Escape from L.A. poster & wallpaper

AJ Langer, Cliff Robertson, Georges Corraface

Kurt Russell reprises his role as Snake Plissken, of the near-future thriller Escape from New York, in this reworking of that film's basic premise. Instead of New York being a maximum-security...( read more  read more... ) prison, this time it's L.A., which through the agency of earthquakes has become an island of the damned. This penal colony is where the film's future rulers, something very like the Moral Majority, send those deemed guilty of "moral crimes." But something has gone wrong in this new moral order, because the President's daughter has absconded to L.A. with a detonation device, and Snake is commandeered to retrieve it. The film's dark dystopia, with its satrical elements taking aim at our dwindling freedoms, and the eclipsing of democracy by narrow interests, are more the subject this time. As a result the action suffers, and the plot devices are sometimes weak and predictable. But just below the surface there is a coiled Snake ready to strike. Steve Buscemi's performance as a weasely hawker of L.A. tour maps is a standout, and the presence of Peter Fonda and Pam Grier adds to the fun. In fact, just the sight of Fonda surfing down the flooded corridor of Sunset Boulevard is reason enough to check this movie out. --Jim Gay

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42% liked it

25,930 ratings

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58% liked it

43 critics

R, 1 hr. 41 min.

Directed by: John Carpenter

Release Date: August 9, 1996

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DVD Release Date: December 15, 1998

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Flixster Reviews (1,984)

  • SirPant
    September 7, 2009
    SirPant
    A guilty pleasure with a fantastic cast. Tongue firmly in cheek but a disappointing sequel. Not great but forgivable.
  • YosemiteSamFan
    June 27, 2009
    YosemiteSamFan
    A fun movie done in the same template as "Escape from New York". The surfing scene looked silly. Not enough Los Angeles landmarks were shown. It was goofier. Not a classic like the original. It was like how "The Crow: City of Angels" related to the original "The Crow". I liked th...( read more)e energetic soundtrack by John Carpenter. The social commentary played for laughs was well done. Kurt Russell does a great job as Snake Plissken again. The action never seems to let up, with a nice variety of sequences involving cars, explosions, basketball, surfing, underwater and aerial assaults. The kickass ending made me smile.
  • stopitgoaway
    January 7, 2009
    stopitgoaway
    This sequel to "Escape From New York"isn't half bad.it doesn't have the gritty,unpolished look of the original,and it's not as edgy.however,i did find it more humorous,and it's more of an action adventure movie,than pure drama,unlike the the original.the movie had a lighter feel ...( read more)to it.i didn't find it had the same sense of loss and decay.i did find it entertaining,and fairly fast paced,though there were a few mildly ridiculous scenes that felt out of place.i also noticed(as anyone who watches it will)that the general plot line was almost a carbon copy of the original,with a few variations in detail.i still liked it,and thought it was as good as the original,though,like i said,if you're expecting a departure from the formula of the first,you won't find it
  • shootmybaby
    September 9, 2008
    shootmybaby
    Snake Plissken! who couldn't love it? it's an awesome film no matter what you say!
  • Deano78
    September 7, 2008
    Deano78
    A reasonable sequel to Escape from New York which was made 15 years earlier! Starting to look a little dated now but it has a certain retro action flick charm about it.
  • jackgbowman
    October 28, 2009
    jackgbowman
    john and kurt together again.
  • GhostShadowX
    October 10, 2009
    GhostShadowX
    A bit cooky from the first movie (Escape from Newyork), but it had very entertaining moments and it was good to see Kurt Russell reprise his role of Snake Plissken.
  • xtremeandy
    September 22, 2009
    xtremeandy
    Now this one was quite some time after the other one but it didn't feel quite as good!! it was ok!! but since they break the mold with the other one it wasn't easy to do this one they tried but they didn't raise the bar like the other one!!

    On August 23, 2000, an earthquake re...( read more)aching 9.6 magnitude hits the city of Los Angeles, causing it to be separated from the continental mainland by flooding the San Fernando Valley (now called the "San Fernando Sea") and turning it into an island from Malibu to Anaheim. Just prior to this, an American presidential candidate (an obscure reference to Jerry Falwell; played by Cliff Robertson), who is also an out-spoken, Christian theocracist, had made a doomsday prediction of the disaster during his campaign, saying L.A. was a "city of sin", and that; "Like the mighty hand of God, waters will rise up and separate this sinful, sinful city, from our country."

    In the chaos that followed, the candidate is elected as the new President and a new constitutional amendment appoints him for life in office. This President declares that all people not conforming to the new "Moral America" laws he sets for the country (banning such things as smoking, alcoholic beverages, red meat, owning firearms, profanity, non-Christian religions (including atheism), and non-marital sex) will lose their citizenship and be deported to Los Angeles Island. Like New York City in Escape from New York, Los Angeles is turned into a penal colony of sorts. A containment wall is built around the shores of the mainland, armed guards and watchtowers are posted everywhere and those sent to the island are exiled permanently.

