1981 was a watershed moment for the horror/science fiction/adventure genre. A new wave of directors came out that year with films that floored movie fans and critics alike. Besides Carpenter's ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK, there were the twin werewolf films THE HOWLING directed by Joe Dante and John Landis's AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON, Canadian director David Cronenberg's horror/sci fi thriller SCANNERS, Australian filmmaker George Miller's post apocalyptic THE ROAD WARRIOR, and zombie king George Romero's modern take on King Arthur KNIGHTRIDERS. These directors established themselves as the new guard for horror/sci fi/fantasy. Steven Spielberg's RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK also came out in 1981. Spielberg would executive produce future films made by Dante, Landis, and Miller. Carpenter and Dante were film buffs whose movies were affectionate riffs on classics by their favorite directors like Howard Hawks or Frank Capra. They also had an appreciation for older movie stars and character actors in their twilight years who appeared in some of their favorite classic films, actors like Kenneth Tobey (the original THE THING), Slim Pickens (DR. STRANGELOVE), John Carradine (HOUSE OF DRACULA), and Ernest Borgnine (THE WILD BUNCH) who would appear in films by these young directors.
ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK made a huge impression on me as a teenager. It's slightly futuristic setting would make me a fan of that genre and influence future films like Ridley Scott's BLADE RUNNER (1982), THE TERMINATOR (1984) directed by James Cameron (who worked on ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK as a Visual Effects cinematographer and Matte artist), and Paul Verhoeven's ROBOCOP (1987). Kurt Russell's Snake Plissken is a throwback to anti-hero characters from the 70s like Clint Eastwood's DIRTY HARRY (1971). Carpenter continued his use of the Steadicam with smooth tracking shots down dark New York alleys and streets that I copied in my Super 8mm films. I held ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK in such high regard that when Carpenter finally made a sequel 15 years later with ESCAPE FROM L.A., I couldn't bear to watch it. How could it top ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK? Usually, I'm excited about sequels with one of my favorite characters but ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK was almost too perfect to build on. Was I afraid ESCAPE FROM L.A. would water down the original even with a bigger budget? I will explore that question shortly.
Written by John Carpenter and Nick Castle and directed by Carpenter, ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK was released in 1981 but takes place 16 years in the future. It's 1997 and the U.S. crime rate has hit 400%. Former Special Unit Forces soldier and current outlaw Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell) is about to go into the country's only maximum security prison - the city of New York - after a botched bank robbery. But a group of terrorists have hijacked Air Force One carrying the United States President (Donald Pleasence) headed to an important world summit to prevent nuclear war. The President is placed in an escape pod before the plane crash lands inside New York City killing everyone else on board. Police Commissioner for the United States Bob Hauk (Lee Van Cleef) scrambles a team to extract the President but they find the pod empty. A hissing psychopath named Romero (Frank Doubleday) warns Hauk the inmates have him and to leave. Hauk formulates a new plan. He offers Snake a full pardon if he will infiltrate the prison and bring back the President. To ensure that Snake doesn't try to escape, two microscopic charges are placed in Plissken's neck, set to implode if he's not back in twenty four hours. Snake reluctantly accepts the offer.
With the use of a glider, Snake lands on top of one of the World Trade Towers. Once on the ground, Snake tracks the President's pulse while avoiding the Crazies, denizens of the underground that emerge from manhole covers, looking for food. Snake follows the signal to a theater where Cabbie (Ernest Borgnine) recognizes Snake. In the theater's basement, Snake finds the President's tracking device but it's a hobo wearing it not the President. Cabbie knows who's holding the President. He tells Snake that the Duke of New York (Isaac Hayes) has the president. The Duke is the kingpin of New York City and runs the prison. Cabbie takes Snake to meet Brain (Harry Dean Stanton) and his girl, the tough talking Maggie (Adrienne Barbeau). Brain and Maggie reside in the New York Public Library where Brain makes gasoline for the Duke. Snake and Brain have a past history together as criminals. With a gun pointed at him, Brain promises to take Snake to meet the Duke.
