Editing Escape from New York (section)

==Production==

===Development and writing===
Carpenter originally wrote the screenplay for ''Escape from New York'' in 1976, in the aftermath of [[Richard Nixon]]'s Watergate scandal. Carpenter said, "The whole feeling of the nation was one of real cynicism about the president."<ref>{{cite web |last1=Dawson |first1=Dylan |title=Double Future 1997: 'Escape From New York' vs. 'The Fifth Element' |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/double-future-1997-escape-from-new-york-vs-the-fifth-element/ |website=Vice |access-date=21 May 2020 |date=9 July 2017}}</ref> He wrote the screenplay, but no studio wanted to make it because, according to Carpenter, "[i]t was too violent, too scary, [and] too weird".<ref>{{cite news|last=Yakir |first=Dan |title='Escape' Gives Us Liberty |newspaper=The New York Times |date=October 4, 1980 |url=http://www.theofficialjohncarpenter.com/pages/press/nypost801014.html |access-date=March 10, 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070317210916/http://www.theofficialjohncarpenter.com/pages/press/nypost801014.html |archive-date=March 17, 2007 }}</ref> He had been inspired by the film ''[[Death Wish (1974 film)|Death Wish]]'', which was very popular at the time. He did not agree with this film's philosophy, but liked how it conveyed "the sense of New York as a kind of jungle, and I wanted to make a science-fiction film along these lines".<ref>{{cite magazine|last=Maronie |first=Samuel J. |title=On the Set with ''Escape from New York'' |magazine=[[Starlog]] |number=45 |date=April 1981 |url=<!-- Keeping dead link for ref, no archive version: http://www.sphosting.com/theefnypage/pressontheset.htm -->}}</ref>

International Film Investors agreed to provide 50% of the budget, and [[Goldcrest Films]] signed a co-financing deal with them. They ended up providing £720,000 of the budget and making a profit of £672,000 from their investment after earning £1,392,000.<ref>{{Cite book|pages=[https://archive.org/details/myindecisionisfi00eber/page/59 59], 655|title=My indecision is final|url=https://archive.org/details/myindecisionisfi00eber|url-access=registration|first1=Jake|last1= Eberts |first2=Terry|last2=Illott|year=1990 |publisher=Faber and Faber|isbn=9780571148882 }}</ref>

===Casting===
[[Embassy Pictures|AVCO Embassy Pictures]], the film's financial backer, preferred [[Charles Bronson]], [[Tommy Lee Jones]] or [[Chuck Norris]] to play the role of Snake Plissken to Carpenter's choice of Kurt Russell, who was trying to overcome the "lightweight" screen image conveyed by his roles in several [[Walt Disney Pictures|Disney]] comedies. Carpenter refused to cast Bronson on the grounds that he was too old, and because he worried that he could lose directorial control over the film with an experienced actor. At the time, Russell described his character as "a mercenary, and his style of fighting is a combination of [[Bruce Lee]], [[The Exterminator]], and [[Darth Vader]], with [[Clint Eastwood|Eastwood]]'s vocal-ness."<ref>{{cite magazine|last=Hogan |first=Richard |title=Kurt Russell Rides a New Wave in ''Escape'' Film |magazine=[[Circus (magazine)|Circus]] |year=1980 |url=http://www.theofficialjohncarpenter.com/pages/press/circus1980.html |access-date=March 10, 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070317172535/http://www.theofficialjohncarpenter.com/pages/press/circus1980.html |archive-date=March 17, 2007 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://cinephiliabeyond.org/escape-new-york-john-carpenters-thrilling-pumped-ride-streets-dystopian-new-york-city/|title='Escape from New York': John Carpenter's Thrilling, Pumped-Up Ride through the Streets of a Dystopian New York City • Cinephilia & Beyond|date=August 8, 2016}}</ref> Russell suggested that the character should wear an eyepatch.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/movies/interviews/a39140/kurt-russell-bone-tomahawk/|title=Kurt Russell on the American Tough Guy and His New Cannibal Western|date=October 25, 2015|website=Esquire}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.menshealth.com/entertainment/a26660038/kurt-russell-best-movies-interview/ | title=Kurt Russell Reveals the Bizarre Injury That Pushed Him into Acting Full-Time | date=March 5, 2019 }}</ref> All that matters to Snake, according to the actor, is "the next 60 seconds. Living for exactly that next minute is all there is." Russell used a rigorous diet and exercise program to develop a lean and muscular build. He also endeavored to stay in character between takes and throughout the shooting, as he welcomed the opportunity to get away from the Disney comedies he had done previously. He did find it necessary to remove the [[eyepatch]] between takes, as wearing it constantly seriously affected his [[depth perception]].<ref name="Goldberg, Lee">{{cite magazine|last=Goldberg |first=Lee |title=Kurt Russell&nbsp;— Two-Fisted Hero |magazine=[[Starlog]] |number=108 |date=July 1986 }}</ref>

