Memorable quotes for
Escape from New York (1981) More at IMDb Pro »

Bob Hauk: You go in, find the President, bring him out in less than 24 hours, and you're a free man.
Snake Plissken: Bullshit!
Bob Hauk: I'm making you an offer.
Snake Plissken: Get a new president.
Bob Hauk: Is that your answer?
Snake Plissken: I'm thinking about it.
Bob Hauk: Think hard. We're still at war. We need him alive.
Snake Plissken: I don't give a fuck about your war...or your president.

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President: God save me, and watch over you all.

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Bob Hauk: I'm not a fool, Plissken!
Snake Plissken: Call me "Snake."

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Hauk: Plissken? Plissken, what are you doing?
Snake Plissken: Playing with myself! I'm going in.

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Bob Hauk: Remember, once you're inside you're on your own.
Snake Plissken: Oh, you mean I can't count on you?
Bob Hauk: No.
Snake Plissken: Good!

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Bob Hauk: It's the survival of the human race, Plissken. Something you don't give a shit about.

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Girl in "Chock Full O'Nuts": You're a cop!
Snake Plissken: I'm an asshole...

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The Duke: They sent in their best man, and when we roll across the 59th Street bridge tomorrow, on our way to freedom, we're going to have their best man leading the way - from the neck up!
[cheering erupts]
The Duke: On the hood of my car!

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Brain: They're savages, Mr. President.

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Bob Hauk: You going to kill me, Snake?
Snake Plissken: Not now, I'm too tired.
[pause]
Snake Plissken: Maybe later.

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Bob Hauk: We'd make one hell of a team, Snake!
Snake Plissken: The name's Plissken!

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[last lines]
President: Good evening. Although I shall not be present at this historic summit meeting, I present this in the hope that our great nations may learn to live in peace...

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Bob Hauk: [reading Plissken's file] S.D. Plissken... American, Lieutenant: Special Forces Unit "Black Light". Two Purple Hearts, Leningrad and Siberia. Youngest man to be decorated by the President. Then you robbed the Federal Reserve Depository... life sentence, New York maximum security penitentary. I'm about to kick your ass out of *the world*, war hero...
Snake Plissken: [calmly strikes a match against Hauk's desk to light his cigarette and in a bored tone of voice] Who're you?
Bob Hauk: Hauk, Police Commissioner.
Snake Plissken: Bob Hauk...
Bob Hauk: Special Forces Unit "Texas Thunder"... we heard of you too, Plissken.

---

Romero: You touch me... he dies. If you're not in the air in thirty seconds... he dies. You come back in... he dies.
Romero: [Romero takes a package out of his shirt and unwraps it to reveal the President's middle finger, complete with ring] Twenty seconds.
Hauk: I'm ready to talk
Romero: Nineteen. Eighteen.
Hauk: What do you want?
Romero: Seventeen. Sixteen.
Hauk: Let's go. Let's go!

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Snake Plissken: [radioing a pullout request] All right, get your machine ready, I'm coming out.
Bob Hauk: 18 hours, Plissken!
Snake Plissken: Listen to me, Hauk. The President is dead, you got that? Somebody's had him for dinner!
Bob Hauk: Plissken, if you get back in that glider, I'll shoot you down! You climb out, I'll burn you off the wall! Do you understand that, Plissken?
Snake Plissken: No human compassion.

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Snake Plissken: Where's the President?
Cabbie: The Duke got him. Everybody knows the Duke's got him. You don't have to put a gun to my head. I'll tell you.
Snake Plissken: Who's the Duke?
Cabbie: The Duke? The Duke of New York, A-Number-1, the Big Man, that's who!
Snake Plissken: I wanna meet this Duke.
Cabbie: You can't meet the Duke! Are you crazy? Nobody gets to meet the Duke. You meet him once and then you're dead!

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President: [fires machine gun at the Duke] Ayy!! Number Onnee! You're the Duke! You're the Duke!
[stops firing]
President: You're the...Duke.
[quietly]
President: You're...A-number one.

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Cabbie: Brain? Brain, I brought somebody to see you.
Snake Plissken: [recognizes Brain] Harold Helman...
Brain: Snake?
Maggie: [curious] Harold?
Snake Plissken: How you been, Harold? It's been a long time.
Maggie: You never told me you knew Snake Plissken, Brain.
Cabbie: Isn't that great? Hey, Brain, I could use some gas if you could spare some.
Snake Plissken: I'm glad you remember me. Yeah, a man should remember his past. Kansas City, four years ago, you ran out on me... You left me sittin' there.
Brain: You were late.
Snake Plissken: [bitterly] We were buddies, Harold. You, me, and Fresno Bob. You know what they did to Bob, huh?

