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Demolition Man (film)
Encyclopedia
Demolition Man is a 1993 American, science fiction
action film
directed by Marco Brambilla
, and starring Sylvester Stallone
and Wesley Snipes
. Sandra Bullock
, Nigel Hawthorne
, and Denis Leary
co-star.
The film tells the story of two men — one, an evil crime lord
; the other, a risk-taking police officer
— who are cryogenically frozen
in the year 1996 and reawakened in 2032. Following a massive earthquake
in 2010 that destroyed much of Los Angeles
, it merged with San Diego to form a planned city called San Angeles
in which all crime has seemingly been eliminated from mainstream society. Some aspects of the film allude to Aldous Huxley
's dystopian novel, Brave New World
.
In 1996, Los Angeles Police Department
Sergeant John Spartan leads a raid to save captured victims from the violent criminal Simon Phoenix. After Spartan scans the building for heat signatures and finds only eight — those of Phoenix's lackeys — he determines that the hostages are not in the building and attempts to capture Phoenix. Spartan corners Phoenix, who detonates explosives. As Phoenix is arrested, he accuses Spartan of having set off the explosives and killing the hostages. The police discover the bodies of the hostages in the rubble; Spartan is subsequently arrested and convicted of involuntary manslaughter. Phoenix and Spartan are both sent to "CryoPrison" (Spartan for 70 years, Phoenix for eternity), in which inmates are placed in cryogenic storage
and rehabilitated through subconscious suggestion.
Over the next 36 years, Los Angeles, San Diego, and Santa Barbara become a pacifist utopia called "San Angeles" under Dr. Raymond Cocteau. Crime is virtually non-existent, and the paternalistic society forbids anything deemed unhealthy, including fat
ty foods and sexual intercourse
. Even cursing is illegal: in one of the film's running gags, characters (typically Spartan) incur a fine each time he or she swears. During a 2032 parole hearing, Phoenix escapes using knowledge imprinted on his memory during his time in CryoPrison. The tamed officers of the San Angeles police are unable to subdue Phoenix, so they awaken John Spartan and place him under the care of Lieutenant Lenina Huxley, who has been fascinated with the late 20th century and can help Spartan cope with the changes. Spartan takes time to become accustomed to the future, while the others in the police force, particularly Huxley's superior, Chief Earle, find his ways barbaric.
Spartan and Huxley face Phoenix at a museum, as both officer and criminal realized that would be the only place in the pacifistic society where lethal weapons still exist. As Phoenix escapes, he encounters Dr. Cocteau and threatens to kill him, but finds that he is physically unable to do so. Dr. Cocteau suggests that Phoenix kill Edgar Friendly, the leader of a resistance force that refuses to accept Cocteau's society, and agrees to release other prisoners from CryoPrison to help him. Spartan and Huxley check Phoenix's rehabilitation program and find that he had been "rehabilitated" with training in a number of violent skills and access codes (while Spartan was rehabilitated as a sempster). Huxley procures a video from a museum security camera which captured Phoenix's encounter with Dr. Cocteau, and though the audio is undecipherable, Spartan is suspicious when he sees that Phoenix had plenty of time to kill Cocteau. Upon confronting Cocteau, an arrest warrant is placed on Spartan. Despite this, Spartan is able to convince Huxley to help him hunt for Phoenix in the subterranean passages where Edgar Friendly's resistance force lives.
When Spartan encounters the resistance force, he learns they are refugees who have refused to give up their way of life as required by Dr. Cocteau's utopia and have been forced to live in the wastelands of old Los Angeles. Spartan deduces that during his CryoPrison stay Phoenix was given a mental block that prevents him from killing Dr. Cocteau and fed the suggestion to kill Friendly. This would eliminate the last resistance to the Cocteau regime, something that the pacifist San Angeles Police Department is incapable of doing. Phoenix and his gang attempt to kill both Spartan and Friendly, but Friendly has retained his combat skills, and the two of them and Huxley drive them off.
Phoenix returns to Dr. Cocteau with his gang and, unable to harm Cocteau himself, orders one of them to kill him instead. Dr. Cocteau's subordinate then agrees to help Phoenix unfreeze the rest of the convicts. Spartan and Huxley find the corpse of Dr. Cocteau and drive to the CryoPrison where Phoenix is attempting to awaken the rest of the convicts.
With Friendly and Huxley's help, Spartan breaks into the facility and fights Phoenix, who uses his futuristic skills to his advantage. Phoenix admits that all the victims in 1996 were dead before Spartan arrived, which angers Spartan more. Spartan smashes a container of the potent cryogenic liquid against the floor and leaps to grab a malfunctioning crane arm overhead, as the floor and everything in contact with it freezes solid, including Phoenix. The damaged equipment in the room then explodes, with Spartan escaping just before the CryoPrison is destroyed.
As the other police forces arrive, Chief Earle is dismayed that without the leadership of Dr. Cocteau, their society will fall into chaos. Spartan suggests that Earle and Friendly work together to create a less restrictive, but law-abiding society, and turns to leave with Huxley, kissing her.
Jack Black
played one of the "Wasteland Scraps" in the underground scene, who flinches when Spartan shoves the gun out of his face and says "And Cocteau's an asshole!"
