Line #6 YMMV/DemolitionMan


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3	!!For the movie:
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5	* {{Adorkable}}: Huxley, big time. There's a reason this film, along with {{Film/Speed}} the following year, turned Sandra Bullock into an A-List star.
6	* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: The naked woman who pops up on John Spartan's video screen in his apartment. He's just as confused, too. The novelization indicates the purpose of the scene is to demonstrate to him that video-calling is the norm in the future.
7	* BrokenAesop: Deconstructed. The film's negative portrayal of San Angeles is juxtaposed deliberately against the ''Film/EscapeFromNewYork'' nightmare it was before Spartan and Phoenix were frozen. It's made clear that the Police not only won their war on crime and anarchy, they won ''resoundingly'' - and now, there are no checks or balances to frustrate their descent into a PoliceState. As such, neither the San Angeles government or Edgar Friendly are portrayed as being completely right or wrong.
8	* CompleteMonster: [[AxCrazy Simon Phoenix]], a psychopathic criminal from the gang-ruled era of Los Angeles in the late 20th century, indulged in theft, kidnapping, arson, rape, and murder to his heart's content. Phoenix holds 30 people hostage and demands a ransom when in fact he had already killed them all, and frames [[CowboyCop John Spartan]] for their deaths. They are both sentenced to [[HumanPopsicle cryo-stasis]] and only woken up in 2032 when the new city of San Angeles has become a crime-free nanny state. Phoenix breaks out of confinement by gouging out a guard's eye to bypass the retinal scanner and indulges in his freedom to be a maniac and [[DystopiaJustifiesTheMeans spread chaos again]], brutally murdering almost everyone who gets in his way. It turns out that Phoenix was unfrozen by the [[WellIntentionedExtremist benevolent dictator]] Dr. Raymond Cocteau to assassinate Edgar Friendly, the underground RebelLeader who has been trying to undo the oppressive system. Simon sets out on this task with murderous glee, killing many innocent bystanders in the process. Phoenix eventually teams up with his old gang after they're unfrozen and murders Cocteau [[ToCreateAPlaygroundForEvil to start a new lawless dystopia]]. Phoenix starts by unfreezing every violent criminal locked up in the cryo-prison, before [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness gunning down all the technicians because he no longer has any use for them]].
9	* CultClassic: At the time of its release the film wasn't a box office hit and got mixed reviews. But these days it comes across as an AffectionateParody of action films from TheEighties and [[TheNineties '90s]]. There's a good amount of LampshadeHanging, a mix of {{Deconstruction}} and {{Reconstruction}} about John Spartan's CowboyCop image, and a lot of the satire has become sharper with societal evolution, whether it be the satire about PoliticalOvercorrectness and unhealthy things being illegal, or about iconoclasts actively chafing at rules just for existing and deliberately living in grungy filth and being proud of it.
10	* DoNotDoThisCoolThing:
11	** As [[https://www.cracked.com/article_26410_5-insanely-ridiculous-movies-you-need-to-watch-right-now.html noted]] by ''Website/{{Cracked}}'', while San Angeles is supposed to be a CrapsaccharineWorld, to a modern viewer it can look quite livable and prosperous, at least if you don't mind milquetoast. The reason the police are so helpless against Simon Phoenix is because they ''won'': they [[GoneHorriblyRight succeeded so well]] that it's been years since crime was ever a problem, leading to complacency. It's especially apparent when you compare it side-by-side with the dystopian hellscape of near-future Los Angeles seen in the opening.
12	** Becomes less cool when the fascistic nature of the city becomes clear; the most sympathetic of observers to San Angeles' soft tyranny is bound to object when it's explained that even sexual intercourse is heavily restricted by law. Naturally, nearly everything else is controlled as well.
13	* EvilIsCool: Simon Phoenix is an entertaining and memorable villain. Really, what else can you expect from a CardCarryingVillain placed in a "utopia" where they exchanged freedom for safety?
14	* HamAndCheese: Creator/WesleySnipes gleefully chewing the scenery as Simon Phoenix.
15	* HarsherInHindsight:
16	** The film has strong themes of censorship, corporate committee-approved "politeness" laws, sex and abortions are outlawed with conception being handled artificially, commercial food is celebrated as fine dining while local chefs sweat in squalor and a general erasure of culture and personal freedom. To say these themes are increasingly relevant today would be an enormous understatement.
17	** A premise particularly central to the film is that of the possibility of police forces becoming unable to deal with unfamiliar levels of criminality, or simply becoming out of tune with social demands, both of them being part of an ongoing debate today. The "We're police officiers!" meme from the film is often used in context.
18	** Looking through the Cryo-Prison inmate list, Phoenix exclaims "Jeffrey Dahmer? I ''love'' that guy!" In 1994, Dahmer was bludgeoned to death in prison; the line was subsequently cut from a number of broadcasts.
