[Quick Summary: After he is infected with a viral time bomb, Snake Plissken must retrieve a prototype from the prison island of L.A. in order to get the antidote, or die.]
Ah, the sequel. How to do it right fifteen years after the original?
I'll be honest...It wouldn't have occurred to me to satirize the genre.* It's brilliant.
I think it's the reason that the over the top, crazy special effect scenes don't come off as "trying too hard." It is not meant to be taken seriously and takes the pressure off.
And it's a lot of fun!
For example, the ridiculous tsunami vs. car chase mocks all car chases:
ex. "The water sweeps them up until they disappear under the blackness...
Until suddenly Pipeline pops up on top of the tsunami, riding on his surfboard, arms outstretched, feet braced.
And then Plissken pops up beside him, surfing clumsily on top of the tsunami wave, kneeling on his surfboard.
They blast down Wilshire Canyon at 80 miles an hour. Plissken is wobbly on the surfboard, but he manages to stay on top of the wave. Finally, he gets the hang of it, glances over at Pipeline who grins from ear to ear.
PIPLINE: Awesome, Snake, AWESOME, man!
Plissken looks up ahead...
HIS POV - MOVING THROUGH WILSHIRE CANYON
Five feet from street level. An old van speeds along what's left of Wilshire Boulevard, right on the canyon's edge. It veers around debris in the street, changes lanes suddenly, hell bent for leather.
Plissken and Pipeline move closer and closer to the van as the tsunami sweeps them along.
Now they move alongside the van, and Plissken stares over...
CLOSER - THE VAN
Behind the wheel is Map To The Stars Eddie, diving like a lunatic, his teeth bared and set, madder than shit.
Plissken's eye widens, burns.
PLISSKEN (to Pipeline): See you later.
And suddenly Plissken stands up, shifts his weight, and the surfboard slides sideways, across the surface of the tsunami all the way over to the edge, right next to the van.
MAP TO THE STARS EDDIE
glances to his left...
HIS POV - PLISSKEN
is surfacing the tsunami not 10 feet away from him.
Map To The Stars Eddie stares in absolute horror. Plissken tips the board again, and slides another 5 feet closer...
AS MAP TO THE STARS EDDIE
Jams on the pedal, and the van screams forward...
AS PLISSKEN
Stands up and leaps from the surfboard...
For a moment he is airborne, leaping across the gap to the van...and slams into the side of the van. He grabs on to the roof, hangs on with one hand, his body whipping against the rocking, bucking side. Map To The Stars Eddie starts swerving, trying to throw Plissken off."
WHAT I'VE LEARNED: When ridiculing a car chase, still play it real.
In the scene above, Snake might be riding a tsunami, but he is still on a mission to find the prototype and Eddie is the key.
Escape from L.A. (1996)(undated draft)
by John Carpenter, Debra Hill, and Kurt Russell
*"...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."
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