Wesley Snipes plays Simon Phoenix, a twentieth-century criminal so violent that he has to be put into a permanent cryogenic stasis. Sylvester Stallone plays a similarly violent cop, John Spartan, who gets the same treatment. When Phoenix is accidentally thawed in a benign and peaceful future, no one can deal with him except a defrosted Spartan. Phoenix wants weapons and the only place he can find them is in a wonderfully conceived futuristic museum.

Stars: Sylvester Stallone, Wesley Snipes, Sandra Bullock

Synopsis by IMDB

In the year 1996, Los Angeles has become a crime-ridden hell where street gangs control the city. The most powerful gang leader, Simon Phoenix, has set up the largest and most dangerous territory for himself, with his headquarters inside a large, dilapidated building. When he kidnaps about 30 passengers from a city bus, an LA supercop, John Spartan, whom has a reputation for destroying property while working on cases and a long history of reprimand by his superiors, is sent in to arrest Phoenix and rescue the hostages. Spartan bungee jumps onto the roof of Phoenix’ headquarters and fights his way through the structure, defeating several of Phoenix’ guards. When Phoenix sees Spartan’s approach on his security cameras, he grabs a dagger and punctures several barrels of gasoline, spilling it onto the floor. Spartan arrives and orders Phoenix to reveal the location of the hostages. Phoenix catches Spartan off guard, showing him the pool of gas and brandishing a lit torch. He defiantly refuses to give up the hostages and flicks a lit cigarette toward Spartan, igniting the gas. Spartan grabs Phoenix and runs out of the building while the flames ignite several barrels of C4 explosive. The building collapses just after Spartan makes it to safety.

When Spartan’s captain shows up, he immediately chastises Spartan for destroying the building per his usual methods (hence, his nickname “The Demolition Man”), however Spartan tells him that Phoenix had deliberately rigged the place to explode. Spartan also tells his chief that he’d done a thermal scan of the building and found only Phoenix and his goons there. Phoenix yells that Spartan was wrong and a fire chief suddenly informs them all that they’ve found about 30 bodies in the rubble which can only be the bus passengers. Phoenix claims that he told Spartan about the hostages and that Spartan said he didn’t care. Spartan’s chief tells him to get a good lawyer. Spartan is charged with involuntary manslaughter and sentenced to a 70 year term in a new prison where the inmates are cryogenically frozen. During their incarceration, prisoners are subject to reconditioning to change their behavior.

Thirty-six years later in 2032, the prison is still in operation. Los Angeles has changed considerably, having become a community of peace. The cities of LA, Santa Barbara and San Diego have merged into one giant urban center after a giant earthquake devastated most of Southern California. The San Angeles Police Department hasn’t dealt with a violent crime in over 16 years. The city is led by a seemingly benevolent man named Raymond Cocteau, who is responsible for the society LA has become.

Phoenix finds himself unfrozen for a parole hearing. Though it’s likely he’ll simply be denied, he’s given a chance to speak by Warden Smithers. Phoenix gives the password to unlock his shackles and attacks the guards and Smithers. To get past the prison’s retinal scanners, he tears out the warden’s eye. He steals a car and heads for Los Angeles.

At the SAPD’s HQ, the police force are alerted by their central computer, L7, of a “Code 187” which they don’t recognize but L7 identifies as “MurderDeathKill”. The force is horrified to see that the warden and another doctor of the prison have been killed by Phoenix. They work quickly to locate him and find him on Wilshire Boulevard. At a control kiosk, Phoenix discovers that he has new abilities, such as increased strength, hand-to-hand combat skills and that he can hack the city’s computer system. The officers sent to arrest him are no match and he quickly beats or kills them. He then detonates the batteries in one of their squad cars and escapes. Shocked at the level of violence, the SAPD, led by an officer named Lenina Huxley, decide they have to free John Spartan from his prison sentence to stop Phoenix.

Spartan is thawed and reinstated to the police force. He is also told that his wife was killed in the big earthquake of 2010. His daughter’s whereabouts are unknown. When he asks for a cigarette, he’s told they and a list of foods and vices from the past are illegal because they are unhealthy. He’s also told that he’s had a microchip implanted in his hand so his location can be monitored at all time. Spartan objects immediately, criticizing the plan as fascist. He also scoffs at the police chief’s theory that Phoenix will try to set up a new crime syndicate. Spartan knows that Phoenix’ immediate plan is to arm himself and continue his terrorist activities. When the chief tells him that the only guns left in the city limits are in a museum, Spartan and Huxley go there.

