Back in 1981, filmmaker John Carpenter delivered audiences the dystopian action film Escape from New York, cementing Kurt Russell’s Snake Plissken as an antihero for the ages. The pair reunited 15 years later for the follow-up Escape from L.A., largely at the request of Russell, who felt he had more to give as the character. The film might not have been a major hit at the time, with its underwhelming financial reception preventing any sequels from moving forward, but audiences have grown to appreciate it more and more each year. Escape from L.A. is getting the 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray treatment, with the disc hitting shelves on February 22nd.
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Paramount describes the film, “Released in 1996, John Carpenter’s Escape from L.A. was the highly anticipated follow up to the fan-favorite hit Escape from New York. Kurt Russell returns as anti-hero Snake Plissken, who is called upon to save the world from a doomsday device after a 9.6 quake levels most of Los Angeles.”
ComicBook.com caught up with Carpenter to look back on the film’s legacy, the challenges of bringing it to life, and what the future could hold for Snake Plissken.
ComicBook.com: With Escape from L.A., I read that you said before that you actually prefer this film to the original, that you think that this is a better movie than the original. I wondered if that still holds true?
John Carpenter: Well, that’s partially true. I prefer parts of Escape from L.A. I prefer the themes of it. Although, I guess Escape from New York was a tinier idea, that everybody could grasp it quickly. But the themes of deporting people from L.A. isn’t so far from the truth these days. I prefer the prescience of that.
Do you have a favorite scene in the movie to either watch as an audience member or a particular favorite memory of filming a scene?
Well, every scene was just a delight to film. I guess you could tell I’m being sarcastic.
The big memory I have is we shot the Disneyland sequence of the movie at the Universal backlot in North Hollywood, or Lankershim, I guess. We shot the battle scene, big war, and there’s … The mayor of North Hollywood was a disc jockey. The famous Rick Dees is his name. I guess we made a bunch of noise all night long. So he got up and he got us and we couldn’t shoot any live ammunition. So we had to put it all in later. The big, huge battle scene was “pew, pew, pew!” just faking it.
The glamour of Hollywood.
Always. It’s always glamorous.
I know that there are some elements of the movie that, the special effects at the time, there were some challenges that were faced. Like how George Lucas goes back and revisits and updates special effects, do you ever look back on your movies and think, “Oh, I want to tweak that or update it, work on it a little bit more,”?
You’d have to remake the whole movie, I want to do that. The hell with it. It’s done, it’s done.
You worked with Kurt on this film to write this, I know that Kurt was super passionate about it. Then when it came out in theaters, it didn’t do huge numbers, now it’s more of a cult favorite and has a cult following. Those financial numbers maybe stopped some of the discussions of a sequel, but I know Ghosts of Mars was an idea that might have been Snake Plissken, have there been any legitimate talks in the recent years of you and Kurt getting together to do another one?
Nothing that Kurt and I do is legitimate. It’s all illegitimate.
No, not seriously [discussed sequels]. No. I know that there’s a couple of guys over at 20th Century Fox who are working on a reboot of this whole thing, and they’ve got a director, I’m not sure who it is, but maybe you know.
With Escape from L.A. coming out on 4K, what are you most excited about with this release? Is it just that fans have been championing this film for so long? Are you just excited that more people are going to see it? Or is this, as long as 4K comes with a few extra zeros on the check addressed to John Carpenter, you’re excited?
What check?
No, I’m excited about all those things, that it’s on 4K, that fans can see it, that it’s preserved on a better format. I’m excited by all that.
Escape from L.A. lands on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray on February 22nd.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity. You can contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter.
