Escape from New York (1981)

Director:

John Carpenter

Writers:

John Carpenter (written by) and
Nick Castle (written by)

Release Date:

10 July 1981 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Crime | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Tagline:

The world's greatest leader is a hostage in the most dangerous place on Earth. Now only the deadliest man alive can save him.

Plot:

In 1997, when the US President crashes into Manhattan, now a giant max. security prison, a convicted bank robber is sent in for a rescue.

Plot Keywords:

Snake | Prison | Rescue | New York City | Bridge

Awards:

4 nominations

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Kurt Russell	...	Snake Plissken
Lee Van Cleef	...	Hauk
Ernest Borgnine	...	Cabbie
Donald Pleasence	...	President
Isaac Hayes	...	The Duke
Season Hubley	...	Girl in Chock Full O'Nuts
Harry Dean Stanton	...	Brain
Adrienne Barbeau	...	Maggie
Tom Atkins	...	Rehme
Charles Cyphers	...	Secretary of State
Joe Unger	...	Taylor (scenes deleted)
Frank Doubleday	...	Romero
John Strobel	...	Cronenberg
John Cothran Jr.	...	Gypsy #1
Garrett Bergfeld	...	Gypsy #2

Also Known As:

John Carpenter's Escape from New York (USA) (complete title)
Die Klapperschlange (Austria) (West Germany) [de]
New York 1997 (Canada: French title) (France) [fr]
1997: Rescate en Nueva York (Spain) [es]
1997: fuga da New York (Italy) [it]
Apodrasi apo ti Nea Yorki (Greece) [el]
Bekstvo iz Njujorka (Serbia) [sr]
Escape de Nueva York (Venezuela) [es]
Flugtaktion New York (Denmark) [da]
Flykten från New York (Sweden) [sv]
Fuga de Nova York (Brazil) [pt]
Ha-Briha M'New-York (Israel: Hebrew title) [iw]
Menekülés New Yorkból (Hungary) [hu]
New York 1997 (Norway) [no]
New York'tan kaçis (Turkey: Turkish title) [tr]
Nova Iorque 1997 (Portugal) [pt]
Pako New Yorkista (Finland) [fi]
Ucieczka z Nowego Jorku (Poland) [pl]

Runtime:

99 min

Country:

UK | USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Canada:AA (Ontario) | Canada:R (Manitoba) (director's cut) | Canada:R (Nova Scotia) | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:PA (Manitoba) | Iceland:16 | UK:15 (video rating) | UK:AA (original rating) | Germany:16 | Brazil:14 | Finland:K-15 (DVD rating) | Netherlands:16 | New Zealand:R16 | Australia:M | Norway:15 | Norway:16 (original rating) | Sweden:15 | USA:R | West Germany:16 (w) | Singapore:PG

Filming Locations:

California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, California, USA

Company:

AVCO Embassy Pictures

Trivia:

The final credit is a reference to a strip club and the dancers across the river from St Louis.

Goofs:

Factual errors: The American flag on the right-hand side of the tail on Air Force One is not reversed. In reality it would have the stars in the upper right to represent a real flag moving forward.

Quotes:

[last lines]
President: Good evening. Although I shall not be present at this historic summit meeting, I present this in the hope that our great nations may learn to live in peace...

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Batman Begins (2005)

Soundtrack:

Engulfed Cathedral

"The name's Plissken."

First things first, Kurt Russel is just plain cool. That said, on to the review. Escape From New York is a classic action movie with a great horror cast, including Donald Pleasence, Tom Atkins, Charles Cyphers, and who could forget Buck Flower. Buck, who has one of the best scenes in the movie ("Sure, I'm the president!"), is hilarious. John Carpenter proves that he is a versatile director and can make a hell of a film outside the horror genre. 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. Enter Snake Plissken. Freshly captured and about to be incarcerated in New York, he must save the President (Pleasence, who isn't even American but pulls it off well) from the clutches of Isaac Hayes in order to regain his freedom. It's all great stuff and you can't stop watching as Snake fights his way from one famous landmark to another (he even has to wrestle Ox Baker). But it leaves me with one unanswered question: What did happen to Fresno Bob?

Note: A couple of the Duke's cronies are credited as Romero and Cronenberg. Also, Jamie Lee Curtis does the opening computer dialogue.