Escape From New York (1981) Retrospective / Review (RE-UPLOAD) 

Original published in March 2016. I had to make some edits to remove a copyright claim.

Oh Kurt, what a comedian. When people call him Plissken, he tells them to call him Snake. Then when they start calling him Snake, he tells them to call him Plissken.

John Carpenter really brought the best out of Kurt Russell. Snake Plissken, R.J MacReady and Jack Burton are all legendary characters!

"The president of what?" best line in the film

John Carpenter is so good. His films give me a feeling like no other.

I saw this at the cinema. We started stamping our feet and clapping our hands to the 'Duke's arrival' theme. Everyone loved it so they joined in. it was a really funny moment from the audience to a great movie.

I really like the theme score to this movie. It calms me right down every time I hear it.

Rest In Peace to Harry Dean Stanton 1926-2017 who plays Brain and to Frank Doubleday who plays Romero 1945-2018. May they both play Brain and Romero and work along side The Duke (Issac Hayes 1942-2008) in the big New York pen in the sky.

You make a good point about the "lack or excitement" in the action, but I've always felt that the abrupt, unromantic action scenes help sell the bleakness of the whole situation. Anyone can die at any minute, like in real life. I think Escape from LA tried to up the action, and that's why it's underwhelming. There is a grit and immediateness to Escape from NY throughout, shot in almost a documentary style - Like "This is how it happened." Great video!

The soundtrack was on my turntable all the time back then!

This channel is an absolutt gem

“Listen, Listennnnnnn…. The president gone, Brainnnn took him” loved that dialogue when I was a kid!

Trivia: That is Jamie Leigh Curtis explaining the NY Maximum Security Prison in the beginning. Her voice is slightly altered to give it a lower tone, but it is her.

An absolute all time classic.

One of the few movies that give me such a strong vibe, and a sense of not that good future. I absolutely love this movie and its message.

I absolutely love playing this score - especially the Dukes arrival - in my open-top jeep with no doors or side windows....that also may or may not have a P.A speaker for my C.B..... ;) Nothing like jamming to Dukes theme at a red light and seeing someone get the reference. Doesn't happen often but the best one was a dude on a motorcycle - shut of his engine smiling - leaned over and says to me "I thought you were dead" - :)

"It's premise of New York being a prison is very far fetched." 2021: Hold my beer.

Escape from New York was my introduction to Carpenter and where my love for his work came from. I repeatedly watched it as a kid on VHS, and even to this day if I see it on TV I'll sit and watch it.

Escape from New York is a classic one of my favourite films from the 80s.

Huh, never seen this movie all the way through. Idea of turning New York itself into a prison is a cool idea and could make for a whole TV Series.

I love the fact this isn't a shoot em up movie and glad it doesn't have big shootout scenes. It gives the movie more urgency that Snake needs to do this fast and lets us be introduced to the various odd characters, even if they only have a little screen time.

I largely gave up on movies. I still enjoy me some Escape from NY. I really hope they don't go through with the remake.

One of my favorite movies. And I love the soundtrack, just an awesome picture all around.

I’ve always liked your retrospectives. I love how you give an insight on the background of the films you’re covering, using the score as background music, making the mini trailers, everything, really, and I really love the vibe your retrospectives give off. Love the videos, keep up the great work, man!

Still!!... One of the greatest movies of all time.. Thanks for the re upload.

Awesome call out to Lockout! Guy Pearce is the man and one of the most underrated actors

I recently watched both Escape from NY and LA with my 13 year old son. I was curious what his opinion would be. He loved the first movie. The pacing and music was completely alien to him. He had never seen anything like it. My son thought that the second movie was good but not great. He was disappointed that LA didn't take it's self very seriously.

May this classic never be remade. Influence, sure ... but never remade. Same goes for Big Trouble in Little China.

I love the music so much in this movie. The remixes of the themes are amazing. Snake's lines with the government agents is classic and applies today. 💥💯💫

6:40, RIP, Isaac.

Visuals is what really sold me on this film, the story and the characters were secondary admittedly. It reminds me so much of another visually stunning movie that I later saw by the name of Blade Runner.

Oh! I love this movie! I'm a UBER diver and this video it's fantastic for my free time!! Greetings from Argentina, and sorry for my english...

One of the most memorable intro themes I’ve ever heard. It’s amazing how much a soundtrack can elevate a film.

The best we've got for a Metal Gear Solid film these past decades

When they made this it made sense for New York. But in 2021 I think we can all agree it would much more likely to be in California.

