# Demolition Man (film)

Demolition Man is a 1993 science fiction action film directed by Marco Brambilla. The film is about a wrongfully convicted police officer who is thawed out from a suspended animation prison to pursue an ultra-violent 20th century villain on the loose in a docile 21st-century society.
    Directed by Marco Brambilla. Written by Daniel Waters, Robert Reneau, and Peter M. Lenkov.

## John Spartan

* When a man like Phoenix has a gun to your head, ten seconds is nine and a half seconds longer than you live.
* [Upon learning that commercial jingles are now considered popular music] Somebody put me back in the fridge.

## Edgar Friendly

* [explaining to Spartan why the Scraps live underground] You see, according to Cocteau's plan, I'm the enemy. Because I like to think, I like to read. I'm into freedom of speech and freedom of choice. I'm the kind of guy who likes to sit in a greasy spoon and wonder, "Gee, should I have the T-bone steak or the jumbo rack of barbecue ribs with the side order of gravy fries?" I want high cholesterol. I wanna eat bacon and butter and buckets of cheese, okay? I wanna smoke a Cuban cigar the size of Cincinnati in the non-smoking section. I wanna run through the streets naked with green Jell-O all over my body reading Playboy magazine. Why? Because I suddenly might feel the need to, okay, pal? I've seen the future. Do you know what it is? It's a 47-year-old virgin sitting around in his beige pajamas, drinking a banana-broccoli shake, singing "I'm an Oscar Mayer Wiener." You live up top, you live Cocteau's way: what he wants, when he wants, how he wants. Your other choice: come down here... and maybe starve to death.

