All language subtitles for RoboDoc.-.The.Creation.of.RoboCop.S01E04.1080p.BluRay.DDP.5.1.x264-MaG_track4_[eng]

[♪♪♪]

[ RoboCop theme music playing]

[♪♪♪]

PAUL:
I mean, the stop motion

is still very interesting,
I think.

It's different than digital,
you know?

There's an-- it has
its own world a little bit.

There's something special
about stop motion.

[gunshots]

CRAIG:
All the flash effects were done

as a separate pass.

So, what we had to do
is then

you got the one frame
that you want.

Now, you have to turn
the lights off,

isolate the flash tubes,
and you've got to put

this little strobe unit
into the end of the gun.

You got to wrap it
in some orange gel,

and you had to take
some cotton,

and sculpt the cotton
into the shape of a gaseous,

-you know, explosion.
-RANDAL: There was always

that kind of anticipation
after you finished the shot.

What's it gonna look
like tomorrow?

Because something
that you worked so hard on,

there may be a glitch,
or some little thing,

or light could have burnt.

Somebody could have bumped
a little something on the set.

You'd have to redo
the whole thing the next day.

CRAIG:
Unfortunately,
throughout the process,

the animators
would occasionally get shocks.

[laughs]

And I always remember,
you know, you hear this...

[groans] "Jesus Christ!"

[chuckles]

And for whatever reason,
from my own exposure,

to me, it was kind of funny.

I'd be cracking up like,
"Oh, there goes another one."

I know exactly how they feel.

-[gunshots]
-[♪♪♪]

The fight scene, they would be
flying through the air

and through the glass doors.

We had ramps built.
So, I could not quite run up,

but launch myself
through those glass doors,

and then another one
up against the wall.

And then the mask came off.

They'd have to screw it on,

because I had a permanent cut
across my nose,

'cause every time I fell,
it just bopped me on the nose.

There's one little blue screen
shot there,

which is like, you know,

a guy doing a backflip
over the camera,

which was added
to one of the ED-209 shots.

PHIL:
There were a few shots
that I really needed

to be a little bit smoother,
so I came up

with like a poor man's
version of Go motion.

I would just drive a wedge
under the table

that I was working on,
so the table was stable,

and I'd animate the puppet,
and hit the camera,

and just slightly wiggle
the table,

and got a-- got a motion blur.

But I had to make sure
that the table

was wiggling the right way,
so the motion blur

was the right way,
and all that stuff.

NANCY:
I can't imagine

really anyone doing a better job
than Peter did in that role.

I didn't get

that he was gonna make us
care desperately for RoboCop.

ANGIE:
I just thought he was wonderful.

I thought his part
was a lot more difficult

than people give him credit for.

PETER WELLER:
I don't wanna act unless I am
transforming something,

and it's not called "technique".

Technique is like,
how you get to say something,

what takes you
to the personalization of it.

Some people say,
"A technical actor?" No.

You're either bullshit
or you're saying something.

But every good actor knows
when he's saying something.

CRAIG:
We needed a shot

that we couldn't get
contact-wise any other way.

So, we built a little RoboCop.

RANDAL:
I sculpted this little 8-inch
replica of RoboCop.

-[gun shots]
-[explosion]

And it was a fairly quick shot,

but it shows you
how much work needs to be done

on even shots that-- that pass
in fractions of a second.

Where he's shooting the rockets
out of his arm,

they built explosives
into the set.

And as I walked to one,
and turned away,

the rocket was on a wire,

then it went a whole lot faster
than I could get away.

And as I was turning away,

all the debris went through,
the suit and into my arm,

and then knocked me
across the hallway.

They had to cut the suit off.
I went to the hospital.

They released me
later on that day,

but my arm was all swollen,
embedded with, you know,

whatever the material was,
and started to swell.

Like I said,
it was all practical.

You just had to do it.

PETER WELLER:
And then a beautiful scene

that ED-209
trying to tiptoe down there,

and he can't get down.
God, what...

Is that genius or what?

