10 Most Ominous Cinematic Prisons
2. Manhattan Island, Escape From New York
John Carpenter’s vision of 1997 United States is an alarming one.
After a huge crime spike in the 1980s, the police have begun controlling the entire populace. New York City’s Manhattan Island has been walled off as a maximum security prison, with lifers becoming its only inhabitants.
When a hijacked Air Force One crashes on the island, the police commissioner offers a deal to prisoner and former Special Forces soldier Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell) to rescue the President in exchange for freedom.
The task is a grueling trudge through the antithesis of humanity. From death matches to gangs and from minefields to guards all around, this prison is the ultimate epitome of control.
Considering that Carpenter wrote this film in response to the Watergate scandal, one can only imagine the film that he would write in today’s era of political and social turmoil.
The brutalist infrastructure of Carpenter’s New York City, awash in an eternal hooligan night, is a unique reminder of the dangers of totalitarianism and the fine line between security and oppression.