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The film Demolition Man is set in a single city "metroplex" known as San Angeles which comprises Santa Barbara, Los Angeles and San Diego.

SAPD Officer Lenina Huxley tells us that the region was comprehensively rebuilt after a colossal earthquake ("the big one") and that the city has become a shining beacon of civility and clean living. Over the course of the film we also learn that underneath the city is a literal underclass of freedom-minded individuals who aren't keen to live by the same rules.

My question is this: What's the world like outside of San Angeles and why don't the "Scraps" just move somewhere else, like Mexico or Canada?

Valorum
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    Mexico was taken over by Yum! brands, and renamed "Taco Bell Land". You don't want to know what happened to Canada... – Zibbobz Oct 23 '14 at 20:05
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    @Zibbobz - I'm assuming it's Tim Hortons' as far as the eye can see, eh? – Valorum Oct 23 '14 at 20:07
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    D: I didn't want to know! -Uncontrollable sobbing- – Zibbobz Oct 23 '14 at 20:09
  • Somehow the internet has failed us and there isn't a Demolition Man wiki. We may never know the truth. – Jack B Nimble Oct 23 '14 at 20:28
  • @JackBNimble - This is where research comes in. – Valorum Oct 23 '14 at 20:35
  • Well, several other major metropolitan areas became known as "Megacities" and the police there took a less... passive... stance towards crime. And in the Nevada desert, Hell came to Frogtown. – Omegacron Oct 23 '14 at 20:41
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    @omegacron - So John Spartan changed his name, moved to New York and started yelling "I am 'da law!" at everyone? – Valorum Oct 23 '14 at 20:54
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    Close - actually, after he moved to NY (now called Megacity One) he grew old there and retired. Years later, his grandson became Chief Justice and allowed himself to be cloned during the Janus Project. Mind... blown – Omegacron Oct 23 '14 at 20:58
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    A new Rambo, a new Rocky... Yeah, Sly will do a new Demolition Man when The Expendables stops making money. Snipes needs the money as well. I suspect that the sequel will have the two join forces to combat the greatest villain of all; the IRS. – James Sheridan Oct 24 '14 at 00:39
  • @JamesSheridan I dunno - be pretty hard for Simon Phoenix to come back from that one. Maybe he could get some tips from the T-1000. – Omegacron Oct 27 '14 at 21:31
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    @Omegacron: He will rise from the ashes. It's right there in his name. That's foreshadowing right there. – James Sheridan Oct 28 '14 at 02:02
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    @jamessheridan - Yup. That's some fine foreshadowing. Add in some lens flare and you've got yourself a movie. – Valorum Oct 28 '14 at 05:41
  • One of the items in this LA Times article from 1992 says 'Now scouting for San Diego locations: the makers of Sylvester Stallone's next movie, "Demolition Man." Filming to start in September. It's the story of a futuristic world split asunder by a mega-earthquake along the San Andreas Fault. A subterranean city then wars with a topside city.' Not sure what they based this on, but it's possible this means that the movie creators imagined as backstory that California had physically split off from the rest of the US. – Hypnosifl Dec 03 '14 at 19:37
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    @Hypnosifl - One of the earlier scripts mentions New York and other cities. I'm pondering writing up an answer to my own question. – Valorum Dec 03 '14 at 19:39

4 Answers4

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The world outside San Angeles is a deeply unpleasant place, at least according to Cocteau.

An earlier version of the script (dated November, 1992) shows that the world does still exist outside the walls of San Angeles.

COCTEAU : So, John Spartan, tell me, what do you think of San Angeles, 2042?

SPARTAN : I guess, considering the way things were going when I went in -- I thought the future would be a sick, decaying pit of suffering and hate with a thick, foul stench.

Cocteau gloats.

COCTEAU : You should consider visiting New York/Jersey after this.

SPARTAN : (brightening) You mean nothing's changed?

Valorum
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We don't know exactly what life outside of San Angeles is like, but we're lead to believe it's similar or close to the same as in San Angeles - given the major corporate mergers that have taken place and the fact that no other societal norms are even mentioned.

As for the second half of the question, moving to a new location is expensive.

