WEBVTT - Weirdhouse Cinema: RoboCop (1987) 0:00:03.040 --> 0:00:08.800 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:12.840 --> 0:00:15.840 Hey you welcome to Weird House Cinema. This is Rob 0:00:15.920 --> 0:00:18.240 Lamb and this is Joe McCormick. 0:00:18.320 --> 0:00:20.560 And today we are going to be featuring a movie 0:00:20.600 --> 0:00:23.239 that I feel like is kind of a foundational text 0:00:23.360 --> 0:00:27.600 for my adult appreciation of cinema. It is the nineteen 0:00:27.680 --> 0:00:34.280 eighty seven sci fi action satire RoboCop, directed by Paul Verhoven. Rob. 0:00:34.360 --> 0:00:37.839 I'm so excited we're talking about RoboCop today. Did you 0:00:38.159 --> 0:00:40.360 come up? I think I know you. You came up 0:00:40.400 --> 0:00:43.239 with this topic because you recently visited some of the 0:00:43.280 --> 0:00:45.640 original locations featured in the movie. 0:00:46.080 --> 0:00:49.360 Yeah. I was on a family trip to Dallas over 0:00:49.720 --> 0:00:53.000 Thanksgiving break. We'd never been before. We went there primarily 0:00:53.040 --> 0:00:54.800 to go to Mao Wolf and then to check out 0:00:55.200 --> 0:00:58.560 various things in the city, museums and you know, restaurants 0:00:58.560 --> 0:01:01.360 and whatnot. And I I had honestly kind of forgotten 0:01:01.360 --> 0:01:04.600 about the RoboCop connection until we were there driving around, 0:01:05.040 --> 0:01:07.920 and then I look out the window and I see 0:01:08.120 --> 0:01:11.880 the Dallas City Hall, and then I remember, this is 0:01:11.920 --> 0:01:15.319 the RoboCop building. This is OCP headquarters, or at least 0:01:15.400 --> 0:01:17.720 the lower portion of it. They did a matte painting 0:01:17.800 --> 0:01:20.640 on top of that to make it into this enormous 0:01:20.720 --> 0:01:25.280 skyscraper that reaches up to the heavens. Yeah, and then 0:01:25.440 --> 0:01:29.520 was just generally impressed by the architecture in Dallas. And 0:01:29.560 --> 0:01:31.880 then once I got back, you know, we started looking 0:01:31.920 --> 0:01:34.600 at RoboCop again, I was reminded, like, just how present 0:01:34.840 --> 0:01:38.720 Dallas is in the background standing in for futuristic Detroit. 0:01:39.160 --> 0:01:42.039 Right, So RoboCop is not actually set in Dallas. It's 0:01:42.080 --> 0:01:45.160 set in near future Detroit at the time the movie 0:01:45.280 --> 0:01:49.240 was made. But some of the architectural landmarks in Dallas 0:01:49.280 --> 0:01:52.560 really communicate the feeling that they were going for in 0:01:52.880 --> 0:01:54.000 the world of RoboCop. 0:01:54.520 --> 0:01:57.240 Yeah, and it's unmistakable even if you're not from Dallas. 0:01:57.400 --> 0:02:00.160 Like there's a car chase earlier in the early the 0:02:00.200 --> 0:02:03.280 film where you see Reunion Tower in the background, which 0:02:03.360 --> 0:02:09.760 is very identifiable structure. It's this concrete pillar, you know, 0:02:09.880 --> 0:02:12.480 jutting up into the sky and there's a sphere up there. 0:02:13.120 --> 0:02:15.919 It's not a perfect sphere, but you know, observation and 0:02:16.240 --> 0:02:19.200 restaurant deck and my family actually went up there. But 0:02:20.000 --> 0:02:22.040 it's pretty fun, has pretty cool history, Like a lot 0:02:22.040 --> 0:02:25.120 of these buildings, but yeah, it's there in the background. 0:02:25.200 --> 0:02:27.680 Anybody who knows anything about Dallas, or even seen the 0:02:27.760 --> 0:02:31.040 opening to the TV series Dallas, would have been able 0:02:31.080 --> 0:02:32.920 to recognize that this is not Detroit. 0:02:32.960 --> 0:02:33.560 This is Dallas. 0:02:33.600 --> 0:02:36.360 But you know, nice stand in lots of neat, futuristic 0:02:36.440 --> 0:02:37.320 looking architecture. 0:02:37.840 --> 0:02:39.840 So when did you first see RoboCop? 0:02:41.120 --> 0:02:43.640 I saw it, like I think a lot of people 0:02:43.720 --> 0:02:47.280 of my generation saw it way too young. I think 0:02:47.560 --> 0:02:50.160 it was playing at a friend's house or kind of 0:02:50.160 --> 0:02:53.639 like friends of the family at their house, and I 0:02:53.760 --> 0:02:55.560 ended up watching part of it. And you know, there's 0:02:55.560 --> 0:02:59.400 plenty there to bring in a young mind, to captivate 0:02:59.440 --> 0:03:02.320 a young mind, you know, robot fighting, crime, firing, all 0:03:02.320 --> 0:03:06.160 sorts of crazy guns. But then you know, it's kind 0:03:06.200 --> 0:03:10.240 of a notoriously violent film. It's got some really grotesque 0:03:10.320 --> 0:03:14.280 moments in it, which we'll discuss. It was not appropriate 0:03:15.480 --> 0:03:18.600 viewing at this at whatever age I was, but you know, 0:03:18.720 --> 0:03:21.400 I still loved it, grew to love it, and I 0:03:21.400 --> 0:03:24.360 think a lot of people have this experience. Someone I 0:03:24.440 --> 0:03:28.359 was talking to in the last couple of years said 0:03:28.360 --> 0:03:30.560 that their mom had rented this for them at the 0:03:30.639 --> 0:03:32.720 store when they were young. They were just like, oh, 0:03:32.760 --> 0:03:35.040 they need a film RoboCop. This looks fun. They didn't 0:03:35.080 --> 0:03:36.880 like look at it closely enough to realize it was 0:03:36.960 --> 0:03:41.480 rated R. And then you know, the violence just washes 0:03:41.560 --> 0:03:41.960 over them. 0:03:42.400 --> 0:03:44.520 And probably a lot of the commentary sort of went 0:03:44.560 --> 0:03:46.160 over their heads at that age too. 0:03:46.280 --> 0:03:48.680 Oh yeah, yeah. All that ends up sticking with you 0:03:48.720 --> 0:03:50.640 probably is like the cool robot stuff, and there is 0:03:50.680 --> 0:03:53.520 some really cool robot stuff in this film, the violence 0:03:53.560 --> 0:03:55.320 and probably the profanity. 0:03:55.640 --> 0:03:57.360 So I did a little digging to figure out when 0:03:57.400 --> 0:03:59.400 I first saw RoboCop, and I was able to peg 0:03:59.440 --> 0:04:03.240 it to to a year based on a rather a 0:04:03.280 --> 0:04:09.600 greasy marker, so I knew that. And this is also 0:04:09.640 --> 0:04:12.280 a very RoboCop sounding reason to be able to know 0:04:12.320 --> 0:04:14.400 when I saw this. So I first saw it right 0:04:14.440 --> 0:04:18.600 around the debut of the Windy's menu item The Baconator, 0:04:18.800 --> 0:04:21.640 which would place this event in the year two thousand 0:04:21.640 --> 0:04:24.200 and seven, so you know, it was two thousand and seven. 0:04:24.240 --> 0:04:25.839 I was I don't know how old I was. I 0:04:25.920 --> 0:04:28.400 was like twenty or so. I was hanging out with 0:04:28.440 --> 0:04:31.479 some friends and somehow it came up in conversation that 0:04:31.640 --> 0:04:34.120 first of all, I had never seen RoboCop, and second 0:04:34.240 --> 0:04:36.840 I had not yet had one of the new Baconators, 0:04:37.279 --> 0:04:39.279 and they were like, Okay, we've got to fix both. 0:04:39.400 --> 0:04:41.599 So we went to Windy's and then we watched this 0:04:41.720 --> 0:04:46.280 movie and sorry to the Windy's fans out there, the Baconator, 0:04:46.320 --> 0:04:48.440 at least this one at this time, was not good. 0:04:48.880 --> 0:04:50.640 And I'm not trying to be a food snob. I 0:04:50.720 --> 0:04:53.480 totally admit I can enjoy a greasy fast food sandwich. 0:04:53.800 --> 0:04:56.520 But whatever I got that day was just not right. 0:04:56.600 --> 0:04:59.320 It seemed like it had about eight slices of American 0:04:59.400 --> 0:05:02.680 cheese and like thirty strips of bacon on it. Just 0:05:02.800 --> 0:05:06.000 too much, too much bacon and cheese. Maybe those things 0:05:06.040 --> 0:05:08.960 are different now, I don't know. But on the other hand, 0:05:09.200 --> 0:05:13.800 RoboCop was amazing, and this memory I think sticks with 0:05:13.839 --> 0:05:16.680 me because the bacon eat or I had that day 0:05:17.360 --> 0:05:20.480 came to seem like something that you would see an 0:05:20.560 --> 0:05:25.080 advertisement for in RoboCop. It's like an in universe RoboCop 0:05:25.120 --> 0:05:28.960 food item. It's something Emial would be eating while he's 0:05:29.000 --> 0:05:30.840 like pointing a gun at you and asking if you 0:05:31.200 --> 0:05:32.560 think you're smarter than a bullet. 0:05:34.240 --> 0:05:38.440 Yeah. Yeah, It's kind of the six thousand Sux of Burgers. 0:05:38.440 --> 0:05:41.320 It sounds like it'll be hilarious if a Wendy's ad 0:05:41.400 --> 0:05:45.680 runs on this episode, by the way, So I was 0:05:45.800 --> 0:05:50.320 struck by how different this movie was than I had 0:05:50.360 --> 0:05:54.640 always assumed because I'd never seen RoboCop, but I was 0:05:54.680 --> 0:05:57.400 aware of it as one of these eighties action movies, 0:05:58.000 --> 0:06:00.920 and I received it the way it had been I think, 0:06:01.040 --> 0:06:06.640 generally culturally metabolized, which was totally missing the point of it, 0:06:06.839 --> 0:06:10.400 shelving it alongside these other gory, r rated eighties action movies, 0:06:10.400 --> 0:06:14.719 maybe on the level of Commando starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. That's 0:06:14.800 --> 0:06:17.160 how I thought of what RoboCop was, and. 0:06:17.120 --> 0:06:19.839 I think it can leave that kind of impression in 0:06:19.960 --> 0:06:23.839 memory if you're far removed from especially in early viewing 0:06:23.880 --> 0:06:26.400 of the film. I mean, the violence is so violent 0:06:26.880 --> 0:06:30.040 that it kind of sticks with you and you might 0:06:30.040 --> 0:06:31.560 forget some of the other stuff. Like I was talking 0:06:31.600 --> 0:06:33.080 to my wife about this when I was about to 0:06:33.160 --> 0:06:36.839 rewatch it. She was very, very supporting of me watching RoboCop, 0:06:36.839 --> 0:06:38.400 but did not want to watch it, and I had 0:06:38.400 --> 0:06:40.359 to remind her say, oh no, there's a lot of 0:06:40.360 --> 0:06:43.640 satire in it. There's more to it than just the violence. 0:06:43.640 --> 0:06:46.200 Though the violence is there and it's sticking with you 0:06:46.240 --> 0:06:46.800 for a reason. 0:06:47.160 --> 0:06:48.960 Yeah, I agree, And at the risk of sounding like 0:06:49.000 --> 0:06:53.239 a sucker, I think RoboCop has a quite genuine soul 0:06:53.480 --> 0:06:56.880 and humanity to it, and amid everything else it is, 0:06:56.920 --> 0:07:00.600 it is a hyper violent action movie, that's true. It 0:07:00.720 --> 0:07:04.080 is a hair raising depiction of a world in the 0:07:04.160 --> 0:07:08.560 hands of a moral egomaniacs. It is also a sort 0:07:08.600 --> 0:07:13.320 of light light sci fi speculation about cybernetics. It is 0:07:13.440 --> 0:07:17.880 definitely a hilarious fun house mirror to American culture. Amid 0:07:17.920 --> 0:07:21.440 all those things, it's about the struggle to keep hold 0:07:21.640 --> 0:07:25.280 of one's own humanity in a situation where there is 0:07:25.480 --> 0:07:29.920 enormous pressure from every direction trying to transform you into 0:07:29.960 --> 0:07:34.920 a soulless machine. So a lot of retrospective appreciation of 0:07:35.040 --> 0:07:40.160 RoboCop mentions the satirical aspects of it. So I think 0:07:40.160 --> 0:07:44.040 you absolutely could look at RoboCop as a satirical vision 0:07:44.360 --> 0:07:47.720 of a dystopian near future from the time that it 0:07:47.800 --> 0:07:49.760 was made, which you know, so the mid to late 0:07:49.840 --> 0:07:53.920 nineteen eighties. And I think one of the main political 0:07:54.040 --> 0:07:56.400 thrusts of the commentary in the movie is if you 0:07:56.440 --> 0:07:58.760 ever heard people say I wish the country could be 0:07:58.840 --> 0:08:02.680 run like a business. The situational premise of RoboCop is 0:08:02.720 --> 0:08:04.680 to say, Okay, let's see what that would be like. 0:08:05.600 --> 0:08:10.200 So it depicts a kind of privatization nightmare where everything 0:08:10.720 --> 0:08:13.240 that used to be thought of as a public interest 0:08:13.320 --> 0:08:16.720 in a public good is sold off to corporations to 0:08:16.760 --> 0:08:19.600 be run for profit. And though that seems to be 0:08:19.640 --> 0:08:22.600 happening in pretty much all domains in the world of 0:08:22.640 --> 0:08:27.200 the film, RoboCop especially focuses on the police department in 0:08:27.240 --> 0:08:30.080 the city of Detroit, which has been bought out by 0:08:30.120 --> 0:08:35.320 a corporation called Omni Consumer Products or OCP, and OCP 0:08:35.440 --> 0:08:38.160 seems to be using it primarily in a couple of ways. 0:08:38.200 --> 0:08:39.880 You get the sense they're looking at it as a 0:08:39.920 --> 0:08:42.640 cost cutting center, so maybe they're taking the money for 0:08:42.679 --> 0:08:44.920 the contract and then just cutting costs down to the 0:08:44.960 --> 0:08:47.520 bone without regard for how this affects people, and then 0:08:47.600 --> 0:08:50.840 keeping the difference. But they're also using it as a 0:08:50.960 --> 0:08:54.960 playground to test out prototypes of new hardware that is 0:08:55.000 --> 0:08:58.839 eventually destined for military use and thus big Pentagon contracts, 0:08:59.520 --> 0:09:04.400 and the lot of RoboCop essentially arises as a conflict 0:09:04.720 --> 0:09:08.760 between two rival OCP executives. You got Dick Jones and 0:09:08.840 --> 0:09:13.520 Bob Morton who are squabbling to get their respective lethal 0:09:13.640 --> 0:09:17.440 robot projects online at the police department so they can 0:09:17.480 --> 0:09:21.600 eventually step them up, scale them up, and secure defense dollars. 0:09:22.120 --> 0:09:25.120 So the things that are happening in the movie are 0:09:25.160 --> 0:09:28.199 happening because of what's going on at the corporate board level. 0:09:28.240 --> 0:09:31.760 These characters squabbling to get their own projects online and 0:09:31.800 --> 0:09:34.680 make bank off of that. And meanwhile, the main good 0:09:34.800 --> 0:09:38.560 characters are essentially just street level cops who are unknown 0:09:38.600 --> 0:09:42.320 and unimportant to these power players, but whose fates are 0:09:42.360 --> 0:09:43.760 controlled thereby. 0:09:44.920 --> 0:09:47.120 Yeah. Yeah, I mean, they're just struggling trying to do 0:09:47.160 --> 0:09:52.240 their job. Also, you know, there's talk of unionization. There 0:09:52.280 --> 0:09:55.680 are all these other additional elements that are in play 0:09:56.360 --> 0:09:59.280 kind of at the street level, but OCP is not 0:09:59.320 --> 0:10:02.960 at street level. They're they're halfway to Heaven in their 0:10:03.160 --> 0:10:07.760 enormous skyscraper, and and that's where that's where a lot 0:10:07.760 --> 0:10:09.439 of the plotting and a lot of and ultimately a 0:10:09.480 --> 0:10:10.600 lot of the action goes down. 0:10:10.920 --> 0:10:13.240 That's right. So I thought RoboCop was great when I 0:10:13.280 --> 0:10:15.719 first watched it. I've seen it several times over the 0:10:15.800 --> 0:10:18.840 year since then. I've long had an appreciation of it, 0:10:19.200 --> 0:10:21.480 but most recently, when I watched it just this week, 0:10:21.559 --> 0:10:24.240 I sort of think it's better than ever. And one 0:10:24.280 --> 0:10:27.800 thing that struck me on the most recent viewing is 0:10:27.840 --> 0:10:30.800 that in a way, I think the sort of police 0:10:30.840 --> 0:10:35.160 and criminal justice themes are less essential to the spirit 0:10:35.200 --> 0:10:37.840 of the movie then a lot of people would think, 0:10:37.880 --> 0:10:40.240 and certainly than I once thought so, Like the characters 0:10:40.280 --> 0:10:43.880 are cops and some of the villains are career criminals, 0:10:43.960 --> 0:10:47.520 but they could be in any line of work of 0:10:47.920 --> 0:10:51.320 what used to be public service sector jobs, and the 0:10:51.360 --> 0:10:53.320 spirit of the movie would be similar, though I guess 0:10:53.320 --> 0:10:55.640 it would be a lot less high octane if this 0:10:55.800 --> 0:10:58.640 was about like librarians whose branch is bought out by 0:10:58.640 --> 0:11:00.840 OCP and they want to replace sell the books with 0:11:00.920 --> 0:11:04.960 advertisements for the new six thousand sux. But I think 0:11:05.000 --> 0:11:07.240 the deepest idea, like what's at the heart of this 0:11:07.320 --> 0:11:10.760 movie is that it's about people who are doing a job, 0:11:10.840 --> 0:11:13.679 whatever that job is, where their bosses do not see 0:11:13.679 --> 0:11:17.400 them as human beings. They are treated like inanimate tools 0:11:17.559 --> 0:11:21.840 or machines, just to be used to their maximum value, 0:11:21.920 --> 0:11:26.200 exhausted and discarded. And this metaphor is literalized in the 0:11:26.200 --> 0:11:31.360 case of RoboCop himself, and his redemption is in rediscovering 0:11:31.400 --> 0:11:34.400 and reasserting that he is a human being, not just 0:11:34.440 --> 0:11:38.960 a mechanism to be used for profit by somebody else. Yeah. 0:11:39.080 --> 0:11:41.360 Yeah, his rediscovery of his humanity, that he is a 0:11:41.400 --> 0:11:45.040 human and not a product. Yeah, I very much agree 0:11:45.080 --> 0:11:49.199 with just the how good the movie is. Like, basically, 0:11:49.440 --> 0:11:53.560 RoboCop shouldn't be this good as I rewatch it in 0:11:53.600 --> 0:11:56.520 my mid forties here, you know, because it's a film 0:11:56.559 --> 0:11:59.800 that again terrified and enthralled me when I was at 0:11:59.800 --> 0:12:02.960 a way too early age, entertained me later on. You know, 0:12:03.000 --> 0:12:05.560 it's a solid, you know, kind of dystopian action movie 0:12:05.640 --> 0:12:09.719 with some laughs thrown in. But yeah, it absolutely delivers satirically, 0:12:10.720 --> 0:12:14.320 It delivers with the action, and you know, it delivers emotionally. 