In the museum, Phoenix breaks open a display case and grabs several weapons, including a laser firing rifle. Trapped temporarily in the exhibit, Spartan finds Phoenix and the two battle in a vicious gunfight and hand-to-hand. Phoenix is able to escape through the museum’s roof. He runs directly into Cocteau and tries to shoot him but is unable to pull the trigger. Cocteau tells Phoenix that he should be hunting a man named Edgar Friendly instead of wasting his time terrorizing San Angeles. Spartan catches up but Phoenix escapes again. Grateful that Spartan “saved” his life, Cocteau invites him and Huxley to dinner at Taco Bell, the only restaurant left in the area after and event called the Franchise Wars.

At dinner, Cocteau and his guests grill Spartan about his unruly methods and vulgar language. He takes most of the criticism as a compliment and makes mention of the fact that he was actually conscious during his incarceration and that he remembers seeing his wife outside his ice block. Cocteau dismisses Spartan’s claims. Just then Spartan sees shady-looking people outside the restaurant and runs after them. He takes several of them down but stops when one of them begs him not to hurt him and drops a container of food his group had stolen from the restaurant. Huxley is over-excited, praising Spartan for his ability in hand-to-hand but Spartan scolds her saying that violence isn’t the best solution and that the people he’d roughed up were just trying to get something to eat.

Huxley later takes Spartan to her apartment. Saying that the evening’s violence has her sexually aroused, she politely asks if John will have sex with her. She places a helmet on his head which uses a form of sensory induction to stimulate their brains directly. John is appalled, preferring physical contact. Huxley explains that physical contact and “fluid exchange” are illegal because of sexually transmitted diseases that were worse than AIDS. She asks John to leave her apartment when John makes physical advances. John returns to his apartment and examines a video recording from the museum she’d given him. He sees that Phoenix, when he’d found Cocteau at the museum, had plenty of time to kill Cocteau but didn’t. John grows more suspicious of San Angeles’ benefactor.

The next morning John apologizes to Huxley for his behavior. She forgives him and the two access L7’s records on Phoenix, finding that he’d been given a rehab program to turn him into an even more violent sociopath than he’d been in 1996. Spartan has Huxley take him to Cocteau’s offices where he confronts Cocteau directly, threatening to harm him. Cocteau is still able to conceal his secret: in a later secret meeting with Phoenix, he reveals that he’d altered the villain’s rehab program so he’d murder Edgar Friendly and the rest of Friendly’s mob, who live in the ruins under Los Angeles, where they are poor, starving and steal food. These “Scraps” are a constant annoyance to Cocteau, who wants them wiped out. Phoenix has a small demand of his own: in order to properly do the job, he wants a few of his fellow cryocons released. However, they will not undergo the same rehabilitation conditioning that Phoenix himself did, making them even more dangerous.

Spartan figures out that the reason why the SAPD’s manhunt didn’t find Phoenix is because he’d been hiding under the city. Phoenix meets with the cryocons that he’d gotten Cocteau to release and tells them they have to kill Friendly and then the city will be theirs. Spartan and Huxley find Edgar Friendly, who tells them he’s not a fan of Cocteau’s dictatorship and would rather live his life in abject poverty but still be free. Spartan and Huxley are found by Phoenix and another battle ensues. Phoenix escapes to the surface and steals an SAPD squad car. Huxley & Spartan tear after him in an antique 1970 Oldsmobile 442. During the chase, Phoenix tells Spartan that he’d already killed all the bus passengers in 1996. Phoenix escapes again and Spartan sees Friendly’s mob approaching. They give him weapons to go after Phoenix. At Cocteau’s office, Phoenix introduces him to his freed prisoner horde and has one of them murder Cocteau, throwing his body in the fireplace. Phoenix is granted access to the cryoprison and plans to thaw out more criminals, many of whom were incarcerated by Spartan and haven’t undergone any reconditioning. Spartan goes after Phoenix at the cryoprison after using a stun rod on Huxley to keep her from joining him.

