Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell) is back, in this 1996 sequel to John Carpenter's Escape from New York.America has become even more dystopian than it was in the earlier film, having been taken over by a theocraticfundamentalist Christian President (Cliff Robertson). An airplane has crash landed into the penal colony/no man's land/landfill/roach motel that is Los Angelespost-The Big One. It had the President's daughter Utopia (A. J. Langer) on it, and now she has sided with Cuervo Jones, taking the film's MacGuffin super weapon with her. The President drafts Snake into eliminating her and retrieving said MacGuffin. His reward, should he succeed, will be the antidote to a virus that has been injected into him.And so he enters the fortified and barbwired city of Los Angeles, a prison with no guards and precious little order. He makes his way through the slums (it's all slums), he gains and loses allies and...The ending to this film is incredibly defiant and shocking for an action film — even for people for whom It Was His Sled.
The Alcatraz: Los Angeles, which has been separated from the mainland US by a massive earthquake and is now a prison for those deemed "unfit" to live in the new theocratic America. A Great Wall is built along the shoreline and the United States Police Force is encamped along it preventing anyone from escaping back to the US.
Big Bad: Either Cuervo Jones, or the President. It's kind of hard to tell, at times.
Black And Black Morality: Really, the Shining Path and the US Government are absolutely no different in terms of how evil they are. They're just fighting over who gets to be in control.
Crapsack World/Day Of The Jackboot: Los Angeles is described by one of its residents as "the only free zone left in the world", and something of a dark paradise by Snake himself when compared to the police state of America and the rest of the world in general.
It's probably safe to say he's even more of a Deadpan Snarker in this one.
Delusions Of Grandeur: The President. During the climax, when he sentences his daughter to be executed, he corrupts one of the Bible's most recognized verses, putting himself in The Almighty's place (of course, given that he's President For Life of a theocratic dictatorship, it'd probably be surprising if he didn't develop a God complex).
President: "For he so loved his country, he gave his only seditious child."
Original Verse: "For God so loved the world, He gave His only begotten son (...)" [John 3:16]
The Dragon / Co Dragons: Both Cdr. Malloy and Lt. Brazen fill this role for the President.
Evil Versus Evil: Both the President, a fascist fundamentalist, and Cuervo Jones, a vicious power - hungry terrorist, want the "Sword of Damocles" for their own evil purpose. And Snake, naturally, is trapped between 'em.
Exact Time to Failure: Subverted. Snake's watch reaches zero seconds after he demands the cure for the Plutoxin 7 virus. Luckily, it turns out that Plutoxin 7 is just a fast, hard-hitting case of the flu.
Expanded States Of America: Bangkok, Thailand (where Snake has been at some point between 1997 and 2013) is mentioned as being United States territory.
Forced Prize Fight: In a variation, Snake has to win a steel-cage basketball game in order to escape. The danger coming from the fact that if he doesn't make enough goals, he gets shot to pieces.
in fact during the opening incarceration shot Snake's entire wardrobe makes a return since Russel informed Carpenter that he still had his original outfit from Escapefrom New York hanging in his closet.
Insistent Terminology / Do Not Call Me Paul: In both Escape from New York and Escape from L.A., the U.S. government is on a Last Name Basis with protagonist Snake Plissken, to which he consistently replies, "Call me Snake". However, during the respective climaxes of both movies, when one of the government's men finally does call him Snake, he reverses his previous attitude with the reply "The name's Plissken".
It's All About Me: Snake cannot be persuaded to give a shit about anything but his own interests. Considering there is no particularly good side for him to be on, one can hardly blame him.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Snake was more or less this since Escape from New York. However in this movie is a bit less anti-heroic as you would expect - it is shown when he spares The President's daughter life when he had the order to kill her on sight.
Although that may be equally due to Snake's utter contempt for the men who ordered him to do it.
MacGuffin: The controller, which activates the "Sword Of Damocles" defense system, an EMP cannon designed to destroy enemy nation's weaponry.
Mexico Called; They Want Texas Back: The Shining Path has taken over all of Latin America and is about to launch an invasion of the United States. They want a bit more than Texas...
A Nazi by Any Other Name: The US President, a politician who takes advantage of a depressed, war-torn country to attain absolute power, and then proceeds to eliminate any and all "undesirables" from his new regime. He even uses the term, "Final Solution", near the end.
Not In This For Your Revolution: And how! Snake absolutely despises the authorities who literally have to coerce him into working for them with a tailor-made "kill you in 10 hours" virus in his body or he'd just bail on them in a heartbeat.
Number of the Beast: "666" is the world code for the controller for the Sword of Damocles.
Oh Crap: Snake, upon realizing what the cut on his hand is. And to a even bigger extent when the government officers realize that Snake can be within a half miles radius, and knows the world code.
Only Sane Man: Snake appears like this, especially at the end.
The Purge: In the opening narration, it's stated that the President's first act is Directive 17 - Americans who are found "unfit" to live in the new, "moral" America are stripped of their citizenship, deported to LA and may never come back.
Shoot the Shaggy Dog: You know that band of misfits that helps Snake escape? They all get incinerated. You can even hear Hershe scream while she burns to death. In fact, everyone who helps Snake dies a horrible death, and it's implied Utopia will be killed anyway even though the chair is gone. Only "Map To The Stars" Eddie survives, and he has Chronic Backstabbing Disorder.
The "Every one of Snake's allies gets killed" is a sort of Running Gag holdover from the previous movie.
EVERY aspect of this movie is sort of a shot for shot holdover from the previous movie.
Taking You with Me: Cuervo is about to shoot the chopper that Snake, Hershe, Eddie, and Utopia are escaping in with a rocket. He gets shot by Eddie but still manages to get the rocket off before dying.
The United States Police Force, like an army, is encamped along the shoreline, making any escape from LA impossible.
Too Awesome to Use: Snake's revolvers. In the two scenes he demands them back (when being sent into L.A. and when escaping from the Surgeon General of Beverly Hills), he is carrying other guns (The Coreburner issued to him by the government and the Colt 1911 he takes from the Surgeon General), which he resorts to using first. Even after losing the Coreburner, he divests a mook of his shotgun and uses that. He only gets to use his revolvers once, showing off his Improbable Aiming Skills and loses them when captured.
Took a Level in Badass: Snake since Escape from New York. In that film, he was an ex-Green Beret with pretty decent combat skills. In this one, he's able to achieve Man With No Name style quickdrawing, shoot rifles and shotguns one handed from a motorcycle with no significant effects from recoil, take a round to the leg from a Desert Eagle and still walk with only a limp. This while being infected with the Plutoxin 7 virus (granted, it turns out to be the flu, but still).
What Beautiful Eyes: The Surgeon General of Beverly Hills is simply mesmerized by Snake's eye...
What Could Have Been: In the original script Taslima was explicitly a Brainless Beauty ("the face of a Persian princess...and basically has an IQ of around 50" as the script puts it.)
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