Demolition Man/Trivia

• Actor Allusion:
  • Spartan's (i.e. Stallone's) expression on hearing the phrase "President Schwarzenegger".
  • See also the Celebrity Paradox entry.
  • Also the scene where Spartan eats a ratburger and deems it "not bad" - there's an identical scene in a Judge Dredd comic, and who did Stallone play in a movie that came out the previous year?
• Career Resurrection: Along with Cliffhanger, this film revived Sylvester Stallone's career after a series of duds in the early 1990's.
• The Cast Showoff:
  • This was one of the first movies to show off Snipes' martial arts skills. Much like Bruce Lee, he would have to slow down his moves so they would actually show up on camera.
  • Denis Leary in the 1990's was famous for his motormouth rants in his comedy routine. His character falls into these.
• Completely Different Title:
  • Desolation (Slovenia)
  • Tough Guy (Croatia)
  • Shredder (Estonia and Mexico)
• Doing It for the Art: Nigel Hawthorne, inexperienced in cinema, took his role to prove that he had screen presence for the producers of The Madness of King George. Hawthorne wanted to reprise the stage role for the movie version. As it transpired, this was unnecessary as Hawthorne was the producers' automatic choice for the lead.
• Dueling Stars Movie: Stallone vs. Snipes. Most of the posters had this phrase and nothing more.
• Hey, It's That Guy!:
  • Denis Leary is Edgar Friendly. He even keeps the rapid-fire bit from his "Asshole" song in his speeches.
  • Otho has somehow gotten even gayer.
    • Actually, not quite. Bob's a eunuch.
  • Sir Humphrey Appleby finally got rid of politicians and turned the West Coast into an utopia?
  • Warden Norton still working for the police after all these years?
  • Apparently someone shipped Detective Curtis across the country.
  • Jack Black had a small part as one of the Scraps, appearing alongside Edgar Friendly.
• Old Shame: In a retrospective on his filmography, Denis Leary called the film a "giant piece of shit".
• Science Marches On: Among the things listed as "not good for you, hence illegal" are spicy foods. Since the movie came out, though, spicy foods have been shown to help burn calories and reduce blood pressure. Also, dark chocolate has been shown to have antioxidants which can reduce free radicals in the body, lowering risk of cancer.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Lenina Huxley was originally revealed to be John Spartan's daughter. Another draft of the script was for Spartan to have a daughter (named Katie Spartan) be a resident of the underground city and one of Friendly's Scraps. During the shootout in the Wasteland, the woman Spartan was protecting was Spartan's daughter, and she would later appear at the end, alongside Friendly.
  • The part of John Spartan was written with Jean-Claude Van Damme in mind, while Simon Phoenix was written for Steven Seagal.
  • When Sylvester Stallone got on board, he tried to convince Jackie Chan to take the part of Phoenix, which would have made Huxley's Saw It in a Movie Once moment above a whole lot funnier. He turned down the role, as he didn't want to confuse audiences by suddenly appearing as a villain.
  • Edgar Friendly was originally known as "Thomas Payne" in the original script, which would have made a hell of a shout-out considering the character.