Escape From New York

Synopsis: In the future, crime is out of control and New York City's Manhattan is a maximum security prison. Grabbing a bargaining chip right out of the air, convicts bring down the President's plane in bad old Gotham. Gruff Snake Plissken, a one-eyed lone warrior new to prison life, is coerced into bringing the President, and his cargo, out of this land of undesirables.
Genre: Action, Sci-Fi
Director(s): John Carpenter
Production: MGM Home Entertainment
  4 nominations.
 
IMDB:
7.2
Metacritic:
76
Rotten Tomatoes:
86%
R
Year:
1981
99 min
1,152 Views


In 1988, the crime rate in the United States

rises 400%.

The once-great city of New York...

...becomes the one maximum-security

prison for the entire country.

A 50-foot containment wall is erected

along the New Jersey shoreline...

...across the Harlem river

and down along the Brooklyn shoreline.

It completely surrounds Manhattan Island.

All bridges and waterways are mined.

The United States Police Force, like

an army, is encamped around the island.

There are no guards inside the prison, only

prisoners and the worlds they have made.

The rules are simple:

Once you go in, you don't come out.

This is Gotham 4, north bay, station 17.

I have an escape in progress:

Object in mid-bay moving toward the wall.

You have 10 seconds. Turn around.

Start back to the island.

- Gotham 4, confirm the kill.

- Circle to base, over.

Security, this is Rehme, we have

confirmation from Gotham 4.

We have a kill at mid-harbor south

of the Battery. Two in the water dead.

- Two confirmed.

- Very well.

Air traffic, this is Rehme.

Attention, you are now entering

the debarkation area.

No talking, no smoking. Follow

the orange line to the processing area.

The next scheduled departure

to the prison is in two hours.

You now have the option to terminate

and be cremated on the premises.

If you elect this option, notify the duty

sergeant in your processing area.

Hold it.

We got a small jet in trouble

over restricted airspace.

- Where is it?

- Seven miles out and closing.

Been on the horn for the past 20 minutes.

We haven't been able to reach him.

There was a transmission ten minutes

ago. He identified as David 14...

...then all of a sudden he was cut off.

- David 14, acknowledge.

David 14, I'm calling air rescue.

Squawk 7700,

contact on 121.5.

There's still no reply.

Bayonne, I have a mayday

in restricted space.

- New York, I have him.

- Who is he?

I don't know.

- You have the code?

- There's no David 14 on the computer.

- Unlisted?

- Unregistered. We telexed Washington.

- Still waiting for a reply.

- I think I got him, sir.

It's too late, a**holes.

All your imperialist weapons

and lies can't save him now.

We're going down.

We're going to crash!

David 14, acknowledge.

Code's coming in, sir.

Tell this to the workers when they ask

where your leader went.

We, the soldiers of the

National Liberation Front of America...

...in the name of the workers and all

the oppressed of this imperialist country...

...have struck a fatal blow

to the racist police state.

What better revolutionary example

than to let their president perish...

...in the inhuman dungeon

of his own imperialist prison?

- The bosses of the racist...

- Unlock the pod.

- She's bolted the door.

- Can't you shoot off the lock?

- No, sir, she's pressurized the cabin.

- How about lifting the door off the hinges?

No, sir.

Get me to the pod.

This is a locating device to trace you

if you become separated from the pod.

I'm activating it now.

God save me

and watch over you all.

Computer simulation.

Tracking Air Force One.

- He's down!

- It's the escape pod.

Forty degrees.

Fifty yards from impact.

I'm going in.

Over the Battery.

We're moving down.

Crash site ahead.

You touch me, he dies.

If you're not in the air

in 30 seconds, he dies.

You come back in, he dies.

- I'm ready to talk.

- 19. 18.

- What do you want?

- 17. 16.

Let's go. Let's go!

Yes. He's right here, Mr. Vice President.

This is Bob Hauk.

We can't.

If we move in with choppers they'll kill him.

We're lucky if he's not dead already.

They don't want anything yet.

By the time they figure out

what they want, it'll be too late.

Tell him we have to go

with your plan. Now.

We can't wait till tomorrow. If we move

in and take the island, it's a last resort.

It's 8:
45.

I want permission to try a rescue.

Thank you.

- All right.

- He's dangerous, sir.

I know. I'll be okay.

I'm not a fool, Plissken.

Call me Snake.

S.D. Plissken...

...American. Lieutenant,

Special Forces unit Black Light.

Two Purple Hearts,

Leningrad and Siberia.

Youngest man to be decorated

by the president.

You robbed

the Federal Reserve depository.

Life sentence, New York

Maximum Security Penitentiary.

I'm ready to kick your ass

out of the world, war hero.

- Who are you?

- Hauk.

Police commissioner.

Bob Hauk.

Special Forces unit Texas Thunder.

We heard of you too, Plissken.

- Why are we talking?

- I have a deal for you.

You'll receive full pardon for every criminal

action you committed in the United States.

There was an accident. About an hour ago

a small jet went down inside New York City.

The president was on board.

- President of what?

- That's not funny, Plissken.

You go in, find the president, bring him

out in 24 hours, and you're a free man.

- Twenty-four hours?

- I'm making you an offer.

- Bullshit.

- Straight. Just like I said.

- I'll think about it.

- No time. Give me an answer.

Get a new president.

We're still at war, Plissken.

We need him alive.

I don't give a f*** about your war...

...or your president.

- Is that your answer?

- I'm thinking.

Think hard.

- Why me?

- You flew the Gullfire over Leningrad.

You know how to get in quiet.

You're all I've got.

I guess I go in, one way or the other.

Doesn't mean sh*t to me.

Give me the paper.

- When you come out.

- Before.

I told you I wasn't a fool, Plissken.

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John Carpenter

John Howard Carpenter (born January 16, 1948) is an American filmmaker, screenwriter, musician, and composer. Although Carpenter has worked with various film genres, he is associated most commonly with horror, action and science fiction films of the 1970s and 1980s.Most films of Carpenter's career were initially commercial and critical failures, with the notable exceptions of Halloween (1978), The Fog (1980), Escape from New York (1981), and Starman (1984). However, many of Carpenter's films from the 1970s and the 1980s have come to be considered as cult classics, and he has been acknowledged as an influential filmmaker. The cult classics that Carpenter has directed include Dark Star (1974), Assault on Precinct 13 (1976), The Thing (1982), Christine (1983), Big Trouble in Little China (1986), Prince of Darkness (1987), They Live (1988), and In the Mouth of Madness (1995). He returned to the Halloween franchise as both composer and executive producer for the horror sequel Halloween (2018). Carpenter is also notable for having composed or co-composed most of his films' music; some of them are now well-known, with the main theme of Halloween being considered a part of popular culture. He won a Saturn Award for Best Music for the film Vampires (1998). Carpenter has released three studio albums, titled Lost Themes (2015), Lost Themes II (2016), and Anthology: Movie Themes 1974–1998 (2017). more…

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