Carpenter in his prime, one of the greatest action fliks ever

Probably my favorite actor of all time is Kurt Russell I don't think there's a movie he's in that I don't like

7:00, " You are THE DUKE OF NEW YORK! You're A number 1!"

One of my all time favourite films, I hired it from the video shop when it came out for a week and took it around all my friends houses and watched it at lease twice a day. I brought the sound track album and still have it in my record collection. I used to play the title song on 45rpm instead of the correct 33 1/3rpm and it sounded pretty good as the original has a slow quality about it. Great Film, great memories, I had the 4K version given to me for Christmas upon release which was like and old friend.

Dear old Dad took me to see this and Outland in '81. Two awesome sci-fi movies.

Snake Plissken is also Wolverine, John Rambo and Brock Samson put together.

At the time NY was a violent shit hole... 1981 was it's most violent year ever. While, yes, far fetched, the idea of Manhatten's abandonment and repurposing was on the fringe of plausible. 'NY in collapse' was almost it's own sub genre at the time. The movie's premise is more acceptable than you probably think.

This is the best Escape movie I've ever seen. It's one of my favorite movies.

Magical gem of a film. And while Hideo Kojima may deny ir or even beat around the bush with it, Solid Snake was definitely heavily inspired by Snake Plissken. Amazing retrospective once again Ollie 🙂😊

Deep Rising? Anyone else Love this film? Oliver, your work is amazing and entertaining. Thank you .

Retroactive copyright strikes are cancer. Thank you for re editing and not letting your content just get deleted.

Amazing, the way computer graphics were mimicked, simply perfect! I would also like to watch Plissken's initial robbery act

Thanks for the re-upload!

I fondly remember first seeing this great film at a drive in theater back then. It was double feature and the other movie was Used Cars, also starring Kurt Russell.

I don't live too far away from where this film was made and 40 years later lots of areas in St. Louis are still rundown.

Romero really stuck out in my mind when i saw this as a kid. For a long time, i thought he was played by Michael Biehn from terminator and aliens, but it was really Frank Doubleday. I loved the hiss as Lee van Cleef and team are running back to the airlift.

Seen this when it came out, I was in the 1st grade. I was traumatized. Great movie, greater cast, one of the greatest writer/directors ever.

Absolutely loved this movie when it first came out. Kurt Russell channeling his best Clint Eastwood imitation opposite Lee Van Cleef! All you needed was an Ennio Morricone score. LOL.

Great retrospective. Huge fan of the movie was not aware of the details around how they achieved the 'computer' gfx. Absolute genius!

This was such a fun movie!

The name is Plissken!

One of the best movies of the 1980ies and a milestone in genre film making. And as a bonus: a subtext that's still relevant. A thriller to think about after you've been entertained. Great review!

Great upload and a Quality Classic Film! I'm glad you mentioned the Skotak Brothers, coz of there work on Aliens is still better than most CGI Today! Carpenter is Amazing at Directing, story telling & he writes/plays the instruments for the film score! Also Carpenter got a real coup with Ennio Morricone on The Thing! Thanks Again Oliver

My top 10 favourite movies of all time. A true masterpiece!

Among my very favourite music in this one. Thanks for the excellent work that's gone into this retrospective, young man. :)

It's still so delicious that you use GUNSHIP for your background intro.

18:48 Actually, the early drafts of the script (which can be found online) all began with a lengthy introduction on how the world of "Escape from New York" came to be - including footage of riots, which were probably going to be stock newsreels. I reckon they didn't have the money to do it - the script as a whole describes a much more stylish and visually-elaborated movie (lots of dolly ins and outs), quite far from Carpenter's usual, minimalistic approach. The beginning of "Escape from LA" is an attempt at recreating the original intro.

There was a videogame inspired by the film, although not official, called Manhattan 95 on the Amstrad CPC. It has an 8 bit rendition of the score. Look for it on RU-vid. The intro even has the computer schematics from the opening sequence.

First movie to really start the dirty future action genre, fight me on this, the Australian Outback is just desert. This was gritty like The Terminator.

