The film's storyline, set in the near-future world of 1997, concerns a crime-ridden United States, which has converted Manhattan Island in New York City into the country's sole maximum security prison. Air Force One is hijacked by anti-government insurgents who deliberately crash it into the walled borough. Ex-soldier and current federal prisoner Snake Plissken (Russell)MUBI Special: John Carpenter's 1980s: A Double Bill|MUBI is given just 24 hours to go in and rescue the President of the United States, after which, if successful, he will be pardoned.
