How the 1993 Movie “Demolition Man” Perfectly Predicted (and Ridiculed) Today’s Society

The movie Demolition Man takes place in 2032, in an oppressive society managed by a tyrannical doctor who rose to power after an epidemic and social unrest. Watching this movie today is an eerie experience as the “jokes” of the past are the realities of today. Here’s a look at the incredible predictions made by this movie made 30 years ago.

When I want to relax and take my mind off things, I like to watch movies from the 20th century, especially the 1980’s & 1990’s. As someone who grew up in this 80’s, immersing myself in 80’s/90’s nostalgia is like a balm to my soul. I mean, everything back then was better. Fun things were fun. Cool things were cool. And, in my opinion, society was just saner and happier.

So when I recently came across the 1993 movie Demolition Man, I could not resist. Is there anything more 90’s than Wesley Snipes fighting Sylvester Stallone while wearing denim overalls?

But watching this movie in 2022 ended up being a bizarre, mind-bending experience.

First, the movie takes place in 2032, which is only ten years from now. In other words, we are currently much closer to the “future” of the movie than to the year it was actually made. Second, the “future” depicted in the movie pinpoints, with near-prophetic accuracy, everything wrong in society right now. And it is ridiculing it – as if it is laughing at us from the past.

In Demolition Man, a tyrannical doctor oversees a tightly controlled “utopia”, where every aspect of life is monitored and heavily regulated. Sylvester Stallone’s character, who was cryogenically frozen since 1997, barges into that future and hates every single part of it. So I’m sitting there, trying to relive the 90’s by watching a movie, realizing that the movie is about a dude in 2032 who wants to go back to the 90’s. It’s all rather mind-bending.

While I like to idealize the 90’s, a lot of today’s tendencies originated from that decade. At the time of the movie’s release, political correctness was bourgeoning in media, technology was leaping into the information age, AIDS was a worrying epidemic and Los Angeles was the site of social unrest. Through comedy and satire, Demolition Man depicted a future where a tyrannical figure exploits these elements to an absurd degree to usher in a “brave new world”. And we’re living it now. And, in some ways, our “future” is worse than what we see in the movie.

Demolition Man is the only movie directed by Marco Brambilla, an artist who is mostly known for his elaborate art installations, his works are rife with symbolism. This is one of his latest art installations.

A portion of Marco Brambilla’s Heaven’s Gate (2021). Symbolism overload.

The artwork above is described as a “deconstruction of Hollywood”. About thirty years ago, Brambilla was actually directing a Hollywood movie. And, after being dismissed as a mediocre action flick, Demolition Man went on to become a visionary cautionary tale against the dystopian tendencies of the elite.

Here’s a look at Demolition Man and its astounding predictions about today.

Prophetic Movie

In Demolition Man, a violent criminal named Simon Phoenix (played by Wesley Snipes) is sentenced to be cryogenically frozen for 70 years. In 2032, he is thawed for his parole hearing but he ends up escaping the facility.

Phoenix finds himself in a “utopian”, non-violent future where guns are banned (they can only be found in museums). At one point, he sums up the situation:

“The year is 2032. And I’m sorry to say that the world has become a p*ssy-whipped, Brady Bunch version of itself run by a bunch of robbed sissies”.

Everyone in the future wear robes. Other than a nod to globalism, the movie predicted the “gender-blurring” fashion that is happening now.

“Fashion” in 2022.

In a world filled with “robbed sissies”, nobody can stop Phoenix from destroying everything. So the police force decides to thaw John Spartan (played by Sylvester Stallone), an old-school police dude who was also cryogenically frozen in 1997 due to accusations of involuntary manslaughter.

When Spartan integrates the police force, he’s immediately at odds with the oppressive ways of this new society.

There are machines everywhere listening to what people say. When someone says something bad, the machine emits a buzzing noise and says: “You are fined one credit for a violation of the verbal morality statute”. In this scene, Spartan keeps insulting the machine so he can use the fines to wipe his butt with them.

What better way of representing today’s anti-free speech climate, where any violation of the “morality code” dictated by the elite results in immediate punishment, censorship, and cancellation?

Spartan also discovers that everyone has a microchip sewn into their skin. Including himself.

The chip is required to accomplish anything in San Angeles, including entering one’s own home. Since money is outmoded, all transactions are done using the chip.

Watching this movie in 2022, it is impossible not to draw parallels with vaccine passports which are, in many places, required to participate in society. Of course, there are efforts to turn these passports into chips.

A recent headline about a Swedish company developing a microchip vaccine passport.

