The Thing messed with my head for months…possibly the creepiest cerebraliest body horror film of all time. A few of those Hellraiser movies were really good too.
@@sufianramli One of my personal favorites of Carpenter. His "Fuck the Man" attitude and cynicism was never stronger than in that movie and it has everything I love about 80s B-movies.
I have a theory that Cabbie wasn’t in there for anything. He just didn’t leave when the city was abandoned and turned into a prison. I also love the scene at the theater that introduces him. It’s a great example of the prisoners creating their own world inside the prison.
In the opening description it says that in 1988 they turned Manhattan into the prison. The story starts in 1997 meaning cabbie has been driving that cab since 1967. When Cabbie first gets Snake in his cab he says "I've been driving a cab here for 30 years, this very same cab..." So yeah, its likely Cabbie stayed in New York because it was his home, not because he was a prisoner.
My favorite anecdote from that movie: they were filming at like three A.M. and it's just a long-view shot of Snake running down the street. So Kurt Russell just goes running down the street like a half-mile or something, just getting some footage, when it suddenly occurs to him that he's, well, alone in a bad neighborhood in St. Louis at three in the morning. Right on cue, he looks up and sees four black guys staring at him intensely from a front porch nearby. He starts to get nervous and one of them says "hey, look man, we don't want any trouble." At this point, he realizes he's alone in a bad neighborhood in St. Louis at three in the morning >dressed as Snake Plissken< --hair, muscle shirt, eye patch, submachine gun... Everyone found a way to finish their evenings just fine that night.
Im 39 and watched this for the first time a year or two ago. I was blown away about how everything in the movie was so ahead its time, understanding why it was a classic
I watched Escape from New York (1981) last year for the first time and I thought it was an amazing Sci-Fi movie with a deep political story and themes throughout the film and a great performance from the legendary Kurt Russell. I also watched another Sci-Fi film last year called Paprika from Satoshi Kon and that is also an amazing Sci-Fi movie that I highly recommend to anyone who is a fan of the genre.
My best friend in the 80's used to think they tattooed a question mark on pliskin while he was passed out before his big fight. as kids we never connected that his name was "snake" with the tattoo
I’ve always loved this film. This time was really the beginning of the dark, gritty, post apocalyptic, dystopian films we’ve come to enjoy. It was also one of the first times where the “anti-hero” is the star of the film.
Favorite story about the movie: there’s a documentary where Kurt Russell in costume with fake guns is waiting to shoot his scene and that part of St. Louis still had some indigent people living there. One happens to walk by, sees Kurt Russell and thinks he’s for real. Guy gets scared and was like “man, it’s cool, man! I’m cool” and puts his hands up 😂
Everything about Carpenter, Russell and this movie is said, but most people forget the great Ernest Borgnine. Saw him first as 'Dirty Lyle' in 'Convoy', but he was a hell of an actor!
For me, what set aside John Carpenter's films was the music, most of it performed by the man himself, the best being from 'The Thing', which really added a cold atmosphere to the film. No amount of "remakes" will ever surpass the originals - but then, I think you can say that about most films from the 70's, 80's and even 90's. They're perfect as they are: original and the best.
I remember when they shot this here in STL. They put out a local casting call for the "Crazies". Had I been a little older I probably would have tried. Got a lot of news coverage. Union Station has been restored. There's an aquarium there now too. Kurt Russell has said Snake was his favorite role. The nearby strip club PT's Centerville got a special thanks shout out on the end credits. Crew must have got some good lap dances!
I got snagged in that cattle call and played one of the rats. Most fun I've ever had and great pay too. First night was on Locust street filming the rats attacking the car with Russell and the others inside. Then on to dilapidated Union station for the ring fight scene with Ox Baker a few nights later. I can see myself in the film but we were so made up and dressed up that no one who knows me would recognize me. Got to hang with the stars between takes too, all fine folks.
@chrismyles1538 Cool story. It looked like it would have been fun. I remember them interviewing Earnest Borgnine while he was sitting in a small bar drinking a beer. I was too young to do it. I was walking down Hollywood Blvd and was approached by this guy looking for extras for Jim Carrey's 'Man on the moon'. They needed an audience for his wrestling scenes. I declined because I was going to see an episode of 'Friends' be filmed that night. Plus, they were going to some old arena way out of town so you would have been their prisoner. The movie came out and the audience was barely lit and not shown very much.
such a great point. I saw this movie in the theater (like the thing and other john carpenter masterpieces) and never knew until like 15 years ago he did so much of his own music and it is awesome. great anthology CDs.
