#23: RoboCop
Hi bbs,
How ARE you?
I truly have SO much to say about so much but zero energy to say it, y’know? So I’m gonna save it for another time and possibly never 🤗
Maybe instead, I’ll just start leaving a TikTok video that tickled me this week?
https://www.tiktok.com/@ellie.squared/video/6890995669155335429?lang=en
#23: RoboCop
Director: Paul Verhoeven
Country: United States
Year: 1987
Runtime: 103 minutes
Language: English
**As always, this post contains spoilers**
This is a movie I was pumped to see because 1) I had to see with my own eyes that Arnold Schwarzenegger was not in it and 2) I was dyyyyying to see why it was in the Criterion Collection. Probably some ladies are abused in it, I theorized.
Spoiler alert: I still have no idea!
It opens with a news segment with two news anchors, one of whom is Leeza Gibbons! ‘Member her? For some reason, I remember her being an icon to me and I think it was that she simply had great 90s hair and the name “Leeza” was very enchanting to a tween girl like me because L’s and Z’s were fun to make twirly with a glitter gel pen. ANYWAY wow this is a RoboCop review.
News segment.
Three police officers were shot and killed in Detroit. One survived ID’d the shooter as gang leader Clarence Boddicker (Kurtwood Smith). We learn the Detroit PD is run by a huge corporation called Omni Consumer Products (OCP) in exchange for rebuilding parts of the city. Total transparency: I didn’t really understand any of the corporate and police department storyline and bless it because I didn’t have to! So, if that part feels vague, that’s why.
It is chaos at the police station. I’m not exactly sure why, but the police officers are really upset and are talking about a strike when the Police Chief enters and tells them to stop talking about it.
At OCP headquarters, three high-ups are in a tube elevator (my personal hell). They are The Old Man (yes, this is his character’s name and he is played by Dan O’Herlihy), the CEO, Dick Jones (Ronny Cox), the Senior President of OCP, and Bob Morton (Miguel Ferrer), a regular-ass executive. They’re talking serious business nonsense I don’t understand and honestly feels like a VERY vague 80s corporation. Do you know what I mean? It is only important that you know the order of authority goes Old Man >>> Dick Jones >>> Bob Morton.
In a boardroom, Jones blabs on about crime in Detroit and how they need a cop who can patrol 24/7, a cop who doesn’t need to eat or drink. I for sure thought this was going to be the RoboCop reveal but nerp! He opens double doors and in lumbers an ABSURD robot called the ED-209. They say it is a master at “urban pacification” which is just YIKES. (This whole movie is a yikes if you are aware the police are yikes.)
They get one of their executives to demonstrate the ED-209’s disarming power. He points a gun at it and it says “you have 20 seconds to comply.” And it starts counting down even though he drops the gun. And then it just ANNIHILATES this guy with its automatic guns. Like rambo-style (a movie I’ve never seen but hey) blows his ass up.
Jones and The Old Man, while the guy has JUST been shot and the robot’s guns are smoking in the background, argue about who’s fault it is and how much this is going to cost them and how they need to come up with a new robot.
Back at the police precinct, a cop named Murphy (Peter Weller), and a cop named Lewis (Nancy Allen) are partnered up. Josh called Peter Weller “my fellow Mensan” because I think he knows I tell you all everything he says while we watch these and he wants you all to know he’s a new member of Mensa. Lollll jk he just knew I’d roast him and he likes to be roasted.
The gang leader who killed those cops in the beginning of the film, Boddicker, is in the back of a van on the highway LOSING IT, tossing burnt money around and yelling at his crew who are holding enormous guns. Murphy and Lewis tail them and they get into a wicked shoot out.
They follow the van to an old steel mill where Lewis runs into a guy wearing camo and a beret. He pushes her off a balcony. Murphy runs into a couple of the gang leaders, killing one of them, but then the rest of the gang shows up. Hey, why did all the gangs in 80s movies look like The Village People?