Rob Schneider
played Erwin, one of the operators in the Los Angeles Police control room; he would also play opposite Stallone in the 1995 movie Judge Dredd
.
Sandra Bullock
replaced original actress Lori Petty
in the role of Lenina Huxley after a few days filming. Her character's name is a reference to Aldous Huxley, the author of Brave New World
, and Lenina Crowne, a character in Brave New World.
Originally Jean-Claude Van Damme
and Steven Seagal
were offered lead roles in the movie. The role of Simon Phoenix was also offered to Jackie Chan
.
According to the scripts (before the final draft) the film starts out in 1998 and goes over to 2042 as John Spartan and Simon Phoenix were frozen for 44 years. In that draft, a cryocon was named Ignatious and was changed to Howie, while Howie was written out and replaced with a thug already released. Adam (played by Jesse Ventura) was Charlie and dies in the underground battle.
Jesse “The Body” Ventura got the part of a henchman to the lead villain as of wanting to take on Sylvester Stallone as of said in a WCW interview. Jesse Ventura played a minor role but John Spartan (Sylvester Stallone) fighting the goon to Simon Phoenix (Wesley Snipes) played by Jesse Ventura was cut out at the cryo-prison.
s, which "won the franchise wars" and evolved into fine-dining establishments. Twentieth-century advertising jingles are heard as popular music. Sexual intercourse and french kiss
es are illegal. In addition, it is stated there are no "non-natural caused deaths" since 2016; when Phoenix murders the CryoPrison warden and officers in order to escape, the police are notified with a "1-8-7" (Murder-Death-Kill), a code none of them can remember.
By 2032, toilet paper has fallen out of use; a set of three seashells is provided in every toilet stall. Though their method of use is left unexplained in the movie, Stallone later suggested a possible method in an interview as told to him by one of the film's writers involving extraction with two and scraping with one.
For some non-American releases, references to Taco Bell
were changed to Pizza Hut
. This includes dubbing, plus changing the logos during post-production. Taco Bell remains in the closing credits. In the Swedish release the subtitles still use Taco Bell while the sound and picture has been altered as above. The original version released in Australia (on VHS) contained Taco Bell, yet the newer version on DVD was changed both in logo and dubbing to Pizza Hut. (In the scene where the restaurant patrons are looking through the glass windows to the fight scene outside, "Taco Bell" can be seen etched into the glass, even in the modified version.)
In one scene, Phoenix makes a comment about serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer
being one of the cryo-inmates. Since this movie was made before his death in prison in 1994, in this alternate time period, he had been frozen with all the other criminals that were deemed too dangerous. Later versions of the film have this comment deleted.
The novelization of the movie suggests that several significant cuts were made from the finished film. For one thing, John Spartan mentions his daughter on several occasions, but the question of what happened to her is never answered; the novel has her turn up among the Scraps. Indeed, there is a scene in the film where Spartan is protecting an unnamed middle-aged woman, moments after his daughter revealed herself to him in the novelization. Also, in the novel, Spartan's daughter kisses him on the cheek, which provides a context for Spartan french-kissing Huxley. In the film, he simply grabs her and kisses her without preamble. Finally, in the novel, Zachary Lamb (an African-American police officer who serves with Spartan in both 1996 and 2032) is murdered by Phoenix when the latter steals Huxley's police car. In the movie, Lamb (almost inaudibly) says that he will wait by Huxley's police car. He is not killed, but he disappears from the movie, and Phoenix does indeed steal the car. This suggests that his death in the novel was supposed to happen in the movie as well.
A passing reference is made to the political era, including the U.S. Presidency
of Arnold Schwarzenegger
. Huxley explains to Spartan that the Constitution
had been amended to allow Schwarzenegger to be elected despite his foreign birth. In the 1990s, Schwarzenegger had been mentioned as a potential candidate for political office, although at the time the movie he had an honorary posting as chairman of the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports, and he did run successfully for Governor of California
ten years later. Schwarzenegger and Stallone often make tongue-in-cheek references to one another in their films, notably in Last Action Hero
which was released the same year as Demolition Man.
and $159,055,768 worldwide.
, based on 32 reviews. However, the film scored a 34/100 on Metacritic
, based on 9 reviews.
On Siskel & Ebert, Gene Siskel
gave the movie thumbs down for its routine violence, but did praise its "Funny offbeat script." Roger Ebert
praised the movie: "Unlike so many other movies of its genre, it really does have a satiric angle to it."
and written by Sting during his time as frontman for The Police
. The song was first released in March 1981, as an advance single from Jones's fifth album, Nightclubbing
. Sting released an EP featuring this song and other live tracks, entitled Demolition Man
.
Acclaimed composer Elliot Goldenthal
composed the score for the film. It was his second big Hollywood project after the Alien³ score.
released Demolition Man on various home video game systems. The 16-bit versions were distributed by Acclaim Entertainment
. The 3DO
version is a multi-genre game that incorporates Full Motion Video
scenes, with both Sylvester Stallone
and Wesley Snipes
reprising their roles as their characters in scenes that were filmed exclusively for the game.