0:12:14.440 --> 0:12:18.880 Like when the film really gets into its its own 0:12:18.920 --> 0:12:22.880 emotional depth, I felt like it those moments still hit 0:12:22.920 --> 0:12:25.240 pretty hard, or I mean actually hit harder than they 0:12:25.240 --> 0:12:29.240 ever had because you know, I, for instance, Murphy's son 0:12:29.240 --> 0:12:31.280 in the film is about the age of my own son. 0:12:31.440 --> 0:12:34.079 So it's it's you know, that resonated in a way 0:12:34.080 --> 0:12:35.600 that it just wasn't going to resonate with me when 0:12:35.600 --> 0:12:38.040 I was a kid, and then of course all of 0:12:38.080 --> 0:12:40.960 this on top of the expected nostalgia rush of watching 0:12:40.960 --> 0:12:42.880 a film like this that, for better or worse, she 0:12:42.920 --> 0:12:43.480 grew up with. 0:12:43.679 --> 0:12:46.360 Yeah, totally. So I see all that, and at the 0:12:46.360 --> 0:12:49.720 same time I accept RoboCop is probably not for everybody. 0:12:49.760 --> 0:12:54.600 This is, to be clear, a hard R rated, hyper 0:12:54.720 --> 0:12:57.719 violent film, So you've got to be in the I 0:12:57.720 --> 0:12:59.839 don't know in the right headspace to accept it, but 0:13:00.559 --> 0:13:03.800 if it is on a wavelength that is amenable to you, 0:13:04.240 --> 0:13:05.800 I think it is excellent. 0:13:06.360 --> 0:13:09.120 All right, Joe, what's your elevator pitch for RoboCop? 0:13:09.160 --> 0:13:13.200 Then Omni Consumer Products has bought out the contract for 0:13:13.280 --> 0:13:16.440 Old Detroit and wants to replace its human police force 0:13:16.840 --> 0:13:20.199 with one of a selection of different gun wielding robots. 0:13:20.679 --> 0:13:23.400 Beat Cop Alex Murphy is killed on the job, and 0:13:23.440 --> 0:13:27.280 his body parts, including the remains of his damaged brain, 0:13:27.880 --> 0:13:31.600 are used as scaffolding for one of these projects, a 0:13:31.720 --> 0:13:36.600 cyborg called RoboCop. Is he simply a tool now controlled 0:13:36.640 --> 0:13:40.040 in full by his corporate masters, or is there still 0:13:40.040 --> 0:13:42.320 a human being inside who can act of his own 0:13:42.360 --> 0:13:42.880 free will? 0:13:43.400 --> 0:13:45.720 All right, let's listen to that trailerati. 0:13:49.160 --> 0:13:53.480 Old Detroit has a cancer. Councer is crime. 0:13:56.760 --> 0:13:59.240 We need a self sufficient law enforcement robot. 0:14:00.000 --> 0:14:01.880 I'm will to take We can go to prototype within 0:14:02.000 --> 0:14:05.840 ninety days. Where are you from? 0:14:06.400 --> 0:14:08.760 Welcome to hell? Are you. 0:14:10.600 --> 0:14:27.120 Better alive? You're coming with me? You're gonna be a 0:14:27.240 --> 0:14:28.080 bad mothers. 0:14:32.120 --> 0:14:35.520 This guy is really good, yes, machine Hobo Cop? 0:14:35.720 --> 0:14:38.560 What is he? He's a cyborg? You idiot? All hero? 0:14:38.920 --> 0:14:44.560 What are your prime directors? Are? Protect Davidson? Let the 0:14:44.640 --> 0:14:47.040 woman go or there will be trouble. 0:14:48.160 --> 0:14:49.000 Hold the law. 0:14:49.400 --> 0:14:59.880 You are under arrest? What justice gets an upgrade? Look 0:15:00.240 --> 0:15:11.600 for me, RoboCop? Thank you for your cooperation. Good night. 0:15:16.240 --> 0:15:17.960 All right, Well, if you want to go out and 0:15:18.000 --> 0:15:21.000 watch RoboCop before proceeding with the rest of the episode, 0:15:21.440 --> 0:15:24.120 go for it. It's widely available as a physical or 0:15:24.120 --> 0:15:27.920 digital release. Joe, you watched it on the older Criterion 0:15:27.960 --> 0:15:31.280 Collection DVD, which I understand is pretty awesome. I watched 0:15:31.280 --> 0:15:34.480 it on the Aero Blu ray which I ran from Videodrome, 0:15:35.000 --> 0:15:37.760 which I really loved. Both are loaded with extras. 0:15:37.960 --> 0:15:40.040 I think I got to upgrade my disc because my 0:15:40.080 --> 0:15:43.680 old DVD now is playing in a rectangle inside my 0:15:43.760 --> 0:15:48.920 TV screen. But nevertheless, Yeah, it was a great rewatch. 0:15:57.240 --> 0:16:00.880 All right, let's get into the people involved induction, starting 0:16:00.920 --> 0:16:06.000 at the top with the director. Paul Verhoven born nineteen 0:16:06.080 --> 0:16:09.880 thirty eight, Dutch director, best known internationally for his string 0:16:09.960 --> 0:16:12.680 of major Hollywood genre films of the eighties and nineties. 0:16:13.400 --> 0:16:17.040 This is our first Behoven film. He started out in 0:16:17.160 --> 0:16:20.520 Dutch cinema and his first full length feature was the 0:16:20.600 --> 0:16:24.560 nineteen seventy one comedy Businesses Business, followed by seventy three's 0:16:24.600 --> 0:16:27.880 Turkish Delight. That's his first collaboration with fellow dutchman and 0:16:27.920 --> 0:16:32.560 Rutger Hower in his film debut. This was an erotic drama, 0:16:32.720 --> 0:16:35.480 and the film was a critical success and received a 0:16:35.480 --> 0:16:39.240 Best Foreign Language Film nomination at the nineteen seventy four Oscars. 0:16:39.560 --> 0:16:42.200 He did three additional Dutch films with Hower, and a 0:16:42.280 --> 0:16:45.880 nineteen eighty three thriller called The Fourth Man with the 0:16:46.000 --> 0:16:49.600 Jerome Krabby, another Dutch actor of note that he had 0:16:49.600 --> 0:16:53.280 frequently worked with, that went on to international success. After this, 0:16:53.400 --> 0:16:57.520 he transitioned to Hollywood with the Rutger Hower filmed nineteen 0:16:57.560 --> 0:17:01.520 eighty five medieval action adventure film Flesh and Blood or 0:17:01.560 --> 0:17:04.920 It's actually the title often looks like flesh plus. 0:17:04.640 --> 0:17:06.680 Blood equals what. 0:17:08.480 --> 0:17:13.119 Cinema, I guess. And then then comes RoboCop, which was 0:17:13.320 --> 0:17:15.960 a big enough hit, though at the time criticized for 0:17:16.000 --> 0:17:18.720 his violence, certainly that he went on to direct Total 0:17:18.720 --> 0:17:22.520 Recall in nineteen ninety, Basic Instinct in ninety two, Showgirls 0:17:22.520 --> 0:17:26.439 in ninety five, Starship Troopers in ninety seven, and hollow 0:17:26.480 --> 0:17:31.959 Man in two thousand, which was apparently an unsatisfying film 0:17:32.160 --> 0:17:35.760 for Rehoven. It seems in interviews where he's like, well, 0:17:35.760 --> 0:17:38.119 this was the first movie that I made that looking 0:17:38.160 --> 0:17:39.879 at it, someone else could have made it. You know, 0:17:39.920 --> 0:17:42.800 he didn't feel like his touch was there. So after 0:17:42.800 --> 0:17:44.840 this he moves back to Dutch cinema with a string 0:17:44.880 --> 0:17:48.160 of pictures that lean more historical in theme less sci 0:17:48.240 --> 0:17:50.800 fi and so forth. But I believe he is set 0:17:50.840 --> 0:17:53.680 to return to American cinema with a project called Young Cinner, 0:17:53.760 --> 0:17:55.080 which is currently in development. 0:17:55.520 --> 0:17:58.840 Yeah, regarding these other big Hollywood movies, it is a 0:17:58.880 --> 0:18:01.800 weird string of films though you can totally see the 0:18:02.400 --> 0:18:05.880 as different as they are the creative threads that run 0:18:05.920 --> 0:18:08.000 through them, and I would say the thing that they 0:18:08.040 --> 0:18:11.399 all have in common is excess. He was a filmmaker 0:18:11.440 --> 0:18:17.080 who was into depicting depicting a kind of carnal excess 0:18:17.119 --> 0:18:21.720 in terms of sex and violence, but usually to make 0:18:21.800 --> 0:18:25.080 a point of some kind. Whether he was successful or 0:18:25.119 --> 0:18:28.280 not in all of these endeavors, that's questionable, though. I 0:18:28.320 --> 0:18:31.080 think I would single out Starship Troopers in ninety seven 0:18:31.560 --> 0:18:35.119 as another movie that I think at the time a 0:18:35.200 --> 0:18:37.960 lot of people really did not get it, kind of 0:18:38.000 --> 0:18:39.880 like what happened with RoboCop. A lot of people saw 0:18:39.920 --> 0:18:43.720 it as a kind of excessive, mindless, hyper violent sci 0:18:43.760 --> 0:18:47.040 fi action movie that in retrospect a lot of critics 0:18:47.040 --> 0:18:49.760 have looked back and said, this is actually a quite 0:18:49.800 --> 0:18:54.200 sharp satire and works much better than we originally realized. 0:18:54.920 --> 0:18:56.680 Yeah, and I still need to go back and rewatch it, 0:18:56.720 --> 0:18:59.120 because I watched it when I was when it first 0:18:59.160 --> 0:19:01.359 came out, just I just didn't pick up on all 0:19:01.359 --> 0:19:06.199 the satire, and so the fascist themes in there that 0:19:06.200 --> 0:19:10.080 are there intentionally, that are being satirized just ended up 0:19:10.119 --> 0:19:12.479 sitting with me in a very weird way. I was like, 0:19:12.520 --> 0:19:16.040 I really don't like the humans in this, and of 0:19:16.080 --> 0:19:18.399 course I don't think you're supposed to like the humans 0:19:19.040 --> 0:19:21.359 at least by the end of the film, So I 0:19:21.400 --> 0:19:24.240 need to revisit it at some point. Now, Rahuvein was 0:19:24.280 --> 0:19:27.919 apparently I've read slow to accept the Rogocop project, apparently 0:19:28.000 --> 0:19:31.119 because he didn't really understand the satire at first. And 0:19:31.160 --> 0:19:33.399 I think it's been said that his wife likes like 0:19:33.720 --> 0:19:35.760 like set him down, was like no, no, no, see, 0:19:35.880 --> 0:19:38.280 this is what it's don't you see what it's doing here? 0:19:38.359 --> 0:19:40.800 And then he was like, Okay, yeah, I see now. 0:19:40.840 --> 0:19:42.760 And I wonder how much of that has to do 0:19:42.800 --> 0:19:45.280 with the excess, you know, because it's like he seems 0:19:45.320 --> 0:19:49.479 like a filmmaker, you know, who is about pushing for 0:19:50.000 --> 0:19:53.000 the excessive violence and or sexuality more the violence in 0:19:53.080 --> 0:19:56.720 this film, but also pushing the satire, like making sure 0:19:56.800 --> 0:19:59.959 that everything's ramped up enough that you can't miss it, 0:20:00.320 --> 0:20:04.600 that even at least subconsciously, it's going to needle your 0:20:04.640 --> 0:20:07.199 brain and make you realize something's not right here or 0:20:07.240 --> 0:20:10.639 something's being sad. There's some additional way I'm supposed to 0:20:10.640 --> 0:20:11.159 interpret this. 0:20:11.640 --> 0:20:14.640 Yeah, though, like I said, I mean, I think, especially 0:20:14.680 --> 0:20:16.520 in the case of Starship Troopers, it seems like a 0:20:16.520 --> 0:20:18.320 lot of people did miss it at the time and 0:20:18.760 --> 0:20:20.800 only got it years later looking back. 0:20:21.280 --> 0:20:24.840 Yeah, now, the writers on this we have two writers. 0:20:24.880 --> 0:20:29.199 There's Edward Neumeyer, American screenwriter, producer, and director. This was 0:20:29.240 --> 0:20:33.240 his first big hit alongside Michael Miner, who I'll get 0:20:33.240 --> 0:20:35.000 to in a second. He went on to work on 0:20:35.080 --> 0:20:38.920 Starship Troopers, Starship Troopers two, and Starship Troopers three, which 0:20:38.920 --> 0:20:43.280 he directed. He also co scripted Anaconda's The Hunt for 0:20:43.320 --> 0:20:48.160 the Blood Orchid in two thousand and four, and he's 0:20:48.160 --> 0:20:50.840 actually the writer of the upcoming Young Center project that 0:20:50.880 --> 0:20:52.080 I referenced earlier. 0:20:52.760 --> 0:20:55.920 I have not seen the Starship Troopers sequels, but oh boy, 0:20:56.040 --> 0:20:58.439 that just sounds like, I don't know, reaching into a 0:20:58.480 --> 0:21:02.560 snake hole in the woods. I don't know if that was. 0:21:03.960 --> 0:21:05.160 Maybe they're great. 0:21:05.200 --> 0:21:08.640 I haven't seen him now. As for Michael Minor, also 0:21:08.760 --> 0:21:12.120 director and screenwriter of various projects, this was his first 0:21:12.119 --> 0:21:14.400 big hit as well, which you followed up with scriptwork 0:21:14.440 --> 0:21:17.120 on nineteen eighty nine's Deadly Weapon, which he also directed, 0:21:17.920 --> 0:21:22.720 lownmower Man two, and also Anaconda's The Hunt for the 0:21:22.720 --> 0:21:25.920 Blood Orchid. He also directed nineteen ninety nine's The Book 0:21:25.920 --> 0:21:28.960 of Stars, which looks like I got some good reviews. 0:21:28.960 --> 0:21:31.600 I think it's more of a drama. Early in his career, 0:21:31.640 --> 0:21:33.680 he directed a number of music videos for the rock 0:21:33.720 --> 0:21:34.760 band Y and T. 0:21:35.600 --> 0:21:36.800 I don't think I know them. 0:21:37.119 --> 0:21:38.480 I was not familiar. Look like some sort of a 0:21:38.520 --> 0:21:41.480 rock band or metal band, but I just don't know. Now. 0:21:41.720 --> 0:21:44.240 Our star of this is, of course, Peter Weller, playing 0:21:44.960 --> 0:21:47.800 essentially a dual role Alex Murphy and then the RoboCop 0:21:47.840 --> 0:21:51.560 that Murphy becomes, and then Robocop's attempts to reconnect with 0:21:51.600 --> 0:21:54.600 the Alex Murphy he once was. Weller was born in 0:21:54.640 --> 0:21:57.800 nineteen forty seven, American actor and director who's acting work 0:21:57.880 --> 0:22:00.760 goes back to the early seventies and he's still active today. 0:22:00.800 --> 0:22:03.800 We previously discussed him in more depth in our episode 0:22:03.800 --> 0:22:05.439 on Penos KOs Manto's The Viewing. 