15 Greatest Character Names In American Film History

10. Snake Plissken ("Escape From New York")

John Carpenter is a master filmmaker. Of that there can really be no doubt. Granted, not all of his films achieve the quality that we expect from a true auteur, but his greatest films ranks up there with the very best. I'm talking about films like "Halloween", "The Thing", the depressingly underrated "They Live", and of course "Escape from New York". "Escape from New York" was released in 1981 and was the major breakthrough for actor Kurt Russell. The film follows Russel's character; criminal Snake Plissken on a forced mission in a dystopic future Manhattan (which has been tranformed into a giant maximum security-prison). Plissken is tasked with finding the president of the U.S.A. (who has crashlanded on the island) before the latter is found by the prison inmates. Plissken has 24 hours to complete the mission. If he fails, his carotid arteries will explode due to implanted microscopic explosives. Now, how do we establish our main character as a tough as nails ex-soldier turned criminal? We can give him an eye-patch, that'll make him look cool, sure. But he needs a great name. Plissken has a slimy and corrupted feel to it; a little snake-like. "Snake"; now that's a good name!