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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[–] YankeeDood 10 years ago

So how long have you been an elitist?

[–] 10 years ago

[deleted]

[–] ghostly_host 9 years ago

Snake is an anti-hero out for nobody else but himself (just like Clint Eastwood as the man with no name). There was a scene cut from the film where he robs a bank. "It's the survival of the human race, Plissken...something you don't give a sh*t about" says Lee Van Cleef's character which pretty much sums up Snake and his actions at the end of the film. Snake didn't care if he screwed over the world as long as he was screwing over the government and military first and foremost. I don't think Carpenter was paranoid; I think he was dead serious and spot-on. Just look at the world these days. He had it even better in They Live. These films aren't about paranoia. They're just about resentment of authority and control and lies which is something very personal to Carpenter.

[–] 9 years ago

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[–] carpener-606-111297 9 years ago

This thread makes no sense. Made by someone who´s obviously not a JC true fan. The ending is the best scene in the whole movie. That´s what John Carpenter, Snake Plissken and Escape From New York are all about.

[–] moviechatterer (13284) 4 years ago

I can see the OPs point, Snake is basically shitting on his own shoes , if what he's doing is going to start ww3

[–] wulfthar 9 years ago

The Snake doesn't care about the war...or the innocents.

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

[–] jefgg 9 years ago

John Carpenter also directed "They Live". That movie was really paranoid.

[–] Saliva Soup 9 years ago

Snake doesn't give a *beep* about society... that's why he is such a great character. He is a man on his own island.

[–] glaeken777 8 years ago

Snake Plissken is only concerned with his own survival. Simple as that.

[–] GorchBrother 8 years ago

I think you're taking it a bit too seriously.

It's a cool nihilistic way for Plissken to end the movie.

Also, it is only a presentation that's on the tape. One which makes it look like the president is the saviour of humanity. It isn't the saviour of humanity itself in that one cassette. So it gives Snake a nice way to stick it to the Pres who was clearly not worth saving,

"Who can't use the Force now?! I can still use the Force!" - Yarael Poof

[–] fountainhead (318) 4 years ago

Initially, I though the same thing, especially given that Snake destroys a tape that was meant to bring technological advancement and peace between nations. But I don't think it was meant to be that black and white that Snake = good guy and the president = bad guy. In the end, I read it more as it's a shitty world, filled with shitty people of all kinds. Snake and the president are both assholes in their own way. Snake is just an asshole with balls, which is what the audience is supposed to like.