Talk:Escape from New York/Archive 1

This is an archive of past discussions. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page.

Archive 1

Synopsis

Man, that is one heck of a synopsis. So detailed, it was as if I was watching it. Good job.

Yeah, went kinda overboard with it. Hee hee. Anyone who wants to trim it down go ahead. Cyberia23 21:32, 6 December 2005 (UTC)

Simpsons

What? SchmuckyTheCat 18:15, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

Budget

In the intro, it says it had a $7 million budget, but the infobox only shows $6 million. Which is it? Corky842 06:25, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

Escape from Earth

According to Carpenter, this was never proposed and was only a rumour...so I removed it from the trivia section. Mcflytrap 17:47, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

In the Hideo Kojima video game series Metal Gear Solid the hero's name Is Solid Snake the isperation for the name snake comes from escape from NY. In MGS2 snake fakes his death & uses the alias Pliskin, In MGS3 game Snake looks more like movie Snake (the razor stubble,the hair,& of course the eye patch). I got this info from a hideo kojima interview in Playstation magizine(and the games themselves).

Intro voiceover

The article says it's Debra Hill, but I seem to remember Jamie Lee Curtis did the whole opening voiceover...which one is it ? -- Mairosu

According to IMDb - Jamie Lee Curtis is listed as "Narrator/Computer Voice (uncredited)", BUT Debra Hill is also credited as "Computer (voice)". I thought the only "computer voice" was during the intro to the movie, but I guess there was other computer voices. Cyberia23 02:22, 7 January 2007 (UTC)

There is another use of computer voice when the computer is showing the trajectory, crash of Airforce 1, and the pod's trajectory as well. 16:57, 25 February 2007 (UTC)

The director's commentary will likely clear this up. I'll check the disc as soon as I have the time.

Budget

Okay, so Carpenter says five mill, what sources say seven? Box Office Mojo? Geoff B 07:30, 8 May 2007 (UTC)

Several articles sourced say closer to $7 mil. --Count Ringworm 14:00, 8 May 2007 (UTC)

DVD section

I'm working on expanding this. —Viriditas | Talk 05:28, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

Debra Hill

Interesting bit of trivia that we may be able to work into the article: co-producer Debra Hill also produced World Trade Center (film). This is mentioned in Sight & Sound. [1]: "The writer/producer who actually set WTC in motion was Debra Hill. She read the news reports on McLoughlin and Jimeno's rescue, tracked them down, sat and cried with them and their families, and got their permission to do the film. Tragically, she died of breast cancer just prior to the start of shooting. Hill had collaborated with John Carpenter on Halloween, as writer and producer. She also wrote the screenplay for The Fog, both the original and the remake. And lest you underestimate her influence on WTC's material, she knew her action-thriller formulas too: after all, Hill co-produced the Carpenter film that was released exactly 25 years ago...Escape from New York." —Viriditas | Talk 06:17, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

Year/Timeline

Actually, according to the opening titles, wasn't Manhattan first turned into a prison in 1988 (crime having increased by then 400%), and the events of the film set in 1997? I only just watched it last night on ITV4 in the UK! best, Sunil060902 11:30, 4 December 2007 (UTC)

Plot added

I added to the plot and changed some minor errors. I added a great amount that was needed. It was empty and needed more information.Prede (talk) 23:22, 12 December 2007 (UTC) 37,396 have donated. You can help Wikipedia change the world!

Hi, according to the Wikipedia Film Project guidelines, "The plot section is made self-contained (and is a totally separate section designated by ==Plot==), so plot details and actor names already mentioned in the lead section, and/or mentioned in a cast section, are repeated here. Plot summaries should be between 400 and 700 words and should not exceed 900 words unless there is a specific reason such as a very complicated plot."Nazamo (talk) 22:32, 16 December 2007 (UTC)

I did a word count on the plot summary as of Dec 16, 2007, and it clocks in at 950 words. Since EFNY is not a complex movie (while I love it, it is an action-scifi film, not an art film with a hugely complex plot), I argue that it should be in the main length range cited (400 to 700 words). So 250 words have to be trimmed.Nazamo (talk) 22:39, 16 December 2007 (UTC)

It's down to 690 or so. Needs more trimming, but that should do it for now. It's been a while since I saw the film, so I hope I haven't left too many inaccuracies in it.
Jim Dunning | talk 01:43, 17 December 2007 (UTC)

Anon user 70.122.25.75 's addition of Redskins?