In April 1994, Williams
released a widebody pinball
game, Demolition Man (based on the movie). It is designed by Dennis Nordman. This game features sound clips from the movie, as well as original speech by Stallone and Snipes. This game was part of WMS' SuperPin series (Twilight Zone, Indiana Jones, etc.).
claims that most of Demolition Man is based on his novel Holtak harca (Fight of the Dead), published in 1986. In the novel, a terrorist and his enemy, a counter-terrorism soldier are cryogenically frozen and awakened in the 22nd century, when violence was purged from society. Nemere claimed that a committee proved that 75% of the film is identical to the book. However, Nemere chose not to initiate a lawsuit, as it would have been too expensive for him to hire a lawyer and fight against major Hollywood forces in the United States. The author claims that Hollywood had ripped-off works of many Eastern European writers after the fall of the Iron Curtain
, and that he knows the person he claims to be responsible for illegally selling his idea to the filmmakers.
Science fiction film
Science fiction film is a film genre that uses science fiction: speculative, science-based depictions of phenomena that are not necessarily accepted by mainstream science, such as extraterrestrial life forms, alien worlds, extrasensory perception, and time travel, often along with futuristic...
action film
Action film
Action film is a film genre where one or more heroes is thrust into a series of challenges that require physical feats, extended fights and frenetic chases...
directed by Marco Brambilla
Marco Brambilla
Marco Brambilla is an Italian-born Canadian artist and filmmaker who works in the United States. Educated at Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada, where he studied film, he first worked in commercials and feature films, directing the successful 1993 science fiction film Demolition Man...
, and starring Sylvester Stallone
Sylvester Stallone
Michael Sylvester Gardenzio Stallone , commonly known as Sylvester Stallone, and nicknamed Sly Stallone, is an American actor, filmmaker, screenwriter, film director and occasional painter. Stallone is known for his machismo and Hollywood action roles. Two of the notable characters he has portrayed...
and Wesley Snipes
Wesley Snipes
Wesley Trent Snipes is an American actor, film producer, and martial artist, who has starred in numerous action films, thrillers, and dramatic feature films. Snipes is known for playing the Marvel Comics character Blade in the Blade film trilogy, among various other high profile roles...
. Sandra Bullock
Sandra Bullock
Sandra Annette Bullock is an Academy Award winning American actress and producer who rose to fame in the 1990s after roles in successful films such as Demolition Man, Speed, The Net, A Time to Kill, and While You Were Sleeping. She continued with films such as Miss Congeniality, The Lake House,...
, Nigel Hawthorne
Nigel Hawthorne
Sir Nigel Barnard Hawthorne, CBE was an English actor, perhaps best remembered for his role as Sir Humphrey Appleby, the Permanent Secretary in the 1980s sitcom Yes Minister and the Cabinet Secretary in its sequel, Yes, Prime Minister. For this role he won four BAFTA Awards during the 1980s in the...
, and Denis Leary
Denis Leary
Denis Colin Leary is an Irish-American actor, comedian, writer and director. Leary is known for his biting, fast paced comedic style and chain smoking...
co-star.
The film tells the story of two men — one, an evil crime lord
Crime boss
A crime boss or boss is a person in charge of a criminal organization. A boss typically has absolute or near-absolute control over his subordinates, is greatly feared by his subordinates for his ruthlessness and willingness to take lives in order to exert his influence, and profits come from the...
; the other, a risk-taking police officer
Police officer
A police officer is a warranted employee of a police force...
— who are cryogenically frozen
Cryopreservation
Cryopreservation is a process where cells or whole tissues are preserved by cooling to low sub-zero temperatures, such as 77 K or −196 °C . At these low temperatures, any biological activity, including the biochemical reactions that would lead to cell death, is effectively stopped...
in the year 1996 and reawakened in 2032. Following a massive earthquake
Earthquake
An earthquake is the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earth's crust that creates seismic waves. The seismicity, seismism or seismic activity of an area refers to the frequency, type and size of earthquakes experienced over a period of time...
in 2010 that destroyed much of Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, it merged with San Diego to form a planned city called San Angeles
San Angeles
San Angeles is a fictional futuristic concept of Southern California, United States, typically configured by commentators and films producers to include the areas of Los Angeles to San Diego and sometimes even San Bernardino to Riverside...
in which all crime has seemingly been eliminated from mainstream society. Some aspects of the film allude to Aldous Huxley
Aldous Huxley
Aldous Leonard Huxley was an English writer and one of the most prominent members of the famous Huxley family. Best known for his novels including Brave New World and a wide-ranging output of essays, Huxley also edited the magazine Oxford Poetry, and published short stories, poetry, travel...
's dystopian novel, Brave New World
Brave New World
Brave New World is Aldous Huxley's fifth novel, written in 1931 and published in 1932. Set in London of AD 2540 , the novel anticipates developments in reproductive technology and sleep-learning that combine to change society. The future society is an embodiment of the ideals that form the basis of...
.
Plot
Los Angeles Police Department
The Los Angeles Police Department is the police department of the city of Los Angeles, California. With just under 10,000 officers and more than 3,000 civilian staff, covering an area of with a population of more than 4.1 million people, it is the third largest local law enforcement agency in...
