Why Test Audiences Thought Sandra Bullock Was Stallone’s Daughter in Demolition Man, and the Meryl Streep Sequel That Never Happened

The first few years of the early ‘90s marked a low creative period for Sylvester Stallone, following Rocky V misfire and a pair of ill-conceived comedies, including Oscar and Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot. Thankfully, he bounced back, albeit briefly, in 1993 with Cliffhanger and Demolition Man, which saw Stallone effectively moving away from his larger-than-life action-hero dominance of the ’80s.

Whereas Cliffhanger featured the action star as a guilt-ridden protagonist, Demolition Man presented Stallone in a different light: a dedicated one-man cop from the mid-‘90s, whose gross misjudgment during a botched rescue mission to save the hostages ended up with a 70-year sentence in a cryogenically frozen state. By the time he is released on parole, the world he used to know has completely changed, with Los Angeles becoming a futuristic megalopolis renamed San Angeles by 2032 (after the Great Earthquake of 2010) under heavily sanitized law and order.

This includes an instant fine for spewing profanities, a total ban on weapons and firearms, and even traditional physical intimacy is outlawed in favor of hands-free, specialized high-tech headsets capable of synchronizing the act of sexual stimulation through brain waves. With everyone in the future behaving politely, leaving Stallone’s strictly old-school John Spartan feels like an odd one out in a fish-out-of-water situation.

This allows the action star to showcase his self-aware humor and comedic timing without coming across as embarrassingly awkward, unlike his previous two misguided comedies, while retaining his tough-guy persona when facing his nemesis from the past, Simon Phoenix (Wesley Snipes). Demolition Man’s unique blend of sci-fi satire and gritty action thriller may feel clunky in places, but the movie remains one of the most entertaining movies in Stallone’s filmography [Rotten Tomatoes: 67%]. It did reasonably well at the worldwide box office, raking in $159 million on a reported budget of $45 million to $60 million, with the total cost, including marketing, put at nearly $77 million (figures Warner Bros. disputed).

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Sandra Bullock Replaced Lori Petty After the Original Star Was Fired From Demolition Man

One of the most memorable moments in Demolition Man is the contrasting on-screen dynamic between Stallone and then-unknown Sandra Bullock, who plays the eager San Angeles police officer, Lenina Huxley. The movie marked Bullock’s stepping stone, despite her performance scoring a Razzie nomination for Worst Supporting Actress. But interestingly, she wouldn’t have landed the role if not for the original star, Lori Petty, best known for her performances in Point Break and A League of Their Own, who got fired just two days into production.

Apparently, Warner Bros. wasn’t happy with her first scenes, while Petty cited the result of her firing as a lack of chemistry with her co-star due to “[she and Stallone] were like oil and water”. With Petty out of the picture, the studio needed an immediate replacement, with Bullock stepping in at the last minute (Variety reported she had already been hired to replace Petty), and the rest, as they say, is history.

Why Demolition Man Cut John Spartan’s Daughter Scene From the Theatrical Release

At one point, after Stallone’s John Spartan is thawed from the cryogenic chamber in the middle of his lengthy sentence, he asked about his wife, only for Bullock’s Huxley to reveal she has died. Spartan then proceeds to ask about his daughter, but he never gets an answer. According to co-writer Daniel Waters, he revealed that a scene revolving around Spartan’s daughter, played by television actress Elizabeth Ruscio (Home Fires, St. Elsewhere, Against the Law), was filmed.

But producer Joel Silver decided to cut it, reportedly saying “Just cut it,” after he felt it dragged down the movie’s momentum, even though you can reportedly still spot her briefly in a chaotic blink-or-you’ll-miss-it moment when Spartan shields a woman near the wall in the underground sewer as Simon and his gang start shooting. Her role, which was supposed to include a substantial scene with her long-missed father, Spartan, ended up heavily edited and reduced to an anonymous background extra. However, Ruscio’s character still received an uncredited status as “Katherine Spartan” on IMDb’s full cast list.

Waters also recalled that, with the scene gone but the daughter references still in the film, early test screenings had audiences assuming Sandra Bullock’s Huxley was Spartan’s daughter. He even joked that nobody seemed to do the math that the daughter would be older than Stallone.

Joel Silver Wanted Meryl Streep to Play Spartan’s Daughter in a Demolition Man Sequel

The whole daughter part in Demolition Man may have been trimmed off to make way for a fast-paced sci-fi action movie. And yet, that didn’t stop Joel Silver from wanting to include John Spartan’s daughter in his proposed sequel. He even wanted Meryl Streep to play the role because he felt she needed a big box office action movie. It’s unclear whether Streep was ever approached.

The thought of having Meryl Streep on board for a possible Demolition Man sequel sure sounds like one of those intriguing what-if scenarios, even though it didn’t happen. But it‘s not like sequel talk was completely out of the question when Stallone revealed Demolition Man 2 was in development in 2020, complete with a rumor that the otherwise dead Simon Phoenix at the end of the first movie was being revived using a cloning method, with the timeline set to take place in 2058. Years later, a sequel still hasn’t been confirmed or put into production.

However, director Marco Brambilla from the first movie was doubtful about the sequel being made today, citing that Hollywood in 2023 lacked the satirical bite and free spirit of his original, and even went so far as to say that films today have “zero personality”.

RELATED: Demolition Man 2: Stallone Almost Died Making the First One — And He Still Wants a Sequel

Demolition Man is available for rent or purchase on Apple TV, Prime Video and Fandango at Home.