When it arrived on the big screen in 1987, Paul Verhoeven's RoboCop was like a high-voltage jolt of electricity, blending satire, thrills, and abundant violence with such energized gusto that audiences couldn't help feeling stunned and amazed. The movie was a huge hit, and has since earned enduring cult status as one of the seminal science fiction films of the 1980s. Followed by two sequels, a TV series, and countless novels and comic books, this original RoboCop is still the best by far, largely due to the audacity and unbridled bloodlust of director Verhoeven. However, the reasons many enjoyed the film are also the reasons some will surely wish to avoid it. Critic Pauline Kael called the movie a dubious example of "gallows pulp," and there's no denying that its view of mankind is bleak, depraved, and graphically violent. In the Detroit of the near future, a policeman (Peter Weller) is brutally gunned down by drug-dealing thugs and left for dead, but he survives (half of him, at least) and is integrated with state-of-the-art technology to become a half-robotic cop of the future, designed to revolutionize law enforcement. As RoboCop holds tight to his last remaining shred of humanity, he relentlessly pursues the criminals who "killed" him. All the while, Verhoeven (from a script by Edward Neumeier and Michael Miner) injects this high-intensity tale with wickedly pointed humor and satire aimed at the men and media who cover a city out of control. --Jeff Shannon



Detroit - in the future - is crime-ridden, and run by a massive company. The company have developed a huge crime-fighting robot, which unfortunately develops a rather dangerous glitch. The company sees a way to get back in favour with the public when a cop called Alex Murphy is killed by a street gang. Murphy's body is reconstructed within a steel shell and named Robocop. The Robocop is very successful against criminals, and becomes a target of supervillian Boddicker. Written by Colin Tinto





After Omni Consumer Products (OCP) announces that it bought out the Detroit police department, the department decides to go on strike. Alex Murphy gets transferred from Metro South to the West. He and his partner, Anne Lewis, track down a group of criminals led by Clarence Boddicker. Unfortunately, Murphy was killed by Clarence's gang. Bob Morton, one of OCP's employees, transforms Murphy's corpse into Robocop, to compete with another employee Dick Jones' ED-209. Robocop's tests are successful. Unfortunately, Robocop rediscovers his memories (when he was Alex Murphy), and now knows he has to find and arrest Clarence Boddicker. He realizes that Clarence is working for Bob Morton's competition Dick Jones. Now, Robocop must stop both Clarence and Dick Jones. Written by John Wiggins




SYNOPSIS

The movie opens with a news report advertising the way of life in this future, which seems to be far from ideal. Among other stories, three police officers have been murdered and a fourth is critically injured due to a crime lord named Clarence Boddicker (played by Kurtwood Smith).

At Metro West Precinct in Detroit, officers respond to a variety of cases when a newcomer named Alex Murphy (Peter Weller) arrives, having been transferred in from another department. Sergeant Warren Reed gets Murphy a set of riot armor and introduces Murphy to the other cops, who are not happy about how the department is being run. The police were bought out by a company known as Omni Consumer Products (OCP), and are now being run as a sort of private security firm. Sergeant Reed then announces that the fourth officer (mentioned in the opening newscast) did not survive. This angers the cops, who are considering going on strike until OCP creates better working conditions. Reed admonishes them harshly about striking.

Murphy is brought upstairs where he sees a criminal assaulting his arresting officers. The female officer involved quickly beats the suspected criminal into submission. This second officer is Anne Lewis (played by Nancy Allen), a hardened cop. Reed decides that she will be partnered with Murphy. They leave to go on patrol; Murphy insists that he drive the car.

Meanwhile, a presentation is taking place at OCP Headquarters. OCP President, Dick Jones (Ronny Cox) has funded the development of a new type of law enforcement robot: Enforcement Droid Series 209, (ED-209). Jones asks a younger executive, Kinney, to assist in a demonstration by aiming a gun at ED-209. The droid's programming fails and Kinney is brutally shot to death when 209 fails to recognize that the man has surrendered. The company's owner (known only as "The Old Man," played by Daniel O'Herlihy) is not happy with the outcome of Dick Jones' product, citing the expense involved in designing the droid and the potential for lost interest payments. Another executive, Bob Morton (played by Miguel Ferrer) reveals that he has a backup plan in the event that ED-209 would not function properly, which he calls "RoboCop." The Old Man is impressed by Morton's idea and decides to put his project up as priority. Jones, however, is not pleased at being upstaged.

