Escape from New York

Plot synopsis:
In a dystopian 1997, World War III is nearing an end, both the United States and the still existent Soviet Union suffered greatly in the conflict and both looking for a peace resolution. Manhattan has been turned into a maximum security prison in 1988 because of a nationwide crime increase of 400% in the United States due to a gas attack by the Soviets at the start of the war in which New York was worst hit. Surrounded by a 50-foot (15 m) containment wall, all inmates are sentenced to life imprisonment, and have formed gangs which control the crumbling, garbage-strewn city.Traveling to a three-way summit between the United States, the Soviet Union and China, Air Force One, the plane of the President of the United States, is hijacked by a sole member of a revolutionary organization opposed to the government; a women impersonating a stewardess (Nancy Stephens), who kills the pilots and takes control of the plane. The militant anarchist crashes the plane into Manhattan but the unnamed President (Donald Pleasence) is safely sealed in an escape pod and survives. The United States Police Force Commissioner Bob Hauk (Lee Van Cleef) arrives at the Liberty Island command center where he and the chief of security Remy (Tom Atkins) witness the crash. Hauk assembles a platoon of soldiers and they travel to the crash site in a fleet of helicopters. But when they arrive, they find the escape pod empty, indicating that the President has been taken hostage. An emissary of the inmates, named Romero (Frank Doubleday), appears and tells Hauk and the soldiers that they have the President and if they do not leave the island in 30 seconds, the President will be killed. Romero offers them one of the President's severed fingers as evidence. With no other choice, Hauk orders his men to return to the helicopters and they fly back to Liberty Island. In his office, Hauk meets with the arrived Secretary of State (Charles Cypress) who puts him in telephone contact with the Vice President where Hauk asks for authorization of a rescue attempt and accepts it.In his office, Hauk offers a deal to a newly arrived prisoner, a scruffy, one-eyed, famous special-forces-soldier-turned-armed-robber named S.D. "Snake" Plissken (Kurt Russell). If Snake rescues the President, and retrieves a cassette tape that contains important information on nuclear fusion, Hauk will give him a full pardon. However, Plissken must complete his mission before the international summit that the President was due to attend, which begins in 24 hours. After Plissken reluctantly agrees to attempt the rescue, Hauk secretly has him injected with microscopic explosives that will blow open his carotid arteries in his neck in 24 hours (one day). The explosives cannot be defused until within 15 minutes before they go off, as a way of ensuring that Snake does not abandon his mission and escape, nor find another way to remove them. If he returns with the President and the tape in time for the summit, Hauk will save him by having the charges in his neck neutralized with X-rays. Snake promises to kill Hauk when he returns.Snake covertly lands atop the World Trade Center in a Gulfire glider similar to the one he piloted in a daring covert operations action over Leningrad, USSR, and then locates the hijacked plane wreckage and the escape pod, but the President is gone. Snake tracks the President's life-monitor bracelet signal to the basement of an abandoned theater, only to find it on the wrist of an incoherent old coot (George "Buck" Flower). At the theater, Snake meets a friendly inmate nicknamed "Cabbie" (Ernest Borgnine), who offers to help.After wandering the dark streets, Snake is accosted by the 'Crazies' a subterranean gang that hunts the streets at night. Snake first seeks refuge in an abandoned Chuck Full of Nuts diner where he meets a seductive young woman (Season Hubley), who asks to take her away to freedom. But the Crazies soon attack the diner, and Snake is forced to run, leaving the nameless young woman to her fate at the hands of the Crazies. After a chase down a back alley, Cabbie shows up in his taxi and rescues Snake.Forced at gunpoint, Cabbie takes Snake to see Brain (Harry Dean Stanton), a savvy and well-educated inmate who has made the New York Public Library his personal fortress. Brain, who knows Snake from some heists they did in the past, tells Snake that a powerful gang leader, the self-proclaimed "Duke of New York" (Isaac Hayes), and the leader of the Gypsies, the largest and most powerful gang in the city, has the President and plans to lead a mass escape across the mined and heavily guarded 69th Street Bridge (the real Queensboro Bridge is the 59th Street Bridge), using the President as a human shield and hostage. When the Duke unexpectedly arrives to get a diagram of the bridge's land mines, Snake forces Brain and his girlfriend Maggie (Adrienne Barbeau) to lead him back to The Duke's compound. After stealing a car from one of the Duke's henchmen, Snake, Brain, and Maggie drive through Skulls gang country along Broadway, barely escaping. Snake finds the President who is being held in an abandoned railroad car in what was the Grand Central Train Station, but his rescue fails and he is captured after Brain apparently betrays Snake.The next day, Snake is forced to fight with a giant power-house brute (Ox Baker), Brain and Maggie trick