Line #7 Trivia/EscapeFromLA


1	* ActorInspiredElement: The character of the President was Creator/KurtRussell's idea. He based him on televangelist Pat Robertson.
2	* AwesomeDearBoy: Creator/JohnCarpenter and Creator/KurtRussell had so much fun working together in the past that they decided to revisit Snake Plissken to "just have a blast". They had been considering it since 1985, until the chaos of TheNineties in Los Angeles gave them enough material for a new movie.
3	* BoxOfficeBomb: Budget, $50 million. Box office, $25,477,365.
4	* TheCastShowoff: Creator/KurtRussell practiced playing basketball between scenes as he wanted to make all of his shots legitimately in the basketball scene later on. He made all of those shots purely on his own talent, even the full-court one (with one eye covered and without his prescription glasses).
5	* ChannelHop: [[Film/EscapeFromNewYork The first film]] was from Avco Embassy Pictures (these days the rights are split between Creator/MetroGoldwynMayer and Creator/StudioCanal), but this sequel is from Creator/{{Paramount}}.
6	* DeletedScene: Several scenes were shot but only appeared in the marketing campaign or revealed to have been shot by crew members, including:
7	** A conversation between Malloy, Brazen and the President where they discuss Snake's psychological history. The conversation appeared in the trailer but wasn't present in the final product.
8	** There was intended to be a scene where Snake would be caught in a mudslide and pulled down to the bottom of a hill soon after he arrived on the island that isn't present in the final film. It did appear in pre-release promotional footage, however.
9	** According to production assistant Mauritz Pavoni, there was intended to be a scene where Snake encountered a hooker when he arrived at Hollywood Boulevard. The sequence was shot, but has never been released.
10	** There was intended to ba a ''much'' longer conversation between Snake and Cuervo Jones in the basement of the L.A. Memorial Coliseum that would have set up the ending (Cuervo remarks that the Sword of Damocles can be used to disable the whole world's defenses, along with giving more backstory for "Test Tube" (the hacker working for Cuervo) and setting up the gang member who steals Snake's jacket. It was featured prominently in behind-the-scenes materials and promotional trailers, but was not included in the final product. A subsequent scene with Utopia realizing that Cuervo isn't as heroic as she thought him to be, as well as the Mescalitos pulling Snake to his feet and hauling him out (in an apparent homage to the original film) was shot according to actor William Luduena, but never included proper in the film.
11	** Several FX and scene reels from visual effects coordinator Brian Keeney were uploaded by fansite ''The Escape from New York & LA Page'', which include a pair of deleted scenes -- the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olKJgFAZAUw original version]] of Snake's submarine landing near Castaic Lake (which used a practical submarine model instead of FX), and a deleted scene where one of the surfers Snake encounters just after exiting the submarine (played by Creator/BreckinMeyer) [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hw0Z9sc2EcI&t=2s says to Snake,]] "Locals only, dude. What're you doing here?"
12	* FakeNationality: Cuervo Jones is Peruvian but Georges Corraface is French-Greek.
13	* MissingTrailerScene:
14	** The original theatrical trailer features footage of Snake saying several of his {{signature lines}} against different L.A. backdrops ("Call me Snake" and "Your rules are really beginning to annoy me"), which aren't present in the theatrical cut and only appear to have been filmed for marketing purposes.
15	** A conversation between Commander Malloy and Lt. Brazen where they discuss Snake's psychological profile is nowhere to be seen in the finished film, but did appear in the original trailer.
16	* OneForTheMoneyOneForTheArt: Creator/SteveBuscemi took part in this film to help fund his directorial debut, ''Film/TreesLounge''.
17	* RealLifeRelative: One of the orphans seen early on in the film is, in fact, Creator/KurtRussell's own son, Creator/WyattRussell.
18	* RecycledScript: This is basically a wholesale rehash of the first film, so much so that you could practically take the script of the latter, change the names of people and locations without touching any of the rest of the script, and you'd almost have the former.
19	* RecycledSet: This Happy Kingdom set was actually the town square from ''Franchise/BackToTheFuture'' at Universal.
20	* RefittedForSequel: Snake finding out that the charges in him were duds was an idea meant for the first film.