I seen this movie 6 million times as it has always been one of my favorite cult films, and I practically had it memorized - but never once have I ever heard any gang in the movie called "The Redskins". I know the Crazies were the ones in the sewers and who lined the street and beat on the car, but who the f*** are the Redskins besides a football team from Washington? I no longer have the movie on DVD so I can't verify it myself, but unless someone else can add a verifiable reference of when in the movie the Redskins were mentioned, I don't think it should be mentioned until then. I don't trust random trivia by anon users. Cyberia23 21:43, 21 September 2007 (UTC)

I only know of two mentions of this. Carpenter on the DVD commentary mentions that the gang living inside of the World Trade Centre were meant to be Native Americans, called the Redskins, but the idea was dropped, and on the roof of the World Trade Centre, Brain shouts "God damn Redskins! They're savages, Mr President!". Geoff B 21:48, 21 September 2007 (UTC)

It sounds like that it was Brain just calling them that, and in that case it could have been a derogatory remark since I do believe some Native Americans consider "redskin" a racist slur. I know they were fighting to change the Washington Redskins name a few years ago. But in any case it doesn't mean that it was the gang's name does it? Cyberia23 21:53, 21 September 2007 (UTC)

Carpenter, from the commentary: "The building was originally inhabited by a tribe of um, Americans, Native Americans, but we decided to eliminate that from the show." So it was intended to be their name, but that didn't make it into the film, aside from that one line. Geoff B 22:16, 21 September 2007 (UTC)

Oh, I didn't know that Carpenter said that. Is that from the Special Edition DVD? I just had the cheap movie-only DVD with no bonus material - not even deleted scenes :( Anyway, I see now where the Indian comment comes from, but I really don't think it's necessary in mentioning that the WTC convicts were supposed to be Native Americans under the plot. I see that more as a trivia statement than anything. Cyberia23 04:54, 22 September 2007 (UTC)

Correct--that was actually my edit you undid. The point of the edit was to remove the reference to the Crazies throwing the glider off the roof. That's not true; they live in the sewers, and as Season Hubley's character tells us, they only surface at the end of the month for food. That being said, the shot following the glider tumbling down the side of the WTC clearly has Brain shouting "God damn Redskins! They're savages, Mr President!" In addition, the novelization references the group as the "redskins" in that specific line. The reference is used pejoratively, much like we assume that the Crazies don't call themselves that, but others do. BTW, if you don't have the Special Edition DVD, I'd highly recommend picking it up, if only for the inclusion of the first reel. Reckstei 20:08, 22 September 2007 (UTC)

Just re-watched it (Special Edition DVD) - three actors are listed in the final credits as "first indian," "second indian" and "third indian." I presume they were minor characters in the WTC scene, indicating that although Carpenter abandoned the idea of casting Native Americans, he probably never bothered removing the references in the script. SixFourThree (talk) 16:58, 7 February 2008 (UTC)SixFourThree

59th/69th Street Bridge

I removed the reference to the 69th Street Transfer Bridge, as it's obviously not what the characters are referring to (not actually being a bridge). This has been reported before as a simple goof [2] - Carpenter and Castle obviously meant the 59th Street Bridge. SixFourThree (talk) 17:12, 7 February 2008 (UTC)SixFourThree

Actually, it doesn't matter whether you think it's a "goof" or not (that would be WP:OR. If the characters say "Sixty-Ninth Street", then that's what goes in the Plot description (if it needs to be referenced at all). We cannot say "obviously" that's what Carpenter and Castle intended unless a credible source supporting that assertion can be cited.
Jim Dunning | talk 19:40, 7 February 2008 (UTC)

That's why I started this conversation. What was previously in the article (a link to a structure that isn't a bridge) was clearly wrong, and that it was an error is not my determination but that of the New York Times (the difference between OR and a legitimate edit, as I understand it). So should we remove the name of the bridge entirely? SixFourThree (talk) 19:45, 7 February 2008 (UTC)SixFourThree

Removing the link in this case is correct, since the 69th Street Bridge in the film is fictional. The New York Times article appears to be about the artistic license writers use in screenplays: "Besides, a lot of the untruths aren't really goofs. They're consciously allowed into the film in the service of fiction." Therefore, we don't have to do anything with the reference, since it accurately and objectively describes what is said in the film. In fact, I'm going to remove the quotes from the name, since, in the fictional context there's no need to call attention to it.
Jim Dunning | talk 20:14, 7 February 2008 (UTC)