Romero and the Duke's men into letting them have access to the President. After killing Romero and the guards, they free the President and flee to Snake's glider hoping to escape with the President. Meanwhile, Snake defeats his huge opponent, impressing the crowd. When the Duke learns the President has escaped with Brain, he is furious, and he rounds up his gang to chase them down. In the confusion, Snake slips away and manages to catch up with Brain, Maggie and the President at the glider, but during their attempted getaway, a gang of inmates, called the Indians, push it off the building. Snake and the others soon find Cabbie, and Snake takes the wheel of his cab, heading for the bridge. When Cabbie reveals that he has the nuclear fusion tape (traded to him from Romero who guarded the President and stole it), the President demands it, but Snake takes it.With the Duke chasing them in his Cadillac, Snake and the others drive over the mine-strewn bridge. After the cab hits a land mine, the cab is destroyed and Cabbie is killed. As the others flee on foot, Brain is killed by a mine and Maggie refuses to leave him. She attempts to hold off the Duke's car by firing at him with a handgun, and she succeeds in forcing Duke's car (a distinctive vehicle with ornate chandeliers mounted on either side of the car's hood) to crash, but he crashes into her, killing her, and he continues his pursuit on foot. Snake and the President reach the containment wall, and the guards raise the President on a rope. The Duke then attacks Snake, but the President shoots the Duke with a sub-machine gun, killing him (this is indicated to be done in revenge for the torture The Duke put him through). Snake is then lifted to safety, and the mini-explosives implanted in his neck are deactivated with X-rays with seconds to spare.At Liberty Island, as the President prepares for a televised speech, he distractedly thanks Snake for saving him. Snake asks him how he feels about the numerous men and women who died saving his life, but the President only offers half-hearted regret that visibly disgusts Snake as he sees the President, a trembling and helpless captive, revert back to his self-assured personality. After Snake is pardoned, he decides he will not kill Hauk at this time and leaves the prison. Hauk thanks him for the rescue, and offers the incredulous anti-hero a job of working for the government in other top secret missions. Snake, alienated with the nation he once served with honor, refuses. Hauk tells Snake to think about the offer and notes: "We make quite a team! Huh, Snake?" Snake angrily replies: "The name's Plissken!"The President's speech commences and he offers the content of the cassette to the summit. To the President's embarrassment, the tape has been switched for a cassette of the swing song "Bandstand Boogie" (the theme from American Bandstand), Cabbie's favorite song. Snake had apparently switched tapes during the chase across the bridge. In the distance, Snake is seen tearing apart the all-important nuclear fusion tape (the only thing to save mankind from nuclear war) and smiling as he walks off into the night. On that cynical note, 'Escape from New York' comes to a close.

Tags: dark, neo noir, murder, cult, violence, humor, action, entertaining

Review:
Escape From New York (1981) Is also one of my personal favorite classic Action Sci-Fi John Carpenter movies.
Snake limps through the city, occasionally bopping a guy in the face, occasionally busting a cap.The film is John Carpenter best work I have seen, there are some other films I don't like, Escape From New York (1981) is one of the best cult classic films from John carpenter and Kurt Russell.
At a loss what to do, the authorities decide to send one man in alone, ex war hero turned criminal, Snake Plissken, not only does he have to contend with surviving the incredibly hostile prison, he also has a time bomb implanted in his body that, should he not get the president out safely within 24 hours, will explode and mean no more Snake Plissken!.Made in 1981 and set in 1997, it's safe to say John Carpenter is not the best predictor of the future around.
I must give kudos at this point to the great production design from Joe Alves, who along with Carpenter has crafted this brilliantly dirty netherworld of crime.Our anti-hero of the piece, Snake Plissken, is superbly played by Kurt Russell, the original choice interestingly was Tommy Lee Jones, but Russell fuels Plissken's mantra to make him one of the eighties coolest grumpy bastards!, and his work here is first class in terms of the films apocalyptic structure.
Surroundning Russell is a wealth of quality performers each adding their personal bits to this tick-tock stew, Lee Van Cleef, Ernest Borgnine, Donald Pleasance, Harry Dean Stanton, Adrienne Barbeau and Isaac Hayes all earn their money and flesh out the story to the end.Calling Escape From New York an action picture would be setting first time viewers up for a real let down, what action there is is minimal but highly effective, the machismo flourishes acting more as a point of reference to the pictures time bomb urgency.
Kurt Russell, with eye patch and nihilistic 'you-don't-like-it-go-to-hell' attitude, plays the role of his life as anti-hero Snake Plissken, recruited by his authority-nemesis Bob Hauk to bring back the American president who crashed with his plane in New York.
