MovieChat Forums > Escape from New York (1981) Discussion > Awesome movie, but Carpenter is borderli...

Awesome movie, but Carpenter is borderline paranoid

posted 11 years ago by Kuato_and_George
63 replies | jump to latest

At the end of the movie Snake gives them the wrong tape and tears up the right one.

It's an amusing way to end the movie, but really doesn't serve much of a purpose and makes Snake look like an a-hole. Carpenter is so paranoid and anti-government, he has to have his characters lash out just for the sake of it. I get that Snake doesn't like the government and that's fine, but doing something that prevents the end of a World War makes very little sense. Snake gains nothing from it and is actually hurting innocents he claims the government is screwing over.

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[–] megafauna005 11 years ago

I think that was Snake's way of getting back at Haulk and the system that imprisoned him.

[–] Kuato_and_George 11 years ago

Obviously, but he's the one who put himself in that situation. He's the criminal. Not to mention World War III is a little bigger than him.

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[–] 11 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Kuato_and_George 11 years ago

No, I don't work for the government - never have as a matter of fact - and it would appear that you too are quite paranoid.

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[–] megafauna005 11 years ago

There will NEVER be an island prison like in EFNY where inmates can drive cars and live in abandoned buildings. The human rights violations alone would be horrific.

[–] Kuato_and_George 11 years ago

While I agree there will never be a prison where we essentially put the baddides away and throw away the key, f-ck their human rights. There's some people who don't deserve that consideration.

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[–] mv5 10 years ago

There has been and still is, where have you been? Not in history class im guessing.

[–] YankeeDood 10 years ago

So politicians and CEO's are never baddies, eh?
America never does anything wrong, no siree! Obama is a wonderful President too.

Again, how long have you been an elitist scumbag?

[–] rlbatesiii 10 years ago

They gave up their rights when they committed their crimes and hurt innocents...

[–] cyguration (3879) 2 years ago

Ahahahaha.... the CHAZ and CHOP zones say "Hi!"

[–] TheBloodyNine 11 years ago

You're reading too much into it. It suit the character: Plisken IS an a-hole.

[–] Kuato_and_George 11 years ago

It makes no sense, that's the point. If Snake does something that could make matters worse, he could die as a result of the massive war going on. He's not helping anyone, including himself.

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[–] YankeeDood 10 years ago

No, the President is an a-hole, not Plissken.

[–] RonDirect73 11 years ago

Amen, BloodyNine. The world we built is based on screwing people over - young against old, rich vs. poor, powerful vs. weak. Snake is the individual screwing the collective whole. He is an A-Hole, but he's the greatest A-Hole in movie history. (last part my opinion of course :-) )

[–] 11 years ago

[deleted]

[–] thedarklantern 11 years ago

Don't forget what Snake does at the end of EFLA. I can't condone his actions, but at the same time, the way I see it, the powers that be/the USPF had a choice not to p!ss him off, and they made that mistake. "Didn't know who they were messing with" to paraphrase another well-known anti-hero.

"Snake Plissken- the greatest a-hole in movie history". I love it. I think one of the appeals of the anti-hero is that they get to act like the a-hole we all want to be sometimes, they get to say or do the things we all want to do in certain situations but things like social mores prevent us from doing, but at the same time, most of them still have some degree of honour or loyalty to some extent.

Back to the OP's original point, I found the ending kinda cathartic in a way, I'd draw an analogy with a disgruntled employee getting back at his employers any way he can. I can see how some people don't like Snake's actions, but I suppose it depends if you can identify with his pov to some extent. The novelization goes into a lot of detail about how the Government screwed him over and his family died, so he's not just some anarchist but a guy who felt betrayed by his own government.

[–] DrDanielChallis 11 years ago

Snake was a representation of that time period's "Average Joe/Jane" (late 70s to early 80s recession era) - coming off a senseless war that no average person wanted, corrupt government, inflated prices, breakdown of infrastructure, increase in crime (anyone remember what cities REALLY used to be like in the late 70s/early 80s - geesh!) - the whole point was that the president was getting on TV and was going to sell out America and didn't give one *beep* about the average American. In many ways - it was very telling of the widening gap that is happening and will continue to happen. The U.S. for all intents and purposes lost World War 3 and the deal was basically keeping the Reds at bay and making what was left of the so called "US of A" a slave state.

Tape or no tape - made no difference. Snake spilled his and others blood for the sake of helping the corrupt.

One does not simply keep clear of the moors . . .

[–] YankeeDood 10 years ago

It's about a dead America, where only the rich and powerful have rights and everyone else is a "criminal". So I believe even though Snake was a bit selfish, he cared more about the NYC prisoners than the wicked government did.