Lewis and Murphy are out on patrol. Murphy is relaxing by spinning his sidearm on his fingers, a move he learned from a television show that his young son watches. They get a call about an armed robbery and head into action. The person behind the robbery is Clarence Boddicker, mentioned in the opening newscast. Murphy and Lewis chase them to an abandoned warehouse where they are separated. Lewis finds one of the gang, Joe Cox, who assaults her and pushes her from a catwalk, knocking her unconscious. Murphy finds two more of the gangsters watching television; he shoots one when he lunges for his gun and forces the other, Emil Antonowsky, to surrender. While he tries to handcuff Emil, the criminal's associates arrive and take Murphy hostage. Clarence Boddicker himself shows up and, after taunting Murphy and cruelly shooting off the officer's hand, turns him over to his cohorts who sadistically shoot him. Murphy survives the first round of shotgun blasts and is shot in the head by Boddicker. Lewis is a witness to most of the shooting and finds Murphy's mutilated body. Murphy is rushed to a nearby hospital but there is little that the doctors can do and he is declared dead.

The next few shots are seen from an unknown perspective as Bob Morton and his staff commence with the development of his "RoboCop" project. RoboCop is built with a unique set of schematics and state-of-the-art equipment.

Several months later, RoboCop is brought to the Metro West Precinct (Murphy's old precinct before he was murdered) and assigned to work with Sergeant Reed's cops. While they set up the cyborg's command center, Bob Morton asks what its "prime directives" are: 1. Serve the Public Trust, 2. Protect the Innocent, 3. Uphold the Law. Unknown to Morton and most of his staff, a fourth directive has also been uploaded but is not revealed, listed only as "Classified". Lewis, still at the same Precinct, sees RoboCop at the targeting range performing the same type of gun-spinning maneuver that her old partner once used. RoboCop is given a car and goes out on patrol.

RoboCop first breaks up a robbery using his armored body to defect the bullets, then incapacitates the would-be robber. He then saves a woman being molested by targeting through her dress and shooting a criminal in the groin. RoboCop finally ends the night by breaking up a hostage situation at City Hall, allowing news reporters to see the cyborg officer for the first time. Bob Morton is thrilled by the success of his product, and the fame that RoboCop brings him. However, Dick Jones is still very angry about Morton's upstaging him, and vows revenge.

Later the next night, RoboCop is at rest when he begins having strange dreams. He sees Clarence Boddicker shooting him in the head along with several other criminals. RoboCop leaves to find these men when he is confronted by Officer Lewis. RoboCop has no reaction to Lewis, until she refers to him as "Murphy." As the cyborg officer leaves the precinct, one of the doctors assigned to RoboCop calls Bob Morton, who shows up and reprimands both Lewis and Reed for interfering with his project.

Elsewhere, a man named Emil (Paul McCrane) is robbing a gas station when he is stopped by RoboCop. Emil recognizes RoboCop's voice (he uses the same phrase when Murphy first tried to arrest Emil), screaming out "We killed you!!" RoboCop pauses, recalling where he remembers Emil from. Emil tries to escape after setting the station on fire, but his motorcycle is shot out from under him by the cyborg. RoboCop takes Emil into custody and uses the police mainframe to look up Emil's data and known associates. One of the names on the list is Clarence Boddicker, whose rap sheet includes charges for the murder of Officer Alex J. Murphy.

RoboCop goes to Alex Murphy's last known address and finds the house up for sale. Walking through it triggers more memories of Murphy's wife and son, and RoboCop angrily realizes that HE is Alex Murphy. He goes to hunt down the men who killed him.

Meanwhile, Bob Morton is ambushed in his home by Boddicker, who is revealed to be working for Dick Jones. Boddicker orders the two high priced hookers that Bob was cavorting with to leave and shoots Bob's legs several time, leaving them useless and plays a video message for Bob from Dick Jones. Jones says that Bob refused to follow OCP protocol and became too ambitious in pushing past Dick's authority. Boddicker leaves a hand grenade just out of Bob's reach and leaves; the grenade explodes, killing Bob.

