******CYBERNETIC SPOILERS!******
I remember going to see “Robocop” theatrically back in the summer of 1987. Judging from its exploitation flick title, my expectations were middling, but enough to get me into a theater (in those days, we didn’t need much of a push to go to the movies, since the average home TV screen was about 25 inches). Written by Edward Neumeier (“Starship Troopers”) with frequent writing partner Michael Miner and directed by Dutch filmmaker Paul Verhoven (“Total Recall,” “Basic Instinct,” “Starship Troopers”), the movie I saw on that screen in August of 1987 was unexpectedly satiric and exceedingly clever. This wasn’t an action flick with comic dialogue; this was a dark comedy with action sequences.
Robocop/Alex Murphy (Peter Weller) demolishes Old Detroit in his pursuit of crime while recovering pieces of his shattered past. The telephone booth on the left is one of the few outdated pieces in this surprisingly prescient movie.
I’d resisted taking one of my usual deep dives with “Robocop” until now; largely due to the baggage surrounding the movie; two sequels, a so-so reboot, and several TV shows, which include a miniseries, a one-hour series and a kid’s cartoon. Yes folks; a kid’s cartoon from an R-rated movie that nearly got an X for its excessive violence and blood (that’s how we rolled in the 1980s). After this recent rewatch, it became clear the original “Robocop” movie required a full column for itself. I’ll delve into its sequels, TV shows and reboot at some future date.
For full disclosure, I watched the ‘Unrated Cut’ of “Robocop” (available on Blu-Ray) for this retrospective, which includes a teensy bit more viscera, but is otherwise the exact same movie. Arbitrary trims of blood and gore were mandated by the studio to get the movie down from an X-rating to its theatrical R. For this retrospective, I’m summing up the plot/story within the captioned pics of the movie, with my own notes below.
“Robocop” (1987)
Real-life 1980s TV personalities Mario Machado and Leeza Gibbons are portraits of 1980s fashion, as they offer their smiling, shallow takes on the movie’s top stories, including victims of a cop killer in an increasingly dystopian Detroit.
Note: The faux newscasts and TV ads sprinkled throughout the film (Family Heart Center, the Nuke ‘Em family board game, the 6000 SUX car) are very similar to Saturday Night Live’s own parodic “Weekend Update” news segments and faux commercials. These news breaks and adverts act as a Greek chorus for the audience; to give us a better sense of the movie’s superficial, desensitized world.
Police officer Alex Murphy (Peter Weller) checks into his new post at Metro West precinct after transferring in from Metro South; a much nicer place. Right off, Murphy finds his new partner beating up a suspect, several other cops threatening to strike, and unseen officer Frank Frederickson shot by crime boss Clarence Boddiker clinging to life in hospital care.
Note: Actor Peter Weller already had a bit of cult cred for his lead role in 1984’s bizarre sci-fi/new wave/comedy action flick, “The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension”; an intriguing curiosity not for everyone’s taste. Directed by D.W. Richter, the movie costarred Jeff Goldblum, John Lithgow, Christopher Lloyd and Ellen Barkin. Weller would appear in the first Robocop sequel, “Robocop 2” (1990), cowritten by comics legend Frank Miller and directed by Irvin Kirshner, before passing on “Robocop 3” (1993).
Metro West’s commanding officer Sergeant Reed (Robert DoQui) tells his team that their comrade Frank Frederickson didn’t make it–and that he doesn’t want to hear any more talk about a strike. Reed’s devotion to duty is later undercut by his sleazy overlords at Omni Consumer Products (OCP); who now run the recently privatized police force in Old Detroit.
Note: Robert DoQui (1973’s “Coffy”) played tough-as-nails ‘Sergeant Reed,’ and is one of the few incorruptible characters of the franchise–even if he pushes police brutality to its limits. He would return for the two sequels as well.
Omni Consumer Products’ vice president Dick Jones (Ronny Cox), along with his technical support team, unveil their new “ED-209” police enforcement droid during a board meeting of OCP executives. The demonstration ends in horrific carnage, as the ED-209 malfunctions and absolutely slaughters a junior executive with its powerful gun turrets.