For any type of long-distance travel, you need money. You need to buy a car or a bike at the very least, or be able to access a train going somewhere better than where you are. Boxcars have probably been phased out as being very 'unclean', so there aren't a lot of transportation options for the Scraps. And even if they have motorbikes, which Richard pointed out, they still need to provide for their food and shelter for each night of rest, and that's going to be hard to find with no money and being constantly on the move as a no-class citizen.

And once there, regardless of the state of that new place, there's no guarantee that they'll be in a better situation. If life outside San Angeles has the same regulations (which, if it does, then they're probably going to enstate it again once they replace Dr. Raymond Cocteau) then they're stuck in the same situation. If it's different, it could be worse - possibly even post-apocalyptic. But even if it were a better Utopia, they would still be newcomers and outcasts for being people from outside that society.

As far as I know, there are no world maps shown during Demolition Man, but if the 2010 earthquake was "the Big One", it may have broken California off from the mainland entirely, which could make it an entirely separate nationstate - further complicating any plans to leave, and meaning that they'd have to adjust to new societal standards all over again.

In short, there's no solid knowledge as to what's outside San Angeles, but everything we DO have points to it being no better, and even if it was, travel options are very limited for those in a resource-less class.

Zibbobz
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  • They have motorbikes. – Valorum Dec 03 '14 at 19:59
  • An earlier version of the script mentions plane tickets – Valorum Dec 03 '14 at 19:59
  • @Richard And they have enough gas to get where they're going, while still buying enough food to make stops along the way to rest? I admit I forgot they had motorbikes, but there's more to moving location than having two wheels. – Zibbobz Dec 03 '14 at 20:00
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While not a perfect answer, I would think this falls in line with other scifi stories like Batman and Gotham or Superman and Metropolis. While there have been instances where the protagonist leaves the area to fight crime elsewhere (Superman trying to stop the missiles and after failing spinning around the Earth to turn back time), the antagonists never spread out and leave the primary city. One can only assume the primary city "metroplex" is duplicated elsewhere in the country, but that San Angeles is considered the best one due to artificial "crime rate". As is true of modern day cities, there will always be a mix of low-income, middle class, and societal elites. Asking why the underground "scraps" don't relocate elsewhere is like asking why a homeless person in Chicago (today) doesn't relocate elsewhere. (Because that person would be a "scrap" in any city.

Chrismas007
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  • Except that in this case, the existence (or lack) of an outside territory makes the conflict between the scraps and the upsiders either very poignant or very stupid. – Valorum Dec 03 '14 at 18:18
  • Because there isn't any conflict in major cities now? Have you ever driven through the "Southside" of Chicago? But if we talk about this dysopian future, I would venture a guess that the "big one" earthquake could have disrupted ground transportation between the West Coast and the country. Since the government has created a "perfect city", the scraps could very well be stuck (lack of money to leave via transport). However, my original point about conflict within urban cities stands. – Chrismas007 Dec 03 '14 at 18:21
  • They appear to have their own transport in the form of motorcycles. – Valorum Dec 03 '14 at 18:31
  • Only if the government rebuilt the area around the "metroplex" after the "big one" earthquake. – Chrismas007 Dec 03 '14 at 18:35
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Positing that the big earthquake was catastrophic enough to level the three cities to a state where it was financially simple to build San Angeles instead of rebuilding the three cities, then it would have to be assumed that this earthquake caused catastrophic tsunamis that have the power to devestate coastal regions all over the globe. So coastal cities, island nations, some ships at sea, and offshore oil rigs were wiped out as a result of the earthquake, so that is a ballbuster of a scenario for the world. The question of how far the effects of the earthquake was felt on the American supercontinent is also something to ponder on too, it could have been far reaching enough to the Midwestern to Mideastern states of the USA or even the east coast. Now picture that distance as a line representing the radius of circle of effect and examine what lies within as the affected region, and when you look at it like that it is pretty damn frightening.

The existence of the countries that we know is something that can't be confirmed, but you would have to assume there would be intense strife caused by the earthquake and tsunamis devastating their coastal regions. Whether California became visibly separate from the rest of the USA is another unconfirmable matter, but I would have say that the earthquake would have aided in the gradual separation of the California plate by accelerating the process a little bit.

The important thing to note is that it would have made much more sense if the movie was set in either 2132 or 2232, that way the time frame for the development of the pacifist San Angeles society would be more believable.

James Hampton
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