Escape from New York | Cyberpunk: Envisioning Possible Futures Through Cinema
Join the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures for a film series featuring cyberpunk films like The Matrix, Ex Machina, Blade Runner and more! These films accompany the museum’s PST ART: Art & Science Collide exhibition Cyberpunk: Envisioning Possible Futures Through Cinema. Cyberpunk, a subgenre of science fiction, first appeared in the early 1980s and uniquely captured the anxieties of that decade. Featuring near-future scenarios set in worlds that resemble our own, cyberpunk stories juxtapose technological advances with social upheaval, ecological crisis, and urban decay.
Set in a grim, not-too-distant future where Manhattan Island has been walled off and converted to a massive prison to deal with a major increase in crime across the United States, John Carpenter’s Escape from New York deals with issues of social unrest, government surveillance, and political corruption. Kurt Russell plays Snake Plissken, a former bank robber and classic antihero who is promised a pardon if he rescues the President of the United States from Manhattan. An early example of cyberpunk cinema, the film developed a dedicated following and influenced later screenwriters and authors including William Gibson (Neuromancer).
