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Is he (Phoenix) the true villain or is it Dr. Cocteau? I would say Cocteau because he is not only more subtle, he doesn't really offer you a choice - Phoenix does, all you have to do is to choose to stay out of his way and out of his territories. Cocteau on the other hand - is as stated in the movie - essentially a social engineer. Look at the outcome of the city of San Angelis. Yea it is peaceful, but are the people happy? Also yes the better comparison is that both Phoenix and Cocteau represent the two very opposite extremes - unbridled freedom, and extreme authoritarianism; but i digress as that is now delving into the political aspect - which by the way I would recommend the youtube video - "The Politics of Demolition Man."
@@Bombadil-ez9ns yea there are articles even alluding to spiking water supplies with lithium - i realize i am heading into alex jones territory but then again, the parallels are apt. I would again recommend the youtube video called "The Politics of Demolition Man." -- I know this isn't a political video , but it hits on the same point - and imo reinforces the idea that Cocteau is the true villain. Cocteau thought he had everything under control - which again is the biggest mistake which was his ultimate downfall; and again Phoenix's comparison to Cocteau was true - "Thats who you remind me of. An evil Mr. Rogers.."
Fun Fact: Wesley Snipes hated his blond dye job, and shaved his head as soon as filming was complete. After this movie's release, professional NBA player Dennis Rodman began dying his hair different colors, a look that was inspired by Simon Phoenix.
Remember Jamie Foxx and his street gang from the movie The Meteor Man? They had the golden slinky toys and the black business suits. Lol! They all rocked that bleached blonde flat top look that made them all look like reject B-List villain characters from the film New Jack City, lol! 😂
@@necrosadotor well that was the point it was something for a character who was supposed to be flamboyant and larger than Life.... Literally an affectation where he could say "yeah go on tease me about my hair I double dog dare you.". It also quite effectively separated him from the pack.
I would say Simon Phoenix is less evil than Dr. Raymond Cocteau, because he still gives you a choice and all you have to do is avoid his territories. Dr. Cocteau even disgusts Simon Phoenix to where although he can't directly take him out, he just asks his henchmen to do it. Again the line says it all "Look you can't take away people's right to be assholes." So, while yes Phoenix is a megalomaniac , again even he is repulsed by Cocteau's vision and need to control everything.
@@XenoRaptor-98765 exactly - hence why cocteau is the most evil - he wants to have "his society" ... and you have no choice. this is why i recommend the yt video "the politics of demolition man" as it goes into further depths - i realize this isn't supposed to be political but at the same time, the story obviously revolves around it essentially.
Its been awhile since I saw the movie but didn't Cocteau have a mental block implanted on Phoenix so he couldn't actually harm Cocteau? Phoenix had his henchman do it because there was no mental block in him.
"See, according to Cocteau's plan, I'm the enemy. Cause I like to think, I like to read. I'm into freedom of speech and freedom of choice. I'm the kind of guy who wants to sit in a greasy spoon and think, "Gee, should I have the T-bone steak or the jumbo rack of barbecued ribs with the side order of gravy fries?" I want high cholesterol. I want to eat bacon, butter and buckets of cheese, okay? I want to smoke a Cuban cigar the size of Cincinnati in a non-smoking section. I wanna run through the streets naked with green Jello all over my body reading Playboy magazine. Why? Because I suddenly might feel the need to. Okay, pal? I've seen the future, you know what it is? It's a 47-year-old virgin sittin' around in his beige pajamas, drinking a banana-broccoli shake singing "I'm an Oscar-Meyer Wiener". You wanna live on top, you gotta live Cocteau's way. What he wants, when he wants, how he wants. Your other choice: come down here, maybe starve to death."
Great line. I don’t think he means there should be anarchy he just wants to feel free enough to have some unhealthy habits. As people begin to feel backed in a corner they desire unnecessarily unhealthy things because it’s a reaction to oppression. At most people’s core they understand this is a reaction but people like Simon make people so afraid the pendulum continues to swing. It’s apathy and chaos that causes oppression and oppression that causes people to idealize a bit of chaos. The movie opens with a terrifying scene of death and it’s done purposefully
@@DrArthurCGarpIt's moments like Demolition man I like to tell the tale of the hand gripping sand. The tighter it grasps, the more sand leaks out, until there's none left. Whereas just holding it, some leaks out, but you still keep the most. Tight control inevitably always ends up with you controlling nothing.
