“I like a lot about Snake [Plissken],” Kurt Russell said of his “Escape from New York” character in a 2024 interview with GQ. “He’s an escape artist is really what he is, and he’s doomed to never be able to escape the one thing he wants to escape from, and that’s himself.”
Now 72 years old, Russell remains the Hollywood icon he’s been for decades. After “Escape from New York,” he went on a tear through the rest of the ’80s and early ’90s, starring in movies like “Overboard,” “Tequila Sunrise,” “Tombstone,” “Stargate,” and “Tango & Cash.” He hasn’t slowed down in recent years, either, whether starring in Quentin Tarantino’s “The Hateful Eight,” playing Ego in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, or chewing scenery as Mr. Nobody in the latter-numbered “Fast and Furious” films.
Most recently, Russell teamed up with his son Wyatt for the MonsterVerse Apple TV+ series “Monarch: Legacy of Monsters.” The father and son play the same character at two drastically different ages, building a story arc together that spans decades and reaches higher emotional highs than anyone would have expected from a Godzilla spin-off show. If you’re a fan of Russell’s work with John Carpenter in the ’80s, “Monarch” is worth a watch. The character of Lee Shaw is written so specifically for the father-son pair that it frequently evokes the elder Russell’s most iconic roles. Plus, it’s fun to see Wyatt Russell play the kind of character his father would have taken on back in his heyday.