I remember getting lost in St Louis in the late 90s trying to get back to Kansas from a Misfits show at Mississippi Nights club. It seemed like miles and miles of abandoned everything. At least the gunfire was not directed to our caravan. GREAT SHOW though. No Danzig, but what can you do
Escape from New York was originally advertised as a "gritty urban melodrama", (melodrama meaning the characters are bigger than life, in exaggerated situations) which is more accurate than an "action movie". There is action in it of course, but it is an escape movie first. Snake Plisskin is an escape artist, prison could not hold him, neither could New York. There are many scenes where Snake escapes from cannibals from the sewers (including an amazing shot where he carves a hole in the wall with a machine gun and jumps through), escapes from The Duke's henchmen, and helps the President escape from New York. At the end Snake once again walks away free after screwing over the state, escaping back into obscurity.
Funny you mention that. I was reading someone's review of the single player boardgame and he mentioned there's more running away than fighting the goons to survive.
To add to this, remember the wire frame of New York as he comes in on the glider? They didn't have the budget for CGI so the effects team made a model of New York City with luminous tape on the building edges. Then they shot it in the dark to create the wire frame effect - that's why it's so smooth.
The 1976 St Louis Firestorm was so bad the SLFD called in all staff on who were on their days off and volunteers from other FDs to contain it to 6 buildings lost and 4 buildings damage. The winds blew the embers all over that portion of town resulting in 97 small fires that were easily put out bu citizens.
Escape From New York is one of my all time favorite movies because of the script and the cast. Kurt Russell cast against type (at the time), Ernest Borgnine's character Cabbie and Maude's daughter Adrienne Barbeau, Issac Hayes as The Duke. They got an Englishman (Donald Pleasence) to play a POTUS. But the best, most subtle part is Lee Van Cleef. If Kurt is the muscle of this movie, Van Cleef is the skeleton. I also love the fact that the movie takes place in 1997... The Future. :-)
In the 70s the Fox Theater used to show Blaxploitation and karate movies. I was in grade school and middle school. I went there all the time to watch movies.
I love that shit. Rudy Ray Moore, man. I saw Dolemite on the big screen last fall and it was like being a kid again, everyone in the theater yelling, laughing, throwing popcorn and candy at each other.
Random fact: the typeface used by pretty much every John Carpenter movie's title credits during this period is "Albertus". I know this because I once created alternative credits for my mashup of The Thing called "The MacReady" where Mac is a psychopath who burns people for the slightest offense. (You can find it here on RUclips.)
The place that was burned down, later because schlafly beer/The tap Room, I worked they for years when I was young and we had the pictures of them filming in the room that became one of our club rooms at the time
JJ Abrams wanted to see the statue of liberties head in the street like escapes movie poster. It was not there so he made it happen in Cloverfield. True story.
:41 Ox Baker, i worked at foxwoods casino with him in 1992. the 'indian' tribe that owned the casino fired him for attempting to unionize the janitors....
If it could be done right, it's time for a TV series to the effect of the Further Adventures of Snake Plisskin (just "Call Me Snake" would be my vote) that starts as he leaves NYC. (Executive produced by JC and KR, of course.) They could pretend like Escape From LA never happened...
in my Carpenter's top 5. 5. Christine 4. Big Trouble in Little China 3. Escape from NY 2. The Thing 1. Halloween 3 with Kurt Russell... I wonder why 😎😎
Great music. Holds up. You should see the cut scene where they explain how Snake goes to jail. He gets busted in a Marta station in Atlanta. Somehow a Marta train looks like the future in 1980 I guess.
Forget her in this film - it’s Cannonball Run I remember her for. My childhood crush wearing spandex while driving my childhood crush car, the Lamborghini Countach.
Best scene, "The Duke" dies. President: "You're A #1, you're The Duke, blam-blam-blam-blam-blam, you're the Duke, blam-blam-blam, you're the duke, blam-blam, You're ...... the Duke." Kurt: "Thanks a lot!"
