it 1997 and manhattan island be a wall off prison and during the flight of air force one and the president plane be take over by a terrorist and the president eject out in the safety pod . sadly for him he land right in the middle of manhattan island and when an arm unit land inside the wall they be tell that the president have be take hostage and they must get out of their prison asap . at a loss what to do and the authority decide to send one man in alone and ex war hero turn criminal and snake plissken and not only do he have to contend with survive the incredibly hostile prison and he also have a time bomb implant in his body that and should he not get the president out safely within 24 hour and will explode and mean no more snake plissken . make in 1981 and set in 1997 and it safe to say john carpenter be not the best predictor of the future around . however his vision of a future where america have throw all it criminals on one island and where they create their own society out of harm way and have to rank a an incredibly adroit piece of work . this place be grim and deadly and the flotsam and jetsam of society thrust together in this bleak and desolate place of class separation . what carpenter have achieve with his usual minimal budget allowance be a smoulder sci fi classic that may be as daft a they come and but it pulse with cool and cheekily slap you round the face with it cheeky satirical edginess . i must give kudos at this point to the great production design from joe alves and who along with carpenter have craft this brilliantly dirty netherworld of crime . our anti hero of the piece and snake plissken and be superbly play by kurt russell and the original choice interestingly be tommy lee jones and but russell fuel plissken mantra to make him one of the eighty coolest grumpy bastard . and and his work here be first class in term of the film apocalyptic structure . surroundning russell be a wealth of quality performer each add their personal bit to this tick tock stew and lee van cleef and ernest borgnine and donald pleasance and harry dean stanton and adrienne barbeau and isaac hayes all earn their money and flesh out the story to the end . call escape from new york an action picture would be set first time viewer up for a real let down and what action there be be minimal but highly effective and the machismo flourish act more a a point of reference to the picture time bomb urgency . i like to think of the film a more a sci fi adventure yarn lace with darkly comic humour and with of course machismo throw in a a side salad to accentuate the bleakness of it all and wonderful . positive .