RoboCop 2
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RoboCop 2 is a satirical science fiction film, released in 1990 and set in the near future in a dystopian metropolitan Detroit, Michigan. It is the sequel to the 1987 film RoboCop. The title character is played by Peter Weller, who also played RoboCop in the first film. However, although a second sequel and a television series were made, this was the last time Weller played the role, due to complaints of how cumbersome and exhausting it was to wear the suit and also due to the fact that Weller found RoboCop 2 to be a very negative and disappointing film to work on (his co-star, Nancy Allen, had similar negative feelings regarding the second film) and Frank Miller (who wrote the first draft of the script that was drastically altered in rewrites outside of his approval) became completely disenfranchised with the Hollywood system as a whole.
Despite not being directed by Paul Verhoeven, the director of the first film, RoboCop 2 contains many of his hallmarks, such as satirical television commercials (such as for an ultra powerful sunblock to deal with the devastation of Earth's ozone layer — which, ironically, is also a carcinogen) and upbeat news broadcasts. These can be seen in the original RoboCop and his later film Starship Troopers. The events in the second film closely follow the events in the first film (the ED-209 unit, for example, is mentioned as being deployed and malfunctioning). However, viewers may be confused by the fact that many of the major plot lines in the second film were not of any concern to any of the characters in both films, although they must have been known to those characters.
RoboCop 2 was directed by Irvin Kershner from a script by Frank Miller and Walon Green, although Miller's contributions were muted through rewrites. Miller's original script, deemed "unfilmable" by producers, was later turned into a nine-part comic book series called Frank Miller's RoboCop.
RoboCop 2 was followed by its own sequel, RoboCop 3.
Taglines:
- He's back to protect the innocents.
- Even in the future of law enforcement there is room for improvement.
Plot
The main plot of RoboCop 2 is the title character's struggle to regain the humanity that many characters in the film felt he lost when he was turned into RoboCop (a cyborg combining the brain and other tissue from the corpse of a murdered police officer, Alex Murphy, with a robotic body) in the first film. Indeed, that motif drove most of the events of the first film, and is a widely used theme (comprising the main theme of, inter alia, Pinocchio, Frankenstein, the Tin Man character in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Edward Scissorhands, and the character Data in ). However, in contrast to the dominant main plot of the first film, the story in RoboCop 2 is mainly driven by a number of sub-plots.
One sub-plot, introduced at the beginning of the movie, concerns the consequences of RoboCop's realization of his former identity, and his impotent attempt to reach out to his family. Having found out where they moved after he was killed, he merely drives by their house day after day, greatly distressing his former wife. She eventually complains to OCP, and they allow her to see him; beforehand, the new executive in charge of the RoboCop project insistently reminds the officer that he could never have his life back as Alex Murphy, and that he is RoboCop, Law Enforcement Unit. Seeing his wife, he tells her that the face was placed on him to honor the death Alex Murphy, and that he is just a machine. Though impassive in the face of her sadness and confusion, he intently watches as she leaves his life, forever.
The overarching plot of the movie concerns the attempt by Omni Consumer Products (OCP) to contrive the default of the debt of the old City of Detroit. It plans to foreclose, take over the city government, demolish the old city, and put up a planned community, Delta City, in its place. The replacement of government with corporate control that OCP espouses (arguing that "anybody can own a share. What could be more democratic?") can be considered a type of market populism. As part of this plan, it has forced a police strike by putting an end to the police pension plan. As RoboCop cannot go on strike, this merely increases his police duties as the city sinks further into anarchy and terror.
Meanwhile, the RoboCop division of OCP continues to sink tens of millions of dollars into the development of a more advanced and stronger cyborg — a "RoboCop 2". Each project ends up a disaster; once the transformed officers realize what they've become, they immediately turn suicidal (one shoots the scientists around him before killing himself, another pulls off his "head" to reveal only a skull underneath). The only reason Murphy has survived and adapted was because of his exceedingly strong sense of duty to the law (and in the first movie, his desire for vengeance). Therefore, a new idea is suggested by OCP's newest executive — a criminal with a similar overcoming desire: a desire for power and immortality, regardless of the cost.