When Spartan learns about the chip, he says “this fascist crap makes me puke”. Yup, back in the 90s, people could recognize fascist crap when they saw it. As Spartan discovers this “brave new world”, he also learns about how it all came to be. And it’s eerily similar to what happened in real life.

Order Out of Chaos

In 2032, the city of San Angeles (born from the merger of Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, and San Diego) is under the control of Dr. Cocteau, a tyrannical figure who uses science and technology to create a “perfect” society. In Dr. Cocteau’s city, everything that is bad for you is illegal: Alcohol, caffeine, contact sports, meat, bad language, chocolate, gasoline, non-educational toys, and anything spicy. Abortion is also illegal but so is pregnancy … unless you have a license.

Also, physical contact between humans is forbidden.

A recurring joke in the movie is the contactless “handshake”.

With that being said, he’s a recent headline from real life.

I’m not saying that Dr. Fauci is Dr. Cocteau from Demolition Man, but let’s say that the similarities are stunning.

Left: Dr. Cocteau. Right: Dr. Fauci.

In this contactless society, the best way to run meetings is through … Zoom calls.

One of the many accurate technological predictions made in Demolition Man.

At one point, John Spartan discovers the full extent of the no-touching policy.

Spartan’s co-worker Lenina Huxley (named after Aldous Huxley, author of Brave New World) asks him to have sex. When he agrees, she hands him a “vir-sex’ device.

When one watches this scene in 2022, one automatically thinks: Those are VR devices. However, none of these things really existed in 1993. At that time, the height of technology was the Super Nintendo.

Spartan hates this device and wants to do it with Huxley the good old-fashioned way. Huxley refuses and explains to him how a series of epidemics and “variants” lead to the banning of “fluid transfer”.

“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. One of the first things Dr. Coteau did was to outlaw and behaviorally engineer all fluid transfer out of societally acceptable behavior. Not even mouth transfer is condoned. (…)

With that being said, here’s a recent headline from Canada’s “top doctor”.

This is not satire.

Huxley also explains how procreation is regulated in 2032.

Procreation? We go to a lab. Fluids are purified, screened, and transferred by medical personnel only. It is the only legal way.”

With that being said, here’s a very recent headline.

People are actually discussing synthetic wombs right now.

Demolition Man also satirizes popular culture being destroyed by political correctness. Indeed, people in 2032 are so sensitive and infantilized that the only music they listen to are “mini-tunes” – short commercial jingles with absolutely no content. In one scene, Spartan’s co-workers sing the Armour Hot Dogs jingle in the car:

“Fat kids, skinny kids, kids of climb on rocks. Though kids, sissy kids, even kids with chicken pox love hot dogs”.

Upon watching this scene, I came to a mind-blowing realization: If the Armour Hot Dog jingle played today on the radio, some people would actually be offended by it. They would request its censorship. In other words, this satirical example of the least offensive song possible would still be considered offensive today. We’re beyond satire.

While Spartan hates every aspect of this new society, he discovers that some people are rebelling against it.

The Resistance

Living underneath San Angeles is a group of dirty rebels who oppose Dr. Cocteau’s rule.

The un-chipped rebels in the movie are complete outcasts from society. They are reminiscent of today’s unvaccinated people who are banned from public places because they have no passports. They are also reminiscent of those who are vilified because they want the freedoms that existed in the 20th century.

At one point, the leader of the rebels tells Spartan:

“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”.

Could this be more relevant today? Of course, Cocteau hates these people. He calls them:

“Outcasts and deserters who choose to live beneath us in sewers and abandoned tunnels. They’re a constant irritation to our harmony”.

We eventually discover that Cocteau programmed Simon Phoenix to kill the rebels and stop their revolution. In other words, Dr. Cocteau used Phoenix as a mind-controlled patsy to take care of his dirty work. This happens in real life.

When Dr. Cocteau exposes the full extent of his plan, Simon Phoenix becomes disgusted and says:

“Look, you can’t take away people’s rights to be *ssholes.”

So, even the “bad guy” of the movie values freedom.

Then, Jesse Damn Ventura shoots Dr. Cocteau and rids the world of his awfulness

Eventually, John Spartan destroys Simon Phoenix and his gang of thugs. Then, in a new world, free from Dr. Cocteau’s rule, people ask Spartan what they should do next. As usual, Sylvester Stallone imparts the world with precious words of wisdom. He tells the brainwashed citizens to “get a little dirtier”. Then, he tells the rebels to “get a lot cleaner”. Then, he says:

“Somewhere in the middle, I don’t know, you’ll figure it out.”

