10 Things You Didn't Know About Robo-Cop

[Music] in 1987 the original robocop was released and has become a cult phenomenon ever since it tells the story of detroit cop alex murphy played by peter weller who gets brutally gunned down by vicious criminal clarence j bottica to which murphy gets brought back to life and converted into robocop super powered cybernetic half man half robot all cop hybrid who is here to clean up the crime that plagues detroit however memories start to surface of his life and murder as murphy which plague robocop as he suffers traumatic flashbacks of his demise to which robocop becomes hell-bent to take revenge on those who killed him when he was human where it turns out that detroit's most violent gang is in fact working for dick jones the senior vice president of powerful company ocp which owns the police and of course robocop in which murphy must fight to no longer just be a product but also reclaim his humanity in this brilliant action-packed satire so unless your prime directives haven't filled you in already today we are looking into the badassery that is robocop as we explore 10 things that you may not know about this sci-fi classic so let's roll the credits while i comically insert the obligatory clip of the old buy that for a dollar guy as we check it out i'd buy that for a dollar [Music] [Music] that are alive you are coming with me number 10 robocop started on the set of blade runner robocop's co-writer edward newmeier was working on the set of blade runner in an unofficial capacity in 1982. he was aspiring to be a scriptwriter and joined the blade runner production to learn more about the filmmaking process he was interested in the script of blade runner in that it was about a cop tracking down robots or in this case replicants where he got the idea of writing a story that was something of a reversal about a cop who was a robot who was hunting down human criminals newmeier met up with robocop's other scriptwriter michael miner after observing a robotic themed music video which he had directed and so over the next couple of months they would both collaborate and write the script of robocop number nine other inspirations for robocop new meyer and miner both took inspirations from other pop culture foundations to create robocop particularly with comic books judge dredd in particular is considered a huge inspiration when it comes to robocop due to the many similarities between the two characters robocop even says some of the catchphrases that judge dredd has also spoken like come quietly or there will be trouble even early designs of robocop look very similar to judge dredd like as in pretty identical the marvel comic rom is also said to be an inspiration to robocop who like robocop starts off as a normal organic man but is transformed into a cyborg warrior in fact in several scenes in robocop you can actually see some rom comics such as in the convenience store and at murphy's home during the flashback sequence inspiration was also taken from the classic alfred hitchcock movie psycho which sees the main protagonist killed in the movie's first act similar to what happened to the murphy character the writers also took inspiration to real world issues such as the big powerful corporate business culture of the 80s which is where the ocp corporation element comes from and the two writers decided to set robocop in detroit due to the decline of the motor industry that was taking place at that time so really robocop was an amalgamation of blade runner comic books and 1980s corporate economics number eight the first director left robocop so the script to robocop was doing the rounds with new maya and miner trying to entice buyers the script would eventually get sold to orion pitchers who a few years earlier also distributed the other big cyborg movie of the 80s the terminator director jonathan kaplan came on board as director but while script rewrites were taking place he lost interest and left the project to direct project x instead other directors were approached to direct robocop including repo man director alex cox and david cronenberg whom had just recently had success with the fly co-writer michael miner himself stood up to the challenge and tried to negotiate for himself to direct robocop but orion didn't want to put such a big production in the hands of someone who hadn't had much experience in the industry it actually took six months to find the right director for robocop and even when they found the right guy it was still a struggle number seven paul verhoeven originally turned down robocop an executive at orion pictures suggested that dutch director paul verhoeven could direct robocop verhoeven at that stage mainly directed dutch movies but caught everyone's attention with his 1985 english-speaking movie flesh and blood verhoeven was sent a copy of the robocop script and after reading the first page called a piece of and threw it in the bin verhoeven was then sent another copy and was asked to really read the subtext of the script but he still wasn't interested and it was for hovan's wife who then picked up the script and read it and told her husband that it is a good script and it features themes that would resonate with him like a character losing their identity verhoeven then took the job as director and it is said that he added a jesus christ metaphor to the movie in that murphy is killed and resurrected and many fans have noticed in a showdown between murphy and botica in the movie's climax is kind of filmed in a way which looks like murphy is walking on water yeah robo jesus so really we have paul verhoeven's wife to fake for robocop thank you for your cooperation number six finding the right robocop so when it came to the pivotal role of alex murphy and robocop orion's number one choice was arnold schwarzenegger thanks to his previous success with the terminator which as mentioned was also produced by orion pitchers but it was felt that his build was too big and solid to cover him up in a robotic costume which would make him look more like the michelin man other actors considered include michael ironside rutgerhauer tom behringer and james riemer but many of the actors considered weren't too enthusiastic with the idea that their faces would be covered up throughout most of the film the legendary peter weller was chosen because of