Our Throwback Thursday Review of the classic Escape from New York

Escape from New York is a film that, from my first attempts to watch it, felt subversive and dangerous. While I was too young to see the film in theaters when it was released, whenever it would come on cable and I had the briefest moment to see the opening minutes of Airforce One about to crash, one of my parents would quickly escort me out of the room explaining “this wasn’t an appropriate film” for me to watch. But as I was leaving the room I noticed the station never changed. Having watched the film on countless occasions now it makes perfect sense. Escape from New York is one of the most imaginative action films to be made, introduces a cult hero in the form of Kurt Russell’s Snake Plissken, and is unquestionably one of legendary director John Carpenter’s (Thing, Halloween, Prince of Darkness) greatest films.

Released in 1981, Escape from New York is a dark vision of an America where crime is rampant and the government is cruel and oppressive. The events of the story take place in 1997 where, after a massive explosion of crime in the United States, the island of Manhattan is converted into the maximum security prison for the country. It’s an adult version of Lord of the Flies with no prison guards, no contact with the outside world, and no hope of escape thanks to explosives on all bridges, mines in all waterways and the brutal United States Police Force (USPF). The opening narrator establishes the mood of the film perfectly with statement “once you go in you never come out.”

The premise of the film is that The President of the United States (Donald Pleasance) is flying to the Harford Summit, with a cassette tape which that describes a new form of nuclear fusion as a peace offering in the hope of ending the conflict between the USA and the USSR and China. While in route the plan is hijacked by revolutionaries and intentionally crashed into Manhattan. The President falls into the hands of the Duke of New York (Isaac Hayes) who plans on using him as a massive “Get Out Jail Free” card and threatens to kill him if the USPF make any attempt at saving him. Plissken, a former special forces solider and known criminal who has already been sentenced to the island for his attempt to rob the Federal Reserve in Denver, Colorado, is given the option of rescuing the President in twenty two hours in order to receive a full pardon for all crimes. After being tricked in allowing in the insertion of micro explosives into his arteries, Plissken has to escape the prison with the President or die there.

What makes Escape from New York such an amazing film are the strategic decisions around storytelling. John Carpenter could have opted to use flashbacks to show Plissken’s past or his experiences in the war, but instead focuses on just the events of his arrival to the prison and the subsequent events. The result is a stronger narrative that immerses the audience in the events unfolding rapidly in front of them and creates the sensation that time is always working against the characters.

The casting of Russell as Plissken adds another dimension to this film. Russell channels Clint Eastwood’s “Man with No Name” from Sergio Leone’s “Dollars Trilogy” with Mel Gibson’s “Mad Max” and adds a sense of world weariness. While anti-heroes are common now, in 1981, Russell’s Plissken was interesting protagonist with his own unique code of honor and dark sense of humor.

There has long been talk of a remake of Escape from New York. According to Deadline, the rights have been obtained by Fox and presumably a script is being developed. In this case, I hope not. No subsequent version of this film will equal the original, and a new film would likely result in failure, like the recently remake Point Break which was a shadow of the original. Escape from New York is a truly classic action film that’s aging perfectly, and hopefully it’ll be left alone.

Five “I thought you were deads” out of Five.