@@killroy23 The commentary to this and Starship Troopers is actually worth listening to - Verhoeven is a good storyteller there as well, and his Dutch accent is funny too. "In zis shöt ve häff a mödel of a büg..."
The director Paul Verhoeven like to address the actors as their character names, so referring to the the two models as b****** while Miguel Ferrer was referred by his character named Bob Morton because the director wanted the cast to know that he's serious and ready, and wanted everyone to be in character. Verhoeven was also difficult to work with.
Yeah, same type of satire. Just make sure you watch the original Total Recall with Arnold, cause, like with Robocop, they remade it into a PG-13 trash.
Hi Mell. Peter Weller WAS inside the suit. Rob Bottin(who also did practical makeup effects for "John Carpenter's The Thing") designed the suit and did all the practical makeup effects for this film too.
BUT for the scenes where RoboCop is driving, Peter Weller is in his underwear, because he couldn’t fit into the car when wearing the full RoboCop costume, just the headpiece, torso, and feet. To get around this, we see him always exiting feet first.
@@saltygrasshopper I believe he had the way he was to move rehearsed and ready before the suit arrived, they realized that once the suited was donned it didn't work so they came up with the idea of slowing all his movements down, like a serpent, it worked like a dream. The scene when ribocop throws Clarence to the desk and says "book him " The say "what's the charge?" When he turns around Peter Weller should have been given an award for that one shot, his legs turn. His body, then finally his head "he's a cop killer" Us 80s kids were lucky, magigians were making movies then, now all you have are computer geeks
When Robocop came out, it had the most blood, gore, and violence. It almost got an X rating. They had to scale back Mr. Kinney's death scene just to get the R rating.
Yes along with Kinney's boardroom death by ED209, Murphy's death scene and Clarence's death at the end had to be trimmed down to dial it back to an R rating by the MPAA. The MPAA also wanted the "melting man" scene removed, but Paul Verhoeven put his foot down with the studio and managed to keep it in its entirety. And I got to see it on a 35 foot screen back in 1987!
@@danielallen3454 also apparently he was so bulky he could sit in the cop car in the suite, which means every time you see Robocop driving, it’s Peter Weller in his boxers XD
Believe it or not, the version of the suit you see in the final film is a scaled back version of the original design - they built the suit knowing Weller was a certain height and weight, but due (I wanna say) to the short pre-production schedule they had, they didn't have time for an in-depth series of fittings and moulds, so the suit had a lot of layers of foam rubber padding that had to be removed or cut back on just for him to be able to move around. And Weller's a method actor so he stayed in character for most of this.
It was at a theater in Corona Del Mar, California. Robocop was an 8 p.m. showing and I managed to "infiltrate" the theater with some friends thanks to an employee on the inside lol. I think one of the ushers was a cousin of one of my friends, or something. We were all youngsters. Everyone reacted to everything in the movie. The insane violence. The comedy. The sad parts. Everyone was with Murphy on his journey from brave rookie cop to an unstoppable cyborg that could rival the Terminator. Basically, the best feeling you could get from going to an evening film. Like a really good concert!
Kurtwood Smith was amazing in that role. Nice guy and very funny to meet in person too. Absolutely loved him as Red Foreman in That 70's Show years later.
Fun fact: Several Actors were considered for the role: Arnold Schwarzenegger Armand Assante Michael Ironside Rutger Hauer Sylvester Stallone, but they all turned it down due to their large frames, and Paul Verhoeven wanted someone to fit inside the suit.
MELLLLOOOooOoOoOooOoo!!! My grandmother took me to see this when I was 10 years old lol ...she figured it was a kids movie since all the kids were into robots & Transformers. She was horrified the whole time - but didn’t drag me out haha 🤪
That's funny. My mother and I went to see it, I was 11 or 12. She knew it was rated R, etc, but I got to watch R movies all the time. I've always liked sci-fi, most are surprised to know that I'm female lol.
When the criminal recognized Murphy by the phrase "Dead or alive you're coming with me," he recognized not only the phrase but also the voice. As Robocop he still has the same voice only "robotized."
Which is why it’s very damn implausible that multiple persons do not recognize Batman is Bruce Wayne in the terrible movie Batman and Robin because Batman never modified his voice to he different from Bruce Wayne including when he spoke publicly during a fundraiser that multiple persons could hear him.
the scene where the red head criminal gets half melted by toxic waste then splash killed by a car was a memory that i visited in my sleep often when i was a kid, i was so freaked out by it
@@leslauner5062 Ok, that’s great for 1987, but it was 2028 in Robocop. I’m just saying they could have tried a little harder. I mean look at the cars in Back to the Future: Part 2. The cars in 2015 looked futuristic.