    In 2013, Cuervo Jones (played by Georges Corraface), a Che Guevara-like Shining Path Peruvian Revolutionary, seduces the President's daughter, Utopia (played by A.J. Langer), via a holographic internet system and brainwashes her into stealing her father's remote control to the "Sword of Damocles" super weapon a series of high-tech satellites capable of destroying electronics anywhere on the planet using a focused electromagnetic pulse. The President had threatened to use the system to render enemies of America "unable to function", and eventually dominate the world. Utopia gets away in an escape pod from Air Force Three and lands on L.A. Island to be with Cuervo.

    With the satellites under his control, Cuervo promises to take back America with the assistance of an allied invasion force of Latin American nations that are standing by for his signal to attack. Cuervo threatens that if the President tries to stop him, he'll "pull the plug" on the country and demonstrates his power by blacking out the capital (which has been moved to the President's hometown of Lynchburg, Virginia, also the real-life hometown of Jerry Falwell). Cuervo also knows the secret "world code", (which is 666), that can activate all the satellites and knock out power for the entire planet.

    Meanwhile, Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell), is captured for another series of crimes and is blackmailed into going to the island as an exile. Upon his arrival for deportation, however, Snake is sent to meet the President and is offered the mission to retrieve the remote device. The President says he will give him a full pardon for all the crimes he has ever committed if he is successful. The President indicates he doesn't care if Utopia is returned or not, saying she is a traitor and "dead to me". Initially, Snake refuses to get involved, but to ensure his compliance, Snake was secretly infected with the man-made Plutoxin 7 virus which will kill him within 9 hours. If he completes the mission, Snake will be given the antidote.

    Snake is given a submachine gun, a personal holographic projector, a thermal-camouflage overcoat, and a countdown clock for how long he has to live. The virus works fast, and Snake is given only nine hours to find the device and get out before he dies. Like New York, Los Angeles is now in ruins, and a hot-bed of crime. Snake sneaks into the city with a nuclear-powered mini submarine which he soon loses when the unsturdy platform it landed on crumbles, causing the sub to sink into the ocean.

    Making his way across the island, Snake meets an array of characters, including those played by Steve Buscemi (as "Map to the Stars" Eddie, a swindler who makes a living selling interactive tours of L.A.), a knife-wielding skinhead played by Robert Carradine, Pam Grier (as Hershe Las Palmas, a.k.a. Carjack Malone - a transsexual and former accomplice of Snake, who also tells him the Plutoxin virus is a propagandized lie and won't kill him), Peter Fonda (as a hippie surfer), Valeria Golino (a lonely woman who falls in love with Snake, but is soon killed in a gang shooting), and also a cameo by Bruce Campbell (as the insane "Surgeon General of Beverly Hills").

    Snake finally defeats Cuervo at his staging area of The Happy Kingdom By The Sea and gets hold of the remote control. Eventually, Snake escapes the island with Utopia in a helicopter. Cuervo shoots it with a rocket launcher before Eddie manages to kill him, but this action causes Eddie to fall off the chopper. Snake manages to get them to where the President is and he and Utopia abandon the chopper before it crashes. He then hands off the wrong remote to the President while Utopia is taken to the electric chair for execution, despite Utopia's pleas for forgiveness. The Plutoxin 7 virus is revealed to be nothing more than a fast, hard hitting case of the flu, not in the least bit lethal to Snake. Thinking he has control of the satellites, the President tries to use it to stop a Cuban invasion force threatening Florida. Activating the remote, the President hears only Eddie's "Map to the Stars" intro over I Love L.A. instead.

    In anger, the President orders Snake to be executed, but Snake had activated his hologram projector and the Snake that gets shot is an illusion. Snake activates the device, entering the world code, against pleas to stop. At the deportation center, Utopia praises Snake for "turning off the world", and saving her. The illusory Snake disappears, since he has "turned off the Earth". In reality he is a few hundred yards away where he finds a pack of cigarettes on the ground and lights one up. The cigarette box is labeled "American Spirit," he then says to himself; "Welcome to the human race."