## Dialogue

    [the newly-thawed Simon Phoenix accesses a data portal]
    Data Portal: Gun. Noun. Portable firearm. This device was widely utilized in the urban wars of the late 20th century. Referred to as a "pistol" or "piece."
    Simon Phoenix: Look, I don't need a history lesson. Come on, HAL! Where the goddamn guns?
    Morality Box: [buzzes, issues a ticket] You are fined one credit for a violation of the Verbal Morality Statute.
    Phoenix: What? Fuck you. [Tosses the ticket over his shoulder]
    Morality Box: [buzzes, issues another ticket] Your repeated violation of the Verbal Morality Statute has caused me to notify the San Angeles Police Department. [Phoenix throws the ticket aside] Please remain where you are for your reprimand.
    Phoenix: Yeah, right. [hears police sirens] Fuckers are fast, too. [Morality Box buzzes again and issues a third ticket] Beep! [crumples and throws it away]
    [At the San Angeles Museum's Hall of Violence]
    Museum PA: The Armory exhibit is now sealed. All museum patrons still occupying the facility should remain calm. Help is imminent.
    [Phoenix blows the door open with a cannon]
    Simon Phoenix: The museum is no longer sealed, is it? Ha-ha! What can I say? I'm a blast from the past!
    John Spartan: You shoulda stayed there.
    Phoenix: Oh, boy, that voice sounds familiar. Who is that? [opens fire and forces Spartan to take cover]
    Spartan: Bad aim, Blondie!
    Phoenix: Spartan? John Spartan? Oh, shit, they let anybody into this century! What the hell are you doing here? [shoots again; Spartan grabs some guns and dives for cover] Simon says, "Bleed!"
    Spartan: [to himself] Great. Just great. [aloud] You're making it too easy for me, Phoenix!
    Phoenix: [waiting for his AcMag gun to charge up] Come on, you space-age piece of shit. [to Spartan] So let me get this right. They defrosted you just so you could lasso my piddly ass? Damn, you been had! I've been dreaming about killing you for 40 years. [shoots to distract Spartan and escapes into another exhibit hall]
    Spartan: Yeah? Well, keep dreaming!
    Dr. Raymond Cocteau: Lights.
    [lights remain off]
    Simon Phoenix: [off-screen] Nah, I've changed that. Illuminate.
    [lights go on]
    Phoenix: Deluminate.
    [lights go off]
    Phoenix: Isn't that nicer? Go ahead, you try it.
    Cocteau: Illuminate.
    [lights go on]
    Phoenix: Ah...Raymond, Raymond, we got to talk.
    Cocteau: How did you get in?
    Phoenix: Wish I knew. I got pass codes. Routes to secret underground kingdoms. Complete access to the industrial data-grid interface. I don't even know what that shit means. [Morality box buzzes] But I've been meaning to ask you about it, because I like it! I like it a lot!
    Cocteau: Your skills were given you for a reason. Not for your personal amusement. Your job is to kill Mr. Edgar Friendly and stop a revolution before it precipitates. That is why you were rehabilitated.
    Phoenix: All right. I'm gonna do your little dastardly deed for you. But it's gonna be a little bit more difficult than you thought. And I'm going to need some help. I'll need about five or six more "special" men. And I just so happen to have a list. [slides a handwritten list] You see, I wouldn't want you to defrost any of those mad-dog killer types, you know what I mean? And none of those motherfuckers from New York. [Morality box buzzes] They're too uptight.
    Cocteau: So you're going to be the only mad-dog killer type around?
    Phoenix: [nods] Exactamundo.
    Cocteau: Fine. Take care of it. Just get it over with. You're beginning to be more trouble than you're worth.
    Phoenix: Oh, Raymond, don't say that. And...what do I get out of all this?
    Cocteau: What do you want?
    Phoenix: Malibu. Santa Monica. Hell, what about all the coastal cities?
    Cocteau: Well, I'll bear it in mind.
    Phoenix: Good, I'll send you a memo.
    Cocteau: [annoyed] Just do your job!
    Phoenix: [beat] What is John Spartan doing here? Did you invite him to this little party of ours?
    Cocteau: Look, you finish your business...and I'll stuff him back in the freezer. Think of him as a guarantee.
    Phoenix: "A guarantee"? Well, you don't have much of a guarantee. I took care of Spartan once, I'll take care of him again. [gives Cocteau his list] Now we need those men defrosted.
    [Simon Phoenix gathers several newly thawed Cryo-Cons]
    Simon Phoenix: All right, gentlemen, let's review. The year is 2032 - that's two-zero-three-two, as in the 21st century - and I am sorry to say that the world has become a pussy-whipped, Brady Bunch version of itself, run by a bunch of robed sissies. All we have to do to run the whole thing is to kill a man named Raymond who put it all together. Ah, but there's an extra added bonus. We get to kill the man who put most of us behind the freezer.
    Cryo-Con: You mean, we get to kill John Spartan.
    Phoenix: Exactly! [Cryo-Cons laugh and cheer] I want you to loot, pillage, plunder! I want you to steal! I want you to do all the wonderful things that we used to do before all of this happened! This world will be ours! Let's bring back the good old days! Are you with me?
    Cryo-Cons: YEAH!
    Phoenix: ARE YOU WITH ME?
    Cryo-Cons: YEAH!
    Phoenix: LET'S DO IT! [makes a toast with Cryo-Cons]
    Lenina Huxley: I have been an enthusiast of your escapades for quite some time. I have, in fact, perused some newsreels from the Schwarzenegger Library, and that time that you took that car...
    John Spartan: Hold it. The Schwarzenegger Library?
    Huxley: Yes. The Schwarzenegger Presidential Library. Wasn't he an actor when you...?
    Spartan: Stop! He was President?
    Huxley: Yes! Even though he was not born in this country, his popularity at the time caused the 61st Amendment which states...
    Spartan: I don't wanna know... [incredulously] President...
    [John Spartan, Lenina Huxley, and Alfredo Garcia enter the Scraps' underground world; Spartan buys a burger from a street vendor]
    Lenina Huxley: I think I'm going to be sick.
    John Spartan: [takes a bite, enjoys it] Oh. Oh, God...
    Alfredo Garcia: [nauseated] Oh...
    Spartan: This is fantastic. You guys gotta try this.
    Garcia: Oh, my.
    Huxley: Just don't ask where the meat comes from.
    Spartan: Huxley, what's that supposed to mean?
    Huxley: Do you see any cows around here, Detective?
    Spartan: [to vendor, in Spanish] ¿Qué es esta carne? (What is this meat?)
    Burger vendor: Esta carne es de rata. (This meat is from rats.)
    Spartan: [surprised] Rat. This is a rat burger. [vendor nods] Not bad! Matter of fact, this is the best burger I've had in years!
    Burger vendor: Gracias, señor. (Thank you, sir.)
    Spartan: [coughing, in Italian] Prego. (You're welcome.) See you later.
    [Lenina Huxley and John Spartan begin using virtual-reality helmets to make love, but Spartan abruptly removes his]
    Lenina Huxley: What's wrong? You broke contact.
    John Spartan: Contact? I didn't even touch you yet.
    Huxley: But I thought you wanted to make love.
    Spartan: Is that what you call this?
    Huxley: [puts Spartan's helmet back on his head] Vir-sex has been proven to produce higher orders of alpha waves during digitized transference of sexual energies.
    Spartan: All right, Huxley, what do you say we just do it the old-fashioned way? [removes it again]
    Huxley: Ugh, disgusting! You mean... fluid transfer?
    Spartan: No, I mean boning, the wild mambo, the hunka chunka...
    Huxley: That is no longer done. The exchange of bodily fluids - do you know what that leads to?
    Spartan: Yeah, I do! Kids, smoking, a desire to raid the fridge.
    Huxley: The rampant exchange of bodily fluids was one of the major reasons for the downfall of society. After AIDS, there was NRS; after NRS, there was UBT. And one of the first things that Dr. Cocteau was able to do was to outlaw and behaviorally engineer all fluid transfer out of societally acceptable behavior. Not even - not even mouth transfer's condoned.
    Spartan: Kissing's not allowed? [Huxley shudders at the thought] Damn, I was a good kisser.
    John Spartan: Is it cold in here, or is it just me?
    Simon Phoenix: Good memory.
    [Cocteau's facility has been destroyed]
    Chief George Earle: What will we do? How will we live?
    Edgar Friendly: I'll tell you what we're gonna do... we're gonna go out drinking, get shit-faced and paint the town literally; put up graffiti, slogans... it'll be a blast!
    John Spartan: Whoa, whoa, whoa! I'm gonna tell you what you're gonna do: [turns to Earle] Why don't you get a little dirty... [turns to Scraps] ...and you, a lot clean. And somewhere in the middle... I don't know, you'll figure it out.
    Alfredo Garcia: Fuckin' A!
    Spartan: Well put.

