The accidental utopia of Escape from New York
By going backwards, toward a state of nature, Snake Plissken goes upwards, and beyond.
In the year 1997, the US government is at war with a Sino-Soviet alliance. To keep order at home, a wall has been instituted around New York City, and it is designated a maximum-security prison. When Air Force One is hijacked and goes down into this hive of villainy, one man – Snake Plissken – is sent to extract the asset. This is the premise of John Carpenter’s 1981 film, Escape from New York, an accidental Callipolis.
Our hero, ‘call me Snake’ Plissken, is a war hero. The film never lets us forget that he won two Purple Hearts, and was the youngest man to be decorated by the President. But that old soldier is fading away – Snake is a convict set to be dumped on the island prison for crimes the film never cares to detail. That is until the government offers him a deal – rescue the President and his material within twenty-four hours – and you’ll go free – fail, and you’ll die.
The film is satire, of course. But just as François Truffaut claimed there is no such thing as an anti-war film, I say there is no such thing as a film that turns New York City into a walled-off prison camp that can’t help but make it seem like a terrific idea.
As our hero strides about the streets of the cityprison, he backhands opportunistic vagrants, and feeds lead to cannibals. He’s reasonable with people who can be reasoned with – and otherwise hits them about the back of the head with a spiked baseball bat. Plissken allies with a salt of the earth cabby, an intellectual and his mistress – and for a brief moment – a damsel – until she is snatched away by psychopaths. It’s not all plain sailing, but ultimately the motley crew, at least what survives of them, emerge victorious.
Snake sports an eyepatch and musclebound build, a look so cool it was lifted by Hideo Kojima and dropped into his Metal Gear Solid series as the main character, Solid Snake. In short, he’s Travis Bickle, sans the narcolepsy, social misfitism and penchant for seedy pornography.
That Plissken was sent down to the cityprison suggests a fall from grace following his military service. But given the chance to serve his country, and his people, he thrives. His potential is unleashed, both as a warrior in combat, and as a thinker as he strategises. It’s true that his compliance is guaranteed by the clandestine implanting of bombs into his carotid arteries – but this serves as a great example of the feats man can achieve when he reverts to the primal fight or flight mentality. By going backwards, toward a state of nature, he goes upwards, and beyond – leaving his criminal past behind and ascending to a new height.
Total war leaves little time for luxury beliefs. When criminals are inducted into the processing centre they are invited to volunteer for cremation. If having declined that generous overture, they will be confined for life. In the event an escape attempt is made, a helicopter gunship will blow them away with the indifference of experience – and the coolness of a pilot who lives in a world absent of human rights lawyers. You’ll not find eco-loons blocking roads or hippies glueing themselves to embassies here.
Always an accoutrement, John Carpenter’s score follows Snake into every squat and down every alleyway, and yes - he directed, wrote, and scored the picture. I like to imagine the music is diegetic – produced from sensor activated speakers that detect a particular level of badassery before dolling out suitable noise – like a high-tech North Korea. It’s so good, that you should start listening to the Main Title track right now – as opposed to reaching the end of this piece, and you’ll thank me for introducing you to this masterpiece a whole thirty seconds earlier, thereby giving you half a minute more of your life to enjoy the exquisite synthesized pleasure.
The ultimate testament to Escape’s unwitting depiction of 1997 as a utopia, as opposed to the hellscape that transpired in our world, is that the film's sequel could only be released as an expression of apologia. Think about it – Dirty Harry just made vigilantism look a little bit too good, didn’t it? It was accused at the time of being fascist – with Harry going beyond the protocol of the state to serve it. So, its sequel, Magnum Force, was released to serve as an extended recanting of the first movie’s thought criminality. It’s just the same with Escape’s sequel – Escape from L.A.
In L.A. the Presidential figure is obnoxiously theocratic, and commits to his personal Makronisos any who fall afoul of his strict morality laws. Homosexuals, adulterers, and drug addicts line up to volunteer for the electric chair. In his pursuit of a super-weapon, he lies, cheats, steals, and commits his own daughter to the death penalty. Yawn!
For anyone who has a line to Trump, recommend Escape from New York to him. It might just give ‘Build the Wall’ a second wind.
