Demolition Man (1993)

150 Best Science Fiction Movies from “Rolling Stone” magazine

 

#148. Demolition Man (1993)

 

Any SF where the Future is good is called a “Utopia.” Any SF where the Future is bad is called a “Dystopia.” But if you read the History of SF, there’s a small wrinkle of that, because what I would call a “True Dystopia,” also needs to be built around a collectively accepted lie. Let me explain:

 

In the “Mad Max” film series (first film 1979) everyone knows the Future sucks, it’s Dystopian, but not a True Dystopia. In Audlous Huxley’s novel “Brave New World” (1932 and an obvious influence on "Demolition Man") we endure terrible de-Humanization but the Authorities are insisting we should be happy about it. A True Dystopia is not often post-Apocalyptic (though it is post-Something Unpleasant) but a Utopia gone wrong. True Dystopias are written by people like Huxley, George Orwell, and Margaret Atwood, so basically by a bunch of spoil-sports.

 

And this film revels into the murky middle between the letters “U” and "D."

 

This film was released during the period of Sylvester Stallone’s at his peak of power in Hollywood. He was generally doing one or two big-budgeted Action Films a year, continually re-securing his Star Power while simultaneously eroding his reputation as an Actor because a pattern was emerging, one film was good, the other was embarrassing. In 1993, “Demolition Man” was the good one and the other was called, “Cliffhanger." True, “Cliffhanger” pulled-in more money than this one, but that doesn’t make it any less a cookie-cutter waste of time.

 

“Demolition Man” does have some clumsy plotting (this could easily be blamed on too many Scriptwriters but, in fact, one of the late arrivals to the process saved this film, I’ll get to that later), but even granting this, it was the second-best SF of its year (the first, of course, was “Jurassic Park”) and a far more sophisticated Satire than any other SF in the five-year-stretch surrounding it. It’s set in a maybe-Dystopian Future that is actually a quite nice place to live: There’s a stable economy, high standard of living, lots of nice urban parks, almost non-existent Crime, and really good hygiene. Yes, it hints at Tyranny, but there’s very little meanness. The problem is that all the good stuff is really, really, REALLY, annoying.

 

Obviously influenced by President George Bush’s 1991 speech warning of “Political Correctness” getting Out-of-Control, it’s also smart enough to also challenge the posturing of dumping PC altogether (actually, so did Bush, but no one remembers that part). The Out-of-Control PC is personified by an over-hyped Politeness-Cop symbolically named Lenina Huxley (Sandra Bullock, who’s even funnier than usual) who wants to call out the SWAT over a Graffiti Incident. The opposite is personified by Rebel-Without-a-Coherent-Cause Edgar Friendly (Dennis Leary, who is exactly like we’re used to seeing him), “I'm the kind if guy who wants to sit in a greasy spoon and think, ‘Gee, should I have the T-bone steak or the jumbo rack of barbecued ribs with the side order of gravy fries?’ I want high cholesterol. I want to eat bacon, butter and buckets of cheese, okay? I want to smoke a Cuban cigar the size of Cincinnati in a non-smoking section. I wanna run through the streets naked with green Jello all over my body reading Playboy magazine. Why? Because I suddenly might feel the need to.”

 

As their Culture War pointlessly rages, there is a greater threat emerging unseen, an actual and brutal Fascism personified by – oh wait! That would be a spoiler, wouldn’t it? Well, don’t worry, you know the main Villain is the moment he steps on screen (hint, hint, it’s not the Villain on the poster).

 

The World must be saved by John Spartan, the “Demolition Man” of the title (that’s Stallone), a When-the-Sleeper-Wakes-type Refugee from earlier days when things actually were rotten, so the only character in the film who knows how to deal with an actual threat.

 

The prologue is set in 1996, so only three-years after the film’s release which was, in turn, one-year after the deadly 1992 Los Angeles Riots (so distinct from the deadly 1871, 1943, 1965, and 1990 LA Riots) which hangs over the whole film like a Ghost. The Technological Advances we achieved in those fictional three-years make the 1996 Real-World seem wanting.

 

John, a Super-Cop, corners the Evil Crime Lord Simon Phoenix (Wesley Snipes), but it’s quickly demonstrated that John’s irresponsible Play-by-My-Own-Rules philosophy only succeeded getting a lot of innocent people killed.

