10 Movie Dystopias That Should've Happened By Now
3. Escape From New York
The future isn’t what it used to be: after the crime rate rose 400% in 1988, the “once great city of New York” became America’s maximum security prison with a fifty-foot containment wall completely surrounding Manhattan Island. All bridges and waterways are mined and the United States Police Force is encamped around the island.
When Air Force One goes down on the island,, war hero turned bank robber Snake Plissken has to mount a one man search and rescue mission but even though it’s 1997 everyone dresses in early 1980s fashions and Mr President keeps an important speech on cassette. This “future” does have one neat piece of technology, though: micro explosives that’re injected into Snake’s throat and will rupture his carotid arteries in 22 hours unless he retrieves the President.
Set in 2013, Escape From L.A. dispatches Plissken to Los Angeles Island, where undesirables are deported, in order to recover a doomsday device from the President’s daughter. Once again, he’s offered a full pardon if he succeeds in his mission and, once again, he’s given an injection that will kill him unless he completes his task within an allotted time.