"Politicians want to make it illegal to say the word 'fuck', because it makes it easier to make it illegal to say 'fuck the government' "-George Carlin(i think)
The movie was a box office success. With a profit of 102 million, vs other Stallone movies at the time like Tango and Cash making 66 million profit. Oh, not to mention this was 1993, this was a huge success. One of the only Stallone films he's actually talking about making a sequel to. "Generic" Kinda just sounds like little insecurity when it comes to Wesley's genius on film. Nice try though...I'll give you something else to feel insecure about. Wesley snipes single handedly saved Marvel
@@Rise_and_Hustle I was alive when the movie came out, nobody was talking about it back then. In 1993 everybody was talking about Jurassic Park. Quite a few underrated movies came out that year. So yes, it was considered a generic popcorn flick. I appreciate your smartass comment though, cheers.
One of the funniest villains I've ever seen, he is charistmatic, likeable and evil as hell and loved every second of it while also being a genuine threat, great character played to perfection by wesely snipes, he looked like he was having the time of his life
Simon Phoenix is a great villian because he loved being one. He did it just for fun. And he has been the funnest villain to watch in my opinion. You actually start kind of rooting for the guy. Be even he knew how dangerous Raymond Cochteau was.
@@JayCity10Wesley was a true talent because while I loved Phoenix, I hated Nino. Both were fun to watch and compelling villains but while Phoenix was funny, eccentric, unpredictable, and charismatic, Nino was a sick, arrogant, disrespectful killer. Two very good antagonists for two very different reasons.
Raymond Cocteau may be the ultimate embodiment of the moral busy bodies that C.S. Lewis warned us about. And it is terrifying just how much our world is beginning to mirror the one depicted in Demolition Man.
@@SageofCancer It's from a quote he made. “Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.”
One thing missed about Simon Phoenix that's important here: his charismatic leadership. Phoenix is able to quickly bring the most vicious criminals in the city under his leadership both before and after he's put into cryostasis. Nobody ever questions him or shows even the slightest signs of disloyalty, and he's able to use that loyalty to purge the one weakness affecting him (Cocteau's mental control over him), by having a random henchmen murder Cocteau in his place. It's the one quality Phoenix has that Cocteau lacks that allows him to survive longer...his free will and willingness to question authority. Whereas Cocteau just assumes the system will always work out in the end, Phoenix always questions it and finds a way around it, and he takes others with him along for the ride. That's what makes him the more dangerous villain, imo.
You know, im more terrified by this movie, considering we currently have Cocteaus in power, and i dont mean just politicians, the pharma owners and rich businessmen who control this world are proof of that.
@@AxenfonKlatismrek If you've ever seen a video of a speech by WEF head Claus Shwab. He very well might of been the inspiration for Raymond, even down to the robes.
I think the reason we all like Phoenix is that Wesley Snipes was just having so much fun playing this character it shone right through making Phoenix much more fun and likeable then the writers meant.
🙄 Inevitable random edgelawd: _This movie shows a cartoon version of a paranoid fantasy I enjoy talking about, so that means my brain is correct and my ego receives precious fuel._ Copy and paste at random on this film, Escape from LA, 1984, RoboCop, etc
The three seashells are the real evil in this movie! But besides: Simon Phoenix and Dr. Raymond Cocteau are both fascinating villains in their own right, but somehow the older i get the more i am frightened from the Dr. Cocteaus in our world...
I loved what Phoenix said about him, "An evil Mr Rodgers." Cocteau is everything that Orwell warned about in his novel 1984, and to an extent Animal Farm when the line "Some pigs are more useful than others." springs to mind thinking about how he wanted to shape society.
Love the film. As a child, I thought Cocteau was a weak villain, but as I grew older, I realized how evil and manipulative this man is. He is the type of politician you don't want in power..... Maybe you could do an Analyzing Evil on Biff Tannen from Back to the Future. He seems like a bully, but he has dark tendencies that could be explored more i.e. how in the Alternate 1985, he straight up murdered George McFly.
The anarchist vs the tyrant; Simon's chaos and brutality contrasts well with Raymond's pervasive, Orwellian control over all. Demolition Man was very prophetic in how these forces are now pulling the world one way and another, forcing people to choose a side, rather than think for themselves what is right and wrong.
I can look at Claus Schwab to get an idea how Dr Cocteau made that society. The movie is almost prophetic. Even the relationship between "enlightened" individuals and street criminals.
Part of the Holy trinity of films that predicted the future, the other two being Idiocracy and Team America: World Police. Demolition Man accurately predicted the precarious and extreme nature of internet platforms, the surface seeming like platforms like Twitter, Tumblr and Facebook, and the underground resembling 4chan, DeviantArt and Rumble.