Brain and Maggie lead Snake to the Penn Train Station but it's a trap. Before Snake can free the President, he's captured by the Duke. Brain tells the Duke that the President is needed for some urgent world matter. The Duke plans on using the President as leverage to get out of New York. Snake is forced to battle the gigantic Slag (Ox Baker) gladiator style in a wrestling ring inside the train station. Brain and Maggie use the distraction to kill Romero and grab the President. Brain figures out that Snake's glider is up on the World Trade Center. Snake dispatches Slag. The Duke and his crew are alerted that Brain has stolen the President.
Snake races to stop Brain and Maggie. He reaches the top of the World Trade Center only to find Brain and Maggie battling a group of Indians. The glider is thrown off the building. Snake leads them back to the ground where Cabbie picks them up. They have to cross the 69th Street Bridge to reach the wall and Snake's extraction point but the bridge is heavily mined. Only Brain knows the exact location of each land mine. Snake drives the cab over the bridge with the Duke and his chandelier adorned Cadillac in pursuit. Time's running out for Snake as he races to get the President and himself over the wall before the Duke (and to a degree Police Commissioner Hauk) finish off Snake.
Director Carpenter talks on the DVD's featurette that he's always had a chip on his shoulder about authority. Carpenter's Snake Plissken is the epitome of an anti-authority character and maybe Carpenter's alter ego. Snake may have worked for the United States Special Forces and received a Purple Heart for his efforts in Leningrad and Siberia but he has no love for the police state that has become the United States. One of the best scenes in ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK is when Hauk offers Snake the mission to rescue the President. "The President of what?" Snake sarcastically asks. Carpenter portrays the President (played by Donald Pleasence) as a bit of a buffoon. The Duke and Romero torment the President, using him as target practice and place a blonde wig on him in ridicule. The President will have the last laugh with his captors but it doesn't show our commander-in-chief in the best light. In ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK, the President does not command respect. Carpenter snubs his nose at the authority figures of the world.
ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK is a subversive film. The Statue of Liberty, once a symbol of freedom that once welcomed immigrants from distant countries to America's shores, is now the headquarters for the United States Police Department, black clad enforcement officers enforcing martial law. The only visitors Lady Liberty greets now are the newest prisoners to Manhattan Island. At the end of the film, instead of the Stars and Stripes displayed horizontally, the United States flag is draped vertically like a Nazi banner, signaling a country off kilter. English actor Donald Pleasence plays the U.S. President, his accent hard to pin. Is he from the Ohio valley or the English midlands? We begin to root for the Duke of New York, Romero, Cabbie, Brain and Maggie along with Snake to get out of New York more than the bureaucratic President.
Watching ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK, it's hard to believe the film only cost between $5-6 million dollars. It's a testament to Carpenter and his crew's ingenuity that the film looks more expensive than it is. Carpenter used Spielberg's production designer Joe Alves who worked on JAWS (1975) and CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KING (1978) to make a recently burned out section of St. Louis look like New York City. Only two shots in the film are actually shot in New York (one involving the Statue of Liberty at the start of the film sets the tone). Director of Photography Dean Cundey who worked with Carpenter on his previous two films HALLOWEEN (1978) and THE FOG (1980) makes the night time look nightmarish with hellish garbage fires and glowing street lamps. Cundey would later work with director Roger Zemeckis on WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT? (1988) and Steven Spielberg's JURASSIC PARK (1993).
We all knew Kurt Russell the kid actor from countless Disney films like THE COMPUTER WORE TENNIS SHOES (1969) or THE STRONGEST MAN IN THE WORLD (1976) but ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK changed Russell's career forever. Russell was now an adult actor. Russell and Carpenter had just worked on the television film ELVIS (1979) co-starring Russell's then wife Season Hubley (who makes a brief appearance in ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK). Russell and Carpenter would team up again for THE THING (1982), BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA (1986), and the Snake Plissken sequel ESCAPE FROM L.A.