In this movie, RoboCop's primary mission is to deal with the distribution of a powerful, addictive, synthetic narcotic named "Nuke". The drug is distributed by a man by the name of Cain (Tom Noonan), who as a result of his drug abuse appears to have a messiah complex; he believes that Nuke, which he desires to distribute to the entire city, is the way to paradise. He is assisted by his girlfriend Angie (Galyn Gorg); a foul-mouthed, yet very competent ten-year old boy, Hob (Gabriel Damon) whom RoboCop cannot shoot because of his age and the resemblance to his own son; and a corrupt police officer who is controlled by his addiction to Nuke.
Having learned of Cain's involvement in the production of Nuke, RoboCop confronts him and his gang at an abandoned construction site, in which he is rendered immobile by a powerful electromagnet and disassembled; the pieces are left in front of the striking officers of the Detroit Police. OCP is reluctant to foot the massive costs to repair him and is considering shutting him down for good, despite the protests from the RoboCop project members and fellow police officers.
However, he is saved when the new executive, a psychologist, argues for the importance of him as a figure of the community; through lobbying a panel of private citizens, she creates a list of over 300 new directives to be added to his program. Though resistant at first, Murphy is ultimately powerless to refuse the new commands and is unable to take aggressive action against criminals, even to defend himself (except for one instance where he shoots around a man's head to get him to stop smoking). Eventually examined by the original RoboCop team at the police department, a suggestion on how the directives might be cleared leads him to shock himself with electrical current, clearing all the directives (even the initial four), and then declaring war on Cain, as he immediately leads the striking officers off the picket line, to attack Cain's hideout.
The plots cross when Cain is badly injured in the battle with RoboCop. Though Angie wants to rescue Cain from the hospital, Hob considers him already dead and moves to take control of the Nuke distribution. The OCP psychologist, having decided on Cain to be of the perfect mindset for the new cyborg, arrives at the hospital and switches off his life support, calling for an immediate brain removal and transplant. Displaying the new RoboCop to the head of OCP, the psychologist demonstrates how he may be pacified through a canister of pure Nuke, which it seems, is the only way the pain of Cain's new existence can be dulled.
Meanwhile, Hob is the new leader of the drug cartel in Old Detroit. Arranging a meeting with Mayor of Detroit, he offers the desperate mayor (Willard E. Pugh) the money he needs to bail out the city from its debt to OCP — but only if the mayor agrees to a hands-off policy to the distribution of Nuke. Since this would hinder OCP's attempts to take over the city, the corporation sends RoboCop 2 in for the ostensible purpose of breaking up the drug operation, while actually ordering the cyborg to kill all parties involved. Except for the mayor himself, who escapes through a sewer drain, both the mayor's and Hob's bodyguards are killed, as well as Angie and Hob themselves (the former from a broken neck, the latter by machine gun fire). RoboCop arrives late on the scene in time to comfort a dying Hob, and be told of RoboCop 2's actions.
The movie ends with a climactic battle between RoboCop and RoboCop 2 during the unveiling of Delta City at a press conference, also promoting the new cyborg. The OCP President unwittingly presents a canister filled with Nuke; Cain escapes control and begins to run amok, destroying the control device keeping his weapons from firing and opening fire on the crowd in desperation for the canister of Nuke. RoboCop arrives just beforehand, armed with an explosive-round rifle and watching carefully to see if Hob was right about RoboCop 2. As soon as RoboCop 2 tries to open up on the civilians in the crowd, RoboCop fires, knocking RoboCop 2 back with the explosive blast. RoboCop 2 acquires the new attacker and fires: the shots barely affect RoboCop. RoboCop 2 switches to its own explosive-shell cannons and fires, destroying RoboCop's rifle and causing a fair amount of damage before RoboCop opens fire with his pistol on RoboCop 2's cannon, destroying it. RoboCop 2 then charges at RoboCop, engaging him in melee combat. They battle on a stairwell and, eventually, are sent flying onto the roof the building via Robocop 2 charging Robocop in an elevator shaft. Robocop eventually pulls Robocop 2 off the roof and they fall in to an underground facility where Robocop 2 attempts to use a welder to attack RoboCop. Robocop then directs the welder towards a gas pipe which then penetrates causing a large explosion.