The President was the vilest one. Way more selfish than Snake who pulled that "maneuver" at the end in honor of those who died helping him.

I think Snake is awesome.

[–] moviechatterer (13465) 2 years ago

what he does at the end of EFLA isnt as bad.
could even be a good thing , especially ecologically speaking
admittedly it'd probly cause thousands of deaths

[–] tenantennae 10 years ago

Right before he destroys the tape, Snake asks the President how he felt about the people who died saving him. The President barely bothers to pretend concerned for them, more interested in looking good for the cameras.

Just a superficial bureaucrat not at all concerned with the blood shed by ordinary people in furthering his interests, and Snake recognized it, which is why he angrily tosses his cigar at the Presidents feet. This is also why he destroys the tape.

Snake was told the tape was vital for humanity, for reasons too complex for him to understand. Yeah right. Most likely it was just vital for furthering the interests of the power structure and maintaining the status quo.

The same ones who turned the country into a corrupt police state where NYC is a prison. The same ones who told him they were injecting him with immunizations for his own good, when it was really something to kill him.

Snake knew better and destroyed the tape. His way of saying to hell with their goals.

[–] Strangerhand 10 years ago

Snake knew better and destroyed the tape. His way of saying to hell with their goals.

I just saw this great movie yet again for the first time in quite a few years.

When "Snake" Plissken received the cassette just after he, the President, Maggie and "Brain" piled into "Cabbie"'s cab, he played only a mere two or three seconds of it on "Cabbie"'s portable cassette-player affixed to the taxi's dashboard. The snippet of speech in the President's voice mentioned something that sounded like some form of bio-chemical warfare; it didn't sound good, no, even ominously bad.

Seems to me that maybe Plissken (who at the end after all that was no longer "Snake") was doing the right thing anyway by destroying that tape. I also thought that it was a bit nice that the President, making his Internationally-broadcasted address, stating that all should listen for the sake of World Peace...and then Swing music plays from another tape that he thought was his. Hehe I thought that was as good a message as any about that, I guess hehehehe

[–] tenantennae 10 years ago

I've rewatched the movie since I made that post, and decided the ending is more ambiguous.

All we know is that the tape is supposed to presented at a summit, apparently in a bid for peace with the USSR and China.

We can speculate what's on the tape, but we don't really know and neither does Snake. But he destroys it anyway. What's going through his mind at that moment is debatable, but to me it seems like revenge and a FTW gesture more than anything else.

[–] Strangerhand 9 years ago

seems like revenge and a FTW gesture more than anything else.

"FTW"? For The Win? ??? Why would someone who wants revenge give them a For The Win gesture? 

--
StrangerHand: Now 100% afro-free, oh yes! 

[–] tenantennae 9 years ago

http://www.quickmeme.com/img/56/56d84f8487be6903f25e10c62b659762a72a1c c33092b49b50c7a455df306b8e.jpg

[–] Strangerhand 9 years ago

Oh.

Those abbreviations are dumb! How can the reader tell them apart? ???

--
StrangerHand: Now 100% afro-free, oh yes! 

[–] acidraindrop (3055) 3 years ago

7 years too late but ftw never meant fuck the world.

[–] AnubisRaydeen (7897) 3 years ago

Wrong. Learn to punk rock 1980s. It only meant fuck the world for nearly a decade. The new meanings overtook it and erased it though.

[–] acidraindrop (3055) 3 years ago

Okay.

[–] wulfthar 9 years ago

In the novelisation it is written that in the cassette there's the explanation of how a sort of super nuclear device the US Army has developed works and the President wants to use it at the meeting to scare the Soviets and the Chinese.

Juliet Parrish: You can't win a war if you're extinct!

[–] Pharaoh-in-de-Nile 9 years ago

The tape obviously explains a weapon. The part we here is about "Cold Fusion" which could mean an energy source for mundane things but I always thought it seemed to be a weapon to scare the Soviets into surrender and thus preserve order. It seems that according to the novel I was right.

[–] xanxei 10 years ago

This movie doesn't spell anything out, you're supposed to read between the lines, and be aware that just because a character says something that doesn't make it true. Like that that tape would really prevent something awful.

We're given to understand that Plissken used to be a big damn hero, and indirectly asked to imagine what might have driven him to his current state. We know that there are American-born freedom fighters slash terrorists (take your pick) willing to die to overthrow the government, and we know what kind of prison system this government maintains. That's enough to indicate that we shouldn't automatically side with the authorities.

On a side note, did you know that 1% of the American population is in prison in real life? A whole percent. That's more than anywhere else in the world. And did you know that prisoners work nearly for free? And that the prison system is privatized? And making a profit?

Just saying.

[–] Lothar_Quint 10 years ago

The op is paranoid.