Action Films

"Context is everything, and I don't imagine that either Carpenter or Russell harbors much ill will towards transsexuals. I might even argue that Carpenter's decision to cast a great actress like Pam Grier in a transgender role is evidence of his egalitarianism. Still, with the presence-or-not of a dick between her legs dropped as one in a long series of jokes about crazy Angelenos, the aggression rankles. Eighteen years have passed since the film's release, and I'm guessing neither Carpenter nor Russell would be comfortable including the scene as written if the film were released today. Like the outmoded VFX work, it's a flourish that makes Escape from L.A. uglier than it was intended to be."

"And there's another way the movie's dated. I'm definitely in favor of roles for Pam Grier, and Carpenter gives her a small but showy one in Escape from L.A.. She plays Hershe—it's pronounced like "Hershey," thus it's an insistent play on race as well as gender. See, Hershe is a transwoman with hairy 'pits and an uncharacteristically deep voice who used to be a buddy of Snake's known as Carjack Malone. When Snake finds her, he gets in close, runs his hand up her thigh to her crotch and declares, "The more things change, the more they stay the same," before intimidating "Carjack" with the gun he found there. When she insists, "I'm no longer Carjack Malone," he hisses in response, "I don't give a fuck what you are." Yes, Plissken has story reasons for threatening Hershe. But, absent that greater context, the film plays here exactly as though Snake is threatening a hate crime."

"The worst of it is that Escape from L.A. was released at a time when computer graphics were still in their relative infancy, and its CGI is frankly cartoonish, while the composites that make up that surfboard ride down Wilshire Boulevard are...unconvincing. Some of the miniatures work holds up pretty well, but the film will forever be dated by the phoniness of its most ambitious effects, including shots held together by the digital equivalent of chewing gum and bailing wire. In a pinch, you could posit the crudely-layered VFX work as an elegant fit with the goofy, comic-book style of the action, but I think that's a reach."

"The film exults in its imagination of the greater Los Angeles area as a ruined metropolis, with the Santa Monica Freeway well underwater and the Universal Studios theme park beset by real sharks instead of the Spielberg variety. In the action climax, Disneyland—stripped of its familiar branding following a corporate bankruptcy—is invaded from the skies as Plissken drops in, gun blazing. (It's not the movie of a man who's entirely happy with the machinations of Hollywood studios.) Carpenter later said he wanted the scene to be reminiscent of The Wizard of Oz, which figures. With its aggressively whimsical dream logic, the only way this movie really makes sense is if Snake wakes up in Kansas in the final reel."

"Futuristic Los Angeles fantasies have uneven histories at the box office; neither “Blade Runner” nor “Strange Days” did all that well in their initial theatrical releases. But “Escape From L.A.” has such manic energy, such a weird, cockeyed vision, that it may work on some moviegoers as satire and on others as the real thing. That could lead to some interesting audience reactions."

"At the end, when Snake has only 20 minutes to find Cuervo Jones, grab the black box and seize the daughter, Hershe suggests they get to Pasadena in a hurry by using hang-gliders. Whose heart is so stony it can resist the sight of Kurt Russell and Pam Grier swooping down from the sky, automatic weapons blazing, in an attack on Disneyland? Who, for that matter, can resist some of the other stops along the way, including Snake's encounter with a colony of “surgical failures,” who have had one plastic surgery too many, and can survive only by obtaining a steady supply of fresh body parts? Or by the sight of San Fernando Valley used-car signs peeking above the waves? Or by a chase scene which involves motorcycles, cars, trucks, horses, machine-guns and boleros? “Escape From L.A.” took some courage for Carpenter, Russell and Hill to make; they had to hope that moviegoers would accept a visual effects picture with a satiric sense of humor. Yes, there are laughs in “Independence Day,” but they're fairly obvious and don't sting. “Escape From L.A.” has fun with the whole concept of pictures like itself. It goes deliberately and cheerfully over the top, anchored by Russell's monosyllabic performance, which makes Clint Eastwood sound like Gabby Hayes."

"Movies like this depend on w:visual effects, costumes and set design to create their worlds out of scratch, and “Escape From L.A.” is wall-to-wall with the landmarks of a post-earthquake L.A. We see the Chinese theater, the Hollywood Bowl and a beached ocean liner, and the showdown takes place in an amusement park intended, I think, to suggest Disneyland's Main Street USA. Snake finds his way through the deadly wilderness with a series of guides, including Pipeline (Peter Fonda), a has-been surfer; Taslima (Valeria Golino), a beautiful but doomed street person; Map-to-the-Stars Eddie (Steve Buscemi), who is the “guy to see” about anything, and the exotic Hershe (Pam Grier), a transsexual who once befriended Snake back in Cleveland, where he/she was known as Carjack."

"Against this backdrop Carpenter launches a visual effects fantasy that reaches heights so absurd that there's a giddy delight in the outrage. He generates heedlessness and joy in scenes such as the one where the hero surfs on a tsunami wave down Wilshire Boulevard and leaps onto the back of a speeding convertible. It's as if he gave himself license to dream up anything—to play without a net. This is the kind of movie “Independence Day” could have been if it hadn't played it safe."

