Demolition Man

Question: I remember seeing this movie multiple times years back, and i distinctly remember the restaurant being Taco Bell, why the sudden badly dubbed pizza hut in the new television version?

Answer: A number of the European releases of the film replaced Taco Bell with Pizza Hut, as Pizza Hut has a significant international presence, whereas Taco Bell is relatively unknown outside the US, with very few restaurants. While most versions around these days keep the US original dialogue, the altered versions do occasionally crop up, particularly on television.

Tailkinker

Answer: In South Africa we also had a version that called the restaurant Burger King. I just always assumed that they changed the name when a franchise offered them more money for product placement.

Question: When the building with the hostages gets destroyed, Simon tells the police that he told John where the bodies were, with John responding that he didn't care. Clearly a blatant lie - why would the police actually take the word of a murdering psychopath like Simon considering that he would do or say anything to save himself?

Answer: Spartan didn't have authorization to go in and apprehend Phoenix to begin with. Depending on the time and manner of deaths of the hostages, it may have been impossible for the authorities to determine that they were already dead before Spartan went in guns blazing, so it would be determined that he was criminally negligent in their deaths. Whatever Phoenix had to say on the matter probably didn't even factor into Spartan's trial.

Phaneron

Answer: They didn't. They found the bodies and knowing how badly John wanted to take down Simon, they assumed Simon was telling the truth. I always felt that there was an assumption that Simon also had other planted evidence to frame John but that is never confirmed, just my hunch.

The_Iceman

Question: Why was Simon allowed a damn at the joy joy feeling machine thingy while John was fined for one while talking to his friend?

Answer: I'm assuming you're referring to when Simon says "Damn, I'm possessed!" He was hacking the machine when he said it, perhaps he'd corrupted the program or shut off the microphone as a side effect?

Grumpy Scot

Answer: Note that when Spartan is fined for swearing, the machine uses his full name. When Phoenix is fined, the machine only refers to him as "You" ("You are fined 1 credit...") as he isn't recognised because he doesn't have a chip. Presumably he's expected to take the ticket and pay the fine even if the machine didn't automatically know it was him.

Also notable is that when Lenina swore she was fined only one half a credit instead of a full credit. Probably because she is a cop.

lionhead

No, I think she got fined only a half credit because it was a *sotto voce* violation (under her breath).

Strange, I can swear somebody already mentioned that once before.

lionhead

Wait a minute, is that trivia?

lionhead

Answer: Phoenix has no sub-dermal microchip in his hand. Per Huxley, all transactions are done with this chip. That would mean fines are also generated per person based on this chip too.

Except when Simon is trying to get a gun, he keeps swearing at the booth which constantly fines him.

Question: When Spartan is asking about his daughter, all I hear is "(mumble-mumble) happened to her?" Does anyone know what he actually says?

Answer: He says "I had a daughter. What happened to her?"

LorgSkyegon

Answer: From the subtitles I found and what I remembered I think his exact words were "And my daughter, what happened to her?"

Lummie

I made a promise, what happened to her?

Question: As Phoenix is using the computer stand on the street and accessing Edgar Friendly's info, a box pops up on the screen with a phrase and then Phoenix's name at the end. What does that box say? I've tried pausing it and watching in slo-mo, but its picture is blurred on my screen.

Answer: The box reads, "You have accessed secure mailbox facilities for...Simon Phoenix."

Question: While in the future, Simon Phoenix was about to kill what I believe is a priest. Just before he does, the priest says something like, "Isn't there something you should be doing right now?" After the priest says this, why did Simon let him go and run off?

Answer: The man was Dr. Raymond Cocteau, mayor of San Angeles. He was the one who was ultimately responsible for re-programming Simon. He also programmed Simon to kill Edgar Friendly, who was the leader of the resistant group that was rebelling against Cocteau and his established way of life. Simon was also programmed to be unable to kill Cocteau (which is why he also "missed" when he first shot at him). No sense in waking up and letting loose a well trained psychopathic killer if he's also ends up killing you too.

Bishop73

Question: Does the book 'Brave New World' upon which 'Demolition Man' is based reference the three seashells in the bathroom or is it just a bit of comic relief in the movie ?

Answer: For a start, the question is seriously flawed: Demolition Man is not based on Brave New world. The only similarity between the two is that that both are set in conformist future societies. There are a few references in the movie to that book (for example, the character name Lenina Huxley is a combination of BNW character Lenina Crowne and the book's author, Aldous Huxley); but to the best of my knowledge, the "three seashells" was not one of them.

J I Cohen

Answer: No, there are no 'three seashells' in Brave New World. Thank Ford.

Question: Does anyone know what that whole "three sea shells" thing is all about? Was there anything that let us know exactly how they worked?

troy fox

Chosen answer: No, they kept it a joke throughout the movie.

T Poston

Answer: Several reasons. Hawthorne was reluctant to accept the role, but thought the story had some merits and hoped the movie would help him professionally. The script was constantly being revised during filming, and he found the overall production unpleasant. Hawthorne didn't directly clash with Stallone or Snipes but their enormous egos and being constantly late, often keeping cast and crew waiting, was irritating. Stallone and Snipes were self-involved and showed little interest in Hawthorne, offending him. He also found Stallone's acting style annoying. Hawthorne also thought director Joel Silver was quirky.

raywest

Question: At the beginning of the film where were the bodies of the people that Simon killed? John said he searched the whole building but couldn't find anything so, how did the bodies appear after the building was destroyed? And why was John placed in cryogenic suspension? It seems a bit harsh to punish somebody especially since he was able to catch Simon.

Answer: Simon killed the bus passengers before John arrived, but kept their dead bodies in the building. John said he did a thermo search and only saw 8 people (Simon's gang), but that's because the dead bus passengers didn't show up on the thermo scan. John wasn't suppose to go after Simon alone, wasn't suppose to be there, and violated police procedures. John was convicted (because of Simon framing him) with 30 counts of involuntary manslaughter because it was presumed the passengers were in fact still alive and in the building, but died in the explosion that wouldn't have happened if John was trying to apprehend Simon alone. Simon was also convicted for the murders though.

Bishop73

Continuity mistake: When Simon Phoenix gets out of the sewer system (after gunning it out with the rebels and John Spartan) his left eye has the brown contact and his right eye has the blue one after going the entire movie with those contacts in the opposite eyes. (01:30:25)

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Trivia: The 'particle gun' that Phoenix picks up in the museum is actually a prototype of the real-life Heckler&Koch G11 rifle, the first gun ever to fire caseless ammunition. The gun and its ammo were developed in the Cold War to save the expenses for the cartridge case production. It was tested and modified for field use, but with the collapse of the Soviet state (which ended the Cold War) in 1991, the production program was cancelled. (00:45:30)

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