Demolition man thread

i ve just recently rewatched this movie after years, and i have to say its one of hell of an action film mixed with social satire done very efficiently like the other 80s movies example robocop and escape from newyork
Demolition Man is one of the funniest, most action-packed and most poignant social satires of at least the last 30 years. It's not necessarily the easiest film to appreciate, but how the subject at hand here is delivered to us, i love how LA has been changed in the film to a crime free city merged and being named as san andreas.
sylvester stallone is at his best here especially with the funny one liners and his interactions with sandra bullock.
the direction and choreography of the fight scenes looks extremely good and wesley snipes gives a top notch performance.
all in all i enjoyed every moment of this, and it is certainly one of the better action movies of the 90s.
have your say

"My boggle?"

Demolition Man is the classic case of a bad movie that's really fun to watch. Another 90s Stallone movie, The Specialist, falls into the same category.

Demolition Man definitely isn't a quality movie, but I watch it anytime it's on cause it's entertaining.

i love it

I rewatched it again and the first half is really good, but then it kind of retreads into an average action movie in the last half but still not bad. I didn't get the ending though.

Why is it that after the prison is blown up, the police commander character (Bob Gunton), says "How will we live now", and Spartan tells them they will have to go back living like how people did in the 90s. But I don't understand why? Just because a prison gets destroyed, why would that plummet a whole society and a whole country back 50 years?

I mean if San Quentin, was blown up today, that doesn't mean that the US would all go back to living how they did in the 60s. So what is the significance of that one prison that would do that out of curiosity?

The Cryo-Prison is fundamentally part of their way of life.
Prisoners are subjected to mental conditioning, hence why Spartan knows how to knit after he's released.


Raymond Cocteau was a despot who created a perfect world (as he saw it), which had that Cryo-Prison, people who don't swear, no violence et al.
Those that don't abide by his rules, are pushed underground and to starve and die.


Basically the ending is the death of the entire system, the corrupt system built by Cocteau, not just the destruction of the prison, that means there's a new way of life about to start for everyone.
However:
Spartan doesn't tell them they have to go back to the way it was in the 80s or 90s or whatever... what he says is, the Civilians will have to learn to loosen up a bit, and the Scraps will have to learn to live a little cleaner and become something other than thieves and the bane of the society.
The two classes can now work together, because they all now have their eyes opened to the Utopia that was in fact a Dystopia in disguise.

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Okay thanks, but I still don't get how it affects the non-ex-convicts. Just because Cocteau's building is destroyed, prison is destroyed, how does it affect the other citizen's way of life?

Would the police still want to carry out Cocteau's vision, even if Cocteau is now dead? Just because the person who lead the country is now dead, does not mean that everyone is not going to not carry out the footsteps.

For example, the founding father's of the US are dead, and the US still carries on their visions. They still believe in the all the amendments even though the people who created them are dead. So why does Cocteau's death actually change anything, when a nation normally still carries on the founding father's vision, after the founding father has died?

Like for example, when Lincoln was assassinated, the abolishment of slavery still continued on and it did not change that. Just because you kill a government person does not mean that the laws are going to change.

Cocteau was the person primarily responsible for their way of life. I think this is mentioned explicitly in the film. So it's not a prison being blown up. It's more like a thought controlling dictator being overthrown. Without that control, the promotion is people will rediscover the benefits of freedom.

Lincoln dying is different because he was already the leader of a free system. Oppressive systems and cults of personality are a lot more fragile and top heavy.

Google "preference cascade" for a bit more.

Oh okay, but you never get the feeling in the movie that these people are being controlled by a dictator. Aside from Sandra Bullock's character, the other characters in the future such as all the other police and authority figures, are completely happy to serve under this guy, so what is it that makes them not want to continue this same way of living, after he is dead? If they were all being controlled and acted like how they had no choice but to be this way, then yeah I would understand it, but they all like to do it, and hate the ways of the 20th century.

So I thought they would still have that hate, after the dictator died even.

i find a lot of similarity between demolition man and Judge dredd when it comes to plot, if u know what i mean, armand asante and wesley snipes

I miss this one!

