ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK (1981) Movie Poster, Daybill, Kurt Russell 13x28"
Size Custom Size (see Description)
13 x 28 " Escape From New York (1981) Original Australian Daybill 13" x 28" Movie Poster, Starring Kurt Russell, Lee Van Cleef, Ernest Borgnine, Donald Pleasence, directed by John Carpenter...
13 x 28 "
Escape From New York (1981) Original Australian Daybill 13" x 28" Movie Poster, Starring Kurt Russell, Lee Van Cleef, Ernest Borgnine, Donald Pleasence, directed by John Carpenter is in Very Fine Condition.
Movie Poster and Condition
Condition: This Daybill Movie Poster is really in unused condition, folded as issued, but there is a texta mark on the top left hand side on back that has been covered with white out, other than that it is a very clean unused, extremely good example. If poster is linen backed this will change the condition to near mint but because of that slight condition we have considered the condition as Very Fine currently. This poster is currently stored folded and will be shipped in an acid free archival polypropylene bag with acid free archival backing board. This Authentic Australian Daybill Poster measures 13" x 28" and represents a genuine piece of cinema history from one of the most influential science fiction action films of the 1980s. These original theatrical release posters are increasingly rare and highly sought after by collectors of John Carpenter memorabilia and cult classic cinema.
Movie Synopsis
In the dystopian future of 1997, the entire island of Manhattan has been transformed into a maximum security prison, surrounded by a fifty-foot containment wall and patrolled by heavily armed guards. This radical solution emerged after the United States experienced a staggering 400% increase in crime, leading authorities to convert America's most iconic city into a walled penitentiary where over three million convicted criminals have been abandoned to create their own lawless society. No guards patrol the streets inside, prisoners govern themselves in a brutal hierarchy of violence and survival.
When Air Force One is hijacked and crashes into the heart of this urban nightmare, the President of the United States finds himself trapped amongst the most dangerous criminals in the country. With a crucial summit meeting scheduled in less than 24 hours, Police Commissioner Bob Hauk (played by legendary western actor Lee Van Cleef) has no conventional rescue options available. Instead, he turns to Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell in his most iconic role), a former Special Forces soldier turned bank robber who has just been sentenced to life imprisonment in Manhattan.
Hauk offers Snake an impossible deal: infiltrate the prison city, locate the President, and extract him safely within 22 hours, or face execution. To ensure Snake's compliance, microscopic explosive charges are injected into his arteries, programmed to detonate if he fails to return with the President before the deadline expires. Armed with limited weapons and a tracking device, Snake glides into Manhattan atop the World Trade Center, beginning a desperate race against time through the most dangerous territory in America.
Once inside, Snake navigates a nightmarish landscape of abandoned buildings, roving street gangs, and the Crazies, criminally insane prisoners who emerge from subway tunnels and manholes to attack anyone they encounter. He reluctantly teams up with Cabbie (Ernest Borgnine), a cheerful taxi driver who has survived three decades in the prison, and Brain (Harry Dean Stanton), a resourceful engineer who knows the city's secrets. Brain's partner Maggie (Adrienne Barbeau) provides crucial assistance as they discover the President is being held hostage by The Duke of New York (soul legend Isaac Hayes), the most powerful gang leader in Manhattan, who demands amnesty for all prisoners in exchange for the President's release.
Snake's mission takes him through some of Manhattan's most famous landmarks, reimagined as hellish battlegrounds. In a particularly memorable sequence, he's forced to fight in a gladiatorial death match inside Madison Square Garden, using nail-studded baseball bats against a hulking opponent named Slag, whilst thousands of bloodthirsty prisoners cheer for carnage. He must also navigate a bridge laden with explosive mines and survive constant ambushes from The Duke's heavily armed gang members.
Director John Carpenter conceived Escape From New York in the mid-1970s as a response to the Watergate scandal, channelling his cynicism about American government into this dark vision of the future. After the massive success of Halloween (1978), which became the most profitable independent film of its era, Carpenter finally secured the $6 million budget needed to bring his ambitious concept to life. He co-wrote the screenplay with Nick Castle, who had portrayed Michael Myers in Halloween and shared Carpenter's love of genre filmmaking.