Slightly off-topic, but in the graphic of the prison that appears at the beginning of the film, only "real-life" bridges are shown. There's at least one additional (small geography error), but relatively minor compared with getting a famous bridge's name wrong. Besides, that one really is OR, since I've never seen a reference to the mistake anywhere. SixFourThree (talk) 21:26, 7 February 2008 (UTC)SixFourThree

Missouri or Illinois

The opening paragraph says the film was shot mostly in St. Louis, Missouri. The extensive production section later in the article avows it was actually shot across the river in East St. Louis, Illinois. So, which is right. Which entry needs to be changed? Sir Rhosis (talk) 11:44, 3 March 2008 (UTC)

According to IMDB[3], many scenes were indeed shot in St. Louis, Missouri, but interestingly enough, IMDB doesn't mention East St. Louis at all! MFNickster (talk) 18:19, 8 March 2008 (UTC)

The article says there was a massive fire in East St. Louis in 1976. I can't seem to find any information about such a fire in East St. Louis, but I did find some news articles about a massive multi-block fire in St. Louis on April 2, 1976. "A general-alarm fire damaged most of the buildings in a six block area just northwest - of downtown St.Louis Friday afternoon, police said." from Damage Widespread In St. Louis Blaze. The Edwardsville Intelligencer. Edwardsville, Illinois. Saturday, April 03, 1976. From the article "...Almost lost St.Louis" Daily Capital News, Jefferson City, Missouri, Tuesday, April 06, 1976. Page 8, Acting deputy chief Lou Stauss said, "People don't realize it, but we almost lost the City of St. Louis." 6 large commercial building were destroyed, and at one point, according to that article, "Fire Chief Charles R. Kamprad brought up the possibility of having to dynamite some buildings in the path of the blaze and thus create a firebreak." 200 firefighters and 51 fire trucks were involved, one fire truck was destroyed in the process. That sounds like a massive urban fire as described in this article. I have no doubt that there were / are many abandoned / burned out buildings in East St. Louis, but it seems that the massive fire in 1976 may refer to a fire in St. Louis, not East St. Louis. --Dual Freq (talk) 21:06, 16 March 2008 (UTC)

At least two recognizable St. Louis MO locations are used and can be seen in the film. The drag chorus line shortly after Snake lands in the film is established at the Fox Theatre (Grand and Olive, St. Louis) and several sources (including IMDB) report that Snake's capture and the president's captivity were shot in the unrenovated Union Station, on downtown Market. I've also heard around town that the 1976 "massive multi-block fire" referenced above took several buildings in the 21st and Laclede area of St. Louis, but the only source for that is the Schlafly webpage (on the right hand sidebar) [4]. Interestingly enough, all three of those locations have now been renovated and are in regular use. The Fox still exists as a theater with touring stage shows and the St. Louis Opera, Union Station now houses a mall and a hotel, and the old Swift Printing buildings have been combined into the Schlafly Taproom (the first Missouri brewpub). Phyrkrakr (talk) —Preceding comment was added at 01:32, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

Snake?

Does anybody notice the similarities between this and the metal gear games?--poketape 02:14, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

69.129.126.107 (talk) 04:26, 22 August 2008 (UTC)

GA Review

This review is transcluded from Talk:Escape from New York/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

GA review comments

Great article. A few, mainly prose issues:-

Development: "He did not agree with the film’s philosophy..." clarify that the film referred to is Death Wish – suggest you say "this film"

Casting: I think the words "such as Bronson" are redundant

Pre-production
- Opening sentence is in need of a citation
- Saying that Carpenter was "overwhelmed" looks like opinion without a citation

Production
- There are multiple problems with this sentence: "Carpenter and his crew convinced the city to shut off the electricity to ten blocks at a time at night and shot most of the movie in the summer of 1979 and 1980". First, "convinced" should be "persuaded"; second, there is no punctuation; third, you have "and" linking two unrelated clauses, which causes a non sequitur; fourth, "the summer of 1979 and 1980" must be "summers".
- Why is "Sun" capitalized?
- Re Liberty Island: further use of "convinced" for "persuaded". This sentence should read: "...managed to persuade the city officials to grant them access..."