 

John is Criminally charged and sentenced to a Cryo-Prison where he will be subtly Reprogramed while he sleeps in preparation of first parole hearing in 2023. That might seem a little harsh as the charges were probably Criminally Negligent Homicide while Simon, guilty of premeditated Mass Murder, receives a similar sentence, but the World was in Chaos in 1996, so we are likely seeing the embryotic form of the “New World Order” (another phrase Bush made famous) already emerging. 

(Allow me to interject with the Real-World, in 2010, the CEO of Massey Energy, Don Blankenship, a Greed-Driven, Union-Busting, thug was directly responsible for Safety Violations at his Coal Mine, resulting in the death of 29 of his employees (separate from that, he was also found to have been Poisoning Ground Water). He only got 1-year in jail for that, declared himself a Political Prisoner, and after his release, ran for US Senate, winning the Primary, losing the Genral Election, and then suing Journalists who called attention to his Criminal Record (he lost that), ran for President in 2020, and is running again for US Senate in 2024, so John REALLY got a tough Judge). 

 

When 1996 rolled around in the Real-World, Violent Crime was dropping dramatically Nation-wide so, compared to this film, we might have been behind on the Technology, but ahead of the game in Social Evolution. During filming, Stallone unwisely said he was thinking of moving from California to Florida (which he eventually did), “They say we need a thousand more cops, but there’s a thousand new gang members every week!” which was a mean-spirited exaggeration and, moreover, the State of Florida had a higher violent crime rate than the State of California when the film was made, in the Future the film predicted for 1996, and even Future it predicted for 2023, when those dates arrived in the Real-World. 

And guess what? This same Culture War is still raging in the Real World, in fact it’s gotten worse. As I write this, it seems as if the USA slipping towards a violent Civil War triggered by those who want to reverse of threat presented in this film, so this movie keeps getting eerier and eerier in retrospect. Really stupid people terrified of PC recently tried to over-throw the Government because their Cult-leader, then-President Trump, incited them. That clown, with whom the above-mentioned Blankenship is allied with, is now the first former-President of the USA to be indicted for a felony (actually, lots of felonies) and even now is still inciting violence. Compared to the USA in 2024, this film’s version of Dystopia keeps looking better and better every day.

 

So, back to the movie …

 

John’s Reprograming involves things like compulsively kitting sweaters a Stress-Reliever (he’s quite good at it) while our main Villain deliberately Sabotaged Simon’s Reprograming so now Simon has even better Terrorist skills. During his Parole Hearing, Simon goes on a rampage and Escapes. 

John is thawed out because he's the only one who knows how Simon thinks. Now John, a Convicted Felon, is given his badge back, Lenina is assigned as his Baby-Sitter, and he basically becomes a Muscle-bound version of John Savage (a character from “Brave New World”) while Hunting Simon in the Annoying Polite New World.

 

I should throw in now that this vision of the Future looks great. The film was generously budgeted and benefited much from the work of Production Designer David L. Snyder. It also has a remarkable number of on-location scenes given how completely transformed LA is (called “San Angeles” because Tyrannical Governments need Centralize Power so LA swallowed-up San-whatever), but I have to point out most of these scenes were filmed in Orange County. To me, that piece of behind-the-scenes trivia itself speaks of Dystopian Satire.

 

And there’s a Schwarzenegger Presidential Library, a reference to the silly Campaign to Supersede the Natural Born Citizen Clause in the US Constitution so Actor-then-Governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger could become the leader of the Fee World. (To his credit, Schwarzenegger had nothing to do with it).

 

WAIT A MINUTE! None of that had actually happened in the Real-World by 1993! The “Schwarzenegger Amendment” wasn’t suggested until 2002 by Senator Orin Hatch. THIS IS TRUE SF PROPHECY!

 

It was also an in-joke, Schwarzenegger and Stallone were considered rivals, and making Schwarzenegger President in this context suggests he was either responsible for the End of the World as We Know It, or for the annoying New World Order that came in its wake.

 

One of the sadder, apparently correct, Predictions was a joke regarding how VR Sex being more popular in the future than Actual Sex. I personally believe the decline in teen-pregnancy (75% drop since 1991) is more linked to Internet-Porn than the availability of Contraception, but the film goes farther:

 

Lenina: I was wondering if you would like to have sex?