And he’s right. Extreme oppression leads to extreme resistance. This is happening now. I say we stop everything, go back to how we were in the 1990’s, and try again.

The movie ends with a big, fat exchange of fluids. Sanity is back.

In Conclusion

The movie Demolition Man is probably the most predictive sci-fi movie I’ve ever seen. It also predicted self-driving electric cars that look exactly like Teslas, Arnold Schwarzenegger becoming a politician, people conversing with Alexa/Siri-type machines, the widespread use of biometrics and artificial intelligence, the disappearance of small restaurants to be replaced by monopolistic chains, and much more. All of this was pure science fiction in 1993. But it could happen if society took a specific direction. And it did.

The future depicted in Demolition Man was meant as satire. It was basically a warning saying: “Here’s how things could end up if we’re not careful”. Today, which is ten years from the movie’s “future”, we can easily say that the satire has become reality. The jokes of the film have become our annoying reality.

The COVID pandemic allowed unelected “doctors” to rule every aspect of our lives and dictate oppressive policies. QR codes and microchips are creeping into our everyday lives. Opinions and attitudes that do not fit the current orthodoxy are immediately censored and punished. General manliness and womanliness are frowned upon and deemed undesirable.

While we are being conditioned to think that all of this is normal, IT IS NOT. Demolition Man is like a distant voice from the past telling us:

This fascist crap makes me puke!

We Have Arrived Into The Dystopian Future Dreamed Up By Science Fiction Writers

By John W. Whitehead,

“The Internet is watching us now. If they want to. They can see what sites you visit. In the future, television will be watching us, and customizing itself to what it knows about us. The thrilling thing is, that will make us feel we’re part of the medium. The scary thing is, we’ll lose our right to privacy. An ad will appear in the air around us, talking directly to us.” — Director Steven Spielberg, Minority Report

We have arrived, way ahead of schedule, into the dystopian future dreamed up by such science fiction writers as George Orwell (Eric Arthur Blair), Aldous Huxley, Margaret Atwood and Philip K. Dick.

Much like Orwell’s Big Brother in 1984, the government and its corporate spies now watch our every move.

Much like Huxley’s A Brave New World, we are churning out a society of watchers who “have their liberties taken away from them, but … rather enjoy it, because they [are] distracted from any desire to rebel by propaganda or brainwashing.”

Much like Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, the populace is now taught to “know their place and their duties, to understand that they have no real rights but will be protected up to a point if they conform, and to think so poorly of themselves that they will accept their assigned fate and not rebel or run away.”

And in keeping with Philip K. Dick’s darkly prophetic vision of a dystopian police state—which became the basis for Steven Spielberg’s futuristic thriller Minority Report which was released 20 years ago—we are now trapped into a world in which the government is all-seeing, all-knowing and all-powerful, and if you dare to step out of line, dark-clad police SWAT teams and pre-crime units will crack a few skulls to bring the populace under control.

Minority Report is set in the year 2054, but it could just as well have taken place in 2022.

Seemingly taking its cue from science fiction, technology has moved so fast in the short time since Minority Report premiered in 2002 that what once seemed futuristic no longer occupies the realm of science fiction.

Incredibly, as the various nascent technologies employed and shared by the government and corporations alike—facial recognition, iris scanners, massive databases, behavior prediction software, and so on—are incorporated into a complex, interwoven cyber network aimed at tracking our movements, predicting our thoughts and controlling our behavior, Spielberg’s unnerving vision of the future is fast becoming our reality.

Both worlds — our present-day reality and Spielberg’s celluloid vision of the future—are characterized by widespread surveillance, behavior prediction technologies, data mining, fusion centers, driverless cars, voice-controlled homes, facial recognition systems, cybugs and drones, and predictive policing (pre-crime) aimed at capturing would-be criminals before they can do any damage.

Surveillance cameras are everywhere. Government agents listen in on our telephone calls and read our emails. Political correctness — a philosophy that discourages diversity — has become a guiding principle of modern society.

The courts have shredded the Fourth Amendment’s protections against unreasonable searches and seizures. In fact, SWAT teams battering down doors without search warrants and FBI agents acting as a secret police that investigate dissenting citizens are common occurrences in contemporary America.

We are increasingly ruled by multi-corporations wedded to the police state. Much of the population is either hooked on illegal drugs or ones prescribed by doctors. And bodily privacy and integrity has been utterly eviscerated by a prevailing view that Americans have no rights over what happens to their bodies during an encounter with government officials, who are allowed to search, seize, strip, scan, spy on, probe, pat down, taser, and arrest any individual at any time and for the slightest provocation.