"John Carpenter's “Escape From L.A.” is a go-for-broke action extravaganza that satirizes the genre at the same time it's exploiting it. It's a dark vision of a post-apocalyptic Los Angeles—leveled by a massive earthquake, cut off from the mainland by a flooded San Fernando Valley, and converted into a prison camp for the nation's undesirables."

"In the late 20th century, hostile forces inside the United States grow strong. The city of Los Angeles is ravaged by crime and immorality. To protect and defend its citizens, the United States Police Force is formed. A presidential candidate predicts a millennium earthquake will destroy LA in divine retribution. An earthquake measuring 9.6 on the Richter scale hits at 12:59 p.m., August 23rd in the year 2000. After the devastation, the Constitution is amended, and the newly-elected President accepts a lifetime term of office. The country's capital is relocated from Washington, D.C. to the President's hometown of Lynchburg, Virginia. Los Angeles Island is declared no longer part of the United States and becomes the deportation point for all people found undesirable or unfit to live in the new "moral" America. The United States Police Force, like an army, is encamped along the shoreline, making any escape from LA impossible. From the south-eastern hills of Orange County to the north-western shore of Malibu, the Great Wall excludes LA from the mainland. The President's first act as permanent commander-in-chief is Directive 17: once an American loses his or her citizenship, they are deported to this island of the damned and they never come back."

"Most of what John Carpenter made was gloriously weird, dark, B-movies, genre movies or movies that felt like comic-books. Escape From L.A. really isn't all that different in that regard. Maybe it's lighter, maybe it's a bit sillier, maybe it's more far fetched but if these are the reasons you dislike it, I would suggest you majorly lighten up. Don't you all love Big Trouble in Little China?"

"So, I agree, the effects aren't always charming and sometimes a little, bizarrely awful. The other thing I would level at Escape from L.A. is that it doesn't really justify its 1996 $50 million budget. The aforementioned Jurassic Park had a budget of only $65 million and look what that accomplished. However, a little in its defense, every single shot in Escape from L.A. has some form of effect, whacked out costume, matte painting, set dressing etc. It's a bonkers, punk, grindhouse, fucked up, grungy, comic book, B-Movie writ large."

"Escape from L.A. is better than the first movie. Ten times better. It’s got more to it. It’s more mature. It’s got a lot more to it. I think some people didn’t like it because they felt it was a remake, not a sequel... I suppose it’s the old question of whether you like Rio Bravo or El Dorado better? They’re essentially the same movie. They both had their strengths and weaknesses."

"Snake is Back."

"[addressing the crowd at the LA Olympic Auditorium] I promised you tonight was gonna be special. I also promised you one last great spectacle of death in this historic arena. Now you will see that death. I give you, the death of SNAKE PLISSKEN!!! [cheers as Snake is forced into a basketball court; to Snake] Some people think you're already dead, Snake. Some say you never will be. 'Cause you may have survived Cleveland. You may have escaped from New York. But this is LA, vato. And you're about to find out that this fucking city can kill anybody! [more cheers] Game time!! [explains the basketball rules to Snake] Basketball. Two hoops, full court. Ten-second shot clock. Miss a shot, you get shot. Shot clock buzzer goes off before you shoot, you get shot. Two points for a basket, no three-point bullshit. All you gotta do is make ten points. That's it... By the way, nobody's ever walked off that court alive. Nobody."

"[facing four gunmen at once] I'm gonna give you assholes a chance. What do you say we play a little Bangkok rules? [picks up a tin can] Nobody draws until this hits the ground. You ready? [throws can up, draws, kills all four before it lands] Draw."

"Hell Is About To Be Unleashed."

"Sam Elliott as the Caretaker/Carter Slade"

"Peter Fonda as Mephisto"

"Wes Bentley as Blackheart"

"Eva Mendes as Roxanne Simpson"

"Nicolas Cage as Johnny Blaze/Ghost Rider"

"Long ago, he made a deal... to save someone he loved... What he didn't know was the price he would have to pay..."

"Let's Ride!"

"He's the only one that can walk on both worlds."

"Was everything he sacrificed truly worth?"

"His Curse Will Become His Power."

"Long ago he made a deal to save someone he loved."

"Every time you see the Ghost Rider it’s all CGI, but a lot of the times Nick is doing all the expressions and all of that. So it’s his body language. It’s his movement. It’s his talking and everything else. What it would be basically is that Nick, or Eddie his stunt double, depending on the scene and how violent it was, they’d wear a green neoprene skin diver head with an interactive lighting collar to give the interactive light for the flames. So they do that and we remove the head and put the skull on, put the flame on and then it’s like, ‘How much flame do you put in the eyes so that it’s not cartoony?’ But you do want to put light in the eyes so that it doesn’t go entirely black. Black just disappears."