Sorry but the info given about Brains lair being the Fox was wrong. The Fox was the EXTERIOR of the theater where Snake met Cabbie. The exterior of Brains lair was a few blocks southwest at the Masonic Lodge.
Everything John Carpenter touched in the 80’s was perfect
The Thing messed with my head for months…possibly the creepiest cerebraliest body horror film of all time. A few of those Hellraiser movies were really good too.
He is the man!!! “The Thing”, “Big Trouble in Little China” and “They Live” are all classics too!
The Carpenter music was superb.
@@spitflamez
Haven't seen They Live yet
@@sufianramli One of my personal favorites of Carpenter. His "Fuck the Man" attitude and cynicism was never stronger than in that movie and it has everything I love about 80s B-movies.
I have a theory that Cabbie wasn’t in there for anything. He just didn’t leave when the city was abandoned and turned into a prison. I also love the scene at the theater that introduces him. It’s a great example of the prisoners creating their own world inside the prison.
Yeah, it was always my impression that Cabbie just stayed when the city became a prison, thinking that it really didn’t get much worse. ;-)
Had the same idea. Even as a kid watching this in the 80s, my friends and i thought cabbie was just a guy who stayed.
Great theory!
YEP i can see how this could be the case.
In the opening description it says that in 1988 they turned Manhattan into the prison. The story starts in 1997 meaning cabbie has been driving that cab since 1967. When Cabbie first gets Snake in his cab he says "I've been driving a cab here for 30 years, this very same cab..." So yeah, its likely Cabbie stayed in New York because it was his home, not because he was a prisoner.
My favorite anecdote from that movie: they were filming at like three A.M. and it's just a long-view shot of Snake running down the street. So Kurt Russell just goes running down the street like a half-mile or something, just getting some footage, when it suddenly occurs to him that he's, well, alone in a bad neighborhood in St. Louis at three in the morning. Right on cue, he looks up and sees four black guys staring at him intensely from a front porch nearby. He starts to get nervous and one of them says "hey, look man, we don't want any trouble." At this point, he realizes he's alone in a bad neighborhood in St. Louis at three in the morning >dressed as Snake Plissken< --hair, muscle shirt, eye patch, submachine gun...
Everyone found a way to finish their evenings just fine that night.
Im 39 and watched this for the first time a year or two ago. I was blown away about how everything in the movie was so ahead its time, understanding why it was a classic
Im still glad this and The Thing are two john carpenter movies i watched with my dad. Wish he'd also gotten to see They Live.
Ah, they live, in my opinion, still the greatest on-screen fight ever in a movie.
You know the one I'm talking about😉
Roddy Piper delivered one of the most iconic lines ever."I've come here to chew bubblegum", well you all know the rest. Classic!!!
@@johnulmer6715that wasn’t even in the script either.
What a coincidence cause I can say the exact same thing.
Don't forget Big Trouble in Little China.
Bill Burr just learned what “dystopian” means.
I’m finally starting to understand that whole Red Sox thing.
Shmaht.
@@truantray Wicked shmaht
I watched Escape from New York (1981) last year for the first time and I thought it was an amazing Sci-Fi movie with a deep political story and themes throughout the film and a great performance from the legendary Kurt Russell.
I also watched another Sci-Fi film last year called Paprika from Satoshi Kon and that is also an amazing Sci-Fi movie that I highly recommend to anyone who is a fan of the genre.
My best friend in the 80's used to think they tattooed a question mark on pliskin while he was passed out before his big fight. as kids we never connected that his name was "snake" with the tattoo
Watched this several times as a kid and loved it. Im still mesmerized by Adriene Barbeau to this day.
My Pops called her "Boom Boom"...he was a card...
Yeah, she's two of my favorite things about the movie too.
Total dime piece. Underrated
Aren't we all...
That was Carpenters wife for a time
John Carpenter is the man!!! So many super dope movies! He made a bunch of my classic list!
I’ve always loved this film. This time was really the beginning of the dark, gritty, post apocalyptic, dystopian films we’ve come to enjoy. It was also one of the first times where the “anti-hero” is the star of the film.
This movie is so awesome!!