Snipes putting on one of the best performances in an action movie, I love it! Best part was not even Phoenix could stomach Cocteaus authoritarianism, absolute chaotic evil incarnate.
More than these two, I was struck by the duo left standing at the end: Edgar Friendly and Associate Bob. Both essentially had good intentions, but their differences are eerily similar to the differences between right and left now.
I find that at least a little heartening because while they don't have much time together, they seem to at least get along. Edgar might have shocked him with a few words, but he didn't turn him into a eunuch. (That event happened in the book. Cocteu really hates potential competition.) Kinda saying we can work together without the insane people on hand.
This was one of mine and my brother’s favorite movies when we were kids after we found it in our Grandpa’s movie collection. Wesley Snipes is great as usual and the guy playing Raymond Cocteau (gosh me and my brother had a great time making fun of his name when we were kids) is described perfectly by Snipes as Phoenix when he called him an “Evil Mr. Rogers” before having Jesse the Body Ventura kill him!
There is something to be said about Raymond Cocteau that sets him apart from so many other villains of his nature. He legitimately seems to believe what he preaches and lives by it. We never see him eating banned foods, or sleeping with women, or really ever violating his own laws. He actually lives by the same laws he sets out for the society he built. Even his release of Simon is played more as a misunderstanding where he feels like he has controlled so much of his present that he would be able to control someone from the past and he doesn't really understand what Phoenix is really like and capable of. So many villains like him all end up being hypocrites but always liked that they never went that route with him.
Simon Phoenix may be evil, but he has a code a conduct. He even tells Dr. Raymond Cocteau, "You Can't Take Away Peoples Rights To Be AHoles" Ironically this movie is turning out to be a documentary like "Idiocracy" was
My favourite Stallone movie. So camp yet so entertaining. The concept is morbid and horrifying when you think about it but its portrayed in such an over the top style it is almost a comedy. Thanks for the video
@@billwithers4762 Wiping the Christian Church and its mindless supporters from Europe was completely justified. Look at how the sub-human beasts behaved during the burning. The religion itself was evil and corrupted everything it touched as most, if not all, religions have done since the dawn of civilization. So no. His immediate actions weren't evil. They were completely justified.
Simon Phoenix is top 10, at least in the action movie rogues gallery. Wesley Snipes deserves so much more credit for this role than he gets. This was a very easy villain to do the wrong way. Also... a Joker/Simon Phoenix crossover needs to happen. Two true children of chaos... The good guys wouldn't stand a chance. Edit: ru-vid.com/group/PLYFgHjOL7qe5T3Dxt9Z1N1ngPp5eORnIO If you need a reminder. (Hope this is allowed.)
@@a15thcenturysuitofgothicarmoryeah I'm not sure what the solution is, but everywhere you care to look, you see the bad path chosen over the good one😔. I'm just glad I don't have kids to inherit the not-so-good looking future
Great video. It's strange how what could have been passed off as a mindless 90's action flick, has become prescient for the direction society seems to be heading these days.
Fun fact: Tekken's Paul Phoenix has a core move named Demolition Man (d4;2;1+2) a low starter usually meant to end juggle combos; taken straight in name from this movie The Tekken character Raven is also inspired by Simon Phoenix. (And Blade, Wesley Snipes in general really.)
You could do an amazing episode on "The Boys" - so much evil to analyse! From Vaught, Homlander, or any of the major antagonists, to the anti-hero Billy the Butcher.
OOOOH YES! I was hoping you'd finally get to them! Thanks for doing these two! Both are indeed two sides of the same coin. They are the embodiments of the two extremes of order and chaos, totalitarianism and anarchy, that society risks when mutual compromise is not found. For future reviews, I'd love to see Judge Doom from "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" or Junko Enoshima from "Danganronpa", or Kilgrave from "Jessica Jones".
I loved this movie growing up. Wesley Snipes had a truly menacing aura as Simon Phoenix, right up there with Vaas Montenegro. It was chilling just how much fun Phoenix appeared to have killing and causing havoc everywhere he went. Considering what I learned about gangs from police and my own research on said groups, Simon Phoenix seems to fit the Dark Tetrad of personality traits with zero tolerances for gaps. He has sadistic, narcissistic, psychopathic, and Machiavellian traits all in one. In the age of sympathetic villains, a look back on Simon Phoenix strikes fear in anyone watching as he does what he wants because he doesn't have a motive that makes them comfortable with his actions. It's brilliant because people have become used to this moral handholding that a lot of fiction does and the antagonist without a clear motive breaks that mould. We deal with villainy like that in our real life on a daily basis, especially with mass shootings. What people never want to entertain is the fact that motives are incidental. It makes people uncomfortable because, as the saying goes, knowledge is power. Villains like Simon Phoenix rob the audience of that power, leaving them as helpless as the victims of the villain. When the motive of the villain is revealed to be something sympathetic, then that hostile wall of villainy falls and we're left with someone reacting to misfortune the way we would've under similar circumstances. They stop being a villain and become a wounded child lashing out at everyone and everything. A motiveless killer, however, becomes a terrifying threat because they can't be reasoned with or placated. The only thing that would satisfy this beast is your suffering and death. It's a good breakaway from this and I love it.
