Demolition Man (film)

Demolition Man
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Marco Brambilla
Produced by	Joel Silver[1] Michael Levy Howard Kazanjian
Screenplay by	Daniel Waters Robert Reneau Peter M. Lenkov
Story by	Peter M. Lenkov Robert Reneau
Starring	Sylvester Stallone Wesley Snipes Sandra Bullock Nigel Hawthorne
Music by	Elliot Goldenthal
Cinematography	Alex Thomson
Edited by	Stuart Baird
Production company	Silver Pictures
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release dates	October 8, 1993 (1993-10-08)
Running time	115 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Box office	$159.1 million[2]

Demolition Man is a 1993 American science fiction action film directed by Marco Brambilla in his directorial debut. The film stars Sylvester Stallone and Wesley Snipes. The film was released in the United States on October 8, 1993.^[3]

The film tells the story of two men: an evil crime lord and a risk-taking police officer. Cryogenically frozen in 1996, they are restored to life in the year 2032 to find mainstream society changed and all crime seemingly eliminated.

Some aspects of the film allude to Aldous Huxley's dystopian novel, Brave New World.^[4]

Plot

In 1996, LAPD Sgt. John Spartan leads a Special Operations unit on an unauthorized mission to rescue hostages taken by the psychopathic career criminal Simon Phoenix and his henchmen. After a thermal scan reveals no sign of the hostages, Spartan enters Phoenix's stronghold, and engages Phoenix's men and captures Phoenix himself, who before his arrest has detonated several barrels of C4, destroying the building. The hostages' bodies are found in the rubble, Phoenix "pleads his regard", and Spartan is charged with their deaths. Both men are frozen in the "California Cryo-Penitentiary" and exposed to subconscious rehabilitation techniques.

In 2032, 22 years after 2010 "Great Earthquake", the former cities of Los Angeles, San Diego and Santa Barbara have merged into the pseudo-utopian San Angeles, under the pseudo-pacifist guidance and control of an envangelistic Dr. Raymond Cocteau. Weapons and vices are outlawed, human behavior is regulated, citizens carry implanted transceivers, and in the resulting absence of any violent crime, the San Angeles Police (SAPD) has lost any ability to handle violent behavior of any kind.

Phoenix is awakened for a parole hearing, kills the warden, armed guards, and several peace officers, demonstrating superhuman abilities and martial arts skills. Veteran officer Zachary Lamb suggests that Spartan be revived and reinstated to the force to help them capture Phoenix. Lieutenant Lenina Huxley is assigned to assist Spartan in his transition, despite the reluctance of Chief George Earle, who takes an immediate dislike to him.

The revived Spartan has trouble adapting to life in the future. Most of Huxley's fellow officers perceive Spartan as thuggish and uncivilized, he finds the culture, bans and the peaceful society repulsing (constantly getting fines over excessive swearing), and is at odds with Earle, who finds him to be a barbaric, heretic "caveman. In the meantime, the white-robed Dr. Cocteau has recruited Phoenix to kill Edgar Friendly, the ragtag leader of the "Scraps"—resistance fighters living in the ruins beneath San Angeles, whom Cocteau sees as the threat to the narcotized society he has created.

The first Spartan-Phoenix confrontation is at the "Museum of Antiquities" weapon exhibit, where Phoenix goes to arm himself, encountering Spartan, who had deduced this strategy. Phoenix evades Spartan and encounters Dr. Cocteau, whom he tries to shoot, but he is programmed against that ability. Cocteau reminds him of why he was revived: to kill Edgar Friendly. In a subsequent encounter, Dr. Cocteau adds Spartan to his hit list for Phoenix, and agrees to give him the territory of Santa Monica upon completion. Spartan and Huxley learn of this and that Dr. Cocteau is "an evil Mr. Rogers" rather than San Angeles's saintly god-king. He had programmed Phoenix to make him a more capable, dangerous maniac, and to use him as an assassin to eliminate Friendly. While Spartan, Huxley and young officer Alfredo Garcia enter the underground city to warn Friendly, Phoenix confronts Cocteau and demands that he release a list of other prisoners to assist him.

At Friendly's base, Phoenix and an irredeemable supplement of recruits attempt to kill both Spartan and Friendly, whom Spartan and Huxley have joined underground. They escape in Friendly's vintage Oldsmobile 4-4-2, and pursue Phoenix, who stole a police car. In communication during the car chase, Phoenix reveals that the hostages Spartan tried to rescue in their 1990s encounter were dead before the building exploded: Spartan was innocent of any crime and was terminated (frozen) for nothing. Phoenix escapes. Friendly, recruiting Garcia, leads the Scraps from the underground to join the police against Phoenix and his gang.