Sergeant John Spartan leads a raid to save captured victims from the violent criminal Simon Phoenix. After Spartan scans the building for heat signatures and finds only eight — those of Phoenix's lackeys — he determines that the hostages are not in the building and attempts to capture Phoenix. Spartan corners Phoenix, who detonates explosives. As Phoenix is arrested, he accuses Spartan of having set off the explosives and killing the hostages. The police discover the bodies of the hostages in the rubble; Spartan is subsequently arrested and convicted of involuntary manslaughter. Phoenix and Spartan are both sent to "CryoPrison" (Spartan for 70 years, Phoenix for eternity), in which inmates are placed in cryogenic storage
Cryogenics
In physics, cryogenics is the study of the production of very low temperature and the behavior of materials at those temperatures. A person who studies elements under extremely cold temperature is called a cryogenicist. Rather than the relative temperature scales of Celsius and Fahrenheit,...
and rehabilitated through subconscious suggestion.
Over the next 36 years, Los Angeles, San Diego, and Santa Barbara become a pacifist utopia called "San Angeles" under Dr. Raymond Cocteau. Crime is virtually non-existent, and the paternalistic society forbids anything deemed unhealthy, including fat
Fat
Fats consist of a wide group of compounds that are generally soluble in organic solvents and generally insoluble in water. Chemically, fats are triglycerides, triesters of glycerol and any of several fatty acids. Fats may be either solid or liquid at room temperature, depending on their structure...
ty foods and sexual intercourse
Sexual intercourse
Sexual intercourse, also known as copulation or coitus, commonly refers to the act in which a male's penis enters a female's vagina for the purposes of sexual pleasure or reproduction. The entities may be of opposite sexes, or they may be hermaphroditic, as is the case with snails...
. Even cursing is illegal: in one of the film's running gags, characters (typically Spartan) incur a fine each time he or she swears. During a 2032 parole hearing, Phoenix escapes using knowledge imprinted on his memory during his time in CryoPrison. The tamed officers of the San Angeles police are unable to subdue Phoenix, so they awaken John Spartan and place him under the care of Lieutenant Lenina Huxley, who has been fascinated with the late 20th century and can help Spartan cope with the changes. Spartan takes time to become accustomed to the future, while the others in the police force, particularly Huxley's superior, Chief Earle, find his ways barbaric.
Spartan and Huxley face Phoenix at a museum, as both officer and criminal realized that would be the only place in the pacifistic society where lethal weapons still exist. As Phoenix escapes, he encounters Dr. Cocteau and threatens to kill him, but finds that he is physically unable to do so. Dr. Cocteau suggests that Phoenix kill Edgar Friendly, the leader of a resistance force that refuses to accept Cocteau's society, and agrees to release other prisoners from CryoPrison to help him. Spartan and Huxley check Phoenix's rehabilitation program and find that he had been "rehabilitated" with training in a number of violent skills and access codes (while Spartan was rehabilitated as a sempster). Huxley procures a video from a museum security camera which captured Phoenix's encounter with Dr. Cocteau, and though the audio is undecipherable, Spartan is suspicious when he sees that Phoenix had plenty of time to kill Cocteau. Upon confronting Cocteau, an arrest warrant is placed on Spartan. Despite this, Spartan is able to convince Huxley to help him hunt for Phoenix in the subterranean passages where Edgar Friendly's resistance force lives.
When Spartan encounters the resistance force, he learns they are refugees who have refused to give up their way of life as required by Dr. Cocteau's utopia and have been forced to live in the wastelands of old Los Angeles. Spartan deduces that during his CryoPrison stay Phoenix was given a mental block that prevents him from killing Dr. Cocteau and fed the suggestion to kill Friendly. This would eliminate the last resistance to the Cocteau regime, something that the pacifist San Angeles Police Department is incapable of doing. Phoenix and his gang attempt to kill both Spartan and Friendly, but Friendly has retained his combat skills, and the two of them and Huxley drive them off.
Phoenix returns to Dr. Cocteau with his gang and, unable to harm Cocteau himself, orders one of them to kill him instead. Dr. Cocteau's subordinate then agrees to help Phoenix unfreeze the rest of the convicts. Spartan and Huxley find the corpse of Dr. Cocteau and drive to the CryoPrison where Phoenix is attempting to awaken the rest of the convicts.
With Friendly and Huxley's help, Spartan breaks into the facility and fights Phoenix, who uses his futuristic skills to his advantage. Phoenix admits that all the victims in 1996 were dead before Spartan arrived, which angers Spartan more. Spartan smashes a container of the potent cryogenic liquid against the floor and leaps to grab a malfunctioning crane arm overhead, as the floor and everything in contact with it freezes solid, including Phoenix. The damaged equipment in the room then explodes, with Spartan escaping just before the CryoPrison is destroyed.
As the other police forces arrive, Chief Earle is dismayed that without the leadership of Dr. Cocteau, their society will fall into chaos. Spartan suggests that Earle and Friendly work together to create a less restrictive, but law-abiding society, and turns to leave with Huxley, kissing her.