At the prison, Phoenix is finishing the last stages of freeing the prisoners. He kills all the technicians just as Spartan arrives. The two exchange gunfire and fight furiously until Spartan is able to freeze Phoenix. As he swings around on a large crane, he knocks Phoenix’ frozen head off, which shatters on the floor. Spartan runs out of the cryoprison as it explodes.

He meets Huxley and his chief outside. The inhabitants of San Angeles aren’t sure of how to continue their lives since Cocteau is dead but Spartan assures them they’ll be fine. He also looks forward to starting a new romantic relationship with Huxley.

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106697

Two important museum themes come together here: 1) museums are places where snobs congregate at soirées, and 2) monsters are on the loose! The book on which this is based is set at the American Museum of Natural History but they declined to participate, so the Field Museum in Chicago is the star. Even though the museum director knows there is a monster killing people in the basement, the important gala with the mayor must go on!

Stars: Penelope Ann Miller, Tom Sizemore, Linda Hunt

Synopsis by IMDB

Somewhere in the Brazilian rain forest, Anthropologist John Whitney (Lewis Van Bergen) witnesses an Aboriginal tribal ritual, performed by dancing men in a state of trance. He drinks a kind of potion, concocted by the tribe’s witch (Montrose Hughes) using leaves with a kind of red fungal growth on them. After drinking it, he becomes hysterical at the sight of a native, dressed in a costume and wearing face-paint. Whitney says to himself: “Oh my God! It’s Kathoga!”

Later, Whitney shows up at a commercial dock, where a cargo ship named the Santos Morales, is ready to depart. Locating the ship’s captain (Santos Morales), Whitney pleads with him to unload his crates, destined for the Chicago Natural History Museum. Refusing to help, the captain boards the ship. Stowing away on board, Whitney locates the ship cargo hold and pries open one of the wooden crates. Finding only rugs inside, he breaks down and screams in despair. As the ship sails away, several more crates sit on the dock, labeled: “John Whitney – Chicago Natural History Museum”.

A title card reads: “Six Weeks Later”, as the same cargo ship arrives in Chicago. The dock is cordoned off by police and we meet Lt. Vincent D’Agosta (Tom Sizemore) as he boards the ship with Detective Hollingsworth (Clayton Rohner). There are bloodstains everywhere, and the crew appear to be all gone. Searching the cargo hold, D’Agosta finds several of the crew in the bilge – their heads severed from their bodies. D’Agosta is very superstitious and carries a “lucky bullet” for protection.

Meanwhile, the Museum of Natural History in Chicago is busy preparing for the grand opening of a new exhibit which explores the origins of superstition. As Dr. Margo Green (Penelope Ann Miller), an evolutionary biologist, arrives at work, the museum curator, Dr. Ann Cuthbert (Linda Hunt) tells Margo she is in competition for a grant, which she needs to continue her research at the museum. To her chagrin, Margo’s colleague, Greg Lee (Chi Muoi Lo), has applied for the same grant. The grant is provided by wealthy Museum benefactors, the Blaisedales (Constance Towers & Francis X. McCarthy), who will attend the upcoming gala to open the new exhibit.

Stopping by the office of Dr Albert Frock (James Whitmore), a colleague of John Whitney, Margo is intrigued by the contents of several crates, recently sent by airfreight from Brazil (the crates left behind by the ship). The remnants of a stone artifact are wrapped in the green leaves used in the potion. Margo takes some of the leaves to analyze them, while the remainder are incinerated in the basement of the museum.

As a school group on an excursion enters the museum, two boys, skipping school for the day, sneak into the museum unnoticed, and hide. Alone in the museum after closing, they notice a bad smell in a basement stairwell, and discover the body of a Security Guard (Jophery C. Brown), which alerts the authorities to a killer on the loose. The guard has been beheaded and his brain removed by the killer.

While an investigation gets underway, led by Lt. Vincent D’Agosta, the stone artifact found inside the crates is gradually restored by a technician (Lynn A. Henderson), for the new “Superstition” exhibit. It is revealed later to be a depiction of the mythical “Kathoga”. As Albert Frock explains, Kathoga was a Chimera – a mythical creature that combined various animals into one.