Note: Longtime character actor Ronny Cox (“Deliverance”) would also appear in Paul Verhoeven’s equally bloody sci-fi actioner “Total Recall” (1990), and would famously appear in the Star Trek franchise as hard-ass Captain Edward Jellico in The Next Generation’s memorable two-parter “Chain of Command”; a role he’d reprise for the underrated animated spinoff “Star Trek: Prodigy.”
Ambitious junior executive Bob Morton (Miguel Ferrer) sees an opportunity to present his own “Robocop” program to OCP’s “Old Man” (Dan O’Herlihy) in the bloody wake of the ED-209 fiasco, making himself an enemy of Dick Jones.
Note: The late Miguel Ferrer (1955-2017), son of veteran actor Jose Ferrer (1984’s “Dune”), was arguably most famous for this film and 1992’s “Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me,” before tragically succumbing to cancer at age 61. Horror fans might also recognize veteran actor Dan O’Herlihy (1919-2005) as the evil Irish warlock/CEO Conal Cochran in 1983’s “Halloween III: Season of the Witch”; an unappreciated flick which attempted (unsuccessfully) to turn the “Halloween” franchise into an anthology.
Police officer Anne Lewis (Nancy Allen) gets to know her new partner Murphy, who practices a gunspinning trick before holstering his pistol–something he borrowed from a TV cop to impress his young son. Their coffee break is interrupted by a fateful call…
Note: Actress Nancy Allen is perhaps most famous for her roles in director Brian De Palma’s “Carrie” (1976) and “Dressed to Kill” (1980). She would also appear in the cult sci-fi movies “Strange Invaders” (1983) and “The Philadelphia Experiment” (1984). Like Robert DoQui, she’d reprise her role as Anne Lewis for the two Robocop sequels as well.
“Shut the f**k up and do it! Just do it!”
After blowing a bank safe (and burning the money), fleeing gang member Emil (Paul McCrane) is ordered to slow down by his crime boss, Clarence Boddiker (Kurtwood Smith), who is backseat driving. Police officers Lewis and Murphy are in hot pursuit…
Note: Kurtwood Smith is known to Star Trek fans as the Federation president in “Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country” (1991), as well as his role as ‘Annorax’ in the Star Trek: Voyager two-parter, “Year of Hell.” Smith is also well-known as grumpy dad Red Forman in the TV sitcom “That ’70s Show” (1998-2006). Smith’s Clarence Boddiker is one of the most underrated movie villains of all time. Paul McCrane previously costarred in 1980’s hit musical-drama “Fame,” and would go on to costar in Tom Hanks’ 1998 miniseries, “From the Earth to the Moon.”
Tracking the thieves to an old steel mill, Murphy is forced to confront Clarence and his cop-killing gang at an old steel mill alone, after gang member Joe Cox (Jesse D Goins, not-pictured) knocks Lewis unconscious. The sadistic gang then overpowers Murphy, before shooting his right hand off and riddling him with bullets, before putting a final bullet to his head. Lewis later awakens to find her new partner near death, as she calls for medics.
Note: For full disclosure, this is one scene of the movie I tend to fast-forward through whenever I’m rewatching it. I have a high tolerance for blood-and-guts movies, but the excessive sadism and cruelty of this scene is just too much.
We then see doctors and nurses struggling to save Murphy, shot largely from his perspective. They’re not successful, and we hear Murphy’s heartbeat go flatline. We then hear a doctor calling the time of death.
Note: The ‘patient-cam’ perspective is all too familiar to anyone (like myself) who’s ever been on a bed in an emergency room. Kudos to famed German cinematographer Jost Vacano (“Das Boot”).
Murphy then ‘reawakens’ to find that he’s now seeing in pre-HD video resolution, as a team of technicians install an LED grid over his artificial eyesight. After the LED is installed, he begins seeing green text relating various computerized instructions, including a series of three ‘prime directives’; “Serve the public trust, protect the innocent, uphold the law.” There’s also a classified fourth directive that even Murphy can’t view. After weeks on his back, Murphy eventually rises, and is presented to a waiting crowd of OCP technicians and executives, who introduce him as “Robocop.”