Great video dude first and foremost. This movie is without question top five Sci Fi movies of all time... This along with certain others set the tone for dark neo noir classics , Japan , metal gear etc love this film and rightly so. Mr Carpenter deserves all the praise he gets for this... This film is the benchmark , hence Robert Rodriguez who wanted to direct a remake and qudos to him for wanting to do so , it's an absolute masterclass of cinema and Sci Fi from start to finish , 1980? ... Wow. The opening original scene that was cut I only watched on the special edition DVD release and was still blown away only 5/6 years ago I saw it.... For the life of me I don't know why it was cut ... But maybe it added to the mystique of snakes character. Escape from L.A I enjoyed , Kurt Russell looked just as good as he did 16/17 years earlier... . And that basketball scene , just as good as the end of E.F.N.Y , when he drops to the floor and gets his implants shocked and terminated Is still edge of your seat everytime you watch I love. John carpenter is and will always be influential when it comes to cinema , I personally salute him just for the endless joy of rewinding my V.H.S and shaping my vision of Sci Fi to this day on anime and endless references and influence on generations on movie makers. Absolutely classic and much respect to John Carpenter and the Iconic Kurt Russell who no other could of played apart from him. The video game is a travesty , wow... Would if loved to played that just for the nostalgia , crazy.... My opinion for a third sequel tho would be to see Snake rescuing his son , there's so many ways you could go from there , along the lines of the remake of True Grit , a grizzled vet , down but not forgotten... And can still kick ass in this cyber world were living in. Gonna watch these both after this , classics. Great vid again , respect from the U.K ✌️

I love this movie John Carpenter is man of his work

5:00, that man is a genius, from The Thing, to Back To The Future, to Jurassic Park

Lockout is in my top 10 movies since 2000. Ripoff or not, it is amazing.

Nothing was better than watching this in New York, in 1981 on 42nd street, with a rowdy crowd! You just had to be there.

Kurt Russell is a National Treasure. Gotta love his Clint Eastwood impression that is Snake Plissken . One of my favorites.

Great item. Very fond memories of this film. It was the first movie that I taped with our new video recorder in early 1983. I was 13 years old. The excitement and awe, when watching it, I will always remember. Great movie.

Love this channel! Great info on the film :D I ordered the 4K Scream Factory edition of the film and am so excited!

The line 'You flew the Gullfire over Leningrad...' influenced William Gibson when writing Neuromancer.

Great movie and retrospective

I saw this on CED video disk when I was 8, this and Soylent Green shaped my vision of the future. It was frightening. I love the future chrome mechanical tech look. Blade Runner had a lot of it too.

Great Retro always Oliver , one thing If you are watching Lockout please close your eyes for the shoddy cgi bike chase!!!

Thnx for re-uploading Ollie.

Great job on a classic we saw this at least 3 times when it came out and still holds up what a cast love u lee van cleef!

Excellent summary of one of the classics. 2 thumbs up bro!

My favorite Actor and one of my favorite movies I love Escaoe From L.A and Vig Trouble in China Town. Oh God news JC said he is making another one

23:26 and there you see his eye under the eyepatch.

Metal Gear Solid is essentially an homage to this character as you said. Oddly the original game cover very obviously is a drawing of Michael Biehn.

one of my favourite movies. i wish they would release a version with the cut robbery at the start.

That heartbeat music at the beginning.... i swear nigel samples or remade that for the Scott Pilgrim Original Score. Fucking nuts

Love your content. Please always keep it up!

I ran into Ernest Borgnine in the airport in Montreal Canada in 2000. He is a very big man in person. Escape From New York is one of my all-time favorite movies and I was a young kid when it came out so I was not familiar with anything he had done prior to that. I sat there and had a beer with him and we talked about the movie. Cool guy. The only other person I met where I was Starstruck would be R. Lee Ermey.

love this film, but like the sequel more

Another great retrospective of one of the greatest science fiction/ horror films ever made. Nice touch with the inclusion of the music from the Superboy TV series at the end!

One of the most atmospheric movies i have ever seen

You have to make Assault of Precinct 13th review!

When your hit with a movie like this in your youth i am dumb struck, it´s just later you really realize how good it was in so many ways. This one among many from the era but it´s one of the top titles.

20:55 They're real and they're spectacular.

I liked the second film where Snake changed his name to Ron Rico and became a sailor.

Re-watched the film today, still great in my opinion.

One of my favourite movies by John carpenter and loved seeing it projected in 2010

7:30, RIP, Harry Dean Stanton

A great example of a film where everything goes right. Script, direction, casting, effects, etc. and a PERFECT example of why you don’t need a $100m budget to make a visually stunning film!

I had a replica of that M11 sub machine gun with the silencer. It came with a metal magazine that you load with proper shell casings that had a primer that you attached caps to & then open fire on semi or full auto.

Wow I just watched the original upload yesterday XD

THANK YOU!!! Great deep dive into what I consider the best movie ever made, right up there with The Thing and Big Trouble. Those three are in my top five.