0:22:05.880 --> 0:22:07.920 As we go on to discuss Weller in this role, 0:22:08.240 --> 0:22:10.560 a point of comparison that I think is maybe worth 0:22:10.600 --> 0:22:14.960 making is to the actors who play Batman, where there's 0:22:15.000 --> 0:22:16.840 a dual role, where there's like, you know, you have 0:22:16.920 --> 0:22:19.439 your face revealed in one sense as Bruce Wayne, but 0:22:19.480 --> 0:22:21.959 then also for part of the movie you are just 0:22:22.000 --> 0:22:22.840 a mouth and chin. 0:22:23.520 --> 0:22:27.040 M yeah, so you know. Luckily, Peter Weller has a 0:22:27.119 --> 0:22:31.359 very handsome mouth and chin, very expressive. I think the 0:22:31.400 --> 0:22:35.320 other interesting thing that was surely intentional is that, especially 0:22:35.359 --> 0:22:38.359 at the time, he was a very gaunt actor, you know, 0:22:38.520 --> 0:22:41.600 a very thin man, which you know, you need a 0:22:41.640 --> 0:22:43.800 skeleton to go at the in the middle of all 0:22:43.800 --> 0:22:47.040 of that gear that he ends up wearing in the 0:22:47.119 --> 0:22:50.720 RoboCop suit. So I think that that probably was a 0:22:50.800 --> 0:22:53.320 huge factor as well. You need somebody that can literally 0:22:53.320 --> 0:22:56.600 be the skeleton of this thing. Now as Murphy, I 0:22:57.040 --> 0:22:59.240 you know, he's basically just a likable good cop that 0:22:59.280 --> 0:23:01.560 we don't really to know all that much. We learn 0:23:01.600 --> 0:23:04.600 more about him through RoboCop as he tries to reconnect 0:23:04.640 --> 0:23:07.840 with his past, and this results in various moments where 0:23:08.320 --> 0:23:12.720 RoboCop the cyborg is trying to connect with the remnants 0:23:12.720 --> 0:23:15.000 of his own humanity, you know, and his memories of 0:23:15.040 --> 0:23:18.120 his family, and I think Weller does a really great 0:23:18.160 --> 0:23:22.200 job in those moments, like they I kind of weld 0:23:22.280 --> 0:23:27.359 some tears up in those moments myself. And then also 0:23:27.520 --> 0:23:30.360 just as in terms of the action scenes, I think 0:23:30.400 --> 0:23:33.840 it's a very nice physical performance. So there are certainly 0:23:33.840 --> 0:23:37.159 times where the robot movements look silly, you know, walking 0:23:37.200 --> 0:23:39.919 around as RoboCop, and I think maybe they're supposed to, 0:23:40.160 --> 0:23:42.560 but there are also some great flourishes that really bring 0:23:42.680 --> 0:23:45.360 this metallic hulk to life. I think about the way 0:23:45.440 --> 0:23:48.720 that he positions his hands when he's firing that enormous 0:23:48.760 --> 0:23:51.520 pistol of his I don't know if this is something 0:23:51.520 --> 0:23:56.360 that actually makes sense in the use of a pistol, 0:23:56.400 --> 0:23:58.840 but it looks really good when RoboCop does it. 0:23:59.280 --> 0:24:02.120 Well, there's a range kind of ballet to the way 0:24:02.160 --> 0:24:04.920 that he moves, like he doesn't just raise his arm 0:24:05.000 --> 0:24:08.920 to shoot his RoboCop gun, if you know what I mean. 0:24:09.000 --> 0:24:10.919 Rob There are some shots where he can almost kind 0:24:10.960 --> 0:24:13.679 of like he raises both arms, like he raises his 0:24:13.760 --> 0:24:16.040 other arm as a kind of counterbalance. Is that what 0:24:16.040 --> 0:24:16.800 you're talking about? 0:24:17.000 --> 0:24:19.840 Yeah, yeah, it does feel very mechanical like this, like 0:24:19.920 --> 0:24:23.480 his upper torso is the turret of a tank, you know. 0:24:23.640 --> 0:24:27.320 Yeah, but also so I see, Yeah, it is mechanical, 0:24:27.480 --> 0:24:30.480 and it almost looks like he's doing a counterweight or counterbalance. 0:24:30.480 --> 0:24:33.000 But it also kind of looks like a dance like 0:24:32.840 --> 0:24:35.720 it like ballet or something where the arms both go out. 0:24:36.320 --> 0:24:38.720 Yeah. If they had not done those things, I think 0:24:38.800 --> 0:24:43.119 RoboCop the character would have been a lot more just 0:24:43.280 --> 0:24:47.280 visually unappealing. So I was noticing a lot of that 0:24:47.359 --> 0:24:50.200 and rewatching the film. Now Weller came back to play 0:24:50.840 --> 0:24:55.159 RoboCop again in the sequel RoboCop two, but by RoboCop three, 0:24:55.200 --> 0:24:57.480 he was played by a different actor, Robert John Burke 0:24:57.760 --> 0:25:02.040 of the best known probably for Thinner Dust Devil I'm 0:25:02.040 --> 0:25:04.399 to understand it well, or was unavailable because he was 0:25:04.400 --> 0:25:06.600 filming Cronenberg's Naked Lunch at that point. 0:25:07.560 --> 0:25:12.000 You know, I've never so RoboCop two is interesting. It 0:25:12.280 --> 0:25:15.320 I think it is quite good, but it's very different 0:25:15.440 --> 0:25:18.359 than the first RoboCop and has a has a different 0:25:18.480 --> 0:25:22.080 kind of mindset. RoboCop three I've never seen, but it's 0:25:22.119 --> 0:25:24.760 on paper seems like it could be hilarious, So I'm 0:25:24.880 --> 0:25:26.679 I kind of want to get into it. 0:25:26.680 --> 0:25:29.640 It has a great cast, and it's and it's interesting 0:25:29.720 --> 0:25:32.719 too in that by three they're like, you know, kids 0:25:32.760 --> 0:25:37.520 love RoboCop. Let's maybe let's make one that's not rated R. 0:25:38.560 --> 0:25:40.520 And so that's what they did. But yeah, I've never 0:25:40.640 --> 0:25:42.840 I've never seen it, but but I would like to 0:25:42.960 --> 0:25:46.520 love robo Cup two. It really ups the ante, especially 0:25:46.560 --> 0:25:48.800 on the stop motion violence. 0:25:49.119 --> 0:25:52.119 Yeah, so three has what I know about it is 0:25:52.119 --> 0:25:55.840 that I think it has rocket Ninjas and it is no. 0:25:56.440 --> 0:25:58.040 Its reputation is quite terrible. 0:25:58.480 --> 0:26:00.720 Yeah, but it has Stephen Root in it, so it's 0:26:00.800 --> 0:26:03.679 kind of got to apply to Stephen Root rule. How 0:26:03.720 --> 0:26:05.920 bad can it be if Stephen Root isn't it? I 0:26:05.920 --> 0:26:09.720 should also note that Weller has returned to voice RoboCop 0:26:09.920 --> 0:26:12.760 in recent years. I believe they put the character into 0:26:12.800 --> 0:26:15.399 one of the Mortal Kombat games. And there's a new 0:26:15.680 --> 0:26:20.080 RoboCop video game that I am not technologically equipped to play, 0:26:20.680 --> 0:26:22.879 but I've read some interesting things about it. Sounds like 0:26:22.920 --> 0:26:25.160 it does an interesting job of sort of drawing from 0:26:25.200 --> 0:26:29.800 all three films to create a like a fourth narrative 0:26:29.840 --> 0:26:32.800 that you can play through. I don't know that the 0:26:32.880 --> 0:26:36.480 satire is there. So if you've played this new RoboCop game, 0:26:37.320 --> 0:26:38.960 right in and tell us what you think. 0:26:39.320 --> 0:26:39.720 All right. 0:26:40.359 --> 0:26:44.000 The next actor of note is Nancy Allen playing the cop. 0:26:44.200 --> 0:26:48.320 Anne Lewis born nineteen fifty American actress who kicked off 0:26:48.320 --> 0:26:51.160 her film career in nineteen seventy three is the last detail. 0:26:51.800 --> 0:26:53.960 She followed this up with supporting roles in a string 0:26:54.000 --> 0:26:57.639 of horror movies, including seventy six Is Carrie, then a 0:26:57.680 --> 0:26:59.720 string of roles in films of the films of Brian 0:26:59.760 --> 0:27:03.000 the Alma seventy nine's Home Movies nineteen eighties Dressed to 0:27:03.119 --> 0:27:07.239 Kill and eighty one's Blowout After Robocops. She appeared in 0:27:07.280 --> 0:27:10.199 both Robo sequels. She was in Polter Guys three in 0:27:10.240 --> 0:27:12.800 eighty eight, she was in nineteen ninety eight Out of Sight, 0:27:13.640 --> 0:27:15.879 She was in Children of the Corn six six six, 0:27:15.960 --> 0:27:19.520 Isaac's return in nineteen ninety nine, and her last acting 0:27:19.560 --> 0:27:22.639 credit was in two thousand and eight, So it sounds 0:27:22.640 --> 0:27:26.280 like maybe she sort of quietly retired from cinema. 0:27:26.400 --> 0:27:28.920 Is Children of the Corn six six six the six 0:27:29.000 --> 0:27:31.520 hundred and sixty six movie in that series? 0:27:33.680 --> 0:27:35.560 It might be. I feel like there are that many 0:27:35.600 --> 0:27:38.480 of them. I've attempted to look. I don't think I've 0:27:38.520 --> 0:27:42.000 ever seen one. I love Stephen King's original short story. 0:27:42.000 --> 0:27:45.240 It's very creepy, but it's hard to figure out where 0:27:45.280 --> 0:27:48.960 to even contemplate beginning with the Children of the Corn movies. 0:27:49.040 --> 0:27:51.040 Why would it take Isaac that long to return? 0:27:52.400 --> 0:27:53.800 I don't know. I think maybe he was out for 0:27:53.840 --> 0:27:55.040 a movie or two. I don't know. 0:27:55.080 --> 0:28:00.760 Okay, so I really really love Nancy Allen as Lewis 0:28:00.760 --> 0:28:04.120 and RoboCop. Maybe my all time favorite buddy cop partner 0:28:04.680 --> 0:28:09.000 in a buddy cop movie. So the movie shows kind 0:28:09.000 --> 0:28:11.960 of multiple ways that the police characters react to the 0:28:12.840 --> 0:28:16.520 pressures that they're under in this plot. You know, some 0:28:16.640 --> 0:28:20.320 of the cops in the movie just become unthinking functionaries 0:28:20.320 --> 0:28:23.679 of OCP, Like they just keep their heads down, do 0:28:23.760 --> 0:28:26.040 what the boss says. They don't ask questions, even when 0:28:26.040 --> 0:28:29.520 they are essentially ordered to assassinate RoboCop. Later in the movie. 0:28:30.000 --> 0:28:33.040 Others are shown having emotional crises, like there's one guy 0:28:33.080 --> 0:28:35.920 who just always in every scene seems to be freaking out. 0:28:37.119 --> 0:28:41.160 Lewis is an interesting like she keeps cool under pressure, 0:28:41.200 --> 0:28:44.520 and she thinks for herself and she uses compassion. She's 0:28:44.560 --> 0:28:47.280 the one who's able to understand what's going on, to 0:28:47.360 --> 0:28:51.520 see that RoboCop is actually Murphy when she gets in 0:28:51.560 --> 0:28:55.360 his face and says, it's you Murphy. Yeah, And to 0:28:55.440 --> 0:28:57.680 see that there's some part of him that is still human, 0:28:57.720 --> 0:28:59.760 and to save his life when Dick Jones is trying 0:28:59.760 --> 0:29:03.480 to have destroyed in the third act or second or third, 0:29:03.480 --> 0:29:05.560 I don't know, later on in the movie, and I 0:29:05.560 --> 0:29:08.600 think Nancy Allen does a great job with this role. 0:29:08.760 --> 0:29:12.960 She's she's tough, down to earth, plays it smart human. 0:29:13.280 --> 0:29:14.560 I really like her in this role. 0:29:15.080 --> 0:29:18.440 Oh yeah, she's really the heart and soul of this 0:29:18.560 --> 0:29:20.920 movie in many ways, in a very real sense and 0:29:20.960 --> 0:29:24.000 an intentional sense, you know. And she's and it's also 0:29:24.040 --> 0:29:26.880 great that she's not written as a love interest. Yeah, 0:29:26.920 --> 0:29:28.960 you know, she's a capable action hero in her own 0:29:29.040 --> 0:29:32.520 right in an action movie, but her compassion is really 0:29:32.560 --> 0:29:35.640 her main strength. And that's and without her, if you 0:29:35.640 --> 0:29:38.920 take her character out of this, you don't get any 0:29:39.000 --> 0:29:41.640 kind of a positive resolution for the characters in the setting. 0:29:42.080 --> 0:29:44.280 I agree. I think a lesser movie would have tried 0:29:44.320 --> 0:29:47.120 to have some kind of romantic relationship between the two, 0:29:47.160 --> 0:29:49.880 and it just that's not what this relationship is about. 0:29:49.960 --> 0:29:51.600 And I'm glad they didn't go that direction. 0:29:52.560 --> 0:29:57.480 I watched a featurette on the Arrow Blu Ray where 0:29:57.480 --> 0:30:01.600 they're interviewing her about this role, and Nancy Allen does 0:30:01.640 --> 0:30:03.920 point out it's very interesting how she ended up getting 0:30:04.040 --> 0:30:06.520 the part, and you know, the sort of callback experience 0:30:06.560 --> 0:30:08.840 and so forth. But she said she showed up in 0:30:08.920 --> 0:30:11.000 Dallas and they were like, how about a shorter haircut? 0:30:11.080 --> 0:30:13.320 And because she had longer hair, and she's like, okay, 0:30:13.360 --> 0:30:14.840 she gets it, goes out, gets her haircut, and then 0:30:14.840 --> 0:30:17.680 she's like, oh my god, I got my haircut way 0:30:17.720 --> 0:30:20.520 too short. I've got a terrible haircut for this movie. 0:30:20.600 --> 0:30:22.840 I don't think it looks terrible, but it is very short. 0:30:23.960 --> 0:30:27.560 So it's interesting to think about that. Looking at the character, 0:30:27.720 --> 0:30:30.640 I think it ultimately works really well for the character. 0:30:30.720 --> 0:30:32.640 But at the time I think she was a little horrified. 0:30:32.680 --> 0:30:34.120 She was like, I think I've gone too far. 0:30:34.600 --> 0:30:36.520 I think this was the first movie I saw Nancy 0:30:36.560 --> 0:30:38.480 Allen in, so I just think of this as her 0:30:38.560 --> 0:30:40.560 natural haircut. So when I see her in other stuff 0:30:40.560 --> 0:30:42.520 with longer hair, I'm like, oh, here she has long hair. 0:30:42.600 --> 0:30:45.840 Now, all right, let's get into some of the corporate 0:30:46.000 --> 0:30:48.240 characters here. We'll also come back to a few cops. 0:30:48.840 --> 0:30:51.760 This is we've talked about this actor before, but Dan 0:30:51.840 --> 0:30:54.800 o'hurlehey plays the old Man. 0:30:55.320 --> 0:30:58.760 Oh boy, the villain from Halloween three, shows up as 0:30:58.800 --> 0:31:01.480 a I don't know is he a villain? And yeah, 0:31:01.760 --> 0:31:04.920 he's a sort of unwitting villain in this movie. You 0:31:04.960 --> 0:31:08.800 don't see him. He's not as direct of a schemer 0:31:08.880 --> 0:31:11.000 as some of the other corporate villains. He's more just 0:31:11.080 --> 0:31:13.760 kind of like sitting there presiding over all of the 0:31:13.800 --> 0:31:16.480 wickedness that goes on, mostly oblivious to it. 0:31:17.120 --> 0:31:19.400 I you know, going into this, and perhaps the character 0:31:19.480 --> 0:31:22.240 changes a bit in the sequels, I don't remember. I've 0:31:22.240 --> 0:31:24.160 probably seen Rebel Coop two more than I've seen any 0:31:24.200 --> 0:31:26.360 of them, so maybe he's more of a villain in too. 0:31:26.440 --> 0:31:29.520 But in this one I feel like he is essentially 0:31:30.360 --> 0:31:34.760 God or perhaps Zeus. You know, he's The corporate meeting 0:31:34.880 --> 0:31:38.080 rooms of OCP are in a place where skycris skyscrapers 0:31:38.120 --> 0:31:41.200 touch the heavens, and his appearance at a meeting is 0:31:41.240 --> 0:31:43.920 spoken of in terms of a holy visitation, and we 0:31:44.000 --> 0:31:46.520 never hear his name. He's just the old man. It 0:31:46.560 --> 0:31:50.120 really does feel like he actually comes down for these 0:31:50.160 --> 0:31:53.960 meetings from heaven or from Mount Olympus, carrying with him 0:31:54.000 --> 0:31:57.320 the aloofness and distance of a divine father who wants 0:31:57.360 --> 0:32:00.480 the best for his creations. He wants to create Delta City. Remember, 0:32:00.520 --> 0:32:04.680 he's the idea man. All this robot cop stuff is 0:32:04.800 --> 0:32:07.600 just in service to this grand dream that is going 0:32:07.680 --> 0:32:09.960 to make the world better, at least for some people. 0:32:11.320 --> 0:32:13.640 He wants to fix his creation, but he doesn't really 0:32:13.720 --> 0:32:15.480 understand mortal existence. All that. 0:32:15.560 --> 0:32:19.160 Well, you're right, and I think the comparison dozeus his 0:32:19.280 --> 0:32:22.160 apt because in some ways he is kind of an 0:32:22.560 --> 0:32:26.520 arbiter of justice or a moral authority in some way, 0:32:26.520 --> 0:32:29.000 but he doesn't really seem to have much understanding of 0:32:29.040 --> 0:32:32.720 morality at all. It's like he is like an amorl 0:32:32.960 --> 0:32:34.120 arbiter of justice. 0:32:34.880 --> 0:32:37.760 Yeah. Yeah, so it's an interesting role to look at again, 0:32:37.840 --> 0:32:40.080 thinking of it's easy to go in and think about 0:32:40.080 --> 0:32:42.360 his role in Halloween three, you know, where he is 0:32:43.000 --> 0:32:46.760 this evil corporate guy, and we also talked about him 0:32:46.760 --> 0:32:49.160 in the last Starfighter episode we did he plays he 0:32:49.160 --> 0:32:52.200 plays a good guy in that he's covered in alien makeup. 0:32:52.840 --> 0:32:55.080 In this I guess I would say he is functionally 0:32:55.160 --> 0:32:58.320 a bad guy in terms of the effects of his behavior, 0:32:58.440 --> 0:33:01.920 but he is doesn't have bad guy energy on screen. 0:33:02.400 --> 0:33:05.720 He's just sort of like an oblivious god who's bumbling 0:33:05.760 --> 0:33:08.719 around destroying people without really realizing it. 0:33:09.160 --> 0:33:11.960 Yeah, and ultimately he's not a power to be overcome 0:33:12.080 --> 0:33:15.200 by our heroes, but to be appealed to. Yeah, so 0:33:15.640 --> 0:33:17.520 we'll talk about that when we talk about the climax. 0:33:17.560 --> 0:33:21.680 But yeah. Dan O Hurley great actor of stage and screen. 0:33:21.720 --> 0:33:24.600 He lived nineteen nineteen through two thousand and five. Ah, 0:33:24.680 --> 0:33:27.000 but then we are true villain. Are one of our 0:33:27.000 --> 0:33:30.280 true villains on the corporate end of things. Here is 0:33:30.360 --> 0:33:33.400 the character Dick Jones played by Ronnie Cox. 0:33:33.680 --> 0:33:36.560 Dick Jones is one of my all time favorite movie villains. 