The History of Robocop

Serve the Public Trust.

Protect the Innocent.

Uphold the Law.

These are the prime directives of Robocop, one of the films that was a favorite of mine during my childhood.

Now Robocop has a special element to me as it is one of the reasons that I became a filmmaker because If you haven’t noticed that despite the fact that the first film takes place in Detroit It was in fact filmed in Dallas.

Paul Verhoven selected Dallas because of the modern architecture that is featured in the city including Reunion Tower and Fountain Park are seen in the background.

Part Man, Part Machine, All Cop was the tag line for the film upon it’s release in 1987 telling the story of Officer Alex Murphy of the Detroit Metro Police Department which is under the control of the corporation Omni Consumer Products. OCP plans on eliminating crime in Old Detroit so that they can begin construction on Delta City, the utopian city of the future.

Feeling that a new Law enforcement is needed they begin to replace the police with machines including the ED-209 which still has a few bugs to work out.

A young hotshot executive proposes a program of his own in development and the project is greenlit.

After Murphy is killed in the line of duty by Clarence Boddicker and his gang Murphy is then transformed into Robocop.

Throughout the rest of the film Robocop must avenge his murder and takedown the corruption in OCP.

The main selling point for the character of Murphy is the regaining of his humanity that was lost in the programing. Murphy had a wife and son that are lost at the beginning of the film and Murphy remarks that he can feel them but he can’t remember them. This is not explored in the film further.

Many films with this premises feature the machine being drunk with power and having to be taken down by the ones that created it.

Robocop is the opposite where Murphy is brought back from the dead more powerful than before but his own sense of morals and duty pits him against his creaters who desire more power than their creation.

These facts allow Murphy to earn the admiration and respect of his fellow police officers and even the Chairman of OCP addresses him like he would address a Police officer.  

  

Nancy Allen plays Robocop’s loyal partner Ann Lewis who maintains a reaccuring role through most of the franchise and is the representation of Murphy’s Humanity.

Robocop was a box office hit and despite the fact that the film maintained an R rating the character remained popular with young audiences and a Television cartoon was soon released featuring a few retcons but the show was slightly successful.

Soon a sequel was made in 1990 featuring not just a returning cast of Weller and Nancy Allen but The executives of OCP were painted in a far more villainous manner with the corporation beginning to take over the city after loaning Detroit a considerable sum of money and then calling in the debt. OCP also creates a new version of Robocop called Robocop 2.

The new machine is made with the brain of a drug kingpin Robocop 2 has to face off against it’s Predecessor in a clash of robotic titans that in the end nearly bankrupts OCP.

Written by Frank Miller Robocop 2 had the same feel but was slightly more polished than the previous film and definitely had more satire In the flick than the original.

What is really freaky about these flicks is how it has predicted the events that are in our society today. Such as the corporations taking over and enterprising the cities and the legal system

Now I can’t say that I agree with some of the marketing of the film such as Robocop’s tagteaming with Sting in WCW.

Robo returned again to theatres in 1993 with the 3rd entry to the franchise in which Robocop directry faces off against OCP and their forced relocation and murders of innocent civilians.

Peter Weller refused to reprise the role of Murphy and There is an Urban Legend that Nancy Allen agreed to return on the condition that her character be killed off early in the film This claim has been allegedly refuted by Allen herself and despite controversy with the fans this death provided motivation for Murphy to delete Directive 4 which does not allow him to oppose an OCP officer.

Soon after the release of the PG-13 sequel a television series was created which took place after the first film but before the second and third film with a change in characters names making the series feel like it is not Canon with the film series.

Also like the 3^rd film the violence in the film is drastically cut down with Murphy seeking less lethal methods to bring down criminals.

The television series was followed by another animated series Robocop: Alpha Commando.

Around this time there was another crossover in the form of the popular video game and comic book Robocop vs The Terminator.

The plot follows Robocop trying to prevent the creation of Skynet and Terminators being sent back in time to face off against Robocop and the Human resistance. At the end of the game we find that Robocop has been dismantled and re assembles himself to face the Machines in the future alongside John Connor.

Robocop made his final appearance in the early 2000s in a made for television miniseries Robocop: Prime Directives.

Taking place in the distant future Robocop has been deemed obsolete and Alex Murphy’s son has become an OCP Executive but does not have the knowledge of the fate of his father.

Murphy’s former partner Cable is eventually killed in the line of duty and also is given the Robocop treatment becoming RoboCable looking similar to Robocop but controlled by a corrupt OCP executive and Murphy with the help of his son must face off against his old friend to stop OCP once and for all.

Prime Directives was received poorly by viewers and the franchise was pronounced all but dead for a decade.

In 2011 as a Joke it was asked if there would be a Robocop Statue in the proposed New Detroit since many events in the film managed to come true in the future. A privet fund was put together and the Statue has been constructed with plans for it’s unveiling in 2014.

In the late 2000s it was revealed that Robocop was going to be remade.

At first it was announced that Darren Aronofsky was attached to direct and I recall being at a advance screening of The Wrestler with Aronofsky in attendance for a QnA after the film where many of the audience members would not stop asking Robocop questions that Aronofsky tried to say that he knew nothing or was not at liberty to discuss with the audience at that time. Finally James Faust had to say “Guys Lay off the Wikipedia”.

Filmed this time in Canada instead of in Texas all that was seen from the set is a shot of Robocop in his new black uniform that I knew had to upset some loyalists.

Now if you haven’t noticed I am a loyal fan and I felt that maybe it was time for a Robocop remake since the original has been dated as you can get and I had some hopes for the character in the directions that I would have gone as a filmmaker myself.

Now I did also have some conditions. First off the Theme song had to be in this film. Think of it as Halloween or Jaws without the score. That is how I feel about Robocop.

Like it’s 1987 counterpart Robocop featured television and news reports interrupting the film This film takes a slightly different approach with Samuel L. Jackson as Patrick "Pat" Novak, host of The Novak Element a pundit program similar to our programs on cable channels frequently interrupting the program voicing his opinion to humorous effect.

Now many were complaining about the change is costume but I like the fact that the film does show Robocop in his original design before moving to the black not to mention the fact that special effects have improved so massively that now Robocop can run and jump great distances. Granted I admit that there were a couple of times that I thought that I was watching the reimagining of Battlestar.

Now what I do like is the fact that when Murphy is killed instead of a gang of cop killers he is killed by corrupt cops and in the process of solving his own murder he finds that the conspiracy goes much farther than many of us would imagine.

I also like the expansion of the characters of Murphy’s wife and son who are actually in this film with a bigger role where in the other films the most that they had was a single scene.

All in All I have nothing bad to say about this Remake. Usually I am pissed about some films that are remade but There were many bad directions that this flick could have taken I have to give credit and say good job.

5 Dead Bodies

0 Breasts

2 Lungs

1 Brain

1 Cyborg

4 ED-209s

Good Popcorn flick

3 Stars

Check it out.