Demolition Man

Demolition Man is a 1993 American science fiction action film directed by Marco Brambilla, and starring Sylvester Stallone and Wesley Snipes. Sandra Bullock, Nigel Hawthorne, and Denis Leary co-star.[3] The film tells the story of two men—one, an evil crime lord; the other, a risk-taking police officer—who are cryogenically frozen in the year 1996 and reawakened in 2032. Following a massive earthquake in 2010 that destroyed much of Los Angeles, it merged with San Diego to form a planned city called San Angeles in which all crime has seemingly been eliminated from mainstream society.

In 1996, LAPD Sgt. John Spartan leads a raid to rescue hostages taken by the psychopathic criminal Simon Phoenix. After an initial scan reveals no sign of the hostages, Spartan enters Phoenix's stronghold and captures him. However, before he is captured, Phoenix detonates several barrels ofC4, which destroys the building. The hostages' bodies are found in the rubble, and Spartan is blamed for their deaths. Both men are sentenced to "CryoPrison," where they are kept in cryogenic storage and exposed to subconscious rehabilitation techniques.

In 2032, Phoenix escapes from CryoPrison during a parole hearing and begins a crime spree. By now the cities of Los Angeles, San Diego andSanta Barbara have merged into the utopian San Angeles, under the pacifist guidance of Dr. Raymond Cocteau. All vices have been outlawed, and the San Angeles Police (SAPD) are now incapable of dealing with criminals like Phoenix. However, veteran officer Zachary Lamb suggests that Spartan be revived and reinstated to the force to help them recapture Phoenix. Lieutenant Lenina Huxley is assigned to assist Spartan.

The revived Spartan has trouble adapting to life in the future. Most of Huxley's fellow officers, especially Chief George Earle, find him brutish and uncivilized. After Phoenix breaks into a museum's weapon exhibition to arm himself, he runs into Cocteau and tries to shoot him, but can not. Cocteau calmly reminds him of why he was revived: to kill Edgar Friendly, the leader of the Scraps resistance fighters, who live in underground ruins beneath San Angeles. After seeing the exchange on security cameras, Spartan and Huxley check prison records and determine that Cocteau programmed Phoenix to make him an even more dangerous criminal and assassin, with the goal of eliminating Friendly. While Spartan and Huxley enter the underground to warn Friendly, Phoenix confronts Cocteau and demands that he release other prisoners to assist him.

At Friendly's underground base, Phoenix and his gang of Cryo-Cons attempt to kill both Spartan and Friendly, but the two of them and Huxley repel the attack. During a subsequent car chase through San Angeles, Phoenix admits that the hostages that Spartan tried to save in 1996 were already dead before the building exploded, so Spartan spent 36 years in prison unnecessarily. Though Phoenix escapes, the Scraps emerge from the underground to join the SAPD against Phoenix and his new criminal gang.

Opposed to Cocteau’s plans for San Angeles, and realizing that he cannot kill Cocteau himself because of his programming, Phoenix has one of his men kill Cocteau. Spartan and Huxley arrive at Cocteau’s headquarters to capture Phoenix and what remains of his gang, but Phoenix escapes to the CryoPrison to revive the most dangerous convicts. After knocking out Huxley to protect her, Spartan raids the CryoPrison to confront Phoenix. After an intense battle with Phoenix, Spartan freezes him solid. Spartan escapes just before the cryo-machinery overloads, destroying the prison. With Cocteau dead and the prison destroyed, the police and Scraps find themselves at odds over how to run their society. Spartan suggests that they find a way to compromise between order and personal freedom, then kisses Huxley and departs with her.