In the new movie Premium Rush, Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays a New York City bike messenger who gets tangled up with the wrong people, and is forced to ride for his life. To anyone who has ridden a bicycle through Manhattan, that probably sounds like business as usual.

In the story, JGL is on the run from crooked cops, but there are plenty of jobs in NYC that do not need any added element of danger. Here are five legal ways to make money in NYC that keep the adrenaline levels on extreme.

Bike Messenger: Riding a bike in Manhattan is tough any way you cut it. It’s like swimming with extremely fast and heavy sharks that can’t seem to stay in one lane for more than a second. Bike messengers spend all day in that shark tank, and are constantly on an urgent deadline; it’s no wonder they always look a little crazy.

Bridge Maintenance Worker: New Yorkers love anything massive, towering, or monumental, and NYC’s suspension bridges are all three. They are also easy to take for granted, given how much traffic they get in a given day, but someone has to make sure that they are in tip-top shape, from hardware to paint job, and that is no easy task. Imagine working high above rushing cars, a river to either side of you, wind whipping in from the ocean… and be glad you spend all day at a desk.


Gypsy Cab Driver: While driving any cab at all in NYC is dangerous, it isn’t deadly, per se. But gypsy cab drivers, the medallion-less free agents of the urban livery world, have the added danger of working sketchier neighborhoods, and even being asked to drive for criminals. Sadly, the murder rate for gypsy cab drivers is historically higher than their yellow cab driving counterparts. Hey—you say yellow, we say smart.

Electrical Worker: Working with electricity is dangerous in any environment, but in New York City, where cables run underground through tunnels that may be well over a hundred years old, and are seldom dry, extreme caution is required. It goes without saying that there are also some very large rats down there.

Premium Rush hits theaters this Friday, August 24. For more on the movie, go to