Kurt Russell is amazing. That’s all there really is to it, quite frankly.

Hell, he’s so cool that when he gets cast in a Marvel superhero movie they decide he’s not going to play a superhero. He’s not even going to play a baddie. He’s going to play a planet. That’s right, a planet – in the eagerly awaited Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol.2 Russell will be playing Ego The Living Planet and frankly there’s no greater compliment to one of the coolest men to have ever walked the earth.

Younger viewers might not be so aware of this galactic level of cool, however, even after an ice cold performance as Jimmy Harrell, rig supervisor and all-round good egg in DEEPWATER HORIZON, out on 4k UHD Blu-ray, Blu-ray and DVD on January 30^th courtesy of Lionsgate Home Entertainment. Sure, recent outings in The Hateful Eight, Bone Tomahawk and even Furious 7 have given audiences a decent reminder that this man can do no wrong but we’re here to remind you that his cool runs much deeper than that:

Escape From New York (1981)

Russell first teamed with visionary director John Carpenter on a biopic about Elvis where he played The King himself, but their successful pairing really took off when Carpenter was on more familiar ground in the grungy sci-fi romp, Escape From New York. As Snake Plissken, Russell embodied the kind of cool that would define his early career (and his ongoing partnership with Carpenter). As a convicted bank robber sent into Manhattan (which is now a giant maximum security prison) to rescue the President whose plane crashed at its heart, Russell created an icon in Plissken that many have tried and failed to emulate. It’s a shame the 1996 sequel, Escape From LA didn’t hit quite the same heights but then lightning doesn’t strike twice…