Thread: Escape from New York—Into America

Escape from New York—Into America
By Matthew Richer

John Carpenter’s 1981 film Escape from New York envisaged the national crime rate skyrocketing to such an extent that the federal government walls off Manhattan Island and turns it into a maximum security prison. Inside the city walls, the prisoners form violent gangs that rule over the city.

When Air Force One crashes inside Manhattan, an ex-soldier named Snake Plissken, played by Kurt Russell, is assigned to enter the city and rescue the President before he is killed.

I remember watching Escape from New York on television as a boy and thinking the plot was preposterous. Now, after living in New York City for several years as an adult, the film is actually starting to look plausible to me.

That is because I have decided not just to leave New York City, but to escape it—and all that it has come to represent.

I moved to New York City several years ago, like many recent college graduates, eager to experience the “greatest city in the worldâ€

He's just talking about Manhattan the situation in the outer boroughs is getting MUCH worse.