[Carpenter Homage] Escape from Tokyo

[Michael Hopcroft]

2027: Japan's crime rate has risen by 1700%.

 

Unable to hold all those who need to be separated from society, the metropolitan area of Tokyo has been walled shut and turned into the largest Maximum Security Prison in human history.

 

The rules are simple: Once you are in, you don't get out. Ever. Inside the city, there are no guards -- only prisoners and the worlds they have made.

 

It seems the perfect solution -- until a freak terrorist action strands the Prime Minister of Japan within the city, holding in his posession an electronic document that is key to the future survival of the human race.

 

Four notorisous, ultra-violent and iconclastic convicts are offered a choice by the ruthelss warden of Tokyo; if they can locate the Prime Minsiter and get his secret data out of the city, they will get full pardons. If they fail to accomplish this herculean task in 36 hours, the small grenades that were just implanted in the base of their skulls will go off, leading to a quick but messy death by explosive decapitation.

 

One more thing: these four individuals have never worked together before, but have worked against each other from time to time, and all are in various stages of violent psychosis. And it is of no concern to the warden how ,many of the rescue party come back, or in what condition.

 

One more thing -- none of the rescuers have been told how to leave the city, getting past the walls, mfenses and sharshooters which have a 100% success record of stopping escape attempts (almost always fatally) and which are unaware of their mission. And the only equipment, vehicles and weapons they will have is what they can scrounge inside.

 

*****

 

If a japanese studio were to make a Japanized riff om John Carpenter's dystopic masterpiece Escape from New York, what would it look like? Who runs Tokyo?

[OddHat]

Re: [Carpenter Homage] Escape from Tokyo

 

Escape from New York and Escape from LA both sent Snake in with equipment and with a way out once his mission was complete. In your version, the people who sent your characters into Tokyo seem to be pointlessly gimping the PCs.

[yamamura]

Re: [Carpenter Homage] Escape from Tokyo

 

Well first off the size and the cost of such a wall over the whole entire Tokyo area would be outrageous. Just comparing it to the 2 areas (see below) that Carpenter used, we see that Tokyo is roughly 1000 km² bigger then LA and Manhattan is a joke compared even to LA. It would be much better off setting the story on a island that the Japanese has set aside to take prisoners.

 

Tokyo: 2,187.08 km²

Los Angeles: 1,290.6 km²

Manhattan: 61.4 km²

 

Also Demon City Shinjuku is in a way a telling the story of Escape from New York. Yes the the world president isn't physically trapped there but the answer to his illness is and the hero must venture into this walled off area of Shinjuku (a much smaller and thus easier controlled area) to get the bad guy.

 

Ps. used km² because I was too lazy to convert Tokyo's area into square miles.

Pss. Michael I don't think it is a bad idea but needs some scaling back from all of Tokyo and I am serious get the manga Demon City Shinjuku and tell me that the author wasn't inspired by escape from New York.

[Sketchpad]

Re: [Carpenter Homage] Escape from Tokyo

 

If a japanese studio were to make a Japanized riff om John Carpenter's dystopic masterpiece Escape from New York, what would it look like? Who runs Tokyo?

 

I think you'd have some interesting influences within the city, as well as some diverse gangs and, since it'd be from today's eyes, a different view on tech. For example, some of the personalities I could see within the walls would be:

 

The Otaku: Cruel leader of the largest gang within the walls. The Otaku runs the joint like a live-action anime, using the prisoners for his own entertainment.

The Dragonballz: The largest gang within the walls. They act as the eyes and ears for The Otaku and have the most tech. Other gangs in the wall are: The Nintendoze, The Boomerz, The Blakk Magez and the Sentai Ninjaz.

Mario: The person who fixes the Otaku's tech and general "know-it-all" about what goes on inside the walls. He's called Mario because of his resemblance to the video game icon.

Peach: Mario's assistant. She reports to The Otaku and cares for Mario.

Bebop: One of the last taxi drivers in the walled kingdom of Tokyo. He's an older gent who drives a slightly beaten up hover taxi and plays old Cowboy Bebop music.