CRAIG:
For the scene where ED-209
falls down the stairs,

for the shots
where ED-209's looking

at his feet,
trying to figure out

how to stay
with the placement and stuff,

those were shot
on an actual miniature.

And that was really
not very big.

It was, you know,
kind of a duplicate

of a location we found out
in Dallas, Texas, there.

So, went out there,
took measurements,

took photographs.

For him tumbling
down the stairs,

we got the thing set up,
and started running

at as high a frame rate

as we could get out
of these Mitchell cameras.

And basically,
Phil would pop the thing,

the robot would tumble
down the stairs.

I'm off camera,
below the camera,

trying to catch it,

because if it hits the ground,
I've gotta fix it.

Once he hits
the bottom of the stairs,

then we're back
to a photographic plate

where we've got a shot
of RoboCop, you know,

kind of in the background,

and ED-209 in the foreground,
writhing about.

CRAIG:
John Davidson told me

that they used the sounds
of pigs being slaughtered

[squeals]

for the writhing
and agony moment there...

which was pretty effective.

[♪♪♪]

MICHAEL:
And then we shot the scene
in the garage, fire at will.

LT. HEDGECOCK:
Prepare to fire.

MICHAEL:
That was just a dynamic,
wonderful scene.

The thing is,
I've got 75 background actors

behind me
with all kinds of weapons.

We have orders to destroy it.

Everybody in Texas does not
know how to handle a weapon.

[chuckles softly]

Fire at will!

[gunshots]

Miguel Ferrer and I became
very good friends.

And we would play SWAT officers.

[gun shots]

So, we would be up all night
doing that kind of stuff.

We ran around Dallas at night,
and drank too much,

and did crazy things.

And so, that was fun
of what I remember of it.

PAUL POWER (OS/ON):
The shootout stuff,

I mean,
it says that in the script,

but I envisioned that fully,
with all the bullets

falling on the ground,
and all that stuff,

that's-- that's all mine.

I mean, listen, at that time,
people are paying

$5 a ticket, right?
You-- you got to give them

their 5 bucks' worth,
you know?

It's like,
"Fuck, push that envelope."

GREGOR:
We had about five or six

RoboCop suits in different
states of disrepair.

You know, some
were the battle-damaged suits.

We spent a couple of days
just tearing those suits up,

took dremel suits to 'em,
paintbrushes,

and just really wore
those things out.

MARK:
They shot some kind of compound
into the chest plate,

and it would create sparks.

RUSSELL:
They're called, "Zerk guns".

They're like paintball guns,
and you know,

whenever they hit the hand,
you know,

it's like they're standing
about 10 feet away,

and you just hope
that they're a pretty good shot.

MARK:
We pumped in some fluid

oozing out of the chest plate,
like chemical fluid,

and some
of the life-support stuff

that Robo has in his making.

-[shots]
-Halt it!

MICHAEL:
I had Randy Moore next to me,

fortunately,
because he had an AUG,

and Verhoeven said,
"What I want you to do is

I want you to hold that up
next to Michael's face."

And he said, "We can do that,

but you're only gonna get
one take."

"Why is that?"
"'Cause," he said,

"It'll probably take the skin
off his face."

"Oh, no, no, no, no.
Don't do that."

ED:
The way Peter is moving

and the way
he's kind of falling back,

it's not real,
but it looks beautiful in a way

that looks naturalistic,
but it's not.

It's all very planned out.
It's very precise.

That's actually me falling
over the side of those rails.

There was no pads down there.

I actually went to the ground
each time, and probably did it--

I don't know,
probably 10 times.

-[shots]
-[body thuds]

I-- I still hurt
because of that.

[chuckles]

[body thuds]

ANGIE:
Both of the female characters,

they're two different
female archetypes.

One is the domestic goddess,
the homemaker, the wife,

and the other one is more
the independent woman who

-doesn't have any children...
-Murphy!

ANGIE:
...who is living
in the man's world.

-Murphy, it's me.
-ANGIE: And I think

that's one of the things
that makes the movie work

is because it is a guy's film,
and they've got

all this masculine energy,

but these two women
rounds out the humanity.

