Escape from New York (1981) and Escape from L.A. (1996) are two dystopian action movies directed by John Carpenter and featuring Kurt Russell in the role of Snake Plissken; unfortunately, although there was a third entry planned to complete the trilogy, it never quite happened. The movies are by no stretch of the imagination excellent, with the second one having aged poorly given to the attempts of the nineties use of 3D and CGI effects; that being said, they do represent a cornerstone in the genre of what I would call the ‘expendable prisoner sent on a suicide mission’, if that rings any bells.
The plot is quite simplistic: in a not so distant imagined future (1997 and 2013 respectively), there is so much criminality in the world that entire cities become prisons. In both movies, the main character is sent on a certain-death mission to retrieve a MacGuffin. There are several more things that can be said, especially in regards to the portrayed dystopia and the criminality rates, about moral reclamation and virtual reality, but those are details that have less impact on what I want to discuss.
So, if the movie was not excessively impressive, why talk about it?
Well, there is one important thing that I find interesting: the main protagonist. Kurt Russell portrays a character that will subsequently inspire an iconic game hero, Solid Snake. For all the gamers out there, and even the ones that just saw ads for games, Metal Gear Solid is one of those series that has permeated the gaming world as an undiscussed masterpiece, and for a variety of reasons which I will not be discussing here. Snake Plissken was a decorated war hero, special forces with two purple hearts, who turned rogue by robbing a federal reserve depository; part of his charm is that not much is explained of him, but it appears that everyone knows about his existence. Almost every side-character he meets tells him that they thought he was dead, and to some extent the recurring joke of everyone thinking that he would have been taller, but nevertheless his fame precedes him everywhere. The very first words he utters in both movies are simply:
“Call me Snake”
He is a man that has stopped caring, probably because he has been betrayed by the same people and nation he once served. Even his appearance is iconic: eye patch, sleeveless shirt, military pants and worn-out leather jacket.
One last thing that I would add regards the endings: they deliver this view of a character that is more or less an anti-hero. Snake stopped giving a damn long ago and as such, if someone does him wrong, he does not have any qualms with seeing the entire world burn before him in order for him to take his revenge. Not a positive character in the slightest, but for how he is treated, an understandable one at that.
I would give these movies a 6 out of 10 Great Escapes.