ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK

JOHN CARPENTER | USA | 1981 | 99 MIN | R

This screening will feature live music 30 minutes prior to start time.

In a dystopian version of 1997, all of the USA’s inmates are housed in the nation’s largest maximum-security prison: Manhattan. When terrorists hijack Air Force One and crash land in New York City, the police must find a way to get the President off the island before it’s too late. They enlist outlaw ex-soldier Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell), and give him 22 hours to rescue the commander-in-chief or succumb to the micro-explosives implanted into his neck. With the help of unsavory eccentrics like Cabbie (Ernest Borgnine) and Brain (Harry Dean Stanton), Snake must face off against the city’s various factions, including the subway tunnel-dwelling “crazies” and the brutal minions of the prison’s fearsome head honcho, The Duke (Isaac Hayes). Uncompromisingly cynical yet immensely fun, ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK plays like a warped, sci-fi take on a Western and features inventive production design and a pulsating synth score courtesy of John Carpenter himself. This 4K restoration presents the gonzo auteur’s masterpiece in all of its gritty glory.

Cast: Kurt Russell, Lee Van Cleef, Isaac Hayes, Adrienne Barbeau

“Carpenter’s premium vintage” –The Guardian

Part of the Philadelphia Film Society’s AFTER HOURS series.