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[Snake's been captured after getting shot in the leg with an arrow]
The Duke: Who are you?
[Snake says nothing, staring defiantly; the Duke grabs the arrow in Snake's leg and twists it]
The Duke: I said, WHO ARE YOU?
[Snake... in obvious agony, still says nothing]
Brain: Snake Plissken, Duke... the Man sent him in. Somethin's goin' down, we need him...
The Duke: [releases the arrow] Snake Plissken... I've heard of you.
The Duke: [strikes Snake with a tire iron, knocking him unconscious] I heard you were dead!

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Snake Plissken: [to Maggie] You wanna see him sprayed all over that map, baby? Now where's the President?

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Bob Hauk: [referring to the Gullfire] Is the glider intact?
Snake Plissken: Yeah, but takin' off is for shit... I'll work it out.

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Bob Hauk: There was an accident. About an hour ago, a small jet went down inside New York City. The President was on board.
Snake Plissken: The president of what?

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Stewardess: [Air Force One has been hijacked by a lone terrorist] Tell this to the workers when they ask where their leader went. We, the soldiers of The National Liberation Front of America, in the name of the workers and all the oppressed of this imperialist country, have struck a fatal blow to the fascist police state. What better revolutionary example than to let their president perish in the inhuman dungeon of his own imperialist prison.

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Brain: Swear to God Snake, I thought you were dead...
Snake Plissken: Yeah, you and everybody else!

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Snake Plissken: [after threatening Brain with his machine gun] You always were smart, Harold.
Brain: Just one thing, right now... don't call me Harold!

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[Snake runs into Cabbie's taxi cab while being chased by the Crazies]
Cabbie: Bad neighborhood, Snake! You don't want to be walking from the Bowery to 42nd Street at night. I've been driving a cab here for 30 years and I'm telling you: you don't walk around here at night! Yes, sir! Those Crazies'll kill you and strip you in ten seconds flat! Usually I'm not down around here myself, but I wanted to catch that show. That stuff is like gold around here, you know.
[Cabbie casually lights a Molotov cocktail and throws it at approaching Crazies, which explodes in front of them, stopping them... and Cabbie speeds away with Snake in his taxi]

---

Cronenberg: Tell him.
Snake Plissken: Tell me what?
Bob Hauk: That idea you had about turning the Gullfire around 180 degress and flying off to Canada...
Snake Plissken: What did you do to me, asshole?
Bob Hauk: My idea, Plissken. Something we've been fooling around with. Two microscopic capsules have been injected into your neck at the base of your two main arteries. They're already starting to dissolve. In 22 hours, they'll be dissolved down to the cores. At the core of each capsule is a small heat-sensing charge that will donate. Not a small explosion, about the size of a pinhead, just enough to pop open both of your arteries. I estimate that you'll be dead in 10 to 20 seconds from internal bleeding...
Snake Plissken: [chokes Hauk] Take them out, now!
Cronenberg: They're protected by the cores. Fifteen minutes before the last hour is up, we can neutralize the charge with X-rays.
Bob Hauk: We'll burn out the charges IF you have the President.
Snake Plissken: What if I'm a little late?
Bob Hauk: No more Hartford Summit. And no more Snake Plissken.
Snake Plissken: When I get back, I'm going to kill you.
Bob Hauk: The Gullfire's waiting.

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Snake Plissken: We did get you out. A lot of people died in the process, I just wondered how you felt about it.
President: [cocky, distant tone] Well, I...I wanna thank them. This nation appreciates their sacrifice.
[pause]
President: Look, I'm on in...two minutes?
Snake Plissken: [walks away in disgust]

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The Duke: What did I teach you?
President: Y-You are the... Duke of New... New York. You're A-Number One.
The Duke: I can't hear you!
President: Y-You... You are the Duke of New York! You're A-Number One!

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Computer Voice: Attention. You are now entering the Debarkation Area. No talking. No smoking. Follow the orange line to the Processing Area. The next scheduled departure to the prison is in two hours. You now have the option to terminate and be cremated on the premises. If you elect this option, notify the Duty Sergeant in your Processing Area.

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