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Kurt Russell, Lee Van Cleef, Ernest Borgnine, Donald Pleasence, Isaac Hayes ... see more see more... , Season Hubley , Harry Dean Stanton , Adrienne Barbeau , Tom Atkins , Charles Cyphers , Ox Baker , Rodger Bumpass , Al Cerullo , John Cothran Jr. , Jamie Lee Curtis , John Diehl , Frank Doubleday , Carmen Filpi , Tom Lillard , Tobar Mayo , James O'Hagen , Tony Papenfuss , Borah Silver , Nancy Stephens , Wally Taylor , Joe Unger , Ron Vernan , George 'Buck' Flower , Steven Ford , Ron House , Bob Minor , Alan Shearman , Dale E. House , Clay Wright , Lonnie Wun , Steven M. Gagnon , Michael Taylor

The year is 1997. Manhattan Island is now a heavily guarded maximum-security prison, where the scum of the earth have converged. When Air Force One crash-lands in Manhattan, the president (Donald Plea... read more read more...sence) is held hostage by its denizens. One-eyed mercenary Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell) is strong-armed into rescuing the chief executive. He is aided, not always willingly, by a tough gal (Adrienne Barbeau) and a manic cab driver (Ernest Borgnine). Escape from New York was followed by a sequel of sorts in 1996, Escape From L.A., again starring Kurt Russell. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

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72% liked it

67,831 ratings

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83% liked it

46 critics

R, 1 hr. 39 min.

Directed by: John Carpenter

Release Date: January 1, 1981

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DVD Release Date: November 21, 2000

Stats: 3,806 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (3,806)

  • TheDudeLebowski65
    November 27, 2011
    TheDudeLebowski65
    I've always enjoyed Dystopian, futuresque films such as V for Vendetta, Blade Runner, THX 1138 among countless others. Escape from New York is for me, a new favorite in such a genre of film. Escape from New York is an excellent sci-fi action film with a brilliant cast. I personal... read morely think that this one of the best cult action films since The Warriors and Mad Max. Escape from New York is a top-notch action film that is a riveting, thrilling film. One thing I've always admired about John Carpenter (and it's why he's one of my favorite directors), is because he always crafts a solid film using quite a simple concept for its plot. Though not very elaborate, the plot to Escape from New York is nonetheless exciting and exhilarating. Carpenter always knew how to develop a simple idea into an exciting, thrilling film. Kurt Russell delivers one of his strongest performances here as Snake Plissken. Russell is simply bad assed in this film and is one of cinema's most memorable heroes. Escape from New York is a well crafted film that has a dark, gritty and raw atmosphere. Escape from New York is a must see Carpenter classic. This is a brilliant action film with a great cast of talented actors. The idea of its plot may be simple, but that doesn't stop Escape from New York being a thrilling and memorable action film that every John Carpenter fan should check out. I thoroughly enjoyed this film, and is definitely among John Carpenter's strongest efforts. A stunning dystopian sci-fi action film that is guaranteed to thrill you. Escape from New York is a classic action film. This is a dark, atmospheric film that adds so much power to the film and is a solid actioner that every action film fan should check out. One of John Carpenter's best non horror films. A brilliant piece of cinema.
  • CloudStrife84
    November 9, 2011
    CloudStrife84
    Set in a very dark and anarchy-laden New York City, trouble brews to its maximum, as a plane carrying the U.S president crashes into Manhattan, which has now been transformed into a gigantic prison. Panic ensues, and it's up to former war hero Snake Plissken (immortalized by a ve... read morery cool Kurt Russell), to untangle the seemingly hopeless mess. Metal Gear Solid fans may wanna pay extra attention to this film, as it obviously served as a great source of inspiration for said game series. I bet Hideo Kojima watched this a lot in his younger years, before creating his first masterpiece - MGS1. And I can understand why one would be inspired by such an awesome character and equally memorable movie. Because whenever that man is locked and loaded, excitement is bound to follow. Perhaps not always in the most intelligent ways, but the haunting score and absorbing storyline, gives it just enough edge to be worthy of its cult status. Great direction as well by the legendary John Carpenter. So be sure to load up with a big bowl of popcorn. Because you definitely don't wanna escape from this post-apocalyptic action gem.
  • fb1664868775
    November 8, 2011
    fb1664868775
    John Carpenter's fantastic 1980's sci-fi masterpiece features great performances from Ernest Borgnine, Lee Van Cleef, Kurt Russell and Harry Dean Stanton.
  • fb57802118
    October 17, 2011
    fb57802118
    Greatly enjoyable action yarn. Its preposterousness is played so straight that halfway through, you'll wonder why other movies aren't so brazenly creative. Kurt Russell is, for lack of a better word, awesome as Snake Plissken; most other characters only exist for him to look toug... read moreh next to. So much care went into the set design and cinematography that you'll never notice (honest) the shoestring budget. I wish more movies had as much chutzpah as this one.
  • moonrivers
    October 10, 2011
    moonrivers
    You were right. Given half a chance and all that high fallutin' filth in the cities will show itself for the criminal scum you knew it always was ... and that eerily is the fantasy appealed to here in Carpenter's Reagan era escapist cult classic. Russell essentially spoofs East... read morewood's iconic stranger, the anti-lawman, and Plesance is good as the President.
  • ironclad1609
    July 25, 2011
    ironclad1609
    This movie does not exactly shine with great dilagogues or deep characters, but is still one of the true action classics of the 80s. Starting out with one of the coolest ideas ever (Manhattan turned into one big prison and Air Force One crashing into it) and carried by Carpenters... read more eerie score, its gloomy atmosphere makes for a very exciting and distopian ride. Kurt Russel is the king of cool in this. Enthralling, dark and with a nice end twist.
  • TheGame90
    February 28, 2011
    TheGame90
    Thumbs down for this. This movie has not stood the test of time. I was not entertained. Just not good.
  • mumby1988
    January 19, 2011
    mumby1988
    After the production problems on The Fog, John Carpenter sought to re-assert himself as a creative force with Escape from New York. Based upon a script he had written around the time of Dark Star, it promised to be a post-apocalyptic action movie with all the subversive subtext o... read moref his earlier work. But whether by flaws in its execution or by the passage of the time, the film doesn't hold up as anything more than an efficient and enjoyable disappointment.

