Everyone is a Critic: “Escape from New York” (1981) and “Escape from L.A.” (1996), with Kurt Russell

Escape From New York (1981), with Kurt Russell

I grew up with Kurt Russell, playing the Disney Kid with roles as the clean-cut kid next door in movies such as Walt Disney’s The Computer Who Wore Tennis Shoes, and the old westerns such as Gun Smoke, Loredo, Daniel Boone, etc… so, as a teen, to find him playing Snake Pliskin, big bad guy, complete with leathers and eyepatch was a bit of a culture shock for me. Kurt Russell, the clean-cut boy next door kid, as a bad guy? No way!

But after watching this movie, I was totally sold on the character of Snake Pliskin; Kurt Russell had my total buy in on him being a bad ass bad guy. It is a fun movie to watch, with several good quotes, such as “Snake Pliskin? I heard you were dead.” Snake’s response to this statement may vary, but it becomes like a catchphrase used by almost everyone he encounters. Russell stands beside stars such as Ernest Borgnine, Lee Van Cleef, Harry Dean Stanton, and Adrean Barbeau, and some cool action scenes. Good writing and a solid plot, as well as Kurt Russell, make this movie one I have watched multiple times over the years, and enjoyed it every time.

Snake Pliskin is a war hero turned small-time thug, imprisoned for his crimes, but ‘the establishment’ offers him a deal he can’t refuse in this dystopian tale that imagines a futuristic New York as an isolated island that’s been turned into a penal colony, where once you go in, it’s a life sentence and you never leave. But the U.S. president’s plane has crash landed inside the isolated penal colony, with a briefcase vital to U.S. security, where no law enforcement dares to go, and Snake Pliskin is the man they’ve chosen to be the president’s savior. To ensure his cooperation, they have injected him with a slow acting poison, and he must go into New York, find and rescue the president, and get out before the poison takes effect, to earn his freedom.

Escape From L.A. (1996) with Kurt Russell

Over a decade after the first movie, they came out with a sequel, starring one of my favorite characters. Snake Pliskin is back and I had to watch this to see where they took Snake’s story now. He had already escaped from the futuristic New York island prison colony and exacted his revenge on those who placed him there, and after over a decade I was dying to find out what they would do with the L.A. theme.

In this chapter of the Snake Pliskin tale, L.A. has been turned into an asylum of undesirables, isolated with a great wall to keep the riff-raff in and ‘respectable society’ out. Like New York, L.A. is a life sentence. Once you go in, you never return. So, when the president’s daughter is kidnapped and taken into L.A., where the law doesn’t go. The man who escaped from New York is the only logical choice to save her.

“Call me Snake.” is still the catch phrase and Snake Pliskin is still the hero. Snake is older, his hair is a little longer, but he’s still a force to be reckoned with. This one also features plenty of action scenes, my favorite being the hang-gliding attack to rescue a girl who doesn’t want to be saved. The special effects are kind of corny, but it’s a fun movie to watch with an all-star cast including Stacy Keach, Peter Fonda, Steve Buscemi, and Pam Grier.

I prefer the first movie, because it has better buy-in quality. The corny effects in the second movie kind of make it laughable. I had to wonder if they switched to a comedy and forgot to tell anyone. But the second is still entertaining, maybe moreso because of the humorous quality of some scenes, such as the surfing scene which uses obvious, (and poorly done), computer animation. But it’s still fun to watch.

About Kaye Lynne Booth

For Kaye Lynne Booth, writing is a passion. Kaye Lynne is an author with published short fiction and poetry, both online and in print, including her short story collection, Last Call and Other Short Fiction; and her paranormal mystery novella, Hidden Secrets; Books 1 & 2 of her Women in the West adventure series, Delilah and Sarah, and Book 1 in her Time-Travel Adventure series, The Rock Star & The Outlaw, as well as her poetry collection, Small Wonders.

Kaye holds a dual M.F.A. degree in Creative Writing with emphasis in genre fiction and screenwriting, and an M.A. in publishing. Kaye Lynne is the founder of WordCrafter Quality Writing & Author Services and WordCrafter Press, where she edits and publishes two short fiction anthologies and one poetry anthology every year amidst her many writing projects. She also maintains an authors’ blog and website, Writing to be Read, where she publishes content of interest in the literary world.

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This segment of “Everyone is a Critic” is sponsored by Wordfire Press and Kevin J. Anderson’s Writing tools Story Bundle.

We have a wonderful fall Writing Tools Storybundle available—15 vital ebooks on all aspects of the writing life, craft, business, career-planning, mindset. Name your own price and get them all, and a portion goes to the Neil Peart Brain Cancer Research Fund. Ends Dec 1.

Get your Writing Tools Story Bundle here: https://storybundle.com/writing