Note: Murphy’s dehumanization is cleverly maximized during Robocop’s awakening and rollout, as we only fleetingly catch a glimpse of his face and visor on a hospital monitor as he’s first paraded through the crowd of cheering onlookers.
Whisked back to the Metro West precinct, Robocop is taken in through a side entrance, as Sgt. Reed is unable to get a straight answer on what’s happening from Bob Morton or his OCP sidekick, Johnson (Felton Perry). Curious cops gather around as Robocop is escorted to his new ‘quarters’; a specially-converted holding cell for the cyborg’s downtime and maintenance.
Note: The slow reveal of Robocop’s costume is accompanied by buzzing electrical sounds and the loud thumping of his heavy, robotic footsteps. Oscar-winning makeup legend Rob Bottin (1982’s “The Thing”) outdoes himself with the Robo suit design, which is the living embodiment of a comic book character as yet unwritten, with the fresh metallic finish of a brand new car. The suit was so complex it took roughly an hour or so to fit Peter Weller into it each day for shooting (initial suit tests took far longer).
Robocop sits in a special chair, which is hooked to monitors that record the cyborg’s vitals and brainwave activity. He can also access a dispenser which spews a baby food-like paste to sustain his remaining systems.
Robocop is taken to the police shooting range, where cops, technicians and OCP execs gather to watch him practice shooting with his special gun. Lewis notices the cyborg’s mouth and shooting style are very familiar. Her suspicion is heightened when Robocop does Murphy’s gunspinning maneuver before replacing the gun inside his hollow mechanical leg.
Note: Look carefully at Robocop’s human-shaped target at the police shooting range and you’ll see he shoots the target in the same pattern of shots that killed Murphy; starting with his right hand, moving to both legs, and with a final shot to the head.
Robocop’s first night of active service includes stopping a robbery at a Mom & Pop liquor store by trashing the place and nearly killing the suspect (Mike Moroff).
Murphy then foils an attempted rape by shooting the would-be rapist in the genitals (!). The victim (Donna Keegan) rushes toward her defender, but he’s not exactly a hugger.
Robocop then ends a tense armed standoff with a former politician-turned-terrorist Mayor Miller (Mark Carlton) by punching him through a window to his death. Too bad no one lives long enough to hear their Miranda Rights.
Note: While Robocop technically ‘stops’ several crimes during his first night of active duty, his blatant disregard for safety or property causes untold collateral damage. The Mom & Pop liquor store might’ve better survived a robbery than the semi-demolishment of the business itself. The assault victim could’ve easily been shot if she’d flinched. City Hall also has a giant hole now which needs to be repaired at taxpayers’ expense. Of course, this is part and parcel of its anti-reactionary messaging. Maybe this movie should’ve been titled “Demolition Man.”
Robocop’s one-cyborg war on crime becomes big news, and he is whisked away on a publicity tour at Lee Iacocca Elementary School, where he gives the kids rather basic advice.
Note: For those youngsters who grew up well after the 1980s, Lee Iacocca was the auto industry executive who developed the Ford Mustang, the Ford Pinto and the Lincoln Continental before taking the reigns of the failing Chrysler Corporation; which was famously bailed out twice at great taxpayer expense in 1979 and 2008. Iacocca’s name drop is in keeping with the movie’s many jabs at corporate overreach.
Matters come to a boil in the executive washroom, where jilted OCP senior VP Dick Jones overhears rising star Bob Morton insulting him behind his back. The still-seething Jones, whose failure with the ED-209 lowered his standing in the company, grabs a defiant Morton by the hair before backing off. Jones then tells the ambitious young exec, “You’d better pray that unholy monster of yours doesn’t screw up.”
Note: The tension in this scene is borderline unbearable, and would definitely be grounds for a Human Resources call today.
