What to read, watch, and listen to if you lovedEscape from New York
Film · 1981
If you loved Escape from New York, start with The Walking Dead: Dead City (2023) — a series on the same thread. Below: 4 books, 4 series and 2 podcasts, each matched to Escape from New York across media.
What hooked you in Escape from New York was the sheer thrill of surviving hostile, walled-off environments controlled by unforgiving systems.
Books on the same thread
The Maze Runner (Book 1)
James Dashner · Book · 2014
Shares a thread with Escape from New York: Survival.
If you were captivated by Escape from New York's lethal walled prison, this novel captures that same desperate struggle for survival inside a shifting, creature-patrolled labyrinth designed to test trapped human subjects.
1984
George Orwell · Book · 1949
Explores: Totalitarianism, Surveillance, Thought Control.
Much like Snake's defiance of corrupt systems in Escape from New York, Orwell's classic explores the harrowing tension of authority versus the individual through Winston Smith's secret acts of rebellion against pervasive totalitarian surveillance.
The Martian
Andy Weir · Book · 2015
Explores: Resourcefulness, Human Ingenuity, Isolation.
Fans of Escape from New York will appreciate the desperate fight for survival against ruthless isolation, as Mark Watney relies on sheer ingenuity and improvised problem-solving when stranded completely alone on Mars.
Tunnel in the Sky
Robert A. Heinlein · Book · 2005
Explores: Survivalism, Resourcefulness, Self-reliance.
Mirroring the raw survivalism of Escape from New York, this novel strands students on an alien planet after retrieval fails, forcing them to adapt and organize when authority suddenly abandons them to hostile wilds.
Series on the same thread
The Walking Dead: Dead City
Series · 2023
Shares a thread with Escape from New York: Urban Decay.
Sharing Escape from New York's premise of a cut-off Manhattan island, this series delivers identical gritty urban decay and uneasy alliances as characters navigate the perilous ruins of an isolated metropolitan wasteland.
Prison Break
Paul T. Scheuring · Series · 2005
Shares a thread with Escape from New York: Survival.
Like the tense infiltration and extraction in Escape from New York, this series hooks you with meticulous escape strategies, high-stakes countdowns, and the thrill of outsmarting a heavily guarded, inescapable penitentiary system.
Attack on Titan
Series · 2013
Shares a thread with Escape from New York: Survival.
If the barricaded perimeter of Escape from New York pulled you in, you will be gripped by the existential claustrophobia of humanity huddled behind massive walls while fighting brutal monsters for survival.
Future Boy Conan
Series · 1978
Explores: Environmentalism, Loss of Innocence, Technological Dystopia.
Following in the footsteps of Escape from New York's ruined future, this post-apocalyptic saga explores survival across shattered enclaves and tyrannical industrial settlements decades after a devastating third world war.
Podcasts on the same thread
The Bowery Boys: New York City History
Tom Meyers, Greg Young · Podcast
Explores: urban development, immigrant experience, metropolitan evolution.
If the iconic urban backdrop of Escape from New York fascinated you, dive into the actual city's rich history, colorful characters, and shifting neighborhoods across centuries of real-world metropolitan evolution.
The Last City
Audible · Podcast
Explores: Corporate propaganda, Climate catastrophe, Utopian facade.
Echoing Escape from New York's perilous exile into lawless zones, this audio drama follows a protagonist cast into the brutal Outerlands, struggling to survive among defiant factions and cutthroat warlords.
Keep exploring
Common questions
Did John Carpenter direct and score Escape from New York?
John Carpenter directed, co-wrote, and co-scored Escape from New York. Released in 1981, this low-budget American science fiction action film became a cult classic featuring music and a screenplay created with Carpenter's direct involvement.
What is the setting of Escape from New York?
Escape from New York is set in a near-future 1997 across a crime-ridden United States. The federal government has converted the entire island of Manhattan into a maximum security prison, creating the backdrop for the film's high-stakes rescue mission.
Why does Snake Plissken have a time limit in Escape from New York?
In Escape from New York, Police Commissioner Bob Hauk recruits former special ops soldier turned criminal Snake Plissken to retrieve the President. Snake must succeed quickly because lethal explosives planted directly inside his neck will kill him if he runs out of time.
Who plays the President and the Police Commissioner in Escape from New York?
In Escape from New York, Donald Pleasence stars as the President of the United States, and Lee Van Cleef portrays Police Commissioner Bob Hauk. Additionally, actor Ernest Borgnine appears in the 1981 science fiction action film as Cabbie.