Real life is now one handshake closer to the future shown in Demolition Man. The 1993 sci-fi action film follows John Spartan (Sylvester Stallone), a gruff and tough police officer awakened from cryosleep in the utopian San Angeles of 2032 after being convicted for blowing up the building where a group of hostages were held by terrorist Simon Phoenix (Wesley Snipes) 36 years prior. His mission is to recapture the criminal in a city governed by strict puritan laws where the police force is unfamiliar with threats bigger than profane language and innocuous deeds.
Some of these "crimes" are recited to Spartan by Lieutenant Lenina Huxley (Sandra Bullock) the moment he wakes up: cigarettes, alcohol, meat, caffeine, contact sports, cursing, and even intimate contact are all banned by law. This idealistic society is concocted by Dr. Raymond Cocteau (Nigel Hawthorne), the man who led the city to seek an aseptic approach to life. Unfortunately for him, his plan to eliminate the last underground resistance to his pristine utopia goes off the rails when Huxley and Spartan figure out his intentions, on top of losing control of the pawn he brought from the past to achieve it — Simon Phoenix.
Not all of the crimes predicted by Demolition Man seem too egregious now, though, 27 years after the film's release. When Huxley first arrives at the police department building, she greets two police officers with a quick circular hand motion, similar to an incomplete high five. The salute is carried out so casually that it's obvious it has replaced the handshake. Minutes later, when Huxley remotely locates Phoenix after his escape, officer Erwin (Rob Schneider) exchanges the same gesture with fellow officer Alfredo García (Benjamin Bratt) as a sign of celebration.
This non-touch handshake is a result of the future's aversion to physical contact. When Huxley wants to get intimate with Spartan and surprises him with the concept of "VR sex," she explains to him that"the rampant exchange of bodily fluids was one of the main major reasons for the downfall of society." So, it is implied that — besides the fictional "Great Earthquake" of 2010 — the spread of illness drastically changed society in the early twenty-first century, resulting in a statewide (and presumably worldwide) restructuring. Just 12 years before the film's setting, the real-life coronavirus pandemic is driving out acts of physical contact like handshakes and high fives due to their high transmission rate of infection.
Demolition Man continues the tradition of the many '80s sci-fi films that has successfully predicted the future in some way or another. From Arnold Schwarzenegger getting into politics to smoke-free laws, the movie accurately picked up some clues of the era to portray real-life events. Now that the film's setting is getting closer, and with a Demolition Man sequel in the works, a new notion of the future will bring more interesting predictions that may set a fictional precedent for what lies ahead.
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