By the early 1990s, Sylvester Stallone’s career had hit the skids. Following a string of less than stellar action movies like Rambo III, Lock-Up and the problematic Tango & Cash, he had moved over into comedy with the farcical Oscar and the terrible Stop or My Mom Will Shoot! So, when he returned to form with the action thriller Cliffhanger, it seemed like to paraphrase his business partner, friend and one-time rival Schwarzenegger, he is back!
And it’s best to strike when hot and while Cliffhanger was in post, Stallone was making Demolition Man, a sci-fi/action movie that surprisingly comes off as both comedy and satire of our society and with a meta-humor feel that was similar to Last Action Hero that no one picked up on until repeated viewings. In the 1970s and 1980s of sci-fi movies, the future was painted as a dystopia, a horrifying world that has crumbled due to war, widespread poverty and starvation. Take your pic. There’s THX 1138, Soylent Green, Logan’s Run, Blade Runner, The Running Man, Mad Max movies, etc.
But Demoition takes a different approach. Set mostly in the year 2032, it envisions a future of tranquility and prosperity…somewhat. Beginning in an alternative 1996, Los Angeles has turned into a war zone as the famous Hollywood sign is burning and a crime lord Simon Phoenix (Wesley Snipes) has set up his own regime in a section of Los Angeles. Phoenix and his associates have kidnapped a few dozen passengers on a transit bus after Phoenix told them to stay out of his area.
Sgt. John Spartan (Stallone) is airlifted into Phoenix’s realm bungie-jumping on top of a building where Phoenix and the passengers are believed to be held. Even though he is able to kill Phoenix’s henchmen and subdue the crime lord, the building explodes as Phoenix starts a fire with exploxives nearby to destroy it. Firefighters discover the charred bodies of the passengers in the remains and since Spartan denied a direct order not to go in and apprehend Phoenix, he is convicted of manslaughter even though he said he did a thermal check and couldn’t find them.
He’s sent to a newly formed cryostasis facility that hopes to freeze criminals in suspended animation with a rehabilation program wired into their bodies to make them valuable to society when they are parole. Spartan later discovers that his true desire wasn’t police work but being a seamstress. In the years both Phoenix and Spartan are frozen, changes happen in southern California and presumably the world. A huge earthquake around 2010 leaves many dead, others injured and devastated and the area in ruins.
This has allowed Dr. Raymon Cocteau (Nigel Hawthorne), who developed the cryogenic program to rise in power. Cocteau has envisioned a utopia in which there is no violence and everyone lives in harmony. But his harmony consists of people not engaging in much physical contact, such as kissing and sexual intercourse is prohibited. No one smokes tobacco, drinks alcohol nor eats meat or any fatty foods and sugars. The Santa Barbara, Los Angeles and San Diego metropolitan areas have merged into San Angeles.
The police department isn’t worried about people like Phoenix anymore because they don’t exist. An act of vandalism is considered a huge crime. That’s because literally beneath the surface, people who refused to conform to Cocteau’s ways live in the tunnels and sewers that have long been abandoned. They are led by Edgar Friendly (Denis Leary) who remembers what it was like to indulge in your own vices.
At the police, Lt. Lenina Huxley (Sandra Bullock) longs for days in which the police didn’t focus just one minor graffiti vandalism and dealing with people who swear too much in public. Apparently, using swear words is illegal. A running joke involves machines that issue citations in Cocteau’s voice telling people they’ve been fined one credit “in violation of the Verbal Morality Statute.” With all these minor issues, you wonder why there is a need for a police department. Easy, because they are expected to be a pseudo-Fascist organization. People are inserted with tracking chips in their hands. Even the police uniforms have a darker Gestapo-esque look to them.
During his parole hearing, Phoenix is able to break free and kill the guards and warden William Smithers (Andre Gregory) alerting police to 187 MDK (MurderDeathKills). When normal police are unable to subdue Phoenix and he injures and kills some, Lenina consults the aging officer Zachary Lamb (Bill Cobbs) who tells them how Spartan was the one who arrested them. Lenina has immortalized Spartan and Cocteau gives police chief George Earle (Bob Gunton) any means necessary to apprehend Phoenix.
Upon his release from cryostasis, Spartan is surprised to find out how things have changed and he is unable to assimilate to the new ways, which alarms everyone even Lenina who is surprised by Spartan’s bad language. Eventually, a lot of things go boom and Spartan and Phoenix shoot it out in a museum before Phoenix is able to get away.
