Is That Snake Plissken?

Here’s another item from the ZONE vault… at first glance it appears to be a publicity shot of Kurt Russell as Snake Plissken from John Carpenter’s “Escape from New York.” But it’s not… not really.   The photo is actually a pre-production still meant to help nail the look for Snake Plissken.

Look closer and you’ll see that Kurt has a snake tat on his arm — in the movie he had a huge snake tat on his stomach.  Also Kurt’s arm isn’t as big as it was in the movie — he hadn’t yet pumped up for the role.  Even though this photo of Snake isn’t quite the Plissken of the movie — it shows that Carpenter had a handle on the character’s look from early on.