Corrected entry: Spartan is frozen in 1996 and was thawed in 2032; a time span of 38 years, during which time San Angelo has become a more or less crime free paradise. No one in the SAPD expects or knows how to deal with violent criminals or even disobedience of any kind. However, at least the police chief and the black officer (who recognised Phoenix's name on the list) were old enough to remember the pre-paradise times. Indeed, Spartan even mentions knowing the black officer being on the force before. So why do they have no idea how to proceed and need Spartan when they would have experienced troubles earlier in their careers?
Corrected entry: Toward the end of the film, as Phoenix is freeing the rest of the convicts in the cryoprison, he rejoices with glee when he notices one of the people on the list is Jeffrey Dahmer. Jeffrey Dahmer was bludgeoned to death in 1994, one year after this movie was released. In addition, he was never incarcerated in California. Both of the prisons he was incarcerated in are in Wisconsin, where his crimes were committed.
Correction: Then again, Dahmer was never frozen in a block of ice either. Like commercial airlines no longer landing in LA, and the perfected technology of cryogenics, Dahmer being not being murdered and his being frozen in the Californian cyro-prison is part of the 'Demolition Man' universe.
Corrected entry: When discussing Simon Phoenix at the police station, Lt. Huxley explains to John Spartan that Simon Phoenix was not coded. Despite this, Simon Phoenix gets fined multiple times throughout the movie for violating the Verbal Morality Code. Since he wasn't coded, the system would not have known his name.
Correction: You'll notice it never says his name, like it does for other people. It just says he is fined.
Corrected entry: In the opening scene as Spartan is getting ready to rappel down to the roof, he kicks a bag out of the chopper that pulls the cord out with it; the bag is never seen in any other shots of the cord as Spartan drops. (00:01:50)
Correction: When you rappel from a helicopter, your rope is in a rope bag. You throw the bag out and wait till it hits the ground before sliding down the rope. That's why you don't see it again.
Corrected entry: When John Spartan was thawed out, he had no idea how much time had passed and had no knowledge of what had occurred. It would be fair to say that time had officially stopped for him. In his eyes, the notification of his wife's death would seem as if it had just happened. So why on Earth is he goggling over Huxley like it's old news? He's running around carrying on with everyday life like nothing's changed. One would think he would be mourning. He's acting like his wife has been dead for years and he's moved on. It makes no sense.
Correction: Jack Spartan mentioned during the dinner at Taco Bell that he was fully aware and awake and could see and hear his wife pounding on the glass. The entire conversation was based on what it was like to be frozen.
I think there is room to question that - Spartan mentions that he was "having a 36 year nightmare about people in a burning building" and then goes on to say he remembers his wife outside his block of ice. Croctau then mentions that there might be side effects from the freezing process or something of that sort. So totally awake and aware yet unable to move might be a stretch. It might have more like brief snatches of awareness, woven in to a dream like state that he remembers upon being thawed. Like a person having a bad dream who remembers bits and pieces after waking up. It seems unlikely that a person could survive mentally awake and aware in that frozen state for decades. You'd go insane as Huxley mentions.
Corrected entry: At the beginning of the film, the hostages are blown up & Spartan is sentenced to prison for their deaths. But we know all the hostages were dead before they were blown up. I guess in the future time of death is no longer taken into account. The bodies wouldn't have been completely disintegrated.
Correction: Disintegrated, no. But they would be buried under tons of rubble and set on fire. The hostages were killed only a short time before. How are they supposed to establish a time of death only 10-30 minutes out? Current science can only make estimated guesses as to time of death (e.g. to the nearest 4 hours). I doubt that in only a few years time they can say the exact time that someone died.
Even in today's time it is easily determined that a person didn't die in a fire because there is no smoke in the lungs. John Spartan should not have received such a stiff sentence for making a mistake or not knowing that the bodies were there.
Corrected entry: Phoenix says, "Excuse me Rambo, I need to borrow this" to a soldier statue in the museum, a reference to Stallone's famous Rambo movies.
Corrected entry: When Sylvester Stallone is reprogrammed to knit, he takes a ball of yarn and winds it into a skein. This is the opposite of what a knitter does. They buy a skein of yarn and roll it into a ball so the yarn doesn't get tangled while knitting.
Correction: This is simply an amateur error, he is probably only just started to knit and we all know by now no one can get things right the first time. He is an amateur at knitting after all, this is not a movie mistake.
He may have never actually knitted, but they are programmed while frozen to be experts. He ends up knitting a perfect sweater so he is obviously not a beginner. Not knowing exactly how all this reprogramming stuff works, it could be a mistake but it certainly seems that reprogramming makes the person an expert. Simon is reprogrammed with abilities that he executes perfectly without practice.
Corrected entry: In the scene where Huxley, Spartan and Garcia get ready to go into the sewer system to find Friendly, both car doors to the police car are open. Yet when Phoenix escapes from the sewer system and approaches the cop car to steal it, the passenger side door is closed. (01:19:55 - 01:30:35)
Correction: There was a fourth officer with them, Spartan tells the man to stay with the car. He probably closed the door when he got out.