0:33:36.680 --> 0:33:39.840 I love him, and I love all the corporate villains 0:33:39.840 --> 0:33:42.840 in this movie, but Dick Jones is great and Ronnie 0:33:42.920 --> 0:33:46.360 Cox in this role. Ronnie Cox was simply born to 0:33:46.440 --> 0:33:50.760 play business creeps in Paul Verhoven films. One of my 0:33:50.840 --> 0:33:54.200 other favorites is his role as Coohagan, the villain who 0:33:54.280 --> 0:33:57.280 runs the for profit in Ours Colony in Total Recall. 0:33:58.200 --> 0:34:01.080 And this is a spoiler for Total Recalls though if 0:34:01.080 --> 0:34:03.720 you don't want it spoiled, closure ears for a second. 0:34:03.760 --> 0:34:06.920 But in that movie, if you'll recall, he wants to 0:34:07.040 --> 0:34:09.920 prevent the use of an alien device that will make 0:34:10.000 --> 0:34:13.440 the atmosphere of Mars breatheable because he wants to protect 0:34:13.480 --> 0:34:16.080 his racket selling oxygen to the Mars colonists. 0:34:16.440 --> 0:34:18.000 Yeah, yeah, what is scoundrel? 0:34:19.000 --> 0:34:19.160 Though? 0:34:19.200 --> 0:34:22.680 It's interesting. I was digging into it and this movie. 0:34:23.400 --> 0:34:26.600 You know, you now think of Ronnie Cox, you think 0:34:26.600 --> 0:34:29.560 of characters like Jones, But apparently he was playing somewhat 0:34:29.560 --> 0:34:32.520 against type on this one. He'd been mostly known for 0:34:32.560 --> 0:34:37.080 playing pleasant, white collar type characters. He made his screen 0:34:37.120 --> 0:34:40.719 debut in the nineteen seventy two John Borman thriller Deliverance. 0:34:41.400 --> 0:34:43.800 We see him playing the guitar, and he's actually playing 0:34:43.800 --> 0:34:46.560 the guitar in that dueling banjo scene because he's also 0:34:46.560 --> 0:34:47.480 a singer songwriter. 0:34:48.160 --> 0:34:50.600 He is the character in Deliverance who has like the 0:34:50.680 --> 0:34:54.440 strongest moral compass. The others are are more like ruthless 0:34:54.480 --> 0:34:57.040 and practical, and he's like, no, we've got to go 0:34:57.080 --> 0:34:59.600 to the authorities and explain what happened and admit what 0:34:59.640 --> 0:35:02.640 we did and all that, and you know, Bert Reynolds 0:35:02.640 --> 0:35:04.560 has to argue with him and say, no, we got 0:35:04.560 --> 0:35:09.360 to cover it up, which, again, yes, I guess seems 0:35:09.440 --> 0:35:12.719 against type to me because I was more familiar with 0:35:12.800 --> 0:35:15.080 him playing characters like Dick Jones. But yeah, I guess 0:35:15.120 --> 0:35:16.800 you could look at it the other way around as well. 0:35:17.400 --> 0:35:21.080 Yeah. The same year, seventy two, he also pops up 0:35:21.080 --> 0:35:23.759 in The Mind Snatchers, a sci fi film that has 0:35:23.760 --> 0:35:27.920 a cast that includes Christopher Walken, Joss Ackland, and Tom Aldridge. 0:35:28.480 --> 0:35:30.560 So some interesting names in there, I've never seen it. 0:35:30.880 --> 0:35:32.920 A fair amount of TV work followed, but he popped 0:35:32.960 --> 0:35:34.880 up in seventy nine's The Onion Field, eighty two is 0:35:34.920 --> 0:35:38.480 the Beast within eighty four's Beverly Hills Cop, it's sequel, 0:35:38.800 --> 0:35:41.960 and then he did Robo Cop. Subsequent credits include not 0:35:42.000 --> 0:35:45.960 only Total Recall, but the nineteen ninety Captain America film, 0:35:46.280 --> 0:35:49.800 the TV series Cop rock Star Trek the Next Generation, 0:35:50.000 --> 0:35:52.480 and I don't remember this, but apparently has an uncredited 0:35:52.560 --> 0:35:53.600 role in Deep Blue Sea. 0:35:54.040 --> 0:35:56.680 Is he basically playing Dick Jones in that? Like he's 0:35:56.680 --> 0:36:00.000 a corporate I would have Silver Lord. Yeah. 0:36:00.080 --> 0:36:02.920 Yeah, because it's kind of like post RoboCop. That's one 0:36:02.960 --> 0:36:05.319 of the main reasons you're thinking about casting him. I'm like, 0:36:05.360 --> 0:36:07.879 I'm guessing, and you know, basically probably printed money there 0:36:07.880 --> 0:36:08.400 for a while. 0:36:08.719 --> 0:36:12.439 You can imagine the Deep Blue Sea is just in 0:36:12.640 --> 0:36:16.360 the RoboCop universe, like they're making smart sharks. That just 0:36:16.360 --> 0:36:18.120 seems like another thing OCP would do. 0:36:18.960 --> 0:36:22.840 Yeah. I don't think I said his birthday. He was 0:36:22.840 --> 0:36:25.040 born in nineteen thirty eight, and he's still out there. 0:36:25.040 --> 0:36:28.480 I think he still performs as a musician as a musician, 0:36:28.480 --> 0:36:30.479 and I think he may still be active as an actor. 0:36:30.480 --> 0:36:33.160 I don't recall off hand. Oh, but we have another 0:36:33.200 --> 0:36:36.920 corporate character to talk about here, the character Bob Morton 0:36:37.360 --> 0:36:40.839 played by Miguel Ferrer, who lived nineteen fifty five through 0:36:40.840 --> 0:36:43.920 twenty seventeen, American actor and son of Jose Ferrer and 0:36:44.040 --> 0:36:47.239 Rosemary Clooney, which of course made him George Clooney's cousin. 0:36:48.400 --> 0:36:50.560 George Clooney apparently showed up with him to a lot 0:36:50.600 --> 0:36:53.640 of these auditions back in the day they were oh 0:36:53.840 --> 0:36:54.480 living together. 0:36:54.560 --> 0:36:57.319 Yeah, what if a young George Clooney had been in 0:36:57.440 --> 0:37:01.400 RoboCop Farrera. 0:37:01.800 --> 0:37:04.919 He had a real knack for playing scoundrels started off 0:37:04.920 --> 0:37:08.480 in early eighties television and some forgettable films. Pops up 0:37:08.520 --> 0:37:11.759 as a first officer in Star Trek three after Robocopy 0:37:11.800 --> 0:37:14.719 appeared in nineteen eighty nine's Deep Star six, one of 0:37:14.760 --> 0:37:17.479 the many underwater horror films of eighty nine. 0:37:17.800 --> 0:37:21.800 I think he undergoes a harrowing, explosive decompression in that film. 0:37:22.320 --> 0:37:25.400 Oh man, that's probably right. He was in nineteen nineties 0:37:25.400 --> 0:37:27.799 The Guardian ninety two's Twin Peaks. Fire Walk with Me 0:37:27.920 --> 0:37:31.040 ninety four is the stand the mini series this Man 0:37:31.120 --> 0:37:33.600 did three episodes of Tales from the Crypt I think 0:37:33.600 --> 0:37:37.040 that's commendable. I'm not sure who else did that many. 0:37:38.040 --> 0:37:41.160 He was also in ninety six's Project Alf ninety seven 0:37:41.239 --> 0:37:44.799 is the night Flyer Moulan. In nineteen ninety eight he 0:37:44.800 --> 0:37:46.759 did the voice of the main villain. He was in 0:37:46.800 --> 0:37:49.520 two Thousands Traffic, and he pops up in Iron Man 0:37:49.560 --> 0:37:52.000 three and twenty thirteen. He did a lot of voice 0:37:52.000 --> 0:37:54.320 work late in his career and appeared in the twenty 0:37:54.320 --> 0:37:55.880 seventeen Twin Peaks revival. 0:37:56.320 --> 0:37:59.120 Miguel Ferrer is also great in this movie. Like I said, 0:37:59.120 --> 0:38:01.560 I love all the corporate villains. He's a perfect foil 0:38:01.600 --> 0:38:05.959 to Dick Jones. So Ronnie Cox is older, colder, more calculating, 0:38:06.360 --> 0:38:10.279 and Miguel Ferrera's character, Bob Morton is a young hotshot 0:38:10.280 --> 0:38:14.399 who thinks he's the next big thing, and they play 0:38:14.440 --> 0:38:17.399 off of each other well, but they're like both so detestable. 0:38:18.080 --> 0:38:22.759 Yeah yeah, Like Morton comes off as more likable in 0:38:22.800 --> 0:38:26.200 some regards, but it's because he's less directly awful and 0:38:26.320 --> 0:38:31.239 also doesn't resort to direct murder, though is also is 0:38:31.320 --> 0:38:34.839 very culpable for human deaths, So it's like they are 0:38:34.880 --> 0:38:38.160 both horrible, but they're different shades and degrees of the 0:38:38.200 --> 0:38:41.920 same awfulness. Yeah, Morton's this ambitious, coked up business bro 0:38:42.280 --> 0:38:44.680 who's definitely going to high five you in the men's room, 0:38:45.120 --> 0:38:47.640 but you know, at the end of the day, he's 0:38:47.640 --> 0:38:51.040 totally gonna sign off on civilian or police deaths if 0:38:51.080 --> 0:38:52.840 it lets him advance. 0:38:52.480 --> 0:38:53.440 Up the corporate ladder. 0:38:53.800 --> 0:38:56.719 Yeah, these are two corporate characters, one more villainous than 0:38:56.719 --> 0:38:58.160 the other. Both of both I think you could think 0:38:58.160 --> 0:39:03.320 of his villains, but are they're essentially both lawful evil 0:39:03.360 --> 0:39:05.840 to a certain degree. We also have to have a 0:39:05.880 --> 0:39:08.160 little chaotic evil in this and that's where we have 0:39:08.239 --> 0:39:11.680 the character Clarence Bodiker played by kurtwood Smith. 0:39:12.400 --> 0:39:16.239 Yeah. This raises another interesting theme of RoboCop, which is 0:39:16.280 --> 0:39:19.680 it depicts a world of an alliance between sort of 0:39:19.760 --> 0:39:23.839 big capital and big crime, like the criminal bosses and 0:39:23.880 --> 0:39:28.120 the corporate bosses essentially are working together against everybody else. 0:39:29.040 --> 0:39:32.480 Yeah. Yeah, Yeah. Other antagonists in the film, though, are 0:39:32.560 --> 0:39:34.680 very much part of the corporate machine. You know, It's 0:39:34.760 --> 0:39:38.400 like they're to large degrees they can just be like, 0:39:38.440 --> 0:39:40.600 I'm just trying to climb up the corporate ladder here, 0:39:40.640 --> 0:39:43.200 I'm just doing what I have to do. I am 0:39:43.239 --> 0:39:46.160 part of this company. I'm part of OCP. But yeah, 0:39:46.200 --> 0:39:50.759 Clarence Bodicker is very much of the criminal world and 0:39:50.880 --> 0:39:54.680 is just evil. Just doesn't seem to love anything in life. 0:39:54.719 --> 0:39:58.719 It's just full of hate and violence. Even his cronies 0:39:58.760 --> 0:39:59.480 are not safe. 0:40:00.080 --> 0:40:02.960 He does seem to genuinely love crime like he loves 0:40:03.000 --> 0:40:03.480 his work. 0:40:04.000 --> 0:40:08.400 Yeah. Now. Kurtwood Smith the born nineteen forty three is 0:40:08.440 --> 0:40:11.319 an American actor of stage, screen, and TV that may 0:40:11.360 --> 0:40:13.440 be best known to many for his role as the 0:40:13.560 --> 0:40:17.120 dad on That seventies show, but this was his big 0:40:17.160 --> 0:40:20.720 breakout film role. And this was another case where, according 0:40:20.760 --> 0:40:22.200 to some of the extras, I was looking at you know, 0:40:22.480 --> 0:40:25.400 was very much against against type. This is not a 0:40:25.400 --> 0:40:28.000 guy who'd done a bunch of villain roles. They were 0:40:28.000 --> 0:40:32.360 thinking about other sort of established villainous actors like Michael Ironside, 0:40:32.960 --> 0:40:38.320 but they ended up liking kurtwood Smith apparently because Verhoven 0:40:39.120 --> 0:40:43.080 liked how he kind of looked like Heinrich Himmler in 0:40:43.400 --> 0:40:46.200 The Little Glasses. He liked the idea of this being 0:40:46.239 --> 0:40:50.279 like a more of a cerebral villain to be to 0:40:50.320 --> 0:40:54.040 be the adversary of RoboCop, who obviously nobody's gonna best 0:40:54.120 --> 0:40:57.640 RoboCop physically, no human is anyway, as we'll see, So 0:40:57.680 --> 0:41:00.120 you need somebody who's more scheming, someone who's more of 0:41:00.120 --> 0:41:00.800 a hyena. 0:41:01.360 --> 0:41:04.520 I can see how this movie would have been again 0:41:04.600 --> 0:41:06.880 diminished if it had gone a different direction, if you 0:41:06.920 --> 0:41:09.919 had the standard boxy, tough guy in the heavy role, 0:41:10.719 --> 0:41:14.040 not Toss Michael Ironside. I mean, I love Michael Ironside, 0:41:14.080 --> 0:41:17.600 but the casting of a slightly nerdy looking but still 0:41:17.640 --> 0:41:22.040 imposing actor like Smith here is really inspired for this role, 0:41:22.080 --> 0:41:24.520 and it makes the character as memorable as he is 0:41:24.600 --> 0:41:28.600 instead of just another violent Hinchman. The Himmler image does 0:41:28.680 --> 0:41:32.680 come through. There seems to be something not just brutal, 0:41:32.800 --> 0:41:36.560 but kind of transcendentally evil about the Bodicker we got, 0:41:36.880 --> 0:41:38.920 and it's also there in his name. He's not like, 0:41:39.120 --> 0:41:43.160 you know, Biff Drago, He's Clarence Bodiker. 0:41:44.120 --> 0:41:48.280 Yeah. Yeah, it's a great performance. He's just so so nasty, 0:41:48.360 --> 0:41:53.440 so sadistic, and like the scene where he's eventually apprehended 0:41:53.440 --> 0:41:56.440 by RoboCop, roughed up and brought in and he's like spitting, 0:41:56.600 --> 0:42:01.279 he spits blood onto the Police Desk just just a 0:42:01.360 --> 0:42:05.240 wonderful performance. He followed up RoboCop with roles in nineteen 0:42:05.280 --> 0:42:08.520 eighty eight Rambo, Three Dead Poets Society, in eighty nine, 0:42:08.560 --> 0:42:12.359 Star Trek, The Undiscovered Country, ninety two's Fortress, ninety three's 0:42:12.400 --> 0:42:16.360 Boxing Helena, and ninety five's Under Siege, Too Dark Territory, 0:42:16.360 --> 0:42:17.440 plus lots more. 0:42:17.760 --> 0:42:21.600 Under Siege, Too Dark Territory. That's a movie with hacking 0:42:21.840 --> 0:42:25.640 in it. Yes, if you haven't seen it, it's about hacking, 0:42:26.360 --> 0:42:26.640 all right. 0:42:26.680 --> 0:42:28.640 Getting back into the cop characters a bit. We have 0:42:28.760 --> 0:42:32.439 Robert Dukey in this playing Sergeant Reid With nineteen thirty 0:42:32.440 --> 0:42:35.359 four through two thousand and eight, another mainstay of all 0:42:35.400 --> 0:42:38.439 three RoboCop movies. His acting credits go all the way 0:42:38.440 --> 0:42:41.120 back to the original Outer Limits. In the sixties, he 0:42:41.160 --> 0:42:43.080 worked a lot in TV and film. He did one 0:42:43.120 --> 0:42:46.719 of the voices on the nineteen sixties Harlem Globetrotter's cartoon, 0:42:47.320 --> 0:42:49.440 and he had a memorable turn as the villain in 0:42:49.440 --> 0:42:53.280 the nineteen seventy three black exploitation film Coffee, which starred 0:42:53.280 --> 0:42:56.680 Pam Greer. He acted in three Robert Altman movies, seventy 0:42:56.680 --> 0:42:59.960 five's Nashville seventy six is Buffalo Bill and the Indians 0:43:00.080 --> 0:43:03.520 or Setting Bull's History lesson and nineteen ninety three shortcuts. 0:43:04.040 --> 0:43:06.160 In this he plays the police sergeant who is putting 0:43:06.200 --> 0:43:10.239 up with impossible pressures imposed by OCP as they've come 0:43:10.239 --> 0:43:11.080 in and taken over. 0:43:11.640 --> 0:43:14.440 So, yeah, it's a pretty standard role, but a notable actor, 0:43:14.760 --> 0:43:17.120 all right. Getting back into the criminal world. Here we 0:43:17.160 --> 0:43:21.120 have Ray Wise playing Leon Nash. This is one of 0:43:21.200 --> 0:43:25.840 the criminal henchmen. To Botiker born nineteen forty seven. Wives 0:43:25.880 --> 0:43:28.120 is probably best known for his role of Leland Palmer 0:43:28.160 --> 0:43:30.840 and Twin Peaks, but he also played the doom doctor 0:43:30.880 --> 0:43:34.439 Alex Holland and Wes Craven's Swamp Thing from nineteen eighty two. 0:43:34.960 --> 0:43:38.160 Other credits include eighty two's Cat People, Cheevers, Creepers two 0:43:38.200 --> 0:43:40.839 from two thousand and three, X Men First Class from 0:43:40.840 --> 0:43:44.840 twenty eleven, and Wrong Cops from twenty thirteen. Like a 0:43:44.840 --> 0:43:46.640 lot of these actors, he was apparently going in a 0:43:46.640 --> 0:43:50.920 somewhat different direction here, a little bit against type in 0:43:50.960 --> 0:43:52.160 the casting of this movie. 0:43:52.360 --> 0:43:54.520 Yeah, he also has a kind of weird energy as 0:43:54.520 --> 0:43:55.960 a henchman that it works. 0:43:56.360 --> 0:43:59.640 Yeah. We also have to mention we mentioned Emil already. 0:43:59.680 --> 0:44:02.560 This is one of the other violent members of the gang, 0:44:03.280 --> 0:44:06.000 has more of a anarchist vibe to him. You know, 0:44:06.040 --> 0:44:09.120 he's got the punk haircut and so forth. He is 0:44:09.160 --> 0:44:12.120 also a spoiler alert, he's the guy who gets melted 0:44:12.160 --> 0:44:14.120 by toxic waste. 0:44:14.520 --> 0:44:17.040 The extent to which RoboCop is a melt movie is 0:44:17.640 --> 0:44:20.960 non zero. There is a melting scene, and Emil is 0:44:21.000 --> 0:44:22.960 the poor soul who melts. 