@@KingOfEmptyPromises It's a matter of concept. Robocop sets in a dystopian cyberpunk future. And that means greedy corporations. The police car and their uniform looked generic and cheap to symbolize the way corporations profit with the smallest expense possible. It adds to the grittiness of the movie.
Imagine seeing this as a little kid, falling in love with it then being able to get the toys and bring Robo and ED 209 home. that was a dream come true, damn those were some fun ass times : D
It was weird growing up in the 80s and getting to watch stuff like this as a kid, then having everyone lose their minds when Mortal Kombat came out in the arcades. Like, what?!
I still have my Robocop action figure from the 90s, about 30 cm (1 ft) tall, made from some sort of weighted alloy that's cold to the touch, and has this little button on his chest that make him speak the lines from the movie XD
What got me was the blatant admission that young kids saw these movies... because they sold the toys to us. You were suppose to be 18 (or whatever the US equivalent is) to see this, yet all got to see it either on VHS or after 9pm on TV.
I think my favorite part of this movie is the mirrored structure of the plot and how much thought Verhoeven put into making it work. For example, it starts and ends with an OCP product killing an Executive in a meeting even though it was not supposed to. Murphy and Lewis pursue Clarence and his gang into the steel mill as it is their hide out and Murphy is murdered, while at the end Clarence pursues the hiding Murphy and Lewis to the steel mill. You can even say while Murphy was killed and Robocop was created after the steel mill incident, the ending in the steel mill is where Murphy fully avenges his death and is able to accept his identity as Murphy once again. They calibrate Robocop before he goes to fight crime, and once again after he's been attacked by the cops, where he even has a scenes firing his gun at targets. The middle of the movie is a slow transition from him fighting crime to him becoming targeted by the police as a criminal himself. These are the broad strokes, and if you really go through the movie you can even find individual lines and moments that are mirrored as well.
There's also Murphy doing the TJ laser thing in the last scene: spinning his gun after taking down a bad guy just like in the TV show his son used to watch.
Peter Weller has stated that the topics Robocop touches are still present to this day. Detroit wanted to put a sculpture of Robo in 2013 as an icon of what the movie depicted in our society. Great movie
@@happyapple4269 I'm pretty sure I remember beating it on one credit in the actual arcade. Didn't play it again after that to save the perfect game memory, which is now mostly gone. Getting 100% on the target shooting mini-games gave you a big health boost and it was possible to preserve a couple of shots of the assault cannon for at least one(?) boss which took off a bunch of its health. (It was 25+ years ago though, so sadly I'm a bit vague on the details.)
I loved Data East's arcade game. Never had a Spectrum, but I read that it was the best selling game of all time for the system. There was also a Commodore 64 version but a huge bug left it unwinnable due to glitching out hard on the 4th level or so.
Dick Jones: “I had a guaranteed military sale with ED209! Renovation program! Spare parts for 25 years! Who cares if it worked or not!” That satire is as true today as it was back in the 80’s maybe even more so!
An entire generation saw this movie as grade school kids. It was one of those movies you just HAD to see. And if you didn't, all the kids talking about it in school made you want to see it even more!
It's good to see the "Robocop Effect"(moving like him and making that sound) is still going strong with new viewers of this movie. They originally wanted to make a Judge Dredd movie but couldn't so we got this instead.
There's an interesting video of Peter Weller talking at a convention where he goes into detail of how he worked extensively with an acclaimed mime artist to helped him work within the confines of the RoboCop suit after the production became horrified at just how much the suit really limited Weller's mobility.
Oh yeah. He had to go back to the artist and ask to rework the moves because they're original set wasn't working anymore. And the mime initially refused saying he was too busy.
@@Momon143 my college history course was watching a documentary on the coliseum, and when i saw peter weller show up, i mentally screamed "BUCKAROO???"
Clarence Boodiker IS Red Forman, this is after Kitty died tragically and Red finally snapped at Eric's smart mouth. He killed Eric, changed his name and became a crime boss in Detroit. Also did you notice Robocops voice at the beginning was very robotic but at the end its normal again. And lastly watch part 2 but don't bother with part 3
Three should be watched to end the story. It isn't great, or good, but it went through studio hell in production. I played the amigo game which was developed off of an early draft of the script and it was awesome. So sad to see what they did to it.
