Line #3 Trivia/EscapeFromNewYork


1	* ActorInspiredElement: According to the DVD commentary, a large number of actors in the film got in on this:
2	** Snake Plissken's eyepatch was suggested by Creator/KurtRussell. Also, it's possible he channeled Creator/ClintEastwood somewhat in his performance because he was acting opposite Creator/LeeVanCleef.
3	** The Duke's eye twitching was suggested by Isaac Hayes, which was done whenever Snake was in the character's presence.
4	** According to Carpenter, Creator/DonaldPleasence created his own internal backstory for the President, suggesting that the character was the result of a world where Margaret Thatcher had become a world leader and the U.S. reverted back to being a colony. The humiliating blonde wig the President wears during his torture was also an element suggested by Pleasence.
5	* AllStarCast: In addition to being a StarMakingRole for Creator/KurtRussell, the movie features five of the most famous and recognizable character actors of all time: Creator/LeeVanCleef, Creator/DonaldPleasence, Creator/ErnestBorgnine, Creator/HarryDeanStanton, and Music/IsaacHayes.
6	* BillingDisplacement: Season Hubley (the "girl in Chock Full O'Nuts"} is credited sixth in the end titles, above Creator/HarryDeanStanton (Brain) and Creator/AdrienneBarbeau (Maggie), who both have more important roles in the film. In comparison, Hubley's character only appears in a single scene.
7	* CaliforniaDoubling: Filmed in East St. Louis and St. Louis to keep the budget low. Entire areas were in such a state of neglect -- urban fires had severely damaged them only a few years earlier -- to the point where sets didn't even have to be built. Four years later, the scene of the BatterUp BloodSport was renovated into a hoity-toity shopping area -- visual MoodDissonance.
8	* ColbertBump: The amount of people who discovered this movie due to being ReferencedBy the ''VideoGame/MetalGear'' franchise probably rivals the amount who saw it in theatres.
9	* CompletelyDifferentTitle:
10	** Austria and Germany: ''The Rattlesnake''
11	** France: ''New York 1997''
12	** Italy: ''1997: Flee New York''
13	* ContractualObligationProject: The second in a two-picture deal Avco Embassy had with John Carpenter, the first being ''Film/TheFog''.
14	* CreatorChosenCasting:
15	** Maggie was written with Adrienne Barbeau in mind.
16	** Cabbie was also written for Ernest Borgnine.
17	* CreatorCouple:
18	** The girl in the Chock Full O' Nuts is played by Creator/KurtRussell's then-wife, Creator/SeasonHubley.
19	** Creator/AdrienneBarbeau was married to Creator/JohnCarpenter at the time.
20	* CreatorsFavoriteEpisode: Kurt Russell has called this his favourite film and role that he's ever done.
21	* DarkHorseCasting: John Carpenter wanted a less established actor as Snake, worried that he would lose control of a more seasoned one like who the studio was suggesting (see below).
22	* DeletedRole: Joe Unger is listed in the end credits as playing the character of Taylor, although his scene (the bank robbery/escape prologue) was deleted.
23	* DeletedScene: [[https://www.denofgeek.com/us/movies/escape-from-new-york/272124/what-we-learned-from-the-escape-from-new-york-novelization Several scenes were planned but ultimately cut from release]]:
24	** The film was intended to open with a bank robbery detailing how Snake got captured. The sequence was cut after test screenings, as it was judged that it ran too long and was better explained by the sequence where Hauk details Snake's life of crime later in the film.
25	** In the finished film, Snake's trip down through the World Trade Center isn't seen. There was originally planned to be a sequence where Snake would encounter a group of Native American prisoners living on the ground floor of the building who were roasting an animal. When he eavesdrops on them, one of the tribe members sneaks up behind and tries to strangle him, forcing him to flee. The sequence also would have set up why they sabotaged the glider later on in the film.
26	** The car chase around the city just before the 69th Street Bridge sequence was intended to be longer, with Snake causing several of the cars driven by The Duke's entourage to smash into each other. This explains why Duke is the only one to follow them over the bridge at the end of the film.
27	** The final shot of the film was supposed to have Snake [[spoiler:lighting up the cassette with the secret to nuclear fusion]] with his cigarette, holding the burning pile of tape in his hands for a moment before dropping it. This was changed in the final product to have Snake tearing out the tape as he walks off.
28	* EnforcedMethodActing: In some of the shots during the fight scene, Snake's expressions of terror are ''real''. Ox Baker, having never done a film before, got a little too into his role, and poor Creator/KurtRussell really ''did'' end up fearing for his life.
29	* FakeAmerican: Brit Creator/DonaldPleasence plays the [[OurPresidentsAreDifferent President of the USA]]. He struggled to do the accent, so he came up with a backstory to suggest why a British man would be the American president - the USA had rejoined the British Empire and therefore the president didn't need to be a national. John Carpenter found the idea interesting but opted to just ignore the accent, finding it unnecessary to include.