During his downtime, Robocop is startled into activation by a vivid dream of Murphy’s assassination. With an image of the assassin fresh in his mind, Robocop leaves his holding cell facility on his own–with no one able to stop him. He is then met by Lewis, who whispers to the cyborg, “Murphy, it’s YOU!” before OCP execs tear her away for interrogation. Robocop then takes to the streets to find those responsible for Murphy’s death…
Note: A nearly-indestructible, armor-suited cyborg cop with a vendetta … what could possibly go wrong?
Murphy stops an armed gas station robbery that results in the complete obliteration of the gas station (every crime he ‘stops’ ends in the total destruction of the objective). Recognizing the suspect, Robocop later identifies him as Emil Antonowsky, a member of Clarence Boddiker’s gang, and one of the people responsible for Murphy’s assassination.
Note: The excessive damage caused by Robocop with his various arrests would have to make at least one or two OCP executives question the techniques used to apprehend his suspects. After all, one of Robo’s own ‘prime directives’ is to “serve the public trust.” He destroys an entire gas station to nab a single perp, just as he trashed a liquor store to nab one robbery suspect. Then again, OCP is planning to demolish Old Detroit to make way for their “Delta City,” so perhaps Robocop’s methods are part of their ‘urban renewal’ plan…?
Back at the precinct’s server farm, Robocop uses his own personal computer connection gear to hook into the database port and confirm Emil’s identity. While in the system, he also finds the file on police officer Alex Murphy, who is labeled as deceased. From the file, he finds Murphy’s old address, as well.
Robocop finds Murphy’s old Primrose Lane address vacated and for sale. As he tours the house, Robocop finds small mementos, including a slightly burnt Polaroid photo of Murphy, his wife (Angie Bolling) and son (Jason Levine) posing for a Halloween photo, which he vaguely remembers taking. Enraged at the loss of his family, Robocop punches out a monitor playing an automated real estate agent’s sales pitch.
Note: Basil Poledouris‘ brilliant musical score goes from brassy bombast and metallic clanging for Robocop in action, but switches to softer xylophonic tonalities whenever Murphy’s latent humanity seeps through his hardwired programming.
Robocop uses his database of known Clarence Boddiker accomplices to find Leon (Ray Wise) at an impossibly ’80s disco.
Note: Ray Wise is perhaps most famous for his role as Leland Palmer in TV’s “Twin Peaks,” a role he reprised for its cinematic sequel “Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me” (1992). Full disclosure; I was never a Twin Peaks fan. Friends repeatedly tried to get me into it, but it simply wasn’t my bag.
Riding high on his success with Robocop, Bob Morton is at home snorting blow off a pair of hookers when an armed Clarence breaks in, orders the girls out (“Bitches leave!”) and shoots Bob in the legs, before playing a video of a gloating Dick Jones; who’s in cahoots with Clarence. Jones delivers a villain’s monologue to Bob (“I’m cashing you out, Bob…”) before a departing Clarence tosses a live grenade just out of Bob’s reach. Boom.
Robocop busts into a cocaine factory as Clarence is in negotiations with a local coke dealer. Most everyone there is killed or knocked unconscious, except for Clarence. A surprised Clarence assumed he had immunity via his connection to Dick Jones, and is nearly strangled to death by Robocop. Realizing Clarence’s value as a witness, Robocop arrests Murphy’s killer instead.
Note: Just as we saw the ruthlessly ambitious Bob Morton break down and beg for his life before Clarence in the previous scene, we now see Old Detroit’s biggest crime boss bloodied and confessing to Robocop about his connection to Dick Jones. These colorful villains are built up and broken down throughout the movie, and their vulnerabilities make them fascinating.
Acting on Clarence’s slip-up, Murphy goes to arrest Dick Jones at his OCP office, but is unable to place him under arrest, as his body begins to seize. Jones explains that he wrote a classified 4th directive into Robo’s programming which prevents him from arresting OCP executives.
Note: Dick Jones’ added ‘4th Directive’ to Robocop’s programming to prevent his own arrest sounds all too much like a recent Supreme Court ruling here in the United States…
As Robocop is nearly deactivated, Jones unleashes an ED-209 unit on him. Meanwhile, Jones confesses to the murder of Bob Morton just before Robocop is forced to fight and then retreat from the rampaging robot–whom Robocop learns has a fatal design flaw when it comes to descending staircases.