Favorite story about the movie: there’s a documentary where Kurt Russell in costume with fake guns is waiting to shoot his scene and that part of St. Louis still had some indigent people living there. One happens to walk by, sees Kurt Russell and thinks he’s for real. Guy gets scared and was like “man, it’s cool, man! I’m cool” and puts his hands up 😂
I always loved Donald P as the President. His moment at the end against the Duke. Was not expecting that!
Everything about Carpenter, Russell and this movie is said, but most people forget the great Ernest Borgnine.
Saw him first as 'Dirty Lyle' in 'Convoy', but he was a hell of an actor!
Great movie just rewatched it a few weeks back
For me, what set aside John Carpenter's films was the music, most of it performed by the man himself, the best being from 'The Thing', which really added a cold atmosphere to the film. No amount of "remakes" will ever surpass the originals - but then, I think you can say that about most films from the 70's, 80's and even 90's. They're perfect as they are: original and the best.
"Bill Burr on a message from someone telling him well-known trivia."
It's up there with "Conan wrote the monorail episode". Jesus, really?
Yeah, this is pretty bad.
I didn't know any of this....
I didn't know about the fire aspect
Why do people assume that everyone else knows the trivial shit that they know? Some of us are out here getting 🐱
its actually EAST St Louis, which still looks like the locations in the film
Does it really?
@@dominysynclairYeah, it's well known by us midwesterners that you stay the fuck away from east st Louis, lol.
They might have filmed part of it in East St. Louis, but The Duke’s hideout is Union Station in St. Louis proper.
Majority was filmed downtown STL
Actually it still looks and feels like New York even though it’s East St Louis
I remember when they shot this here in STL. They put out a local casting call for the "Crazies". Had I been a little older I probably would have tried. Got a lot of news coverage.
Union Station has been restored. There's an aquarium there now too.
Kurt Russell has said Snake was his favorite role.
The nearby strip club PT's Centerville got a special thanks shout out on the end credits. Crew must have got some good lap dances!
I got snagged in that cattle call and played one of the rats. Most fun I've ever had and great pay too. First night was on Locust street filming the rats attacking the car with Russell and the others inside. Then on to dilapidated Union station for the ring fight scene with Ox Baker a few nights later. I can see myself in the film but we were so made up and dressed up that no one who knows me would recognize me. Got to hang with the stars between takes too, all fine folks.
@chrismyles1538 Cool story. It looked like it would have been fun. I remember them interviewing Earnest Borgnine while he was sitting in a small bar drinking a beer.
I was too young to do it.
I was walking down Hollywood Blvd and was approached by this guy looking for extras for Jim Carrey's 'Man on the moon'. They needed an audience for his wrestling scenes. I declined because I was going to see an episode of 'Friends' be filmed that night. Plus, they were going to some old arena way out of town so you would have been their prisoner.
The movie came out and the audience was barely lit and not shown very much.
Sound track is gold for this as
well .. I have the Dvd , vhs and movie poster as i’m a big fan of this since i was little
such a great point. I saw this movie in the theater (like the thing and other john carpenter masterpieces) and never knew until like 15 years ago he did so much of his own music and it is awesome. great anthology CDs.
I love the soundtrack for Christine as well; also John Carpenter.
The bridge chase sequence is so dope and an example of how music can amplify the on screen action
"I finally learned what dystopian means" bill burr is too funny 😂🤣
That’s a CULT CLASSIC!!!!!
Without it we wouldn't have metal gear
Playing MGS2 back in the day and getting the reference.
Was lost and drove through that area back in the 80's during daylight hours. Scariest place I have ever seen. Thankfully found my way out.
I just saw it, easily among the most influential movies of all time
I remember getting lost in St Louis in the late 90s trying to get back to Kansas from a Misfits show at Mississippi Nights club. It seemed like miles and miles of abandoned everything. At least the gunfire was not directed to our caravan. GREAT SHOW though. No Danzig, but what can you do
must’ve been on the east side
Sounds like a pretty bad show then
That sounds like Chevy Chase's experience in 'Vacation'.
Dystopian is the opposite of Utopian (my high school English teacher will be so happy I remembered 1 thing she said).
Carpenter is one of the greatest film makers of all time, truly under appreciated. the backstories of how he made his films are fascinating.
Under appreciated? ? The dude has made giant hit movies 😂
One of my favorites
Kick ass movie about Kurt Russel's childhood.:)
A classic, required watching.
