Summary

• Demolition Man is a cult classic action film that combines futuristic utopian society with clever social satire.
• The film's "Franchise Wars" joke involves fast-food corporations engaging in literal acts of violence, reflecting corporate greed.
• Taco Bell's prominent role in the film was a result of other fast-food chains passing on the opportunity, leading to a successful product tie-in and free advertising.

Demolition Man isn't Sylvester Stallone's most iconic action film, but it nevertheless endures as a cult classic nearly 30 years after its release. Beyond being one of Sandra Bullock's first big roles, and a showcase for Wesley Snipes' villainous side, Demolition Man is memorable for its depiction of a futuristic utopian society enforced by oppressive measures, as well as the clever social satire it delivers along the way. Awakening from cryogenic sleep, Stallone's Sgt. John Spartan is a complete fish out of water. Nonetheless, he must help the future police force apprehend hardened criminal Simon Phoenix -- whom the crime-free 2030s is utterly unprepared for -- while learning the customs and social expectations of the future by trial and error.

That leads to some of the film's most memorable jokes, most of which involve sly digs at then-contemporary society. One of the best entails "The Franchise Wars," which pit various fast-food corporations against each other in literal acts of violence. It's the kind of joke that Stallone's Judge Dredd might have recognized, and indeed -- as absurd as it is -- it doesn't feel entirely implausible in the mid-2020s. As to who won The Franchise Wars in the movie, they had a different outcome depending upon where the film was released.

Updated January 10, 2024, by Robert Vaux: The article has been developed to add further information about franchise tie-ins in the era when Demolition Man was released, as well as additional observations on the film's satirical side. The formatting has been updated to match current CBR guidelines.

Demolition Man's Taco Bell Is the Victor of the Franchise Wars

In the version of Demolition Man released in the United States, Taco Bell is the only restaurant that remains in the year 2032. The Franchise Wars claimed the remainder, and as perennially chipper Lieutenant Lenina Huxley proclaims, "now all restaurants are Taco Bell." After saving city leader Dr. Raymond Cocteau (Nigel Hawthorne), Spartan is invited to a Taco Bell dinner, although he is incredulous about the idea of "dinner and dancing" at a fast-food joint. Like everything else in the Californian Megalopolis of San Angeles, the restaurant's decor, and its take on nachos, are a far cry from what Spartan remembers from 1996. The joke works largely as a reflection of corporate greed, which dystopian science fiction tends to decry as a matter of course. Corporate warfare is used as the subject of more serious works, such as Neil Stephenson's 1992 novel Snow Crash in which companies act as de facto national governments, as well as satire such as 1987's RoboCop in which a giant corporation privatizes the city's police force.

Demolition Man's Taco Bell joke works so well because it hits surprisingly close to home. Product tie-ins have always been big business in Hollywood, and continue to play a regular role in film merchandising today. The 1990s saw a bumper crop of them, involving everything from Jurassic Park to Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Taco Bell was a prominent participant in the practice, notably with a series of plastic mugs for Tim Burton's Batman and a later one for Roland Emmerich's misguided 1998 take on Godzilla. In the case of Demolition Man, the fast-food restaurant got to have its cake and eat it too.

The Taco Bell joke makes active fun of the very product it's endorsing, allowing the company to laugh at itself in public while also gaining free advertising with prominent placement in a hit film. The restaurant offered a very non-satirical "Demo Deal" at the time, which included a free poster of the movie with the purchase of a particular meal combo. That came about because of all-too-real business wrangling from companies that had no idea they were turning down a one-in-a-lifetime corporate opportunity. According to screenwriter Daniel Waters, Taco Bell only got its spot in Demolition Man in the first place because McDonald's and Burger King passed on the product-placement opportunity in an R-rated film.

"To be quite honest, my original draft was Burger King, and then Burger King scoffed and McDonald's scoffed," Waters recalled to Vulture in 2020. "When Taco Bell came around, it was like, 'Of course! Taco Bell! The greatest thing that's ever happened to this movie.' There's a meme that's like, 'Demolition Man predicted the future … There'd be no more toilet paper, Taco Bell would run the world, and Wesley Snipes would be let out of prison." 30 years on, Taco Bell has clearly had the last laugh, and even today gets a free promotion every time someone watches the film.

Demolition Man's Taco Bell Switches to Pizza Hut in Some Regions

Taco Bell is an integral part of Demolition Man's legacy in the United States, but in European markets, it was replaced by Pizza Hut. Both companies were owned at the time by PepsiCo, which allowed it to be swapped out for a sister company with relative ease. Conventional wisdom holds that Pizza Hut became the Franchise Wars winner in Europe because the company had a greater international presence there, but the truth is even stranger than that. There simply were no Taco Bell restaurants in Europe when the film first opened in 1993. According to Taco Bell's official website, the company's first European restaurant opened in Madrid, Spain in 2008. There was little use in including such a deliberately brazen product tie-in without any actual Taco Bell outlets where audience members could go.

Accordingly, references to Pizza Hut were added to Demolition Man in post-production, including everything from logos to dubbed-over dialogue. (Unlike Taco Bell, Pizza Hut was well-established in Europe when the film was released: with the first outlet opening in the United Kingdom in 1973.) Clips of the "Pizza Hut Cut," in all its awkward glory, can be found on YouTube. It unintentionally adds another layer to the context of the joke: as the scene now further conforms to the very corporate deal-making it's actively mocking.

How Taco Bell Commemorated Its Demolition Man Role

Nevertheless, it remains perhaps the film's signature gag and aptly reflects the smart humor that helped it rise above other action movies of the time. Corporate greed hasn't gone anywhere, of course, while Taco Bell continues to thrive all over the world. In fact, to celebrate Demolition Man's 25th anniversary, the upscale Taco Bell from the film's U.S. version was recreated with a pop-up location in San Diego during Comic-Con International 2018. Guests received a free four-course meal served by waitstaff dressed in film-appropriate uniforms. Unfortunately, there doesn't appear to have been a lounge singer belting out old commercial jingles as Dan Cortese did in another of the film's spot-on running gags.

In 2018, Taco Bell also integrated the concept of the franchise wars into its advertising. Transformers and Jupiter's Legacy actor Josh Duhamel starred in a commercial for Taco Bell's Nacho Fries titled "Web of Fries: Franchise Wars." The ad campaign possessed Demolition Man's tongue-in-cheek sensibility about action-movie clichés, set in a dystopian future ruled by a thinly veiled McDonald's, complete with Joker Gang-esque henchmen. Corporate promotion is far savvier to such ironic vibes now than they were in 1993 when companies that should have known better passed on the opportunity to appear in Demolition Man to Taco Bell's benefit.

Demolition Man is known for its Simpsons-like ability to predict the future, with elements like touch-free high fives heavily resonating in a world all too familiar with social distancing. (Indeed, the Taco Bell joke itself entails something called "Cuisine Valet" that looks suspiciously like DoorDash or a similar modern food delivery company.) Although Stallone confirmed a sequel was in development in 2020, topping the original seems like a tall order in a post-satire world. Resurrecting the pitch where Meryl Streep plays Spartan's daughter might do the trick, especially if they share a family meal at Taco Bell. By now, at least, they won't have to switch restaurants when the film opens in Europe.

Demolition Man is currently streaming on Sling TV.