Like many actor/director relationships, Russell would serve as Carpenter's alter ego. Russell plays Snake Plissken as Clint Eastwood Lite with an eye patch and a low, rasping voice. Snake is cool, never showing much excitement or fear whether running from the cannibalistic Crazies or battling a Fu Manchu moustached gladiator. Screenwriters Carpenter and Castle work in a funny tag line for several characters when they first come across Snake. "I thought you were dead." ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK would establish Russell has a movie star and lead to roles with acclaimed directors like Mike Nichols in SILKWOOD (1983) and Robert Towne in TEQUILA SUNRISE (1988) co-starring MAD MAX star Mel Gibson.
Like most great films, the supporting cast plays a strong role in ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK'S appeal. Carpenter's casting choices are eclectic and spot on. Spaghetti western star Lee Van Cleef (often a bad guy in Sergio Leone westerns like THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY) as U.S. Police Commissioner Bob Hauk is inspired casting. Hauk's cool tough persona is a nice counterpoint to Plissken's laconic anti-hero and the scenes between Van Cleef and Russell are some of the best in the movie. Another great choice is Isaac Hayes as the Duke of New York. Hayes is most famous for writing and singing the theme song to SHAFT (1971) but later added acting to his repertoire (TV's SOUTH PARK). With his deep voice and confident swagger, Hayes is commanding as the leader of the city prison, both charismatic and brutal. Harry Dean Stanton has the comic role as Brain, one of the smarter convicts inside New York. But Brain's world is turned upside down when Snake arrives. They have a past. Brain left Snake holding the bag on a robbery. "God, I hate that guy," Brain moans to Maggie as Snake pushes them around.
Besides Van Cleef, Carpenter goes old school with legends Ernest Borgnine (THE DIRTY DOZEN, THE WILD BUNCH) as Cabbie, Plissken's guide for getting around New York and Donald Pleasence (THE GREAT ESCAPE) as the unsympathetic President who's downed plane spurs the plot of the film. Pleasence worked with Carpenter in HALLOWEEN. Besides Pleasence, Carpenter would utilize his repertoire of actors he worked with in the past including Tom Atkins (THE FOG) as Hauk's subordinate Rehme; Carpenter's then wife Adrienne Barbeau (THE FOG) as Brain's tough girlfriend Maggie; Charles Cyphers (ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13, HALLOWEEN) as the Secretary of State, and Frank Doubleday (ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13) who steals all his scenes as the Duke's ghoulish henchman Romero.
Carpenter had some fun with his casting and character names in ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK. One of the Secret Service agents protecting the President on Air Force One early in the film is Steven Ford, son of former real life U.S. President Gerald Ford. Talk about art imitating life. Steven is the blonde agent with dark sunglasses. Carpenter makes a nice gesture to his fellow horror film director peers by giving a couple of minor characters their last names. The Duke's creepy henchman Romero played by Frank Doubleday is a nod to DAWN OF THE DEAD director George Romero. The lab technician who injects the tiny bombs in Snake's neck is named Cronenberg (John Strobel) after former medical student turned director David Cronenberg (THE BROOD).
As he did in HALLOWEEN and THE FOG, Carpenter in collaboration with Alan Howarth composed the music for ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK. It's a simple soundtrack, synthesizer based but Carpenter and Howarth find catchy hooks and brooding beats that are compelling. I've been humming the ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK theme song all this month. So imagine my surprise when I started to watch the Snake Plissken sequel ESCAPE FROM L.A. and the film opens with a more souped up version of the theme song courtesy of Carpenter and Shirley Walker. It's a hint that the sequel had a bigger budget than the original. But does that mean ESCAPE FROM L.A. will be better than ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK?
I loved ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK and the Snake Plissken character so much that even I'm surprised I've never watched ESCAPE FROM L.A. until now. But there was one factor that turned me off from watching it many years ago. I saw a film clip where Snake and Pipeline (Peter Fonda) a hippie surfer are riding a tsunami wave down the middle of Los Angeles. It just looked fake to me. Right then, I decided to not watch ESCAPE FROM L.A. But recently I caught another scene on television where Snake is led into the Los Angeles Coliseum to do battle. I didn't see the rest of the scene but the production design drew me back into contemplating watching it. What's funny is now that I've watched ESCAPE FROM L.A., the surfing scene is better than I thought and the Coliseum scene does not live up to its early potential.