21	* SavedFromDevelopmentHell: The film was caught in development hell for over ten years. A script was first commissioned in 1985, but Creator/JohnCarpenter thought it was "too light, too campy". It remained dormant until Carpenter and Creator/KurtRussell got together with frequent collaborator Debra Hill. It was Russell's persistence that got the film made. Snake Plissken was his favorite character, a character he loved, and wanted to play again.
22	* SequelGap: The first movie ''Film/EscapeFromNewYork'' was released in 1981. It took 15 years but ''Escape From LA'' was finally released in 1996.
23	* TransCharacterCisActor: Trans gang leader Hershe is played by cis female actor Creator/PamGrier. The filmmakers made a nod towards realism by deepening her voice in post-production, and Grier grew her body hair out to portray a trans woman with little access to beauty supplies.
24	* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
25	** [[http://www.theefnylapage.com/articles/scripts/efladraft19871207.pdf?fbclid=IwAR1nkyNvhwAMexe0xbd4N-XLJcMx6vp6KqEDFD02FFu2NBIQJ-PK8WpSagY The earliest version]] of the script, written by screenwriter Coleman Luck in 1987, was a completely disconnected concept that would have been a prequel to the original film, and would have followed Snake as he is parachuted into Los Angeles for 48 hours in a "Most Dangerous Game" scenario. A combination of bad timing and Creator/JohnCarpenter claiming the script was too "campy" put the kibosh on the project until the mid '90s, when the project was revived. While some of the concepts eventually made its way into the final product, the script as a whole was ''very'' different to the final film.
26	** The script begins with narration explaining that L.A. become a walled-off island due to two cataclysmic events: a plague caused by hazardous suntan lotion that turned the population of the city insane, and a 9.1 earthquake that hit the city at rush hour. In the final film, this was changed to be focused on just the earthquake, with the city being walled off at the direction of TheFundamentalist President, who uses the opportunity (and a previous prediction he made about the earthquake) to make himself PresidentForLife.
27	** Snake is introduced in [[VivaLasVegas Las Vegas]], where he interacts with a variety of characters (including hookers, a fortune teller and a claw machine that makes people bet their own body parts to win cash) before he is sedated and captured when he goes to get a touch-up on his famous snake tattoo. He is woken up by Bob Hauk (referred to as "Houk"), who explains Snake's service history in a scene very similar to ''New York'', then informs him that he's going to be dumped in L.A. and [[HuntingTheMostDangerousGame forced to survive]] for his amusement -- if he can get to a place called "Rodent Park" (essentially, [[{{Expy}} Walt Disney World]]) in 48 hours and survive against a "secret weapon", Hauk will give him anything he wants within reason. At least one part of the intro sequence (Snake interacting with a hooker who has a polypropylene condom in her mouth) was shot verbatim and intended to be used in the final product (albeit much later, when Snake gets to L.A.), was removed before release.
28	** Snake is given a submachine gun for protection and is airdropped into the city (in a sequence that was later repurposed with Hauk {{Expy}} Commander Malloy telling Snake the same thing when he tries to use the Coreburner). Snake paraglides past a number of incredulous residents before he lands, but he is immediately captured and knocked out. When he awakes, he's been strapped to a float ([[DamselInDistress across from]] self-professed "beauty queen" Blandish Vox") particpating in "Float Wars", a battlesport overseen by the crazed Surgeon General of Los Angeles. Some of the sequences outlined were either planned or filmed -- the residents waving at Snake were intended to be placed during the hang-glider scene towards the end of the film, where the sequence with the Surgeon General was rewritten to take place in a plastic surgery clinic.
29	** The parade is interrupted when Snake's war buddy from the [[NoodleIncident Battle of Leningrad]], Drummond, appears and begins firing on the floats. Snake uses the opportunity to cut his bonds, free Blandish and escape with her, while they're pursued by Drummond. After a cat-and-mouse chase, Snake shoots him several times in the chest, then tells Blandish that he thought Drummond was dead, as he buried him in Leningrad.
