Demolition Man (film)

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Demolition Man
Directed by	Marco Brambilla
Produced by	Howard Kazanjian
Written by	Peter M. Lenkov Robert Reneau Daniel Waters
Starring	Sylvester Stallone Wesley Snipes Sandra Bullock Nigel Hawthorne Denis Leary
Music by	Elliot Goldenthal
Cinematography	Alex Thomson
Editing by	Stuart Baird
Distributed by	Warner Brothers
Release date(s)	October 8, 1993 (premiere)
Running time	115 min.
Country	USA
Language	English
IMDb profile

Demolition Man is a 1993 American science fiction-action film. It was directed by Marco Brambilla, written by Peter M. Lenkov, Robert Reneau and Daniel Waters, and produced by Howard Kazanjian. It stars Sylvester Stallone, Wesley Snipes, Nigel Hawthorne and Sandra Bullock. Some aspects of the movie allude to Aldous Huxley's dystopian novel, Brave New World. Demolition Man grossed $58,055,768 by the end of its run at the box office.

Contents 1 Synopsis 2 Setting 2.1 Society and laws 2.2 Technologies 3 References 3.1 Literary and cultural references 3.2 References to film and current events 3.3 Product placement 4 Soundtrack 5 Game adaptations 5.1 Video games 5.2 Pinball 6 Trivia 7 Cast 8 External links

[edit] Synopsis

The film is a story about two men, one an evil crime lord and the other a risk-taking police officer. Although the initial scenes are set in an anarchic, dystopian version of Los Angeles, circa 1996, most of the film is set in the year 2032, where San Angeles, Southern California has become a peaceful, sanitized paradise. (In the film, San Angeles has been created from the joining of Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, San Diego and the surrounding metropolitan regions following a massive earthquake.)

Simon Phoenix (played by Wesley Snipes) - incarcerated in a "cryoprison" (which, unlike traditional prisons, keeps its prisoners cryogenically frozen in suspended animation) for his activities as a crime lord in 1990s Los Angeles - escapes during a parole hearing and soon embarks on a reign of terror throughout the city of San Angeles. Because police officers no longer know how to deal with ultraviolent criminals like Phoenix, supercop John Spartan (Sylvester Stallone), aka "The Demolition Man", is paroled from the cryoprison for the purpose of apprehending Phoenix. Spartan owes his 36-year term in the cryoprison to Phoenix - while trying to capture Phoenix in 1996, Spartan destroyed his headquarters and allegedly killed a busload of passengers Phoenix was holding as hostages. Phoenix lied to the police and said that he had warned Spartan about the hostages, while in reality (as Phoenix later revealed) they were already dead and cold, thus rendering them invisible to Spartan's thermoscan. The authorities chose to believe Phoenix's rendition of events, and Spartan was made the scapegoat.

It is revealed that the ruler of San Angeles, Raymond Cocteau (Sir Nigel Hawthorne) engineered the escape of Phoenix in order to have Phoenix kill resistance leader Edgar Friendly (Denis Leary) and allow Cocteau to assert even stronger control over his citizens. Unfortunately for Cocteau, he underestimates the criminal genius of Phoenix (much as Spartan had) and is killed. Phoenix takes control of the cryoprison and begins to reanimate every violent criminal in the facility to create an elite street gang and form a new base of power. Spartan (and his partner, Lenina Huxley (Sandra Bullock) must try and stop Phoenix from rebuilding his criminal empire in a San Angeles ill-equipped to resist it.

[edit] Setting

The film depicts a future society in which crime and violence are rare and seen as remnants of the 20th century.

Hints are dropped throughout the movie that the United States underwent a period of anarcho-capitalism before it was stabilized. In particular, Taco Bell is the only restaurant available, because it won the "Franchise Wars". (In the Australian and some European versions of the film, this was changed to Pizza Hut; in some television edits, the restaurant name was removed altogether.)

[edit] Society and laws

Several distinctive euphemisms and neologisms are used in the film: homicide is referred to as a "non-sanctioned life termination" and as "Murder Death Kill" or "MDK." Homicide has not happened in over 20 years, and has almost been forgotten. In addition, even the mildest profanity is a violation of the Verbal Morality Statute, and punishable by a fine which is automatically deducted from a citizen's finances. The perpetrator is dispensed a ticket by a machine.

Physical contact was recognized as causing the spread of disease and is now seen as unusual. "Sex" is no longer a physical thing for the same reasons, and even kissing is not condoned. Instead, it is performed using an arousal computer system, with procreation done in a laboratory when granted a license.