Reception
- Revenue to production ratio: if production costs were $7m. and total receipts $50m, that seems like a ratio of 7:1 not 10:1
- ”Newsweek praised Carpenter saying:..." What follows is very faint "praise" – sounds more as if they were being rude to him.
- (last line) Clarify that the film referred to is Cloverfield ("his film"?)

It's not worth putting the article on hold, as these will take you about 10 minutes to fix. I'll look around, see if anything else needs doing, but I don't think there can be much. Brianboulton (talk) 23:17, 28 August 2008 (UTC)

All done Gary King (talk) 23:49, 28 August 2008 (UTC)

Not quite all:-

the sentence which says "...no one wanted him as a director, so he assumed he would make it...as a screenwriter" needs a citation
"Sun" is still capitalized
(Liberty Island) - its "grant" access, not "gain"

Brianboulton (talk) 00:28, 29 August 2008 (UTC)

Missed the last one. I didn't do the others on purpose; Sun is supposed to be capitalized. That sentence is referenced to ref 11 which covers that whole paragraph. Gary King (talk) 01:06, 29 August 2008 (UTC)

Yes this is Solid Snake's direct influence. It should be included somewhere in this article. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.51.87.2 (talk) 17:54, 30 January 2009 (UTC)

Intro Too Long

The introduction is pushing the suggested three paragraph limit and the text about the remake is really a fourth paragraph in disguise. A remake that is only in production and has a star and director drop out isn't really notable, at least not beyond a single sentence such as "remake in production". Removed text included below just in case it is include in the main part of the article anyhow. -- Horkana (talk) 00:44, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

A sequel, Escape from L.A., was released in 1996. On March 13, 2007, a remake of the original film was announced tentatively with actor Gerard Butler set to play Plissken^[1] with Len Wiseman to direct.^[2] Both have since dropped out of the project.^[3]

References

^ Fleming, Michael (March 13, 2007). "Butler has Escape plan". Variety. Retrieved 2007-06-07.
^ McNary, Dave (August 14, 2007). "Len Wiseman to direct New York". Variety. Retrieved 2007-08-15. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
^ Fleming, Michael (October 29, 2007). "Butler escapes New York remake". Variety. Retrieved 2007-11-05. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)

Grossing over $50 million worldwide ??

The refenrences (Mox Office Mojo) have noe information about this figure. I can only se figures conserning USA ($25 millions)[5].--Ezzex (talk) 13:21, 9 August 2009 (UTC) ?--Ezzex (talk) 14:58, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

Post-9/11 Perceptions

It would be nice if this article could touch upon how (or if) perceptions of "Escape from New York" have changed post-9/11. Mongolmax (talk) 13:01, 9 November 2009 (UTC)

In the Mood?

I'm not 100% on my big band music, but I swear that's not In the Mood.

I think that it is the theme song of American Bandstand. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.161.33.41 (talk) 03:53, 7 June 2010 (UTC)

Discussion pertaining to non-free image(s) used in article

A cleanup page has been created for WP:FILMS' spotlight articles. One element that is being checked in ensuring the quality of the articles is the non-free images. Currently, one or more non-free images being used in this article are under discussion to determine if they should be removed from the article for not complying with non-free and fair use requirements. Please comment at the corresponding section within the image cleanup listing. Before contributing the discussion, please first read WP:FILMNFI concerning non-free images. Ideally the discussions pertaining to the spotlight articles will be concluded by the end of June, so please comment soon to ensure there is clear consensus. --Happy editing! Nehrams2020 (talk • contrib) 05:10, 20 June 2010 (UTC)

Gerald Ford son?

I read somewhere that Gerald Ford son plays one of the president's bodyguards (the blonde one with shades and a M16A1 trying to knock down the pilot cabin door at the movie very beginning), is that true or noteworthy? --'''Mr. Nighttime''' (talk) 02:35, 28 June 2010 (UTC)

Anarchist?

Whereeee the heck did the film give any indication that the woman who hijacked the plane was an Anarchist? For all we know she could have been a Socialist. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.222.182.87 (talk) 12:55, 30 June 2010 (UTC) Considering the government in the script and book was socialist, i'd say that was unlikely, she was some form of freedom fighter Tokyosmash (talk) 22:07, 16 August 2010 (UTC)

Poster

The poster shows the head of the Statue of Liberty lying broken on the streets. I find this odd for two reasons, a) the statue remains intact in the film and b) if it had been broken, how the hell would it have ended up in Manhattan Jooler 02:38, 6 May 2006 (UTC)