his prior role in the adventures of buckaroo banzai across the 8th dimension and also because of his slim build which would help with wearing his robotic armor without making it look too big or puffy at the time weller was actually scheduled to have a role in king kong lives but chose to star in robocop instead good call they really hit gold with weller as he's perfect in the role he brings a lot of heart and sincerity to the part in the scenes where he's robocop thanks to his movements and mannerisms you generally believe the guy is robotic and it's heartbreaking later in the movie where we see him fight to reclaim his humanity bottom line is robocop could have been a very silly role but weller makes it not only believable but heartbreaking and tragic too adding that much needed human element number five other casting procedures [Music] when it came to robocop's friend officer lewis actress stephanie zimbalist was cast in the role but she was forced to drop out when the tv show that she was starring in at the time remington still suddenly had a new season green lit so she was contracted to star in that so no robocop for her the interesting thing is also at that time pierce brosnan was cast as james bond but he was also forced to drop out of the role and return to remington still man remington still just ruined everyone's day back then it seemed that with the cast pulverhoven wanted to subvert expectations as nancy allen was subsequently cast as lewis and she was seen as a lady heart frog back in the 70s and 80s thanks to her long strawberry blonde hair in which verhoeven had her cut it all off and encouraged her to act tough and macho in the role in order to deliberately go against this public image and it works she plays a pretty tough bare knuckles cop who you wouldn't want to get on the wrong side with likewise ronnie cox was cast as the movie's sinister big bad dick jones on the grounds of his public persona thanks to his movie roles he was seen as someone who was gentle kind and mild-mannered so it was for this reason that verhoeven cast him as the truly evil and corrupt and feared jones cox would even say that playing the villain was a gazillion times more fun than playing the good guys then of course you've got curtwood smith who played the truly nasty piece of work clarence bottica originally smith auditioned for the role of dick jones before landing bodica where despite his small stature was truly terrifying as the street as you know that this is a guy with no morals or empathy and would have no problems killing you if it would somehow benefit him then of course you got miguel ferreira who played bob morton now this is an interesting character as he's basically robocop's father as he's the guy who created him and thus brought murphy back to life but he is essentially a terrible person who invented robocop not out of goodwill but for his own gain at the ocp corporation i never really know what exactly to make of his character and when he dies am i meant to feel bad for him or am i meant to be cheering for his demise i honestly don't know what to take from this character but that's not necessarily a complaint either but i know what you're all thinking i've left out one of the most important characters yes that's right the i'll buy that for a dollar guy i'd buy that for a dollar well the character is called bixby snyder and his fictional comedy show in robocop was called not my problem the part was played by s d nemeth who was a writer and actor and also appeared in a schlock movie called the lobster man from mars you know just throwing it out there number four issues with the title although we all know the title robocop and what it means and embrace it as the movie's title back when robocop was in production many of the cast and crew didn't like the title as they thought it sounded stupid now once again you have to remember this was a time before robocop was a thing the la times flat out called it a terrible title for a movie and even the marketing division of orion pitchers thought the title was a liability as they thought it sounded too similar to gobots and ronnie the robot but despite many finding the name silly robocop still stuck and it's hard to imagine it being named anything else originally the title was robocop the future of law enforcement before being cut down to just simply robocop michael miner claimed that at one stage in the writing process he came up with the name supercop and in the movie a fellow police officer even refers to robocop as supercop talking of changes in the script there were some changes and proposed changes that were being made to the story during the writing process at one stage orion wanted to change the location and for the story to not be set in detroit but new maya and maya stood their ground and insisted that the action takes place in detroit originally there was no connection between the villains bodica and dick jones and that they were just two separate villains with their own motivations but making the two foes accomplices ties the story together nicely making the story one big scheme at one stage in the script there was even going to be a romance subplot between robocop and lewis something that i'm really glad that they scrapped as that would have been a very hollywood thing to do and part of robocop's appeal is that it breaks conventions and look i don't know it just wouldn't have felt right number three makeup and effects [Music] the special effects of the movie were led by movie effects wizard rob botton who also worked on the effects of john carpenter's the thing and total recall and they are gruesomely delightful and gave the movie an edge along with giving the movie issues with its ratings classification as they may have been a little too brutal for its time when designing robocop suit botton took inspiration from metropolis and the day the earth stood still the costume was mainly made out of fiberglass and flexible foam latex and took six months to construct the suit looks amazing and timeless even by today's standards and just has a slick coolness about it although sometimes wearing the costume could be a bit too much for peter weller as it really restricted his movements and supposedly in some scenes where you just see robo's upper torso like when he's driving and walking around in the nightclub well apparently he