Boddicker (far right in the above photo) kicks Murphy to the ground and shoots his hand off!! Lewis is finally able to get off the ground and shows up while they are shooting the shit out of Murphy.
His entire arm is blown off and he’s been shot no joke probably 40 times but he’s still living, so they shoot him in the head. Lewis is able to run in as the gang leaves him for dead and instead of calling an ambulance or something, she just….cries. For several seconds. I don’t KNOW but that feels problematic.
Murphy is rushed to the hospital and is not breathing and doesn’t have a pulse. While he’s being intubated and they are attempting to shock him back to life, he has flashbacks of his family. They can’t revive him and the screen fades to black.
The camera shot is now from his perspective and it’s as though he’s a computer. Execs from OCP are hovering above him talking about how they were able to replace his arm with a robotic prosthesis and they’re going to erase his memory. In a series of scenes from this perspective, we see the team talking about various advancements in his rebuilding. They eventually unveil him to the entire team and company as RoboCop.
The guys from OCP show up at the police department with RoboCop in tow. He looks exactly like what I expected. I could not find a good photo of his whole outfit (? body?) so this will have to do:
With members of OCP and the police force, they introduce RoboCop and all of his features, including his prime directives which are: serve the public, protect the innocent, and uphold the law. He can talk but his voice is….robotic lol
Lewis is at the shooting range with the other cops when they see RoboCop doing target practice with a huge gun. Obviously, his shot is great and obviously, his leg has a little automatic door and that’s where he stores his gun. He drives off in a cop car, ready to start his first shift. Didn’t think I could hate a car technology more than I hate self-driving cars but here we are.
A guy robs a mom and pop convenience store with an automatic weapon. RoboCop walks right in as the guy shoots at him and RoboCop just bends the tip of his gun!
He throws the guy into a milk case, says “Thank you for your cooperation. Have a good night” and just WALKS AWAY. But like...what happens now? Not to ask TOO many wild questions, but what function is he actually serving?
Near an abandoned building, two guys taunt and harass a woman, cutting her hair. They hold the woman up as a shield and RoboCop shoots right through her legs into the guy’s crotch.
The woman hugs RoboCop and he says, “Madam, you have suffered an emotional shock. I will notify a rape crisis center.” Okay see that feels helpful.
The mayor and some other people are held hostage by a council member. RoboCop shows up, of course. He locates the hostage holder through a wall using thermal imaging, punches through the wall behind him, captures him, and punches him out of the third-story window onto the street.
In a bathroom at OCP headquarters, Bob (the regular exec of OCP) talks shit about The Old Man to another executive while they’re standing at urinals. But! Jones, the Senior President, is in a stall and can hear the whole thing. Jones confronts him and says, “Congratulations, Bob. I remember when I was a young exec for this company. We used to call The Old Man funny names: Iron Butt, Boner….once I even called him... Asshole.” I laughed for a full 30 seconds. I stopped only to gasp because then Jones GRABS BOB’S HAIR. Pretty homoerotic, tbh.
In his little caged room (a charging station maybe?) at the police precinct, RoboCop starts glitching out and having flashbacks of Murphy’s shooting. Remember, he basically is Murphy. He stands up and starts to walk out and the white-coated scientists there monitoring him can’t stop him. As he’s leaving, Lewis, Murphy’s cop partner, tries to introduce herself to him, knowing he’s Murphy. She asks him if he has a name and is disturbed when he doesn’t remember her. “You are Murphy,” she whispers to him. Jones and Bob show up and is freeeeaking out that RoboCop might be remembering his identity as Murphy, but chalks it all up to him having a dream. Bob gets super on Lewis’ ass thinking she said something to him to make him remember his past.
He says to her, “He doesn’t have a name. He has a program. He’s a product.” This fills me with such existential dread I can’t even tell you.
