49 Fun Facts About RoboCop

Which words complete RoboCop's famous warning to criminals, "Dead or alive, you're…"?

Coming with me. Murphy says it to a gang member before he is murdered, so when the armoured RoboCop repeats the line, the terrified crook realises who is inside.

Before the RoboCop costume was ready, which sport's protective gear did Peter Weller wear to rehearse the character's movements?

American football. He drilled in the pads for months, even in Central Park, but the real suit arrived two weeks into filming and he found he could barely move in it.

In which city is RoboCop set?

Detroit. The filmmakers scouted the real city and decided its skyline did not look futuristic enough, so another city stood in for it on screen.

In the RoboCop films, what do the initials of the megacorporation OCP stand for?

Omni Consumer Products. In the first film the near-bankrupt city signs over its police force for the company to fund and run, and the firm sets about replacing officers with machines.

Who plays crime lord Clarence Boddicker in RoboCop?

Kurtwood Smith. The script gave Boddicker glasses so he would resemble Heinrich Himmler, but nobody told Smith, who took them as an intellectual front for a smirking drug kingpin.

In RoboCop, what everyday obstacle defeats the ED-209 droid as it chases the hero through OCP headquarters?

A flight of stairs. RoboCop lures the heavily armed droid onto them, and steps too small for its feet send it crashing to the bottom.

Which actor plays OCP senior president Dick Jones in RoboCop?

Ronny Cox. Since Deliverance he had been typecast as the nice guy next door; playing a ruthless executive changed that and brought him a run of villains.

Who plays Bob Morton, the junior executive behind the RoboCop project, in the 1987 film?

Miguel Ferrer. He had no idea whether the film would turn out good or silly, yet he later called the 1986 shoot maybe the best summer of his life.

Who plays Murphy's partner Anne Lewis in RoboCop?

Nancy Allen. Verhoeven had her crop her long blonde hair and told her to eat a lot, so that nobody would expect a romance between the two partners.

Which revived detective series cost Stephanie Zimbalist her RoboCop role and Pierce Brosnan his first Bond?

Remington Steele. NBC cancelled the show, then changed its mind days before its hold on the two stars ran out, so both had to give up their film roles.

In RoboCop, what does the classified fourth prime directive stop the hero from doing?

Arresting OCP executives. When he tries to arrest the executive his killer works for, the hidden rule shuts his body down, because the company will not let its own creation turn on it.

How does the Old Man nullify Directive 4 in RoboCop's finale?

He fires Jones. Taken hostage in his own boardroom, the Old Man shouts "Dick, you're fired!", and RoboCop, free to act at last, thanks him and shoots.

How does Lewis first suspect that RoboCop is Murphy?

The way he holsters his gun. Murphy copied the pistol spin from T.J. Lazer, the TV cop his young son idolised, and the habit survives his rebuilding as a machine.

Edward Neumeier conceived RoboCop while working unofficially on the set of which 1982 film?

Blade Runner. Then a junior studio executive, Neumeier slipped onto the huge set at night to help the crew, and there pictured a robot policeman in a future city.

What 1988 event cost Edward Neumeier and Michael Miner, the pair behind RoboCop's script, their jobs on the sequel?

A writers' strike. The pair had begun the sequel, but when the Writers Guild walked out for five months they would not keep writing, and the studio fired them.

Which 1960 film gave RoboCop writer Edward Neumeier the idea for what happens to his hero Murphy?

Psycho. Hitchcock kills off his leading lady in the first act, and Neumeier borrowed the shock: Murphy is gunned down before RoboCop ever appears.

Which studio released RoboCop in 1987?

Orion Pictures. The studio later went bankrupt, which left RoboCop 3 sitting on the shelf until 1993, and the series ended up with MGM.

Who persuaded Paul Verhoeven to direct RoboCop after he had tossed the script aside?

His wife. Martine Verhoeven read the script while he went for a swim, then told him he had missed its soul: a man who loses his identity and finds it again.

Which comic-book character did Edward Neumeier use to show Paul Verhoeven the tone he wanted for RoboCop?

Judge Dredd. Verhoeven wanted to play the story straight, so Neumeier sent him home with a stack of British comics whose deadpan humour was the model.

Which star did RoboCop's studio favour for the title role before deciding he was too bulky for the suit?

Arnold Schwarzenegger. He had already given the studio a hit, but the filmmakers feared that inside the costume he would look like the Michelin Man.

RoboCop's public prime directives are "Serve the public trust", "Uphold the law" and which other order?

Protect the innocent. All three are programmed into him, and it is the order to uphold the law that later stops him killing Boddicker in revenge.

In RoboCop, TV host Bixby Snyder was written as an extreme American version of which comedian?

Benny Hill. The leering host is never named on screen, yet his catchphrase, "I'd buy that for a dollar!", became one of the film's most quoted lines.

Which radio host turned down a part in RoboCop because he thought the film looked stupid?

Howard Stern. He told his listeners the film looked stupid and passed on the part, then saw the finished picture and praised it on air.

Which Texas city stood in for the futuristic metropolis during most of RoboCop's shoot?

Dallas. Verhoeven picked it over Houston for its gleaming new towers, and for run-down streets nearby that the crew was free to blow up.

Fittingly for a firm that takes over the local police, RoboCop's OCP tower was played by what kind of real building?