Also, the staging area for the police was the Sepulveda Dam north of Los Angeles.
And it's in a lot of movies, from "Blue Thunder" to the ending of "Buckaroo Banzai".
That is true...
@@martykarr7058 they shoot car commercials there too as well.
I thought it was good when I first saw it in 1983. In 2024, it is on my top 20 of all time.
Two of my favorite things.
The main theme written by Carpenter is a classic!
One of the best movies ever! 👍😁
Yeah, and St Louis still looks like that today.....
The longest year I ever spent anywhere was the day I spent in St. Louis.
Bob Hauk : We're still at war, Plissken. We need him alive.
Snake Plissken : I don't give a fuck about your war - or your President.
The movie that literally influenced every director and aspiring filmmaker after its release.
Fact's. Call me 🐍
Fact's. Call me 🐍
Fact's. Call me 🐍
@@davidrose647 the name’s plissken
And games. Look at Batman: Arkham City.
Escape from New York was originally advertised as a "gritty urban melodrama", (melodrama meaning the characters are bigger than life, in exaggerated situations) which is more accurate than an "action movie". There is action in it of course, but it is an escape movie first. Snake Plisskin is an escape artist, prison could not hold him, neither could New York. There are many scenes where Snake escapes from cannibals from the sewers (including an amazing shot where he carves a hole in the wall with a machine gun and jumps through), escapes from The Duke's henchmen, and helps the President escape from New York. At the end Snake once again walks away free after screwing over the state, escaping back into obscurity.
See if you can find the novelization of it online. It tells you why Snake went rogue.
Funny you mention that. I was reading someone's review of the single player boardgame and he mentioned there's more running away than fighting the goons to survive.
The film that got me into piracy, aged 13. I watched it so many times that I stopped counting after 50.
Nerd Fact - special effects photography was provided by this unknown bloke called James Cameron ;-)
To add to this, remember the wire frame of New York as he comes in on the glider?
They didn't have the budget for CGI so the effects team made a model of New York City with luminous tape on the building edges. Then they shot it in the dark to create the wire frame effect - that's why it's so smooth.
The 1976 St Louis Firestorm was so bad the SLFD called in all staff on who were on their days off and volunteers from other FDs to contain it to 6 buildings lost and 4 buildings damage.
The winds blew the embers all over that portion of town resulting in 97 small fires that were easily put out bu citizens.
Best ever.
It's considered a documentary now.😂
Back when movies were about entertainment...
Escape From New York is one of my all time favorite movies because of the script and the cast. Kurt Russell cast against type (at the time), Ernest Borgnine's character Cabbie and Maude's daughter Adrienne Barbeau, Issac Hayes as The Duke. They got an Englishman (Donald Pleasence) to play a POTUS. But the best, most subtle part is Lee Van Cleef. If Kurt is the muscle of this movie, Van Cleef is the skeleton. I also love the fact that the movie takes place in 1997... The Future. :-)
In the 70s the Fox Theater used to show Blaxploitation and karate movies. I was in grade school and middle school. I went there all the time to watch movies.
I love that shit. Rudy Ray Moore, man. I saw Dolemite on the big screen last fall and it was like being a kid again, everyone in the theater yelling, laughing, throwing popcorn and candy at each other.
Watched as a kid, absolutely loved it. Classic 80's crazy shit.
Very entertaining futuristic thriller featuring one of cinema's greatest anti-hero characters
I was lost in St Louis once and asked some young men for directions back to the freeway. Unfortunately they were unable to help me.
Introduced the idea of the escape pod on Airforce one, before the movie Airforce One did it. Doesn't exist in real life but sounds like a good idea.
Random fact: the typeface used by pretty much every John Carpenter movie's title credits during this period is "Albertus". I know this because I once created alternative credits for my mashup of The Thing called "The MacReady" where Mac is a psychopath who burns people for the slightest offense. (You can find it here on RUclips.)
The place that was burned down, later because schlafly beer/The tap Room, I worked they for years when I was young and we had the pictures of them filming in the room that became one of our club rooms at the time
Great movie.
Classic film, one of my favorite Kurt Russell movies
bro if u got lee van cleef in a movie and kurt russel - there's no way in hell it will be anything but awesome
Wow awsome, I use to live and work in st. Louis
Still not to late to make the already written Escape From Earth with Kurt Russell as Old Snake. Not sure who'd direct tho...