Apart from Kurt Russell, "Escape from New York" also stars icons like Lee Van Cleef ("The Good, the Bad and the Ugly"), Isaac Hayes ("Truck Turner"), Donald Pleasance ("Halloween") and Harry Dean Stanton ("Repo Man").
In Carpenter's classic, Kurt Russell plays the immortal Snake Plissken, New York has become a prison state, and the president has just crash landed there.
Russell, Hayes, Barbeau, Pleasence, Stanton, Atkins, Cyphers and Borgnine are all cult legends, and seeing them all work together makes Robert Altman's casts look feeble in comparison.What limits this film from greatness is surprisingly lax direction by Carpenter.
The success of this film owes much to the film's other characters like the talkative Cabbie (Ernest Borgnine, terrific acting), Harold ' Brain' Helman (Harry Dean Stanton), his 'squeeze' Maggie (Adrienne Barbeau) and Isaac Hayes, who plays the heavy, The Duke of New York.
Kurt Russell impersonates Clint Eastwood as Snake Plissken: a convicted criminal who is sent into New York in 1997, which is now America's one and only maximum security prison, to rescue the President (Pleasence) whose plane has crashed.
"Escape from New York" may well be seen as one of the better action movies of all times and even after 25 years it still gives me a good time when watching it.Due to huge crime rates in 1997, the US government has changed New York into a maximum security prison where the toughest criminals are put away for life.
A previous war hero named Snake Plissken(Kurt Russell) gone rebel must effect a daring recapture and bring up the President in twenty four hours but an interior device(installed by Lee Van Cleef and Tom Atkins)blowing up him.Snake must to recovery him and facing off villains like the Duke(Isaac Hayes: Shaft's musician).He's only helped by a sympathetic cab-man(Ernest Borgnine:Dirty dozen),an action women(Adrienne Barbeau and Season Hubley,at the time Kurt Russell's wife) and a veteran(Harry Dean Stanton:Paris,Texas).The film is a comic book plenty of action,fun,adventures,thriller and susprise-filled entertainment.Magnificent plethora of characters with exceptional performances by its entire cast.Kurt Russell as tough and valiant renegade is terrific.Lee Van Cleef was hired by Carpenter and Debra Hill(the producer) for their admiration on spaghetti Western's heroes roles.Adrienne Barbeau (at the time Carpenter's wife)is gorgeous,her role(such as in The Fog)were written specifically with her in mind.The picture contains an imaginative and memorable production design by Joe Alves(Jaws).Colorful cinematography by Dean Cundey.John Carpenter also made the eerie and atmospheric music score such as he did in Halloween.The movie likely satisfy action enthusiastic and Kurt Russell fans .It's followed by an inferior sequel by the same actor and director : ¨Escape from L.A.¨.
When the Air Force One crashes in Manhattan with the president of the USA (Donald Pleasence) that is traveling to a summit with other leaders, the prison dean Hauk (Lee Van Cleef) proposes a deal to the convicted one-eyed bank robber Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell).
Now Snake Plissken has to team-up with his former partner Brain (Harry Dean Stanton), who has double-crossed him in the past, and his squeeze Maggie (Adrienne Barbeau) to rescue the president and save his own life."Escape from New York" is the timeless cult adventure of the badass one- eyed anti-hero Snake Plissken by John Carpenter.
Kurt Russell made himself into a macho movie star by putting a patch over his eye and playing "Snake Plissken." His job is to get into New York City ,which in the "distant" year of 1997 was turned into a maximum security prison, and rescue the President of the U.S. who had crashed there.The whole atmosphere of this is sleazy except for one character: a cab driver, played by Ernest Borgnine.
Escape from New York (1981) **** (out of 4) John Carpenter's cult classic is one of the greatest "B" movies ever made thanks in large part to Kurt Russell's terrific performance as the one and only Snake Plissken.
It's an average cinematic experience, that offers a solid idea, a fascinating, stylish protagonist, but suffers from below-the-mark writing.'Escape from New York' takes place in a dystopian 1997, the near future in a crime-ridden United States that has converted Manhattan Island in New York City into a maximum security prison, where Ex-soldier and legendary fugitive 'Snake' Plissken played marvelously by Kurt Russell, is given 24 hours to find the President of the United States, who has been captured by inmates after Air Force One crashed on the island.As said, the idea is truly super and there are genuinely some entertaining scenes.
Former honored war hero Snake Plissken(Kurt Russell)turned criminal/bank robber is offered a full pardon and release upon getting the President to safety.This is not the greatest action movie you will ever see, but I doubt if you could forget it after watching it.