Cast
- Detective Sergeant John Spartan: Sylvester StalloneSylvester StalloneMichael Sylvester Gardenzio Stallone , commonly known as Sylvester Stallone, and nicknamed Sly Stallone, is an American actor, filmmaker, screenwriter, film director and occasional painter. Stallone is known for his machismo and Hollywood action roles. Two of the notable characters he has portrayed...
- Simon Phoenix: Wesley SnipesWesley SnipesWesley Trent Snipes is an American actor, film producer, and martial artist, who has starred in numerous action films, thrillers, and dramatic feature films. Snipes is known for playing the Marvel Comics character Blade in the Blade film trilogy, among various other high profile roles...
- Lieutenant Lenina Huxley: Sandra BullockSandra BullockSandra Annette Bullock is an Academy Award winning American actress and producer who rose to fame in the 1990s after roles in successful films such as Demolition Man, Speed, The Net, A Time to Kill, and While You Were Sleeping. She continued with films such as Miss Congeniality, The Lake House,...
- Doctor Raymond Cocteau: Nigel HawthorneNigel HawthorneSir Nigel Barnard Hawthorne, CBE was an English actor, perhaps best remembered for his role as Sir Humphrey Appleby, the Permanent Secretary in the 1980s sitcom Yes Minister and the Cabinet Secretary in its sequel, Yes, Prime Minister. For this role he won four BAFTA Awards during the 1980s in the...
- Officer Alfredo Garcia: Benjamin BrattBenjamin BrattBenjamin Bratt is an American actor. He is most famous for his role as Rey Curtis on the TV series Law & Order; and his appearances in the movies Blood in Blood Out, Miss Congeniality, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Traffic, and Piñero.-Early life:Bratt was born in San Francisco, California,...
- Edgar Friendly: Denis LearyDenis LearyDenis Colin Leary is an Irish-American actor, comedian, writer and director. Leary is known for his biting, fast paced comedic style and chain smoking...
- Erwin: Rob SchneiderRob SchneiderRobert Michael "Rob" Schneider is an American actor, comedian, screenwriter, and director. A stand-up comic and veteran of the NBC sketch-comedy series Saturday Night Live, Schneider has gone on to a successful career in feature films, including starring roles in the comedy films Deuce Bigalow:...
(uncredited) - Wasteland Scrap: Jack BlackJack BlackJack Black , is an American actor and musician, notably of Tenacious D.Jack Black may also refer to:* Jack Black , late 19th - early 20th Century author and hobo* Jack Black , drummer for 1970s UK punk band The Boys...
- Zachary Lamb (old): Bill CobbsBill CobbsWilbert "Bill" Cobbs is an American film and television actor. He has starred in over 120 television programs and movies.-Life and career:...
- Chief George Earle: Bob GuntonBob GuntonRobert Patrick "Bob" Gunton, Jr. is an American actor. He is known for playing strict, authoritarian characters, with his best known roles as Warden Samuel Norton in the 1994 prison film The Shawshank Redemption, Chief George Earle in 1993's Demolition Man, and President Juan Peron in the original...
- Squad Leader: Paul PerriPaul PerriPaul John Perri is an American-born Canadian-American film and television actor. Perri is best known for portraying Edwards and Skinless Parker in Hellraiser: Bloodline, Harry Hume from Chaos, and as Dr. Sidney Bloom from Manhunter.-Background:Perri and his wife, Michele Miner are the parents of...
- Helicopter Pilot: Pat SkipperPat SkipperWilliam Patterson "Pat" Skipper is an American television actor, film actor and voice actor. Pat is probably best known for his television work on such shows as X-Files and Boston Legal...
- Associate Bob: Glenn ShadixGlenn ShadixWilliam Glenn Shadix Scott , born William Glenn Shadix, was an American actor, known for his role as Otho Fenlock in Tim Burton's horror/comedy film Beetlejuice and the voice of the Mayor of Halloween Town in The Nightmare Before Christmas.-Early life and education:Shadix was born in Bessemer,...
- Boggle Guard: Trent WalkerTrent WalkerTrent Walker is an American sound engineer who was nominated for the 2008 Grammy for Best Engineered Album, Classical category. Along with Bruce Leek and Fred Vogler, Walker received the nomination for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir's Christmas album Spirit of the Season.Since 2005, Walker has been...
- Tough Cop: Troy EvansTroy Evans (actor)Troy Evans is an American actor who is perhaps best known for his role as Desk Clerk Francis "Frank" Martin in the television drama series ER. He has also appeared in the movies Tiger Cruise , Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, Under Siege, Teen Wolf, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Black Dahlia and The...
- Zachary Lamb (young): Grand L. BushGrand L. BushGrand Lee Bush is an American actor of stage, television and major motion pictures.-Personal life:Bush was born in Los Angeles, California, the son of Essie and Robert Bush, who was an actor...
- Captain Healy: Steve KahanSteve KahanSteve Kahan is an American character actor who has appeared many films, his best known film role is in the Lethal Weapon film franchise as Capt. Ed Murphy. Kahan's cousin is director Richard Donner, who has cast Kahan in many of his films...
