History Film / EscapeFromLA

* ContrivedCoincidence: The arming device for the Sword of Damocles ''just happens'' to use the exact same model as Eddie's narrated Hollywood tour guides. At one point, Eddie even paints one of his own devices to make it look functionally-identical to the former, and attempts to pilfer the real device from Cuervo when his attention is diverted. [[spoiler:Snake later uses this fake device to trick Malloy and the President, as part of the StolenMacguffinReveal]].

* SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale: In the film it is said everyone who isn't Christian gets deported to the island. According to most polls that would be about 30 percent of the population, or about 100 million people. In an island the size of Los Angeles. Logically it should be PACKED but it has a far amount of empty space in the film.

** When Malloy gives Snake his tools for the mission, he hands him a holo-camera that can project his image up to a kilometre away, and tells him to save it for when he needs it the most. Snake stuffs it in his coat, which he subsequently loses to one of Cuervo's thugs after he's captured. [[He recovers the coat just before he escapes the island, and decides to use the holo-cam as part of his StolenMacguffinReveal to fool Malloy and the President during the climax of the film]].

** [[spoiler:The holo-cam]], to an amazing degree of awesome.

* DiedInYourArmsTonight: A surprising and realistically brief example

* LighterAndSofter: ''L.A.'' has little of the grittiness of ''New York'', and Snake is more of an ActionHero. Then again, ''L.A.'' does {{subvert|edTrope}} it with a much bleaker ending where, instead of just trolling the president, Snake essentially [[spoiler:shuts down the earth's electricity supply, plunging the world into darkness. Something that Snake doesn't really seem to choked up about because he's even more pissed at the government than he was the first time.]]

* InTheBack: Subverted. A neo-Nazi skinhead attempts to throw a knife into Snake's back as he's walking away. Snake turns around and riddles him with bullets before continuing on his path.

** Carjack is a transsexual and uses the name Hershe without a "y" on the end ("her" + "she").

* {{Transsexual}}: [[spoiler:Carjack Malone/Hershe Las Palmas.]]

* ArtisticLicenseBiology: About a third of the way into the film this is PlayedForLaughs when Snake encounters [[spoiler: a cult of plastic surgery-addicted murderers led by the "Surgeon General of Beverly Hills"]]
-->[[spoiler: '''Snake:''' What are they?]]
-->[[spoiler: '''Taslima:''' Surgical failures. They live here. Too many implants and face-lifts over the years... Their muscles turned to Jell-O. The only way they survive is to have fresh body parts transplanted over and over again.]]

--> "I'll take my coat back now, asshole."

* BioAugmentation: PlayedForLaughs when Snake encounters [[spoiler: a cult of plastic surgery-addicted murderers led by the "Surgeon General of L.A."]]

* DoNotCallMePaul: [[spoiler: Hershe doesn't like Snake calling her by the name she used as a man when they first met, "Carjack".]]

* ExactTimeToFailure: Subverted. Snake's watch reaches zero seconds after he demands the cure for the Plutoxin 7 virus. [[spoiler: Luckily, it turns out that Plutoxin 7 is just a fast, hard-hitting case of the flu.]]

* FourthWallPsych: "Welcome to the human race!"

* GambitRoulette: The ending of the film relies entirely on this. [[spoiler: Snake's hijacked helicopter takes a hit from Cuervo Jones's [[DesperationAttack hail-mary rocket]], but since it was only grazed by it, it allows him to temporarily maintain flight instead of being blown out of the sky; he then uses the crash as a diversion. He plants a decoy mini-disk player on Utopia knowing she would be caught, it would be found, and would be thought the real Sword of Damocles. Plus, while Snake's use of the holo-cam is rather ingenious, the ruse would have been blown if anyone had decided to touch his projection prior to TheReveal, something that comes very close to happening in casual conversation.]]
* AGodAmI: During the climax, when the President [[spoiler: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:''' [[spoiler: For he so loved his country, he gave his only seditious child.]]\\

* HeroicNeutral: Snake, obviously.

* KillSat: The Sword of Damocles.