Note: Famed stop-motion animator Phil Tippett (“Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back”) does some career-best work in this film. His list of credits is longer than my arm, and his coffee table book, “Mad Dreams and Monsters: The Art of Phil Tippett” (available through Amazon) is a must-read for movie FX fans. I bought a signed coffee at San Diego Comic Con and I cherish it.
A badly-damaged Robocop barely manages to escape into the OCP Building’s parking garage, when he finds himself surrounded by OCP-owned police with orders to to destroy him. As they unleash a barrage of gunfire at him, Robocop falls over a rail into a lower level, where he finds Lewis standing by to help him escape.
Note: In this movie, the police are only as ‘good’ as those giving their orders, and in this case, that’d be their privatized OCP masters. They open fire on their partly-human fellow cop with only token resistance.
Despite Clarence’s confession about Dick Jones, the two conspirators renew their association during a private meeting in Jones’ office after he pays Clarence’s bail. Jones gives Clarence military-grade hardware and a tracker to locate and kill Robocop, while offering him exclusive rights for crime during construction of OCP’s new “Delta City,” which is to be built on the rotting carcass of Old Detroit.
Note: With a convicted felon currently in the White House, and another recently appointed as ambassador to France (Charles Kushner), the corrupt criminal/executive cabal we see in the movie feels downright quaint today.
Hiding out in the old steel mill, the very place where Murphy was killed, Robocop and Lewis are refugees; both from police and Clarence’s gang. During their brief downtime, Robocop uses a stolen tool kit to repair himself and remove his helmet–allowing him to see his human face in a piece of metal. Robo-Murphy then asks Lewis what happened to Murphy’s family. She tells him they moved away and started over. The heartbroken cyborg says simply, “I can feel them…but I can’t remember them.”
Note: Hands-down, the scene of Murphy rediscovering himself in the old steel mill is my favorite scene of the movie; it’s the painful reconciliation of man with machine. Murphy is able to get some closure to his past life, thanks to Lewis. Basil Poledouris’ music is like a tragic nursery rhyme, as Murphy removes some of his armor (literally and figuratively) to see his wounded, hairless head; which has an almost infantile vulnerability to it.
As Clarence’s gang arrives at the old steel mill, an unmasked Murphy goes on the offensive.
Clarence’s gang arrives and play a deadly gang of hide and seek with Murphy and Lewis. One by one, Clarence’s gang are killed off in increasingly inventive and horrific fashion, with Emil crashing his van into a vat of toxic waste, which melts his entire body into a rotting, toxic blob!
Note: Goremeister Rob Bottin outdoes himself with the toxic blob version of Emil. With smoking skin melting off of his hands and face, the final blow comes as a fleeing Clarence accidentally plows into Emil with his 6000 SUX; we see the remains of Emil are more liquid than human being.
Murphy is about to kill Clarence, as Leon uses a crane to drop a load of metal on top of him–temporarily pinning the cyborg, just as a wounded Lewis uses a heavy-grade gun to blow up the crane’s control booth, which kills Leon. With no one left to do his dirty work, Clarence stabs Robo-Murphy in the chest with a metal spear. Murphy then uses his pointed computer interface as a lance–puncturing Clarence’s carotid artery in an explosion of blood.
Note: While you don’t see the spiky interface penetrating Boddiker’s neck, the splattering blob of Clarence’s blood that drenches Murphy afterward is truly intense.
As Boddiker bleeds out, Murphy looks to his badly wounded partner Lewis, who calls out to her partner. Murphy assures her, “They’ll fix you… they fix everything.” With that, Murphy uses all the strength in his mechanical limbs to push the heavy debris off of himself.
Note: I still remember hearing Murphy say, “They’ll fix you” in 1987 and immediately assuming that a sequel would be something like “Bride of Robocop.” While none of the Robocop sequels ever came close to Verhoeven’s original, at least they didn’t take that too-obvious route, either.
