MJB SCRIPT REVIEW | JOHN CARPENTER'S ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK

“𝗖𝗔𝗟𝗟 𝗠𝗘 𝗦𝗡𝗔𝗞𝗘!” | 𝗠𝗝𝗕 𝗪𝗘𝗘𝗞𝗟𝗬 𝗦𝗖𝗥𝗜𝗣𝗧 𝗥𝗘𝗩𝗜𝗘𝗪

Cult classic and sci-fi beauty, I’ve been looking forward immensely to John Carpenters 𝑬𝒔𝒄𝒂𝒑𝒆 𝑭𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝑵𝒆𝒘 𝒀𝒐𝒓𝒌.

Plot in a nutshell: Air Force One crash lands in a future New York City, now a walled prison. With 22 hours to save the President, imprisoned war rebel Snake Plissken is sent in to rescue him, poison capsules slowly dissolving in his blood system and the cure only available if he gets the President back…

John Carpenter is one of those directors whose fans ADORE his work. Every one of his early films is incredible and this was yet another wildly influential work of utter dystopian joy.

A brisk read (56 pages), this was a transcript, but still carried all of Carpenters trademark asides and style. To be fair, as a script goes, the pace is damn near perfection. It doesn’t let up, mounting with a steady build that is trademark for Carpenters writing. The dialogue is short, sassy and cool. The leading character iconic.

But delve below the slick surface and there are definitely some noticeable flaws.

Not one single character has any type of character arc. They just exist for exposition. This is great for viewing the story as a straight experience, but less so if you’re seeking some depth. Snake is the only character who gets any kind of description and as the only female character, Maggie just screams to have more done with her. You can see that the histories of these characters are so fascinating. What could we have done with a three hour version, with flashbacks and deeper retrospective on the state of this particular future?

Then there’s the action directions. Brief is great, but these border on robotic (apart from when Snake is in action). In fact, it’s difficult not to see Carpenter and fellow writer Nick Castle having a blast writing Snake and then slogging through everyone else as supporting his storyline.

Finally, there are moments that simply happen out of sheer luck. Snake threatens to kill Brain and Maggie if they don’t take him to the President and The Duke. They agree, walk out of Brains lair, only for The Duke to drive right on by!

So a few areas that just niggled with me.

So, what did I learn from 𝑬𝒔𝒄𝒂𝒑𝒆 𝑭𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝑵𝒆𝒘 𝒀𝒐𝒓𝒌?

The iconic opening sequence where the prison of New York is described in all its brutal design, is a neat couple of pages that mix descriptive ADs, graphics and retro PowerPoint presentation. Nice little sequence and well worth the time to take a look at, if you’re looking to recreate a scene like that.

Plus John Carpenters scripts are always worth a look for studying mastery of pace. Like Halloween (a true masterpiece), the tension builds admirably with obstacles arising in the most amusing and imaginative manner.

So, not his best script, but still one of his best films. I will always adore the movie, so hate myself for this review already. But this was never meant to be Citizen Kane and there ain’t nothing wrong with that!

Link to the script;

https://thescriptsavant.com/movies/Escape_From_New_York.pdf