Escape From New York - Plot

Plot

In a dystopian 1988, crime in the United States has increased 400%, so the island of Manhattan has been converted into a giant maximum security prison. A 50-foot containment wall surrounds the island, and mines have been placed on all the bridges and tunnels to the island. The surrounding waters are patrolled and no civilians, even prison guards, are allowed to step foot on the island.

Nine years later (1997), while traveling to a three-way summit between the United States, the Soviet Union, and China, Air Force One is hijacked by a terrorist disguised as a stewardess. The plane crashes into Manhattan, but the President (Donald Pleasence) makes it to an escape pod and survives. The inmates take him hostage and order all recovery forces to leave Manhattan immediately or they will kill him.

Police Commissioner Bob Hauk (Lee Van Cleef) offers a deal to special forces soldier turned criminal "Snake" Plissken (Kurt Russell): If he rescues the president and retrieves a secret cassette tape within 24 hours, Hauk will give him a full pardon. When Plissken reluctantly agrees to attempt the rescue, Hauk has him injected with microscopic explosives that will rupture his carotid arteries in 24 hours. The explosives can only be defused in the last 15 minutes before they detonate, ensuring that Snake does not abandon his mission. If he returns with the President and the tape in time for the summit, Hauk will save him.

Snake lands atop the World Trade Center in a stealth glider, and locates the plane wreckage and escape pod. He tracks the President's life-monitor bracelet signal to a theater, only to find it on the wrist of an old man. He meets an inmate nicknamed "Cabbie" (Ernest Borgnine), who takes Snake to see Harold "Brain" Hellman (Harry Dean Stanton), who has made the New York Public Library his personal fortress. Brain, who knows Snake, tells him that the self-proclaimed "Duke of New York" (Isaac Hayes), has the President and plans to lead a mass escape across the mined and heavily guarded 69th Street Bridge, using the President as a human shield. Snake forces Brain and his girlfriend Maggie (Adrienne Barbeau) to lead him to the Duke's compound at Grand Central Station. Snake finds the President in a railroad car, but he is captured by the Duke's men.

While Snake is forced to fight with a prisoner named Slag (Ox Baker), Brain and Maggie trick the Duke's right-hand man Romero (Frank Doubleday) into letting them see the President. Once inside, they kill Romero and the guards, free the President, and flee. When the Duke learns this, he is furious and rounds up his gang to chase them down. In the confusion, Snake slips away and manages to catch up with Brain, Maggie and the President. After a group of crazies cuts the ropes on Snake's glider and push it off the top of the World Trade Center, the group heads back down and encounters Cabbie, who offers to take them across the bridge in his cab. When Cabbie reveals that he has the secret tape, the President demands it, but Snake takes it.

With the Duke chasing in another car, Snake and the others drive over the mine-strewn bridge. The cab is destroyed by a land mine and Cabbie is killed. As they flee on foot, Brain is killed by a mine and Maggie refuses to leave him, taking Snake's gun and firing several shots at the Duke's approaching car before he runs her over. Snake and the President reach the wall, and the guards raise the President on a rope. The Duke kills the guards and attacks Snake, but the President shoots the Duke dead. Snake is lifted to safety, and the explosives are deactivated with seconds to spare.

As the President prepares for a televised speech, he thanks Snake for saving him. Snake asks him how he feels about the people who died saving his life, but the President only offers half-hearted regret, to Snake's disgust. Hauk tries to offer Snake a job, but he refuses and walks away. The President's speech commences and he offers the content of the cassette to the summit; but to the President's embarrassment, the tape has been switched for a cassette of the swing song "Bandstand Boogie," Cabbie's favorite song. Snake receives his pardon and leaves the prison, tearing apart the real tape.