Thirty years ago today, Demolition Man first hit theaters, pitting Sylvester Stallone against Wesley Snipes in a crime-free but killjoy future where even minor vices have been declared illegal. The passage of time hasnā€™t quite elevated this sci-fi action comedy to the legendary status of Die Hard or Lethal Weapon, but itā€™s still an under-appreciated gem of '90s action movies, precisely because it unapologetically leans into the massive explosions and campy humor with wild abandon.

(Spoilers below, because itā€™s been 30 years.)

Demolition Man started out as a spec script by Peter Lenkov, then a recent college grad eager to break into Hollywood. (Lenkov went on to create his own shared fictional TV universe with the interconnected reboot series Hawaii 5-0, MacGuyver, and Magnum P.I.) Lenkov was a Lethal Weapon fan and envisioned an action movie about a cryogenically frozen ā€œsuper copā€ who wakes up decades in the future in a world largely free of crime, where he must battle his criminal arch-nemesis. As for the title, Lenkov had been listening to Stingā€™s ā€œDemolition Manā€ constantly because the cassette player in his car was broken. Inspiration strikes in nonlinear ways.

Warner Bros. ultimately optioned the spec script and hired Daniel Waters (Heathers) for the rewrites. It was Waters who brought the comedic elements to the story, along with other substantial changes. The studio hired Marco Brambilla to direct; it was his first feature film. Originally, Steven Seagal was supposed to star, with Jean-Claude Van Damme playing the villain; Brambilla chose to cast Stallone and Snipes instead and their acting styles meshed well. The same could not be said of Lori Petty, originally cast as the plucky female cop and love interest Lenina Huxley. She and Stallone didnā€™t get alongā€”Petty described their dynamic as ā€œoil and waterā€ā€”and she was ultimately replaced by Sandra Bullock.

The film opens in a dystopian version of 1996 Los Angeles as LAPD Sergeant John Spartan (Stallone)ā€”aka the ā€œDemolition Manā€ because of the major property damage that typically results when heā€™s on the jobā€”tracking psychopathic crime lord Simon Phoenix (Snipes) to an abandoned building, where Phoenix has holed up with a busload of hostages. Spartan successfully arrests Phoenix, but not before the entire building blows up. When the corpses of the hostages are found in the rubble, Spartan is charged and convicted of manslaughter, joining Phoenix in ā€œcryoprison,ā€ where they remain frozen until 2032. Thatā€™s when Phoenix is thawed out for a parole hearing, only to escape into what is now a megalopis called San Angeles.

San Angeles is a seemingly utopian society headed by one Dr. Raymond Cocteau (Nigel Hawthorne), with almost no violent crime. So the San Angeles police are simply not equipped to deal with Phoenix, who commits multiple ā€œmurder-death-killsā€ within his first few hours of freedom. Lenina Huxley (Bullock) suggests they unthaw Spartan, since he captured Phoenix the first time. And Spartan finds himself trying to hunt down a homicidal maniac while navigating a brave new world where alcohol, swearing, eating anything thatā€™s bad for you, and intimate exchanges of precious bodily fluids (i.e., kissing, sex), among other things, are now illegal. Plot twist: Cocteau actually masterminded Phoenixā€™s escape so that the latter could take out the leader of an underground group of rebels (ā€œscrapsā€), Edgar Friendly (Denis Leary).

Demolition Man topped the box office in its opening weekend and went on to gross $159 million worldwide against its $77 million budgetā€”not a blockbuster hit, but not a colossal failure either. It was widely viewed as a comeback vehicle for Stallone, whose career had flagged somewhat after a string of box office disappointments. (Stallone is currently enjoying yet another ā€œcomebackā€ in the streaming crime drama Tulsa King.) Critical reviews were mixed; not everyone was a fan of producer Joel Silverā€™s over-the-top approach to action flicks. But this is the man behind the Lethal Weapon, Die Hard, and The Matrix franchisesā€”now all classicsā€”plus the first two Predator films. Whether you appreciate his extensive oeuvre or not, thereā€™s no denying he was a major influence on film in the late 1980s and 1990s.