[♪♪♪]

JOAN:
I came to be involved

in the project,
because my husband,

Kurtwood Smith,
was cast as Clarence Boddicker.

Hiya, Barbara.

JOAN:
He said, "Well, I think I'll ask
'em if they would read you,"

and that's how I got involved.

KURTWOOD:
And the part, of course,
was the secretary.

We kind of like, played around
with it a little bit.

Listen.
I'm here to see Dick Jones.

KURTWOOD:
You know,
put the chewing gum on her desk.

And when I'm done,
I've got some free time.

Maybe you could fit me in.

[laughs] But it was fun.
We had a real good time.

He's expecting you,
Mr. Boddicker.

JOAN:
He would just have this look
of evil, gleeful evil,

that is really not a part
of who Kurtwood is,

or not-- not a part
that I've ever seen.

Hey, Dickie boy. How's tricks?

DICK:
That thing is still alive.

RONNY:
I spent a lot of time trying

to get at the essence
of acting, and it's--

it's a really complex thing.

He's a cyborg, you idiot!

How technical and simple
it has to be at once.

His memory is admissible
as evidence.

Yeah. The technical stuff
has to come through,

and if it ever shows
for even an instant, then--

then our bullshit senses say,
"Uh-uh."

You involved me!

KURTWOOD:
It's important to me

that Clarence works
with Dick Jones.

He doesn't-- he's not a toady,
you know?

Well, the scene
had been rewritten.

It was not what Paul and I
had talked about, basically,

and that it had become
pretty much

of a yes-or-no-sir scene.

Well, listen, Chief.

KURTWOOD:
"I said, Paul, this is exactly

what we talked
about at breakfast

that I didn't want to happen,
you know?"

He said, "Oh, you're just trying
to make the scene

all about you,"
and kind of stomped off.

And I said to Jon Davison...

Jon understood
what I was talking about,

and you know, it's actually
better scene for Ronny,

because it went from being
a yes-or-no-sir scene

into one where Dick Jones
is manipulating me.

One man could control it all,
Clarence.

They're the two villains
that everybody loves to hate,

and-- and he got such a joy
out of calling me, "Dick."

Take a look at my face, Dick.

[laughs]

And Dick Jones
didn't think that was funny.

[chuckles]

You got access
to military weaponry?

We practically are the military.

PAUL:
There is this beautiful scene

when he sits there
in this steel factory.

I guess we're on strike.

I wasn't sure what you needed.

What you would call
a personal human scene.

You asked for this?

PAUL:
I think the scene
is very beautiful.

The helmet wouldn't fit on his
head, you know,

with the prosthetic
'cause it was just--

everything was too big.

So, Paul had that worked out

where you didn't have
to actually see him

lifting it off his head.

ROBOCOP:
You may not like
what you're going to see.

BART:
But now, he's like, "Well, what
about all this black stuff,

the chin strap, the neck piece?"

It's like, just suddenly,
that's gonna be gone

and we were gonna take
a piece and like,

put some cuts in it
to where he could be like,

lifting it off his head,
and Paul's just like,

"Eh,
nobody's ever gonna notice."

STEPHAN:
Ta-da!
You know, all of a sudden,

like this thing just vanishes.

BART:
And I was like,
"How could they not notice?

It's there,
then it's not there."

But they don't.

It's you know,
you're so into the scene.

STEPHAN:
I remember the first
makeup test that we did.

We shot under green neon light.
It looked awful.

Paul was confident
that he could make it look good

with controlled lighting,
but he wanted to see it

under its worst circumstances.

So, we're screening
the test footage.

Rob's sitting there going,
"Oh, that looks like crap.

No, you can't shoot it that
way. That looks bad."

STEPHAN:
And I was like devastated,

'cause this just looks
like dead flesh.

BART:
And then Rob
just gets up and walks out.

I remember Paul is out there,
and they're almost

getting into like,
a physical altercation.

And Jon's there,
trying to calm Verhoeven down.

And Rob's over Jon's back
just mocking Verhoeven.

