RoboCop

1987
R
1h 42m

IMDb RATING

7.6/10

290K

YOUR RATING

POPULARITY

1,274

Nancy Allen, Peter Weller, Miguel Ferrer, and Kurtwood Smith in RoboCop (1987)

In a dystopic and crime-ridden Detroit, a terminally wounded cop returns to the force as a powerful cyborg haunted by submerged memories.

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Cyberpunk One-Person Army Action Superhero Action Crime Sci-Fi Thriller

In a dystopic and crime-ridden Detroit, a terminally wounded cop returns to the force as a powerful cyborg haunted by submerged memories.In a dystopic and crime-ridden Detroit, a terminally wounded cop returns to the force as a powerful cyborg haunted by submerged memories.In a dystopic and crime-ridden Detroit, a terminally wounded cop returns to the force as a powerful cyborg haunted by submerged memories.

Director
- Paul Verhoeven
Writers
- Edward Neumeier
- Michael Miner
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.6/10

290K

YOUR RATING

POPULARITY

1,274

Director
- Paul Verhoeven
Writers
- Edward Neumeier
- Michael Miner
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

Nominated for 2 Oscars
- 11 wins & 13 nominations total

Trivia
Most shots of RoboCop and the police car show him getting out or preparing to get in. Peter Weller didn't fit into the police car in full costume. When he needed to be in the car, he wore the top part of the costume and sat in his underwear. To maintain the illusion that RoboCop wears the entire suit while inside a car, most shots show his robotic feet exiting first.

Goofs
When RoboCop goes to the grocery store robbery and sends the robber through the glass door of the small refrigerator, you can see that the glass is already cracked and starts to break before the man goes through it.

Quotes
Bixby Snyder: I'd buy that for a dollar!

Crazy credits
The standard copyright notice at the end of the film includes a warning that "This motion picture is protected under the laws of the United States and other countries and its unauthorized duplication, distribution or exhibition may result in civil liability and criminal prosecution by enforcement droids."

Alternate versions
In 1995, The Criterion Collection premiered the 'unrated' edition of RoboCop on LaserDisc. The 1987 theatrical release was cut in several scenes to attain an R-rating, and this unrated version restored that footage. The unrated version has subsequently been used for many of the film's DVD and Blu-Ray releases.
The first cuts appear in the scene where ED-209 goes berserk and shoots Kinney during the meeting. In the director's cut there is another frontal shot of Kinney getting riddled with bullets at the start of the scene. When Kinney collapses onto the model of Delta City, there are extra shots of him being bloodily hit with more bullets, as well as the ED-209 technicians struggling to rip wiring out of the circuit board. Restoring this footage makes the scene much more darkly comical.
During the car chase, when Clarence's henchman Bobby is shot in the leg, the R-rated version shows a long shot, while the unrated has a gruesome close-up of Bobby's leg being shot.
Murphy's death is almost a minute longer in the unrated version. After his hand is blown off, Murphy looks in horror at the stump, before Clarence's gang blows off his entire arm with gunfire. The subsequent part with him being riddled with bullets is much longer as well. An elaborate tracking shot is used only in the unrated that shows the back of Murphy's head exploding into the camera when he is finally shot by Clarence. This shot made use of a fully-mechanical prosthetic Murphy built by make-up special effect artist Rob Bottin. The overhead shot of Lewis kneeling beside Murphy's body at the end of the scene is also exclusive to the unrated version.
Clarence Boddicker's death is shown in different shots depending on the version. The R-rated shows a long shot of him staggering away immediately after being stabbed, while the unrated shows a tight close-up.

Connections
Edited into Zeiram (1991)

Soundtracks
Show Me Your Spine
Music by P.T.P.

User reviews653

Review

Featured review

7/10

Surprisingly Human

My favorite Paul Verhoeven feature by a mile. It's a decent film if you like action but everything around it makes Robocop a different film in the genre. It's a movie that's blatant and upfront about its story but depending on who you are you can interpret it in different ways. It could be about public funding, gentrification, humanism, or just a dude who goes around shooting drug dealers. But what I really like about it is even though it's a movie that might seem fascistic on the surface it surprisingly doesn't punch down, at least not like films of the era that were just military propaganda. I know not everything I'm mentioning is an intentional decision on the writer's part, and to be honest I never thought the action was that great (except during the end), but my main point is this movie deserves more thought IF you're a fan of the genre.