Snake Plissken on Wilshire, Kurt Russell and John Carpenter Present the Escape Films
The longtime collaborators will appear together at the Academy Museum on October 3 for a 4K double bill of Escape From New York and Escape From L.A.
Snake Plissken is coming back to the city he once had to escape. On Saturday, October 3, Kurt Russell and John Carpenter will appear in person at the Academy Museum to present 4K screenings of Escape From New York and Escape From L.A. with Russell as Snake Plissken in both.
The double bill belongs to Prince of Darkness, the museum’s month-long John Carpenter series, which kicked off with the opening of The Horror Show. The Los Angeles Times called the pair’s appearance “the real draw of the night,” noting that Russell and Carpenter made five features together and are known to mix it up in conversation.
In the 1981 original, Manhattan has been walled off and converted into a massive prison, and Russell plays Snake Plissken, a former bank robber promised a pardon if he can rescue the trapped American president. The museum says the role let Russell shed his image as a Disney live-action leading man and kindled his long partnership with Carpenter. Lee Van Cleef, Ernest Borgnine and Donald Pleasence co-star.
The 1996 sequel relocates the action to Los Angeles, now an island created by an earthquake and reserved for those who flout an ultra-conservative president’s morality laws. This time Russell also co-wrote the screenplay with Carpenter and Debra Hill and produced the film with Hill, and Stacy Keach, Steve Buscemi and Valeria Golino join the cast. The Times singles out the “special hometown affection” for the follow-up, with its jokes about Hollywood, traffic, surfing and basketball.
It is a busy month for Carpenter on Wilshire Boulevard. He will receive the Luminary Award at the Academy Museum Gala on October 17.
Both films screen from 4K DCPs, and tickets start at $7.