A city hall. The seat of a real local government played the company's headquarters, with matte paintings stretching the building into a skyscraper.

To cast RoboCop as "an American Jesus", what does Paul Verhoeven have him appear to do at the steel mill?

Walk on water. Verhoeven saw Murphy's murder as a crucifixion and RoboCop as his resurrection, so at the flooded mill the hero strides across the surface.

Who led the special-effects team and designed the RoboCop costume?

Rob Bottin. The producer could afford a great costume or a futuristic city, not both, so the money went on Bottin's suit and the film was shot against a real skyline.

Who did Paul Verhoeven later blame for RoboCop's costume arriving two weeks into filming?

Himself. After reading too many Japanese comics he kept demanding changes to a finished design, and he later admitted that every one of his ideas had been wrong.

Peter Weller created RoboCop's way of moving with Moni Yakim, his coach in which performing art?

Mime. Their first fluid, snake-like walk proved impossible in the heavy suit, so the pair spent two days on set inventing the slow, staccato movement seen in the film.

RoboCop's Auto-9 pistol was built from a real machine pistol made by which gunmaker?

Beretta. The Auto-9 is a 93R machine pistol, fitted with a longer barrel and a huge vented muzzle so that each three-shot burst spits flame in several directions.

Which car model played the black police cruisers in RoboCop?

Ford Taurus. A more ambitious custom cruiser was dropped, so the crew painted Ford's brand-new family car black; so few had been seen that it still looked futuristic.

What is the name of the gas-guzzling luxury car advertised in RoboCop and driven by Clarence Boddicker?

6000 SUX. In the film a gunman holding the mayor hostage demands one as part of his ransom, asking only that it go fast and get terrible gas mileage.

Which word ends ED-209's boardroom warning in RoboCop, "You have 20 seconds to…"?

Comply. The executive does drop the gun, but the droid keeps counting and opens fire anyway, a glitch that hands the rival RoboCop project its chance.

Which technique made ED-209 walk on screen in RoboCop?

Stop motion. Phil Tippett's team animated the droid in miniature, one frame at a time, while a seven-foot model stood in for scenes beside the actors.

Which earlier horror film inspired the look of Emil after his toxic-waste bath in RoboCop?

The Incredible Melting Man. When the ratings board asked for Emil's messy end to be cut, the filmmakers refused, because test audiences had rated it their favourite scene.

What did audiences stop doing once censors trimmed the gore from RoboCop's boardroom massacre?

Laughing. Paul Verhoeven says the film went back to the ratings board eight times, and that trimming the absurd fountains of blood left the scene nastier and no longer a joke.

Which artist's stark black lines inspired the abrupt Media Breaks that interrupt RoboCop?

Piet Mondrian. Verhoeven pictured the fake news and adverts as the black lines between the painter's coloured squares, cutting the story off without warning.

Who composed RoboCop's score, blending synthesizers with orchestra?

Basil Poledouris. The blend was deliberate: orchestra and synthesizers together for a hero who is half man and half machine.

Which member of RoboCop's crew can be glimpsed on screen, dancing wildly in the nightclub scene?

The director. Paul Verhoeven was showing the extras how to dance when his cameraman swung round and filmed him as a joke, and the editor kept the shot.

Which 50-year-old Disney film, back in cinemas, did RoboCop narrowly beat to number one on its opening weekend?

Snow White. The reissued fairy tale took $7.5 million to the violent satire's $8 million, and the surprise hit helped its studio swing from a loss to a profit.

RoboCop's one Oscar was a Special Achievement Award, given for which craft rather than for its visual effects?

Sound Editing. At the ceremony RoboCop strode on stage and rescued presenter Pee-wee Herman from a menacing ED-209.

Which former US president was paid to shake hands with RoboCop to promote the film's home-video release?

Richard Nixon. He posed with an actor in the RoboCop suit and handed his $25,000 fee to the Boys Club of America.

Which comic-book writer scripted RoboCop 2 and RoboCop 3?

Frank Miller. The studio found his first script unfilmable and had it rewritten, though he still turns up on screen in RoboCop 2 as a drug chemist.

RoboCop 2's director had made a sequel in which series?

Star Wars. Irvin Kershner, who made The Empire Strikes Back, wanted to explore what was left of Murphy's humanity, though the studio trimmed much of that from the finished film.

What new piece of equipment lets the hero fly in RoboCop 3?

A jetpack. The third film chased the younger fans who were buying the toys, with a new actor in the suit and a hero who fires around criminals instead of at them.

Who starred in the 2014 RoboCop reboot?

Joel Kinnaman. The remake took about $240 million worldwide, but in 2018 the studio chose to revive the original writers' unmade 1980s sequel script instead of following it up.

Where in the film timeline is the 2023 video game RoboCop: Rogue City set?

Between parts two and three. The game brought Peter Weller back to voice the hero, more than thirty years after RoboCop 2, his last film in the role.

Which film villain did RoboCop battle in a 1992 Dark Horse comic that later became a video game?

The Terminator. In the four-issue series RoboCop learns that his own technology will one day give rise to Skynet, so the machines travel back in time to protect him.

The 2011 tweet that inspired the RoboCop statue said he would beat which film hero?

Rocky. The mayor said the city had no such plans, so fans crowdfunded the bronze themselves, though it took until 2025 to get it installed.