It is explained that anything deemed "bad for you" is now illegal, including:

• Non-educational toys
• Alcohol
• Meat and unhealthy food
• Tobacco
• Table salt
• Obscenity
• Abortion, as well as pregnancy unless one has a license
• Anything spicy

[edit] Technologies

As with other films set in the future, many new technologies are shown. Some of these have subsequently been invented and a few are even widespread.

• The addition of skills to the brain during the cryogenic process in order to aid rehabilitation
• Profanity Sensors which automatically print out tickets and fines whenever a person utters out a swear word. The normal response is 'You are fined one credit for a violation of the Verbal Morality Statute.'
• "Laser defibrillation" to remove people from their frozen state
• Retinal scan
• CCTV (including audio) covering every location except the underground areas
• Video conferencing and videophones
• Toilet paper replaced by "three seashells", state as

  "...it was explained to me by the writer is you hold two seashells like chopsticks, pull gently and scrape what’s left with the third. ..."

—by Sylvester Stallone, on aint-it-cool.com (See No. 9)

• Electronic tagging of the population, coupled with GPS
• "Auto drive" mode for cars
• Automatic inflation of car tires after puncture
• "Secure Foam" crash protection
• Small robots that spray complicated graffiti in seconds, countered by walls that remove it and disable the bots even quicker
• Police officers have stun batons, with guns being relegated to museums
• Voice-activated computers
• Magnetic Accelerator gun (Acc-Mag), a firearm in a museum exhibit noted as being one of the most efficient rifles ever invented
• Sex simulators worn on the participants' heads replace physical intercourse. These appear to function by influencing brain activity to replicate sexual arousal.

Many of these systems are linked together and used in the central headquarters of the police.

[edit] References

[edit] Literary and cultural references

The future world portrayed in the movie, in which human reproduction has been entirely relegated to medical science, and society is free from crime and violence, is reminiscent of Aldous Huxley's novel Brave New World (1932). The name of Bullock's character, Lenina Huxley, combines Huxley's name with that of Lenina Crowne, a major character in the novel. Additionally, both Chief Earle and Huxley refer to John Spartan as a "savage" - making him "John the Savage" (another character from Brave New World). In one scene, Phoenix comments that it is a "brave new world". In addition, the "Wasteland" is an underground community diametrically opposed to the sterility of the above ground society, similar to the "Savage Reservation" of Brave New World.

In turn, John's last name recalls the martial values of ancient Sparta, while Simon's last name refers to a mythical bird notable for staging a victorious reappearance after apparent demise.

In the film's future society, the most popular music on the radio is based on television commercials (including the "Jolly Green Giant" jingle). This may be a reference to the central idea of Lloyd Biggle Jr.'s short story "The Tunesmith" or to some episodes in Ray Bradbury´s Fahrenheit 451, where the characters tap in the train at commercial tunes.

[edit] References to film and current events

The opening scene to the film is a direct reference to the opening scene of Blade Runner, complete with the title card "Los Angeles, 1996" followed by rising fireballs.

In one scene, the "Arnold Schwarzenegger Presidential Library" is mentioned, as well as the changes to society beginning with his election as Governor of California. This was presumably intended as an incongruous joke in 1993, particularly in a film starring Stallone, who was seen as a rival of sorts to Schwarzenegger. However, given Schwarzenegger's subsequent political career and the possibility that the U.S. Constitution could be amended to permit foreign-born citizens to serve as President (later in the scene, a reference is made to "the 61st Amendment", which apparently permitted just this), the reference could be considered unintentionally prophetic.

It is also notable that in the same year as this film was released, the movie Last Action Hero was also released - wherein Arnold Schwarzenegger's role in The Terminator, in a parallel universe, is referred to as having been played by Stallone instead.

When Phoenix hurls a guard into a museum display case to steal guns, he says "Excuse me Rambo, I need to borrow this" — a reference to one of Stallone's earlier roles.

While searching for firearms, Simon Phoenix becomes irritated with the computer terminal he's using and exclaims, "C'mon, HAL, where are the goddamn guns?" HAL is a reference to the supercomputer in the 1968 Stanley Kubrick movie 2001: A Space Odyssey.

The mid-movie rant of Edgar Friendly (Denis Leary) against life in San Angeles is reminiscent of Leary's stand-up comedy routines.

