John Carpenter is a horror legend, but not all of his movies are slashers, be they set on Halloween or in the Arctic. One of his most underrated movies is Escape from New York, the Kurt-Russell-starring dystopian action thriller with a lofty concept: in the near future, the entire island of Manhattan is turned into one gigantic maximum security prison, which works (relatively) great until Air Force One crashes, leaving the President stranded in the indisputedly most dangerous place in the country. Enter Snake (Russell), who is offered a pardon in exchange for getting the President out of New York, an escape effort that ends in political intrigue.
Almost half a century later, this classic story is getting a big update. But can it be updated while still paying homage to the original?