Doctor Cocteau is even more evil than Simon Phoenix. Because he released Phoenix so that he can finally be rid of Edgar Friendly. Cocteau knew that many innocents will die if caught in Simon's way, and in his twisted belief, he believes that the ends justify the means. Phoenix is a psychopath and a trigger happy megalomaniac, but he is the antithesis of Cocteau. Since Cocteau wants to control human thought and behavior, Simon tells him "you can't take away people's right to be assholes". Phoenix believes people should choose to be what they want to be. That's why he ain't interested in killing Edgar Friendly.
Basically the moral of the story is it doesn't matter how well intentioned they make it sound, someone who wants absolute power will do anything and everything to keep it.
A great villain in a great movie. If anyone told me that Demolition Man would end up predicting the future in many ways, I probably would’ve thought they were crazy
There are so many great additions it’s hard to pick from a suggested litter. One I really hope that get covered is Abigail from the Crucible, and Daniel Lugo from Pain and Gain.
The mysterious three sea shells cleaning system is undoubtedly the most iconic part of this masterpiece. In fact, even the game "Maneater" and "Cyberpunk 2077" have easter eggs that reference this cleaning method.
Dr. Cocteau and his vision for the future reminded me of a quote I read some time ago: “Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.” ― C. S. Lewis
One thing that always bothered me about the cryoprison is that Cocteau made it so Simon could kill him but he didnt program a similar thing into every prisoner. It feel like he would have made obedience to him a major feature since he had the mean to brainwash ppl via the cryoprison. It just seem like a huge oversight on his part given how much his plan involved the homogenization of human behavior.
I think in a lot of ways Cocteau truly believed that given time to think everyone would prefer safety to chaos. He acknowledges that criminals like Simon exist but he thinks other people aren’t so sociopathic. On the other side it shows he’s really just afraid and putting on a mask. When he’s face to face with a monster he protects him but isn’t really thinking about the lives of others (he justifies unleashing Simon in a “controlled” way that protects himself but really nobody else). It’s about ego and fear.
If he programmed it into every prisoner, that would get noticed more quickly by people working in the prison system. They would start to question why he was making these criminals loyal only to him. He thought no one would look too deeply into Simon, I guess.
In defense of Dr. Cocteau, he did give the world something we’ll likely never see in real life: non-violent cops. That aspect always stood out to me watching that movie, even when I first saw it as a kid. I do think it’s interesting how Dr. Cocteau was possibly a well-intentioned person in his younger years, but his ego got the best of him. He achieved peace but also wanted to be downright suffocating with respect to personal liberties (kinda like the Empire from Star Wars, but on a smaller scale). His ego got the best of him because it’s what got him killed; he knew Simon Phoenix couldn’t kill him directly, but Phoenix utilized a simple loophole by simply having one of his minions shoot Cocteau. Great video as usual! And love to see you look over one of my personal action films.
That's the thing though, was he *really* well-intentioned? Or was he merely cloaking his desire for power and control in good intentions? I find that so many people do this; tyring to seem benevolent and altruistic, when they're only serving themselves and their egos. They may even convince themselves that they're doing what's right. I think we should be as wary of those individuals as we are of those who don't bother to hide their harmful intentions.
I think that Cocteau is nothing more or less than an autocrat, who just happens to see the path to power by forcing pacifism on the population. He basically domesticated San Angeles but operated outside his own laws. I also think that although you say ego you meant hubris.
@@jr2904I agree. That’s why I sincerely don’t think we’ll ever see non-violent cops. Regarding the film, I do think it’s kinda funny how Simon Phoenix completely blows off those cops until they say “or else” to him; then he gets seriously annoyed & pissed.
