In a nutshell, Bored & Dangerous says: “As dark and nihilistic as The Thing, as fun and roller coaster like as Big Trouble in Little China and just a kick ass 80s action movie all at the same time.”
“Remember, once you’re inside you’re on your own.”
Pre on-demand movie streaming, pre cable television in Australia, there were three commercial TV channels, and they all played movies pretty much every night of the week. I don’t know if they could only afford the rights to a certain number, or if it was just those certain few that stuck out to me because of my age and filmic interests as an action loving pre teen in the 80s and early 90s, but there seemed to be maybe a dozen movies that popped up constantly. One in particular was shown several times a year, and I missed it for different reasons every single time. But now, we do have on demand steaming, so I finally saw Escape From New York.
In the not so distant, approaching dystopian future of 1988, the crime rate in America has risen by a massive 400%. To solve the prison over population problem, the entire island if Manhattan is walled off from the entire United States and turned into one giant prison. Once convicted of a crime, you’re sent there to fend for yourself, never to be released. In the vastly distant, full blown dystopian future of 1997, Air Force one is flying over Manhattan when it’s commandeered by terrorists. Using an escape pod to eject before he can be taken, the President (Donald Pleasance) crash lands in the prison city and is taken prisoner by the Manhattan’s leader, the Duke (Isaac Hayes). (more…)