a director/effects-guru, he is also a wonderful artist. In Titanic, for example, when Jack is sketching Rose on her couch in the cabin, those are Cameron’s hands drawing the picture.
Here are some images of Cameron painting the distinctive NYC buildings:
Another very notable scene was the Airforce One flight sequence. The clouds were cotton balls, but you’d never know. The realism for the time was clear:
Another bit of ingenuity in this film were the computer graphics showing the city. Manhattan was displayed as a ‘framework’ of computer lines, or a ‘wire frame.’ It was quite effective, but filmmakers did not use a computer to do it! Cameron used the miniature of NYC, put reflective tape on the corners and roofs of buildings, the coast, piers, and so on, and they filmed it under a blacklight. It was a retro way of creating a futuristic sequence, and it was Cameron’s doing. Dean Cundey, on the special edition Blu, confirms this. Cameron was only a few years away from Terminator and massive success that continues to this day.
To Wrap Up
I hope you enjoyed this look at one of my favourite Carpenter films, Escape from New York. It was a notable film during my creative formative years, I remember Snake Plissken as a great action hero when I was ten years old, and the making of the movie helped launch, or contributed to the careers at least, of some notable personalities in the movie industry. It also ushered in the era of the 80s action movies and action stars, like Arnold and Stallone. I’m unsure if the remake will ever happen, but if it does, I hope it involves Carpenter and Russell and captures the same spirit of the original. It was an incredible film that helped launch careers.
— Timothy S. Johnston, 21 March 2025
Find Part 1 of this retrospective, here.
———
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
———
A BLANKET OF STEEL is out now!
WATCH THE GRIPPING BOOK TRAILER HERE.
FOR PURCHASE OPTIONS CLICK HERE
———
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
———
TSJ’s Awards
Follow TSJ on Facebook
Follow TSJ on Twitter
Follow TSJ on Instagram
Enter TSJ’s contests here
Enter your email into the widget at the right to follow TSJ’s blog Life After Gateway.
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
