DEMOLITION MAN (1993)

Sylvester Stallone’s heyday was the 1980s, as a poster boy for the decade’s brand of musclebound machismo. While his career truly went stratospheric thanks to writing and starring in the Academy Award-winning boxing drama Rocky (1976), only a few years later Stallone found his true calling as an action hero thanks to the success of First Blood (1982). And both those films begat franchises that, to some extent, epitomised 1980s cinema. The 1990s were the beginning of the end for Stallone as a box-office megastar, in the wake of the trilogy-ending Rambo III (1988) and the colossal disappointment of Rocky V (1990), but a last hurrah came in 1993 with the dual successes of Cliffhanger and Demolition Man.

Demolition Man was the brainchild of screenwriter Peter Lenkov, who was inspired by Lethal Weapon (1987) and the title of the Sting song “Demolition Man” to craft a screenplay involving cops and the trend of wealthy celebrities being cryogenically frozen after their death, to hopefully be revived in the future. Studio bosses weren’t interested until he fine-tuned the idea to be more about a supercop having to fight the world’s worst criminal in a future without crime. Daniel Waters (Heathers) was duly hired to rewrite Lenkov’s script, primarily making it funnier, and received first writing credit as his contributions were so extensive.

Marco Brambilla was chosen to direct the film at the behest of David Fincher (Alien³) to producer Joel Silver, as the two men both had a background working on expensive television commercials. Steven Seagal (Under Siege) and Jean-Claude Van Damme (Universal Soldier) were both considered for the lead role of supercop John Spartan before Stallone reconsidered after initially passing on the role. Jackie Chan (Drunken Master) was Stallone’s own choice to play his character’s arch-nemesis, Simon Phoenix, but Chan didn’t want to play a villain, so Joel Silver and Brambilla talked Wesley Snipes into accepting the part. Interestingly, Sandra Bullock was a last-minute replacement as Officer Lenina Huxley after actress Lori Petty (Tank Girl) was fired after two days of shooting over “creative differences” — which in this case was code for her and Stallone not getting along. “Sly and I were like oil and water,” she later revealed.

The film has a terrific premise, riffing on Aldous Huxley’s 1932 novel Brave New World and H.G Wells’s 1899 story The Sleeper Awakes. In the then near-future of 1996, psychopath Simon Phoenix (Snipes) is holding a busload of people hostage in a building rigged with explosives, calling for the assistance of renowned LAPD Sergeant John Spartan (Stallone), nicknamed ‘Demolition Man’ for his tendency to cause excessive collateral damage in the line of duty. The incident has an explosive end that results in both men being sentenced to decades in California’s Cryo-Penitentiary, meaning their bodies are frozen while they’re subliminally rehabilitated during their long hibernation.

Fast-forward to San Angeles in the then-distant future of 2032, a gleaming metropolis comprised of Los Angeles, San Diego, and Santa Barbara. A peaceful utopian society has come to exist in the mid-21st century, where even swearing in public results in on-the-spot fines, which sadly means police officers have become soft and ill-equipped to deal with old-school criminality. Unfortunately, Phoenix escapes after being thawed out for a parole hearing and soon becomes an insurmountable problem for the local law enforcement, forcing the cops to release Spartan from cryo-sleep to help them recapture him.

What follows is a highly entertaining blockbuster movie, although contemporaneous reviews were surprisingly mixed. Maybe it helps that some of Demolition Man’s future predictions have come true, even if some of them remain delightfully bizarre. At its core, it mixes Stallone’s abilities as an action superstar with a type of tongue-in-cheek humour that plays to his strengths, as he’s asked to be the straight man reacting to the peculiarities around him as a fish-out-of-water “caveman”. Also, as we approach the year this film takes place, Demolition Man has arguably improved in the sense Stallone’s character now feels more retro than he did in ’94, as society’s become overly sensitive. Just not to a truly absurd level.

There’s also a great balance to the movie, as Stallone’s more restrained and stoic as the no-nonsense hero anchoring the movie’s procedural elements, while Snipes is let off the leash to go wild as Phoenix. This was my first time seeing Snipes on screen, and he’s extremely charismatic and amusing. The role also allows him to demonstrate his abilities as a martial artist — something he’d return to more overtly with Blade (1998) — and that alone gives him an interesting contrast to Stallone as a physical presence. The disparity with casting the diminutive Jackie Chan in this role might not have worked, but Snipes feels like he can go toe-to-toe with Stallone and might have the edge because he’s more agile. Around this time, audiences were also coming to prefer action heroes who looked less cartoonish too, as Keanu Reeves in Speed (1994) would arguably cement changing tastes after Bruce Willis in Die Hard (1988) opened the door to the more “everyman” action hero.

Sandra Bullock, who coincidentally also appeared in Speed the following year, makes an immediate impression as Officer Huxley (named after the Brave New World author). This was one of her first major roles after smaller parts in Hangmen (1987) and Love Potion №9 (1992), and set her career up to flourish in the 1990s. It can often be a thankless role to play the love interest opposite Stallone, to be honest, but while there isn’t much actual sexual chemistry, the actors have enough of a rapport for their relationship to work on camera.

Huxley is our guide through the ultra-liberal future world, doing her best to bridge the divide everyone has with Spartan as she’s a lover of the more barbaric 20th-century. A large chunk of the second act is taken up with her as Spartan’s aide and superfan, although this is certainly the movie’s weakest point once the initial fun of Stallone vs Snipes gives way to trying to flesh out this world. However, the sequence where Huxley insists Spartan have sex with her, only to reveal that sex has evolved into a weird transference of sexual brainwaves, is easily the high point of this part of the film.