Quite a few posts review this as a B movie, but it had a decent budget and known cast and don't think it was designed to be a B movie.Personally I only enjoyed The Thing from Carpenter and was really disappointed with Escape from NY.Kurt Russel was absolutely terrible and fumbled around from scene to scene muttering 1 corny line at a time.The characters were weak and poorly directed.
Both sort of have a bronze and brains dynamic, Brain is the one that always has a plan and leads while Maggie is sort of a bodyguard for him since it seems like she's the one with some fighting capabilities.The main villain the Duke played by the late Issac Hayes is great and yeah I like his music, I like how he's menacing he a man in charge but also he's fun at the same time because he's got some really got really good lines or just simply how he delivers them.But of course the best thing about the movie for me is the character Snake Plisken played brilliantly by one of my favorite actors Kurt Rusell.
It is never explained why crime increased so drastically, but the importance of the statement is only to establish that Manhattan Island has been converted to a maximum security prison.The film's story takes place in a hypothetical 1997 and concerns the efforts of one Snake Plissken, a former war hero and convicted bank robber coerced into rescuing the President of the United States after Airforce One crashes on Manhattan Island.
Donald Pleasence is well-cast as the President of the United States and Isaac Hayes is too as the self-styled "Duke of New York".The film's story remains interesting with the different turns Snake has to take to seek the President.
The camera work might be relatively static but this with hindsight compared to film making in the 21st century is a blessing since the visuals don't overwhelm the storytelling The story itself from real life events that over took this fictional scenario where in 1997 the cold war looks like hotting up big time but I doubt if Mikhail Gorbachev was sitting down at a table thinking ending the cold war would invalidate John Carpenter's vision of the future but that said a Marxist Leninist spouting rhetoric about workers and imperialist pigs does date the film Thankfully the film isn't really interested in politics and concentrates on keeping the audience excited which is does a good job at as Snake finds constant barriers in his way as he tries to find the missing president knowing that the clock is ticking away .
Some of the action scenes aren't entirely plausible such as a machine pistol having an unrealistic capacity and despite being a not unlikable anti-hero in the vein of New Hollywood Kurt Russell plays Snake Plissken far too much like Clint Eastwood would have .
A former war hero Snake Plissken(Kurt Russell) has been hired to go inside the prison and get the president out within 24 hours,putting Plissken in a hellish journey.Escape From New York is a great film that works so well because the great story,the character Snake Plissken and direction.
Great job,John.The score by Carpenter and Alan Howarth is wonderful and adds to the tone of the film and the Escape From New York theme is one of my all time favorite movie theme songs.
"The Duke of New York, A-Number-1, the Big Man, that's who!" John Carpenter's anti-hero classic is among his best films and almost certainly is the most fun.
In this dark dystopian sci-fi adventure, ultimate tough guy Snake Plissken is sent on a mission to enter New York, a city now turned into the world's largest penitentiary with a huge retaining wall, to rescue the President from a group of the roughest and most violent criminals imaginable.
First time i saw John Carpenter's Escape from New York,i found it truly attractive.a film of a talented Director.with so many memorial moments.The Story is set in 1997.when the crime rate in U.S.A in raised to 400/5herefor New York city is been turned to a big prison,but there's laws in there.there's no guard to keep the prisoners.the city is been surrounded with high walls & the criminals live with each other.one day,a libertine group settles the president and throws him into the city to experience the life of criminals in New York.the Police Commissioner Bob Hauk(Lee Van Cleef)hires a big hit-man criminal named Snake Plissken(Kurt Russell)to enter the doom city to find president(Donald Pleasence).it is very dangerous in there.cause the city is under the control of savage people.Snake Meets so many people on his way of survival.like Cabbie(Ernest Borgnine),Brain(Harry Dean Stanton)& Maggie(Adrienne Barbeau).he should face the number 1 man in New york.The Duke{Isaac Hayes}that has taken president as a hostage...This movie attracts you from start to end.the snake character is so amazing.Kurt Russell is astonishing.he steals every moment in the film.talks like the unnamed Clint Eastwood character.every one plays of his roles well.except Donald Pleasence that doesn't suit the role of president.John Carpenter is well known for his Horror movies like The Fog,Halloween,The Fog & so many others.but he is a very talented director and he can work at about so many genres more and Escape from New York is the proof.what more can say?A Cult Memorial....
