Simon Phoenix is the main antagonist of the 1993 action film Demolition Man. He is a psychopathic criminal with a talent for creating chaos and mayhem. He was one of the 20th century's most dangerous criminal masterminds until he was eventually captured by John Spartan and imprisoned in cryogenic suspension. Decades later, however, he would be thawed out to begin a new reign of terror in the city of San Angeles. He was portrayed by Wesley Snipes.
Biography[]
Initial capture[]
During the 1990's, Simon Phoenix had terrorized the city of Los Angeles and even established his own private kingdom within the city's South Central area, employing every petty crook, gangster, drug dealer and murderer who operated there. In 1996, he had hijacked a bus and taken thirty people hostage, hiding them away in an abandoned building. Officer John Spartan of the LAPD attempted to put a stop to Phoenix's operation and cornered him, but the maniac had rigged the building to explode with several barrels of gasoline wired to C4 charges. Spartan was able to knock out Phoenix and escape the building with him, but the building was completely destroyed and all of the hostages died.
Following his capture, Phoenix was sentenced to 70 years imprisonment and placed in cryogenic stasis. Since Spartan shared accountability for the deaths of the hostages, he was also put into stasis.
Reanimation[]
During the years that Spartan and Phoenix were frozen, society underwent drastic changes. The cities of Los Angeles, Santa Barbara and San Diego were merged into a utopian megalopolis called San Angeles where crime had been all but erased and anything unhealthy to human living was outlawed. During this time, prisoners held in cryostasis were to be mentally reconditioned in order to fit into society without the danger of reoffending.
In 2032, Phoenix was thawed out for a parole hearing, but awoke with a number of new memories and skills. This new information allowed the still very-much maniacal criminal to escape the CryoPrison, killing the Warden and several guards in the process. However, Phoenix would find himself once more being pursued by John Spartan, who had been reanimated specifically to hunt him down. Spartan and his new partner Lenina Huxley went after Phoenix after the crazed criminal stole several deadly weapons from a museum, but Phoenix managed to escape. During his escape, he ran into Dr. Raymond Cocteau, mayor of San Angeles and architect of the new utopian order that Phoenix found himself in. As it turned out, Cocteau had arranged for Phoenix to be programmed with his new skills and to be released so that he could kill Edgar Friendly, the leader of a resistance movement living in the ruins of old Los Angeles.
With Spartan hunting him once again, Phoenix knew he would require greater resources in order to complete the mission that Cocteau had assigned him. Cocteau arranged for several other CryoCons to be thawed out to assist Phoenix, but the lunatic began making plans with his new gang to kill Cocteau and unleash chaos upon the city like never before. In the meantime, he would continue hunting for Friendly down in the sewers. When he later found Friendly, he found Spartan and Huxley with him, now sympathizing with the rebel. Phoenix and his thugs opened fire on the Scraps, murdering several of them, but Spartan survived the shootout and came after him. During a chase on the highway, Phoenix revealed to Spartan that the hostages he had taken when they last fought were already dead, and so Spartan had been rehabilitated for no reason.
Phoenix escaped from Spartan once again and made his way to the CryoPrison where he met with Cocteau for the last time. Unable to kill the doctor himself due to his conditioning, he had one of his goons shoot the doctor and then throw his body into the fireplace. He then made preparations to release eighty more CryoCons to usher in his new reign of terror, stationing his minions in preparations for Spartan's inevitable arrival.
Death[]
Spartan and Huxley arrived at the Cocteau Center, taking out a couple of Phoenix's men. Spartan then stunned Huxley with his glow-rod and went on to face Phoenix alone going off to the Cryo-Prison.
Inside the main cryogenic lab, a shootout ensued, but Phoenix's outdated weapons failed him as the lab began to freeze up due to the release of ultra-frigid gases. Phoenix used a mechanical arm apparatus meant for manipulating cryostasis blocks to grab Spartan and attempted to crush him, but Spartan grabbed a tube spewing cryogenic gases and sprayed the machine, causing the metal to become brittle and shatter, freeing him.
The frozen Phoenix's head being easily broken off of his body by John Spartan
Phoenix jumped down into the lab's lower level, which had now been saturated in cryo-gel, and fought against Spartan hand-to-hand. Spartan grabbed a metal cylinder containing a potent cryogenic chemical and shattered it, which then quickly froze everything in the lab saturated with the gel. Phoenix was also frozen instantly, but Spartan avoided this fate by jumping and grabbing the damaged crane spinning about the room. As the crane span around to Phoenix again, Spartan kicked the frozen psychopath's head off, which shattered upon hitting the floor.