-[chuckles]
-[grunts]

Yeah. That kind of thing.
[chuckles]

I mean, a very, very genius
guy, Rob Bottin.

Difficult guy, but top, top.

He built a forefront

that looked like part
of the head was missing.

So, from the side,
you would see it

going like this, yeah, bop,
which is not possible,

and it's like you're cutting
the head.

STEPHAN:
The final makeup
was not an easy one to pull off.

It was all in one piece.
There was no margin for error.

And the face
took six and a half hours.

Stephan Dupuis, genius.

Three hours
of putting that thing on,

and three and a half hours
of making it up.

And I would go into zen mode,
zen meditation mode.

STEPHAN:
There was a very particular way

of it being applied, as opposed
to start from the edge out.

It had to be started like
in the middle of the appliance,

adjusted to fit the prongs

to the back
of the fiberglass skull,

and then work that way,
and then work this way

so that it would like,
fit and blend,

and uh, there was no kink,

because you couldn't hide
anything.

Then, you know,
if there was a kink somewhere,

it would like, show up
on the screen like big time.

It was 21 days for that face.

I was going to put that face on
when the crew would come in

from dinner at 1:30
in the morning.

And then I got to put on a suit.

So, that's like,
an eight-and-a-half-hour day

before I've even turned
to camera, man.

It was two and a half hours
to take it off,

'cause they had to pull it off,

otherwise,
my face looked like a zit.

You can't just rip
that stuff off.

MILES:
You know, RoboCop gets shot in
the head,

so I had to carry that bullet
hole over into the makeup

that he wears
without his helmet.

I remember thinking, you know,
"God, when I was a kid,

I took apart the telephone once,

and there's that little disc
with the dots in it,

and he'll just have one of
those for an ear,

you know,
where his ear should be."

His organics
need to be supported.

So, I thought
there should be some,

probably tubes, coming out,

maybe feeding into the skin,
you know?

PETER WELLER:
When I take off the helmet,

if you'll notice,
the voice softens.

Murphy had a wife and son.
What happened to them?

PETER WELLER:
It was a small adjustment.

It's not that octave.
It's this octave.

Where did they go?

The most important line
in RoboCop is this:

"I can feel them,
but I can't remember them."

I can feel them,
but I can't remember them.

And that's the saddest,
most excruciating line in it.

And it cuts to this wide,

and here's this steel mill
that is decrepit.

It was once shiny and beautiful,
and then here's RoboCop...

Leave me alone.

DEL:
...who was once a shiny thing,

and he's all beat up
and shot up.

That's what it is to be alive,
is who we love, our memories.

PETER WELLER:
The bewildering gift

of this film
is loss and rebirth.

But the travesty and the drama,

and essentially,
the tragedy of it,

he'll never get it back.
'Cause it's gone.

[♪♪♪]

There was an area called
"Deep Elm" down in Dallas.

It was sort of like
an art district.

JOST:
The art department built

all these shops
with empty windows

so that you could see
the lights and everything.

It was nice, very nicely done.

[glass breaks]

[men clamoring]

There was something about
the grittiness of that

that really worked well.

And you had the skyline
in the background.

So, there were things
that were practical.

BRIAN:
It was a bigger production
than Dallas was used to,

which made everybody work
harder, made for long hours.

I mean, one time,
I did four 20-hour days.

I mean,
that's the kind of job it was.

And the discomfort of it all,

and the violence of it all,
actually created

a lot of what you see on screen,

and a lot of
it's really authentic.

JESSE:
We hung out, and we talked,

and we went,
and we drank together.

We just kind of played off
of each other.

It was like everybody
kind of understood

where they were coming from
as a character,

and we just threw it all in,
and it-- it-- it mixed up well.

-Hey, Emil.
-[car door closes]

-Hey.
-How's the Gray Bar Hotel?

Not bad. I got to keep the
shirt. Nobody popped my cherry.

-[Clarence laughs]
-Most of them went above

and beyond the call of duty
with their roles,

and really made them come
to life with unique characters

rather than just the bad guy.