LOL yeah the first time I ever went to New York, I thought, "This looks nothing like the skyline in the movies"! In movies they make it seem like the Statue of Liberty is pretty much visible from the city near the Empire State Building or something...but the Statue is in the middle of nowhere, really! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 134.159.111.98 (talk) 04:19, 30 August 2010 (UTC)

Artistic license. The Statue of Liberty is probably New York City's most recognizable landmark. Besides, have you ever seen a movie poster that showed things exactly as they appeared in the film? Corky842 06:25, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

Home releases

No mention of VHS or Laserdisc releases even though this is a GA... --Mika1h (talk) 00:26, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

Wall Tagged "FTW"

So I just re-saw this last night and noticed that about 2/3rds of the way in Snake and the gang walk by an internal wall with "FTW" tagged in plain black letters near the lower-right corner of the wall.

Anyone know what this one stands for?

In todays parlance, it means f*ck the world. Who knows that Carpenter intended it to really mean. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 143.115.159.53 (talk) 14:43, 8 January 2009 (UTC)

Actually it mean "For the win" Check the urban dictionary, more people agree. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.251.184.9 (talk) 01:26, 29 March 2009 (UTC)

"For the win" came about in recent years, in the past it stood for "F*ck the world" but as previously stated, nobody knows what Carpenter meant by it.Tokyosmash (talk) 22:05, 16 August 2010 (UTC)

FT* for "F*** the *" dates back to at least 1970 that I know of, especially in FTA (Army). Radio Sharon (talk) 21:51, 7 May 2013 (UTC)

Assessment comment

The comment(s) below were originally left at Talk:Escape from New York/Comments, and are posted here for posterity. Following several discussions in past years, these subpages are now deprecated. The comments may be irrelevant or outdated; if so, please feel free to remove this section.

Article requirements:

Y All the start class criteria
Y A completed infobox, including cover art and most technical details
N At least one section of prose (excluding the lead section)
Y A track listing containing track lengths and authors for all songs
N A full list of personnel, including technical personnel and guest musicians
N Categorisation at least by artist and year
Y A casual reader should learn something about the album.

Andrzejbanas (talk) 06:20, 11 May 2008 (UTC)

Last edited at 06:20, 11 May 2008 (UTC). Substituted at 14:40, 29 April 2016 (UTC)

External links modified

Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified 2 external links on Escape from New York. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

This message was posted before February 2018. After February 2018, "External links modified" talk page sections are no longer generated or monitored by InternetArchiveBot. No special action is required regarding these talk page notices, other than regular verification using the archive tool instructions below. Editors have permission to delete these "External links modified" talk page sections if they want to de-clutter talk pages, but see the RfC before doing mass systematic removals. This message is updated dynamically through the template {{source check}} (last update: 18 January 2022).

If you have discovered URLs which were erroneously considered dead by the bot, you can report them with this tool.
If you found an error with any archives or the URLs themselves, you can fix them with this tool.

Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 05:56, 30 April 2017 (UTC)

External links modified

Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified 6 external links on Escape from New York. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

This message was posted before February 2018. After February 2018, "External links modified" talk page sections are no longer generated or monitored by InternetArchiveBot. No special action is required regarding these talk page notices, other than regular verification using the archive tool instructions below. Editors have permission to delete these "External links modified" talk page sections if they want to de-clutter talk pages, but see the RfC before doing mass systematic removals. This message is updated dynamically through the template {{source check}} (last update: 18 January 2022).

If you have discovered URLs which were erroneously considered dead by the bot, you can report them with this tool.
If you found an error with any archives or the URLs themselves, you can fix them with this tool.

Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 01:54, 12 May 2017 (UTC)

Terrorist?

The NLFA member who hijacks Airforce One is here twice described as a "terrorist". Air Force One is NOT a civilian aircraft. This article is biased. MisOes (talk) 11:34, 25 April 2019 (UTC)MisOes

What would you suggest instead? DonIago (talk) 13:16, 25 April 2019 (UTC)

[varietyremake-1] Fleming, Michael (March 13, 2007). "Butler has Escape plan". Variety. Retrieved 2007-06-07.

[McNary-2] McNary, Dave (August 14, 2007). "Len Wiseman to direct New York". Variety. Retrieved 2007-08-15. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)

[Fleming,_Michael-3] Fleming, Michael (October 29, 2007). "Butler escapes New York remake". Variety. Retrieved 2007-11-05. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)

[1]

[2]

[3]