after just watching this movie,i am of two minds about it.on the one hand,i think the filmmakers were pretty bang on in their view of what a post apocalyptic world might look like,or at least New York and surrounding areas.i thought Kurt Russel was a perfect choice for the hero,or rather anti-hero,in this case.he was very convincing as a loner/outlaw,for lack of better terms.i did find it amusing that the movie,made in 1980,shows us a future world in the year 1997.of course,that year has come and gone,and the real world has had(up to this point)little in common with the world depicted on screen.this is not a criticism,merely an observation.i found the movie somewhat compelling,yet also slow at the same time.most of the movie is pure drama,with a bit of action,and some humour thrown in.i liked the rough edge the movie had.it seemed unpolished,which is good in this case.i did not find the movie to be a masterpiece or anything profound,which is what i was hoping and expecting.i remember seeing bits of the movie a long long time ago,and recall being blown away.but that was then,this is now.tastes change over time.having said that,i enjoyed the movie more than not.Overall,i'd give "Escape From New York an 8/10.
In 1997, when the US President (Donald Pleasence) crashes into Manhattan, now a giant maximum security prison, a convicted bank robber (Kurt Russel) is sent in for a rescue.Well directed by John Carpenter, cool cencept, decent acting, Russell is able to say a lot with little dialogue, through his body language and facial expressions and a good supporting cast, some action scenes, decent CGI for an 80's film back then, decent costumes for a budget of 6 million dollars, with the budget being low carpenter manages to make it look good for its time and the music is good and suits the theme for the film.Overall a good sci-fi/action film..
The second historic teaming of filmmaker John Carpenter and actor Kurt Russell (after the made for TV movie 'Elvis'), "Escape from New York" is slick entertainment.
It's a futuristic actioner that can boast some believably decrepit environments, a typically simple but effective Carpenter music score, and a top notch cast led by Russell in a performance of quiet cool.Taking place in the "future" year of 1997 (it's amusing, as it always is, to watch this kind of thing when the time period in the movie is now well into the past), it shows us how the island of Manhattan has been turned into a maximum security prison.
Great Cult Fun. In 1997, when the US President (Donald Pleasence) crashes into Manhattan, now a giant maximum security prison, a convicted bank robber (Kurt Russell) is sent in for a rescue.If you love seeing a classic science fiction film with plenty of John Carpenter regulars, including Tom Atkins, Adrienne Barbeau and more...
However, it could have been good, and entertaining the whole way through, but for the pacing.John Carpenter takes pains to set up the movie: the background to New York being as it is, the President being stuck in it and Snake Plissken going in to save him.
In 1997, war hero-turned-convict Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell) is hired to rescue the president (Donald Pleasance) from New York City, now a maximum security prison (to accommodate the crime wave that swept the country in 1988).This is certainly one cool movie.
When the president's aeroplane crashes in the middle of this city prison and captured by the resident criminals, a mercenary called Snake Plissken is sent in on a do-or-die mission to retrieve him within twenty-four hours.Escape From New York is another in the long line of strong movies director John Carpenter made in his 70's-80's heyday.
The film also benefits from a cast of b-movie legends, we have Donald Pleasence as an improbable President of the United States, Isaac Hayes is a blaxploitation styled Duke of New York, Kurt Russell as the iconic eye-patch sporting anti-hero, Adrienne Barbeau appears throughout in an eye-popping low cut tight red outfit, Ernest Borgnine is a comic-relief cabbie, Lee Van Cleef is a hard-bitten police chief and Harry Dean Stanton pitches up as a shifty character called Brain.
John carpenter has directed so many cult classic horrors and Sci-Fi's over the years and Escape from new York is certainly one of them, a very memorable sci-fi with an awesome cast, a great visual style and a cool story, Kurt Russell is the notorious Snake Plisskin and ex special forces soldier turned criminal who is sent into New York which is now a massive maximum security prison, any one who goes in never comes out, the presidents plane air force one crashes into the middle of the prison island and Snake is recruited with the promise of a full pardon to save the president within 24 hours, the effects in the movie look great for the early 80's, a very cool visual style of a torn up new York city, the rest of the cast is great too, many famous faces from the past including Donald Pleasance as the president, Lee Van Cleef, Isaac Hayes, and Tom Atkins, many of whom are no longer with us, this is a must have in your collection if your a big 80's fan of cult classic sci-fi, always worth going back too!
An action cult classic and one of the most memorable Kurt Russell roles, Escape from New York is an influential movie for its genre and still holds up well over thirty years later.The story goes that in the mystical year of 1997 we live in the crime-torn horrors of the future and have turned Manhattan into one huge prison island.
Nothing compares to horror classics like Carpenter's.Snake Plissken is sent in New York, which is now a prison itself, to retrieve the president (Donald Pleasance) whose plane crashed in the city due to hijackers.