Snake Plissken – Escape from New York

With an eye patch, leather sleeveless shirt, low grunt, burning cigarette, and mean five o’clock shadow, Snake Plissken defines badass.

In 1981, Kurt Russell starred as Snake Plissken in Escape from New York; a film that took place in the future, 1997. In the 90s, crime would dramatically increase and New York would be turned into a giant prison where criminals would run free in their own dreadful and demented society. The streets run rampant in chaos and crime, and at night the crazies come out. Snake Plissken, a man with an indefinite past, would be sent in to this dark city to save the President of the United States with a 24-hour time restraint.

A simple character, most of Snake Plissken’s dialogue is composed of very short lines usually containing a grunt. He normally deals with people by putting a gun to their head or just immediately killing them. His defining, and maybe longest, quote is “I don't give a fuck about your war... or your president.”

Snake Plissken (along with the rest of this movie) may sound a little corny or cliché, but at the time much of it was original. In fact, a modern day video game badass, Snake from the Metal Gear franchise, is drastically based off of Snake Plissken.