RoboCop pulls himself into the street via the hole in the pavement the explosion blew and heads into the building where Delta City was being revealed, his intent unknown. RoboCop 2 then rises through the hole much like RoboCop did just a few seconds previous. A firefight ensues and yet more officers are killed until Lewis gets into an armored military vehicle and rams RoboCop 2 into a wall. The officers think RoboCop 2 is destroyed, but he is still functional and raises the vehicle off himself. RoboCop 2 is damaged, however, and seems to be slightly ineffectual in targeting the police, and so only a few officers are killed in the succeeding firefight. RoboCop chooses this moment to reappear with the canister of Nuke that the president of OCP revealed. Lewis asks him what he plans to do, and RoboCop replies: "Let's give him what he wants."
Lewis shows the canister of Nuke and RoboCop 2 immediately ceases firing on the police: the police do likewise. Lewis cautiously approaches with the canister and flips it to RoboCop 2 before running back to the safety of the police perimeter: meanwhile, RoboCop has taken an advantageous position on a building behind RoboCop 2. RoboCop 2 immediately takes the Nuke, flexing in joy as its psychological problems are washed away and its existence made easier to bear: RoboCop chooses this moment to launch himself onto the back of RoboCop 2. RoboCop 2 tries to throw RoboCop off, without any success even after slamming him into several objects. RoboCop punches an access cover until he penetrates into the cavity where Cain's brain is being stored. He then rips the brain free and smashes it on the pavement. RoboCop 2 is no more.
The assistant to the President of OCP, Johnson, decides on a scapegoat to avoid litigation — announcing that the psychologist, acting on her own without company support, was indirectly to blame for the entire incident.
Critical Reaction
Trivia
- It may be the only sequel where the title of the film is actually mentioned by a character in the film — when both Johnson and the "Old Man" introduce the titular cyborg; in the video of the suicidal robots and at a corporate meeting, respectively.
- A majority of the film was shot in Houston, Texas and Los Angeles. A majority of the film was filmed in parts of downtown Houston, including the back door of Houston's City Hall building and east of the Harris County Jail building located at 1201 Franklin Street. Since then, the filming locations southeast of the Harris County Jail and Criminal Justice Center have been redeveloped into the Minute Maid Park complex since 1996.
- A brief scene takes place in one of the George R. Brown Convention Center's exhibit halls located on the third level, where the Old Man introduces RoboCop 2. At the time of filming, the George R. Brown Convention Center was a few years old, completed in 1987.
- Irvin Kershner hasn't directed another feature film since this one, officially retiring from directing after his run on the TV series SeaQuest DSV.
- The banners displayed during OCP's introduction to the privitization of Detroit bear a striking resemblance to those of the Nazi party, with a black logo within a white circle on a red background. Additionally, the uniforms worn by the OCP police (the ones supervising the event) are similar to the uniforms of a comanding officer in the army, notably the styles of the leather jacket and hat.
See also
External links
| Irvin Kershner | |
|---|---|
| 1950s | Stakeout on Dope Street | The Young Captives |
| 1960s | Hoodlum Priest | Face in the Rain | The Luck of Ginger Coffey | A Fine Madness | The Flim-Flam Man |
| 1970s | Loving | Up the Sandbox | S*P*Y*S | The Return of a Man Called Horse | Eyes of Laura Mars |
| 1980s | | Never Say Never Again |
| 1990s | RoboCop 2 |
| Productions | American Perfekt (1999) |
| Television | "Naked City" (1958 - 1963) | "The Rebel (1959-1961) | "Cain's Hundred" (1961-1962) | "Ben Casey" (1961-1966) | "Kraft Suspense Theatre" (1963 - 1965) | Raid on Entebbe (1977) | "Amazing Stories" (1985 - 1987) | SeaQuest DSV (1993) |
| RoboCop |
|---|
| Films: RoboCop | RoboCop 2 | RoboCop 3 |
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TV: ' | ' | ' | ' |
| Video Games: RoboCop | RoboCop 2 | RoboCop 3 | RoboCop vs. The Terminator |
| Comics: RoboCop vs. The Terminator | Frank Miller's RoboCop |
| Characters: ED-209 |
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