ESCAPE FROM L.A. came out 15 years after ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK. Due to NEW YORK'S success and popularity and the rise of Kurt Russell's career, ESCAPE FROM L.A. looks slicker and flashier than the original with a budget roughly ten times larger than NEW YORK'S. Russell loved the character so much that he not only stars in ESCAPE FROM L.A. but he produced the film with Debra Hill (Carpenter's producing partner) and co-wrote the screenplay with Carpenter and Hill. The knock on ESCAPE FROM L.A. is that it's too similar to ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK. Let's see if that criticism is true or even valid as most sequels try to ride on the success of the original.
Like ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK, ESCAPE FROM L.A. is set about 16 years in the future from the film's release, in this case 2013. A new conservative, moralist President (Cliff Robertson) leads the United States now. He wages a war on the morally corrupt that inhabit the country. After a 9.6 earthquake strikes Los Angeles, causing it to break off into the Pacific, the President deports all undesirables to the island of Los Angeles. But the President's daughter Utopia (A.J. Langer) steals a doomsday device from the Pentagon and hijacks Air Force Three. She jettison from the plane in an escape pod to the island to join her revolutionary boyfriend Cuervo Jones (George Corraface), a Shining Path terrorist bent on revenge against the President for his exile. It just so happens that the most notorious outlaw in U.S. history, former war hero now America's Most Wanted, Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell) is about to be sent to Los Angeles Island. That is until U.S Police Force Commander Malloy (Stacy Keach) and the President make Snake a deal. Bring back the doomsday device and he'll be pardoned for the 27 moral crimes he's committed. Sound familiar?
Malloy's partner Brazen (Michelle Forbes) has scratched Snake as he was brought into the deportation center with Plutoxin 7, another deadly virus that can be neutralized once Snake brings back the doomsday box. Snake is outfitted with guns, a mouth dart, a hologram device, and a Bond-like one man submarine to infiltrate L.A. island. Instead of twenty four hours in NEW YORK, Plissken has ten hours to complete the mission. Snake makes landfall only to lose his submarine immediately to an aftershock. He comes across a group of armed surfers led by Pipeline (Peter Fonda) who points him toward Hollywood where Snake hopes to find one of Malloy's contacts. Snake finds Hollywood overrun with hookers and the contact dead. Snake encounters Map to the Stars Eddie (Steve Buscemi) who knows where everyone lives on this penal colony. Eddie tells Snake to go to Beverly Hills to find Cuervo.
As Snake's quest for Cuervo continues, he receives assistance from a mysterious woman named Taslima (Valeria Golino)), exiled to the island for her Muslim faith. She promises to help him find Cuervo. But they are ambushed by robed assailants (shades of THE OMEGA MAN) and taken to the Beverly Hills Hotel. The glitzy hotel has now become a haven for plastic surgery rejects. The hideous Surgeon General of Beverly Hills (Bruce Campbell) operates here and prepares to slice up Snake's perfect skin for a future surgery before Snake neutralizes him with a mouth dart. Snake escapes and gets picked up by Maps to the Stars Eddie who proceeds to drug Snake with his Fun Gun and takes him to Cuervo. Semi-conscious, Snake listens as Cuervo explains that the doomsday box can control the U.S. satellite system known as the Sword of Damocles. Cuervo plans on rendering all electronic devices and power grids useless with it.
Snake is taken to the Los Angeles Coliseum. Instead of battling a bloodthirsty gladiator, Snake's forced to play basketball and make several baskets within a short time frame or be shot. Snake beats their deadly game. He escapes and grabs the black box only to lose it in the sewers back to Utopia. Cuervo and company head to Orange County to a Disneyland like park called Happy Kingdom by the Sea to begin preparations to return to the mainland via helicopter. Snake's rescued from a tsunami by Pipeline. Snake runs into Eddie again. Eddie takes Snake to the Queen Mary in Long Beach where Snake reconnects with a former criminal associate Hershe Las Palmas (Pam Grier), a transgender woman Snake knew previously as Carjack Malone. Using hang gliders, Snake, Hershe, and her Vietnamese gang the Saigon Shadows take off from the Hollywood sign and begin their assault to stop Cuervo, grab the doomsday device, and get off Los Angeles Island before the Plutoxin 7 kills Snake.