But we discover that it was Cocteau, himself, that helped Phoenix be released by altering his rehabilitation to make him more aggressive and violent. Cocteau wants Phoenix to kill Friendly, as he believes with Friendly gone, the people underneath will finally submit to Cocteau’s ways or leave as they realize that they’re not wanted. And Spartan disagrees with Cocteau and his sycophantic Associate Bob (Glenn Shadix) who view those underneath as “dregs of society.”
This is somewhat a reference to Richard Matheson’s I Am Legend and H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine where the ones who aren’t “normal” are considered the villains. While the Morlocks in Machine are more menacing and violent, the people who live underground are very peaceful and as Spartan, Lenina and Officer Alfredo Garcia (Benjamin Bratt) notice, they are more frightened by the police presence in the tunnels. Even though things aren’t as clean as on top, people aren’t aggressive or violent as they’ve been told.
This is a statement on our own society. We’re often told that the people who dress “nicer” and eat “healthier” are the better people. We tell people not to judge a book by its cover but we do so anyway. What Cocteau has done has made his own type of elitist cult. By oppressing them of any vices and even popular music (as only commercial jingles are allowed), he’s managed to gain control. (It’s never mentioned, but I’m almost certain many books are banned as well.) Since a lot of food has been outlawed and even Taco Bell serves mere morsels of what one would suspect, he’s able to control them just like the warlords of the world use hunger as a powerful tool.
A lot of people have looked at Demolition Man, especially in the recent 10 years, as a sign of the dangers of “cancel culture.” Conservatives and even moderates have used this as a full-on assault against liberals and leftists. However, I think the movie really is an attack on all censorship and oppression regardless of political ideology. One of the writers is Daniel Walters who wrote the clever Heathers that struck down the tropes of 1980s teen comedies. Along with Peter M Lenkov and Robert Reneau, San Angeles is no different than Salem from The Crucible.
And during this time in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Moral Majority led by Rev. Jerry Falwell and Missisippian Rev. Donald Wildmon were going after things that were broadcast on TV and the radio. Along with Tipper Gore and parents targeting 2 Live Crew and other rappers, it seemed everything was being censored. Even Sen. Jesse Helms went after the independent movie Poison for a man-on-man sexual assault. Also at the same time with the development of PETA, there was a push by people to criticize anyone who consume meat.
What the movie is really targeting is that when you put up little resistance, an authoritative power will take control. The need to be accepted by the elites of any society will make people change their ways against their will. That’s what Cocteau wants. He mentions he envisions San Angeles as ant colony where is the queen and the rest of the people do his bidding and obey him.
This isn’t a movie that chooses a political side, even though Stallone is a political conservative. Even in a fully liberal society, I feel many people who consider themselves liberals would find themselves oppressed as the powers that be keep pushing for things to ban and outlaw. What makes our society works best is when we can get along despite our differences. That has changed in recent years.
There’s no mention of religion in Demolition Man, but I would argue that religion is the one thing driving us apart rather than pulling us together. Think I’m wrong? Next time, you’re talking with someone who is very religious and pro-Christian, tell them you really don’t attend a church or believe much in the Bible. And then, watch them condemn your thinking and choices.
In the end, Spartan tells those who lived underneath to get a little clean and those who have lived in the fake utopia to get a little dirty and find some common ground. Like most sci-fi movies, it’s a warning against the dangers of what can happen as long as we continue to fight argue over meaningless things. Even the lack of human touch can hurt us. And Cocteau, himself, is wrong because even though he thinks he’s programmed Phoenix not to hurt him, he foolishly allowed others to be unfrozen, such as Adam (Jesse Ventura) who fatally shoots him without hesitation.
With favorable reviews, the movie made about $159 million at the box office, but its legacy over the years has made it more popular. Even though he didn’t like the movie, Hawthorne later admitted he took the role to get his Oscar-nominated pet project The Madness of King George made. Journalist/essayist Abraham Josephine Riseman called it a “Libertarian manifesto” with its examples of government overreach.
It probably helped Sandra Bullock’s career. Originally, Lori Petty was cast as Lenina, but was fired after two days for “creative differences.” Bullock would go on to be cast in Speed and the rest is history. But surprisingly, this is director Marco Brambilla’s only feature movie even though he has worked for decades as a visual artist. In many ways, a movie like this does need someone with a more keen visual eye.
There’s also a reference to Arnold Schwarzenegger being elected President. After he was elected governor of California in 2003, there was a push by conservatives to amend the constitution just as it’s mentioned in the movie, so he could run. And speaking of Covid, the lack of toilet paper as people bought out bundles during the early weeks and months seemed like the movie was speaking the truth. In the future, there is no toilet paper but three seashells, yet there is explanation on how they’re used.
How do you think they use the seashells? Please comment.
Zane Says 