Starring Wesley Snipes, Sandra Bullock, and Sylvester Stallone, 1993’s Demolition Man remains a cult classic despite receiving underwhelming reviews from critics. The film is set in 2032 where two cryogenically frozen men are woken up from their deep (and cold) sleep.
Now, while this might seem like an interesting plot line, it was quite a bit difficult for Sylvester Stallone who played John Spartan, one of the two men who were frozen. In fact, he once stated that filming the cryogenic freezing scene for Demolition Man was the worst time he spent on a set as he was absolutely terrified.
How Demolition Man Terrified Sylvester Stallone
Sylvester Stallone has created this macho, intense personality for himself thanks to the films he has done. You take one look at him and just know that you do not want to get on this guy’s bad side. Therefore, imagining Stallone terrified of something might seem out of place. However, Demolition Man was able to turn that into reality.
In the film, Wesley Snipes’ crime lord character, Simon Phoenix, was sentenced to be cryogenically frozen back in 1996. On the other hand, Sylvester Stallone’s John Spartan also faced the same fate after a failed rescue attempt. When Simon awakens in 2032 for a parole hearing, he begins to wreak havoc on the world. As a result, John, too, is woken up to help catch the criminal.
According to IMDb, Stallone was absolutely terrified while filming the cryogenic freezing scene. He recalled that it was “probably the worst five hours I’ve ever had on movie sets…I was terrified.” We don’t blame him. After all, cryogenic freezing does not seem like a vacation, does it?
Sylvester Stallone is Happy with Demolition Man
While the Marco Brambilla-directed film was not met with many positive reviews, the film has maintained its cult classic image over the years. The film has a huge fan following all over the world and lead actor Stallone is one of the fans who so-dearly love the movie.
Taking to Instagram, Stallone posted an image that went on to praise Demolition Man for being a “one of a kind movie.” The image stated that while the critics dismissed it as a stupid action movie, Demolition Man very cleverly talked about everything from toxic masculinity to the cancel culture. Check out the photo below.
Stallone captioned the post, “I always enjoyed this film. It was a Great Action film wonderfully directed by Marco Brambilla. And the writers were way ahead of their time.”
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has received an underwhelming score of 62% with the average audience score standing a little higher at 66%. At the box office, Demolition Man made $159 million on a budget of $45-77 million. This was considered to be a success and was deemed Stallone’s comeback to the film industry after a setback in his career.
You can stream Demolition Man on Max.
