

Phoenix is up for an obligatory parole hearing when he escapes. Prisons are quite a bit different, and there's a new policy of cryogenically freezing inmates. The film begins in a not-too-distant future (relative to its 1992/1993 production date) of 1996.

After a particularly ruthless criminal, Simon Phoenix (Wesley Snipes), sets him up by making it appear that Spartan wantonly caused the deaths of a bus load of hostages, Spartan is sentenced to 60 years or so in prison. John Spartan (Sylvester Stallone) is a reckless Los Angeles policeman, known as the "demolition man" for the destruction he routinely engenders while apprehending big baddies.
