Host: Connor

Hello everyone. I’m Connor, and today we’re going to break down one of my favorite movies of all time, none other than “RoboCop,” from 1987.

Before I begin, I just want to apologize if the audio quality is worse, if there’s echo or background noise, and there’s no music in this episode or transition sounds. I’m in kind of a predicament. I have to record in a different environment than usual, but it’s okay. I’m making it work, still getting the episode out. So let me just continue with the episode.

I talked about “RoboCop” briefly in my podcast last year, but I think I should devote a whole episode to it now that my show is all about this kind of thing. So, like I said, this is one of my favorite movies ever made for two reasons:

1. It’s incredibly cheesy and amazing at the same time.
2. The actual message behind the film.

I’m covering both of these points today. You’re listening to Shortwave Sci-Fi, and let’s dive into the second episode.

Diving Into RoboCop (1987)

“RoboCop” is a film from 1987 directed by Paul Verhoeven, who I mentioned in the previous episode. He is known for other films such as “Starship Troopers”, like I said last time, and “Total Recall”.

At face value, this movie seems like it’d be a cheap cash grab, and some still may see it as that after watching it, and if they don’t read into the plot.

Plot Summary: The Story of Alex Murphy

The plot is fairly simple. I kind of wrote a lot here, so it’s going to be a ramble. So a summary of the plot—not a brief summary, but I did not make it very brief—follows a Detroit police officer named Alex Murphy, who has just transferred to a new police station.

As you see him getting adjusted to his new environment, he realizes that this precinct is a lot more chaotic than the one he worked at previously. From other banter in the locker room, the viewer learns that Murphy was transferred to this unit because several officers serving here before him were killed by a criminal named Clarence Boddicker, and he is wanted for just about any crime you can think of.

The Corporate Takeover

We also learn that a privatized tech company, Omni Consumer Products, or OCP, in the film, has taken control of the Detroit police forces, sparking rumors of a strike within the department. (The name of this episode is OmniCorp Overlords, because in the 2014 movie, they renamed it to OmniCorp, but it just rolled off the tongue better. So I’m not talking about the 2014 one, but I just used the naming convention for it.) A lot of these details are important later.

The Birth of RoboCop

Anyway, Murphy and his new partner and friend, Lewis, go out on patrol, where they suddenly hear that Boddicker and his crew have stolen a large sum of money. Long story short, they kill Murphy quite brutally, and they escape, but the police department rushes him to the hospital in critical condition.

Soon after, the protagonist, Alex Murphy, dies, but with the use of OCP’s technology, they put his functioning body parts into a robot suit. He goes around for a while and then gains a sort of sentience, remembering his family and the people who killed him.

Seeking Justice

RoboCop, formerly Alex Murphy, then becomes determined to solve his own murder. When he shuts down Boddicker’s drug operation, Boddicker is pleading for his life and is saying how he works for OCP. This gives enough evidence to RoboCop for him to go and arrest the owner of OCP.

However, when he goes to attempt to do that, he has a secret directive that doesn’t allow him to bring higher-ups to justice, and so he gets shut down.

A few action scenes later, he’s able to put an end to OCP when their boss—like there’s this very high-up guy, but not the highest-up, because he gets fired—takes his higher-up hostage. Then, the guy the higher-up says, “You’re fired,” so that RoboCop can act on it. He shoots the guy who is, you know, putting other people in danger.

The Final Line

And then it has the last line of the movie, where it kind of shows how Murphy, or RoboCop, still has humanity and sentience, even in a physical sense, when he’s barely human. The last lines of the movie are, “Nice shooting, son. What’s your name?” and then he just says “Murphy,” and he smiles at the audience as the credits roll in. It’s cheesy, but I think that’s a really good ending to the movie.

And now I’m not going to talk about the sequels, because I’ve seen two, I haven’t seen three, and I’ve seen 2014. They’re all fine, or what I’ve seen is fine. It’s not as good as this one, though. This is one of my favorite movies. I’ve said that three times now.

Cultural and Real-Life Significance

So I guess usually I would like to explain the deeper lore of it, but since it’s a movie, there’s not really much. There’s comic books, but they’re kind of like one-off things. So I guess we’ll just go straight into, like, the cultural and real-life significance of this.

I don’t have to spell out the message of the film for you all. Probably it’s, if you watch the movie, you can pick up pretty easily. It’s about the dangers of corporate greed, how major government operations like the police force should not be privately owned.

I don’t want to get into political territory here, but this film spoke to me at first because I watched it around the time Elon Musk was working with the US government, and it seemed quite corporate, and it was a bit of a scary time. And I think this movie shows what can happen if corporations get involved with the government—there’s a lot of corruption.

A Strong Recommendation

I highly recommend this movie to anyone that loves:

• Cheesy ’80s movies
• Entertaining action
• Pretty memorable quotes

A quick warning: If any of you do end up watching, I just want to warn you, there is a brief scene with attempted sexual assault, but it’s not graphic, and RoboCop puts an end to it quickly. I just feel the need to mention that because, in good faith, I can’t endorse a movie that might trigger someone without mentioning something that might be upsetting.

Wrap Up

Anyway, I’m going to end the episode here. Sorry, it’s not as polished as the first episode, but that will change. I appreciate you all listening, and I’ll see you all next time. Thank you.