30	** Snake and Blandish stop at a bar, where he learns that he has a big reputation as a "video star" (a RunningGag similar to the original movie, where people comment that they thought Snake was dead). Traveling further, the pair are forced to flee from a group of crazed surfers, only to be caught again by "The Sewer Man", a sympathetic dweller who gives Snake some information on the area and gives him directions on how to get to Rodent Park. The pair eventually make it to the Hollywood Freeway, when the script's villain, "Oral Turnwheel" (a rich, emaciated warlord who only wears a loincloth) is revealed. Turnwheel orders the "Cultural Police" to attack the duo, and in the ensuing altercation, Blandish is shot and killed. This sequence was partially replicated in the final film, with Taslima being shot and killed by a roving gang on the Hollywood Freeway.
31	** Snake is rescued by [[ContrivedCoincidence another former war buddy]], Johnny Lorder, who drugs him and leads him to a club/factory where he is [[GratuitousRape assaulted and taken advantage of by six female dancers]]. Lorder then steals one of his shoes and his weapon. Snake pursues him to a nearby gym, where he fights and overpowers his former colleague, throwing him into an overpowered tanning bed and killing him before retrieving his gear. The only remnant of this scene to make it to the finished product was the character of Map-to-the-Stars Eddie, who uses the same trick (a tranquilizer gun placed in his dashboard) to knock out Snake.
32	** Still being pursued, Snake ducks into a religious ceremony being overseen by "Sister Cher Blessing", who leads a group of cowled religious cultists. Snake steals one of the member's cowls and attempts to hide when the police show up, but eventually gives up the ruse and shoots the cops down before the cultists overpower him. He and other refugees are sent to the "Queen Mary", a beached ship near the coast of the island. Once there, Snake discovers that some of the dead refugees have been reanimated, including Blandish, who has been brought there and gives Snake directions on where to go. Snake also encounters [[ContrivedCoincidence another former war buddy]], Dargan, who died and reanimated and is holding a key to escape. Snake defeats him and exits the ship, but is captured by Turnwheel, who reveals that [[TheManBehindTheMan he is the one who orchestrated Snake's capture and pursuit throughout the last 24 hours]]. He explains that Snake is the "perfect soldier" before bringing him to Rodent Park, which has reopened to the public for "Snake Plissken Day".
33	** Turnwheel then reveals that the reason for the island's occupants telling Snake he is a "video star" is because they took a DNA sample he gave the army four years earlier and used it to create four clones of Snake (one of whom was used to star in ads for the city). He forces Snake to participate in a DuelToTheDeath with his former clone, under the pretense of wanting Snake's DNA and body to create an army of clones. The overpowered clone Plissken ''defeats'' Snake, with the latter (being mortally wounded) pushing himself into a vat that kills him and dissolves his body. The clone, [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone having found remorse over his own actions]] (and being fed up with Turnbull's actions) guns down all of the security forces in the area before picking up Turnbull and tossing him into the same tank. The script would have ended with Hauk arriving as the "new" Snake proclaims that he wants L.A. for himself, before a title card stating Snake would go on [[Film/EscapeFromNewYork his mission to New York two years later]].
34	** Happy Kingdom was supposed to be Disneyland, but Disney didn't give them permission.
35	** Creator/KurtRussell contacted Creator/GoldieHawn to play Utopia originally, but she was unable to play the role, as she was hospitalized at the time, with a particularly bad case of trichomoniasis. Creator/KateHudson auditioned for the role.
36	** Had he not signed on to do [[Film/JohnCarpentersVampires Vampires ]]in 1998, Creator/JohnCarpenter would’ve most likely retired from filmmaking after finishing this movie as “it stopped being fun” for him.
37	** The ending went through several iterations, with one outlining Snake unironically being given his Presidential pardon before walking off -- just before the President attempts to activate the Sword of Damocles, which is a dud. Snake activates the Sword out of sight of the President and watches as allied forces from L.A. (including Pipeline and a group of others, who storm the prison and rescue Utopia) assault the USPF compound, just before he finds a motorcycle and [[RidingIntoTheSunset rides into the sunset]]. The idea to have a more direct confrontation between Snake and the President was Creator/KurtRussell's suggestion.
38	* WrittenByCastMember: Creator/KurtRussell served as co-writer. The ending was his idea.

Context Trivia / EscapeFromLA