22 unknown facts about the film "Escape from New York", which gave a piece of the Blade Runner universe (11 photos)

The idea for Escape from New York first came to John Carpenter in the mid-1970s. The main sources of inspiration for the plot were Harry Harrison's novel Planet of the Damned and the Watergate scandal, which led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon. But then none of the studios were interested in the idea of ​​the aspiring director. The producers considered this material too dark and provocative.





Following the commercial success of Halloween (1978) and The Fog (1980), as well as critical acclaim for Dark Star (1974) and Assault on Precinct 13 (1976), John Carpenter was welcomed into the fold with open arms top Hollywood directors. Since then, he has been able to enjoy carte blanche from film studios and impressive budgets to bring his ideas to the big screen. And, I must admit, the film studios were right! Carpenter's next work was Escape from New York, which also turned out to be a financially viable project (budget $6 million, box office gross $25 million) and became a classic of the genre.



1. Why does the President (Donald Pleasence) speak with a British accent? Because the world changed a lot after World War III: the USA again became a colony of Great Britain. Pleasence himself described his hero as “the love child between Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher.”

2. Why is Snake wearing pants of such a strange khaki color? Because he participated in the winter operations of the Unit Black Flight special forces in Leningrad and Siberia, for which he received two Purple Heart awards. Apparently the pants have stuck since then :)



3. How did an honored war hero manage to end up in prison? The rejected veteran became disillusioned with the system and began to make a living in robbery. The last case, a bank robbery, went wrong.

4. Carpenter wrote the script for “Escape” back in 1974, based on Harry Harrison’s novel “Planet of the Damned.”

5. The Snake eyepatch was designed by Kurt Russell. And the president's wig is Donald Pleasence.

5.1. By the way, the Snake actually has an eye, but it was damaged in a gas attack during the fighting and acquired too much sensitivity to light.

6. The street scenes were not filmed in New York, but in St. Louis. Before this, a major fire occurred in the city, destroying a significant part of the buildings on the embankment. The film crew didn’t even have to build a set – everything was filmed on location.



7. The “New York” bridge over which the president fled from Manhattan is actually also located in St. Louis. This is the Old Chain of Rocks bridge, which Carpenter “bought” for filming from the city administration for $1 and then sold back for the same amount. Why such a complex somersault was performed remains unknown. If anyone has theories, welcome in the comments!

8. Carpenter prefers to work with proven actors. There was no role for Halloween star Jamie Lee Curtis, but it is her voice that provides the voiceover for the computers and other scenes.

9. In the early 80s, computer graphics in cinema had not yet become widespread and cost crazy amounts of money. Therefore, the “digital” New York on the screen of the glider (Romanian IS28-B2) Plissken’s Snake is actually a regular shooting of a city model.



10. One of the special effects specialists was James Cameron. It was he who put on the masks of the missing landscapes in many scenes. For example, in the scene of helicopters flying over Central Park (actually it was filmed in California).



11. The covers of the sewer manholes from which wild people crawl out were made of wood. The actors simply would not budge the metal covers.

12. At the time, Kurt Russell was married to Season Hubley (Maureen, the girl at Chock Full O'Nuts), and Carpenter was married to Adrienne Barbeau (Maggie). Russell and Hubley recently welcomed their first child.



13. This was the first film in history that the New York City administration allowed to be filmed on Liberty Island at night. This is the only footage filmed in New York.

14. Science-fiction writer William Gibson admitted that he was inspired to write the canonical cyberpunk novel Neuromancer after watching Prison Break.

15. The final scene of Maggie's death was filmed in Carpenter's garage. The director felt that the film did not make it clear enough that Duke killed the girl.



16. All shots featuring Lee Van Cleef (Bob Hawke) were shot in one night. Carpenter later noted that some of the actor's portrait shots were out of focus, but the studio couldn't afford to pay for Van Cleef to appear again. Therefore, these scenes had to be cut.

16.1. By the way, Lee Van Cleef previously starred with Kurt Russell's father, Bing, in the film Gunfight at the O.K. Corral" (1957)

17. All characters who say “I heard you’re dead” to the Serpent die.

18. In the original script, the clockwork heat charges that injected the Snake were Hawk's deception. But Carpenter later changed his mind. Later, this idea was nevertheless embodied in Escape from Los Angeles.



Oh, who is this? Yes, it's James Cameron!

19. Snake uses an American MAC-10 submachine gun with a silencer.

20. Some characters are named after real people: Romero - after director George Romero, Cronenberg - David Cronenberg, Taylor (cut before release) - Don Taylor, Rehme - Robert Rehme (president of the film company AVCO Embassy).



21. "Prison Break" is Kurt Russell's favorite movie. Carpenter and Russell still dream of making the third part - Escape from Earth.

22. What does Blade Runner have to do with it (22 unknown facts about this film), you ask? The fact is that Ridley Scott's team took a model of New York from Carpenter for filming! This is what we see in many frames of the film.