19	** The name "Scott Peterson" comes up during Huxley's access of the parole hearings. Presumably, this is not [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Peterson the man who]] kidnapped and murdered his pregnant wife in 2002.
20	** Spartan crashes the 1970 442 through the floor of an Oldsmobile dealership in 2032. Oldsmobile was discontinued by GM in 2004.
21	* HilariousInHindsight:
22	** This wouldn't be the [[Film/TheHeat only time]] Creator/SandraBullock plays a GoshDarnItToHeck-raised law enforcement character who uses profanity in a {{Malaproper}} fashion.
23	** Spartan tries to kiss Lenina, even though it's "[[Film/JudgeDredd breaking the law]]".
24	** Taco Bell being replaced by Pizza Hut in some international cuts due to the fast food chain's lack of availability outside North America during TheNineties due to failed attempts at expanding overseas becomes this when you consider that the restaurant's second attempt at overseas expansion during the mid 2010s has been more successful than its previous attempt.
25	** Creator/JackBlack plays one of [[Creator/DenisLeary Edgar Friendly's]] loyal followers. Almost a decade later, Black would voice Zeke in ''WesternAnimation/IceAge1'' who, despite being in the same pack as Diego, who is voiced by Leary, is anything BUT loyal to him.
26	* MemeticMutation:
27	** "[[SwearJar You are fined One credit for violation of the verbal morality statute.]]"[[note]]Used in context of verbal PoliticalOvercorrectness.[[/note]]
28	** The three seashells.[[note]]They've supposedly replaced toilet paper, but are otherwise NoodleImplements, so many memes have sprung up about them. Taken to a new level during the COVID-19 pandemic due to toilet paper shortages caused by people panic-buying.[[/note]]
29	** "We're police officiers! We're not trained to handle this kind of violence!"[[note]]Brought up when talking about real life cases of police inefficiency.[[/note]]
30	* SugarWiki/NoProblemWithLicensedGames: The [[Platform/SuperNintendoEntertainmentSystem SNES]]/Platform/SegaGenesis/Platform/SegaCD game was praised as an action-packed RunAndGun.
31	* NoYay: Spartan's attraction to Huxley. Not only is she younger than his daughter, but due to growing up in a sheltered zeitgeist, she acts like a child most of the time.
32	* OneSceneWonder: The "Fuck you, Lady!" girl from the old news report. Both for [[FromTheMouthsOfBabes the line coming from a small child]] and that the line can be seen as a TakeThat to people criticizing others from handling situations they deem as bad despite never being in similar situations.
33	* TheProblemWithLicensedGames: The [[Platform/ThreeDOInteractiveMultiplayer 3DO]] version was fairly ambitious and even had exclusive footage of Creator/SylvesterStallone. Unfortunately, the varied gameplay at times was lacking, such as ShootEmUp levels where the objective was non-intuitive, and lots of lame one-on-one versus fights against Simon Phoenix.
34	* RetroactiveRecognition: Creator/JackBlack is a mook next to Friendly when he and Spartan are talking and gets his gun knocked down by Spartan. He has no speaking lines.
35	* RootingForTheEmpire:
36	** Because the citizens of San Angeles are so incredibly prissy, arrogant, and self righteous at times, coupled with the overall CrapsaccharineWorld Cocteau created, it's not hard to start cheering for Phoenix to just burn the whole thing down.
37	** Could work the other way around too. Seeing how Los Angeles was a burning, wartorn hellscape at the start of the movie, the clean, propserous and utterly peaceful San Angeles that most inhabitants are perfectly happy living in could be considered a massive improvement. And Spartan's initial distaste for the city can appear as SkewedPriorities, as PoliticalOvercorrectness seems like a somewhat less serious flaw than AxeCrazy criminals running around murdering civilians left, right and center. Of course, Cocteau personally loses all sympathy by unleashing one of those criminals on his own city.
38	* SpecialEffectsFailure:
39	** When the future cop car was jumping through the SAPD sign, the letters and symbols were each engraved on a separate plate of glass. Just before the car hits it, all but one of the plates are pre-broken; the unbroken one has a broken one on the other side of it, making it obvious it wasn't the car that did it.
40	** While it's more Makeup Failure, but [[{{Pun}} keep an eye]] on Phoenix's Heterochromia. Several times in the film his blue and brown eye noticeably switch sides between shots.
41	** When Simon's hideout is blown up at the beginning, you can clearly hear people in the background cheering at this extraordinary demolition.[[note]]While in-universe, it could be other criminals cheering at the destruction, in real life, it's probably the noise of onlookers or crew; they actually destroyed a real building for that shot, an old Power & Water in Los Angeles that was in fact scheduled for demolition at any rate.[[/note]]
42	* SpiritualAdaptation: With its campy action and strong undertones of satire, many people have called this a better ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd'' movie than Stallone's own adaptation [[Film/JudgeDredd two years later.]]
43	* StrangledByTheRedString: By the end of the movie Spartan has had at most two days to come to terms with his wife's death, yet he rebounds onto Huxley when they have little in common outside their professions.
