 |
The Snake Plissken Chronicles
"Burning Down the House"
Escape from New York #16
BOOM Studios
Writer: Christopher Sebela
Artist: Maxim Šimić
Colorist: Marissa Louise
Letterer: Ed Dukeshire
Cover A: Jason Copland
April 2016 |
Snake's ultimate showdown in Cleveland!
Story Summary
The mayor of Cleveland is sent in to
negotiate with Snake over the fate of the historic documents
from the National Archives. Snake takes the mayor hostage and
uses his official armored SUV to make a getaway, wanting go out
as a soldier in a blaze of glory. The USPF pursues but is afraid
to damage or destroy the historic documents in his possession.
Snake makes the decision for them, by lighting the documents on
fire and tossing them into the polluted and flammable Cuyahoga
River, where they go up in a burst of flame.
In the confusion, Snake makes a getaway in
a stolen police vehicle, returning to his house, to find it
already surrounded by police. He uses his detonator to set off
the explosive charges he planted inside the house earlier (in
"Get the Hell Off My Lawn").
When Sadie shows up on schedule, Snake gives her his dog and the
location of a lockbox that contains his stash of cash. She will
use it to continue the fight to push the feds out of Cleveland.
Snake then disappears for a while, but
turns up as an arena gunfighter in New Vegas, where he lures the
USPF into what is probably a trap.
THE END
Didja Know?
The issues of this series do not have published individual
titles assigned to them. I assigned the title
"Burning Down the House" as a play on Snake's use of
fire in this issue.
Characters appearing in this
issue
Snake Plissken
Veregge
U.S. President
(mentioned only)
Jeff
Sadie
Ella (mentioned only)
Mayor of Cleveland (unnamed)
Governor of Ohio (unnamed, mentioned only)
Fresno (dog)
Dirtbag Duggan
Rocky "Buckshot" Murphy
Didja Notice?
The cover of this issue depicts Snake standing in front of a
police lineup board, looking to be about 70" tall, about
5'10". Those who've met actor Kurt Russell say he is
probably between 5'8" and 5'9". In Escape from L.A.,
the recurring gag dialog that is said by people who meet
Snake is "I thought you'd be taller."
On pages 12-13, Snake lights the Bill of Rights on fire and
tosses the pages into the Cuyahoga River, which causes a
huge burst of flame. As discussed in the study of
"The Cleveland
Revolution", the river has been
known as "the river that caught fire," which has happened 13
known times in history due to the level of pollution in the
water (though the last time it happened, as far as I can
determine, was 1969; the pollution levels have improved
since then).
On page 16, Snake blows up his house, using his remote
detonator to set off the charges he placed inside in
"Get the Hell Off My Lawn".
On page 19, Snake gives his dog, Fresno, to Sadie.
Page 20 provides a glimpse of the city of New Vegas.
Escape from L.A.
reveals New Vegas to be located in Thailand, but the city
seen here seems to be a virtual duplicate of Las Vegas,
Nevada; the view of the street in panel 2 appears to be Las Vegas Blvd. looking
north, with
Planet Hollywood Center and
Paris hotel and casino visible on the right and the
Cosmopolitan resort and casino on the left.
On page 22, the referee announces
Rocky "Buckshot" Murphy, saying he is a 3-time Reno
gun fighting champion.
Reno is a
city in the northern portion of Nevada, also known for
casino gambling.
Page 22 reveals that Snake has been spending his time since the
Cleveland Revolution as an arena gunfighter in New Vegas,
wearing a mask and calling himself the Shape. Here, at the
very end of the story, he goes into the arena without the
mask and going by Snake Plissken, seemingly to lure the USPF
to another slaughter.
Back to
Snake Plissken Chronicles Episode Studies