The film set reminds me of Oakland, CA
JJ Abrams wanted to see the statue of liberties head in the street like escapes movie poster. It was not there so he made it happen in Cloverfield. True story.
Anyone got the link he was talking about?
:41 Ox Baker, i worked at foxwoods casino with him in 1992. the 'indian' tribe that owned the casino fired him for attempting to unionize the janitors....
If it could be done right, it's time for a TV series to the effect of the Further Adventures of Snake Plisskin (just "Call Me Snake" would be my vote) that starts as he leaves NYC. (Executive produced by JC and KR, of course.) They could pretend like Escape From LA never happened...
St. Louis is indeed post apocalyptic
Fun fact: Hideo Kojima (creator of Metal Gear) got his idea for Solid Snake from Kurt Russell's character.
in my Carpenter's top 5.
5. Christine
4. Big Trouble in Little China
3. Escape from NY
2. The Thing
1. Halloween
3 with Kurt Russell... I wonder why 😎😎
They Live was meant to stare Kurt Russell I read once in Empire in 90s
Good list. I forgot about Christine. I think you need a top ten. I would also have Vampires and They Live in there somewhere. 😁
One of my favorite movies, I wish JC had left in some of the cut material. John Carpenters movies are really some of the best in the industry.
It's so fucking good
I love this movie!
Adrienne Barbeau had THE best set of 80’s beeeeeeeeeeewbs of all time. To the B Queen and her royal tots!
Great music. Holds up. You should see the cut scene where they explain how Snake goes to jail. He gets busted in a Marta station in Atlanta. Somehow a Marta train looks like the future in 1980 I guess.
GREAT movie! 👍🏿👍🏿
Did Bill Burr say something ? I was too busy looking at Adrienne Barbeau !!!
Forget her in this film - it’s Cannonball Run I remember her for. My childhood crush wearing spandex while driving my childhood crush car, the Lamborghini Countach.
@@bungle3912 Yup !!!
@@bungle3912 in swamp thing from 1982 you see her boobs
@@bungle3912 She did have a lovely Countach
I read the book before the movie came out, i was 12
Best scene, "The Duke" dies.
President: "You're A #1, you're The Duke, blam-blam-blam-blam-blam, you're the Duke, blam-blam-blam, you're the duke, blam-blam, You're ...... the Duke."
Kurt: "Thanks a lot!"
It is a great movie that does hold up.
We're pretty much in a dystopian future now
1:24 wait we live in a dystopian future 😱
You're a dystopian future
Sodom & Gomorrah.
Adrian Barbeau was a goddamn smokeshow
What I didn’t learn till much later was that she was John Carpenter’s wife (they later divorced in 1984).
No it was a early warning and a serious reflection of life in 10 year from now across the world, and you know it is.
Two good reasons to like this movie: Adrienne Barbeau. Another good reason: Ox Baker. And nobody pulls off an eyepatch like Kurt Russell.
Bill grew up in Massachusetts but he sounds like all of my buddies from Long Island.
Never seen the movie either, just never came across it. But now I need to…
Dystopian = Bad……Utpoia(n) = Good. There ya go Bill.
Bill is somehow a prophet of our time , he told the world “he’s coming back “ the world didn’t listen 🤣
Any movie ANY movie with Harry Dean Stanton. I'll watch multiple times.
Wow...even Pretty in Pink.
You brave.
I like the 2 chandeliers mounted on the fenders of the Cadillac !!!
Good movie
Basically like the first purge film
President of what? 🐍
@@DavidLLambertmobile yo mama
some one should make another one with him now ......Escape from America XD KURT ALWAYS DELIVERS
Love this movie; "What did I teach you?"
Dystopian future, meaning the present, meaning now 👍👍
0:30.
1:20.
Best predictive programming ever, the ATC strike was 24 days after this movie’s release.
Hey, where's the link to the documentary?
That movie rocks.
Another great drinking movie everytime they say snake 🐍 pliskin have a shot 🥃 lol
Sorry but the info given about Brains lair being the Fox was wrong. The Fox was the EXTERIOR of the theater where Snake met Cabbie. The exterior of Brains lair was a few blocks southwest at the Masonic Lodge.
BUILD THAT WALL!