44	* TearJerker:
45	** The stunned, horrified expressions on the cops' faces as they watch Warden Smithers, who they seem to know and like, bleed out on a surveillance monitor are surprisingly sobering.
46	** Any time Spartan mentions his dead wife and now adult daughter is depressing, especially when he learns his wife is dead and describes still being conscious when she visited the cryo prison.
47	* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter:
48	** Zachary Lamb is the last cop on the force to really remember the bad old days, and is an old friend of Spartan, but he barely appears after Spartan is woken up, when his interactions with Spartan and Huxley could have provided a long and satisfying subplot to the movie. And it could have been worse; a deleted scene had him reappear later in the movie, only to be murdered by Phoenix.
49	** Wrestling/JesseVentura is greatly underused in his role as one of Phoenix's henchmen, [[DownplayedTrope although this is partially because he did film an additional scene where he fights with Spartan, but it was deleted]].
50	* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: Given how the programming of both Spartan and Phoenix while they were frozen did have results it would have been interesting to see an actual felon who was reformed and made into a productive member of society that way (there's the piano singer at Taco Bell, but he's used only for a throwaway gag), and watch Spartan wrestle with the conflict between free will and a scumbag having been changed for the better.
51	* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: The whole film's premise of a future society where everything bad you say and do is banned is a pretty clear product of the [[TheNineties Early '90s]] backlash to the concept of "Political Correctness" (although looked upon through the lens of late 2010s eyes, the "backlash" part falls into YMMV as a number of statements made in the film--or perhaps even looped around in TheNewTwenties with the backlash against the "woke", which is just another form of political correctness).
52	* ValuesResonance:
53	** The film was released in the [[TheNineties early '90s]], but has become a rich source of essays discussing how accurately it predicted the social conflicts of the TheNewTens and TheNewTwenties. The film's main storyline concerns conflict between MoralGuardians who have [[PoliticalOvercorrectness imposed tyrannical control on speech and behavior]], and their ideological enemies are crude, filthy slobs who live in poverty and champion greater freedoms. It's also worth noting that Friendly, Phoenix, and even Spartan introduce a great deal of violence and destruction to a society that was more-or-less functioning before Phoenix showed up. The film leaves it up to the individual viewer to decide where they fall in this debate -- in Spartan's own words at the end of the film, "[the San Angeles residents] need to get a little dirty, [the Scraps] need to get a lot clean. [[BothSidesHaveAPoint And somewhere in the middle, you'll figure it out]]."
54	** The film also takes a nuanced look at the issue of PoliceBrutality: Spartan is unfairly criticized for his excessive force against criminals who do need it, but he makes it clear it's wrong to use that kind of force against people who steal out of desperation, reflecting modern-day debates over how police can do their jobs without violating the civil liberties of others. At the same time, going in the same vein as the above point, it also unintentionally puts a mirror up to the relative impotence of police forces in some jurisdictions in TheNewTwenties.
55	* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotPolitical:
56	** Some have described ''Demolition Man'' as being one of the most libertarian movies ever made. One of the film's villains is a scientist who has basically created the ultimate nanny-state, where everything deemed bad for you has been outlawed. And Edgar Friendly and his followers, who are initially portrayed as terrorists, turn out to be sympathetic freedom fighters who want to make their own decisions without the overbearing government's influence. The worst thing they do is steal some food and spray graffiti.
57	** The movie seems to take a BothSidesHaveAPoint approach to the issue of police conduct: yes, police officers need to be able to act against dangerous felons, but they also have to be held account for their actions and not use that force against relatively minor offenders.
58	** The entire movie has been treated as a general critique of California's politics since the film's contemporary times, in which the state is often touted as a socially liberal and wealthy state while also facing housing issues, income inequality (especially between the income between executives and employees in tech sector), and harsh criminal code (having Three Strikes Laws and Death Penalty). At the same time, as noted in ValuesResonance, it has also become an unintended mirror for many of the problems facing California in TheNewTwenties, and not just in the impotence of its policing, as many of the above issues have gotten exponentially worse over time, and have spread beyond the state.
59	* {{Woolseyism}}: Some versions of the movie replace Taco Bell with Pizza Hut. This is because Taco Bell wasn’t as familiar in some countries at the time.
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61	!!For the pinball:
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63	* ComplacentGamingSyndrome: Some players will always select the "Freeze" award on the Cryo-Claw -- it provides progress towards multiballs.
64	* SoBadItsGood: The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgG8wQ3Msqw promotional video]] for the [[Pinball/DemolitionMan pinball,]] which attempts to duplicate the atmosphere and special effects of the movie on a shoestring budget, while hyping up the game's gun grip controllers, all intermixed with actual film clips. It fails spectacularly, but has an innocent appeal, like watching an eight-year-old attempt to duplicate a Creator/MichaelBay film in his backyard.

Context YMMV / DemolitionMan