    Almost by definition, post-apocalypse films don't date very well. Those that do still hold up - Mad Max, The Road, even The Bed-Sitting Room - succeed by being 'universal' in the ideas they examine but crucially vague about when or even how we got to this point in time. Most films about the end of the world are actually about the problems in present society, which can make even the best-made films dated in a matter of years. It doesn't take long to realise for instance that, if the Daleks did invade in 2150, we wouldn't still be driving Bedford vans and eating Sugar Puffs.

    Carpenter's original script was written at the time of the Watergate scandal, when the idea of a criminal rescuing a president would have carried a great deal of satirical bite. Had he got the money to make it when Nixon resigned, he could have had a hit on his hands which packed as big a political punch as All The President's Men. Telling that story during the Reagan years may still work on some level; turning Manhattan Island into a prison seems every bit as outlandish as the Star Wars programme. But whatever else the original script had simply doesn't gel, turning the film into something far more straightforwardly heroic, if not overtly patriotic.

    Like They Live a few years after it, Escape from New York is an action movie with large overtones of the western genre. Both John Nada and Snake Plissken are Carpenter's own takes on The Man with No Name, and Kurt Russell's performance is on one level a pretty good impression of Clint Eastwood. The film is built around the classic 'one last job' scenario, in which Plissken is offered his freedom to do the one thing he really doesn't want to do. There is great potential in this character, as a classic anti-hero who eschews authority and is only convinced to obey when threatened with a slow and painful death.

    Even considering its low budget (around $6m), Escape from New York does look like a film that was made in a hurry. To film some of the key scenes, including the aftermath of the plane crash, the crew had to sneak onto empty streets without permits at 3am, in some cases dumping truckloads of junk onto the roads to create the feeling of chaos. Even from the start the story is being hurried along, with the first 15 minutes doing whatever is necessary to get Snake into the city, and from thereon in the film wastes no time in getting him out. This is not a Chinatown-like mystery, with brooding detectives slowly uncovering a hideous truth; it is a simple, straightforward story and a race against time, and as a piece of efficient filmmaking, it delivers.

