Escape From New York: Kurt Russell Reflects on Snake Plissken and the Movie's Legacy
In the realm of iconic cult movies, John Carpenter's Escape From New York stands tall as one of the most memorable films of the 1980s. At the heart of this dystopian masterpiece lies Snake Plissken, brilliantly portrayed by Kurt Russell. Recently, in an insightful interview with GQ, Russell delved into his thoughts on the movie's enduring legacy.
Snake Plissken is a captivating and dangerous protagonist, fiercely rebellious against the establishment. Yet, for Russell, there are specific aspects of the character that truly resonate with him. He explains, 'I like a lot about Snake. He's an escape artist, is really what he is, and he's doomed to never be able to escape the one thing he wants to escape from, and that's himself. He's got this equal amount of psychosis and survivability. They go together. I like that about Snake.'
Russell further reveals details about a deleted scene in Escape From New York, which aimed to show Plissken possessing redeeming qualities. However, Carpenter made the deliberate choice to exclude this scene, reasoning that Plissken wasn't the type of person to have redeeming qualities. Russell confides, 'We started out doing some stuff that ended up not being in the movie with a train station sequence, sort of establishing the character of Snake, and he had a partner and got shot, and Snake actually ran back to help him. They caught them. It was a redeeming quality is what we were showing. John Carpenter decided, rightly so, that Snake didn't have any redeeming qualities. After we did a couple of takes of that train sequence, he came over and he whispered, 'This f-cking character is great!' I always felt that Snake was always just talking to himself; he was never really talking to anybody.'
Despite reprising the role of Snake Plissken in the belated sequel Escape from L.A., Russell isn't one to return to a character merely for financial gain. Even when offered opportunities to explore the character further, without the involvement of John Carpenter or a purposeful narrative, Russell remains uninterested. He explains, 'I come from a different era. I wasn't interested in expanding financially off of something that we had created, or I had created in terms of a character... If John's not here to do that with, then why am I…I'm not gonna do that. Let's go do something new, let's go do something fresh. Let's go create another iconic character, rather than saying what can we bleed off this iconic character. I mean you don't look at them as iconic characters. They call them that if they become iconic characters, but you're just running day to day, having a good time, and trying to make it work.'
Interestingly, there has been recent chatter about a potential third movie in the Escape from... franchise. The directors of Scream VI, known as Radio Silence, are reportedly planning to breathe new life into the series with their unique interpretation of the story.
For those eager to relive the influential Escape From New York, the film can currently be streamed on The Criterion Channel. As for Kurt Russell, he has most recently graced the screens in the MonsterVerse series, Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, available on Apple TV+.
Escape From New York and Snake Plissken continue to captivate audiences, a testament to the enduring legacy of a film and character that have left an indelible mark on cinema.
