Escape from L.A. (1996)

**tak sakaguchi** Ter Mar 10, 2009 4:57 pm

On August 23, 2000, an earthquake reaching 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, Atheism, and non-marital sex) will lose their citizenship and be deported to Los Angeles Island (unless they repent and choose the electric chair). 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."

Directed by John Carpenter
Produced by Debra Hill
Kurt Russell
Written by John Carpenter
Debra Hill
Kurt Russell
Starring Kurt Russell
Stacy Keach
Steve Buscemi
Peter Fonda
Georges Corraface
Cliff Robertson
Michelle Forbes
Music by John Carpenter