The fictional future of Demolition Man is one where the Oldies radio station plays jingles from 20th century commercials and where all the restaurants are Taco Bell, which apparently won the ā€œfranchise wars.ā€ (It was changed to Pizza Hut in the filmā€™s European release, because Taco Bell was less well known overseas.) The ultra-processed food served therein isnā€™t even remotely appetizing, but it did inspire the real Taco Bell to recreate the fictional version at the 2018 San Diego Comic-Con for the filmā€™s 25th anniversary.

And who can forget the meme-worthy mysterious three seashells Spartan encounters in the bathroom in lieu of toilet paper? How they work is a running gag that is never explained, but one assumes itā€™s some kind of futuristic bidet. Waters said in a 2018 interview that initially he couldnā€™t figure out a good future restroom concept and started calling his screenwriter friends for ideas. He reached Larry Karaszewski (Ed Wood) when Karaszewski was literally on the toilet and mentioned a bag of seashells on the shelf. "I was like ā€˜seashells! Iā€™m gonna work with that,ā€™ā€ Waters recalled, and the rest is pop culture history.

Stallone built his career on macho tough-guy roles in films like Rambo and Rocky and Spartan is very much in that vein, but itā€™s nice to see him show his comedic chops in Demolition Manā€”sometimes poking gentle fun at his macho tough guy image. Spartanā€™s rehabilitation program while in cryoprison trained him as a seamstress and his bemusement at being compelled to knit Huxley a sweater is spot-on. Thereā€™s even a bit of Hollywood insider humor when Spartan learns about the Schwarzenegger Presidential Library. (Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger were longtime rivals and Schwarzenegger did indeed enter politics ten years later as governor of California.) Stalloneā€™s low-key deadpan delivery makes a nice foil to Snipesā€™ scenery-chewing portrayal of Simon Phoenix. Phoenix is a bit of a one-note villain, but Snipes makes him entertaining and always fun to watch, plus he gets to show off his killer martial arts moves.

Demolition Man was Sandra Bullockā€™s big Hollywood break, and while she was nominated for a Golden Raspberry Award (Worst Supporting Actress) for her troubles, a lesser actress would have fared much worse. Bullock was perfect for the role of Lenina Huxley and her bubbly on-screen charisma easily marked her as a budding major star. (It didnā€™t take long. Speed debuted the following year, rocketing her to the A-List.) Huxley finds her SAPD job rather dull until Phoenix and Spartan burst onto the scene. She idolizes the late 20th centuryā€”even if she canā€™t get the slang quite right (ā€œyou can take this job and shovel it!ā€)ā€”and learned to fight by watching Jackie Chan movies. Sheā€™s the perfect guide to help Spartan (and the audience) navigate the near future.

The film holds up surprisingly well even 30 years later. Sure, ā€œpolitical correctnessā€ is now ā€œwokeness,ā€ and socio-political divisions are arguably a bit more hardened. But Cocteauā€™s San Angeles provides an always-relevant cautionary tale of how unscrupulously opportunistic ā€œleadersā€ can take advantage of tragedy (in this case a devastating earthquake) to sow chaos and fear to gain and maintain power. Some have interpreted Demolition Man as being some kind of Libertarian manifesto, embodied in Learyā€™s epic rant about wanting the freedom to eat a cheeseburger and run naked through the streets if he feels like. I think thatā€™s a misguided take that misses the filmā€™s true point (although I love Learyā€™s rant as much as anyone).

Waters has said that he had no intention of being overtly political when penning the script; he was just having fun and itā€™s easier to mine schmaltzy fake peace and love for laughs than a brutal dystopian regime. The film ends with the inevitable fall of Cocteauā€™s dictatorial New World Orderā€”a future that absolutely nobody wants, regardless of where they fall on the political spectrum. Waterā€™s ultimate ā€œmessageā€ is that the people of San Angeles must now figure out how to balance those two extremes (overly controlled order vs. chaotic anarchy) and build a new functional democratic society where individual freedom will sometimes give way to the greater good, and vice versa, so that everyone can thrive. That remains a timely messageā€”one might even say itā€™s timeless.

    • sheawoodrow@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      Jack Blackā€™s first theatrical film was Bob Roberts in 1992. He was in a tv movie called Our Shining Moment in 1991. TV series debut was in The Fall Guy in 1984. First commercial was for Pitfall on Atari 2600 in 1982.