ahh.. looked like some kind of classic cult classic but I didn't recognize it. I went and found the clip on Youtube. What is the threat of Detroit about? Does Detroit has some double-meaning in this movie or it Detriot just supposed the horror-filled place that most of us see it as today?
Nothing special. I think it was just a commentary on how bad conditions were (are) in Detroit. It's kind of like in the 1979 comedy, The In-Laws, when the dictator portrayed by Richard Libertini gets the money to pay Peter Falk. These two guards walk in with a briefcase full of cash. They look like the typical old style store guards and the dictator says, “These are the two best security guards in the world. They used to work for J.C. Penney. In Detroit!”
More recently, RoboCop dumped on Detroit in 1987. “Old” Detroit was the city in ruins and “Delta City” was the new city about to be constructed.
I think Detroit has been everyone's example of a failed city for a number of years now.