"Well, I’ve seen CG fire before and yes, I thought that it would be easier. We all did which is why we come out February 16, but we were supposed to come out in August. Literally, there will be FX delivered up until the end of January 30 because we had to write new programs. Fire is fucking tricky, man. Look at that fire which looks cool and then you move it and you put it on film at twenty four frames per second it changes everything. It all of a sudden looks really flickery and light and not strong, and so you add liquid to it to make it feel stronger and smoother and whatnot, but then it’s like Ghost Rider goes that way and the fire stays here which it really would as a sort of ghost image. We didn’t want that because it looked weird. Fire has to be a Ghost Rider. He commands the fire. The fire doesn’t command him. All of these little things become like your life, and so it’s really about – like I’ve always said – looking at the greatest CG creations which is Gollum, I think. It’s probably like Gollum or the last ‘Pirates’ Davy Jones was genius. It’s amazing, right? Those things are great because you have expression. You have eyes. Gollum’s eyes are huge and you’ve got lines in the eyes and the lips and the teeth are like this. We didn’t have any of that. We had no expression. So you’ve got a skull that’s got no eyes, no lips, no tongue, it’s got no wrinkles. All you’ve got is this fucking skull. So you have to deal with that, and then my idea was to use the fire to give it expression. Once you do that that’s a whole new thing now and the fire has to change colors. It’s got to get smaller when he’s sad and go blue. Then angry goes white hot and it gets super high and that became a whole other thing."

"I mean, you write the best Johnny Blaze that you can and to be honest, it’s funny because you have all your weaknesses as a writer and your strengths as a writer and I remember writing Johnny Blaze for the first time and he was drinking Jack Daniels out of the bottle and chain smoking. I remember giving Nick the first draft and he was really honest about it. He was like, ‘I don’t know anyone who drinks Jack Daniels out of a bottle.’ I thought, ‘I don’t either, but they’re always in the movies. Who does that?’ No one does that. He was like, ‘I don’t chain smoke.’ So then you start talking to Nick and he brings something different to it. Then Nick starts saying really far out things, and they’re so far out there that they’re honest. I mean, it’s like when Johnny Depp in ‘Pirates’ does this sort of gay, drunk Keith Richards and the studio freaked out and the studio was like, ‘What are you doing?!’ He was just doing something different, but there was something in that character that made it honest. Nick did the same thing. He was just like, ‘I feel like if you didn’t know that any minute you were going to turn into the Ghost Rider, what would that be like?’ Nick said, ‘I think that it would be like I’m in a dentist chair and that musak is playing and at any minute you’re going to go and it’s going to be painful and horrible. So you’re going to try and calm yourself and keep yourself safe because at any minute you’re going to change.’ I thought that was really smart and interesting and different. Nick always brings that."

"Yeah, there are a couple of scenes there. There is the scene in the prison cell where everyone jumps on him and beating on him and he turns into Ghost Rider and explodes and burns his way through the bars. You saw a little bit of that in the trailer and that’s from Steve Norrington, or I should say David because David wrote that. I really liked that a lot and I loved David’s script. I thought it was great. It was a different script. That’s also the nature of the beast that when you come onto a movie you want to make your own version of the movie. Goyer’s was a very dark, very hard R which is cool, but it’s one of those things where it’s my deal with the devil, if you will – when you want to make a ‘Ghost Rider’ movie it’s expensive. It’s not like you make like ‘The Crow’ or ‘Blade’ or something. It’s like what I was just saying to you. It’s so expensive that it’s like, ‘If you’re going to give me all the money to make this movie right I have to be responsible and try to get everyone I can to come and see the film.’ You can’t make it a cult film. You have to make it a big film which it should be."

"[narrating] It's said that the west was built on legends..."

"God knows I've made my share of mistakes, and I've been trying to make them right ever since. Guess all I've to do now is hope He sees fit to give me another chance."

"This is the end of the trail for me. Got nothing left... I could only change one more time and I was saving it for this."

"Stick to the shadows."

"I've got one last ride left in me."

"Figured you'd be back, bone-head..."

"Congratulations. Your chances just went from none to slim."

"You're the Rider. The Ghost Rider. Get used to it, kid, it'll be a lot easier. If you don't, I've got nice cozy spot picked out for you."

"Good morning, bone-head..."

"You will suffer for this. Now, deal with my rider."

"I know why you're here. I know what you're after. It's my contract. They're my souls."

"Forget about friends, family, love."

"[When Johnny looks at the contract giving his soul to him to save Johnny's father, Johnny accidentally cuts himself on the scroll, and a drop of blood lands on the signature space; Mephistopheles takes the contract] Oh, that will work quite nicely."

"All of your world, all of your souls will be mine now."

"[after inhaling all the souls] My name is Legion. For we are...many."

"[to Ghost Rider] Your penance stare doesn't work on me. I have no soul to burn. The Caretaker forget to mention about that, huh? Surprise. He said you're going to bring me back. I'm not going back; I like it here!"

"[to the priest] Forgive me Father, for I have sinned... I have sinned a lot."

"They say raise no more devils than you can lay down. My father raised one too many."