Film Forum

U.S., 1987
Directed by Paul Verhoeven
With Peter Weller, Nancy Allen, Daniel O’Herlihy, Ronny Cox
WINNER, Academy Awards® – Special Achievement Award (Sound Effects Editing), 1988
Approx. 103 min. DCP.

“In a futuristic Old Detroit, the crime rates are soaring. Thirty-one cops have been wasted since Omni-Consumer Products took over responsibility for the police department; but, undaunted, Officer Murphy (Weller) and his cocky colleaguette Lewis (Allen) pursue a van-load of bank bandits into a derelict steel mill, where the sado-capitalists corner Murphy and use him for target practice. OCP's plans to construct Delta City can only go ahead if the designated area is safe enough for workers to go about their business unmolested. Their 'enforcement droid' ED 209, a galumphing giant cyborg, short-circuits at its unveiling, leaving the moribund Murphy, his insides wired into a computer-controlled titanium shell, to save the day. But RoboCop is not programmed to deal with corruption within the organization.” – Time Out

Reviews

“The thrillingly impassive ROBOCOP still creates a frisson.”
– Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian (UK)

“A fast-paced and hilarious postindustrial satire of the heroic quest that sends up the courageous notions of science fiction…manages to deliver the thrills the genre demands.”
– Henry Sheehan, Chicago Reader