So the answer to my earlier question is ESCAPE FROM L.A. too similar to it predecessor ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK? The answer is yes and no. ESCAPE FROM L.A. does follow much of ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK'S plot structure incorporating similar character archetypes. But ESCAPE FROM L.A. is a more complex, bigger version of ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK. Carpenter and company paint on a bigger canvas and larger budget with their ideas. The film's locale is switched from the east coast to the west coast. Once again, Snake Plissken is about to be incarcerated when he's yanked back to save the world. In NEW YORK, he goes in to rescue the President. In L.A. it's the President's daughter Utopia but her father the President wants what Utopia took more than his daughter returned. Snake deals with another police authority in Stacy Keach. Lee Van Cleef's Bob Hauk in NEW YORK was a much more interesting antagonist for Snake than Keach's Malloy. In NEW YORK, Snake entered New York City via glider. In L.A. it's a one man mini-submarine that helps him reach the Los Angeles Island. In NEW YORK, Ernest Borgnine's Cabbie was Snake's tour guide for getting around Manhattan. Steve Buscemi as Maps to the Stars Eddie is the perfect escort with his virtual maps for showing Snake around L.A. But Eddie is much more mercenary than Cabbie as he plays both sides for his own welfare.
The biggest disappointment in ESCAPE FROM L.A.'s following its predecessors plot structure is the Los Angeles Coliseum scene. Obviously, Carpenter didn't want to copy the sequence exactly. In NEW YORK, it made total sense to throw the famous Snake Plissken into a ring to face a gargantuan opponent for the inmates pleasure. ESCAPE FROM L.A.'S Coliseum scene hints at a similar confrontation but the basketball gauntlet course instead is just plain wacky. Which leads to ESCAPE FROM L.A'S final analysis. Much like my issue with Carpenter's BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA, ESCAPE FROM L.A. suffers from too much campiness. There are many believable moments in ESCAPE FROM L.A. but there are too many unbelievable, silly sequences. I can suspend disbelief for Snake and Pipeline on surfboards riding a tsunami wave down Cahuenga Pass but then to leap from a surfboard onto Eddie's Cadillac strains the realms of physics.
But Carpenter, Russell, and Hill do make some interesting social/political commentary in ESCAPE FROM L.A. within the confines of the science fiction genre. Mainland California is the deportation site for those deemed by Cliff Robertson's Christian Conservative President as "unfit or immoral." It's not just criminals that get sent to Los Angeles Island but immigrants, atheists, and anyone the government considers "undesirable." There's even Directive 17 -- if a person loses their citizenship, they're sent to the Island. ESCAPE FROM L.A. seems prophetic in today's America with its views of immigration and detention centers. Ironically, rewatching ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK, I had a cold shudder when the terrorists crash the plane into New York City. A POV shot shows the New York skyline with the Twin Towers to the left. The plane stays right, crashing into a non-descript building. Carpenter never intended that moment to be anything more than fantasy but twenty years later, 9/11 would turn it into a tragic reality.
As in the original film, the President is not likable in ESCAPE FROM L.A. In fact, he's worse. He's like a televangelist, predicting an earthquake (fairly common in southern California) and condemning his enemies as immoral. He uses his lucky prediction to call himself divine and change the rules of the Constitution. The President accepts a lifetime term in office. The President even orders Snake to kill his brain washed daughter. He just wants the doomsday weapon returned so he can misuse it for his benefit. In both films, Snake Plissken risks his life for dishonorable, corrupt leaders. But Snake has the final laugh, choosing to put the world in jeopardy for messing with the wrong dude and not honoring their original deal. Cliff Robertson is menacing as the morally righteous President.
