RoboCop (1987)

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Reporter: Dusty, excuse me, Dusty. Any special message for all the kids reading at home?
DustyReviews: Stay out of trouble.

Rating: R
Director: Paul Verhoeven
Writer: Edward Neumeier, Michael Miner
Stars: Peter Weller, Nancy Allen, Ronny Cox, Kurtwood Smith
Release Date: July 17, 1987
Run time: 1 hour, 42 minutes

THE PLOT:

via wiki:

In a near-future dystopia, Detroit is on the brink of societal and financial collapse. Overwhelmed by crime and dwindling resources, the city grants the mega-corporation Omni Consumer Products (OCP) control over the Detroit Police Department. OCP Senior President Dick Jones demonstrates ED-209, a law enforcement droid designed to supplant the police. ED-209 malfunctions and brutally kills an executive, allowing ambitious junior executive Bob Morton to introduce the Chairman (“The Old Man”) to his own project: RoboCop. Meanwhile, officer Alex Murphy is transferred to the Metro West precinct. Murphy and his new partner, Anne Lewis, pursue notorious criminal Clarence Boddicker and his gang: Emil Antonowsky, Leon Nash, Joe Cox and Steve Minh. The gang ambushes and tortures Murphy, until Boddicker fatally shoots him. Morton has Murphy’s corpse converted into RoboCop, a heavily armored cyborg with no memory of his former life. RoboCop is programmed with three prime directives: serve the public trust, protect the innocent and uphold the law. A fourth prime directive, Directive 4, is classified.

Reassigned to Metro West, RoboCop is hailed by the media for his brutally efficient campaign against crime. Lewis suspects he is Murphy, recognizing the unique way he holsters his gun, a trick Murphy learned to impress his son. After experiencing a nightmare of Murphy’s death during maintenance, RoboCop encounters Lewis, who addresses him as Murphy. While on patrol, RoboCop arrests Emil, who recognizes Murphy’s mannerisms, furthering RoboCop’s recall. RoboCop then uses the police database to identify Emil’s associates and review Murphy’s police record. RoboCop recalls further memories while exploring Murphy’s former home, his wife and son having moved away following his death. Elsewhere, Jones gets Boddicker to murder Morton as revenge for Morton’s attempt to usurp his position at OCP. RoboCop tracks down Boddicker’s gang and, after a shootout, brutally interrogates Boddicker, until he admits to working for Jones, but he is unable to kill Boddicker, as it would violate his prime directives. RoboCop attempts to arrest Jones at the OCP Tower, but Directive 4 is activated—a failsafe measure to neutralize RoboCop when acting against an OCP executive. Jones admits his culpability in Morton’s death, and releases an ED-209 to destroy RoboCop. Although he escapes, RoboCop is attacked by the police force on OCP’s order and is badly damaged, but is rescued by Lewis, who brings him to an abandoned steel mill to repair himself.

Angered by OCP’s underfunding and short-staffing, the police force goes on strike, and Detroit descends into chaos, as riots break out throughout the city. Jones frees Boddicker and his remaining gang, arming them with high-powered weaponry to destroy RoboCop. At the steel mill, Boddicker’s men are quickly eliminated, but Lewis is badly injured and RoboCop becomes trapped under steel girders. Even so, he kills Boddicker by stabbing him in the throat. RoboCop confronts Jones at the OCP Tower during a board meeting, revealing the truth behind Morton’s murder. Jones takes the Old Man hostage, but is promptly fired from OCP, nullifying Directive 4 and allowing RoboCop to shoot him, causing Jones to crash through a window to his death. The Old Man compliments RoboCop’s shooting and asks his name; RoboCop replies, “Murphy”.

My Review

It took me about half an hour to get into a late 1980s action movie headspace, but once I did, I really enjoyed this one. RoboCop is a futuristic sci-fi take on a Frankenstein story, where the creators of the monster are the real villains, while the monster is ultimately shown to be a good guy. Unlike Mary Shelley’s book, the movie provides an incomplete but mostly happy ending, which was probably necessary to setup its eventual sequels. 

What I Liked:

• The tragedy to redemption plot arc of Officer Alex Murphy was unexpectedly moving. 
• Subtly (or maybe not so subtly) included within the main story, the movie is a smart and well-executed satire of the worst aspects of American society. The greedy corporatist overlords were extra greedy and indifferent to human life if it interfered with the bottom line. The government was subservient to corporate overlords – overtly so. The crime and violence were ludicrous.  
• The film is also a study in identity. Is Murphy still Murphy? His body changes. His mind changes. Are the limited and repressed memories of his human life enough to mean he is who he was before?
• The look of the RoboCop costume was/is fantastic. Some of the helmet-free RoboCop scenes at the end of the film could have looked a little better, but on the whole I thought this costuming was a strong point of the movie.
• The action sequences hold up really well throghout, whether they be gun fights, hand to hand fights, gas station explosions, etc.
• Kurtwood Smith’s over-the-top portrayal of a vicious and evil crime boss was pitch perfect for the dystopian story.
• Despite being an almost forty year old attempt at futurism, the movie holds up really well visually.
• The movie’s score is fantastic.  

What I Didn’t Like:

• While I like it when a story really leans on in its bad guys, especially as the movie is a satire, the maniacal laughter of the henchmen, as they were acting badly, was a bit too much at several places in the movie.
• As much as I enjoyed Kurtwood Smith’s evil crime boss performance, I would have preferred that the other main baddie – Dick Jones, portrayed by Ronny Cox – be a little bit more retrained. He was supposed to be the brains of the operation, and it was hard to sell him in that role when he kept losing his cool.  I don’t know if that was a directorial decision or an acting one, but it stood out. 

RoboCop definitely earns its R rating. It’s replete with profanity, violence, and gore. Those elements are certainly not for kids, but they’re also part of the point of the movie. You don’t unleash a human cyborg into a city that doesn’t look like the film’s version of futuristic Detroit.

Like a lot of old sci-fi stories, I could not help but consider that forty years on, we are moving ever closer to making a real-life RoboCop a reality. Neuralink recently received approval for human trials, meaning that the merging of man and machine draws ever nearer. Humanoid robots are also now a reality, too, with one recently attacking a factory worker in Texas. Perhaps a real life RoboCop will be part of our real lives in the future. 

If you’re looking for a smart sci-fi, and you aren’t bothered by a lot of swearing and violence, I recommend giving RoboCop a rewatch.

Have you seen RoboCop? What did you think?