30	* InspirationForTheWork: Creator/JohnCarpenter originally wrote the screenplay in 1976, in the aftermath of the Watergate scandal. Carpenter said, "The whole feeling of the nation was one of real cynicism about the President. I wrote the screenplay and no studio wanted to make it "because, according to Carpenter, "it was too dark, too violent, too scary, and too weird." He had been inspired by ''Film/DeathWish1974'', which was very popular at the time. He did not agree with the film's philosophy but liked how it conveyed "the sense of New York as a kind of jungle, and I wanted to make a science fiction film along these lines".
31	* MethodActing: Kurt Russell tried to remain in character between takes.
32	* OnSetInjury: Ox Baker struck Creator/KurtRussell very heavily with some of his blows during the boxing ring fight scene. Russell had finally had enough and asked Baker to take it easy, tapping him in the groin to let him know he was serious. Baker then calmed down.
33	* PlayingAgainstType: Before ''Escape from New York'' and ''Film/TheThing1982'', Creator/KurtRussell was best known for doing Creator/{{Disney}} comedies and other lightweight fare. The studio was surprised when Carpenter picked him, instead of someone like Creator/CharlesBronson or Creator/TommyLeeJones.
34	* ProductionPosse: The film was co-written by Nick Castle, who had played Michael Myers in ''Film/{{Halloween 1978}}'', produced by his regular producer Debra Hill, and starring Donald Pleasance, Charles Cyphers, Nancy Stephens and an uncredited voiceover by Jamie Lee Curtis - all from ''Halloween'' too. Tom Atkins and Adrienne Barbeau had starred in ''Film/TheFog''. This was also cinematographer Dean Cundey's fourth collaboration with him.
35	* RealitySubtext: Donald Pleasance had been a prisoner of war in the past, and drew from those experiences when filming the scenes of the president being imprisoned.
36	* SavedFromDevelopmentHell: Creator/JohnCarpenter originally wrote the script between 1974 and 1976 as a reaction to the Watergate scandal. No studio wanted to make it because it was deemed too dark and too violent. That changed after the success of Halloween
37	* StarMakingRole: This film put Creator/KurtRussell on the map as an action star.
38	* StuntDouble: Dick Warlock was Creator/KurtRussell's stunt double on the film.
39	* TechnologyMarchesOn: A monitor displays a 3D wireframe model of NYC as Snake lands his glider in the city. The filmmakers wanted to use an actual computer model, but since technology wasn't there yet at the budget they had, they compromised by building a physical miniature New York, outlining it with reflective tape, and filming the result. This was the ''budget option''.
40	* TomHanksSyndrome: Together with ''Film/TheThing1982'', this was the movie that turned Creator/KurtRussell from "clean-cut Disney kid" to "rugged roughneck badass". He was eager to break out of his family-friendly typecasting, and with this film, he succeeded beyond his wildest dreams.
41	* ThrowItIn:
42	** Several of Lee Van Cleef's closeups are out of focus, because they could only afford him for one day of shooting, and it would have been too expensive to get him back.
43	** The idea of putting a wig on at one point in the film was improvised by Creator/DonaldPleasence on the set.
44	** Maggie's death scene (where she DiesWideOpen) was something added just before release, after the film had already been completed and screened for the studio. Test screenings indicated that Maggie's fate was left ambiguous (it wasn't clear if the Duke hit her during her LastStand or if she jumped out of the way), so Carpenter shot extra footage by filming Barbeau lying on the ground in a death pose in the driveway in front of the house they owned.
45	* UncreditedRole: The voice of the female narrator in the opening sequence is left uncredited. Some websites and magazines claim that Creator/JamieLeeCurtis performed uncredited voice work for the intro (and, in tandem with this rumor, for the uncredited "Operator" in ''Film/HalloweenIIISeasonOfTheWitch'', another Creator/JohnCarpenter-produced film), but this has never been definitively proven. Other crew members (including Carpenter himself, who officially denied the suggestion years earlier) state that the narrator is an uncredited "Kathleen Blanchard", who ''is'' officially credited in the sequel, ''Film/EscapeFromLA'', and does exist (though she is not known to have any public presence, fueling rumors that the name is a pseudonym for Curtis).
46	* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
47	** The studio was not initially keen to hire Creator/KurtRussell as Snake Plissken due to his past work as a Disney kid and tried to counter-pitch director John Carpenter on either Creator/TommyLeeJones or Creator/CharlesBronson (an idea Carpenter shot down on the grounds that Bronson was too old). Other candidates for the role of Snake included Creator/ClintEastwood, Creator/ChuckNorris, Creator/NickNolte, Creator/JeffBridges and Creator/KrisKristofferson; Nolte and Bridges declined because they just weren't interested and the latter was declined by the studio due to the failure of ''Film/HeavensGate''. But Carpenter fought for Russell and he eventually won.
48	** The role of Brain was written with Creator/WarrenOates in mind, but he was seriously ill at the time, so he suggested Creator/HarryDeanStanton for the role.
49	** Co-writer Nick Castle wrote the role of Cabbie for Creator/MickeyRooney.
50	** Creator/JohnCarpenter had originally considered a scene where Hauk [[spoiler:reveals that the explosive charges in Snake's neck were a hoax intended to coerce Snake into rescuing the President, but decided not to use it. Carpenter did, however, use this plot device in the sequel ''Film/EscapeFromLA''.]]

Context Trivia / EscapeFromNewYork