    This rapid approach to shooting does create some obvious continuity errors: in one scene, it's sunrise on one side of the island while still midnight on the other. But the first problem with the film is that it's so quick-fire and so efficient that you begin to wonder whether there's anything actually going on in the pauses. Although it's lost the Watergate backdrop, there is still the potential to explore a number of interesting ideas, if not enough to fill a whole series of films.

    The set-up of the film, with a whole city being walled off and turned into a prison, hints at the tendency of civilised societies to isolate and shun its criminals rather than deal with them upfront and try to understand them, something which Carpenter tackled previously in Assault on Precinct 13. The unveiling of a criminal society, presided over by the Duke of New York, puts forward the notion of criminals being every bit as civilised and cunning as either their captors or the protagonist, something reflected throughout the work of Michael Mann. And the conflicts over power, with Harry Dean Stanton's character controlling the city's only source of oil, taps into the very same territory as the first Mad Max film.

    But as things evolve, it becomes clear that the film isn't really interested in any of these ideas. The film is like a land speed record attempt in which the driver is wearing blinkers; the object is to get from A to B as quickly as possible, and there is no chance to look around or think about anything else. Whenever Carpenter does attempt to tackle deeper issues, it's done in a half-hearted manner using imagery which is surprisingly unoriginal.

    Huge sections of the film owe a big debt to Mad Max in a way which really demonstrates all that was spot on about George Miller's debut effort. The criminal gang in Escape from New York don't get enough time to establish themselves, and for all Isaac Hayes' best efforts, he's not as intimidating as the Toe-Cutter. The various street gangs (which reference George A. Romero by calling themselves 'The Crazies') dress every bit as extremely as the bikers, right down to Isaac Hayes' right hand man who looks unnervingly like Keith Flint from The Prodigy. And then there is the fight scene, in which Kurt Russell takes on a wrestler with a huge beard. It may predate the Thunderdome fight in Mad Max 3 by about four years, but there is a tonal similarity to the series in the combination of camp humour and realistic violence.

    This brings us on to problems with the characters. Escape from New York has more than its fair share of them, from Snake himself to Ernest Borgnine's chirpy Cabby, and from the Duke of New York to the odd couple of Maggie and Brain. But Carpenter sets up so many of these potentially interesting and quirky characters that he can't quite decide who to focus on and ends up having to kill them off in quick succession so that just Snake and the President survive. In the bridge sequence, where Cabby's taxi gets destroyed by several mines, he is incredibly cavalier about who cops it and when.

    This jumpy approach carries over into the performances themselves. Harry Dean Stanton is an enjoyable screen presence, and he plays Brain very well - so well that you wish he had more screen time. Adrienne Barbeau, on the other hand, seems to spend most of her time either firing a gun or walking into wide shots that show off her cleavage. Ernest Borgnine is annoyingly over-the-top, as if he were trying to cut in on every shot, and Lee van Cleef is reduced to largely scowling behind a desk. Only Kurt Russell gets the screen time he deserves, filling the empty streets of New York with his one-eyed swagger and growling whispers.

    There are a number of enjoyable moments in Escape from New York which make it at least partially memorable. The set-pieces involving the cars, both on the bridge and breaking through the barricade, are well-choreographed and have good sound design, so that every explosion and crunch of metal is appropriately amplified. Isaac Hayes' entrance will raise a chuckle, as he drives through the wreckage of New York in a limo with chandeliers mounted on the bonnet (eat your heart out, Pimp My Ride!). Some of the humorous exchanges do work well, such as Hayes taunting Donald Pleasance with a gun and then the latter getting his revenge at the end. And the final scene, where the crucial tape has been replaced, is quite funny.

