It completely surrounds Manhattan Island. A fifty-foot containment wall is erected along the New Jersey shoreline, across the Harlem River, and down along the Brooklyn shoreline. The once-great city of New York becomes the one maximum-security prison for the entire country. “In 1988, the crime rate in the United States rises four hundred percent. And the second film was Escape From New York, which opened in theaters on July 10, 1981. The first film he made for them was The Fog, which opened in 1980. But after the success of Halloween, Avco Embassy Pictures offered Carpenter a two-picture deal. They thought it was too dark and violent. (And when I say “most Americans,” I’m largely referring to white people.)Ĭarpenter’s growing cynicism about America and its presidency, combined with New York City dealing with crime, illegal sex work, homelessness, a lack of funds, and widespread police corruption, inspired the screenplay for Escape From New York. Kennedy, this event shattered the innocence of most Americans and made them look differently at the country that they called home, and at how the government was choosing to run it. Similar in impact to the assassination of John F. It made people question not just who exactly was in the Oval Office, but also ultimately drove Nixon to resign from the presidency. Like many Americans, John Carpenter saw the news as the Watergate scandal slowly but surely became an avalanche that overwhelmed the entire Presidential administration of Richard Nixon. It all started with a break-in at the Watergate Hotel on June 17, 1972.

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