One of the gang members we met earlier, Emil, (who is played by Paul McCrane who I know from his portrayal of Dr. Romano from ER), who was one of the men who shot Murphy, commits an armed robbery at a gas station. My cat Moon always knows when we’re on the toilet and shows up every time because she knows we are a captive audience and she’ll get pets. Similarly, RoboCop always knows when there’s a crime in progress. He says to Emil, “Dead or alive, you are coming with me.” Which is, again, problematic. Emil says, “I remember you! You’re dead! We killed you!” The gas station explodes at some point and RoboCop is able to capture him by shooting out his motorcycle tire. Emil asks him, “Who are you?” and passes out.
Back at the precinct, RoboCop is able to upload a picture of Emil’s face (because he records everything) and run him through the system, which identifies him. It also identifies all of his accomplices, who are all the gang members who shot Murphy (RoboCop) AND identifies himself (again, Murphy) as one of their victims, showing his picture and his address, to which he immediately drives. He walks through the front door and has flashbacks of his family (his wife and adolescent son) in the now abandoned house.
In “Arrest Mode,” RoboCop enters a nightclub looking for one of the gangsters, Leon Nash, (played by Ray Wise who played Leland Palmer in Twin Peaks!). He pulls him out of the club by his hair and says “let’s talk.”
Bob, the OCP exec, is doing cocaine and drinking at his house with two women in shoulder pads the size of footballs. The gang leader, Boddicker, shows up and shoots him in the legs 4 times. On his RIDICULOUS A/V system, he plays a DVD (?? did they have these in ‘87 or did this movie invent them??) message from Jones wherein Jones basically says, I hate you, I hired this gangster to kill you. But why the fuck would you record this?? Also I don’t get why Jones hates him so much. Anyway, Boddicker leaves a grenade behind and it blows up the entire house, killing Bob.
In a cocaine factory (yes), Boddicker and another possible rival gang member argue over a pile of money and Boddicker sticks his fingers in this guy’s wine and then sniffs it. I don’t know what’s going on, y’all, I really don’t. Thank god RoboCop shows up to make some sense of things. Obviously they shoot the hell out of him but nothing happens because he’s made of some material that doesn’t even get NICKED by bullets. Also I think he’s wearing lifts in his shoes because he looks to be 7 feet tall. Anyway, he kills everyone except Boddicker. RoboCop tries to arrest him but Boddicker spits on him so in between reading him his Miranda rights, he throws him around, like through a bunch of glass. Boddicker confesses that he works for Jones.
Back at the police precinct, there’s more talk of a strike. Again, I am saved from having to understand this storyline because RoboCop enters, leaving Boddicker at the front desk and says, “Book him,” before turning and walking away. We can all agree that RoboCop is bad at his job?
“What’s the charge?” The police chief asks.
“He’s a cop killer.” RoboCop responds.
RoboCop goes to OCP, taking the tube elevator to confront Jones about Boddiker's claim that they’re in cahoots. RoboCop says he’s under arrest for aiding and abetting a known felon but as he gets close to arresting him, he starts to glitch out and drops to his knees. Turns OUT Jones installed a 4th directive wherein if RoboCop tries to arrest a senior OCP exec, he will be shut down. RoboCop reaches for his gun but is losing power. Jones brings in ED-209, that horrible monster from the beginning of the film and sics it on RoboCop, probably the only thing that could kill him. But RoboCop is able to fight him off and avoid its MISSILE ATTACKS but RoboCop ultimately gets away when ED-209 can’t navigate the stairwell and falls on its back.
As RoboCop attempts to leave the building through the parking garage, he is surrounded by cops and since they’d been given orders to destroy him, they all shoot at him a LOT as he backs away. Remember OCP runs the police department, so of course they want him dead now that he knows they’re corrupt! (That’s me getting excited I followed 10% of the plot). He is REALLY fucked up from all the bullets and Lewis saves him and drives him away in her cop car.
There is a news segment about how OCP is trying to avoid a city-wide strike of the police officers. Honestly, these news segments are a great plot device for people who have a better attention span than me.