0:44:23.200 --> 0:44:27.120 Yeah. Played by Paul mccrane born nineteen sixty one. He 0:44:27.120 --> 0:44:29.920 made a big splash, you know, unintended because he does 0:44:29.960 --> 0:44:33.000 splash in this movie. But he made a big splash 0:44:33.080 --> 0:44:35.520 in nineteen eighty's Fame, and he was also a lot 0:44:35.600 --> 0:44:39.080 later a long time cast member on Er. He doesn't 0:44:39.080 --> 0:44:41.480 melt in either of those films, but he did follow 0:44:41.520 --> 0:44:44.920 up RoboCop with nineteen eighty eight's The Blob, so maybe 0:44:44.920 --> 0:44:47.439 he hadn't had quite enough melting yet at this point 0:44:47.480 --> 0:44:49.759 in his career. I did see in some of the 0:44:49.760 --> 0:44:51.400 exits they were like, oh, he was really down for 0:44:51.480 --> 0:44:53.600 all this makeup. He was down for this melt scene. 0:44:53.640 --> 0:44:58.720 So he both melts and splashes in the same role. Yeah, 0:44:59.040 --> 0:44:59.560 it's weird. 0:44:59.600 --> 0:45:03.680 Rewatch this film knowing how horrible this character's fate is. 0:45:03.719 --> 0:45:06.680 And even as we're shown how horrible this character is, 0:45:06.719 --> 0:45:09.560 like he is not a nice guy, but his fate 0:45:09.680 --> 0:45:12.840 is so disgusting that you can't help but feel a 0:45:12.840 --> 0:45:14.600 little bad for him and see him at least as 0:45:14.600 --> 0:45:17.160 some sort of a tragic character. You want to be like, oh, dude, 0:45:17.160 --> 0:45:19.719 you're making all these terrible choices in life, and we 0:45:19.800 --> 0:45:20.960 know where they are leading you. 0:45:21.239 --> 0:45:23.600 Well, his friends are like Bodiker in the gang, and 0:45:23.640 --> 0:45:27.120 they don't. It just shows how unloyal they are to 0:45:27.200 --> 0:45:29.480 each other when the way they react to him, like 0:45:29.520 --> 0:45:31.920 he's melting and he runs up on ray Wise, and 0:45:32.000 --> 0:45:35.040 ray Wise is he goes like help be and ray 0:45:35.040 --> 0:45:37.400 Wise is just like, don't touch me. Man. 0:45:38.320 --> 0:45:42.520 Yeah. Now you're going back into the corporate world in 0:45:42.560 --> 0:45:44.239 the midst of all of these villains and all it's 0:45:44.280 --> 0:45:46.359 easy to miss some how great some of these other 0:45:46.480 --> 0:45:50.040 small performances are like you have this character Donald Johnson, 0:45:51.560 --> 0:45:55.480 who's this kind of I guess a corporate OCP, yes man, 0:45:56.040 --> 0:45:59.400 and also just sort of a business goblin. I don't know, 0:45:59.680 --> 0:46:03.560 he's he's always there in these scenes. He's never he's 0:46:03.600 --> 0:46:05.680 never the you know, the central point of the scene, 0:46:05.719 --> 0:46:08.400 but he's he's there, He's attending all these business meetings 0:46:09.400 --> 0:46:11.680 and he makes every scene better. 0:46:11.880 --> 0:46:14.160 Yet he smiles a lot. He just brings a real 0:46:14.320 --> 0:46:18.400 positive energy to these board meetings where robots murder his colleagues. 0:46:18.880 --> 0:46:21.680 Yeah. Yeah, and he's largely unfazed by it. He's like, 0:46:22.480 --> 0:46:23.680 business has got to keep moving. 0:46:23.880 --> 0:46:27.000 Looks like we hit a snag. Yeah we'll well, we'll 0:46:27.000 --> 0:46:28.959 do better next time. Yeah. 0:46:29.080 --> 0:46:32.240 Yeah. This character is played by Felton Perry born nineteen 0:46:32.320 --> 0:46:36.560 forty five. He was also in nineteen seventy three's Magnum Force. 0:46:36.760 --> 0:46:39.040 He did a lot of TV, played a lot of detectives, 0:46:39.840 --> 0:46:42.240 and with a cast member on the nineteen eighty series 0:46:42.280 --> 0:46:43.439 The Greatest American Hero. 0:46:52.600 --> 0:46:55.960 Now, RoboCop has a lot of great special effects and 0:46:56.239 --> 0:47:00.000 one notably terrible but in a lovable way special effect. 0:47:00.040 --> 0:47:01.400 So I feel like we got to talk about the 0:47:01.680 --> 0:47:02.359 effects a bit. 0:47:03.120 --> 0:47:06.400 Yeah, And as always, we can't mention everybody like this 0:47:06.840 --> 0:47:08.839 especially is a film where you had a whole crew 0:47:08.880 --> 0:47:12.520 of very talented artists in different fields and we can't 0:47:12.520 --> 0:47:14.560 possibly cover them all. So we're just going to cover 0:47:14.719 --> 0:47:17.400 I think like three main names that should be mentioned. 0:47:17.840 --> 0:47:18.280 First. 0:47:18.719 --> 0:47:22.279 We've already mentioned the melting and the makeup involved there. 0:47:22.760 --> 0:47:26.959 Rob Botein has special makeup effects credit on this Born 0:47:27.040 --> 0:47:30.960 nineteen fifty nine. A true cinematic gore master, and I 0:47:31.040 --> 0:47:32.759 think this is the first film we've looked at on 0:47:32.800 --> 0:47:36.680 Weird House that has directly involved him. His makeup credits 0:47:36.680 --> 0:47:39.920 include So many Great Things, Squirm from seventy six, The 0:47:39.920 --> 0:47:43.480 Original Star Wars from seventy seven, The Howling from eighty one, 0:47:43.560 --> 0:47:47.359 John Carpenter's The Thing from eighty two, Legend from eighty five, 0:47:47.560 --> 0:47:51.279 Total Recall from nineteen ninety. He also did creature designs 0:47:51.440 --> 0:47:54.440 on nineteen eighties Humanoids from the Deep That's a fish 0:47:54.480 --> 0:47:58.680 Man Movie, ninety seven's Mimic, and nineteen ninety eight's Deep Rising. 0:47:59.120 --> 0:48:01.360 His work on The Thing is especially iconic. 0:48:01.600 --> 0:48:04.120 Oh yeah, I mean this is just a master of 0:48:04.840 --> 0:48:09.400 practical makeup effects. You know, these are things that you know, 0:48:09.719 --> 0:48:11.680 you got to throw him into the same conversation with 0:48:12.160 --> 0:48:16.160 names like Screaming Mad George. You know, just an absolute master. 0:48:16.640 --> 0:48:18.800 He doesn't seem to have worked much in the twenty 0:48:18.800 --> 0:48:20.719 first century at all, though, at least in terms of 0:48:21.000 --> 0:48:23.320 being credited on things. And I have to realize I 0:48:23.360 --> 0:48:25.440 don't know. We always stress this, but it's my understanding 0:48:25.480 --> 0:48:28.520 that sometimes affects people's names don't actually make it into 0:48:28.560 --> 0:48:30.799 the final credit some things, So I don't know. Maybe 0:48:30.800 --> 0:48:34.400 he's working in other capacities behind the scenes. But according 0:48:34.400 --> 0:48:36.760 to you know, like the databases outside of a working 0:48:36.760 --> 0:48:40.240 on an episode of Game of Thrones, yea, his his 0:48:40.480 --> 0:48:42.800 work in recent decades has been sparse. 0:48:43.239 --> 0:48:47.040 Do do we know or just assume that Beteen is 0:48:47.920 --> 0:48:50.680 largely responsible for the emial melting scene. 0:48:51.560 --> 0:48:53.719 I didn't double check it. It's probably there's so many 0:48:53.760 --> 0:48:57.160 extras the ero release I didn't get to watch them all, 0:48:57.200 --> 0:48:59.680 but I assume he had to be have played a 0:48:59.719 --> 0:49:02.279 pivot role in that. It's just too disgusting looking. 0:49:02.400 --> 0:49:05.799 Okay, but another main effect. So there are a lot 0:49:05.840 --> 0:49:08.200 of great special makeup effects in the movie. Also, there 0:49:08.200 --> 0:49:14.200 are interesting makeup effects clearly involved in realizing the unmasked 0:49:14.280 --> 0:49:17.000 RoboCop effect when he takes his visor off and you 0:49:17.040 --> 0:49:21.160 can see Peter Weller's face jutting out of this robot exoskeleton. 0:49:21.200 --> 0:49:23.920 I'm sure that took a lot of effects work to 0:49:23.960 --> 0:49:26.480 make it look as good as it does. But there 0:49:26.560 --> 0:49:29.240 is another big thing in the movie which is the 0:49:29.400 --> 0:49:34.200 rival project to the RoboCop project ED two nine, one 0:49:34.239 --> 0:49:38.320 of my favorite aspects of RoboCop, which is achieved largely 0:49:38.400 --> 0:49:41.600 with the help of stop motion effects that look great 0:49:41.719 --> 0:49:45.799 and are some of the funniest special effects I can 0:49:45.880 --> 0:49:46.720 think of seeing. 0:49:47.160 --> 0:49:50.880 Yeah, this is such a great creation. ED two o 0:49:51.040 --> 0:49:54.120 nine sometimes referred to in the credits as ED two thousand, 0:49:54.200 --> 0:49:56.319 so I guess maybe at some point in production they 0:49:56.320 --> 0:49:57.320 called him AD two thousand. 0:49:57.360 --> 0:49:57.719 I don't know. 0:49:58.760 --> 0:50:01.279 ED two o nine is better two nine, if you will. 0:50:01.960 --> 0:50:06.440 But Craig Hayes is credited as as AD's creator and 0:50:06.520 --> 0:50:11.960 designer and also designer and constructor of the large prop 0:50:12.160 --> 0:50:13.880 for ED two nine. So when we see ED two 0:50:13.880 --> 0:50:17.120 o nine in the film, he's either standing there as 0:50:17.120 --> 0:50:20.960 a physical, practical robot that's I think actually made out 0:50:20.960 --> 0:50:24.680 of out of wood and other materials, you know, and 0:50:25.000 --> 0:50:27.600 he doesn't move around much like just basically the top 0:50:27.640 --> 0:50:30.440 half rotates to point guns at you that sort of thing. 0:50:31.040 --> 0:50:33.400 But and then the rest of the time, as we'll discuss, 0:50:33.520 --> 0:50:37.440 he's a stop motion effect. But Hayes was involved in 0:50:37.480 --> 0:50:42.239 designing it. Apparently, you know, looked to various things like 0:50:42.280 --> 0:50:45.480 looked at trains, a little Bit and and other mechanical 0:50:46.719 --> 0:50:49.839 vehicles and robots to sort of design it, but also 0:50:49.880 --> 0:50:53.080 looked at at the Orca that the head of ED 0:50:53.120 --> 0:50:55.760 Tone two nine is apparently partially based on the Orca. 0:50:56.040 --> 0:50:56.719 I can see that. 0:50:57.239 --> 0:51:00.640 Yeah. So Hayes did visual effects work on other notable 0:51:00.680 --> 0:51:02.880 films that he worked on Jurassic Park as part of 0:51:02.960 --> 0:51:06.680 Tippet Studio. He also worked on Hollowman, Blade two and 0:51:06.760 --> 0:51:10.360 two thousand and three's The Matrix Revolutions. Now I mentioned 0:51:10.640 --> 0:51:16.080 Tippet Studio. Yes, Phil Tippett is is credited as the 0:51:16.120 --> 0:51:19.920 creator of the ED two nine sequences, more specifically the 0:51:19.960 --> 0:51:23.560 stop motion sequences. If you're not familiar with Phil Tippet 0:51:23.600 --> 0:51:26.319 born nineteen fifty one, he is one of, if not 0:51:26.520 --> 0:51:30.240 the best known living masters of stop motion and monster 0:51:30.360 --> 0:51:35.000 special effects. Somehow, this is our first Tippet film, I 0:51:35.040 --> 0:51:37.720 believe on Weird House Cinema we've mentioned him in passing 0:51:38.600 --> 0:51:43.080 you know, connections on other films, but I don't think 0:51:43.080 --> 0:51:46.160 we've talked about him in depth before. You know, this 0:51:46.239 --> 0:51:48.560 is another situation where we can't list all the classics 0:51:48.760 --> 0:51:51.040 that he was involved in, but his creations have come 0:51:51.080 --> 0:51:53.319 to life in such films as some of the Star 0:51:53.360 --> 0:51:57.080 Wars movies. Nineteen eighty six is Howard the Duck as 0:51:57.400 --> 0:52:00.480 a notable stop motion monster at the end eighteen eighty 0:52:00.480 --> 0:52:04.600 eights Willow both RoboCop sequels, Jurassic Park in ninety three, 0:52:04.680 --> 0:52:08.840 Starship Troopers, and of course his own project, which was 0:52:08.880 --> 0:52:10.839 made over many years. I haven't seen it yet, but 0:52:11.360 --> 0:52:14.320 finally released in twenty twenty one, Mad God. 0:52:14.960 --> 0:52:18.280 Really good stop motion in this film. 0:52:17.680 --> 0:52:19.279 And we'll come back to talk a little bit more 0:52:19.280 --> 0:52:21.960 about ED two nine later on and just how incredibly looks. 0:52:21.960 --> 0:52:26.719 But finally, the music here is by Basil Polodorus, who 0:52:26.800 --> 0:52:30.719 lived nineteen forty five through two thousand and six American composer, 0:52:30.760 --> 0:52:33.680 best known in film for his work with John Millius, 0:52:34.200 --> 0:52:37.600 who he met at USC studying filmmaking and composing. He 0:52:37.640 --> 0:52:40.680 also worked several times with Paul Verhooven. He worked with 0:52:40.840 --> 0:52:44.120 Millius as early as nineteen seventy on a student film 0:52:44.360 --> 0:52:48.439 and then later on seventy eight's Big Wednesday. Nineteen eighty 0:52:48.480 --> 0:52:52.360 two's Conan the Barbarian. Of course, that in my opinion, 0:52:52.440 --> 0:52:55.920 is his master work, like that is such an incredible 0:52:56.200 --> 0:52:59.759 and just perfect score for that movie. But he also 0:52:59.800 --> 0:53:02.320 worked with Milius on Red Dawn from eighty four, Farewell 0:53:02.360 --> 0:53:04.120 to the King in eighty nine, and Flight of the 0:53:04.120 --> 0:53:08.400 Intruder in ninety one. With Verhooven, he worked with him 0:53:08.400 --> 0:53:11.439 for the first time on Plus Blood from eighty five, 0:53:11.880 --> 0:53:15.200 followed this up with RoboCop and Starship Troopers in ninety seven. 0:53:15.840 --> 0:53:20.640 Other scores of note include Renee Cardona Junior's Tintorera from 0:53:20.960 --> 0:53:24.319 nineteen seventy four, The Shark Movie or a Shark Movie, 0:53:24.360 --> 0:53:28.720 we should say the Shark Movie in any respect. Also 0:53:28.800 --> 0:53:31.919 the Michael Crichton scripted Extreme Close Up in seventy three, 0:53:32.320 --> 0:53:34.840 The Blue Lagoon in nineteen eighty, Cherry two thousand and 0:53:34.960 --> 0:53:37.520 nineteen eighty eight in the nineteen eighty nine mini series 0:53:37.560 --> 0:53:40.840 A Lonesome Dove. So for this movie, you know, solid, 0:53:40.960 --> 0:53:45.200 catchy and sweeping score. I think a highly effective score. 0:53:45.560 --> 0:53:49.239 It has the right bombosity for RoboCop. 0:53:49.520 --> 0:53:51.920 Yeah. I love the RoboCop theme. I think it's perfect 0:53:51.920 --> 0:53:55.520 for the film, and it sonically evokes exactly the feeling 0:53:55.600 --> 0:53:58.520 of the world and the plot like it sounds like 0:53:58.600 --> 0:54:02.200 a doomed attempt at heroism in a bleak world ruled 0:54:02.200 --> 0:54:05.799 by bad men. Yeah, all right, you want to talk 0:54:05.840 --> 0:54:09.279 a bit about the plot, Yeah, let's dive right in now. 0:54:09.360 --> 0:54:11.359 This is one of those where I think it does 0:54:11.440 --> 0:54:14.120 not make sense to do a full scene by scene 0:54:14.600 --> 0:54:17.359 recap of the movie, but rather in this case, we're 0:54:17.400 --> 0:54:20.080 going to discuss a bit about the broad outline and 0:54:20.160 --> 0:54:23.600 some themes and highlights from the movie. One thing we've 0:54:23.640 --> 0:54:28.719 got to talk about is are the media segments in RoboCop. 0:54:28.840 --> 0:54:34.600 RoboCop repeatedly breaks the action with news reports, commercials, and 0:54:34.680 --> 0:54:38.600 clips of TV shows from in universe, as if we 0:54:38.600 --> 0:54:42.200 were characters in the world of RoboCop watching the same 0:54:42.320 --> 0:54:43.279 TV they do. 0:54:44.280 --> 0:54:47.160 Yeah, and these are extended sequences. I'd forgotten just how 0:54:47.200 --> 0:54:51.440 long they are, Like you're watching RoboCop world television for 0:54:51.640 --> 0:54:54.960 minutes on end, including right at the top of the film, 0:54:55.200 --> 0:54:57.680 and it does a great job of positioning you within 0:54:57.719 --> 0:54:59.440 the world of the movie, of course, giving you a 0:54:59.440 --> 0:55:02.520 little back for what's going on elsewhere in the world, 0:55:02.600 --> 0:55:05.920 what's going on in culture and media, but at the 0:55:05.920 --> 0:55:09.560 same time, in some ways counterbalancing the violence that we 0:55:09.600 --> 0:55:14.000 see on screen, but also driving home the satire and 0:55:14.080 --> 0:55:18.239 like keeping satire on your radar as you are interacting 0:55:18.400 --> 0:55:20.400 with the gritty details of the plot. 0:55:20.560 --> 0:55:22.240 There's a way that like when you see the news 0:55:22.280 --> 0:55:25.160 reports in the media segments sort of just lightly gloss 0:55:25.200 --> 0:55:29.160 over what sound like actually horrific events that sort of 0:55:29.239 --> 0:55:32.480 makes you see the events of the violent events of 0:55:32.520 --> 0:55:33.680 the plot differently. 