John: Here? With you? Now?

Lenina: Mm-hmm.

John: Oh yeah!

Then she breaks out the VR headsets.

John: Look, Huxley, why don't we just do it the old-fashioned way?

Lenina: Eeewww, disgusting! You mean... fluid transfer?

… The exchange of bodily fluids, do you know what that leads to?

John: Yeah, I do! Kids, smoking, a desire to raid the fridge.

Lenina: The rampant exchange of bodily fluids was one of the major reasons for the downfall of society. After AIDS, there was NRS, after NRS there was UBT.

 

As I said above, the most important of the many Scriptwriters, Daniel Waters, came into the project fairly late-in-the-game. He was interviewed in 2020 during the worst of CV19 Pandemic. He said that in 1993, everybody laughed when the movie implied, “‘We don’t want anything icky in the future.’ Then it’s funny how it just happens. You wouldn’t touch. You wouldn’t have sex, oh, God, no. That speech, it seems so reasonable now.”

 

And, “Slowly but surely, we’re getting them all. When that movie came out, there was still smoking in bars. Now you can’t even smoke outside. Coffee’s [still] got its lovers, but it’s not great for you.”

 

The film’s referencing then-current Pop Culture and Product Placement is obsessive, and back-in-the-day was off-putting to many Critics (Vincent Canby was especially mean, “‘Demolition Man’ is a significant artifact of our time or, at least, of this week.”). I’d argue that some of it was crass, but most of it had a narrative point rolling beneath.

 

The prologue visually references "Lethal Weapon 3" (released just the prior year and, along with “Demolition Man,” was Produced by Joel Silver, who also had a cameo here) and later the Future populace’s voyeuristic obsession with the “Bad old days” is demonstrated by Lenina having a framed poster from "Lethal Weapon 3" on her office wall (maybe because, by then, it had just been released on VHS).

 

When the main Villain is revealed, Simon refers to him as an, “Evil Mr. Rodgers.” (Fred Rodger’s TV program ran from 1968 to 2001 so it out-lasted this film’s Projection of the End of the World as We Know It.)

 

The Police are unarmed, all weapons are in a Museum called “The Hall of Violence,” which is decorated with pictures of the previous round of LA Riots. The main Villain gives Simon the keys to the Museum. Simon takes a gun from a mannequin and says, "Rambo, I need to borrow this." (That film franchise that repeatedly saved Stallone’s career and ran from 1982 to 2019, so it also out-lasted this film’s projection of the End of the World as We Know It.)

 

Corporate Hegemony is never part of the story, but on display more than the thin plot.

 

The “Golden Oldies” that people sing to express joy or when needing comfort aren’t Frank Sinatra songs but TV jingles: "Hot dogs! Armour hot dogs!" and “I’m an Oscar Meyer Weiner” and the Ken-L Ration dog-food jingle, "My dog's better than your dog."

 

The fanciest restaurant in town is Taco Bell, it enjoys a Monopoly because it was the last fast-food standing after the “Franchise Wars.” John is invited out to to an elegant night-on-the-town there with the rest of the Police Department and they’re serenaded by a Lounge Singer (Dan Corese, another one of the film’s Producers) at a grand piano crooning, "The valley of the jolly, ho ho ho."

 

There are additional references to Classic SF. “Brave New World” is already mentioned. There’s also a plot-points borrowed from the film “Sleeper” (1973). Lenina’s unprepared-for-trouble residents of daylight LA live Elio-like on the surface while filthy Edgar and his followers live Morlock-like in the sewers, a reference to H. G. Wells’ novel “The Time Machine” (published 1895), Wells also has another book, “When the Sleeper Wakes” (published 1899) referenced here.

 

The cleverest of them all are probably the nods to Orwell’s far-more Nightmarish Dystopian novel, “1984” (published 1949). One of Orwell’s points was that Tyranny can subvert Opposition by subverting language, if there’s no word for what you lack, how can you demand it? In “Demolition Man” Robots prowl the streets giving out tickets for violating the “verbal morality code,” meaning cursing out-loud. Beyond that, the English used by this film’s version of the Elio is just slightly broken.

