LA cop John Spartan (Sylvester Stallone), nicknamed 'Demolition Man' due to his hands-on approach to law enforcement, is condemned to 70 years in the penal freezer after being set up by Simon Phoenix (Wesley Snipes), Public Enemy Number One. Halfway through his sentence, however, both he and Phoenix are catapulted out of captivity, discovering their city has been transformed into a peaceful utopia, under the benevolent rule of mayor Dr Cocteau (Nigel Hawthorne). As a mysteriously pumped-up Phoenix carries on where he had left off 35 years earlier, Spartan teams up with a comparatively feisty cop (Sandra Bullock) to bring him to justice and expose the man who is engineering the whole scenario.