Sunday, I watched “Demolition Man,” a 1993 science fiction action film that occurs in San Angeles, a hybrid community of San Diego and Los Angeles, circa 2032.
The film — which stars Sylvester Stallone and Sandra Bullock, among other Hollywood heavyweights — follows the 20th century’s top risk-taking police officer, John Spartan (Stallone), after he is thawed out from a cryogenic prison to fight crime in a futuristic world devoid of violence.
The filmmakers must have anticipated radical changes within the next 40 years, as San Angeles, its architecture, technology, public servants and services, residents and their attire starkly contrast those of the 1990s.
All vices have been outlawed — public swearing even violates a so-called verbal morality statute; the police force can’t counter rare violent acts; most residents wear robes; and human sexuality has become digitized, lacking — what Lt. Lenina Huxley (Bullock) cringes to say — “fluid transfer.”
Spartan encounters quite a culture shock when the San Angeles P.D. thaws him from that ice cube.
But that’s a theatrical illusion that requires us to suspend disbelief — all while thinking, “Still, why couldn’t they have set the movie in 2200 or 2300?”
In reality, change takes time. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and San Angeles’ cultural shift likely wouldn’t have occurred after four decades.
Crestview residents can bet that the Hub City, its architecture and infrastructure likely won’t change as fast as things do in the movies.
Proposals for a sports complex and a pedestrian-and-bicycle corridor joining Main Street with Twin Hills Park give residents hope that more amenities are on the horizon.
However, widening P.J. Adams Parkway, which experiences a steady stream of rush hour traffic, would cost $100 million and likely won’t happen before 2030, county officials have said. County Commissioner Wayne Harris called a 2012 study for the project “pie in the sky.”
We hear that some shoulder work and widening will occur sooner than expected between State Road 85 and Ashley Drive, so that's a start.
Still, a perfect example of how unrealistic movies can be.
Contact News Bulletin Editor Thomas Boni at 850-682-6524 or tboni@crestviewbulletin.com. Follow him on Twitter @cnbeditor.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: EDITOR'S DESK: In Crestview, progressive change will take time