Determined to somehow stop Dick Jones, Murphy arrives at OCP headquarters, where an ED-209 outside the lobby tries to stop him. Murphy uses one of OCP’s own heavy cannons to blow the head off of the ED-209, which stumbles and falls to the ground; it’s unwieldy mechanical foot still twitching.
Note: Made at the cusp of the CGI FX revolution, “Robocop” is a grisly yet glorious celebration of practical, analog filmmaking; from its use of prosthetics, full suits, stop-motion miniatures and matte paintings to blue-screen compositing on real film stock. I doubt we’ll ever see a mainstream, FX-heavy film like it ever again.
Murphy intrudes on an OCP meeting, where Dick Jones is giving a presentation on his vision for Delta City, before he’s accused of murder by the cyborg. The Old Man then asks Murphy for evidence, and he replays his video memory of Dick Jones’ confessing to the killing of Bob Morton on a bank of monitors for all to see. Trapped, Jones grabs a gun and holds the Old Man hostage, demanding a chopper to escape. Murphy explains that his program won’t allow him to arrest or kill an OCP executive. The Old Man solves that problem by firing Jones on the spot. This allows Murphy to shoot Jones, who then crashes through the boardroom window and falls to his death.
Note: The one practical effect of this film that doesn’t work (and didn’t work, even back in 1987) was the Dick Jones puppet we see falling to the character’s death. The puppet’s arms are ridiculously long for some reason. I understand that actor Ronny Cox is double-jointed in real life, but his arms still appear to be a reasonable length. At least this one failed shot is quick.
With Jones and Boddiker’s gang dead, and his murder avenged, Murphy spins his pistol before replacing it into his hollowed mechanical leg. The Old Man asks, “Nice shooting, son. What’s your name?” To which the cyborg smiles and says, “Murphy.”
The End.
Summing It Up
Director Paul Verhoeven‘s “Robocop” began as a dark satire of Reagan-era America; a time when corporate deregulation sent company CEOs into feeding frenzies. However, the movie resonates even stronger today than it did in 1987, as we’ve regressed to that era’s hyper materialism, but with a darker undercurrent. The cruelty that Verhoeven (a Nazi-era survivor in his native Amsterdam) saw as a side-effect of corporate greed and overreach has come to pass in Trump’s America, where cruelty is now the feature, not a bug. I could easily imagine Elon Musk buying out Omni Consumer Products and eliminating its human workforce with half-lobotomized cyborgs, while Medicare is replaced with coupons for “Family Heart Centers.” The real 21st century has seen Verhoeven’s dark satire becoming reality.
The lead performance by Peter Weller as Alex Murphy/Robocop is on a par with Boris Karloff’s Frankenstein monster. The actor studied mime for the role, and it clearly paid off. Weller’s head turns a second before his body follows, and his booming, semi-mechanical intonations are heroic yet haunting. This tragic Tin Man is created through OCP’s release papers (which Murphy presumably signed without fully reading). In many ways, Robocop is a classic Marvel superhero (before Marvel got so Disneyfied), who didn’t ask for what happened to him, and who laments his lost humanity (see: the Hulk, Ben Grimm, etc). While composer Basil Poledouris‘ score pours on the bombast during Robocop’s heroic feats, it also underscores the tragedy of human reduced to product. We feel Murphy’s loss when Robocop tours his empty house, and when he removes his helmet to see his hairless, vulnerable reflection in a mirror. Poledouris’ musical score celebrates the superhero while pausing to mourn his lost humanity.
A stop-motion dinosaur’s eyes pop when it sees the “bigger is better” 6000 SUX (sucks..hehe).