- T.F.R. Officer: Paul Bollen
- Assistant Warden William Smithers (young): Mark Colson
- Warden William Smithers (old): Andre GregoryAndre GregoryAndre William Gregory is an American theatre director, writer and actor.Gregory studied at Harvard University.During the 1960s and 1970s, Gregory directed a number of avant-garde productions developed through ensemble collaboration, the most famous of which was Alice In Wonderland , based on Lewis...
- Cryocon Ally named Adam: Jesse VenturaJesse VenturaJames George Janos , better known as Jesse Ventura, is an American politician, the 38th Governor of Minnesota from 1999 to 2003, Navy UDT veteran, former SEAL reservist, actor, and former radio and television talk show host...
Jack Black
Jack Black (actor)
Thomas Jacob "Jack" Black is an American comedian, actor and musician. He makes up one half of the comedy and satirical rock duo Tenacious D. The group has two albums as well as a television series and a film. His acting career is extensive, starring primarily as bumbling, cocky, but internally...
played one of the "Wasteland Scraps" in the underground scene, who flinches when Spartan shoves the gun out of his face and says "And Cocteau's an asshole!"
Rob Schneider
Rob Schneider
Robert Michael "Rob" Schneider is an American actor, comedian, screenwriter, and director. A stand-up comic and veteran of the NBC sketch-comedy series Saturday Night Live, Schneider has gone on to a successful career in feature films, including starring roles in the comedy films Deuce Bigalow:...
played Erwin, one of the operators in the Los Angeles Police control room; he would also play opposite Stallone in the 1995 movie Judge Dredd
Judge Dredd (film)
Judge Dredd is a 1995 American science fiction action film directed by Danny Cannon, and starring Sylvester Stallone, Diane Lane, Rob Schneider, Armand Assante, and Max von Sydow. The film is based on the strip of the same name in the British comic 2000 AD...
.
Sandra Bullock
Sandra Bullock
Sandra Annette Bullock is an Academy Award winning American actress and producer who rose to fame in the 1990s after roles in successful films such as Demolition Man, Speed, The Net, A Time to Kill, and While You Were Sleeping. She continued with films such as Miss Congeniality, The Lake House,...
replaced original actress Lori Petty
Lori Petty
Lori Petty is an American film and television actress best known for playing "Tyler Endicott" in Point Break in 1991, "Kit Keller" in A League of Their Own in 1992, and the title role in Tank Girl in 1995.-Early life:...
in the role of Lenina Huxley after a few days filming. Her character's name is a reference to Aldous Huxley, the author of Brave New World
Brave New World
Brave New World is Aldous Huxley's fifth novel, written in 1931 and published in 1932. Set in London of AD 2540 , the novel anticipates developments in reproductive technology and sleep-learning that combine to change society. The future society is an embodiment of the ideals that form the basis of...
, and Lenina Crowne, a character in Brave New World.
Originally Jean-Claude Van Damme
Jean-Claude Van Damme
Jean-Claude Camille François Van Varenberg , professionally known as Jean-Claude Van Damme, is a Belgian martial artist and actor, best known for his martial arts action films, the most successful of which include Bloodsport , Kickboxer , Double Impact , Universal Soldier , Hard Target , Timecop ,...
and Steven Seagal
Steven Seagal
Steven Frederic Seagal is an American action film star, producer, writer, martial artist, guitarist and reserve deputy sheriff. A 7th-dan black belt in Aikido, Seagal began his adult life as an Aikido instructor in Japan...
were offered lead roles in the movie. The role of Simon Phoenix was also offered to Jackie Chan
Jackie Chan
Jackie Chan, SBS, MBE is a Hong Kong actor, action choreographer, comedian, director, producer, martial artist, screenwriter, entrepreneur, singer and stunt performer. In his movies, he is known for his acrobatic fighting style, comic timing, use of improvised weapons, and innovative stunts...
.
According to the scripts (before the final draft) the film starts out in 1998 and goes over to 2042 as John Spartan and Simon Phoenix were frozen for 44 years. In that draft, a cryocon was named Ignatious and was changed to Howie, while Howie was written out and replaced with a thug already released. Adam (played by Jesse Ventura) was Charlie and dies in the underground battle.
Jesse “The Body” Ventura got the part of a henchman to the lead villain as of wanting to take on Sylvester Stallone as of said in a WCW interview. Jesse Ventura played a minor role but John Spartan (Sylvester Stallone) fighting the goon to Simon Phoenix (Wesley Snipes) played by Jesse Ventura was cut out at the cryo-prison.
Setting
The film portrays the future in a quirky, satirical manner. The slightest breach of the law results in an automatically dispensed citation. All restaurants are Taco BellTaco Bell
Taco Bell is an American chain of fast-food restaurants based in Irvine, California. A subsidiary of Yum! Brands, Inc., which serves American-adapted Mexican food. Taco Bell serves tacos, burritos, quesadillas, nachos, other specialty items, and a variety of "Value Menu" items...
s, which "won the franchise wars" and evolved into fine-dining establishments. Twentieth-century advertising jingles are heard as popular music. Sexual intercourse and french kiss
French kiss
A French kiss is a kiss in which one participant's tongue touches the partner's lips or tongue and usually enters his or her mouth. A French kiss is a slow passionate kiss which is usually considered intimate, romantic, erotic or sexual...
es are illegal. In addition, it is stated there are no "non-natural caused deaths" since 2016; when Phoenix murders the CryoPrison warden and officers in order to escape, the police are notified with a "1-8-7" (Murder-Death-Kill), a code none of them can remember.