===Pre-production===
Carpenter had just made ''[[Dark Star (film)|Dark Star]]'', but no one wanted to hire him as a director, so he assumed he would make it in Hollywood as a screenwriter. The filmmaker went on to do other films with the intention of making ''Escape'' later. After the success of ''[[Halloween (1978 film)|Halloween]]'', Avco-Embassy signed producer Debra Hill and him to a two-picture deal. The first film from this contract was ''[[The Fog]]''. Initially, the second film he was going to make to finish the contract was ''[[The Philadelphia Experiment (movie)|The Philadelphia Experiment]]'', but because of script-writing problems, Carpenter rejected it in favor of this project. However, Carpenter felt something was missing and recalls, "This was basically a straight [[action film]]. And at one point, I realized it really doesn't have this kind of crazy humor that people from New York would expect to see."<ref name="Swires, Steve">{{cite magazine|last=Swires |first=Steve |title=John Carpenter |magazine=[[Starlog]] |date=July 1981 |number=48 }}</ref> He brought in Nick Castle, a friend from his film-school days at [[University of Southern California]], who played "[[Michael Myers (Halloween)|The Shape]]" in ''Halloween''. Castle invented the Cabbie character and came up with the film's ending.<ref>{{cite news|title=Launch of a giddy fantasy a director reaches for the stars with computer aid |last=Ryan |first=Desmond |newspaper=[[The Philadelphia Inquirer]] |date=July 14, 1984 |page=D01}}</ref>

The film's setting proved to be a potential problem for Carpenter, who needed to create a decaying, semi-destroyed version of New York City on a shoestring budget. The film's production designer [[Joe Alves]] and he rejected shooting on location in New York City because it would be too hard to make it look like a destroyed city. Carpenter suggested shooting on a movie back lot, but Alves nixed that idea "because the texture of a real street is not like a back lot."<ref name="Beeler, Michael">{{cite news | last = Beeler
 | first = Michael | title = ''Escape from N.Y.'': Filming the Original | publisher = [[Cinefantastique]]
 }}</ref> They sent Barry Bernardi, their location manager (and associate producer), "on a sort of all-expense-paid trip across the country looking for the worst city in America," producer Debra Hill remembers.<ref name="Beeler, Michael"/>

Bernardi suggested [[East St. Louis, Illinois]], because it was filled with old buildings "that exist in New York now, and [that] have that seedy run-down quality" that the team was looking for.<ref>{{cite magazine|last=Maronie |first=Samuel J. |title=From ''Forbidden Planet'' to ''Escape from New York'': A candid conversation with SFX & production designer Joe Alves |magazine=[[Starlog]] |number=46 |date=May 1981 |url=http://www.theofficialjohncarpenter.com/pages/press/starlog8105.html |access-date=March 10, 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070317172834/http://www.theofficialjohncarpenter.com/pages/press/starlog8105.html |archive-date=March 17, 2007 }}</ref> East St. Louis, sitting across the Mississippi River from the more prosperous [[St. Louis, Missouri]], had entire neighborhoods burned out in 1976 during a massive urban fire. Hill said in an interview, "block after block was burnt-out rubble. In some places, there was absolutely nothing, so that you could see three and four blocks away."<ref name="Beeler, Michael"/> Also, Alves found an old bridge to serve as the "69th St. Bridge". The filmmaker purchased the [[Chain of Rocks Bridge|Old Chain of Rocks Bridge]] for one dollar from the government and then gave it back to them, for the same amount, once production was completed, "so that they wouldn't have any liability," Hill remembers.<ref name="Beeler, Michael"/> Locations across the river in St. Louis were used, including [[Union Station (St. Louis)|Union Station]] and the [[Fox Theatre (St. Louis)|Fox Theatre]], both of which have since been renovated,<ref>{{cite news|title=Show Me the movies|work=St. Louis Post-Dispatch|date=April 17, 2005|author=Williams, Joe|page=C1}}</ref> as well as the building that would eventually become the [[Saint Louis Brewery#Downtown|Schlafly Tap Room microbrewery]].