The Warlord: Warlord Tenji is the cruel overseer of the prision island. He's the man that sends the convicts in, but also secretly hopes that they fail ...

 

Hope this helps ... sounds like a neat concept

[Michael Hopcroft]

Re: [Carpenter Homage] Escape from Tokyo

 

Escape from New York and Escape from LA both sent Snake in with equipment and with a way out once his mission was complete. In your version' date=' the people who sent your characters into Tokyo seem to be pointlessly gimping the PCs.[/quote']

I'm not sure about gimping, but the point of the setup is that it is going to try the reoources of these anti-heroes to the limits and beyond, that the only thanks they are ever going to get if they succeed and survivie is the chance to go on living, andf that the Warden is screwing them over, and they know it, but the job is too damn important not to be done.

 

From the prisoner's point of view, the situation has its own interst; once you're inside, nobody on the outside will know or even care whether you are alive or dead. for some types of people (such as Carpenter's snake Plisken) the prospect is almost unimaginably liberating. Freed from all outside boundaries, all outside judgments of rigth and wrong, you have the opportunity to find your own values, your own reasons to continue living. and although it is a hard life for those unwilling to abandon their humanity, there are some sorts of people who might be imprisoned in such a place who find new purposes in creation. Children will be born and raised who have never known any other life but The Prison.

 

It would have been interesting for Carpenter to have taken another look at what happened in Manhattan Federal Penitentiary twnety or thirty years after snake's visit. Perhaps it would have become a virtually lifeless hell-pit, or perhaps -- just perhaps -- something totally unexpected, something nobody had prepared for, will have emerged....

[OddHat]

Re: [Carpenter Homage] Escape from Tokyo

 

I'm not sure about gimping' date=' but the point of the setup is that it is going to try the reoources of these anti-heroes to the limits and beyond, [/quote']

 

In which case, following the original films, you could give the party credible equipment and an escape plan and then take it all away once they're inside.

 

that the only thanks they are ever going to get if they succeed and survivie is the chance to go on living, andf that the Warden is screwing them over, and they know it, but the job is too damn important not to be done.

 

You've specified that the PCs are violent psychopaths. They're not doing the job because it's important; they're doing it to avoid getting killed.

[Michael Hopcroft]

Re: [Carpenter Homage] Escape from Tokyo

 

In which case' date=' following the original films, you could give the party credible equipment and an escape plan and then take it all away once they're inside.[/quote']

If the Warden is smart, he'd realize that at least some of any equipment he gives the rescuers is not going to remain in their hands. He will also remmeber the lesson of the Tripitz and the yamato: an asset you cannot afford to lose is no longer an asset, but a liability. He would also remmber the maxim "No plan survivces the balltefield". It is far wiser for him to simply shoose people who are a.) cunning and reosursceful enough to do the job without any help from him, b.) disposable and deniable (hence four rescuers instead of one), and c.) hate his guts enough that they will get the job done, if only for the chance to get their hands on him afterwards.

 

You've specified that the PCs are violent psychopaths. They're not doing the job because it's important; they're doing it to avoid getting killed.

No, I have specificed that they are anti-social. That is not at all the same thing, particularly in th4e sort of society that would require a Tokyo Prison in the first place. In both the Carpenter films, the fear resulting from the crime wave has turned America into a virtual dictatorship, and in Escape from LA in particular it is specifically states that the inate population includes many political prisoners and religious dissidents as well. The regime mixes them in with the truly violent offenders with total disregard for their ability to survive in their company.

[OddHat]

Re: [Carpenter Homage] Escape from Tokyo

 

No, I have specificed that they are anti-social. That is not at all the same thing,

 

One more thing: these four individuals have never worked together before' date=' but have worked against each other from time to time, and [b']all are in various stages of violent psychosis[/b]. And it is of no concern to the warden how ,many of the rescue party come back, or in what condition.

 

The bolded text above suggests that all PCs are violent psychotics. Your interpretation appears to differ.