By 2032, toilet paper has fallen out of use; a set of three seashells is provided in every toilet stall. Though their method of use is left unexplained in the movie, Stallone later suggested a possible method in an interview as told to him by one of the film's writers involving extraction with two and scraping with one.
For some non-American releases, references to Taco Bell
Taco Bell
Taco Bell is an American chain of fast-food restaurants based in Irvine, California. A subsidiary of Yum! Brands, Inc., which serves American-adapted Mexican food. Taco Bell serves tacos, burritos, quesadillas, nachos, other specialty items, and a variety of "Value Menu" items...
were changed to Pizza Hut
Pizza Hut
Pizza Hut is an American restaurant chain and international franchise that offers different styles of pizza along with side dishes including pasta, buffalo wings, breadsticks, and garlic bread....
. This includes dubbing, plus changing the logos during post-production. Taco Bell remains in the closing credits. In the Swedish release the subtitles still use Taco Bell while the sound and picture has been altered as above. The original version released in Australia (on VHS) contained Taco Bell, yet the newer version on DVD was changed both in logo and dubbing to Pizza Hut. (In the scene where the restaurant patrons are looking through the glass windows to the fight scene outside, "Taco Bell" can be seen etched into the glass, even in the modified version.)
In one scene, Phoenix makes a comment about serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer
Jeffrey Dahmer
Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer was an American serial killer and sex offender. Dahmer murdered 17 men and boys between 1978 and 1991, with the majority of the murders occurring between 1987 and 1991. His murders involved rape, dismemberment, necrophilia and cannibalism...
being one of the cryo-inmates. Since this movie was made before his death in prison in 1994, in this alternate time period, he had been frozen with all the other criminals that were deemed too dangerous. Later versions of the film have this comment deleted.
The novelization of the movie suggests that several significant cuts were made from the finished film. For one thing, John Spartan mentions his daughter on several occasions, but the question of what happened to her is never answered; the novel has her turn up among the Scraps. Indeed, there is a scene in the film where Spartan is protecting an unnamed middle-aged woman, moments after his daughter revealed herself to him in the novelization. Also, in the novel, Spartan's daughter kisses him on the cheek, which provides a context for Spartan french-kissing Huxley. In the film, he simply grabs her and kisses her without preamble. Finally, in the novel, Zachary Lamb (an African-American police officer who serves with Spartan in both 1996 and 2032) is murdered by Phoenix when the latter steals Huxley's police car. In the movie, Lamb (almost inaudibly) says that he will wait by Huxley's police car. He is not killed, but he disappears from the movie, and Phoenix does indeed steal the car. This suggests that his death in the novel was supposed to happen in the movie as well.
A passing reference is made to the political era, including the U.S. Presidency
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
of Arnold Schwarzenegger
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger is an Austrian-American former professional bodybuilder, actor, businessman, investor, and politician. Schwarzenegger served as the 38th Governor of California from 2003 until 2011....
. Huxley explains to Spartan that the Constitution
United States Constitution
The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It is the framework for the organization of the United States government and for the relationship of the federal government with the states, citizens, and all people within the United States.The first three...
had been amended to allow Schwarzenegger to be elected despite his foreign birth. In the 1990s, Schwarzenegger had been mentioned as a potential candidate for political office, although at the time the movie he had an honorary posting as chairman of the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports, and he did run successfully for Governor of California
Political career of Arnold Schwarzenegger
Arnold Schwarzenegger is a popular actor who was first elected as Governor of California in the 2003 recall election and won re-election in 2006. It is the first elected office he has held, but was appointed by President George H.W...
ten years later. Schwarzenegger and Stallone often make tongue-in-cheek references to one another in their films, notably in Last Action Hero
Last Action Hero
Last Action Hero is a 1993 American action-comedy-fantasy film directed and produced by John McTiernan. It is a satire of the action genre and its clichés, containing several parodies of action films in the form of films within the film....
which was released the same year as Demolition Man.
Box office
The film debuted at No.1 at the box office. Demolition Man grossed $58,055,768 by the end of its box office run in North AmericaNorth America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
and $159,055,768 worldwide.
Reception
The film received mixed to positive reviews, maintaining a 63% "fresh" rating on Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
, based on 32 reviews. However, the film scored a 34/100 on Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
, based on 9 reviews.
On Siskel & Ebert, Gene Siskel
Gene Siskel
Eugene Kal "Gene" Siskel was an American film critic and journalist for the Chicago Tribune. Along with colleague Roger Ebert, he hosted the popular review show Siskel & Ebert At the Movies from 1975 until his death....
gave the movie thumbs down for its routine violence, but did praise its "Funny offbeat script." Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
praised the movie: "Unlike so many other movies of its genre, it really does have a satiric angle to it."