This is one of those low-key satire movies. You watch it for the action, but the satire of big business running everything is all over it. Starship Troopers does something very similar. You should give that a watch as well.
Hey Mel. When I went to see Robocop in the movie theater. The had a life size version of the ED-209 robot in the lobby entrance. It was fucking epic. However back then there were no cell phone cameras. Photo ops were few and far between.
@@Gnossiene369 look at how action and horror movies were in the late 80's and early 90's. Major draw was over the top violence with very little censorship. Now it's more polished and fewer mainstream movies are showcasing as much. It's still there but not as much.
Saw this movie as a kid, and its influenced my creative work more than anything. The balance of subtle horror, cynical sense of humor, and the gory, real high stakes action is brilliant. Listening to Peter Weller (who is a Doctor of Venetian Art History) talk about how this corny 80's action movie is a genuine work of genius is fantastic as well
One reason this movie is incredible is its high level satire of corporatocracies. Its criticism of the military industrial complex, other forms of corporate welfare, gentrification, heartless and psychopathic business values, police suppression of the poor instead of addressing the causes of poverty, promoting technology that industry profits from at taxpayers' expense , infotainment, privatization, commercialism, consumerism, business propaganda, etc. It's not just an action movie with an amazing musical score, acting, special effects, set design, etc. With appreciation of its accurate satire, the movie deserves a 10 out of 10. Robocop is one of my top five favorite movies for several reasons.
Peter Weller wore a suit in Robocop and the sequel. The suit was made from fiberglass and was hot to wear. The original was filmed in Dallas during the summer (August, I think) - Weller mentioned that he sweated constantly even lost a few pounds one particular day. The suit was modified to be more comfortable to wear for the sequel - which was shot in Houston during the summer (if anything Houston is hotter in the summer due to higher humidity).
Beverly Hills Cop I and II are both classics. I kind of like 2 better, but it's very close. BHC3 is another one of those where they really crippled it with trying to get by on the cheap. I mean Eddie Murphy is still good. I guess maybe that's enough if you are a super fan. But I just couldn't stop asking myself "was this a real theatrical movie or was it straight to video or something?" The ever present cheapness and corner cutting just ruins it for me.
Love your reactions man! One movie I would recommend for you is An American Werewolf in London. Hands down one of the best werewolf movies of all time!
@Bly The Guy Out of all the werewolf movies out there, there’s only two that I consider the best and that’s American Werewolf in London and The Wolf Man (1941).
"Serve The Public Trust" "Protect The Innocent" "Uphold The Law" These are my best favorite lines of RoboCop even though "I'd Buy That For A Dollar" was also my favorite line and that's why he's added to Mortal Kombat 11: Aftermath
I saw this when I was nine and had the action figures. The 80’s were an amazing time for kids!! Saw part 2 in the theatre! The director adds satire to some of his movies. Corporations taking over the police force, media using propaganda, police becoming emotionless robots.
"I wonder what the marketing was for this movie?" Kids. The answer was kids. Like most movies that were action packed that kids definitely shouldn't have seen, they marketed heavily toward kids with toys, cartoons, games, etc.
Bro, So If Someone Says "Rock-A-Bye Baby" To You And Then The Next Time You Hear It, Are You Just Going To Automatically Assume It's The Same Person? That Makes No Sense
@@HelloMellowXVI I understand your point Mel, but the guy blew away a cop.. And when he first saw him that was exactly what Murphy said... I don't know about you but I would remember that 4 sure, I jus like how robocop kept replaying it after he said I know you we killed yah lol.
@@HelloMellowXVI It was Murphy's delivery that the bad guy caught. The way how he saying it was a memory trigger. Also, I don't think people or cops would say that peculiar sentence around, right? "Dead or alive, you're coming with me," is that what cops usually say to criminals? I don't think so 😆
You said, "I think I'm in love." THANK YOU! I watched another reactor (a female who should've enjoyed that scene) complain about Lewis laying out that bad guy at the station in front of her new partner, Murphy. How about a female who doesn't need her male partner bailing her out? That's exactly what that scene's about. So I already like your reaction five seconds in. Again, THANK YOU!
RoboCop is one of those films everyone should watch at least once. Especially if you're going into film-making, art, design, etc. Was lucky enough to see from a distance the filming of the scene where they chase the antagonist after a bank robbery and throw that one guy into the cop's car. The infamous *"Can you Fly Bobby?"* scene. I was in 3rd grade and our class happened to be in a school field trip in downtown Dallas. Movie was filmed in Dallas, TX (even though the movie is based in Detroit).