What’s less convincing is the whole idea of a subterranean underclass of people not unlike Spartan, led by Edgar Friendly (Denis Leary), who are essentially this story’s “Morlocks”, but with a twist that their behaviour and values are more human than those who dwell above them. Even if they’ve been reduced to eating ratburgers. Spartan forms an alliance with Friendly’s people around the same time Phoenix starts defrosting other psychopaths to form a gang, escalating the whole situation even further. However, there’s just something a bit cartoonish and unconvincing about the idea of this haves and have-nots societal split. But the film has to find some narrative depth from somewhere, so pivoting to the idea that Phoenix was only revived to assassinate Edgar Friendly to help Dr Raymond Cocteau (Nigel Hawthorn) ensure his benevolent future has no resistance isn’t too bad of an idea. It just drains away some of the movie’s early momentum, which takes a while to get back for the climactic showdown in the cryo-lab as Phoenix is about to free 80 criminals.

Even at the time, audiences found the sanitised future of Demolition Man a little too cartoonish and silly to fully invest in. But it’s always been difficult to present visions of the future that are plausible but positive, versus the comparative ease of putting a bleak dystopia on screen. The problem is you tend to go overboard and things don’t feel convincing enough to buy into, but this film just about gets away with it because of its lighthearted tone and comedy elements. It’s not entirely serious about the idea civilisation could reach such a point in just 70 years, but it just finds amusement in the idea that older men in robes are engineering the culture away from violence, sex, profanity, and other vices.

It continues to be great fun spotting things Demolition Man predicted fairly accurately about the future, too —from self-driving electric cars to online meetings. And even if the technology looks a little antiquated in design, it’s fun to see filmmakers of the mid-’90s get things right enough to raise an eyebrow. I used to think the idea of people finding TV commercial jingles as entertaining as pop music was a ridiculous idea until fairly recently, but now the attention span of TikTokers has meant similarly brief but catchy pieces of audio are listened to, shared, and remixed millions of times online. And who even knows what the best-selling single is every week now?

Ultimately, Demolition Man wasn’t widely embraced when it was released but has since found an appreciative audience in ’90s kids who’ve grown up marvelling at what it correctly predicted about the future and the sheer fun it has with an irresistible premise. And for Stallone and his ego, at least Demolition Man surpassed his rival Arnold Schwarzenegger’s own big-swing blockbuster from the same year, Last Action Hero (1993), grossing $159M compared to the latter’s $137M. But time has been kind to both movies, which in many ways tested the waters for not-so-dumb action films.

USA | 1993 | 115 MINUTES | 2.39:1 | COLOUR | ENGLISH

Limited Edition 4K Ultra HD Special Features:

Restored from the original negative in 4K at Warner Bros./Motion Imaging, both versions of the film (the domestic “Taco Bell” cut and the international “Pizza Hut” cut) are here presented by Arrow Video in the original 2.39:1 aspect ratio via seamless branching.

The restored Demolition Man offers enhanced details in the image compared to previous Blu-ray 1080p HD releases. However, this does have the downside of making some of the ‘90s VFX stand out as poorly composited compared to what we’re accustomed to today. There’s a fair amount of grain in some scenes, but nothing too distracting and the restoration is generally a pleasant experience and improvement on what’s come before—all approved by the director too.

The film comes in DTS-HD 2.0, DTS-HD 5.1 surround, and a new Dolby Atmos track produced by Arrow Video at Deluxe Audio, London. The latter is much appreciated as too many films being updated for 4K Ultra HD retain older soundtracks, and the extra channels afforded by Atmos make the movie feel more immersive. Nothing truly demo-worthy here, but the dialogue and sound effects are clear and it’s ultimately a good experience.

• NEW 4K restoration from the original 35mm camera negative by Arrow Films, approved by director Marco Brambilla.
• Includes both the domestic “Taco Bell” and international “Pizza Hut” versions of the film presented via seamless branching.
• 4K Ultra HD (2160p) presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible)
  Original lossless DTS-HD MA 5.1 and Dolby Atmos audio options.
• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing.
• NEW audio commentary by director Marco Brambilla and screenwriter Daniel Waters.
• NEW audio commentary by film historian Mike White of the Projection Booth podcast.
• Archive audio commentary by Marco Brambilla and producer Joel Silver
  Demolition Design, a new interview with production designer David L. Snyder.
• Cryo Action, a NEW interview with stunt coordinator Charles Percini
  Biggs’ Body Shoppe, a new interview with special make-up effects artist Chris Biggs.
• Tacos and Hockey Pucks, a NEW interview with body effects set coordinator Jeff Farley.
• ‘Somewhere Over the Rambo’ — NEW visual essay by film scholar Josh Nelson.
• Theatrical trailer.
• Image gallery.
• 60-page perfect bound collector’s book featuring new writing by film critics Clem Bastow, William Bibbiani, Priscilla Page and Martyn Pedler
  Limited edition packaging featuring NEW commissioned artwork by Laurie Greasley.
• Double-sided fold-out poster featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Laurie Greasley.
• 6 postcard-sized artcards.
• ‘Three Seashells’ and ‘Edgar Friendly graffiti’ stickers.
• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Laurie Greasley.

Cast & Crew

director: Marco Brambilla.
writers: Daniel Waters, Robert Reneau & Peter M. Lekov (story by Peter M. Lenkov & Robert Reneau).
starring: Sylvester Stallone, Wesley Snipes, Sandra Bullock, Nigel Hawthorne, Benjamin Bratt, Denis Leary, Bill Cobbs, Bob Gunton & Glenn Shadix.