0:55:34.239 --> 0:55:35.359 Yes, yeah, but. 0:55:35.360 --> 0:55:37.239 Anyways, Yeah, but a big part of what they do, 0:55:37.360 --> 0:55:40.520 especially the beginning of the film is just world setting, 0:55:40.520 --> 0:55:43.000 you know, establishing what kind of world is this taking 0:55:43.080 --> 0:55:46.960 place in? And I would say the news segments from 0:55:47.000 --> 0:55:50.759 the world of RoboCop depict a kind of hyper Reaganite 0:55:50.800 --> 0:55:54.560 near future. So there is an idea that there's escalation 0:55:54.680 --> 0:55:57.839 of the Cold War, massive military build up, a lot 0:55:57.880 --> 0:56:01.680 of focus on weapons technology, and a supply side free 0:56:01.719 --> 0:56:04.720 for all where everything is run by for profit corporations 0:56:04.760 --> 0:56:07.959 and cash is king. And the first thing we see 0:56:07.960 --> 0:56:09.879 in the movie after like a sweep over the city 0:56:09.920 --> 0:56:12.960 and the title is a news segment, and so to 0:56:13.360 --> 0:56:16.600 set the scene of this world, it mentions before there's 0:56:16.600 --> 0:56:19.719 a segment about how the remaining enclave of the apartheid 0:56:19.800 --> 0:56:23.319 government in South Africa has unveiled their possession of a 0:56:23.360 --> 0:56:26.799 French made neutron bomb and has announced their willingness to 0:56:26.920 --> 0:56:30.280 use it against the people to protect white minority rule. 0:56:30.840 --> 0:56:34.640 There is another report from the new quote star Wars 0:56:34.840 --> 0:56:38.440 Orbiting peace Platform, and this appears to be a play 0:56:38.480 --> 0:56:42.160 on the so called Star Wars Missile Defense initiative, except 0:56:42.239 --> 0:56:45.960 in the movie the quote peace platform seems to be 0:56:46.080 --> 0:56:50.080 just some kind of like general orbital weapons system which 0:56:50.120 --> 0:56:52.520 they call a peace platform. And then in a later 0:56:52.600 --> 0:56:54.640 news segment in the movie, we find out that it 0:56:54.920 --> 0:56:59.040 quote accidentally fired a laser barrage at Santa Barbara, California 0:56:59.400 --> 0:57:02.399 during attack and that kills hundreds of people, including two 0:57:02.440 --> 0:57:05.560 former presidents who are not named. And then the anchors 0:57:05.640 --> 0:57:08.040 just say the nation mourns for Santa Barbara, and then 0:57:08.080 --> 0:57:09.200 they move on to something else. 0:57:09.719 --> 0:57:13.879 And I mean it's implied that that's Ronald Reagan. Yeah, 0:57:13.920 --> 0:57:16.920 we see Ronald Reagan's body there on the ground. So 0:57:18.000 --> 0:57:20.960 the satire is at times pretty grim. 0:57:21.120 --> 0:57:23.640 But then it cuts straight from these like horrific reports 0:57:23.680 --> 0:57:27.840 to commercials, and the commercials are for things. One is 0:57:27.880 --> 0:57:31.200 for the Family Heart Center, which is a clinic focusing 0:57:31.200 --> 0:57:35.480 on heart transplants with new mechanical artificial hearts. But the 0:57:35.520 --> 0:57:38.000 doctor in the commercial at first he's like, you know, oh, 0:57:38.040 --> 0:57:41.120 it's time for a heart transplant, and then he transitions 0:57:41.120 --> 0:57:44.400 into sounding like he's pitching a customer on jet skis. 0:57:44.760 --> 0:57:48.640 He's like the series seven sports Heart by Jensen Yamaha, 0:57:48.840 --> 0:57:49.640 you pick the. 0:57:49.640 --> 0:57:54.240 Heart, which I guess also positions where we are in, 0:57:54.440 --> 0:57:55.720 like the cybernetic world. 0:57:56.200 --> 0:57:59.600 Yeah. Then there is an ad for a family board 0:57:59.680 --> 0:58:02.720 game called New Coom, a game that looks kind of 0:58:02.760 --> 0:58:06.040 like Battleship, except it's for four players and it seems 0:58:06.080 --> 0:58:07.720 like the way you win the game is if you 0:58:07.800 --> 0:58:11.080 were the first player to use nuclear weapons. The tagline 0:58:11.120 --> 0:58:13.200 of the game is get them before they get you, 0:58:14.080 --> 0:58:17.960 graam grim. Then there are adds for a car. This 0:58:18.080 --> 0:58:20.640 car has a big footprint in the movie. It is 0:58:20.680 --> 0:58:24.000 called the six thousand SUX, So that's kind of low 0:58:24.040 --> 0:58:29.200 hanging fruit joke, but you know, I wouldn't change it. 0:58:29.880 --> 0:58:32.560 This is apparently the hottest new car in the world now. 0:58:32.760 --> 0:58:35.840 It is extremely ugly. It gets eight miles per gallon, 0:58:35.920 --> 0:58:38.520 but it's new, it's huge. You've got to have one. 0:58:38.880 --> 0:58:40.960 The commercial makes the point that the car is bigger 0:58:40.960 --> 0:58:41.720 than Godzilla. 0:58:42.680 --> 0:58:44.960 Yeah, we have this nice commercial that has the stop 0:58:45.000 --> 0:58:47.320 motion monster in it, like very much in the Harry 0:58:47.320 --> 0:58:51.560 Housen style. Obviously, created by Phil Tippett here, which is 0:58:51.560 --> 0:58:54.200 a nice nod to those movies that are in a 0:58:54.320 --> 0:58:56.560 very large way and inspiration for the creation of N 0:58:56.600 --> 0:58:57.240 two nine. 0:58:57.400 --> 0:59:01.720 But then also we see the TV TV shows. The 0:59:01.760 --> 0:59:04.360 most popular TV show in the world of RoboCop, which 0:59:04.360 --> 0:59:07.960 we see multiple times, involves a man with glasses and 0:59:08.000 --> 0:59:12.040 a mustache ogling women in bikinis and then turning directly 0:59:12.080 --> 0:59:16.680 to the camera to utter his beloved catchphrase I'd buy 0:59:16.760 --> 0:59:20.960 that for a dollar. So, according to an article that 0:59:21.000 --> 0:59:23.800 I turned up, though it is not mentioned in the movie, 0:59:23.600 --> 0:59:27.320 the name of this TV sitcom is It's not my 0:59:27.520 --> 0:59:32.280 problem exclamation point and it's interesting. So the show is 0:59:32.360 --> 0:59:39.160 portrayed as just insipid trash, but multiple times we see 0:59:39.240 --> 0:59:43.360 characters watching this show, such as there's one moment where 0:59:43.400 --> 0:59:47.400 this sadistic murderer Emil is watching the show on a 0:59:47.400 --> 0:59:50.480 TV through a shop window, and I think he's like 0:59:50.520 --> 0:59:53.400 sitting in his car watching it, drinking a liquor bottle 0:59:53.480 --> 0:59:56.560 or something. He seems to find it marvelously entertaining, and 0:59:56.560 --> 0:59:58.720 then he ends up breaking the glass in the window 0:59:58.760 --> 1:00:01.240 so he can turn the TV up louder and laugh 1:00:01.280 --> 1:00:04.800 along with the laugh track. So something's interesting about the 1:00:04.840 --> 1:00:08.560 way RoboCop depicts this world of cruel, sadistic men who 1:00:08.640 --> 1:00:11.680 kill without a thought and then in their downtime are 1:00:11.720 --> 1:00:16.000 sedated and entertained by mindless, repetitive sitcoms that just seem 1:00:16.080 --> 1:00:19.040 to be looping the same scene and catchphrase over and over. 1:00:19.640 --> 1:00:22.960 Yeah. Yeah, that a Neil scene especially is interesting, you know, 1:00:23.000 --> 1:00:28.000 because they intentionally took time to show you his enjoyment 1:00:28.040 --> 1:00:33.240 of this show, that this bottom of the barrel misogynistic 1:00:33.320 --> 1:00:36.360 comedy that seems to be everybody's favorite. And I guess 1:00:36.360 --> 1:00:39.120 it also I'd buy that for a dollar like it 1:00:39.240 --> 1:00:44.160 just it also kind of ties into the overall capitalist, 1:00:44.240 --> 1:00:48.280 corporate world of RoboCop. Everything can be bought for a dollar, right. 1:00:48.920 --> 1:00:52.360 It's almost like a mantra delivering the hidden message that 1:00:52.400 --> 1:00:55.880 my trust and allegiance is cheap, Just give me the cash. 1:00:56.200 --> 1:01:08.360 Yeah, all right, Well let's talk more about the setting here. 1:01:09.240 --> 1:01:11.840 Yeah, so the media segments are used to establish a 1:01:11.840 --> 1:01:15.360 lot about the broader world. The specific setting of the 1:01:15.400 --> 1:01:18.520 movie is the city of Detroit in Michigan, where it 1:01:18.560 --> 1:01:23.360 seems the situation is there's some overlap with reality that 1:01:23.440 --> 1:01:27.320 the city was a thriving metropolis, but it has suffered 1:01:27.320 --> 1:01:30.160 a lot because a lot of the industry that used 1:01:30.160 --> 1:01:32.920 to be based there has moved offshore or shuttered in 1:01:32.960 --> 1:01:36.000 some way. So the film is just full of abandoned, 1:01:36.120 --> 1:01:42.040 empty factory buildings that continually visually communicate this theme of 1:01:42.080 --> 1:01:46.440 just like the loss of former prosperity and so forth. 1:01:46.960 --> 1:01:49.440 So huge portions of the city have been left out 1:01:49.440 --> 1:01:52.920 of work, impoverished and desperate, and the city is essentially 1:01:52.960 --> 1:01:56.720 on the brink of collapse. So the job of running 1:01:56.800 --> 1:02:01.240 the local police department has been outsourced to OCP Omni 1:02:01.240 --> 1:02:05.240 Consumer Products. But OCP has set its sites higher than 1:02:05.320 --> 1:02:08.440 just running the police. Essentially, they have a plan to 1:02:08.520 --> 1:02:12.240 demolish the existing Detroit and replace it with a new, 1:02:12.600 --> 1:02:16.360 completely privately owned settlement called Delta City, where they will 1:02:16.400 --> 1:02:19.760 run everything. So in a way, you can see how 1:02:19.800 --> 1:02:22.800 it is in OCP's interest for things in Detroit to 1:02:22.840 --> 1:02:25.560 get as bad as they possibly can be so that 1:02:25.600 --> 1:02:28.280 they can buy up all the property cheap and privatize 1:02:28.280 --> 1:02:29.360 all the local government. 1:02:29.960 --> 1:02:32.480 Yeah yeah, but at the same time they need a 1:02:32.480 --> 1:02:35.440 little bit of muscle, and also they are, as we're 1:02:35.480 --> 1:02:38.480 tiled at one point, they basically are the military, so 1:02:38.520 --> 1:02:41.960 they're working on all of these various military projects as well. 1:02:42.080 --> 1:02:45.960 Right, And so amidst this backdrop, we see the OCP Headquarters, 1:02:46.000 --> 1:02:48.960 which is this strange looking building that has a kind 1:02:48.960 --> 1:02:53.040 of inverted triangle architecture near the bottom, but then it 1:02:53.160 --> 1:02:55.800 just goes straight up from there, and so it's very 1:02:55.800 --> 1:03:00.160 weird looking skyscraper architecture. But it does seem on theme 1:03:00.200 --> 1:03:02.920 somehow because it's like all of this concrete that like 1:03:03.240 --> 1:03:05.880 comes down to a point near where it meets the ground. 1:03:05.920 --> 1:03:08.160 So it's the idea of like this corporation just like 1:03:08.440 --> 1:03:10.840 crushing the people on the ground. Yeah. 1:03:11.000 --> 1:03:13.680 Yeah, Again, the bottom part of this is Dallas City Hall, 1:03:14.080 --> 1:03:17.120 but by creating this mate painting of it rising the 1:03:17.200 --> 1:03:19.800 rest of the way up into the sky, it's like 1:03:19.880 --> 1:03:23.360 it's stabbing into the earth, like it's a sword come 1:03:23.400 --> 1:03:27.160 down from the heavens. And we eventually see multiple shots 1:03:27.160 --> 1:03:29.760 at different points in the film of people ascending or 1:03:29.800 --> 1:03:33.200 descending in elevators and some sort of you know, vast 1:03:33.280 --> 1:03:36.680 atriums of this building, and these are also created with 1:03:36.760 --> 1:03:40.160 matte paintings. And in the extras on the Arrow Blu Ray, 1:03:40.200 --> 1:03:43.400 they mentioned that Forbidden Planet was one of the influences 1:03:43.440 --> 1:03:46.760 here and creating this kind of vast interior space. 1:03:47.000 --> 1:03:50.280 I never would have made that connection, but that's really good. Yeah. 1:03:50.440 --> 1:03:52.600 But anyway, Okay, so we're here at OCP headquarters. We 1:03:52.680 --> 1:03:55.520 coming in this corporate board meeting, which is a great scene. 1:03:55.560 --> 1:03:59.040 We've got OCP Vice President Dick Jones played by Ronnie Cox. 1:03:59.680 --> 1:04:02.960 He is showing off his plan to move on to 1:04:03.040 --> 1:04:06.320 the next stage in their control of the Detroit Police Force. 1:04:06.720 --> 1:04:10.480 He wants to essentially replace the remaining human police force 1:04:10.840 --> 1:04:14.200 with a violent police robot called ED two o nine. 1:04:14.600 --> 1:04:17.280 He brings ED two O nine out for a demonstration 1:04:17.840 --> 1:04:20.800 that turns horrific robot. I don't know if you want 1:04:20.840 --> 1:04:24.040 to describe this scene. It's it's an iconic scene from 1:04:24.040 --> 1:04:27.240 the film, maybe the most remembered part of all of RoboCop. 1:04:27.800 --> 1:04:29.840 Yeah, I mean, for starters, it has we have to 1:04:29.880 --> 1:04:31.920 mention that that ED to nine And if you don't 1:04:31.920 --> 1:04:33.720 know what ED to nine looks, to nine looks like, 1:04:34.120 --> 1:04:37.120 do do yourself a favor and find an image surger 1:04:37.880 --> 1:04:41.120 or video clip because it does not look like a policeman, 1:04:41.200 --> 1:04:43.680 looks like a weapons platform is. 1:04:43.640 --> 1:04:45.320 And that's not what a humanoid and shape. 1:04:45.360 --> 1:04:48.760 Yeah, it's just a weapons platform that they're clearly eyeing 1:04:49.040 --> 1:04:54.120 for a larger military market. It was not created expressly 1:04:54.160 --> 1:04:58.640 with police work in mind. It is a frightening, uh 1:04:59.080 --> 1:05:00.600 bestial machine. 1:05:01.200 --> 1:05:03.600 So Dick Jones is setting up the demonstration. He gets 1:05:03.640 --> 1:05:06.360 one of the one of his colleagues from the boardroom 1:05:06.400 --> 1:05:10.000 here to uh to point a gun at ED two 1:05:10.080 --> 1:05:12.120 oh nine for the demonstration. And there's a little detail. 1:05:12.160 --> 1:05:14.080 A lot of people notice that he hands a gun 1:05:14.120 --> 1:05:15.800 to this guy. He's like, all right, let's see if 1:05:15.800 --> 1:05:17.920 we can make him do his job. And so the 1:05:17.960 --> 1:05:21.040 other guy points the gun at Dick Jones, and ED 1:05:21.040 --> 1:05:23.480 two o nine does not react to this, like of 1:05:23.600 --> 1:05:26.720 like people threatening each other. But then Dick Jones is like, no, no, 1:05:26.840 --> 1:05:29.160 pointed at ED two oh nine. And so then when 1:05:29.160 --> 1:05:32.440 he when he threatens the hardware, then ED two o 1:05:32.600 --> 1:05:35.680 nine comes online and like points his turrets at him 1:05:35.720 --> 1:05:38.160 and says, you drop the weapon. You have twenty seconds 1:05:38.200 --> 1:05:41.720 to comply. So the guy he said, you know he 1:05:41.840 --> 1:05:44.080 is goaged on by Dick Jones. He says, better do 1:05:44.120 --> 1:05:47.520 as you're told. So the guy drops the weapon, and 1:05:47.560 --> 1:05:51.240 then ED two o nine says, you now have fifteen 1:05:51.360 --> 1:05:55.120 seconds to comply it clearly has not registered the loss 1:05:55.160 --> 1:05:58.640 of the weapon. So in a horrifically violent turn of events, 1:05:58.680 --> 1:06:03.240 the robot malfunk and then ends up just liquefying this guy. 1:06:03.280 --> 1:06:05.120 It shoots him like hundreds of times. 1:06:05.600 --> 1:06:09.280 Yeah, just notorious graphic scene, and some cuts of the 1:06:09.280 --> 1:06:13.800 film have the extended goification of this this poor dimmed individual. 