## Taglines

* The 21st Century's most dangerous cop. The 21st Century's most ruthless criminal.
* The future isn't big enough for the both of them.
* The battle begins October 4th.
* John Spartan - the world's most dangerous cop. Simon Phoenix - the world's most ruthless criminal. The 21st Century wasn't prepared for either of them...and it isn't big enough for both of them.

## Cast

* Sylvester Stallone - Sgt. John Spartan, LAPD
* Sandra Bullock - Lt. Lenina Huxley, SAPD
* Wesley Snipes - Simon Phoenix
* Nigel Hawthorne - Dr. Raymond Cocteau
* Denis Leary - Edgar Friendly
* Bob Gunton - Chief George Earle, SAPD
* Benjamin Bratt - Officer Alfredo Garcia, SAPD
* Glenn Shadix - Associate Bob

## Quotes about the film

* [About Demolition Man's predictions of the future:] What is completely spot on [...] is the idea that laws have shifted away from the protection of individual rights and any sane theory of justice towards controlling people's behavior for the 'greater good', as envisioned by this society's elites.
** "The Smartest 'Dumb Movie' Ever Made" (at 6m53s), Out of Frame, Foundation for Economic Education on YouTube, 3 February 2022.

## External links

* Demolition Man quotes at the Internet Movie Database