Runtime: 101 minutes
Directed by: John Carpenter
Starring: Kurt Russell and many famous faces, usually in small roles
From: Paramount
Escape from L.A plays different in 2026 than it did the last time I watched this movie many years ago. I could be asking for trouble pointing this out, but in the opening minutes, we learn that Los Angeles has become an island after a massive earthquake, and it’s a place to “send undesirables” by the “United States Police Force” because we have a fascist President who changed the Constitution to declare himself Commander-in-Chief for life & wants a moral America… right or wrong, many people will think of 2026 in the United States… and this feeling actually continues throughout the movie via other moments.
In the past, I was annoyed at how similar this was compared to Escape from New York. That’s still a valid point. Hotshot Snake Plissken visits another lawless wasteland to retrieve someone (or something) the government wants, he meets wacky characters, etc. This does have silly moments; Carpenter let his love of basketball tell him that it was a great idea to have that sport be part of a big sporting scene in front of a crowd when it was just absurd. The CG has famously aged poorly, especially during another absurd scene… Snake and Peter Fonda surfing! The graphics can at least be laughed at.
That said, the movie was like a campier version of New York and I can’t complain that the sequel was a carbon copy. Entertainment was to be had, buttressed by a great cast full of familiar faces-even if many appeared for only a few minutes. Besides Kurt Russell (no relation, sadly) it was nice to see larger roles for the likes of Stacy Keach, Steve Buscemi, and Cliff Robertson. At least in the United States, of course this is by far the most famous movie of European star Georges Corraface; he did a fine job, even if the actor of Greek ancestry was portraying a Peruvian. A.J. Langer was also memorable as the President’s rebellious daughter; did you know that she’s been married for two decades to a British Earl, albeit they’re separated now?
The action was fun, I was never bored, and of course the score from Carpenter & Shirley Walker (a rare female composer of the time) was quite rad. As messy as the movie is and New York is better, there’s something to be said for a wacky, fun adventure with personality from a great director. While some won’t like the reminders of modern life, I’ll look at the other side of the coin and appreciate how this compares favorably to the films we get now. A bold ending I’ll presume we won’t get in modern Hollywood for what was a big release at the time: yet another reason to appreciate Escape from L.A.