The production faced significant challenges in creating a convincing futuristic Manhattan on a modest budget. Rather than filming in New York City, which would have been cost-prohibitive, production designer Joe Alves (who had worked on Jaws) scouted locations across America and discovered that downtown St. Louis, Missouri had been devastated by urban fires in the mid-1970s, leaving blocks of burnt-out, derelict buildings that perfectly captured the post-apocalyptic atmosphere Carpenter envisioned. The production literally purchased the historic Old Chain of Rocks Bridge for one dollar to use as a filming location, then sold it back to the city for the same price after shooting concluded.
Principal photography took place between August and November 1980, with extensive night shoots in St. Louis utilising locations like the magnificent Fox Theatre, the Union Station Grand Hall (which doubled as Madison Square Garden), and numerous abandoned downtown streets. Additional filming occurred in Los Angeles, with the Sepulveda Dam in the San Fernando Valley serving as the futuristic bridge in the film's climactic sequence. Apart from one atmospheric establishing shot and a brief scene at Liberty Island, virtually none of the film was actually shot in New York City—a testament to Carpenter's ingenuity in creating such a convincing urban landscape.
The film's distinctive visual style was enhanced through innovative practical effects. The famous wireframe computer graphics displayed on Snake's glider screens weren't computer-generated at all—the effects team filmed a miniature model of Manhattan under black light with reflective tape along every building edge, creating the illusion of cutting-edge technology on a shoestring budget. Matte paintings provided sweeping views of the darkened Manhattan skyline, whilst Carpenter's own synthesiser score (co-composed with Alan Howarth) became one of the most iconic and influential soundtracks in science fiction cinema.
Kurt Russell transformed himself for the role of Snake Plissken, adopting a gravelly voice reminiscent of Clint Eastwood and sporting an eye patch that became instantly iconic. His performance as the cynical, nihilistic anti-hero established Snake as one of cinema's most memorable characters—a deliberate homage to the lone gunfighters in Sergio Leone's spaghetti westerns. The character's influence would extend far beyond this film, directly inspiring Solid Snake from the Metal Gear video game series, whose creator has openly acknowledged the debt.
The supporting cast assembled by Carpenter reads like a who's who of cult cinema legends. Donald Pleasence, reuniting with Carpenter after Halloween, brought unexpected gravitas to the role of the President, even inventing an elaborate backstory involving Britain recolonising America under Margaret Thatcher (none of which made it into the film). Lee Van Cleef, famous for his villain roles in A Fistful of Dollars and For A Few Dollars More, delivered a commanding performance as the authoritarian Hauk. Ernest Borgnine provided much-needed levity as the cheerful Cabbie, whilst Harry Dean Stanton (fresh from Alien) brought world-weary intelligence to the character of Brain.
Isaac Hayes, the Oscar-winning composer of the Shaft theme and star of numerous blaxploitation films, created an unforgettable villain in The Duke, complete with a customised Cadillac fitted with chandeliers. Adrienne Barbeau, Carpenter's wife at the time and star of The Fog, brought fierce determination to Maggie. The cast even included uncredited appearances by Jamie Lee Curtis (providing voice work as a computer) and director Carpenter himself in multiple small roles.
Released on 10 July 1981, Escape From New York became an immediate commercial success, grossing over $50 million worldwide against its modest budget. Critics praised Carpenter's ability to create such an epic-feeling film with limited resources. Time magazine's Richard Corliss wrote that Carpenter was "offering this summer's moviegoers a rare opportunity: to escape from the air-conditioned torpor of ordinary entertainment into the hothouse humidity of their own paranoia." The film received four Saturn Award nominations, including Best Science Fiction Film and Best Direction.
The film's influence on popular culture has been profound and enduring. Its poster image of the Statue of Liberty's severed head lying in a Manhattan street became iconic (even though this scene doesn't actually appear in the film). The movie inspired numerous imitators and homages, from video games to other films—most notably, a French court ruled in 2015 that the film Lockout (2012) had plagiarised Escape From New York, awarding damages to Carpenter and Castle. In 1996, Carpenter and Russell reunited for a sequel, Escape From L.A., which essentially remade the original with a West Coast setting and a significantly larger budget.
Escape From New York remains a defining example of 1980s science fiction action cinema, combining dystopian social commentary with thrilling genre entertainment. Its DIY aesthetic, memorable characters, iconic soundtrack, and Carpenter's confident direction have secured its status as a cult classic that continues to inspire filmmakers, game designers, and artists decades after its release. The film represents the peak of Carpenter's remarkable creative period in the late 1970s and early 1980s, standing alongside Halloween, The Fog, and The Thing as essential works from one of genre cinema's most important directors.
