Escape from New York (1981)

The president's airplane is hijacked so he pops out of an escape pod into Manhattan, a now 80s retro future apocalyptic prison island. The prison gangs take him hostage and refuse to negotiate with government chumps.

The government chumps select the obvious plan B: call in the one-eyed, hoarse-voiced, growling prisoner Snake Plissken, a former military prisoner who you might know from his adventures in Metal Gear Solid, and send him in undercover. He is granted full pardon if he gets the prison back in 24 hours, otherwise his heart blows up because of explosive artery pills or whatever. It was the 80s, this made sense.

He takes a cute little glider into Manhattan and prances about, making a few friends and a lot of enemies among the various gangs. A taxi driver takes him to one of the gang leaders, South Park's Chef, who is holding the president hostage.

He is captured and has to gladiator battle to the death in a boxing ring, as was tradition at the time. It's basically the set of Mad Max, but scattered around New York. Snake escapes and they have a car chase and get gets back with 1 second to spare and it's all very exciting.