Escape from L.A.
An Original Screenplay by Coleman Luck – December 7th, 1987
Based on characters from Escape from New York by John Carpenter
Before the 1996 cult sequel, there was this: a darkly satirical, apocalyptic prequel written in 1987 by Coleman Luck (The Equalizer, Gabriel’s Fire). Hired personally by John Carpenter while Coleman was writing for The Equalizer, Coleman accepted the job because he was a big fan of Escape from New York. Shortly after turning it in, De Laurentis Entertainment Group filed for bankruptcy.
Set two years before the events of Escape from New York, this unproduced screenplay reimagines Snake Plissken’s descent into dystopia as a high-concept survival odyssey—unhinged, brutal, and bitingly strange.
In Luck’s vision, Los Angeles has already fallen. A genetically engineered virus, released to combat fruit flies, mutates into a plague of cerebral insanity. Three weeks later, a magnitude 9.1 earthquake finishes the job. The city is now a sealed island, a hellish prison-asylum for the violently insane. Into this madness walks Snake—captured in a decaying Las Vegas and coerced into one last mission.
Dropped by helicopter into the heart of ruined L.A., Snake has 48 hours to navigate a grotesque wasteland of weaponized parade floats, cannibalistic mutants, AI-run sex booths, and a culture that’s collapsed into game shows and firebomb carnivals. His destination: Rodent Park, a warped stand-in for Disneyland, where he’s promised a single wish if he survives. But the deeper he goes, the more Snake realizes the game isn’t just about survival—it’s about betrayal, memory, and the machinery of power that never stopped controlling him.
Brimming with surreal imagery and prophetic absurdism, this version of Escape from L.A. plays like a collision between Road Warrior, Brazil, and Videodrome, all filtered through Luck’s uniquely spiritual and subversive lens. Though never filmed, it remains a wild and unforgettable alternate path in the Snake Plissken saga—a prequel that dared to be weirder, funnier, and more horrifying than anyone expected.
In 2007 Coleman sold his only copy of the Escape From L.A. Screenplay to “RaulMonkey” in an auction. Mr. Monkey detailed his reading of the script on the Aintitcool News website. Coleman was gifted this photostatic .pdf of the script in 2024 by Andreas Johansson at the same time he was given a copy of Mr. Johansson’s book below.
For the full behind-the-scenes story of Escape From L.A. check out Escape Artists Vol. 2: Escape From L.A. Interviews by Andreas Johansson which includes the full interview with Coleman (excerpted below).
How did you get the job of writer for an Escape From L.A. script in 1987?
The story behind the script is pretty simple. At the time, I was a writer/producer
at Universal working on The Equalizer for CBS. I think Carpenter made contact
with me through my agency. This was a long time ago. I don’t know why he chose
me, except that I was known for hard-edged fantasy material. We met at a local
restaurant in the San Fernando Valley and talked briefly. He gave me no thoughts
about the script at all. There was only one thing that he insisted on: the script
had to be a prequel. That was it. I don’t know why he made that choice. As far as
Carpenter and Russell are concerned, I never had a single conversation about the
script with them after it was turned in. What I wrote never got beyond first draft
because the day I turned it in, the DeLaurentis Studio went bankrupt. The project
became part of the bankruptcy, but I did get paid, which was a miracle. As you
know, it stayed in limbo for years and years. When Carpenter finally got it back, it
didn’t surprise me at all that he tossed my version. I doubt that he even read it again.
Truth is, I expected my version to be tossed when I first turned it in.
Thorncrown Studios 