The three seashells of ‘Demolition Man’: A genuine mystery and running joke
Blockbuster action movies aren’t typically designed to create lingering questions that go unanswered for decades, but the three seashells of Demolition Man nonetheless ended up launching a debate over their precise function that raged on for decades.
Director Marco Brambilla’s bombastic sci-fi shoot ’em up has been enshrined as a cult classic ever since Sylvester Stallone and Wesley Snipes tore the utopic city of San Angeles apart when it first released in October 1993, and it even proved to be alarmingly prescient in more ways than one.
In addition to predicting Arnold Schwarzenegger’s move into politics, Demolition Man features plenty of virtual reality, video conference calls, driverless cars, voice-activated technology, and the increasing monopolization of fast food chains, while the three seashells were ominously acknowledged in early 2020 when the world suffered a drastic shortage of toilet paper.
Fortunately, it didn’t quite reach the levels of people heading down to their nearest beach and scooping up a trifecta of shells with which to do their business, but it didn’t make their use any clearer. In the script, it was essentially a throwaway running gag used to further the bemusement of Stallone’s John Spartan, even if the actor claimed to Ain’t It Cool News that he’d been informed specifically of how they operated.
As he put it, “The way it was explained to me by the writer is you hold two seashells like chopsticks, pull gently, and scrape what’s left with the third”. As harrowing a mental image as that is, co-star Sandra Bullock had a slightly different interpretation of the mechanics.
Speaking to MTV, she compared it to a bidet and offered that “there’s several processes” before detailing further: “You have number one, you have number two, and then the clean-up.” That’s less disgusting but not quite as clear as Stallone’s assessment, although neither makes for particularly palatable trains of thought.
Co-writer Daniel Waters only muddied the waters further by suggesting that the three seashells either don’t mean anything at all, or he’s not willing to share. Waters told Den of Geek: “I won’t tell you the actual secret” and he only went as far as saying the inspiration came when another writer – who was pooping at the time of their phone call – said he had a bag of seashells on their toilet as a decorative measure.
Essentially, the three seashells were scripted for the express purpose of being a gag and nothing else, but audiences nonetheless became so invested in an explanation that the past 30 years have seen countless theories floated in amongst the thoughts of the cast and crew on how they’re supposed to be used.
It’s not something that would have been expected to become one of the main takeaways from Demolition Man, but based on the information presented thus far, it seems as though the mystery may never be given a definitive answer.