Following in the tradition of TV’s Saturday Night Live, the movie is peppered with many rebukes on corporate media; including fake adverts and faux newscasts (with real-life 1980s TV personalities Leeza Gibbons and Mario Machado playing newscasters). These clips offer tone-deaf takes on this world’s tragedies, such as a ex-president killed by a stray laser from the orbiting “Star Wars peace platform” (cue Trump’s “Golden Dome” anti-missile plan; a rehash of Reagan’s aborted ‘Star Wars’ idea). The equally mindless fake TV commercials include ads for the Family Heart Center (“Remember… we care”) and the board game Nuke ‘Em (from ‘Butler Bros’), as well as the 6000 SUX luxury car. These ads/newsbreaks within the movie act as a Greek chorus for this harsh and stupid world; pitching nuclear armageddon as family entertainment, while glorifying gas-guzzling cars for waste’s sake (foreshadowing the real-life SUV craze a few years later). Art truly mirroring real life.
Emil, Joe, Clarence and Leon watch as Clarence blows up Joe’s freshly stolen 6000 SUX for shits and giggles.
In addition to the saintly Alex Murphy, police officer Anne Lewis (Nancy Allen) and her tough sergeant Warren Reed (Robert DoQui) are the closest we see to functional moral compasses in this nasty universe. Sadistic crime lord Clarence Boddiker (Kurtwood Smith) and his gang are but puppets on the payroll of the real evil in the movie; the corporate executives at OCP. The company uses Boddiker’s crew as means to its own ends; which includes building a shiny new city directly on top of theirs. Boddiker and his crew are too shortsighted to realize their OCP ‘allies’ are driving them towards extinction. There won’t be room for street gangs in OCP’s shiny new Delta City; which will be run by the ruthless, corporate gang occupying OCP’s boardroom. A more scathing rebuke of unbridled capitalism I’ve rarely seen. The OCP’s Old Man (Dan O’Herlihy) is the true apex crime lord of the movie, and he never breaks a sweat…
The late Miguel Ferrer (1955-2017) as Bob Morton is reduced from insufferable yuppie to victim in a matter of seconds.
Much like Verhoeven’s later “Basic Instinct,” “Robocop” offers no solutions; suggesting that the morally calloused people of its universe have made their peace with a rotten world, just as we’ve become desensitized to others’ pain and suffering while enjoying cat videos on our smartphones (I’m as guilty of this as anyone, so I’m not judging). The ugly truth is that we human beings can adapt to many seemingly intolerable things and situations through self-anaesthetizing. For example, those who choose to watch the movie while ignoring its social commentary can still enjoy a mecha-superhero flick filled with blood-squibbed gore; even if that misses the point.
Despite anachronisms such as big hair, shoulder pads, cathode-ray TVs, fax machines and phone booths, “Robocop” is very much a movie for right now; arguably more so than it was in the Reagan ’80s. I’d buy that for a dollar…
Where to Watch
“Robocop” is available to stream on HBO Max, and (allegedly) on Hulu but only through its Cinemax package. The movie is also available on physical media (DVD, Blu-Ray and 4K) through various retailers, including Amazon, Barnes & Noble and GRUV. The ‘Unrated Version’ is worth owning mainly for completists, as it adds just a few more extra seconds of bloody violence which originally gave the movie an unmarketable X-rating before those minor trims reduced it to an R-rating. I own both, and the differences are negligible.
Robocop is perhaps even more powerful now than it was back in the day. Especially with its dar satire and spin on corporate enterprise influencing and shaping our lives. It’s a brilliant action film as well, I’ve a bit of a soft spot for the sequel as well tbh, even though the story of that one isn’t that good.
I need to revisit the sequels someday; I haven’t seen them for 30 years or so.
“Robocop 2” had a Frank Miller cowritten script, so it’s less-than-great script was even more baffling to me at the time, not to mention Irvin (“Empire Strikes Back”) Kirshner directing, too.
Maybe what I need here is a fresh perspective, to paraphrase “the Old Man” (hehe).
Yeah, Miller’s script was butchered a bit I think, and the end result wasn’t that good story wise. Robocop 2 has its moments though and the great ideas, but as a whole its troubled production made for a slightly unsatisfying sequel at the time. Kirshner’s direction isn’t as sharp either, which is odd considering his amazing work on Empire. It’s worth revisiting though I’d say, if only for the final Robocop Vs Kane showdown.
I agree. Robocop is just the kind of 80s sci-fi action thriller that can withstand the test of time.
It certainly has.