A terrific sci-fi masterpiece of the 80s is not available on Amazon or Netflix, but it is still available on streaming subscription. In it, New York has become a highly dangerous maximum-security prison.
In the 90s, the US is overrun by crime. Desperate politicians unceremoniously convert Manhattan into a high-security prison where pure violence reigns. Behind high walls, the former financial center of the world is left to its own devices. This is not a fatalistic sociological prediction, but the premise of The Rattlesnake. Unfortunately, the sci-fi masterpiece cannot be found on Amazon or Netflix, but it is part of the assortment of WOW.
Not on Netflix or Amazon: Sci-fi cult The Rattlesnake is endlessly entertaining
In this gritty 1997 vision of the future, the U.S. President’s plane (Donald Pleasence) crashes over Manhattan Prison Island. Crime boss The Duke (Isaac Hayes) summarily captures the most powerful man in the free world and threatens to kill him if he tries to rescue him. Only one man can help the government now.
This is the war hero Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell), who is to be incarcerated in Manhattan for bank robbery. Police chief Hauk (Lee Van Cleef) proposes him a deal: If he saves the president, he will get amnesty. By night, he is infiltrated into the brutal realm of the outlaws.
Kurt Russell as Snake Plissken
Director John Carpenter’s (The Thing from Another World) Rattlesnake is considered one of the greatest cult sci-fi films ever made for a reason. Russell looks even more iconic than Rambo as the sarcastic one-man army, and the action is perfectly and efficiently staged. But it’s the nighttime setting of New York, with ruined skyscrapers, collapsed landmarks and streets in flames, that has drawn fans to the masterpiece for 42 years.
As Metacritic shows, many critics:inside took the film’s strengths into account. The Rattlesnake was a success at the box office, allowing for the entertaining, if less imaginative, sequel Escape from L.A. Another sequel is planned for the future, according to a report by The Wrap.
