For any millennial growing up in the 1990s, Marco Brambilla’s bonkers mash-up of action and science fiction, “Demolition Man,” was simply unavoidable. Sylvester Stallone served as a draw for action enthusiasts, and Wesley Snipes was undoubtedly on the rise, along with actors such as Rob Schneider and Sandra Bullock, who later rejected a role in “The Matrix.” Yet, perhaps the biggest appeal of this foolish blockbuster was its lighthearted and often mocking depiction of the future of 2032.
“Demolition Man” featured wild ideas that were laughable and highly improbable at the time. Yet, more than three decades later, we can see that many of them weren’t nearly as far-fetched as we believed back then. In fact, it’s kind of frightening how many of its future predictions turned out to be quite accurate about where we are now as a society, due to the technological inventions and other developments that became part of our everyday lives. From minor forecasts, such as Arnold Schwarzenegger becoming Governor of California after he was said to be president of the U.S. in the film, to Wesley Snipes’ legal troubles in real life, “Demolition Man” got a lot of things right.
The most memorable ones, however, are the then-futuristic tech inventions of “Demolition Man,” such as self-driving cars like Waymo today, GPS navigation systems, virtual reality interactions, video calls, voice and face recognition, and a hint at smartphones and tablets. All these appear in the movie in one way or another, oftentimes oddly, and mostly played for laughs while carrying the seed of the future. Regardless of how you feel about the film, it’s undeniable that it managed to capture all these things with uncanny accuracy.
Let’s not forget what Demolition Man is really about
All those predictions were actually secondary to “Demolition Man’s” plot, which followed a cat-and-mouse chase between Sylvester Stallone’s reckless cop, John Spartan, and Wesley Snipes’ total psycho criminal, Simon Phoenix. After both being sentenced to be cryogenically frozen in 1996, Phoenix is thawed for a parole hearing in 2032, when he escapes after recognizing that now he’s got skills he never had before. Wreaking havoc in the city of San Angeles (a large city merging Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, and San Diego), the local authorities quickly realize they stand no chance against such a violent madman. That’s when young Lieutenant Lenina Huxley (Sandra Bullock) suggests to her superiors to thaw and reinstate Spartan, since he might be the only one capable of stopping Phoenix due to his old-fashioned skills and extensive knowledge of him.
Unsurprisingly, “Demolition Man” was no critical darling upon its release. It currently stands at 66% on Rotten Tomatoes, but it was a domestic and international hit with a great performance at the box office, garnering over $159 million worldwide (via The Numbers). Many of its fans still consider it a cult classic. After all, it belonged to an era of bombastic action flicks such as “Cliffhanger,” “The Specialist,” and “Assassins,” but stood out among them due to its futuristic approach and satirical tone that blended neatly. First and foremost, “Demolition Man” aimed to be fun and entertaining, and it evidently delivered on those promises in its own way — the future prophecies were just a nice bonus.
