Common Sense Note
Parents need to know that violence in this bleak vision of the future includes gunfire, crossbows, thrown knives, land mines, and gladiatorial death bouts with fists and clubs (though except for a severed head there's little explicit gore). Do-not-do-this-at-home stuff includes whiskey used as a firebomb. Swearing is at the typical R-level. The hero smokes cigarettes. There's a quick glimpse of bare breasts. An atmosphere of cynicism and darkness pervades, including a negative depiction of a US president and a police-state America.
Sexual
Content
Blink-and-you'll-miss-them bare breasts, as NYC prisoners manhandle a girl. Low-cut outfits for the leading lady. Plissken makes an angry joke about "playing with myself." He has a suggestive tattoo around his crotch.
Violence
Gunfire, explosions, beat-downs, and gladiatorial death bouts with fists and clubs. A severed head. Characters stuck with arrows and knives. Implication that high-tech tiny time bombs are implanted in someone's head. A hijacked plane crashes into a Manhattan skyscraper as in 9/11, but only a radar-readout is shown.
Language
The s-word, the f-word, "a-hole," "Jesus Christ," "bastard," SOB.
Social
Behavior
The rotten Big Apple here represents the worst that could happen under a harsh, uncaring government. Along with that comes a theme of mistrusting authority and "the Man." There are no real heroes; the closest thing is a commando-turned-robber, motivated entirely by self-interest (or other people coercing him). Even he is disgusted by the callous attitude of the hostage US president (and, by extension, the society that president represents).
Consumerism
Chock-Full-a-Nuts and Coca-Cola signs visible.
Drugs / Tobacco /
Alcohol
Tough-guy cigarette smoking. Drunken-derelict type characters in a skid-row setting, mention of junkies.