This post contains all the spoilers and discusses the movie with the assumption that you've seen it. It's not so much a review but more an analysis and commentary on the ideas presented in the film. You can watch the trailer at the bottom of this post.

The Credits

Escape from New York is directed by John Carpenter and stars Kurt Russell, Harry Dean Stanton, Adrienne Barbeau, Ernest Borgnine, Lee Van Cleef, Isaac Hayes, Donald Pleasence and Ox Baker.

The Plot

Due to a 400% rise in crime, by 1988 the island of Manhattan is a prison with no guards, surrounded by a wall. Set 16 years in the future (1997), hijackers capture Air Force One and crash the plane in the middle of Manhattan. With the president (Pleasance) kidnapped by the prisoners, new prisoner and former army soldier Snake Plissken (Russell) is offered a pardon if he can rescue the president, and bring back the cassette tape of nuclear secrets that the president possesses. Snake has 24 hours or implants in his neck will kill him.

Snake flies a glider into the city, comes across Brain (Stanton), who he knew previously, and Brain's girlfriend Maggie (Barbeau). Brain knows the Duke, the leader of the prison gang who has kidnapped the president. Snake forces Brain and Maggie to help him.

Snake finds the president but is captured and forced to fight Slag (Baker) in a spiked baseball bat wrestling match. Snake kills Slag to win the match and the respect of the prisoners while Brain and Maggie free the president and escape.

While making their way to a bridge off the island, Brain and the Cabbie (Borgnine) are killed by mines on the bridge. The Duke kills Maggie. Snake gets the president across the bridge. The president is pulled up the wall first. While Snake is hanging from the wall, the president shoots and kills the Duke. Snake is granted his pardon. When the president attempts to play the tape, to be televised to world leaders, it is discovered that Snake replaced the tape and destroyed the original.

Thoughts on the Film

New York City was depicted as a crime-infested urban nightmare in movies, television and comic books throughout the 70s. It was completely plausible in 1981 that crime would continue to exponentially increase by 1988. It was such a prevalent point of view that even 37 years later amidst the gentrification of poor neighborhoods many people in America still believe that all cities are dangerous places where people cannot walk the streets without being robbed or shot. Think of movies like The Warriors (1979) where gangs terrorize the streets at night. It is only fitting that a film would recast the city as a prison without guards. In the real world people felt trapped by poverty instead of walls and saw the police as corrupt rather than completely absent.

Perhaps no depiction of New York City would be complete without the omnipresent cab driver. The Cabbie represents the knowledge of the streets, not so much the routes but rather the hierarchy of who runs the city.

It's strange to see this future New York City based on perceptions of city life in 1981. They abandoned the economic center of the country to house a prison. Perhaps that says something about the criminal nature of much economic activity as well. In this metaphor, the very poor and the very rich are both cut off in a way. We don't see much of the rest of the country beyond the military operating outside the walls of Manhattan. Left wing terrorists are powerful enough in this future world to have successfully hijacked the president's plane. Could we surmise that a country that would turn a city into a lawless prison might be run by a military junta? Just because the leader has a familiar title does not mean we should assume this is a democracy.

New prisoners are quite ironically processed on Liberty Island, where the only liberty they are granted is the right to choose execution instead. There are few female prisoners. Some are shown being raped while intoxicated. As the people are largely abandoned, there must be some children born into the prison. None are shown. Are they removed or held in bondage somewhere within the prison?

The president's cassette tape is mostly a MacGuffin. Does the military really care as much about him or rather the cassette tape he possesses, which possibly contains nuclear secrets? But the tape ends up being pretty meaningless in the end as well. The president is mostly seen as weak, being shuffled around as a prisoner, with the Duke and the prisoners not realizing the real value of the tape in his possession. At one point he is dressed in a blond wig. How humiliating to see the president of the United States with fake blond hair. His only demonstration of power is with a gun while standing on a wall.

It is perhaps a bit surprising to see a fight settled in a wrestling ring, but it represents the grittiness of the city to have a hardcore wrestling match complete with a spiked baseball bat. This style of wrestling has always represented the most basic of theater, most fitting for the world depicted here.

Snake Plissken is infamous. Everyone seems to know him. Everybody has heard he was dead. There is no real explanation. It becomes almost a running joke. The name rolls off the tongue, phonetically sounding somewhat close to "snakeskin." He is not of large build but presumably highly skilled in everything from aviation to firearms to hand to hand combat. He is like a Rambo without all the steroids. It is a similar fantasy that one man can accomplish what an entire army cannot.

The film was followed by a sequel, Escape from L.A. (1996) I actually saw that one first, many years ago. I will have to look for it so I can do a follow up article. After the trailer, I will leave you with this priceless appearance by Ox Baker on The Price is Right.

This trailer is the property of AVCO Embassy Pictures.