Meanwhile, RoboCop tracks down one of Boddicker's men, Leon Nash, and demands to know where Clarence is. Clarence is at a meeting with a competitor at a competitor's cocaine processing factory. RoboCop arrives and threatens to arrest them all. They open fire and RoboCop kills most of the gangsters and finds Clarence. He brutally beats Clarence then threatens to break the crime lord's neck. Clarence begs for his life, revealing his connection to Dick Jones. RoboCop realizes that he is a police officer and cannot simply kill Clarence out of revenge.

Back at Police Headquarters, the officers have voted to go on strike (a result of OCP cutting back their salaries and pension plan, along with having lost 5 officers in the past week). After a huge gunfight in a cocaine factory owned by a rival gangster, RoboCop brings in Clarence Boddicker and orders him to be booked on charges of murdering police officers. Dick Jones arranges for Clarence to be freed on bail.

RoboCop goes immediately to Dick Jones' office. As he marches in, he plays a video recording of Clarence's admission of his connection with Jones. RoboCop charges Jones with aiding and abetting and attempts to arrest him, but his systems immediately begin to shut down due to a "Product violation." Jones explains that Directive 4 was created by himself to prevent OCPs "product" from taking action against an OCP Official. Jones activates ED-209 to destroy RoboCop and admits that he had Bob Morton killed. RoboCop is damaged, but manages to escape by running down stairs (which ED-209 cannot climb or descend). Several officers attempt to stop RoboCop for his reported "attack" on Jones, opening fire and damaging him severely, when Lewis arrives and rescues him. Lewis and RoboCop retreat to a hidden factory. RoboCop repairs most of the damage to his robot body and removes his helmet, revealing the face of Murphy. Murphy asks what happened to his wife and son; Lewis responds that they moved away after Murphy's funeral to start a new life. Lewis tries to comfort him but he asks to be left alone.

Having been released from jail, Clarence meets with Dick, whom chastises Clarence for involving him, saying that RoboCop's recorded video of Clarence's admission is admissible in court. Dick orders Clarence to destroy the cyborg; Clarence refuses at first, however, Dick is able to change Clarence's attitude by offering the crime lord free reign during the construction of "Delta City" a planned community that will replace the crime-ridden streets of Detroit, a concept conceived and championed by The Old Man. Clarence will be permitted to extend his influences in drugs, prostitution and gambling to the workers of Delta City, an offer that Clarence knows is too good to pass upon. Dick agrees to provide Clarence with military-level weapons and gives him a tracking device to find their common enemy.

Clarence rallies his gang of thugs to go out and kill RoboCop. Jones had given them large .50-caliber rifles to destroy their nemesis. The crew tracks RoboCop and his partner to the abandoned steel mill where they're hiding. One by one, they are defeated and killed by Lewis and RoboCop. Lewis, involved in a car chase with Clarence, is injured when the villain shoots her several times. Murphy becomes pinned down by scrap metal dropped on him by Leon, and is immediately attacked by Clarence, who wields a large rail bar. Murphy is able to stab Clarence in the neck with his built-in data spike, killing the crime lord.

RoboCop returns to OCP and, using the giant rifle taken from Clarence's gang, destroys the ED-209 Jones has guarding the entrance to their headquarters. RoboCop interrupts a meeting of the OCP board and openly accuses Dick Jones of murder and states that his programming will not allow him to arrest any executive of OCP. Over Jones' protests that the cyborg is psychopathic, Murphy plays video of Jones' admitting to Morton's murder, which Murphy had recorded just as Jones activated ED-209 in his office.

Jones grabs a gun and takes The Old Man hostage, demanding a helicopter to safely evacuate. The Old Man angrily fires Jones, voiding Directive Four and allowing RoboCop to take action. RoboCop shoots Dick Jones several times, who falls out a window, screaming as he speeds toward the pavement below. The Old Man thanks the cyborg for his actions, asking what the cyborg's name is. RoboCop pauses for a second before responding: "Murphy."