They've effectively been brainwashed. They don't really hate them, they've just been told how awful they are without any counterargument or any ability to experience the trade-offs for themselves. Also, even if they remain unconvinced about the virtues of individual freedom, the mere fact that they were so vulnerable to one violent criminal obviously makes it difficult for them to believe their way of life was at all sustainable.

It is, of course, exaggerated for effect and for humor, like most satire. But the underlying concept is still pretty true to human nature. Utopian aspirations always fall short, and usually for exactly the same reason that they do in the film: because nobody can really be trusted with that kind of power.

Oh okay, yes that makes sense.

I just watched the movie again. One thing that always made me think is, why was Spartan arrested for murder? Just because he failed to save the hostages, doesn't mean he murdered them. That's like a firefighter going to a fire, but by the time they clear a path to get in, the people are already dead. Is the firefighter going to be charged with murder?

It seems to me that if they wanted Spartan to be arrested and sentenced for murder, wouldn't it have been better if the villain framed him for murder, rather than being charged with murder, from hostages he failed to save?

If you've just watched the movie for the third or fourth time, and this is your question, you need to watch the movie again.

Ok........ at the beginning of the movie, Spartan did a "thermo check"... he said there were no other people in the building apart from Phoenix and Phoenix's crew.
Phoenix screams "Wrong again!"

See, after the big fight, and the huge explosion... one of the cops comes running out and shouts how there are bodies everywhere... 40 or 50 bodies.
Spartan's reaction is "Eh? What?!"

The 40-50 bodies, are the hostages that Phoenix took, that Spartan was hoping to save.

However, the hostages never showed on the thermo scan, because they were already dead.

But........... Spartan's wayward attitude to procedure, and his reputation as "The Demolition Man", crossed with Phoenix's testimony screaming about how Spartan didn't care about hostages and just wanted to capture him.......... marks Spartan as the murderer.
As far as "facts" go, Spartan killed the hostages in the explosion.

This is also brought up at the middle of the movie when Spartan and Phoenix face off again and Phoenix tells him the hostages were already "Cold as Hagen-Dazs" before he even arrived at the building.

Oh okay, but isn't them not showing a thermo scan because they were already dead, a plausible explanation for Spartan to get out of it? Wouldn't his lawyer try to prove this?

Plus, Simon Phoenix doesn't seem like the kind of guy who's testimony would be credible. Don't all criminals say they are innocent and were framed by the police? How is this guy the exception for his testimony to hold water?

Well, wasn't a proper testimony exactly, he was just screaming about how Spartan "he said he didn't care!!!!"

There's witnesses about etc. And that's enough really from Phoenix's angle.

As for lawyers... Spartan's Captain even says "Got a lawyer? Better call 'em"

Spartan's rep was damaged already.
He was synonymous was destruction and violence...
He was also synonymous with hunting Phoenix.

The fact he followed procedure, found nothing on the thermo-scan... and only then went in to capture Phoenix... can be overlooked considering he has that reputation for NOT following procedure.
He's a loose cannon, and everyone knows it.

All the evidence, combined with Spartan's temperament and reputation... this is the one time his Demolition Man persona was used against him... and the frame for killing the hostages was successful.

Phoenix beat John Spartan using cunning, brains and the system... and cost Spartan not only his badge and authority, but his freedom and, literally, his life.

Easily one of my favorite Sly films. Excellent mixture of comedy, sci-fi, and action. Bullock steals the show.

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“Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It's a very mean and nasty place and I don't care how tough you are, it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't about how hard ya hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done!” ~ Rocky Balboa

Oh okay. One more thing, is if the hostages were already dead before, and were not killed in the explosion, wouldn't the pathologist who performed the autopsies on them testify to this though? Wouldn't he say there killed before, and Spartan and his attorney could use this as a hole in a Phoenix's framing plan?

I mean I assume the pathologist's findings would be credible to the police, wouldn't they?

Because it's a 90s action movie dude.