Escape from New York is a 1981 science fiction/action film irected and scored by John Carpenter. He also co-wrote the screenplay with Nick Castle. The film is set in the near future of a United States so crime-ridden that Manhattan Island in New York City has become a maximum security prison. Ex-soldier and legendary fugitive "Snake" Plissken (Kurt Russell) is given 24 hours to find the President of the United States, who has been captured by inmates after Air Force One crashed on the island.