Escape from New York (1981) - Parents Guide Movie Rating

MPA: R BBFC: 15 Maturity Rating 16+

BBFC Reason: strong violence, brief sexual threat ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK is a post apocalyptic sci-fi action thriller, from 1981, in which a convicted bank robber must save the president from a city wide-prison, which was formerly Manhattan.

BBFC Ratings info: ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK is a post-apocalyptic sci-fi action thriller, from 1981, in which a convicted bank robber must save the president from a city wide-prison, which was formerly Manhattan. Violence: Scenes include a man driving his car into a woman, with subsequent sight of her bloodied body. There are also shootings, resulting in bloody impact detail. Threat: There is brief strong sexual threat when a man witnesses three other men attempting to assault a barely conscious woman. The men push her around, and one man rips at her top revealing breast nudity. There is use of strong language ('f**k') and milder terms including 'shit', 'asshole', 'ass', 'son of a bitch', 'bullshit', 'bastard', 'Jesus', 'crap', 'damn', and 'slag'.

Sex & Nudity

mild

At 35 minutes and 1-2 seconds, three bad men ripped off a woman's shirt, her bare breast are shown, for a couple of seconds. A woman goes to kiss a Man ,but they are interrupted. For most of her screen time, Adrienne Barbeau wears a shirt that reveals lots of cleavage.

Violence & Gore

moderate

Snake briefly fights off several attackers while trying to escape with the president. Non-violent. Snake attacks Duke and briefly struggles with him at the end, hitting him in the stomach and face. Several savages raid a building, and Snake shoots at them from the inside. He runs through the building, and when he shoots, some of them can be seen dying. Snake shoots one of their hands off when they stick their arm through a window. Maggie shoots and kills several bad guys in a room. They can be seen getting shot, but no blood or gore is seen. Snake shoots and kills several bad guys as they escape the fortress with the president. Near the beginning, two attackers sneak up on Snake, but he knocks them both out quickly. The scene is quick, and not violent. Two men are seen carrying a third man on a stretcher, and the man is bloody and several cuts. Not too violent, and quite brief. Several mines are placed across the bridge that Snake and his allies drive across to escape and several small explosions can be seen. Snake fights Slag, a large bad guy, in an arena deathmatch. They both fight with weapons, and the final round ends when Snake buries a club with nails in it in the back of Slag's head, killing him. No blood or gore is seen. A bad guy shoots Snake in the leg with a crossbow, and the throws a ninja star into the guy's forehead. Some blood is seen, but very little. A helicopter shoots a rocket to blow up an escaping raft of inmates. Bloodless and non-graphic. A cut off finger is shown to another person, mildly bloody but hokey-looking. A large street gang violently attacks a vehicle. They throw objects at the car, Snake and Maggie, inside, each shoot one of them. A dismembered head is seen on a pike as a car drives by, and some blood can be seen. Surprisingly graphic. During the building raid scene, Snake shoots a bad guy's hand, and it explodes (accompanied with a slightly comedic yelp). It's pretty gory, but brief. Maggie is run over and killed by the Duke near the end of the movie, there is a shot of her on the ground with blood gushing out of her stomach, she is covered in blood and laying in a pool of blood. Very intense, might be disturbing for some viewers. Duke is gunned down by the president at the end and there's a descent amount of blood shown. Cabbie and Brain both die near the end. Cabbie dies when the taxi crashes, and his corpse can be seen with some blood, but it's not very graphic, and Brain gets shot. His corpse can also be seen, with some blood.

Profanity

moderate

This actually could have been pg compared to other pg movies in the 80's like sixteen candles and beetlejuice 3 uses of 'fuck', 11 uses of 'shit' (3 used as 'bullshit'), 6 uses of 'ass' (4 used as 'asshole'), 3 uses of 'damn' (2 paired with "God"), 2 uses of 'bitch', 2 uses of 'hell', 1 use of 'bastard', 1 use of 'Jesus' as an exclamation, 2 uses of 'God' as an exclamation, and 1 use of 'crap'.

Alcohol, Drugs & Smoking

mild

A man is seen very briefly drinking from a bottle containing what is presumably alcohol when Snake is on the streets. Multiple instances of cigarette smoking.

Frightening & Intense Scenes

moderate

The whole movie is very dark and gritty, and at times a little disturbing. Some scenes of violence may be intense, but nothing too bad. The opening scenes when Snake walks through the city are a little unsettling. The deathmatch fight scene may be a little intense. The decapitated head that can be seen on a stake may be intense for some. The scenes with the crazies may be a little disturbing. Some scenes that might make you jump, but nothing too disturbing.