Unfairly Forgotten 90s Sci-Fi Movie is Surprisingly Relevant Today in 2023
This movie was pretty coldly received at the time, but became surprisingly relevant years later.
With the amazing amount of sci-fi movies that have been released over the years, it is no surprise that many of them ended up being mediocre or even just bad.
But one of them in particular, which was panned by both critics and audiences upon its release, has only become more relevant with time, proving to be a real gem disguised as a dumb action movie.
We are, of course, talking about Demolition Man.
Released in 1993 and starring Sylvester Stallone, Wesley Snipes and Sandra Bullock, it told the story of John Spartan (Stallone), a cop from 1996 who is released from cryogenic freezing in the year 2032 to fight his nemesis Simon Phoenix (Snipes).
The catch is that the future society has changed quite a bit, with profanity, alcohol, cigarettes, and basically anything that is not good for you completely banned.
So underneath the basic action movie plot lies the story of a man struggling to fit into the politically correct Orwellian world.
And as society slowly becomes more and more sterile, it feels strangely familiar years later.
The conflict between the overly sensitive people who can't even take a slightly provocative joke and the troublemakers or trolls who just want to annoy as many people as possible is very familiar to the plot of the movie.
And it shows perfectly that both ways of thinking are not the healthiest, suggesting that a compromise is needed.
Demolition Man also has fun action and pretty solid, if a little cheesy, acting. It's a great example of a 90's action movie, with the hero and villain blowing stuff up and throwing one-liners while trying to kill each other.
It also has perhaps the greatest mystery in sci-fi history, which is... the three seashells. Nearly three decades later, fans are still trying to figure out how to use them, and the actors are being asked the same question.
The three shells have also found their way into countless other media as Easter eggs.
With all that said, you might want to check out this movie if you haven't already. It is great and well worth your time.