The coroner Dr. Zwiezic (Audra Lindley) examines the beheaded corpse of the Security Guard, with D’Agosta present, and discovers the victim’s brain weighs less than it should. It appears to be missing the hypothalamus and pituitary glands. D’Agosta later finds out the beheaded victims on board the cargo ship were also missing the same parts of their brains.

As police continue to search the museum for the killer, a homeless man, living in the cavernous basement, is shot and killed by accident. When he turns out to be a convicted rapist and felon, the museum’s head of security is satisfied. But D’Agosta isn’t convinced. There is still no explanation for the missing hypothalamuses, or, the deaths aboard the cargo ship. But with the Mayor of Chicago (Robert Lesser) and his wife (Diane Robin) due to attend the opening night gala as guests of honor, D’Agosta bows to pressure and lets the event go ahead, but insists on heavy police presence.

As the gala gets underway, Margo analyzes the leaves and discovers a link between the substance on them and the human hypothalamus. The red substance contains a concentrated dose of the same hormones secreted by the hypothalamus, enough to cause rapid mutation in animals or insects that feed on it. When a beetle gets inside the container where the leaves are stored, it grows to the size of a rat, overnight. Margo shows her findings to Dr Albert Frock, who assists with her analysis of the beetle’s DNA. He subscribes to a theory called the “Calysto Effect” – a sudden jump in evolution which results in an aberrant species.

Meanwhile, D’Agosta orders a search of the subterranean tunnels and old sewage system under the museum, which links up with the docks. Something in the tunnel kills a search dog and his handler, so D’Agosta orders Detective Hollingsworth back to the museum to evacuate the guests. But it’s too late.

As the VIPs finally enter the Superstition exhibit, the killer strikes again, setting off a panic. The security system locks down the museum, trapping almost everyone inside. While police try to break in and helicopters lower a SWAT Team onto the roof, D’Agosta orders the remaining guests into the tunnels, which lead to the outside.

The Blaisedales elect to stay behind in the museum’s main exhibit hall, along with the ambitious Greg Lee and the head of security. But they soon become victims of the Kathoga, which finally reveals itself. As the SWAT Team drops into the hall, they too are killed by the beast, which climbs walls and uses giant pincers to sever their heads.

Locked in another wing of the museum, Margo and Dr Albert Frock discover the origin of the beast, which is a hybrid of insect, reptile and various other animals, including one human being – the missing John Whitney. As the Kathoga, he must consume huge quantities of the hormones found in the human hypothalamus, to survive.

Finding Margo alive and Dr Frock dead, D’Agosta asks Margo how to kill the beast. They try unsuccessfully to freeze it in the tunnel, using liquid nitrogen, then flee back to the lab. D’Agosta orders Margo to lock herself in, while he goes after the beast, but the Kathoga outwits them and drops through the roof of the lab. While D’Agosta is locked on the other side of a metal door, Margo incinerates the Kathoga when she blows up her lab, using flammable chemicals as fuel, while hiding inside a metal container filled with water.

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120004

Vibranium artifacts from Wakanda are violently repatriated from “The Museum of Great Britain.” This obvious stand in for the British Museum is actually a computer-generated sign in front of the exterior of the High Museum in Atlanta. I was immediately suspicious when the curator entered the gallery with a cup of coffee!

Stars: Chadwick Boseman, Michael B. Jordan, Lupita Nyong’o

Synopsis by IMDB

A voice from a young boy asks to tell him a story. The adults voice tells the story of “Vibranium.” A gigantic meteorite with the toughest metal: vibranium, crashed in the region of the sources of the Nile river, “millions” of years ago and it affected the plants. Later, in the age of humans, five tribes in the land named Wakanda battled for control of that vibranium until a spirit led a certain warrior to find and eat a “heart-shaped herb” affected by the metal. He gained superhuman abilities, and became the first “Black Panther”. Four of the five tribes submit to his power but one tribe wants freedom. The Wakandans use the vibranium to develop highly-advanced technology. They see the horrors of the other nations and isolated themselves from the rest of the world. They hid and pretended that they are not industrially developed like a third world country.

In Oakland, California, Prince N’Jobu (Sterling K. Brown) vows to share Wakandas technology with people of African descent around the world in order to help them conquer their oppressors. N’Jobu enlists black-market arms dealer Ulysses Klaue to infiltrate Wakanda and remove a cache of vibranium.

