film

Set in the near-future world of 1997, Escape From New York is one of the brightest highlights in John Carpenter's highlight-strewn career, and has a glorious cast of underground Hollywood treasures including Kurt Russell, Lee Van Cleef, Ernest Borgnine, Donald Pleasence, Isaac Hayes, Adrienne Barbeau and Harry Dean Stanton.

In this grim future – which conspicuously lacks New Labour, Daft Punk's Homework or James Cameron's Titanic – a crime-ridden United States has converted Manhattan Island into the country's sole maximum security prison. After Air Force One is hijacked and the president crash-lands inside the walled-off city, a laconic, eye-patched former war hero turned outlaw named Snake Plissken (Russell) is coerced into rescuing him within 24 hours, under threat of death.