RoboCop
Directed by: Paul Verhoeven
Starring: Peter Weller, Nancy Allen
Distributed by: Orion Pictures
Country: United States
Rating: MPAA: R (US), 15+ (KR)
RoboCop is a 1987 science fiction film directed by Paul Verhoeven. Set in a crime-ridden Detroit, Michigan in the near future, RoboCop centers on a police officer who is brutally murdered and subsequently re-created as a super-human cyborg known as "RoboCop". In addition to being an action film, RoboCop includes larger themes regarding the media, gentrification, corruption, and human nature. It has spawned merchandise, two sequels, three television series, a television mini-series, video games and two comic book adaptations.
The film features Peter Weller, Dan O'Herlihy, Kurtwood Smith, Nancy Allen, Miguel Ferrer and Ronny Cox.
Synopsis
In a dystopian future, the city of Detroit, Michigan is on the verge of collapse due to financial ruin and unchecked crime. The city brings in the mega-corporation Omni Consumer Products, or OCP, to solve the problems. OCP promptly privatizes the police force. OCP makes plans to destroy "Old Detroit" to replace it with the utopia of "Delta City."
The OCP Chairman (Dan O'Herlihy) recognizes that the human law enforcement is insufficient to stop the crime spree and seeks other opportunities. Senior President Dick Jones (Ronny Cox) offers a "law enforcement 'droid," the ED-209, but when the demonstration kills one of the other executives, the President of OCP turns instead to the "RoboCop" program to create an augmented cyborg, led by junior executive Bob Morton (Miguel Ferrer). Jones becomes bitterly jealous of Morton, as Bob Morton's accomplishment with Robocop allows him to move up on the ladder of success in the OCP ranks.
Veteran police officer Alexander James Murphy (Peter Weller) is transferred to a new precinct and partnered with Anne Lewis (Nancy Allen). On their first patrol, they chase down a team of criminals led by crime boss Clarence Boddicker (Kurtwood Smith) to an abandoned steel mill outside town. Murphy and Lewis separate, and Boddicker's men capture Murphy, sadistically murdering him by shooting him many times with shotguns before running off. Murphy is pronounced dead at the hospital, but OCP takes his body and uses it to create the first RoboCop. RoboCop is guided by three law enforcement tenets written into his programming, called Directives: serve the public trust, protect the innocent and uphold the law.
He is able to single-handedly deal with much of the violent crime in the city, causing the rest of the police force to become worried they may be replaced. However, RoboCop still retains memories of his life as Murphy, including brief glimpses of his wife and son, and the action of spinning his gun before holstering it, a trick Murphy had done for his son. Lewis recognizes these elements from Murphy's mannerisms, and tries to learn more from RoboCop, but he remains silent on the issues. Because of Robocop's success, Morton is promoted to become one of OCP's Vice Presidents.
Morton's success and arrogance leads Jones to have Boddicker, secretly in his employ, kill the junior executive. An armed gas station holdup by one of Boddicker's men allows RoboCop to track down Boddicker to a cocaine bunker. RoboCop bursts into the facility and a shootout between him and the bandits ensues. RoboCop then apprehends Boddicker and forcefully makes him reveal his alliance with Dick Jones. RoboCop then visits Jones at his offices at OCP, showing him Boddicker's statement and prepares to arrest Jones. However, as RoboCop does so, a previously unknown and secret fourth Directive activates that prevents RoboCop from acting against any senior executive of OCP. Jones boasts to RoboCop about the Fourth Directive, which he added, and his role in Morton's murder, and then sends an ED-209 against RoboCop. RoboCop, handicapped by his neural network, engages the machine. The ED-209, though possessing impressive advanced technology proves incapable of descending a stairway. When Robocop gets outside, the police SWAT team is waiting for him with orders to destroy him, but Lewis, having followed RoboCop, saves him.
Lewis tends to RoboCop's injuries at the same steel mill where Murphy was killed, and discovers that there is still some of Murphy present despite the cyborg augmentation. Meanwhile, the police launch their long-threatened strike, sending the city into chaos. Jones arranges for Boddicker and his men to be released from prison and funds them with new cars and Cobra Assault Cannons capable of puncturing RoboCop's heavy armor. Boddicker's team converges on the steel mill using a tracking device provided by OCP. RoboCop and Lewis defend themselves and kill the whole gang, though Lewis is severely wounded.
RoboCop returns to OCP headquarters and uses one of the Assault Cannons to destroy the ED-209 guarding the building. Arriving in the middle of an executive board meeting with the president, Jones, and other executives, RoboCop plays back Jones's confession to Morton's murder and explains his inability to arrest OCP employees. Jones quickly grabs a gun and takes the president hostage and begins making demands. The president, in response to being taken hostage and enlightened by RoboCop's explanation of the Fourth Directive, fires Jones, invalidating his protection under it. After thanking the president, RoboCop promptly shoots Jones, who then falls out of the window to his death. As the board room recovers from the crisis, the president commends RoboCop for his skill and asks for his name, to which he replies, "Murphy".
It's not anime!
ReplyDeleteBut I like RoboCop. That's the only reason why I wrote this post. Actually, not wrote but copied and pasted.
ReplyDelete