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Desolation - Combination of Napoleon + Snake?

posted 17 years ago by lord_byron101
14 replies | jump to latest

Just wondering if anybody else thought that Desolation Williams was a sort-of combination of Napoleon Wilson (Assault on Precinct 13) and Snake Plissken (Esape from New York/LA)? On my first viewing, I thought he was more like Snake - right down to the sleveless black shirt and cammo-pants. He's got the bad-ass/anti-hero attitude; the "I don't give a $hit about anybody but me" attitude. But then a buddy of mine said he's also like Napoleon Wilson. I thought about it and agreed - especially in that he's like Napoleon in that he's just one of many people stuck in a life or death situation. What does anybody else think. I'm just wondering if I'm the only person that saw that character comparison. Plus, they all have kick-ass names.

[–] Spifflock_Holmes 17 years ago

I'm just wondering if I'm the only person that saw that character comparison.

No, you're far from alone. In fact the relationship between Desolation Williams and Melanie Ballard is one of the reasons some people criticize GOM as essentially a remake of AOP13 on Mars: it's so much like the relationship between Napoleon Wilson and Ethan Bishop, the death-row inmate and the law-enforcement official who have to learn to work together to survive a siege.

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The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.

[–] lord_byron101 17 years ago

Nice to not be lonely in my thoughts :) I guess I still see Desolation being more like Snake in attitude and more like Napoleon in action. But that's just me. I can definetely see how people would think GOM is AOP13 on Mars, but then you could almost say there's elements of most of his movies in GOM. There's parts of "They Live" in there, and "Vampires" there might even be "Starman"(haha!!!). I love GOM - not as much as AOP13 or EFNY, but still love it.

[–] Spifflock_Holmes 17 years ago

Same here, and I agree with you that Desolation has elements of Snake as well.

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The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.

[–] BigRich 17 years ago

I agree with both of you. I had just made a post on the Escape from LA board saying something about this and then I came over here to see if anyone else had the same thoughts. Cool. On that board, someone said that Doomsday was the "unofficial" sequel to the Escape From movies. I'm like, "Uh, no.." Doomsday has no ties whatsoever to the Escape movies. I said that GOM would be more of a sequel than that movie. GOM even had a character that had the same attitude, dress and all that of the Escape Movies.

Too bad J. Carpenter ran out of good ideas.

_
Every person that served can be called a veteran, but not every veteran can be called a Marine.

[–] Spifflock_Holmes 17 years ago

I think you're right that GOM works as a quasi-sequel to the EFNY and EFLA. In fact, on one of the Escape boards, somebody has proposed a third sequel that would involve Snake escaping to Mars and some other events that would set up the GOM world. If such a film were ever made (or if the same story were told in some other medium), GOM could retroactively become an actual EFNY sequel.

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The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.

[–] BigRich 17 years ago

I'm not sure that would work, Snake escaping to Mars . At the end of EFLA, he EMP'd the entire planet and put them back into the dark ages.

But, anythings possible. Look what they did with Escape from the Planet of the Apes. Two chimps recovered a wreck "shuttle" and flew back in time to modern day Earth? LOL. Yeah, right.

_
Every person that served can be called a veteran, but not every veteran can be called a Marine.

[–] Spifflock_Holmes 17 years ago

At the end of EFLA, he EMP'd the entire planet and put them back into the dark ages.

MadSimian (the poster who made the proposal) knows what happened at the end of EFLA. The story is intended to follow on from there: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082340/board/nest/91294240.

It's about as plausible as any sequel would be.

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The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.

[–] misbegotten 17 years ago

I've always liked the idea of a combined 'Escape/Ghosts of Mars' sequel in which it's revealed that Snake was eventually captured in the 2020s and put into cyro-suspension (similar to the prison in 'Demolition Man') and eventually shipped to Mars decades later, when the planet was colonised (all the most dangerous prisoners are kept there, away from Earth, as an extra precautionary measure). Following the events of 'Ghosts of Mars', the Martian ghosts are waging war on the colonists' major cities. With the human armed forces suffering heavy losses, the rulers of Mars take the desperate step of defrosting all the prisoners and sending them to the frontline to fight. Snake would battle alongside Melanie Ballard, the two of them swiftly realising that the war is lost. As the capital city is overrun by the ghosts, Snake and Ballard manage to 'Escape from Mars' (the sequel's title) in the Martian President's personal shuttle, after Snake has climatically fought (and won) against a ghost-possessed Desolation Williams.

[–] Spifflock_Holmes 17 years ago

Heh, this would be worth seeing just for the Snake-vs.-Desolation fight. Duelling camo pants and sleeveless black T-shirts . . .

(By the way, I love it that on Mars, camouflage pants are red. )

Seriously, it does sound as though it would work pretty well as a sequel set after GOM. MadSimian's proposal is set in between EFLA and GOM. Either one would be fine with me.

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The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.

[–] DeuceWild_77 15 years ago

This movie should have been the third entry in the Snake Plissken movies, it was easy w/a simple script change that the character "Desolation" was in fact, Snake Plissken (w/Kurt and ONLY Kurt playing him,course) and the movie will made sense. Can u imagine the chemistry beetween Kurt and Natasha? should have been great... and the movie title John Carpenter's "Escape from Mars", so much better! Snake Plissken deserved a final movie to end a brilliant triology.

[–] koffeenkreame41-1 13 years ago

Desolation Williams reminded me a lot of Snake. He had that badass attitude and everything. After looking at AOP13, I noticed similarities between him & Napolean. Ghosts of Mars was definetely like AOP13 on Mars. I would've loved to have seen Plissken have a cameo where he showed up at the end. That would've been badass to see Plissken & Desolation team up.

"I am the ultimate badass, you do not wanna `*beep*` wit' me!" Hudson in Aliens.

[–] Morson 13 years ago

Just said so in another thread, but seriously, I think if they allowed Carpenter's ORIGINAL choice and let Statham play Desolation, he'd be remembered way differently.

Ice Cube not only fails to sell the character, but drags the movie down every time he speaks.

Seriously, think about the movie with Statham playing his part instead, and you can't tell me every sort-of decent scene with Desolation would play really great, and the weaker ones would still hold up way better than they do otherwise.

[–] antoni109 11 years ago

Desolation was a combination of poo and wee

[–] kismit 11 years ago

Yes a doughy little man. Very lazy casting. Henstridge only replaced Courtney Love by default. Pam Greer was a nice touch though.