Phoenix orders the gang to kill Cocteau, which his programming prevents him from doing directly. Spartan and Huxley arrive at Cocteau's headquarters to capture Phoenix and his accomplices. Phoenix escapes to the prison to revive (defrost) and recruit even more dangerous convicts. After knocking out Huxley to protect her, Spartan enters the prison to confront Phoenix. Spartan uses a cryotube to freeze Phoenix solid, destroys Phoenix by knocking his head off, and escapes as the cryomachinery overloads, destroying the prison. With Cocteau dead and the prison destroyed, the police and the Scraps find themselves at odds over how to begin the framework for their new society. Spartan suggests that they find a way to compromise between order and personal freedom, then kisses Huxley and departs with her.

Cast

Bullock replaced original actress Lori Petty in the role of Lenina Huxley after a few days filming.^[6] Her character's name is a reference to Aldous Huxley, the author of Brave New World, and Lenina Crowne, a character in Brave New World.^[4]

Originally Jean-Claude Van Damme and Steven Seagal were offered lead roles in the film.^[7] The role of Simon Phoenix was also offered to Jackie Chan.^[8]

Production

Regional differences

One of the film's focal points is Taco Bell being the sole surviving restaurant chain in the world. Because Taco Bell is not widely available outside the U.S., the European version substitutes it with Pizza Hut, with lines re-dubbed and logos changed during post-production.^[9]

Plagiarism controversy

Hungarian science fiction writer István Nemere says that most of Demolition Man is based on his novel Holtak harca (Fight of the Dead), published in 1986. In the novel, a terrorist and his enemy, a counter-terrorism soldier are cryogenically frozen and awakened in the 22nd century to find violence has been purged from society. Nemere claimed that a committee proved that 75% of the film is identical to the book. He chose not to initiate a lawsuit, as it would have been too expensive for him to hire a lawyer and fight against major Hollywood forces in the United States. He also claimed that Hollywood has plagiarized works of many Eastern European writers after the fall of the Iron Curtain, and that he knows the person he claims to be responsible for illegally selling his idea to the filmmakers.^[10]

Soundtrack

The title theme is a heavier remix of the song originally recorded by Grace Jones and written by Sting during his time as frontman for The Police. The song was first released in March 1981, as an advance single from Jones's fifth album, Nightclubbing. Sting released an EP featuring this song and other live tracks, entitled Demolition Man.

Elliot Goldenthal composed the score for the film. It was his second big Hollywood project after the Alien³ score.

Release

The film debuted at No. 1 at the box office.^{[11][12][13][14]} Demolition Man grossed $58,055,768 by the end of its box office run in North America and $159,055,768 worldwide.^[2]

Warner Bros. released it on VHS in March 1994,^[15] on DVD in October 1997,^[16] and on Blu-ray in August 2011.^[17]

Reception

The film received mixed reviews. Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 64% rating on based on 36 reviews.^[18] The film scored a 34/100 on Metacritic, based on 9 reviews.^[19]

^[20][21][22]

On Siskel & Ebert, Gene Siskel gave the film a "thumbs down", criticizing its violence, but he praised its "funny offbeat script." Roger Ebert praised the movie: "Unlike so many other movies of its genre, it really does have a satiric angle to it."^[23]

Adaptations

Literature

A four-part limited-series comic adaptation was published by DC Comics starting in November, 1993. A novelization, written by Robert Tine, was also published in October, 1993.

Games

Acclaim Entertainment and Virgin Interactive released Demolition Man on various home video game systems. The 16-bit versions were shooting games distributed by Acclaim. The 3DO version is a multi-genre game that incorporates Full Motion Video scenes, with both Sylvester Stallone and Wesley Snipes reprising their roles as their characters in scenes that were filmed exclusively for the game.

In April 1994, Williams released a widebody pinball machine, Demolition Man based on the movie. It is designed by Dennis Nordman. The 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.).

See also

• List of films featuring surveillance

References

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Demolition Man

• Demolition Man at the Internet Movie Database
• Demolition Man at AllMovie
• Demolition Man at Rotten Tomatoes
• Demolition Man at Box Office Mojo
• Demolition Man at Metacritic

Demolition Man Cast Sylvester Stallone Wesley Snipes Sandra Bullock Nigel Hawthorne Crew Marco Brambilla Joel Silver Daniel Waters Peter M. Lenkov Music Soundtrack by Elliot Goldenthal EP by Sting Song Games Pinball Video games Related topics Brave New World General Motors Ultralite San Angeles Silver Pictures Taco Bell Warner Bros.