Snake Plissken
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S.D. "Snake" Plissken is a fictional character in John Carpenter's films Escape from New York and Escape from L.A., played by Kurt Russell.
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[edit] Character history
Snake Plissken is a former U.S. Army Lieutenant. He was a war hero serving under Special Unit Black Light, with two Purple Hearts, and the youngest soldier to be decorated by the U.S. President for bravery during campaigns in Leningrad and Siberia in World War III against the Communists.
Some time later, he turned to a life of crime, probably due to the perceived betrayal of the United States government during the "Leningrad Ruse". Snake took up with partners Harold Hellman (later known as "Brain") and Fresno Bob. In Kansas City around 1993, Hellman apparently let Plissken and Fresno Bob get cornered by police (when they meet later in Escape from NY, Brain says, "You were late."), at which time Fresno Bob was brutally tortured and killed by fascistic sadists within the United States Police Force, forced to eat his own intestines by a sadistic cyborg operating inside a Gestapo-style death camp called a "mental health corrections facility" in Pennsylvania. This is loosely referred to in Escape from New York when Snake confronts Hellman saying, "You know what 'they' did to Fresno Bob? Do you want me to show you!?!"
Possibly as a result of the Kansas City incident, it was widely believed in the criminal community that Plissken was dead. This is a recurring joke in Escape from New York - "I heard you were dead." In Escape from L.A. the recurring joke is changed to 'I thought you'd be taller.'
[edit] On-screen history
[edit] Escape from New York
Snake was arrested in 1997 after breaking into the U.S. Federal Reserve in Denver, Colorado. Following the heist, the story of his capture was shot, but cut from the beginning of the movie. It can be seen on supplementary materials on the VHS and DVD editions of the film.
He was sentenced to life in New York maximum security prison - the entire island of Manhattan, surrounded by an impenetrable wall and left in an anarchic state. At this time, Air Force One was hijacked and crashed into Manhattan, and the President, played by Donald Pleasance, was captured by the Duke of New York (Isaac Hayes), the de facto leader of the prison. Robert Hauk (Lee Van Cleef) offered Snake a full pardon for every criminal action he'd committed if he would go in and rescue the President within 24 hours. He succeeded, with the help of Harold Hellman (Harry Dean Stanton) (now known as Brain, and working for the Duke of New York), Brain's "squeeze" Maggie (Adrienne Barbeau), and a cab driver nicknamed Cabby (Ernest Borgnine), all of whom died in their escape.
[edit] Escape from L.A.
Sixteen years later, Snake was once again enlisted for a similar situation. This time, he was forced to retrieve a black box which controls a series of EMP style satellites pointed around the world from the prison island of Los Angeles (which had separated from the mainland in an earthquake).
[edit] Escape from Earth
John Carpenter wrote a treatment entitled "Escape From Earth" which sees the anti-hero character, played by Kurt Russell, escaping the planet before immediate armageddon caused by a dark matter experiment gone wrong, creating a plague of vicious nanites that transform the victims into an undead army of "destructive singularities" that can kill by simply touching their victims, creating an undead army of dark matter clones with the constitution of a black hole, able to bond with non-living matter, and possessing an enormous density that gives them super-strength by virtue of their immense weight. This long rumoured third installment in the movie series has been stuck in development hell for years, its current status is unknown.
[edit] Other appearances
- Snake Plissken also appeared in John Carpenter's Snake Plissken Chronicles, a four-part comic book miniseries that was released in 2003.
- In the early-2000s, John Carpenter, Kurt Russell, and Debra Hill developed a proposed Snake Plissken television series that was ultimately turned down by all the major networks for being "too dark and bleak." It's believed the concept of the series was what was used for the Snake Plissken Chronicles comic series.
- Along with the comic book, other Snake Plissken Chronicles projects were announced. A Namco-produced video game was announced[1], but was later cancelled. Production I.G. was also set to create an anime film based on the property, reporteadly based on the Escape From Earth concept John Carpenter and Kurt Russell had conceived, but this also never materialized. Carpenter and Russell would have executive produced, and Russell would have provided the voice and likeness of Snake. [2]
[edit] Trivia
- Hideo Kojima, the creator of the Metal Gear series, has said in an interview that the character designs for Solid Snake and Big Boss were based on Snake Plissken. In the second game Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, the character Snake uses the codename "Iroquois Pliskin" early in the game, as a reference to the character. Incidents in the first half of the game also cause him to be assumed dead by many. In the game, Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, Naked Snake (who eventually assumes the alias Big Boss) has an eye patch just like Plissken but on his right eye.
- The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy features a recurring character, Hoss Delgado, who is a satire of both Snake and Evil Dead's Ash Williams.
- Was the subject of a highly regarded fan site operated by Dan Coffin. Snake-plissken.com was the Number 1 source for Snake news from 1998-2000, but ceased operations after Coffin was unable to afford the rights to keep the domain name. It included images, sounds, fan fiction and information on Snake-related collectibles. No one knows what became of Coffin, but many fans believe he is dead. [citation needed]