Soundtrack
The theme song to the film is titled "Demolition Man" and is played over the end credits. It is a remix (heavier version) of the song originally recorded by Grace JonesGrace Jones
Grace Jones is a Jamaican-American singer, model and actress.Jones secured a record deal with Island Records in 1977, which resulted in a string of dance-club hits. In the late 1970s, she adapted the emerging electronic music style and adopted a severe, androgynous look with square-cut hair and...
and written by Sting during his time as frontman for The Police
The Police
The Police were an English rock band formed in London in 1977. For the vast majority of their history, the band consisted of Sting , Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland...
. The song was first released in March 1981, as an advance single from Jones's fifth album, Nightclubbing
Nightclubbing
Nightclubbing is the fifth studio album by Grace Jones, released in 1981. It is the second of three post-disco albums that Jones made at Compass Point Studios in the Bahamas and became Jones' commercial breakthrough and also formed the basis of her groundbreaking concept tour A One Man Show...
. Sting released an EP featuring this song and other live tracks, entitled Demolition Man
Demolition Man (album)
Demolition Man is an EP released by A&M on September 21, 1993 and November 1, 1993 in support of the Sylvester Stallone/Wesley Snipes film Demolition Man. It features a re-recording of The Police song "Demolition Man", as well as several live recordings. The live recordings were recorded at Villa...
.
Acclaimed composer Elliot Goldenthal
Elliot Goldenthal
Elliot Goldenthal is an American composer of contemporary classical music. He was a student of Aaron Copland and John Corigliano, and is best known for his distinctive style and ability to blend various musical styles and techniques in original and inventive ways...
composed the score for the film. It was his second big Hollywood project after the Alien³ score.
Game adaptations
Virgin InteractiveVirgin Interactive
Virgin Interactive was a British video game publisher. It was formed as Virgin Games Ltd. in 1981. The company became much larger after purchasing the budget label, Mastertronic in 1987. It was part of the Virgin Group...
released Demolition Man on various home video game systems. The 16-bit versions were distributed by Acclaim Entertainment
Acclaim Entertainment
Acclaim Entertainment was an American video game developer and publisher. It developed, published, marketed and distributed interactive entertainment software for a variety of hardware platforms, including Sega's Mega Drive/Genesis, Saturn, Dreamcast, and Game Gear, Nintendo's NES, SNES, Nintendo...
. The 3DO
3DO
3DO may refer to:*The 3DO Company, a video game company that developed:**3DO Interactive Multiplayer, a video game console, 1993–1996***List of 3DO games, a list of games released for the 3DO...
version is a multi-genre game that incorporates Full Motion Video
Full motion video
Full motion video based games are video games that rely upon pre-recorded TV-quality movie or animation rather than sprites, vectors, or 3D models to display action in the game. In the early 1990s a diverse set of games utilized this format...
scenes, with both Sylvester Stallone
Sylvester Stallone
Michael Sylvester Gardenzio Stallone , commonly known as Sylvester Stallone, and nicknamed Sly Stallone, is an American actor, filmmaker, screenwriter, film director and occasional painter. Stallone is known for his machismo and Hollywood action roles. Two of the notable characters he has portrayed...
and Wesley Snipes
Wesley Snipes
Wesley Trent Snipes is an American actor, film producer, and martial artist, who has starred in numerous action films, thrillers, and dramatic feature films. Snipes is known for playing the Marvel Comics character Blade in the Blade film trilogy, among various other high profile roles...
reprising their roles as their characters in scenes that were filmed exclusively for the game.
In April 1994, Williams
Williams (gaming company)
WMS Industries, Inc. is an American electronic gaming and amusement company based in Waukegan, Illinois. The company's main operating subsidiaries are WMS Gaming and Orion Gaming. WMS traces its roots as far back as 1943, the Williams Manufacturing Company, founded by Harry E. Williams...
released a widebody pinball
Pinball
Pinball is a type of arcade game, usually coin-operated, where a player attempts to score points by manipulating one or more metal balls on a playfield inside a glass-covered case called a pinball machine. The primary objective of the game is to score as many points as possible...
game, Demolition Man (based on the movie). It is designed by Dennis Nordman. This game features sound clips from the movie, as well as original speech by Stallone and Snipes. This game was part of WMS' SuperPin series (Twilight Zone, Indiana Jones, etc.).
Plagiarism
Hungarian science fiction writer István NemereIstván Nemere
István Nemere is a Hungarian novelist, Esperantist, and translator. He has written over ten novels in Esperanto. He has been a notable figure in the world of Hungarian science fiction with as many as 60 novels and several stories.- External links :*...
claims that most of Demolition Man is based on his novel Holtak harca (Fight of the Dead), published in 1986. In the novel, a terrorist and his enemy, a counter-terrorism soldier are cryogenically frozen and awakened in the 22nd century, when violence was purged from society. Nemere claimed that a committee proved that 75% of the film is identical to the book. However, Nemere chose not to initiate a lawsuit, as it would have been too expensive for him to hire a lawyer and fight against major Hollywood forces in the United States. The author claims that Hollywood had ripped-off works of many Eastern European writers after the fall of the Iron Curtain
Iron Curtain
The concept of the Iron Curtain symbolized the ideological fighting and physical boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1989...
, and that he knows the person he claims to be responsible for illegally selling his idea to the filmmakers.