** The Sword of Damocles. It's an expression, based on an ancient anecdote, used to express an impending doom that can befall a person or, in the original tale, a tyrant, at any moment. [[spoiler: Snake drops the sword on ''everyone'' in the end]]

* PoliticallyIncorrectHero: Snake [[spoiler: persists in calling the transgender Hershe her old (male) name of "Carjack" despite Hershe's insistence otherwise.]]
* PresidentEvil: Hoo, boy.

* RaceAgainstTheClock: Similar to the first film of the series, Snake has a limited amount of time to complete his mission, due to [[spoiler: the Plutoxin 7 virus he's been infected with.]] He is given a wrist-timer, conveniently large for the audience, indicating how much time he has left before total failure.

--> The United States Police Force, like an army, is encamped along the shoreline, making any escape from L.A. impossible.

* TookALevelInBadass: Snake since ''Film/EscapeFromNewYork''. In that film, he was an ex-Green Beret with pretty decent combat skills. In this one, he's able to achieve [[TheGunslinger Man With No Name style quickdrawing]], shoot rifles and shotguns [[FiringOneHanded one handed]] from a motorcycle with no significant effects from recoil, take a round to the leg from a [[HandCannon Desert Eagle]] and still walk with [[OnlyAFleshWound only a limp]]. This while being infected with the Plutoxin 7 virus (granted, it turns out to be [[spoiler: the flu]], but still).

* ArtisticLicenseGeology: The movie's introduction explains that L.A. was hit by a 9.6 earthquake. While not ''impossible'', it is incredibly unlikely that a magnitude greater than 9 could be reached along that particular fault.

* TakeAThirdOption: [[spoiler:Rather than side with a fascist theocracy and an equally brutal communist insurgency, Snake shuts off the entire world.]]

* TakeAThirdOption: Faced with the world being just moments from a clash between fascistic fundamentalists and equally violent terrorists, Snake smugly [[spoiler:uses the Sword of Damocles [=EMP=] satellite network to shut down ''the entire planet,'' returning the entire mess to a clean slate.]]

** By real-world standards, the hang gliders used to ambush the movie's CheGuevara clone stay aloft far too long, evidently floating on RuleOfCool.

* BadassLongcoat: Snake wears it.

* CombatPragmatist: "Nobody draws until this hits the ground."

* StrawCharacter: Played on both ends, as Snake finds himself in the middle of a presidential KnightTemplar in control of a national, overly-militarized police force and a WellIntentionedExtremist uniting terrorists against him. The former is a little less straw-y in hindsight, as modern law enforcement has been criticized in recent years for being [[LifeImitatesArt overly militarized]].

In 2013, America has become even more {{dystopia}}n than it was in the earlier film: A [[ChurchMilitant theocratic]] [[TheFundamentalist fundamentalist]] [[StrawCharacter Christian]] President (Cliff Robertson) has taken over control of the country, and UsefulNotes/LosAngeles has become a [[WretchedHive penal colony/no man's land/landfill/roach motel]] after breaking off of the US thanks to [[AfterTheEnd The Big One]]. As the film begins, an airplane escape pod has crash-landed in Los Angeles; this pod carried the President's daughter, Utopia (A. J. Langer), who has since sided with [[BigBad Cuervo Jones]] and taken the United State's super weapon -- a device that controls "The Sword of Damocles" satellite system, which would let the President hit any country in the world with an electromagnetic pulse -- with her. Snake Plissken (Creator/KurtRussell) is back as the President drafts Snake into entering Los Angeles, retrieving the device, and executing his daughter for treason. His reward for a successful mission will be a full pardon...as well as an antidote to a virus injected into him to ensure his compliance, of course.

** The big threatening MacGuffin in the movie is the "Sword of Damocles", a network of space [=EMPs=] that will send the world back to the stone-age. In reality, most old technology is not susceptible to EMP disruption, and new tech can be shielded against such vulnerabilities. Considering the modern US military does for its equipment, it's reasonable to assume future-government tech should be able to shrug off such an attack.