 

Instead of saying “Have a nice day,” they say, “Be well for me." Notice the subtle selfishness in that?

 

No one says “Sorry,” anymore, they say “Dehurtful retraction.”

 

The meanest thing the Elio, except Lenina, seem to be able to manage is, “Enhance your calm.” And when Lenina tries to talk tougher, she amusingly blows lines borrowed from 20^th c. Action Movies, “He's finally matched his meet. You really licked his ass.”

 

And who couldn't but fall in love with, “Mellow greetings. What seems to be your boggle?”

 

Screenwriter Waters was reacting the post-Riots PR Campaign, “Rebuild LA" which appalled him. "The commercials were almost as scary as the riots. They would say things like 'The change starts with you' -- happy messages that implied the riots started because everyone was in a bad mood."

 

He was the fourth (but not last) Writer. The draft Waters saw from the third Writer, Jonathan Lemkin, lacked any Satire and featured very little Humor, leading me to wonder, well, then what was there? The first Writer, Robert Reneau, got a screen credit, so did Robert Reneau, but oddly Jonathan Lemkin, brought back in later for the final shooting script, didn't. Yet another uncredited Writer was Fred Dekker, who added the prologue set in 1996 explaining, "If you don't show Kansas, Oz isn't all that special."

 

Early on there were almost mystifying bad Casting choices considered, but they were thankfully corrected before shooting. At various points Producers approached John Claude Van Dame and Steven Seagal to play Simon, but neither could act (Van Dame has since improved, Seagal not so much), later Jackie Chan was approached and yes, he can act, but had too sweet a face to be a Sociopath. Snipes was clearly the best choice for the role because he’s … well …. let’s just say he’s a natural for a part like this.

 

Casting Stallone was magic. Too many of his films ask him only to posture, but he also can project deep melancholy through his rippling muscles, much like he did in the first (and only good) "Rambo" movie, “First Blood” (1982). Character John's bewilderment is a delight, like the scene where he has trouble figuring out how to handle a Future without toilet paper; the never-explained “Three Seashells” method is a still-recognizable cultural reference. Thirty-years later Waters joked, “As we speak, I’m wearing my T-shirt that says ‘Ask Me How to Use The Three Seashells.’ I was doing jury duty, and this bailiff comes up to me … she’s like, ‘I have a theory for the three seashells,’ and goes into this elaborate thing about how you use one seashell to pinch apart your bottom, the other seashell to pull out the excrement, and then the third seashell has a hose that washes off the remains. I’m like, ‘Sure. Does this mean I’m out of jury duty?’”

 

Stallone had dominated the Action Hero Genre a decade by then and here he’s trying to adapt his image to fit his third decade in cinema. In this film he’s in an environment where his type of Character is not looked upon with Adulation, but Scorn. Actor Stallone nails his lines perfectly by deliberately having Character John stumble over them, “This isn’t the Wild West… The Wild West wasn’t even the Wild West. Hurting people’s not a good thing! Well, sometimes it is. But not when it’s a bunch of people looking for something to eat!”

 

Small plot point, no one is actually starving, it’s just that a lot of them really hate the broccoli-banana shakes.

 

This was the feature film debut Director Marco Brambilla. Though he’s had other similarly commercial projects, he’s best known as a Conceptual Artist exploring “re-contextualizations of popular and found imagery,” (quoting from Wiki) and that certainly applies here. This film is an impressive accomplishment and made oodles of money, but Brambilla didn’t follow it up with anything similar, perhaps because the fine film has a really obvious flaw:

 

Brambilla made an Action Movie and doesn’t seem to care much about Action. The Comedic elements fly, but none of the copious explosions have the bang of the Taco Bell scene.

 

As it made good money, a sequel seemed inevitable, but it never happened. Writer Waters was on board for the project, and even had starting point for the new story, a scene that he thought was poignant and represented an entire subplot but didn’t make the final cut. It’s established early that when Imprisoned, John had a wife and daughter. After being released from Cryo, his daughter would've been older than he. When John travels into the sewers and meets Edgar, he encounters her, she’s part of Edgar’s resistance.

 

Because that scene was missing, many in the audience got the impression Lenina was supposed to be the daughter.

 

Good thing they only had VR sex.

 

Trailer:

Demolition Man - Official® Trailer [HD] - YouTube