Corrected entry: When Phoenix is in the museum and throws the guard into the glass display, you can later see that his body is a few feet away from Phoenix.
Correction: Its possible that Pheonix walked a few steps away to get bigger and better guns from the now accessible display case, he didn't have to get everything from that exact rack.
Corrected entry: After fighting with Phoenix in the museum, Spartan says Phoenix is "3 times stronger than when he went in" but there was nothing in his rehab program for physical muscle enhancement, it was all skills and information.
Correction: Spartan's comments doesn't neccesarily reflect strength or muscle enhancement but the fact he is so much tougher to stop. Before Phoenix was frozen he was very intelligent and strong. Now he has become an expert at martial arts and other fighting techniques. Added to that he has now garnered a large range of information to help him avoid capture.
Corrected entry: L-7 advises the last recorded MDK to be September 2010. When Garcia is talking to Spartan, he says it was only 16 years ago. 2032 would be 22 years not 16 since last MDK. (00:19:30 - 00:36:15)
Correction: Garcia said "death by unnatural causes." He doesn't necessarily mean murder, he could be referring to car accidents or suicides.
Corrected entry: After the fight in the sewer, Spartan goes to chase Simon using an elevator to break through the floor. How does an OLD elevator work without anything guiding it UP, with enough strength to break the floor?
Correction: Hydraulic elevators lift the elevator from the bottom, they don't need cables or guides.
Corrected entry: When Spartan swings around to smash Phoenix's frozen body, you see the head of Phoenix looking straight ahead, but as his head was getting frozen he was looking down at the ground.
Correction: Phoenix's head is initially looking down at Spartan but as Phoenix is freezing he raises his head to look straight forward.
Corrected entry: The first scene set in 2032 shows someone wiping ice away from a digital display. The date shown is August 30th 2032. Later when the warden is killed during Simon Phoenix's breakout the computer voice says "born February Fourteenth, 1967, died August Fourth 2032".
Correction: In this shot, the panel displays the date that he was meant to be released on. If you remember in the beginning of the film where he is told he is going to be eligible for parole. They release Simon Pheonix by order of the crooked counselor and they must release John Spartin early to catch this MDK'er.
Corrected entry: Stallone's character finds yarn and knitting supplies in his home; we see him start winding yarn around his arm, measuring it to start his cast-on stitches. The next day he presents Bullock's character with a long-sleeved cable knit sweater. Excuse me? I challenge the world's fastest knitter to produce a complete sweater in one night.
Correction: Did you see how fast Simon could access the computer after he had the information directly implanted into his brain? Everything would be mechanical and you could almost do it with your eyes closed and also VERY fast.
Corrected entry: It is mentioned, that the only place they can get guns is the museum. Where do they get ammo? They must have had only a limited amount of ammo at the museum, for display purposes. Also, where does Edgar Friendly's gang get bullets?
Correction: There would have been enough ammo in the museum for the gun fight with Spartan and Phoenix. As far as Edgar Friendly is concerned, gunpowder can be made fairly easily, they could cast their own bullets and reuse the shells.
Corrected entry: At the end of the highway chase between Spartan and Phoenix, when Spartan's police car crashed through the windows of the S.A.P.D., you can see that the glass broke before contact was made.
Correction: The car slams into the curb where the "landscaped area" is in front of the SAPD first, causing it to launch through the sign. If he hit the curb first, it would send debris flying forward, and it would only take one piece to begin to shatter the glass a split second before the car hits it.
Corrected entry: At the beginning of the film where John breaks into Simon's hide-out, John points his Beretta 92 sidearm at Simon to make Simon tell him where the hostages are, he then cocks the weapon when Simon doesn't tell him, but we saw John just before running on the roof and in the building shooting bad guys with the same gun - the gun would already be cocked because the Beretta 92 is a self-loading firearm, when a shot is fired the power of the bullet's explosion forces the gun's slide back to eject the spent case, cock the hammer, and load a fresh round into the gun's chamber. Even if he reloaded off screen with some rounds still in the magazine the hammer would still be cocked or in the case of if the gun was empty the slide-stop would engage, holding the slide open and the hammer cocked.
Correction: He probably released the hammer manually by holding it while depressing the trigger. This would be done by anyone trained with firearms to prevent an accidental discharge, especially as he moves from the roof down into the building. Just because we don't see it..doesn't mean it never happened.
Corrected entry: Right after escaping from prison, Simon Phoenix is at the computer thingy and he says, "Damn, I'm possessed" without getting a citation for violating the clean language act or whatever it is. Yet later he says "damn" again and gets a ticket.
Correction: The second time he says God-Damn, and that's why he gets a ticket.
Correction: Chief Earl and Zachary Lamb may have been around for the days where crime was rampant and the police had means to deal with it, but they are now living in a society where crime is almost non-existent and means such as guns and physical force have been outlawed, with the glow rods rendering people unconscious being the only option to deal with non-compliant citizens. Earl and Lamb themselves are too old and the police force as a whole does not have the training necessary to deal with a violent sociopath like Simon Phoenix, who unlike other criminals in the city, has not been rehabilitated to be docile.
Phaneron ★