1:06:14.360 --> 1:06:17.200 But yeah, and it's a frantic affair. He's trying to like, hi, 1:06:17.440 --> 1:06:19.720 you know, run to for cover, and they're pushing him 1:06:19.760 --> 1:06:21.160 back in the way because no one else wants to 1:06:21.160 --> 1:06:24.680 get shot and caught the crossfire. And yeah, and then 1:06:24.760 --> 1:06:28.280 finally an utter failure of the program here. 1:06:28.520 --> 1:06:30.400 So the old Man looks at Dick Jones and says, 1:06:30.400 --> 1:06:33.919 I'm very disappointed in you, Dick, and Dick Jones says, sure, 1:06:33.920 --> 1:06:39.120 it's only a glitch, like completely unconcerned with you know, 1:06:39.240 --> 1:06:41.960 the threat this would pose to people. Is just kind 1:06:42.000 --> 1:06:43.680 of like, ah, yeah, we'll figure it out, don't worry 1:06:43.720 --> 1:06:47.480 about it. But this does seem like a pretty catastrophic 1:06:47.520 --> 1:06:50.880 failure to the old Man. And right there next to him, 1:06:50.920 --> 1:06:53.920 waiting in the wings is Bob Morton played by Miguel Ferrer, 1:06:54.200 --> 1:06:57.320 who steps in with his rival project. He's like, clearly 1:06:57.520 --> 1:06:59.560 ed two O nine is not ready for prime time. 1:07:00.000 --> 1:07:03.200 We've got something ready to go, the RoboCop program, and 1:07:03.240 --> 1:07:05.480 he tells the old man about it. It's ready to 1:07:05.480 --> 1:07:07.760 go as Plan B. All they need is a donor, 1:07:07.920 --> 1:07:10.400 and he thinks they should have one pretty soon. What 1:07:10.440 --> 1:07:12.120 does that mean, We're about to find out. 1:07:12.520 --> 1:07:14.880 Yeah, it may not be here. Maybe it's a little 1:07:14.920 --> 1:07:17.960 later that we learned that. Yeah, not only are they 1:07:18.000 --> 1:07:21.200 eyeing donors, but they are making sure that prime police 1:07:21.240 --> 1:07:25.760 candidates are being reassigned to dangerous zones so that they're 1:07:25.760 --> 1:07:28.120 going to be more likely to encounter some sort of 1:07:28.120 --> 1:07:31.160 fatal injury that would deliver their body straight to the 1:07:31.240 --> 1:07:32.000 RoboCop program. 1:07:32.120 --> 1:07:34.680 Yeah, they do. They do like a physical and they're like, okay, 1:07:34.680 --> 1:07:36.680 Peter Weller, he would be a good candidate to go 1:07:36.720 --> 1:07:38.720 in the RoboCop suit. So we're going to send him 1:07:38.760 --> 1:07:42.560 after Clarence Bodiker and deny him back up. Yeah, So 1:07:42.720 --> 1:07:45.400 here we meet our hero Alex Murphy and Peter Weller. 1:07:45.720 --> 1:07:48.760 After OCP transfers him to a new Metro division, he 1:07:48.800 --> 1:07:51.720 gets paired with his new partner Lewis. That's Nancy Allen. 1:07:51.920 --> 1:07:53.880 They get to know each other. They have some nice 1:07:53.880 --> 1:07:56.600 friendly banter, but early on, maybe it's his first day 1:07:56.640 --> 1:07:59.520 at the new division, not exactly clear. They respond to 1:07:59.520 --> 1:08:02.720 a bank robbery in progress and it's Clarence Botiker's gang 1:08:02.720 --> 1:08:06.000 and Botaker is just the nastiest, meanest criminal on earth. 1:08:06.760 --> 1:08:10.320 While Murphy and Lewis are chasing them, there's this one 1:08:10.360 --> 1:08:14.040 part where you see Botiker, just like the gang has 1:08:14.280 --> 1:08:18.400 no friendship or loyalty even to each other. One of 1:08:18.439 --> 1:08:21.160 the gang is injured during the shootout when they're in 1:08:21.200 --> 1:08:25.040 a chase, and Bodaker just like grabs him and goes 1:08:25.080 --> 1:08:27.800 can you fly Bobby and throws him out of the 1:08:27.920 --> 1:08:32.240 van into the police car, which briefly delays them, and 1:08:32.479 --> 1:08:35.800 eventually Murphy and Lewis pursue the gang all the way 1:08:35.840 --> 1:08:39.679 to an abandoned foundry, and while attempting to make an arrest, 1:08:39.720 --> 1:08:43.160 again no backup is available. As usual, Murphy is caught 1:08:43.400 --> 1:08:48.200 and then brutally executed by the gang an awful, horrifically 1:08:48.320 --> 1:08:52.080 violent scene. His body is recovered taken to a hospital, 1:08:52.160 --> 1:08:54.160 but he can't be revived. He is dead. 1:08:55.000 --> 1:08:59.280 Yeah, I think shotgun dismemberment is worth mentioning in terms 1:08:59.320 --> 1:09:02.760 of Murphy's death because you know, because it's like it's 1:09:02.840 --> 1:09:06.080 that extreme, like like it's another example of the violence 1:09:06.200 --> 1:09:09.519 just ratcheted up to an unbelow to a degree where 1:09:09.520 --> 1:09:12.000 it almost takes some of the punch out of it 1:09:12.080 --> 1:09:15.120 because it becomes an obvious Hollywood gore fest. I don't know, 1:09:15.280 --> 1:09:17.599 everyone's mileage is going to vary on this sort of thing. 1:09:18.280 --> 1:09:22.400 Now, next we get a really interesting sequence in the movie, 1:09:22.439 --> 1:09:25.720 which is we have Murphy's death, but from here we 1:09:25.800 --> 1:09:30.080 start seeing something from some point of view through a 1:09:30.160 --> 1:09:35.479 kind of grainy almost computer or CRT image. We see 1:09:35.479 --> 1:09:40.280 these views of scientists messing with somebody from their point 1:09:40.280 --> 1:09:43.400 of view, like drilling around on their head and adjusting 1:09:43.400 --> 1:09:47.120 his vision. So we're seeing robocops point of view, and 1:09:47.160 --> 1:09:50.760 this is the project run by Bob Morton. Rob do 1:09:50.800 --> 1:09:53.240 you anything you want to identify about these scenes where 1:09:53.280 --> 1:09:58.439 we're like watching Murphy's physical remains become become able to 1:09:58.520 --> 1:10:01.719 see as they are becomingcop. 1:10:01.040 --> 1:10:03.360 I mean, it's almost like he's being he is being 1:10:03.400 --> 1:10:07.000 born again, you know, it's like early memories, childhood memories 1:10:07.040 --> 1:10:09.280 almost that's some sort of sense. As he's watching the 1:10:09.280 --> 1:10:12.960 scientists work on him, as he's eventually seeing you know, 1:10:13.000 --> 1:10:16.200 there's like an office party, a Christmas party or something 1:10:16.240 --> 1:10:19.679 that's underway, and they're interacting with him a little bit. 1:10:19.760 --> 1:10:22.280 But also there are bits of dialogue though on the 1:10:22.280 --> 1:10:24.759 other hand that far from discussing him as a child. 1:10:24.800 --> 1:10:27.639 I think Morton in particular is like he's dead now 1:10:27.640 --> 1:10:29.479 we can do whatever we want with him. Like he's 1:10:29.479 --> 1:10:31.799 no longer a human, he is a product. 1:10:32.240 --> 1:10:36.320 Yeah, he signed the rights to his remains away. That 1:10:36.439 --> 1:10:38.880 was part of his contract to be a cop, and 1:10:38.920 --> 1:10:40.720 we can do whatever we want with them. He's not 1:10:40.880 --> 1:10:44.960 him anymore. Yeah. Also in these scenes, we learn about 1:10:45.000 --> 1:10:49.080 robocops three prime directives. They say, you know, he's guided 1:10:49.120 --> 1:10:52.400 by the directives to serve the public trust, to protect 1:10:52.439 --> 1:10:54.880 the innocent, and uphold the law. And then there is 1:10:54.920 --> 1:10:57.360 a fourth directive that is not spelled out. It just 1:10:57.360 --> 1:11:00.000 says it's classified, but it does flash on the screen. 1:11:00.680 --> 1:11:03.160 They say nothing about that out loud. It's just something 1:11:03.160 --> 1:11:05.799 that RoboCop sees on his own heads up display. 1:11:06.320 --> 1:11:08.120 Yeah, this will become important later on. 1:11:08.840 --> 1:11:11.479 So after this RoboCop is unveiled, they put him out 1:11:11.479 --> 1:11:12.720 on the beat and there are just a bunch of 1:11:12.760 --> 1:11:16.040 scenes of RoboCop out on patrol, intervening when crimes are 1:11:16.040 --> 1:11:18.840 in progress. We see him stop an armed robbery at 1:11:18.840 --> 1:11:21.839 a convenience store. He intervenes when two men are attacking 1:11:21.840 --> 1:11:25.360 a woman in an abandoned lot. He resolves a hostage 1:11:25.400 --> 1:11:28.400 situation at city hall. And in all of these scenes, 1:11:28.479 --> 1:11:31.480 RoboCop is shown to be in some ways highly effective, 1:11:31.680 --> 1:11:35.879 in other ways not like he is successful at stopping 1:11:35.920 --> 1:11:39.400 the crimes, but he does so via the application of 1:11:39.560 --> 1:11:42.320 brutal violence in every case, and he is shown to 1:11:42.360 --> 1:11:46.080 be cold and mechanical in his relations to victims. 1:11:46.720 --> 1:11:50.040 Yeah, we see the media segments of him being celebrated, 1:11:50.080 --> 1:11:52.960 but also, yeah, at the same time, he's not really 1:11:53.040 --> 1:11:56.519 doing the ideal version of police work here. He's just 1:11:56.760 --> 1:12:00.160 like a blunt instrument that reaches through walls to have 1:12:01.320 --> 1:12:02.519 criminals and so forth. 1:12:02.800 --> 1:12:06.000 There's one part where I think they're asking, like there's 1:12:06.040 --> 1:12:09.800 like school children clearly being terrified by RoboCop during some 1:12:09.880 --> 1:12:12.360 kind of outreach program, and they're like, do you have 1:12:12.400 --> 1:12:14.920 any message for the children, And he says, stay out 1:12:14.960 --> 1:12:19.519 of trouble. But all of this builds up to a 1:12:20.360 --> 1:12:24.759 realization Lewis Murphy's old partner sees through the machine mask. 1:12:24.960 --> 1:12:28.960 She sees that it's Murphy underneath, noticing little ticks, little 1:12:29.520 --> 1:12:33.080 sayings and movements that mirror things Murphy did. One giveaway 1:12:33.240 --> 1:12:36.599 is that Murphy was practicing this kind of, you know, 1:12:36.760 --> 1:12:40.559 a cowboy gun holster move that was from a TV 1:12:40.600 --> 1:12:43.479 show that his son liked called TJ Laser, And then 1:12:43.520 --> 1:12:47.320 she sees RoboCop do the same move, so she realizes 1:12:47.360 --> 1:12:49.320 who it is. She's like, that's Murphy in there, and 1:12:49.360 --> 1:12:50.960 she goes up to him. At one point she like 1:12:51.000 --> 1:12:53.880 approaches him in a hallway and says, Murphy, it's you, 1:12:54.880 --> 1:12:58.120 and this causes a crisis. RoboCop is not supposed to 1:12:58.200 --> 1:13:01.760 have a personality or any mimas Bob Morton again, he 1:13:01.800 --> 1:13:04.920 explains that, like, it's just physical scaffolding. They just need 1:13:04.920 --> 1:13:08.639 some brain tissue. Murphy no longer exists, it's just brain 1:13:08.680 --> 1:13:12.400 tissue owned by OCP. That's not a person, it's a machine. 1:13:13.080 --> 1:13:18.479 But nevertheless, RoboCop begins to malfunction by having memories and 1:13:18.680 --> 1:13:22.960 dreams and glitches, and this leads up to a scene 1:13:23.000 --> 1:13:25.439 where he visits his former home that he shared with 1:13:25.479 --> 1:13:28.720 his family, which is now empty and for sale. There's 1:13:28.760 --> 1:13:32.479 like a robotic salesman who starts talking when he comes 1:13:32.479 --> 1:13:34.040 in the door, like, oh, this could be your new 1:13:34.120 --> 1:13:36.760 dream home. And I think some critics at the time 1:13:36.920 --> 1:13:40.200 might have sneered at these sequences of him, you know, 1:13:40.280 --> 1:13:44.840 this machine with these strange, robotic motions, trying to reclaim 1:13:44.920 --> 1:13:48.080 his past life and remember what it was. They might 1:13:48.120 --> 1:13:50.519 have seen that as ridiculous. But I found this stuff 1:13:50.600 --> 1:13:53.200 quite moving. To each their own, I guess. 1:13:53.240 --> 1:13:55.479 Yeah, yeah, this is one of the segments that really 1:13:55.840 --> 1:13:58.679 hit me in the fields. I liked it. I thought 1:13:58.720 --> 1:13:59.480 it worked. 1:13:59.439 --> 1:14:02.679 Also some in here. There's a scene where Dick Jones 1:14:02.920 --> 1:14:05.479 sends Clarence Bodiker, who works for him by the way, 1:14:05.840 --> 1:14:09.320 to Bob Morton's house to kill him. He's just like, Okay, 1:14:09.320 --> 1:14:10.200 I'm done with Morton. 1:14:10.920 --> 1:14:13.840 Yeah yeah, Like Morton really didn't know what he was 1:14:13.920 --> 1:14:17.400 messing with it. Clearly didn't really think that Dick Jones 1:14:17.400 --> 1:14:20.720 would send a goon to his house to murder him 1:14:20.760 --> 1:14:22.719 in cold blood, and that's exactly what happens. 1:14:23.160 --> 1:14:26.320 Then there's an interesting middle section of the movie in 1:14:26.360 --> 1:14:32.519 which RoboCop, in this process of rediscovering that he might 1:14:32.560 --> 1:14:34.519 have been a person at one point and who that 1:14:34.560 --> 1:14:40.320 person was, he starts to systematically solve Murphy's own murder. 1:14:40.720 --> 1:14:44.719 So he like encounters Emil, one of Clarence Bodeker's gang 1:14:45.560 --> 1:14:48.720 in the middle of like robbing a gas station, and 1:14:48.880 --> 1:14:51.559 he encounters him, and from him he traces him to 1:14:51.680 --> 1:14:55.560 other members of Botacker's gang and eventually to Botaker himself. 1:14:55.960 --> 1:14:59.600 And when he captures Bodeker claims that he can't be 1:14:59.680 --> 1:15:02.320 arrested because he has a protection agreement. He works for 1:15:02.360 --> 1:15:05.000 Dick Jones, and Dick Jones runs the police. 1:15:05.520 --> 1:15:09.599 Yeah, this whole solving Zone murder series of sequences is great. 1:15:09.920 --> 1:15:11.559 Like there's the scene where he goes to the nightclub 1:15:11.600 --> 1:15:14.680 to collect Ray Wise's character. Yeah, that one's a lot 1:15:14.720 --> 1:15:19.559 of fun. Yeah, it builds nicely until he's yeah, he's 1:15:19.600 --> 1:15:23.559 already found Bottiker, that this is where there's a He 1:15:23.640 --> 1:15:27.400 roughs him up quite a bit and drags a bloody, 1:15:27.439 --> 1:15:29.880 snarling Boticker into police headquarters. 1:15:30.360 --> 1:15:34.000 But so now he has evidence that Dick Jones is 1:15:34.000 --> 1:15:36.040 behind it all, So he tries to go up the 1:15:36.080 --> 1:15:38.599 chain to arrest Dick Jones and it doesn't work out 1:15:38.600 --> 1:15:42.040 so well. He walks into the office Ronnie Cox is 1:15:42.040 --> 1:15:45.040 sitting there, and Ronnie Cox like holds out his hands. 1:15:45.080 --> 1:15:47.880 He says, sounds pretty serious. You better arrest me. But 1:15:48.000 --> 1:15:53.280 RoboCop is somehow unable to act. He something is preventing him, 1:15:53.560 --> 1:15:56.800 and here we see the activation of Directive four, his 1:15:57.000 --> 1:16:00.680 secret guiding principle, which is that he cannot against the 1:16:00.720 --> 1:16:04.960 interests of OCP, so he cannot will himself to arrest 1:16:05.040 --> 1:16:06.160 one of its officers. 1:16:07.040 --> 1:16:09.160 Oh yeah, And then this is where Dick Jones, with 1:16:09.600 --> 1:16:12.920 villainous charm, brings out ED two o nine. He's like, 1:16:13.000 --> 1:16:14.519 I going to introduce you to a friend of mine. 1:16:15.400 --> 1:16:20.000 Boardroom doors open and outcomes this glorious stop motion creation. 1:16:20.880 --> 1:16:23.440 ED two o nine is here to finish off RoboCop. 1:16:23.720 --> 1:16:26.599 So yeah, for a bit, there's this fight, the struggle 1:16:26.600 --> 1:16:29.599 where RoboCop is sort of immobilized. It's these two killer 1:16:29.680 --> 1:16:32.920 robots versus each other, but one of them still has 1:16:33.040 --> 1:16:36.160 a shred of humanity inside it and it manages to 1:16:36.400 --> 1:16:39.400 barely escape ED two o nine. And then there is 1:16:39.479 --> 1:16:41.880 a detail in this fight that I've always loved since 1:16:41.920 --> 1:16:44.400 the first time I saw the movie. What how is 1:16:44.560 --> 1:16:48.040 ED two o nine defeated in this confrontation by stars. 1:16:48.360 --> 1:16:51.880 ED two o nine gets to the stairwell and RoboCop 1:16:51.960 --> 1:16:54.320 runs down it and ED to O nine. Clearly, this 1:16:54.439 --> 1:16:56.840 is a contingency that the designers of ED two O 1:16:56.960 --> 1:16:59.360 nine had never thought of. And it is unable to 1:16:59.439 --> 1:17:03.240 navigate going down a staircase and ends up turned on 1:17:03.320 --> 1:17:07.600 its back and unable to get up. And it's hilarious. 1:17:08.040 --> 1:17:11.960 It feels so right, and it's the best possible conclusion 1:17:12.000 --> 1:17:12.519 to this fight. 1:17:13.080 --> 1:17:15.600 Yeah, yeah, it hits all the right notes and in 1:17:15.640 --> 1:17:18.000 a sense, like it does get into this again sort 1:17:18.000 --> 1:17:21.719 of light sci fi about cybernetics and robotics. The idea 1:17:21.720 --> 1:17:25.240 that ED two nine is a military application that is 1:17:25.280 --> 1:17:27.760 clearly clearly was not designed for police work. It was 1:17:27.800 --> 1:17:30.920 not designed to interact in a human world, and an 1:17:30.960 --> 1:17:33.519 important part of police work is interacting in a human 1:17:33.560 --> 1:17:37.640 world that involves obviously things like stairs, as well as 1:17:37.680 --> 1:17:41.040 other nuances like being able to tell the difference between 1:17:41.040 --> 1:17:45.200 a perpetrator who is an active threat and someone who 1:17:45.240 --> 1:17:46.920 has already surrendered and so forth. 