    But in all, Escape from New York is little more than an enjoyable disappointment. It's a perfectly functional, efficiently made sci-fi actioner, but is nothing like as witty or subversive or thrilling as you would expect from John Carpenter. Like Mad Max 3 a few years later, there are individual scenes that work well but these are counterpointed by longer, more underwhelming sections. Carpenter completists will enjoy it, but everyone else should probably look elsewhere.
  • ythelastman89
    November 29, 2010
    ythelastman89
    I'm gonna go ahead and classify Escape From New York as the coolest movie ever made, period. Nothing comes close to bringing shear awesomeness to the screen, especially when it's done with such grace. The plot: Sectioning off Manhattan to create the ultimate futuristic prison and... read more having your main character venture inside to rescue the president. The Hero: Snake Plissken, a man who just flat out doesn't give a shit about anything but himself. Kurt Russell just fits the role way too perfectly and makes such an iconic film character out of it. We still love Snake because he has the ability to make a simple lighting of a cigarette look like a one handed back flip across burning coals. His attire just tops everything off, Urban camo, Sleeveless vest, and an eye patch; genius. The visual style of this movie is simply unmatched. It's one thing to say Manhattan has become a prison, it's another thing to bring it to life. With a B-movie budget, John Carpenter brings a scale like no other. The low key lighting is so effective in turning the city into a nightmarish maze full of freaks. The music is always a key element to any John Carpenter movie and this is certainly one of the most memorable ones. There's really nothing lacking in this at all, it doesn't even feel as if there was one particular audience they were going for. Anyone who likes movies will undoubtedly love this, it's just got so much to love.
  • guaybanex
    August 1, 2010
    guaybanex
    One of my childhood faves; Russell is bad ass as Snake Plissken and game supporting turns by Barbeau and Borgnine make this a must for low-budget, sci-fi, action flicks.

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Critic Reviews

Dave Kehr
June 5, 2007
Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader

It's a rare film that has so many ideas and yet fails so consistently to make use of them. Full Review

Variety Staff
June 5, 2007
Variety Staff, Variety

A solidly satisfying actioner. Full Review

Vincent Canby
August 30, 2004
Vincent Canby, New York Times

It's a toughly told, very tall tale, one of the best escape (and escapist) movies of the season. Full Review

James Berardinelli
January 1, 2000
James Berardinelli, ReelViews

When the final credits roll, you can be forgiven a vague sense of dissatisfaction, because the creativity that went into formulating the premise was never extended to the script writing stage. Full Review

Nick Schager
April 14, 2011
Nick Schager, Lessons of Darkness

Has a surprisingly measured pace, its set pieces choreographed with a deliberateness at odds with the frantic nature of Snake's quest. Full Review

Charles Cassady
September 14, 2010
Charles Cassady, Common Sense Media

Extremely dark '80s sci-fi classic is too intense for kids. Full Review

James Kendrick
August 11, 2010
James Kendrick, Q Network Film Desk

an enthralling, if sometimes inadvertently cheesy adventure yarn, an intriguing window into the fears and anxieties of the early Reagan years, and a film-lover's cavalcade of genre mash-up Full Review

Peter Canavese
August 11, 2010
Peter Canavese, Groucho Reviews

New York is the ghost town and Van Cleef the corrupt sheriff in Escape from New York's thinly disguised postmodern Western, with ex-soldier Russell as the anti-establishment hero who won't cotton to a... Full Review

Anton Bitel
November 4, 2008
Anton Bitel, Eye for Film

viewing the film today is akin to having one's sense of youthful nostalgia violated. ...the terrible dialogue, patchy pacing and silly costumes, so easily overlooked during one's wild-eyed teen years,... Full Review

Rob Gonsalves
July 30, 2007
Rob Gonsalves, eFilmCritic.com

Its influence cannot be understated. Full Review

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Facts

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    • Brain: Swear to God Snake, I thought you were dead...
    • Snake Plissken: Yeah, you and everybody else!
    • Bob Hauk: You going to kill me, Snake?
    • Snake Plissken: Not now, I'm too tired. [pause] Maybe later.
    • Girl in Chock Full O'Nuts: You're a cop!
    • Snake Plissken: I'm an asshole...
    • Bob Hauk: Remember, once you're inside you're on your own.
    • Snake Plissken: Oh, you mean I can't count on you?
    • Bob Hauk: No.
    • Snake Plissken: Good!
    • Bob Hauk: Plissken? Plissken, what are you doing?
    • Snake Plissken: Playing with myself! I'm going in.
    • Bob Hauk: I'm not a fool, Plissken!
    • Snake Plissken: Call me 'Snake.'
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Escape from New York Trivia

  • hi i am snake bliskin! what movie am i from?  Answer »
  • "Escape From LA," was a sequal to which film?  Answer »
  • Who played Snake Pleskin in 'Escape from New York' ?  Answer »
  • What actor played the role of the cab driver in Escape from New York?  Answer »
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