All of this has come about with little more than a whimper from an oblivious American populace largely comprised of nonreaders and television and internet zombies, but we have been warned about such an ominous future in novels and movies for years.

The following 15 films may be the best representation of what we now face as a society.

Fahrenheit 451 (1966). Adapted from Ray Bradbury’s novel and directed by Francois Truffaut, this film depicts a futuristic society in which books are banned, and firemen ironically are called on to burn contraband books—451 Fahrenheit being the temperature at which books burn. Montag is a fireman who develops a conscience and begins to question his book burning. This film is an adept metaphor for our obsessively politically correct society where virtually everyone now pre-censors speech. Here, a brainwashed people addicted to television and drugs do little to resist governmental oppressors.

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). The plot of Stanley Kubrick’s masterpiece, as based on an Arthur C. Clarke short story, revolves around a space voyage to Jupiter. The astronauts soon learn, however, that the fully automated ship is orchestrated by a computer system — known as HAL 9000 — which has become an autonomous thinking being that will even murder to retain control. The idea is that at some point in human evolution, technology in the form of artificial intelligence will become autonomous and human beings will become mere appendages of technology. In fact, at present, we are seeing this development with massive databases generated and controlled by the government that are administered by such secretive agencies as the National Security Agency and sweep all websites and other information devices collecting information on average citizens. We are being watched from cradle to grave.

Planet of the Apes (1968). Based on Pierre Boulle’s novel, astronauts crash on a planet where apes are the masters and humans are treated as brutes and slaves. While fleeing from gorillas on horseback, astronaut Taylor is shot in the throat, captured and housed in a cage. From there, Taylor begins a journey wherein the truth revealed is that the planet was once controlled by technologically advanced humans who destroyed civilization. Taylor’s trek to the ominous Forbidden Zone reveals the startling fact that he was on planet earth all along. Descending into a fit of rage at what he sees in the final scene, Taylor screams: “We finally really did it. You maniacs! You blew it up! Damn you.” The lesson is obvious, but will we listen? The script, although rewritten, was initially drafted by Rod Serling and retains Serling’s Twilight Zone-ish ending.

THX 1138 (1970). George Lucas’ directorial debut, this is a somber view of a dehumanized society totally controlled by a police state. The people are force-fed drugs to keep them passive, and they no longer have names but only letter/number combinations such as THX 1138. Any citizen who steps out of line is quickly brought into compliance by robotic police equipped with “pain prods” — electro-shock batons. Sound like tasers?

A Clockwork Orange (1971). Director Stanley Kubrick presents a future ruled by sadistic punk gangs and a chaotic government that cracks down on its citizens sporadically. Alex is a violent punk who finds himself in the grinding, crushing wheels of injustice. This film may accurately portray the future of western society that grinds to a halt as oil supplies diminish, environmental crises increase, chaos rules, and the only thing left is brute force.

Soylent Green (1973). Set in a futuristic overpopulated New York City, the people depend on synthetic foods manufactured by the Soylent Corporation. A policeman investigating a murder discovers the grisly truth about what soylent green is really made of. The theme is chaos where the world is ruled by ruthless corporations whose only goal is greed and profit. Sound familiar?

Blade Runner (1982). In a 21^st century Los Angeles, a world-weary cop tracks down a handful of renegade “replicants” (synthetically produced human slaves). Life is now dominated by mega-corporations, and people sleepwalk along rain-drenched streets. This is a world where human life is cheap, and where anyone can be exterminated at will by the police (or blade runners). Based upon a Philip K. Dick novel, this exquisite Ridley Scott film questions what it means to be human in an inhuman world.

Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984). The best adaptation of Orwell’s dark tale, this film visualizes the total loss of freedom in a world dominated by technology and its misuse, and the crushing inhumanity of an omniscient state. The government controls the masses by controlling their thoughts, altering history and changing the meaning of words. Winston Smith is a doubter who turns to self-expression through his diary and then begins questioning the ways and methods of Big Brother before being re-educated in a most brutal fashion.

Brazil (1985). Sharing a similar vision of the near future as 1984 and Franz Kafka’s novel The Trial, this is arguably director Terry Gilliam’s best work, one replete with a merging of the fantastic and stark reality. Here, a mother-dominated, hapless clerk takes refuge in flights of fantasy to escape the ordinary drabness of life. Caught within the chaotic tentacles of a police state, the longing for more innocent, free times lies behind the vicious surface of this film.