To find out more about Escape From New York (1981) click here to go to IMDB.com.
Special Notes
Images may have a small 'MPA' digital watermark and this does not appear on the poster. Posters are being held by magnets in the corners to take photographs, so you may see some magnet and shadows from the magnets in these areas. The magnets are not included in the sale of the item.
Postage, Insurance & Your Country Taxes
Postage costs are quoted for this item, include insurance up to AUD$100, but if you reside outside of Australia, the price does not include any import taxes/fees that you may be required to pay when the item reaches your borders. Please check with your local authorities for any additional taxes or fees. If you would like full insurance coverage for your purchase, please message me and I would be happy to quote the additional cost (estimate is AUD$2.50 p/AUD$100 or 2.5% of the item value, up to a maximum item value of AUD$5,000).
FAQ
At Movie Posters Australia, the love and conservation of movie posters comes first, and we like to share this passion. Our commitment to quality means we will provide high quality memorabilia to our customers. Posters are carefully chosen and authenticated to ensure originality and value. We want our customers to trust MPA, so we always try to be as open and transparent as we can, provide detailed condition information and images, to ensure customers are comfortable and confident in their purchase.
While the industry does have a few condition rating standards, there is no movie poster condition rating system that has become the accepted standard world wide. This unfortunately makes condition terms vary from movie poster dealer to movie poster dealer. Terms like Mint, Near Mint, Very Fine, Fine, Very Good, Good, Fair, Poor, seem to be universal to most condition rating standards, but most standards still lack definition about what and how many flaws/defects/damage defines a specific condition level. For more information on how Movie Posters Australia grades the condition of its movie posters, daybills, lobby cards and other ephemera please see out Movie Poster Condition and Grading page.
In the early days of cinema, posters were primarily hand-drawn and printed in various sizes, often tailored to fit the available space in theaters or promotional areas. In the United States, the "One Sheet" size (some times called '1 Sheet' or '1SH' approximately 27" x 41", became the standard during the 1930s. This size was manageable for theater display and suited the needs of a growing film industry.
Different countries developed their own poster sizes and styles, which also changed sometimes over the decades, and were influenced by local preferences and practical considerations, like available paper sheet sizes and how many posters could be printed on one sheet.
In Australia, the most popular size, the Daybill, has evolved over the decades. Australian Daybills sizes in chronological order are:
- Long Daybills (15" x 40"), from 1920's to pre-WW2 or pre-1941, were printed two to a sheet, longer than current Daybill versions. There were size variances in width from 14.5" to 15" and in height from 39.5" to 40".
- War Time Daybill (10" x 30"), during WW2, for a short time to conserve paper during a war time shortage, four Daybills were printed on one sheet. Information from Press Sheets also referred to these War-Time sizes as "New Size Daybills".
- Post-War Daybill (13" x 30"), this 13" x 30" Post-War size carried through until the 1980's, but also varied in size from 13"-14" x 29.75"-30.25".
- Post-80's Daybill (33cm x 66cm, or 13" x 26"), over a few years in the late 80's, the size changed again to a metric 33cm x 66cm, although these have also varied from 32-33cm x 64.5-66cm. New sizes from the late 80's were created, sometimes called a Mini Daybill or Mini Poster, in 9" x 12", 11" x 17" and 13" x 20".
In the UK, the somewhat unique 'Quad' poster, measuring 30" x 40", became popular, offering a larger landscape format that allowed for more elaborate designs.
In Japan, movie poster sizes were smaller, such as the "B2" (20" x 28"), which suited the more compact living environment of larger cities, smaller advertising spaces, and unique aesthetic sensibilities.
The 1970s and 1980s, witnessed the rise of the "six-sheet" (81" x 81") format, reflecting a trend towards larger and more visually impactful advertising.
Overall, the variation in movie poster sizes across different countries and decades highlights the interplay between technological printing advancements, paper resource availability, paper sheet size changes, cultural preferences, and the evolving nature of movie marketing.
At Movie Posters Australia we tag each poster we sell with a 'size' and 'condition' description at the very top of the page for our customers to easily see. There may however be some slight variations to sizes by up one inch due to variations in production and guillotine methods by printers over the decades.