was only wearing the upper part of his costume and underneath was just wearing his underpants a standout moment in makeup effects was the melting of the emile character played by paul mccrane the effect still looks as gruesome and as shocking as it did back then and that effect alone caused issues for robocop's rating but thankfully it was left in the ed 209 effect was created by using a life-size model along with stop motion stop motion is very much a dying art nowadays thanks to cgi but it looks great in robocop and makes you miss practical effects used in movies the only effect to me that doesn't look good in the movie and sticks out like a saw farm is the death of dick jones where after being shot by robocop and falling out of the ocp office we see that his arms have suddenly grown in length which sadly makes it look kind of comical it reminds me of that scene in a nightmare on elm street where freddy krueger suddenly had long arms it just looks weird and doesn't work but to be fair there was a time limit in creating this effect in which the dick jones puppet was made out of foam rubber with an aluminium skeleton sadly due to the time restraint a more articulate better quality puppet couldn't be made which is why we get this shot of dick jones and his unusually long arms but it's only a split second so i can live with it but either way dick jones and his unusually long arms of the law were no match for robocop number two marketing to kids indeed believe it or not but robocop a violent r-rated movie actually got merchandise aimed at children including action figures and a video game but the most curious tie-in to coincide with robocop was actually an animated series the robocop series only lasted for one season consisting of 12 episodes and it was co-produced by marvel productions and it was broadcast in 1988 the cartoon's intro even starts off with a sort of recap of the movie where we literally see murphy gunned down and look clarence bodica even makes an appearance obviously the show was toned down for a child-friendly audience and thus it couldn't be too violent where instead of using guns with bullets ones that shoot lasers are shown instead so yeah kids enjoy your saturday morning coco pops as you watch this cartoon about a police officer who was brutally murdered and horrifically brought back to life as a human robot hybrid but to be fair though the animation in the show was actually pretty good but it didn't catch on and the series has slipped into obscurity and while we're talking about kids cartoons and toys let's not forget about the bootleg action figure robert kopp yes part man part machine all robert bonus entry robocop's connection to fried chicken [Music] yeah as odd as it sounds but in some parts of the world robocop seems to be a popular mascot to help sell fried chicken i personally can't see the connection between robocop and fried chicken but heck what do i know i'm not in marketing first up we have this south korean advert where a mother is cooking some fried chicken which is so awesome it makes robocop leave the confines of the tv world and enter the real world just to get his hands on some fried chicken yeah it's hell of that baby food robocop was eating now he wants some fried chicken in fact robocop is so determined to get some fried chicken he even steals this poor family's refrigerator serve and protect my ass oddly the advert even uses the cowboy theme music from back to the future part three [Music] once again what's the connection then robocop was seen in a series of kfc adverts where we get colonel robocop who is a hybrid of colonel sanders and robocop look i swear you couldn't make this stuff up yes part man part machine all secret recipe but as odd as this is it's actually kind of awesome i really want to see a colonel robocop movie where he defeats baddies with fried chicken [Laughter] number one a legend in the making [Music] shortly before robocop's release there was an issue with the mpaa as robocop's production was hoping to get an r rating but it was incidentally slapped with an x so certain cuts and trims had to be made to some of the excessive scenes many of which would return for the movie's dvd release robocop was released in july 1987 and really did exceed expectations with the movie going on to make over 53 million dollars on a 13 million dollar budget as well as becoming the fourth highest grossing movie of that year robocop was actually praised by both critics and audiences alike who appreciated its action science fiction elements as well as its use of violent satire and comedy and has gone on to become one of the greatest science fiction movies of all time i can vividly remember my first encounter with robocop i was eight years old and it was advertised on tv that robocop will be broadcast at midnight completely uncut so without anyone knowing i snuck out of bed and got a vhs tape and recorded it the next morning i got up bright and early before anyone else was awake and watched it and i was honestly blown away by the movie i had never seen anything so brutal and violent but it was okay as to me it felt more comic book than it did realistic and i loved it and it also kind of felt like a rite of passage that i was leaving the safe confines of children's movies like the wizard of oz and disney movies and entering this new domain where not everything you see is safe and that movies can show violent brutal worlds robocop was my introduction to entering that next level of movie appreciation the world of r rated movies and so i've been hooked on robocop ever since but behind the razzle and dazzle of the special effects action and satire of corporate consumerism there is a very human heartfelt story that lies in robocop about a man being brought back to life as a product who has to fight in order to find his humanity again nice shooting son what's your name murphy i guess it goes without saying that robocop is a masterpiece all fans of the action sci-fi genre should definitely check out the original movie it's nothing short of superb anyway i'm minty and to all those watching your prime directives is to click a thumbs up on this video see ya [Music] [Music] so you

Channel: Minty Comedic Arts

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Length: 21min 33sec (1293 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 30 2021