CATCH A CLASSIC
Escape From New York IFC, 1:45 p.m.
Cowriter/director John Carpenter’s influential 1981 sci-fi/action cult classic takes place in a dystopian “future” 1997, when the island of Manhattan has been turned into a maximum-security prison. After Air Force One is hijacked and purposely crashed in New York City, exSpecial Forces soldier and current federal prison inmate Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell in one of his most iconic roles) is given just 24 hours to infiltrate New York and safely extract the president (Donald Pleasence) in exchange for a pardon. Also starring among the terrific cast are Lee Van Cleef, Ernest Borgnine, Isaac Hayes, Harry Dean Stanton and Adrienne Barbeau, and the action is further heightened by the synth-prominent musical score composed by Carpenter and Alan Howarth that manages to sound both very ’80s and of the future.