TheRetroCritic

New York gets a bad rep. So much so that back in 1981 John Carpenter pictured a Manhattan so run down and chaotic that it was set in the dystopian future of *dramatic sting* 1997 when the U.S. decided to turn the whole island into a prison complete with big walls surrounding it, armed guards everywhere, mined bridges and friendly cabbies. Unfortunately, when rebels send Air Force One crashing into the city and steal the president (who managed to land in an adorable red pod), Lee Van Cleef's intense police chief is forced to hire the help of a tough renegade called Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell in a career-defining role) who walks like a badass and speaks like Batman in order to find the president and bring him back safely for an important summit. Although Cleef doesn't so much "hire" him as he does inject him with a deadly serum and literally land him in one tricky situation to say the least with some fancy electronic bracelet and a walkie-talkie. There, he encou