Yes, it's a prison movie! John Carpenter helms this sci-fi classic, with sees a badass Kurt Russell as one of his cinema's most iconic characters: Snake Plissken. After the President of the United States winds up crash landing in a futuristic Manhattan that has been sealed off from the rest of America as one giant prison, Snake is forced to go inside and rescue him. What follows is two hours of adrenaline-pumping action and over-the-top violence; the kind that only John Carpenter could deliver in his heyday. Meanwhile, spaghetti western icon Lee Van Cleef stars as the guy who sends Snake on his mission, and there are other memorable performances from Issac Hayes, Ernest Borgnine and Donald Pleasence. Oh, and it has a killer soundtrack (courtesy of Carpenter) - not to mention a delicious ending you'll want to re-watch over and over again. This is '80s sci-fi at its best, and shows the genius that is Carpenter working at the peak of his directorial powers.
Sam Hill is an ardent cinephile and has been writing about film professionally since 2008. He harbours a particular fondness for western and sci-fi movies.