I saw this when I was 17 in 1987 and it was the 1st R rated film I had ever seen in the theatre (and I lied about my age as you had to be 18 in Canada)... It blew me away at 17. I've re-watched it dozens of times and it is still one of the best sci-fi films of the era. Themes of consumerism run amok, business monopolies and corruption which goes from the top down (the "real" villains are all the executives at Omni Consumer Products), themes of Death and Resurrection- notice the symbolism of how Robocop "walks on water" at the climax against Clarence. An outstanding soundtrack. And an absolutely solid performance by Peter Weller. Yes that was him in the suit the entire time except for *one* stop-motion effect during his fight against ED209. It took several hours to get him into the suit and he spent months training with a brilliant mime coach- Moni Yakim (whom they also built a duplicate suit for) who taught him the robotic movement of Robocop. This movie could have gone in a lot of silly directions like having Robo throw a car at the bad guys, or having him have to save his widowed wife and son from the Boddicker Gang, or have a romantic relationship between him and his old partner Lewis- so glad it didn't go that route. Bit of trivia- the movie originally got an "X" rating from the Motion Picture Association of America in 1987 because of the sheer amount of over the top violence. Scenes like ED209 shooting the boardroom victim Kinney a thousand times, Murphy being shot to death, and Clarence's death at the end all had to be trimmed down (but not completely deleted) to reduce it to an R rating for theatres. The MPAA also wanted them to cut the Melting Man scene- but director Paul Verhoeven put his foot down and managed to keep it in, in its entirety (something that I'll never forget watching on a 35 foot movie screen as a 17 year old kid). Aside from the action and brilliant satire, this film is a journey into what it means to be human. We all understand the concept of being "lost in the machine" be it the corporate machine or the justice machine or how everything seems to be becoming more and more superficial. But here is a man reclaiming his humanity after being literally turned into a machine. I've probably watched this film well over 100 times over the years and Robocop's final line "Murphy" can still move me to this day!
I absolutely love Robocop. The art direction, the brutality of the violence and Peter Weller makes this film. I love how Peter Weller went to a movement coach to get the walk and movement right. I love how this movie you see bits of Murphy come back till the final act where he is no longer the robotic Robocop and more like the man he used to be. That final slight smile and him saying “Murphy” had me cheering so hard when I saw this movie for the first time as a kid.
The point of the movie is a man who dies, gets resurrected as a machine, and his struggle to find his humanity again. He finally does, at the very end by his answer to what’s your name?, his response, “Murphy”. One of my favorite endings to any movie, gets me every time. Love this movie!
One of my absolute favorite movies of all time and I bought the unrated cut as soon as it came out on blu ray. I was shown the film by my dad when i was 10 and immediately fell in love with 80s action! Also loved your Remy edit in the conference room 😂😂
Yep... That was Peter Weller in a suit... One of the conditions for his return for Robocop 2' was to make the suit more comfortable...Speaking of the suit, did you notice that the 'skin' had a automobile finish to it? (The story is set in Detroit, after all...)
He's a smart guy. If you can find the essay Martin Amis wrote about visiting the set of Robocop2, Weller is described as being so mentally and physically disciplined.
