How Teenage JJ Abrams (& His Dad) Help Shape Escape From New York
Here's how a young J.J. Abrams and his father helped shape Escape From New York. John Carpenter was hot off the success of Halloween - which helped kickstart the slasher movie boom of the 1980s - and The Fog when he directed Escape From New York. This action thriller finds Kurt Russell's outlaw Snake Plissken forced to break into New York, which has been converted in the movie's bleak dystopian future into a walled-off prison, to rescue the kidnapped President. The movie was a solid hit at the time and would help launch Russell's career.
Escape From New York would also inspire countless low-budget ripoffs and be a major inspiration on the character of Solid Snake from the Metal Gear Solid games. Carpenter and Russell would later reunite for 1996 sequel Escape From L.A., which sadly proved to be a major letdown and a box-office failure. A remake of the original movie has been trapped in development hell for over a decade and shows - ironically - little sign of breaking out.
Escape From New York has been a noted inspiration on several filmmakers, including Robert Rodriguez, who claims it influenced his decision to become a filmmaker. The other is J.J. Abrams, with both the concept and poster of Cloverfield being heavily inspired by Carpenter's 1981 film; the head bomb from Mission: Impossible III is another nod to the explosive device planned in Snake's neck. It turns out young J.J. had a hand in shaping the final cut of Escape, as he and his producer father Gerald W. Abrams attended an early rough cut.
John Carpenter himself was in attendance for this test screening, and this version of Escape From New York lacked many sound and visual effects. Abrams recalled in an NPR interview being mortified when Carpenter asked for feedback and his father raised his hand. He noted the original opening scene, which depicted Snake and his partner being caught after committing a robbery, undermined the character's mythical outlaw status. Despite his embarrassment, J.J. later raised his hand too and noted that he was a little confused by the fate of Adrienne Barbeau's Maggie, who disappeared after a car crash in the finale.
Carpenter thought that was an interesting note and when Abrams later saw the final cut of Escape From New York, he noted the original opening was gone and an insert had been added of Maggie's dead body to confirm her fate. While it may have been entirely possible John Carpenter came to make those creative choices separate of the feedback from the Abrams' boys, J.J. later met the movie's DP Dean Cundey, who confirmed after that test screening they went back to shoot a close-up of Maggie's corpse. The deleted opening scene itself is a fascinating little curio, but snipping it was the smart choice.
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