Demolition Man was a hidden gem at the time of release: it was marketed and received as just another testosteronic action movie full of one-liners, but its commentary on society is more relevant than ever. As for its villain, to me those like Dr. Cocteau are the worst kind of evil, whose sense of moral highground and conviction in their ideology made them and those around them think they are good. Such individual, willing to take away every form of individual freedom for their supposed "greater good", are at the most dangerous in times of chaos when a society in disarray is looking for guidance and salvation.
Magnificent analyzis as always! Just like Big Jack those villains who are evil, self aware and enjoy it are SO refreshing! Thanks for yet another great episode!🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉❤❤❤❤❤
What makes Phoenix work as a villain is how realistic he is. People in the real world aren’t movie villains with very complex plots and goals. Most of them are just acting purely on their own desire. Serial Killers, rapist, mass shooters, family annihilators etc none of them have any bigger meaning or goal other than acting on their own desires of chaos.
What sold me on Simon Phoenix was the “Slamming my man’s head against the glass in the museum” scene. Then said “Im sorry sir, I didn’t see you there” comically. They could have left it open ended with him escaping John Spartan, but with today being a modern day “San Angeles” it wouldn’t be the same quality film.
Agent Smith getting a video is not impossible…….it’s inevitable. “Yes Mr. Anderson look through the soft gelatin of these cow eyes and see your enemy, there’s no where I can’t go” 😈 also Frank Ghallager from Shameless 🇺🇸
During the 'Great plague of 2020" i referred to the greeting they shared and realised just how underrated this film is because of the things that it predicted but also because of how realistic the characters are
I still think about the three seashells now and then when using the bathroom. Another request to please cover Clyde Shelton from Law Abiding Citizen in a future video!
How about the very rare EVIL PROTAGONIST. Richard B. Riddick from Pitch Black (also Chronicles of Riddick and Riddick). He even introduces himself once in a casual greeting as "Richard B. Riddick. Escaped Convict. Murderer."
This movie made possible something "Judge Dreed" could not even imagine: making Rob Schneider the comic-relief of a Stallone movie and being actually funny LOL
Demolition Man is still one of my favorite movies because of how it accurately predicted the "future" we live in now. Didn't get everything right (still gun violence and mental health crises), but it got some things right. Stunning to see characters avoid touching each other after a real-life pandemic began.
Could you analyze the evil of the Zodiac Killer? I love your breakdowns of disturbed murderers from a pychoanalysis perspective. Keep up the fantastic work!!
So happy to see more people getting interested in the twisted character that Simon Phoenix is! I always admired the way he was written and the way he thought, no other character has ever been so captivating to me, the creators really did a great job. I think you analysed everything pretty well, they created such an interesting dynamic.
Only relatively recently I've found out that Nigel Hawthorne portrayed both Dr. Cocteau and Humphrey Appleby from the british series 'yes minister', which is pretty funny considering how similar both characters are
I think there’s a quote from Benjamin Franklin that describes the greatest element in Cocteau’s extinguishing: “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.” He had the people of San Angeles trade autonomy for security, and to maintain that status quo, he used a maniac that destroyed both.
Suggestions for analyzing evil. Ridley from Metroid Rumpelstiltskin from Shrek Forever After Mr. Grizz from Splatoon 3 Vaas from Far Cry 3 Kazuya Mishima from Tekken The World of Stray
Surely that isn't everything about them. Each character deserves their own video for how well they were portrayed in the movie as a combined video does not do them enough justice. The carefree villainy vs the calculated form of villainy is well and truly on display in Demolition Man.
A great subject to analyze to follow this subject of futuristic utopias is Shogo Makishima from Psycho Pass as well as the coordinators of that show's perfect society, the Sybil System.
Of all the villains in pop culture I was shocked that you would even list this two. At the same time it makes sense. Simon Phoenix is the rabid dog, and Cocteau was the person who unleashed him. People became desperate and because of that they consented to Cocteau’s vision
This was my first rated R movie as a kid and I loved it ever since. Still watch it every now and then, especially for Wesley Snipes' performance. He brought so much fun every time he was on the screen
I've been reading The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and I would love to see the villain of that story be featured someday. Don't want to say who it is because I feel like many people have not experienced it and don't want to ruin the twist. Love your content, man!
Simon felt like a bad guy you almost *wanted* to win. You're kinda rooting for him after so long of having to listen to Dr. Cocteau, and his board of directors. In a weird way, Simon feels like an anti-hero like Edgar Friendly and John Spartan are, even though in reality, he's a maniac killer, his overall purpose is to turn things on their head, to the point that Cocteau's overall plan backfires.
Yesterday, we made fun of this movie because of its ridiculous vision of our future. Today we make fun of this movie because of its serious depiction of our present