Just so you know, that opening aerial shot of Detroit during the opening title sequence is the only time you actually see Detroit in the movie. Most of the film was shot in Dallas, Texas. The scenes at the chemical plant were filmed outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Interesting Trivia- The film was originally supposed to be a live action adaptation of Judge Dredd, however the producers could not secure the rights from both the creators and publishers of the comic and felt like the American audiences likely wouldn't be too familiar with a character published in the United Kingdom (he wasn't as well known internationally at the time) so Robocop was created. Peter Weller WAS actually in the suit, but in the beginning of filming he was losing too many body fluids from sweating and was often on the verge of passing out so the suit was sent to have fans installed inside of it to keep him cool. Peter Weller took mime classes and was advised by legitimate street dancers (one of them reported to be Micheal "Boogaloo Shrimp" Chambers, "Turbo" of Breakin' fame) on how to move fluidly like a robot would. The scene where he catches the keys tossed to him by Sergeant Reed took well over 20 takes because the keys kept bouncing off of the costume's gloves, which had foam rubber in them. Peter Weller could only wear the top half of the suit in any scene that Robocop is in his patrol car as the leg portion made it impossible to fit in the driver's seat. When filming Morton's death, director Paul Verhoeven didn't understand the concept of Kurtwood Smith's line "Bitches, leave!" so he kept referring to the actresses playing the prostitutes by that word and repeating things like "Ok, Kurtwood comes in, the bitches run out the door!", "Ok where are the bitches?"; the cast and crew kept cracking up in laughter hearing him say that in his Dutch accent. He also makes a blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo in the nightclub scene when Robocop arrests Leon Nash, right after Nash tries to kick Murphy in the crotch. When Robocop takes Boddicker in to be booked, Kurtwood Smith spitting blood on the paperwork and his line "Just gimme my fucking phone call!" were improvised by by the actor. Robert Do'Qui's (Reed) reaction of disgust was genuine as he wasn't expecting it. Though she acts completely disgusted by Boddicker's demeanor, the actress who played Dick Jones' secretary is actually his wife in real life. When Boddicker's gang destroys the city street with the Cobra Assault Cannons, too many explosives were used when Emil fires into the storefront causing Boddicker and Nash to flinch. Kurtwood Smith and Ray Wise were actually hit with broken glass and debris and their clothes were mildly singed. The 6000 SUX was intended to mock Pontiac and points are made of how cheap and terrible of a car it was supposed to be. The rear view mirror detaches and falls when Leon taps the roof of the car during the Cobra gun scene and the hubcaps fly off when Boddicker is fleeing Lewis at the steel mill. Joe Cox's death was originally to be much more violent and gruesome. He was to be knocked off of a platform at the steel mill and torn apart by Dobermans but it was changed to just having Murphy shoot him instead. When Emil ends up being burned and disfigured from crashing into the toxic waste, his appearance in the make-up was kept secret from the rest of the cast. When he approaches Nash begging for help, Ray Wise's reaction and scream were authentic as he wasn't told that was going to happen and thought some freak was trying to attack him. Peter Weller himself voices Robocop's appearance in Mortal Kombat 11.
Robocop 2 is enjoyable on a different level compared to the first one. I definitely enjoyed the stop motion work for Robocain quite a bit. I remember when watching the first Iron Man movie and when Iron Man and Iron Monger were fighting it reminded me of the fight between Cain and Robo quite a bit.
Weller really did dress in the suit, except his lower half when he was having to get in and out of a vehicle. At those times he just wore a pair of shorts as the apparatus didn't allow him to bend properly.
"I'll buy that for a dollar!" I've been saying that since this movie came out! The re-make of this in 2014 was REALLY GOOD they didnt just replay it they reimagined the whole thing! Def should see it so you can see the difference. both awesome in their own rights!
One thing I didn't notice when I first watched this movie was that Murphy is set up from the beginning. If you notice, they've transferred all the good cops to high crime areas in the hopes that one of them will get killed.
Peter Weller was in the suit the entire time. The "robotic movement" was 100% Weller's own choreography & physical performance. For more Weller, watch the off-beat Sci-Fi/Comedy classic _Buckaroo Banzai._
Friends always told me that they thought I would like Buckaroo Banzai -- I thought it was okay, but something didn't quite click. Then I watched all the extra features, behind the scenes stuff, commentary track on the modern DVD releases -- Love the movie! Read the novelization -- Love the movie even more. Buckaroo Banzai is kind of a big inside joke, and once you are in on the joke, it's genius!
11:00 no, they really did put Peter Weller in that suit and it nearly broke him as an actor. He had a breakdown, he couldn't move, couldn't act in it. Thought the movie was DOA. Then he had a talk with a choreographer that made him relearn how to move and walk. That's how we got that robotic movement.
Fun fact: The actress (Joan Pirckle) playing the secretary Clarence hits on when he's going to talk to Dick Jones ended up becoming his (Kurtwood Smith's) wife.
I was 11 when I saw this for the first time a guy my dad worked with told him it was a good family movie he was fired the next day. Few years later I watched it again and loved it..
This is one of my Favorite Childhood movies. So Peter Weller actually wore the Suit… But it was both Heavy and Hot coming in around 5565 Pounds, so they had to install a Water Drinking type thing in his suit to keep him Hydrated… I do believe it took about 9-10 Hours to get that suit on and off but it did go down to about an Hour or so During Filming… Man’s a trooper for not only doing it once but Twice!
22:26 Not being able to run was always a weird weakness with Robocop. I think it was an 80s thing where everyone thought of anything robotic as moving slowly but deliberately. His big-ass gun and accurate aim usually dealt with most of the speed issues.