They Live (1988). John Carpenter’s bizarre sci-fi social satire action film assumes the future has already arrived. John Nada is a homeless person who stumbles across a resistance movement and finds a pair of sunglasses that enables him to see the real world around him. What he discovers is a world controlled by ominous beings who bombard the citizens with subliminal messages such as “obey” and “conform.” Carpenter manages to make an effective political point about the underclass — that is, everyone except those in power. The point: we, the prisoners of our devices, are too busy sucking up the entertainment trivia beamed into our brains and attacking each other up to start an effective resistance movement.

The Matrix (1999). The story centers on a computer programmer Thomas A. Anderson, secretly a hacker known by the alias “Neo,” who begins a relentless quest to learn the meaning of “The Matrix” — cryptic references that appear on his computer. Neo’s search leads him to Morpheus who reveals the truth that the present reality is not what it seems and that Anderson is actually living in the future — 2199. Humanity is at war against technology which has taken the form of intelligent beings, and Neo is actually living in The Matrix, an illusionary world that appears to be set in the present in order to keep the humans docile and under control. Neo soon joins Morpheus and his cohorts in a rebellion against the machines that use SWAT team tactics to keep things under control.

Minority Report (2002). Based on a short story by Philip K. Dick and directed by Steven Spielberg, the film offers a special effect-laden, techno-vision of a futuristic world in which the government is all-seeing, all-knowing and all-powerful. And if you dare to step out of line, dark-clad police SWAT teams will bring you under control. The setting is 2054 where PreCrime, a specialized police unit, apprehends criminals before they can commit the crime. Captain Anderton is the chief of the Washington, DC, PreCrime force which uses future visions generated by “pre-cogs” (mutated humans with precognitive abilities) to stop murders. Soon Anderton becomes the focus of an investigation when the precogs predict he will commit a murder. But the system can be manipulated. This film raises the issue of the danger of technology operating autonomously — which will happen eventually if it has not already occurred. To a hammer, all the world looks like a nail. In the same way, to a police state computer, we all look like suspects. In fact, before long, we all may be mere extensions or appendages of the police state — all suspects in a world commandeered by machines.

V for Vendetta (2006). This film depicts a society ruled by a corrupt and totalitarian government where everything is run by an abusive secret police. A vigilante named V dons a mask and leads a rebellion against the state. The subtext here is that authoritarian regimes through repression create their own enemies — that is, terrorists — forcing government agents and terrorists into a recurring cycle of violence. And who is caught in the middle? The citizens, of course. This film has a cult following among various underground political groups such as Anonymous, whose members wear the same Guy Fawkes mask as that worn by V.

Children of Men (2006). This film portrays a futuristic world without hope since humankind has lost its ability to procreate. Civilization has descended into chaos and is held together by a military state and a government that attempts to keep its totalitarian stronghold on the population. Most governments have collapsed, leaving Great Britain as one of the few remaining intact societies. As a result, millions of refugees seek asylum only to be rounded up and detained by the police. Suicide is a viable option as a suicide kit called Quietus is promoted on billboards and on television and newspapers. But hope for a new day comes when a woman becomes inexplicably pregnant.

Land of the Blind (2006). In this dark political satire, tyrannical rulers are overthrown by new leaders who prove to be just as evil as their predecessors. Maximilian II is a demented fascist ruler of a troubled land named Everycountry who has two main interests: tormenting his underlings and running his country’s movie industry. Citizens who are perceived as questioning the state are sent to “re-education camps” where the state’s concept of reality is drummed into their heads. Joe, a prison guard, is emotionally moved by the prisoner and renowned author Thorne and eventually joins a coup to remove the sadistic Maximilian, replacing him with Thorne. But soon Joe finds himself the target of the new government.

All of these films — and the writers who inspired them — understood what many Americans, caught up in their partisan, flag-waving, zombified states, are still struggling to come to terms with: that there is no such thing as a government organized for the good of the people. Even the best intentions among those in government inevitably give way to the desire to maintain power and control at all costs.

Eventually, as I make clear in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People and in its fictional counterpart The Erik Blair Diaries, even the sleepwalking masses (who remain convinced that all of the bad things happening in the police state — the police shootings, the police beatings, the raids, the roadside strip searches—are happening to other people) will have to wake up.

Sooner or later, the things happening to other people will start happening to us.

When that painful reality sinks in, it will hit with the force of a SWAT team crashing through your door, a taser being aimed at your stomach, and a gun pointed at your head. And there will be no channel to change, no reality to alter, and no manufactured farce to hide behind.

As George Orwell (Eric Arthur Blair) warned, “If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face forever.”