Movies - Escape from New York

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	Movies - Escape from New York

John Carpenter's Escape from New York is a 1981 science fiction action film directed and scored by John Carpenter. He also co-wrote the screenplay with Nick Castle.

The film was made on a total budget of around $7 million, which is sometimes apparent in the night scenes lit by fires in trash cans. It played upon the then recent highly-public fiscal and social eclipse of New York and fearful suburban attitudes concerning failed inner cities in general. It is said to be one of the "best" B-Movies, and still has a strong fan following. It eventually spawned a sequel, Escape from LA

Tagline: 1997. New York City is now a maximum security prison. Breaking out is impossible. Breaking in is insane.

Cast of characters

Kurt Russell
as "Snake" Plissken
Lee Van Cleef
as Police Commissioner Bob Hauk
Donald Pleasence
as President of the United States
Isaac Hayes
as the Duke of New York
Ernest Borgnine
as Cabbie
Harry Dean Stanton
as Harold "Brain" Helman
Adrienne Barbeau
as Maggie

Synopsis

Tagline: "Breaking out is impossible. Breaking in is insane."

The film is set in a dystopian future of 1997, where the world is embroiled in World War III. Due to an overwhelming wave of crime that plagued the country, especially New York City, the government built a wall around Manhattan Island and turned it into a maximum security prison. Inside the city walls there is only the anarchy that the inmates have made and there is only one simple rule: "Once you go in, you don't come out". Any found escapees are ruthlessly shot on sight.

A crisis arises when Air Force One, carrying the President of the United States to the Hartford Peace Summit, is hijacked by left-wing suicidal terrorists who protest the President's "oppressive facist regime", and crash the airplane inside the city prison. Moments before impact, the President evacuates the plane in an escape pod.

Manhattan is monitored from a bunker on Liberty Island. Bob Hauk (played by Lee Van Cleef), the police commissioner who runs the prison, is able to track a life monitor placed on the President's wrist, and leads a rescue team to get him out. Upon arrival, Hauk finds that a gang of prisoners have gotten to the President first and are holding him hostage. One of the prisoners, Romero (played by Frank Doubleday from Assault on Precinct 13) produces a severed finger with his presidential ring as proof that they have him. Hauk asks his demands, but Romero doesn't have any as of yet and he tells Hauk to leave immediately or the President dies.

With no other choice, Hauk returns to the Ellis Island to update anxious government officials of the situation. Elsewhere, Ellis Island is processing in a new prisoner; the one-eyed "Snake" Plissken, who has recently been convicted of attempted robbery of the Federal Reserve Bank in Cleveland. Plissken's impressive military record shows that he is a highly skilled Special Forces veteran who has received a prestigious award for his valor. He is shown to have been a very proficient combat pilot who flew a glider over the battle of Leningrad (suggesting that the Third World War mentioned in the film was fought against Soviets).

Hauk interviews Plissken, seeing the war hero that he once was over the dangerous convict he is now. Hauk updates Plissken on the President's situation and the importance of retrieving a cassette tape that has information on what the President hoped would be a new form of viable energy. Plissken is completely uninterested until Hauk offers him a full pardon if he agrees to take the rescue mission. Plissken is given 24 hours to find the President, and more importantly the tape, and get them both out before the summit concludes, or Russia and China will leave the peace talks.

Snake reluctantly agrees to the deal. He is told he will go in covertly with a Gulfstream glider and land on the roof of one of the World Trade Center towers. He is given a gun, a tracking device, a walkie-talkie, a locator bracelet, and a wrist watch with a 22 hour countdown clock which is already in progress. One final step before he leaves is to go to medical for shots which will protect him from the diseases that run rampant in the city. Snake doesn't realize until after the shots were administered that they have placed tiny explosives in him that have lodged in his arteries. Hauk warns Plissken that any attempt to turn the glider around to Canada, or failure to bring back the President will result in the detonation of the explosives which are just big enough to rip open both his arteries and kill him. Plissken's watch has now became his countdown "life clock". Plissken furiously strangles Hauk, demanding he remove the explosives, but a technician calms him down by explaining the charges can be easily neutralized by X-rays once he completes the mission. Before leaving, Plissken threatens to kill Hauk when he gets back.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Escape from New York ]

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Movies - Escape from New York

Cast of characters

Synopsis

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