    The year is 2013. Like New York, Los Angeles has been turned into a prison island for the United State's most undesirable criminals, like New York, Los Angeles is surrounded by a wall so no convict can escape from L.A and once deported to L.A. you can never return to the American mainland which has become a moral society. 16-years after he escaped from New York, One-Eyed former soldier Snake Plissken now the United State's most wanted outlaw is once again given another job for his freedom by the new President and L.A's security commander Malloy. Snake is sent into L.A. to recover a doomsday device that shuts all power sources on Earth from brutal terrorist Curevo Jones and the President's runaway daughter Utopia who has been brainwashed by Curveo into stealing the doomsday device, and the President personally wants Snake to eliminate Utopia for betraying her country. Like New York, Snake is injected with a engineered virus which will kill him in 9 hours if Snake fails the mission, if Snake succeeds in completing the mission, he will be given the antidote. Entering L.A, now inhabited by criminals, runaway teenagers, prostitutes and brutal gangs. Snake sets out to recover the doomsday device and kill Utopia, as Curevo and his army of terrorists prepares to invade the United States and can Snake escape from L.A. before the virus kills him in 9 hours?

    The year is 2013 and Snake Plissken is back from Escape From New York. An earthquake has separated Los Angeles from the mainland. In the New Moral America, all citizens not conforming to the new laws (no smoking, no red meat, no Muslims in South Dakota) are deported to L.A., now a penal colony. The President's daughter has stolen a doomsday device and has fled to L.A. It's up to Snake Plissken to find the President's daughter and retrieve the doomsday device before its too late.

    In the year 2013, the city of Los Angeles has been separated from the country by a series of earthquakes, and like its neighbor New York, has transformed from a wonderful city to a corrupted prison. Plus, The United States has become a more moral society. Cuervo, a Cuban terrorist has used the president's daughter, Utopia to steal a device that controls a special orbiting EMP weapon system. The President has called upon the untrustworthy mercenary Snake Plissken. To ensure his cooperation, they have implanted a virus bomb inside his body, and it will inject the virus into his body in 9 hours, so Snake must stop Cuervo, rescue Utopia and get back the Weapon's device.

    The year is 2013 and Snake Plissken is back but this time it's L.A., which through the agency of earthquakes has become an island of the damned. But something has gone wrong in this new moral order, because the President's daughter has absconded to L.A. with a detonation device, and Snake is commandeered to retrieve it. But just below the surface there is a coiled Snake ready to strike.

    Sequel to "Escape From New York". In 2000, a huge earthquake hits Los Angeles which causes the whole city to be now situated on an island. In that year the new life-term US President, an out-spoken moralist declares that all people not conforming to the high morals he sets for the country will be deported to the Los Angeles island. Like New York, a wall is built, guards posted to stop any escapes and if sent there - you can't return to the US. In 2013, Cuervo Jones, a terrorist invades the dreams of the President's daughter, Utopia, and brainwashes her into stealing a device from a weapons establishment and runs with Cuervo to the island. Snake Plissken, hero of Escape From New York, is forced again to go to the island to get the device by the President (who doesn't care if Utopia returns or not.) and he is poisoned to ensure his co-operation. Like New York, Los Angeles is now a decaying city, a hot-bed of scum and weirdos and Snake has 9 hours to find the device and Utopia, and get out before the poison kicks in.
  • darfox11
    August 31, 2009
    darfox11
    shoulda stuck with the first one
  • bastet05
    August 25, 2009
    bastet05
    Fun B action movie with A graphics (For the time). The story is pretty much Escape from New York recycled with a few more laughs in it. Some scenes in it are pretty much downright ridiculous, but I can't fault the movie for it's 80s feel manufactured in the 80s. Watching the fi...( read more)lm, you'll know what I'm referring to- the surfing scene, the basketball scene, the hang gliding... the movie seems to be shorter on fire power than the previous one and actually seems to have more of a cultural message than it is entertainment. A decent multitasking movie (e.g. laundry folding, knitting, etc...) or if you have friends that like to pick apart movies a la MST3K with you.

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Critic Reviews

January 1, 2000
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

This is the kind of movie Independence Day could have been if it hadn't played it safe. full review

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Comments

  • badvf1
    June 23, 2007
    badvf1
    This cops some hard criticism, i watched this before the original and thought it was sortof warped and unusual maybe a little low budget aperance and maybe not too well directed. Still had great characters like Snake Plissken, I loved the grungy rundown city with the criminals etc. the story was ok its an action movie it was great.

    This movie was memorable, I have to watch the original asap.

    I can understand people not liking it (Escape from L.A). for example I have never sat well with the blues brothers 2000 its a shocker in my opinion.

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Escape from L.A. Trivia

  • What is the name of the film in which Kurt Russel ask to be called Snake instead of Pliskin?  Answer »
  • What actor/actress played parts in the following movies? Tango & Cash Overboard Dreamer Sky High Miracle Escape from L.A. Tombstone  Answer »
  • The Fox And The Hound Dark Blue The Mean Season The Thing The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes Escape From L.A. Who am I?  Answer »
  • In the films, "Escape from New York" and "Escape from L.A.", name the main character as well as the actor who played him.  Answer »
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