In the OCP building, Boddicker shows up to talk to Jones. I’m assuming he’s out of jail because, again, OCP is in charge of the PD.
Also, just a heads up that there is casual sexual harassment through the whole movie, so in case you were wondering if we were going to get a break from a movie wherein women are treated like garbage, no dice!
Jones rips into Boddicker for telling RoboCop that he works for him because everything RoboCop sees is recorded. Jones orders him to destroy RoboCop. Boddicker says he’s gonna need major fire power and asks him if he has military grade weapons.
“We practically are the military,” Jones says.
After rescuing him from the police firing squad, Lewis has been keeping RoboCop in an abandoned mill so he can repair the damage. He prepares to take his helmet off and I’m SO excited to see his head. So, he’s a human person on the front (Murphy) and the back is totally robotic. And this makeup y’all...is SO good. Could use some bangs, but that’s okay.
He asks Lewis questions about his family, his wife. Lewis tells him they left town. “I can feel them, but I can’t remember them,” he says. Honestly very touching and beautiful.
All of the gang members reunite in the streets, as they are wont to do. All they do is fire this outrageous gun that is basically a rocket launcher that Boddicker got from Jones to destroy RoboCop, but he’s out of control so he can’t help himself and he blows up a bunch of businesses. Isn’t it funny that adult “tough guys” are just basically little kids?
Back at the mill, RoboCop and Lewis do target practice to help recalibrate his system.
During this, the gang shows up because they have a tracking device for RoboCop and are ready to kill him. Of course there’s a fiery shoot out because it’s 1987. Also, Emil (who is not dead nor in jail for some reason) drives his van into a huge silo (??) that just says TOXIC WASTE and emerges from the muck melting and bubbling. I’m not going to show you a SS from the movie, but instead this toy of “Toxic Waste Thug:”
Sick! There is also a car chase between Lewis and Boddicker and Boddicker accidentally runs over Emil which is really gross. One of the gang members drops a huge load of steel on top of RoboCop, but then Lewis fires a rocket at him and kills him. While RoboCop is pinned under the steel, Boddicker sticks a metal pole into his chest which obviously hurts, but RoboCop is able to stab Boddicker in the neck and kill him with a spike he ejects from his hand.
RoboCop arrives at OCP headquarters, where an ED-209 is protecting the entrance. With one of Jones’ weapons he got from Boddicker, he blows it up and enters the building. Nice.
Jones is holding a board meeting when RoboCop enters. He says, “Dick Jones is wanted for murder.” The Old Man asks him for evidence and RoboCop plays a video of Jones saying “I had to kill Morton to erase the mistake,” or something like that. Basically, he admits on camera to killing Bob but I still don’t entirely know why he did it. Jones takes The Old Man hostage with a gun and after The Old man says “Dick, you’re fired!” RoboCop shoots Jones, sending him flying out of the window.
One of the execs (who’s boss was JUST murdered in front of him) says, “Nice shootin’ son, what's your name?”
He smiles and says, “Murphy.”
THE END.
This movie 1000% could function as a critique of our militarized police force, or of the criminal justice system as a whole by using RoboCop himself as a metaphor for police brutality and over-policing of urban neighborhoods . It also speaks to the terror that is the power of mega corporations and how one day they will own us all. Maybe it is! But RoboCop, in the end, seems to function as a hero who defeated a “bad guy” with no real critique about what corrupt power he himself may be acting with, or what violent structures and institutions he works for that are just as bad as the “bad guys” of OCP. I absolutely loved Total Recall (another Verhoeven movie) but RoboCop, aside from some really funny lines, I could take or leave.
Next up is High and Low, another cop movie, but this time from Kurosawa (director of Seven Samurai) and set in 1960s Tokyo, which only means one thing...a return of Toshiro Mifune, The Smoke Show of Criterion. See you there, babes!
XOXO,
Steph