In 1992, King T’Chaka learns of his brother’s actions. He confronts N’Jobu, who becomes angry and threatens to kill T’Chaka’s loyal friend, Zuri (Forest Whitaker). T’Chaka reluctantly kills N’Jobu to save Zuri, and abandons N’Jobu’s son Erik in order to prevent the Wakandan people from learning the truth.

In the present day, following T’Chaka’s death at the hands of Helmut Zemo, disguised as a masked James Barnes, his son T’Challa returns to Wakanda to assume the throne. After working with Okoye, the leader of the all-female fighting force the Dora Milaje, to extract his ex-lover Nakia from an undercover assignment in Nigeria’s Sambisa Forest, he reunites with his mother Queen Ramonda and younger sister Princess Shuri, the nation’s current technological genius. At his kingship ceremony he is challenged for the crown by M’Baku, the leader of the fifth tribe, the mountain-dwelling Jabari. The two engage in ritual combat, with T’Challa emerging victorious and becoming the new King. He let’s M’Baku live.

In London, a gang led by Klaue and including an ex-U.S. black ops soldier, Erik Stevens a/k/a/ “Killmonger,” steals an ancient Wakandan vibranium ax from a museum. When the tribal elders receive word that Klaue has resurfaced in South Korea, T’Challa’s friend W’Kabi, who lost his parents as a result of the dealer’s actions, urges the young monarch to bring him to justice. T’Challa, Okoye, and Nakia plan to intercept Klaue at an underground casino in Busan, where he will be selling the ax to an unknown buyer. The plan, however, goes wrong when T’Challa discovers the buyer is CIA agent Everett Ross and Klaue suspects the deal is a setup.

The deal subsequently goes sour, and a car chase ensues that culminates in Klaue’s apprehension. While in CIA custody, however, Klaue is rescued by Killminger. Ross is seriously injured saving Nakia in the attack, and rather than pursue Klaue, T’Challa takes Ross to Wakanda where his sister Shuri uses the nation’s advanced technology to save Ross’ life.

Killmonger kills Klaue and takes his body to Wakanda as a token, revealing his identity as N’Jobu’s son to the tribal elders and challenging T’Challa for the throne. Killmonger triumphs in ritual combat and hurls the defeated T’Challa over a waterfall. After ingesting the heart-shaped herb to gain the powers of the Black Panther, Killmonger enacts his father’s plan, preparing shipments of Wakandan weapons to be distributed to Wakandan operatives around the world. Nakia, Shuri, Ross, and T’Challa’s mother Ramonda flee to seek the aid of the Jabari and learn M’Baku’s men have found and are caring for the comatose T’Challa.

Healed by a heart-shaped herb brought by Nakia, T’Challa returns to Wakanda and to renew his combat with Killmonger for the throne, which was never officially concluded since T’Challa never died or conceded. When Killmonger refuses to cooperate, his claim to the throne is immediately invalidated and Okoye and the Dora Milaje turn against him. However, Killmonger who is now wearing a suit of Black Panther armor of his own resists with force along with the Border Tribe. While Shuri, Nakia, and Jabari battle W’Kabi, Ross, piloting a remote jet with Shuri’s guidance, shoots down the planes carrying the weapons before they can leave the country. The battle goes poorly for T’Challa’s side until M’Baku and the Jabari arrive to support him, thus turning the tide. T’Challa and Killmonger’s battle carries them into the heart of the vibranium mine, where sonic disrupted used in the transport of the metal incapacitate their vibranium armor. While Killmonger’s body is briefly exposed, T’Challa stabs his cousin. He takes Killmonger to see the sunset of Wakanda and offers to heal him. But Killmonger states that he knows he will then be imprisoned and would rather die a free man. He pulls the dagger out of his chest and dies peacefully.

With that victory, T’Challa is officially restored to the throne, with M’Baku granted a seat in the national tribal council to represent his tribe in recognition of his loyalty. Rejecting the isolationism of past Wakandan kings, T’Challa establishes an embassy in the United States to be run by Nakia and Shuri. In a mid-credits scene, T’Challa appears before the United Nations to reveal Wakanda’s true nature to the world. In a post-credits scene, Shuri continues to help Bucky Barnes with his recuperation.

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1825683/