When Simon Phoenix is going over the list of cryocons, he comes across Jeffrey Dahmer's name and decides to release him ("Jeffrey Dahmer? I LOVE that guy!"). This scene is frequently deleted in modern broadcasts of the film due to Dahmer's subsequent murder in prison in 1994, thus making the scene anachronistic.

During the car chase scene Phoenix makes a reference to the film Scarface when he says "Say hello to my little friend!"

In the opening scenes, in a B-Roll segment a voice calls the warden to a hearing for "Gilmore" (vocal, no spelling given), in reference to Gary Gilmore, who was executed in 1977 via firing squad.

[edit] Product placement

The Taco Bell reference noted above proved controversial; when the TBS network first screened the film, references to Taco Bell were edited out of dialogue during the relevant scene. In more recent broadcasts on TBS, the references to Taco Bell have been restored.

General Motors allowed the movie's producers to use many of their prototype automobiles such as Ultralite on the condition that the movie feature their Oldsmobile brand. This was requested to show that the brand had a future - which was in question even in 1993. In fact, the Oldsmobile marque was indeed retired eleven years later, long before the movie's fictional 2032 setting. The movie also featured an Oldsmobile 442 muscle car, which was used in the high-speed chase scene.

An "oldies" radio channel plays the music from television commercials, with one scene prominently promoting Armour hot dogs.

[edit] 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 written by Sting and recorded during his time as frontman for The Police. The song was first released in 1981, as the fifth track on the band's fourth album, Ghost In The Machine. Sting released an EP featuring this song and other live tracks, entitled Demolition Man.

[edit] Game adaptations

[edit] Video games

Virgin Interactive released Demolition Man on various home video game systems. The 16-bit versions were distributed by Acclaim.

The 3D0 version of the game was a first-person shooter that incorporated Full Motion Video scenes, with both Sylvester Stallone and Wesley Snipes reprising their roles as their characters.

[edit] Pinball

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.).

[edit] Trivia

• Sylvester Stallone and Wesley Snipes were not the first choices for the movie. Instead, the first were Steven Seagal as John Spartan and Jean Claude Van Damme as Simon Phoenix. Van Damme refused because he didn't want to play a villain. He would agree to be in the film if the lead roles were switched but Seagal declined the Simon Phoenix role. Van Damme eventually ended up filming Timecop.

• Another pick for Simon Phoenix was Jackie Chan. He refused because he had played the hero so many times he thought his fans would hate him if he took a villain role.

• Jack Black played one of the "Wasteland Scraps" in the underground scene. He's the Scrap that flinches when Spartan shoves the gun out of his face and says "And Cocteau's an asshole!"

• Jesse Ventura, former WWF wrestler and later Governor of Minnesota, played one of Simon Phoenix's Cryocon allies.

• An uncredited Rob Schneider played Erwin, one of the operators in the San 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 Lt Lenina Huxley after a few days filming.

• The scene where Simon kills the guards in the cryo prison was also trimmed but this time because it was too graphic. Originally the audience could see the guards being killed by the bullets.

• The particle weapon carried by Simon is actually a Heckler & Koch G11.

• Scenes shot but not used in the final film include a subplot involving John Spartan's daughter and the killing of Zachary Lamb by Simon Phoenix. This scenes were cut to shorten running time.
• In an early scene, set after the first MDK (Murder Death Kill), the name Scott Peterson is listed as one of the cryo-prisoners. The name appears listed before Simon Phoenix on a computer display, which the character Lenina Huxley (Sandra Bullock) has called to the screen. This is merely a coincidence, however, as "Scott Peterson" was not a public figure until he was tried for the murder of his wife during 2004-2005.

[edit] Cast

• Sylvester Stallone - John Spartan
• Wesley Snipes - Simon Phoenix
• Sandra Bullock - Lt. Lenina Huxley
• Nigel Hawthorne - Dr. Raymond Cocteau
• Benjamin Bratt - Alfredo Garcia
• Denis Leary - Edgar Friendly
• Rob Schnieder - Erwin
• Jack Black - Wasteland Scrap
• Jesse Ventura - Cryocon Ally
• Bill Cobbs - Zachary Lamb (Old)
• Bob Gunton - Chief George Earle
• Glenn Shadix - Associate Bob
• Grand L. Bush - Zachary Lamb (Young)
• Pat Skipper - Helicopter Pilot
• Steve Kahan - Captain Healy
• Paul Bollen - T.F.R. Officer
• Mark Colson - Assistant Warden William Smithers (Young)
• Andre Gregory - Warden William Smithers (Aged)

[edit] External links

• Demolition Man at the Internet Movie Database