History Trivia / EscapeFromLA

* ChannelHop: [[Film/EscapeFromNewYork The first film]] was from Avoc Embassy Pictures (these days the rights are split between Creator/MetroGoldwynMayer and Creator/StudioCanal), but this sequel is from Creator/{{Paramount}}.

** 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 [[CloningBlues 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]].

* TheWikiRule: [[http://snakeplissken.wikia.com/wiki/Snake_Plissken_Wiki The Snake Plissken Wiki]].

* RecycledSet: This Happy Kingdom set was actually the town square from ''Film/BackToTheFuture'' at Universal.

* ChannelHop: [[Film/EscapeFromNewYork The first film]] was from Creator/MetroGoldwynMayer and Creator/StudioCanal, but this sequel is from Creator/{{Paramount}}.

* 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 Kurt Russell normally wears glasses.

* DyeingForYourArt: Averted. It was expected that Creator/KurtRussell would have to work out or a new costume would have to be made for the actor because it had been 15 years since ''Film/EscapeFromNewYork''. As it turned out, Russell kept himself in such good shape that the original costume fit without needing any alterations.

* ChannelHop: The first film was from Creator/MetroGoldwynMayer and Creator/StudioCanal, but this sequel is from Creator/{{Paramount}}.

* OneForTheMoneyOneForTheArt: Creator/SteveBuscemi took part in this film to help fund his directorial debut, ''Trees Lounge''.
* RealLifeRelative: One of the orphans seen early on in the film is, in fact, Creator/KurtRussell's own son, Wyatt.

* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: Just as its predecessor was this to the early '80s when UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity and other old East Coast/Midwestern cities were seen as [[TheBigRottenApple trapped in an intractable downward spiral]], so is this film to the late '90s, when UsefulNotes/LosAngeles' public image had taken a beating in the wake of [[PoliceBrutality the Rodney King riots, the Rampart scandal]], and the rise of GangstaRap. The PresidentEvil of the dystopian near-future United States is a [[TheFundamentalist Christian theocrat]] based on Jerry Falwell (right down to them sharing the same hometown of Lynchburg, Virginia), reflecting public concern over the power of the [[MoralGuardians Christian Right]] at the time. The villain Cuervo Jones is a member of the Shining Path, a Peruvian communist revolutionary group that, in the film, has taken over all of Latin America and is poised to [[InvadedStatesOfAmerica invade the US]]; in real life, the Shining Path was already being rolled up by the Peruvian military by 1996, and is largely disorganized today. There's even a joke made at the expense of Euro Disney Resort, with one character claiming that it drove Creator/{{Disney}} into bankruptcy. On the other hand, the fact that one of the minor characters is a woman who was dumped onto the Los Angeles prison island for being a Muslim proved [[HarsherInHindsight eerily prescient]], given how UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror stoked anti-Muslim attitudes throughout the US and Europe.

** 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 idea.