Escape from New York (1981)

**tak sakaguchi** Ter Mar 10, 2009 4:52 pm

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 are both looking for a peaceful resolution. Manhattan has been turned into a maximum security prison in 1988 because of a nationwide crime increase of 400%. Surrounded by a containment wall, all inmates are sentenced to life imprisonment, and have formed gangs which control the city. Travelling 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 member of a revolutionary organization opposed to the government. The militant crashes the plane into Manhattan but the President (Donald Pleasence) is safely sealed in an escape pod and survives. The inmates quickly find him and take him hostage, cutting off one of his fingers to present as evidence and ordering all soldiers to leave Manhattan immediately or they will kill him.

United States Police Force Commissioner Bob Hauk (Lee Van Cleef) offers a deal to a newly arrived prisoner, an infamous special forces-soldier-turned-criminal named "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 24 hours. The explosives cannot be defused until within fifteen 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. Snake promises to kill Hauk when he returns.

"Snake" Plissken (played by Kurt Russell) is escorted to the maximum security prison on Manhattan Island.Snake covertly lands atop the World Trade Center in a glider, 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 man (George "Buck" Flower). He meets a friendly inmate nicknamed "Cabbie" (Ernest Borgnine), who offers to help. 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), has the President and plans to lead a mass escape across the mined and heavily guarded 69th 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. Snake finds the president, but his rescue fails and he is captured.

While Snake is forced to fight with a giant brute (Ox Baker), Brain and Maggie trick the Duke's men into letting them have access to the president. After killing the guards, they free the president and flee to Snake's glider. Meanwhile, Snake defeats his 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 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, the president demands it, but Snake takes it.

With the Duke chasing in another car, 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 to crash, but he crashes into her, killing her, and he continues 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, killing him. Snake is then lifted to safety, and the mini-explosives implanted in his body are deactivated with seconds to spare.

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. 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. After Snake is pardoned, he decides he will not kill Hauk at this time and leaves the prison, tearing apart the all-important nuclear fusion tape and smiling as he leaves.

Directed by John Carpenter
Produced by Larry J. Franco
Debra Hill
Written by John Carpenter
Nick Castle
Starring Kurt Russell
Lee Van Cleef
Ernest Borgnine
Donald Pleasence
Isaac Hayes
Harry Dean Stanton
Adrienne Barbeau
Season Hubley
Tom Atkins
Music by John Carpenter