===Filming===
Carpenter and his crew persuaded the city to shut off the electricity to 10 blocks at a time at night. The film was shot from August to November 1980. It was a tough and demanding shoot for the filmmaker as he recalls. "We'd finish shooting at about 6 am and I'd just be going to sleep at 7 when the sun would be coming up. I'd wake up around 5 or 6 pm, depending on whether or not we had dailies, and by the time I got going, the sun would be setting. So for about two and a half months I never saw daylight, which was really strange."<ref name="Swires, Steve"/> The [[gladiatorial]] fight to the death scene between Snake and Slag (played by professional wrestler Ox Baker) was filmed in the Grand Hall at [[St. Louis Union Station]]. Russell has stated, "That day was a nightmare. All I did was swing a [spiked] bat at that guy and get swung at in return. He threw a trash can in my face about five times ... I could have wound up in pretty bad shape."<ref>[https://collider.com/kurt-russell-escape-from-new-york-capetown-film-fest-recap/ Kurt Russell Talks About Shooting ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK at the EW CapeTown Film Fest; Plus His Thoughts on the Remake|Collider]</ref> In addition to shooting on location in St. Louis, Carpenter shot parts of the film in [[Los Angeles]]. Various interior scenes were shot on a [[sound stage]]; the final scenes were shot at the [[Sepulveda Dam]] in [[Sherman Oaks]]. New York served as a location, as did [[Atlanta]], to use their [[Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority|futuristic-looking rapid-transit system]] (the latter scenes were cut from the final film).<ref>{{cite news|title=St. Louis Q&A|work=St. Louis Post-Dispatch|author=Berger, Jerry|date=February 5, 1995|page=17}}</ref> In New York City, Carpenter persuaded federal officials to grant access to [[Liberty Island]]. "We were the first film company in history allowed to shoot on Liberty Island at the [[Statue of Liberty]] at night. They let us have the whole island to ourselves. We were lucky. It wasn't easy to get that initial permission. They'd had a bombing three months earlier and were worried about trouble".<ref name="Osborne, Robert">{{cite news|last=Osborne |first=Robert |title=On Location |work=[[The Hollywood Reporter]] |date=October 24, 1980 |url=http://www.theofficialjohncarpenter.com/pages/press/reporter801024.html |access-date=March 10, 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070317172451/http://www.theofficialjohncarpenter.com/pages/press/reporter801024.html |archive-date=March 17, 2007 }}</ref>

[[File:Escape From New York Wireframe.jpg|thumb|The simulated wire-frame effect]]
Carpenter was interested in creating two distinct looks for the movie. "One is the police state, high tech, lots of neon, a United States dominated by underground computers. That was easy to shoot compared to the Manhattan Island prison sequences, which had few lights, mainly torch lights, like feudal England".<ref name="Osborne, Robert"/> Certain [[Matte (filmmaking)|matte paintings]] were rendered by [[James Cameron]], who was at the time a special-effects artist with [[Roger Corman]]'s [[New World Pictures]]. Cameron was also one of the directors of photography on the film. As Snake pilots the glider into the city, three screens on his control panel display [[wire-frame model|wireframe]] animations of the landing target on the World Trade Center and surrounding buildings. Carpenter initially wanted high-tech computer graphics, which were very expensive, even for such a simple animation. The effects crew filmed the miniature model set of New York City they used for other scenes under [[black light]], with reflective tape placed along every edge of the model buildings. Only the tape is visible and appears to be a three-dimensional [[Wire frame model|wireframe animation]].<ref>{{cite video|title=Escape from New York (Special Edition)|date=2003|people=Atkins, Tom; Barbeau, Adrienne}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.cracked.com/article_19140_8-movie-special-effects-you-wont-believe-arent-cgi.html|title=8 Movie Special Effects You Didn't Know Weren't CGI: Classic|website=Cracked.com|date=April 18, 2011 |access-date=July 19, 2017}}</ref>