Carpenter has fun with all of southern California's iconic locations and iconic natural phenomenas like earthquakes, acid rain, and the Santa Ana winds. When Snake's submarine weaves underwater to Los Angeles Island, he follows a sunken freeway, passing Universal Studios. A great white shark lunges at the submarine, Carpenter's wink to Spielberg's JAWS. Sunset and Hollywood Boulevard are represented by hookers and johns as far as Snake's one good eye can see. Landmarks like the Beverly Hills Hotel, the Hollywood sign, and the L.A. Coliseum are utilized. Unable to use Disneyland for obvious trademark issues, Snake battles Cuervo at a remarkably similar looking amusement park called Happy Kingdom by the Sea. Maps to the Stars homes peddlers, plastic surgeons, and surfers which all thrive in Hollywood show up in ESCAPE FROM L.A. Production designer Lawrence G. Paull who created the neo-noir futuristic world for BLADE RUNNER supplies the nightmarish glitz of a post-apocalyptic, earthquake ravaged City of Angels.
The casting for ESCAPE FROM L.A. is as eclectic as ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK with Carpenter reaching back into the 1970s for a couple of supporting roles. Steve Buscemi was hot after hitting it big in Quentin Tarantino's RESERVOIR DOGS (1992). Buscemi often plays annoying characters (see the Coen Brothers FARGO) but his Maps to the Stars Eddie in L.A. is personable and friendly, if one could just trust the two faced swindler. B-movie star Bruce Campbell (EVIL DEAD) has a quick turn as the gruesome Surgeon General of Beverly Hills. Italian actress Valeria Golino who was the darling of the 90s in American films like Barry Levinson's RAIN MAN (1988) and Jim Abraham's HOT SHOTS (1991) also has a quick appearance as a brief love interest/guide for Snake. But love interests never last long in Snake Plissken films. Golino's career slowed down in the U.S. and has returned to Italy where she makes most of her movies now.
Peter Fonda as the hippie surfer Pipeline is an inspired piece of casting. Fonda was a 70s anti-hero in films like Dennis Hopper's EASY RIDER (1969) and John Hough's DIRTY MARY, CRAZY LARRY (1974). Fonda had gone AWOL from the silver screen when Carpenter reminded audiences about him in ESCAPE FROM L.A. Fonda's career would bounce back and he would bee much more often in films like Steven Soderbergh's THE LIMEY (1999) with Terrence Stamp. Pam Grier as Hershe Las Palmas is the other 70s icon that Carpenter reminds us about. Grier was the Queen of blaxploitation films like COFFY (1973) and FOXY BROWN (1974) playing tough, strong black women. Quentin Tarantino gets the credit for resurrecting Grier for his film JACKIE BROWN (1997) but Carpenter beat him to it a year earlier in ESCAPE FROM L.A.. Grier's Hershe is a daring role for 1996 playing a transgender criminal. The filmmakers even alter her voice, making Grier sound more masculine.
Both ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK and ESCAPE FROM L.A. have endings that are not exactly upbeat but fit perfectly with the anti-authority feeling that Snake Plissken and to a larger degree director John Carpenter represent. I won't spoil the endings as you need to see both films for yourself. But the final music selections - one on a cassette tape for NEW YORK and one on an interactive disc for L.A. are sublime. ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK ends with the theme song to American Bandstand. And how could ESCAPE FROM L.A. not be complete without Randy Newman's I Love LA. Both are upbeat songs but are utilized in a more subversive way in landscapes that are anything but idyllic.
1981 provided me with three of my favorite movie characters. Indiana Jones, Mad Max, and Snake Plissken. Different in every way but strong characters that yearned for sequels and future exploits. The sequel to ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK should have followed one of Snake Plissken's heists gone wrong, uncovering a larger government conspiracy or a prequel following Snake's military missions in Leningrad or Siberia. But I'm sure the urge to have Snake go to another American city in the future was too hard to resist. ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK is perfect, a small movie that looks larger than it is, with engaging characters, a kick ass plot, and a smart aleck sense of humor. ESCAPE FROM L.A. tries to capture the magic of the first film but with a bigger budget and more complicated, loftier plot. ESCAPE FROM L.A. doesn't live up to its predecessor but I would still take two Snake Plissken films over one.