1:17:47.200 --> 1:17:49.479 Yeah, and so I think that I think part of 1:17:49.520 --> 1:17:51.680 the vision of ED two nine is that it is 1:17:51.720 --> 1:17:55.160 a very dangerous, lethal robot, but in many ways it 1:17:55.240 --> 1:17:59.720 is poorly designed. So it's like it is designed to 1:18:00.280 --> 1:18:04.639 appeal to the people who award defense contracts more than 1:18:04.680 --> 1:18:06.840 to like actually be good at its job. 1:18:07.120 --> 1:18:11.919 Right, But again great great finish to this initial combat 1:18:11.960 --> 1:18:14.000 between RoboCop and ED two and nine. 1:18:14.200 --> 1:18:16.720 But at this point, so RoboCop is he's able to 1:18:16.720 --> 1:18:19.200 get down the stairs. But at this point the OCP 1:18:19.360 --> 1:18:22.080 controlled police Force arrives and they have been ordered to 1:18:22.160 --> 1:18:26.240 destroy RoboCop and so they try, but Lewis saves him. 1:18:26.280 --> 1:18:28.559 She comes to the rescue. She takes him off to 1:18:28.720 --> 1:18:32.560 the abandoned foundry we saw earlier and helps him rediscover 1:18:32.600 --> 1:18:35.280 who he is. And this sequence his mask comes off, 1:18:35.320 --> 1:18:38.120 like he removes the bolts and takes off his visor 1:18:38.439 --> 1:18:42.760 and reveals that Murphy's face is still underneath there to 1:18:42.800 --> 1:18:46.559 some extent, his brain still is Murphy's brain, though it's 1:18:46.600 --> 1:18:49.479 different and there I don't know. There's like a really 1:18:49.520 --> 1:18:53.120 tender scene where she helps him recalibrate his aim and 1:18:53.200 --> 1:18:56.080 it just kind of gives him encouragement. He doesn't know 1:18:56.120 --> 1:18:59.559 what he is, but whatever he is, she's there to help. Yeah. 1:18:59.680 --> 1:19:02.840 Yeah, this I really liked this part. Also, the part 1:19:02.880 --> 1:19:04.479 where after the mask has come off and he has 1:19:04.479 --> 1:19:07.519 to be left alone, you know, it's it's it's a 1:19:07.560 --> 1:19:10.200 tender moment. That is, it's well acted by it by 1:19:10.280 --> 1:19:13.080 both actors involved here, and you know, I totally totally 1:19:13.120 --> 1:19:15.880 buy into it, and it made me tear up just 1:19:15.920 --> 1:19:16.400 a little bit. 1:19:17.000 --> 1:19:20.559 Meanwhile, Dick Jones hooks Bodiker's gang up with some kind 1:19:20.560 --> 1:19:23.040 of military grade weapons that they are going to need 1:19:23.120 --> 1:19:26.920 to destroy RoboCop. Jones of course wants RoboCop dead for 1:19:27.000 --> 1:19:30.679 two reasons. First of all, RoboCop has evidence against Jones 1:19:30.720 --> 1:19:33.440 and his memory banks, and he doesn't want to be implicated. 1:19:33.479 --> 1:19:36.560 But the second thing is, of course, if RoboCop is eliminated, 1:19:36.560 --> 1:19:39.320 that'll put ED two o nine, that that project back 1:19:39.400 --> 1:19:40.960 front and center. Yeah. 1:19:41.040 --> 1:19:43.200 Yeah, he's promising to have an ED two o nine 1:19:43.240 --> 1:19:45.320 like on every street corner. So there are already a 1:19:45.320 --> 1:19:47.679 lot of these in stories just ready to roll out 1:19:47.680 --> 1:19:48.880 into the city in force. 1:19:49.600 --> 1:19:52.160 So Botaker and the gang now armed with these, with 1:19:52.200 --> 1:19:55.439 this heavy artillery, they come to hunt down RoboCop at 1:19:55.439 --> 1:19:58.840 the foundry. But there and this leads to a bunch 1:19:58.840 --> 1:20:01.200 of great action scenes there, like a car chase, and 1:20:01.240 --> 1:20:04.400 there are these shootouts and all that together, RoboCop and 1:20:04.520 --> 1:20:08.479 Lewis managed to defeat Bodiker and his gang This is 1:20:08.520 --> 1:20:12.040 the sequence that includes Emil getting doused with toxic waste 1:20:12.040 --> 1:20:17.439 and eventually melting. So it's incredibly gory action scenes. We've 1:20:17.439 --> 1:20:20.040 said that a million times now, but like you be warned, 1:20:20.120 --> 1:20:23.200 this is an incredibly bloody, violent movie. But as action 1:20:23.280 --> 1:20:25.639 scenes they work pretty great. Yeah. 1:20:25.720 --> 1:20:28.559 Yeah, I mean, I've seen my shriff Gorfest and I've 1:20:28.560 --> 1:20:31.280 seen this film before obviously, but yeah, when I was 1:20:31.280 --> 1:20:34.720 rewatching the Emeeal melting sequence, it's just like I had 1:20:34.760 --> 1:20:39.599 a just like a grimace fixed into my face for 1:20:39.680 --> 1:20:43.679 like a good solid five minutes because it's so grim 1:20:43.840 --> 1:20:45.559 and it's so gross, and it seems to go on 1:20:45.720 --> 1:20:50.080 forever until he's finally hit by a car by a 1:20:50.120 --> 1:20:53.679 Boticker's car and just explodes in a splash of slime. 1:20:53.920 --> 1:20:59.120 It's awful. Yeah. So after all this, RoboCop goes to 1:20:59.400 --> 1:21:02.960 arrest Jones because you know OCP is behind it all, 1:21:03.360 --> 1:21:06.600 working on Dick Jones's orders. So RoboCop comes into a 1:21:06.640 --> 1:21:10.479 board meeting and he turns the old man against him 1:21:10.560 --> 1:21:13.360 by playing a tape of Dick Jones admitting the murder 1:21:13.360 --> 1:21:16.479 of Bob Morton. Now you know, OCP may not be 1:21:16.680 --> 1:21:20.799 very sensitive to the harm they caused to regular people, 1:21:21.120 --> 1:21:23.519 but this is the murder of one of these corporate 1:21:23.560 --> 1:21:27.200 guys themselves, and I think they're unsettled by that. So 1:21:27.200 --> 1:21:30.640 so now Dick Jones actually feels afraid. He tries to 1:21:30.760 --> 1:21:34.160 take the old man hostage to flee the scene. And 1:21:34.600 --> 1:21:38.080 here there's an interesting conflict because RoboCop is still bound 1:21:38.160 --> 1:21:41.160 by Directive four, so he cannot act against OCP. He 1:21:41.200 --> 1:21:46.240 can't act against Jones. But then he he essentially hints 1:21:46.280 --> 1:21:49.640 to the old man what the problem is, and the 1:21:49.680 --> 1:21:53.400 old man then announces that Jones is fired from his position. 1:21:53.760 --> 1:21:57.040 So RoboCop immediately shoots him out of the skyscraper window. 1:21:58.240 --> 1:22:01.840 So that's an interesting And then there is a special effect. Well, 1:22:01.840 --> 1:22:05.280 the special effects generally in this movie are fantastic. There 1:22:05.360 --> 1:22:08.160 is a famously bad one as Jones falls out of 1:22:08.160 --> 1:22:10.200 the window and it looks like he has really long 1:22:10.360 --> 1:22:11.759 arms for some reason. 1:22:12.560 --> 1:22:15.320 Yeah, this is a stop motion effect. They use a 1:22:15.360 --> 1:22:19.640 stop motion model of Dick Jones, which I mean, basically, 1:22:20.800 --> 1:22:22.679 I guess you have to think about about stop motion 1:22:22.760 --> 1:22:25.000 a lot with this film, Like stop motion is here 1:22:25.920 --> 1:22:28.360 and used in this film not so much because it 1:22:28.439 --> 1:22:32.280 is loving and well crafted and is like an art 1:22:32.320 --> 1:22:34.840 form all its own. It was the best way of 1:22:34.880 --> 1:22:39.840 delivering this particular effect at the time. And so with 1:22:40.120 --> 1:22:41.880 even with Dick Jones falling out the window, like what 1:22:41.920 --> 1:22:45.160 are your choices? You either don't show it, or you 1:22:45.280 --> 1:22:48.479 use like a Dick Jones lying on a blue mat 1:22:48.520 --> 1:22:50.160 and do like a green scaring kind of a thing 1:22:50.160 --> 1:22:52.840 where he's like, ah, you know, like Mortal Kombat two 1:22:52.920 --> 1:22:56.720 falling into the pit, which can also look pretty bad. 1:22:56.840 --> 1:22:59.080 Or you go for a stop motion, and in this 1:22:59.240 --> 1:23:02.000 case it didn't quite work, like they were trying to 1:23:02.040 --> 1:23:05.479 create something that was too lifelike. But I wouldn't change it. Yeah, 1:23:05.479 --> 1:23:07.479 I wouldn't change it. Still admired. 1:23:07.760 --> 1:23:10.840 I love the long arms that it gives me a 1:23:10.880 --> 1:23:11.760 tickle every time. 1:23:13.240 --> 1:23:15.519 This was a time period too, where like that sort 1:23:15.520 --> 1:23:17.720 of shot I feel like happened a lot. You had 1:23:17.760 --> 1:23:19.840 a lot of bad guys falling to their death, Like 1:23:19.880 --> 1:23:23.400 didn't the Joker go down the same way? Maybe a 1:23:23.439 --> 1:23:28.480 slightly more convincing effect. I don't recall, Yeah, falling off skyscrapers. 1:23:28.479 --> 1:23:30.080 They'll do it well anyway. 1:23:30.160 --> 1:23:34.639 So after this, the old man says, he says something 1:23:34.680 --> 1:23:38.040 like nice shooting son. What's your name? And RoboCop does 1:23:38.080 --> 1:23:42.200 not say RoboCop. He says Murphy. And that's the end 1:23:42.200 --> 1:23:46.759 of the film. And it's an interesting ending because Murphy 1:23:46.880 --> 1:23:53.080 has somewhat reclaimed his humanity, like he has acted against 1:23:53.320 --> 1:23:56.960 the direct interests of his one of his bosses in 1:23:57.000 --> 1:24:00.160 this case, so he has somewhat done the right thing 1:24:00.200 --> 1:24:03.400 despite what he's being told to do by the by 1:24:03.400 --> 1:24:06.679 the organization that controls him. He has to some degree 1:24:06.760 --> 1:24:10.280 recovered part of himself in that like he you know, 1:24:10.320 --> 1:24:13.599 he remembers his family, he remembers his life. Even though 1:24:13.640 --> 1:24:17.519 he's not fully the Murphy he was, he realizes some 1:24:17.680 --> 1:24:21.240 part of him is Murphy, but he's still not completely free. 1:24:21.320 --> 1:24:23.720 And I think that makes the ending more interesting and 1:24:23.760 --> 1:24:27.000 bittersweet than if he just had like a total victory 1:24:27.080 --> 1:24:29.479 over the bad guys. He's still not fully free because 1:24:29.479 --> 1:24:32.280 he's not able to remove directive for he just has to, 1:24:32.560 --> 1:24:35.120 like outsmart it, find a way around it by getting 1:24:35.320 --> 1:24:37.920 the old man to fire Dick Jones so he can act. 1:24:38.120 --> 1:24:40.760 But again, thinking of Dick Jones as kind of a 1:24:40.760 --> 1:24:44.479 God or Zeus figure, it's like he has he has 1:24:44.520 --> 1:24:47.439 scaled at the top of Mount Olympus once more and 1:24:47.760 --> 1:24:50.400 I guess we also have a satanic figure literally falling 1:24:51.320 --> 1:24:54.639 from the from the heights here. But but then the 1:24:54.880 --> 1:24:57.920 old Man has to acknowledge him, and in asking him 1:24:57.920 --> 1:24:59.679 his name, there is kind of like a power there. 1:24:59.680 --> 1:25:03.280 It's like like, this is your chance to reclaim some 1:25:03.360 --> 1:25:05.960 portion of humanity that we took from you, and he 1:25:06.080 --> 1:25:08.240 does reclaim at least part of it. 1:25:08.680 --> 1:25:11.000 Yeah, but like we said, it's not a complete victory, 1:25:11.360 --> 1:25:14.040 you know, It's not like OCP is completely defeated and 1:25:14.640 --> 1:25:16.760 the world has changed for the better. I mean, it's 1:25:16.800 --> 1:25:19.880 a small, limited victory, but at least it is that 1:25:20.000 --> 1:25:22.599 in this otherwise bleak and horrible world. 1:25:23.040 --> 1:25:25.800 Yeah, I mean, there's so many great little moments, like 1:25:26.040 --> 1:25:28.639 the final showdown with Botaker, of course, where he stabs 1:25:28.680 --> 1:25:31.120 him in the neck, which apparently they wanted to do 1:25:31.160 --> 1:25:35.200 something grizzlier, and this was this was thing, the less 1:25:35.200 --> 1:25:37.519 grizzly version, you know. And I guess you don't actually 1:25:37.600 --> 1:25:40.719 see him stab him in the neck. You just see, 1:25:40.760 --> 1:25:44.200 like way too blood splashed under Robocop's chest and then 1:25:44.240 --> 1:25:48.000 you see Bodeker stumbling away with blood gushing out of 1:25:48.040 --> 1:25:51.800 his neck. Still incredibly violent, but I'd forgotten that you 1:25:51.840 --> 1:25:55.080 don't actually see it going into his neck. 1:25:55.640 --> 1:25:58.040 The spike that he uses to kill Botaker there is 1:25:58.080 --> 1:26:00.240 not actually meant to be a weapon. It is the 1:26:00.400 --> 1:26:03.240 jack that he uses to interface with the police computer. 1:26:03.840 --> 1:26:06.320 Yeah, and when he busts it out again to load 1:26:06.400 --> 1:26:10.320 the incriminating evidence, it's still bloody with Bodiker's blood. But 1:26:10.320 --> 1:26:13.799 but but shortly after that, there's that scene where Lewis 1:26:14.000 --> 1:26:16.760 is all is shot up and you know, they've they've 1:26:16.760 --> 1:26:18.880 defeated the bad guys there, and this is at the 1:26:18.920 --> 1:26:23.479 industrial site, and RoboCop says to her, it's like, don't worry, 1:26:23.520 --> 1:26:25.600 they'll fix you up. They always do, or something to 1:26:25.600 --> 1:26:29.200 those effects, which they fix everything, they fix everything, which 1:26:29.560 --> 1:26:31.760 which ties into this feeling of yeah, the sort of 1:26:31.760 --> 1:26:35.639 the partial victory, like the powers that these are still 1:26:35.760 --> 1:26:39.080 very much in charge and are very much the deciders 1:26:39.080 --> 1:26:44.240 of life and death and resurrection, but some monoicum of victory, 1:26:44.280 --> 1:26:46.840 some some shred of humanity has been reclaimed. 1:26:47.280 --> 1:26:50.320 So that's RoboCop. Would you buy that for a dollar? 1:26:51.560 --> 1:26:54.639 Yes, I would. I would buy it for thirty plus 1:26:54.680 --> 1:26:58.519 dollars whatever the going rate for the Blu Ray is, 1:26:59.360 --> 1:27:02.519 you know, or you know, rent it digitally or physically 1:27:02.520 --> 1:27:04.320 for somewhere in the neighborhood of four or five dollars. 1:27:04.439 --> 1:27:05.840 Well worth it, well worth the time. 1:27:06.200 --> 1:27:07.360 Okay, that's all I've got. 1:27:07.720 --> 1:27:09.960 All Right, We're going to gohea and close out this episode. 1:27:09.960 --> 1:27:12.879 I think we have one more episode before our Christmas selection, 1:27:13.160 --> 1:27:15.960 so you know, keep your eyes open to see what 1:27:16.000 --> 1:27:19.200 we're going to be covering. You can follow the films 1:27:19.200 --> 1:27:21.240 that we cover on Weird House Cinema by going to 1:27:21.360 --> 1:27:23.600 letterbox dot com. That's L E T T E R 1:27:23.680 --> 1:27:26.040 B O x D dot com. Our user name there 1:27:26.120 --> 1:27:27.760 is weird House, and we have a nice list of 1:27:27.760 --> 1:27:30.960 all the movies we've covered so far and sometimes a 1:27:31.000 --> 1:27:33.600 sneak peek at what's coming up at least in the 1:27:33.600 --> 1:27:37.040 week to follow. We're primarily a science podcast here. It's 1:27:37.040 --> 1:27:39.679 stuff to blow your mind with core episodes on Tuesdays 1:27:39.720 --> 1:27:42.240 and Thursdays, but on Fridays we set aside most serious 1:27:42.280 --> 1:27:44.760 concerns to just talk about a weird film film here 1:27:44.760 --> 1:27:47.760 on Weird House Cinema. Follow us on social media if 1:27:47.800 --> 1:27:51.120 you use social media on Instagram, we are st b 1:27:51.320 --> 1:27:54.479 ym podcast and I have to say that the social 1:27:54.479 --> 1:27:56.559 media team has been putting up some some cool like 1:27:56.640 --> 1:28:00.640 trailer audio visual trailer samples of the films covered on 1:28:00.680 --> 1:28:02.360 Weird House, so that's another place where you can get 1:28:02.720 --> 1:28:05.519 a little taste of the movie we're talking about each week. 1:28:05.840 --> 1:28:09.480 Huge thanks as always to our excellent audio producer JJ Posway. 1:28:09.760 --> 1:28:11.320 If you would like to get in touch with us 1:28:11.320 --> 1:28:13.799 with feedback on this episode or any other, to suggest 1:28:13.880 --> 1:28:15.800 a topic for the future, or just to say hello, 1:28:15.880 --> 1:28:18.400 you can email us at contact at stuff to Blow 1:28:18.479 --> 1:28:26.240 your Mind dot com. 1:28:26.400 --> 1:28:29.320 Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For 1:28:29.400 --> 1:28:32.200 more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, 1:28:32.360 --> 1:28:35.600 Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.