Hey!

First, they let me out of jail
for free,

then look what I found
in the prison parking lot.

A brand-new 6,000 SUX,

still got the factory sticker
on it.

-Hey, Clarence!
-[laughs]

Joey's got a car
just like yours, man.

[laughs]

What do you think, Clarence,
huh? Huh?

[both laugh]

KURTWOOD:
I always saw this character

and kind of the gang in general
as guys that were having fun.

I had had some experience

with the-- the Barrett M82,
.50 caliber, semi-automatic,

and so, I showed it to 'em.
They liked it.

Whoa! A new toy! Can I play?

RANDY:
We purchased three of 'em.

So, we had four total.

-CREW MEMBER 1: Take one!
-[gun shots]

-Ooh, shit!
-[laughs]

-Nice car, Joe!
-Let me try it, fuck!

-Let me try it!
-Hey, watch your mouth.

Cobra assault cannon.

State-of-the-art, bang, bang!

They're like 50-caliber machine
guns that you mount on boats.

That's what they mainly
use them for.

And they were pretty hefty.

I think there were probably
about, you know,

40 or 50 pounds.

KURTWOOD:
We had a dummy, of course.

But we had to have the real ones
when we fired them.

Clarence, come on!

[gun shots]

RANDY:
The Cobra assault cannons,

initially, we were gonna put
a camera

where it appears
to be an eyepiece

that was gonna be forward,

and the back end of the scope
was going to be a screen.

There wasn't the budget to build
four or five working scopes,

and so, it was just a big block

with all the fins
and everything on it.

In terms of preparing to shoot,

they said, "Here.
Okay, hold it this way.

Okay, pull the trigger."

Whoo!

[laughs manically] Yeah!

[laughs]

They was like, "No.
We didn't have a lot of prep."

I just remember
trying to get them in the car.

Fired, then I get in the car,
and I was like...

[imitates gunshots]

CLAPPER:
Parker.

DIRECTOR:
Take it out. And action!

The thing I get most quoted for
is, "I like it."

[gunshot]

-Whoo!
-I like it!

PAUL MCCRANE:
And most people

will come up to me,
and say, "Oh, I like it!"

So, I say,
"That'll be $5."

I like it!

PAUL MCCRANE:
And that line
was not my invention.

That actually was scripted.

And I think
it was the boom operator,

if I remember right.

And he talked about it
reminding him

of a Chevy Chase film
where he says,

"I like it" in some crazy way,
which I actually hadn't seen.

[laughs manically]

I like it!

PAUL MCCRANE:
Just his saying that triggered

this idea in me,
and that's why the reading

came out the way that it did.

I like it!

PAUL M. SAMMON:
Originally, there was a scene

where Clarence's gang
go to a pet shop,

and there's a little puppy
in a window.

And they have those guns,
and they point it,

and one of them goes, "Nah."

And they turn around,
and they start to walk off.

But then they turn back,
and they kill the puppy,

and they blow up the pet store.

Now, if you know anything
about film taboos at that time,

you were never supposed
to kill a pet.

-Wow!
-[exclaims]

I like it!

"I like it!" Boom!

[explosion]

PETER WELLER:
It was a Friday night.

They shot all night,
and I had a hot date.

She wanted to go to the set.

And man, they had done
something to that street.

And that was one of the scenes
where, you know,

we had a big fight

in order to make sure the actors
didn't get too close.

And then Paul would say,
"Okay, get a little closer.

Actors,
would you get a little closer?

Get a little closer?"

Of course,
there was a lot of stunts.

JOE:
Yeah!

[exclaims]

And there was a lot
of explosions.

[Emil exclaims]

And some of the explosions
were extraordinary enough.

[gunshot, explosion]

PAUL:
There's an explosion, basically,
when they have these new guns,

and they shoot in the street.

And I remember that the actors
were nearly blown away.

CLAPPER:
Hey, make a camera mark.

PAUL:
And background.

Background action.

JESSE:
Now, it's a real street, right,
that they're shooting on.

So, they buy out one side of it,
they load it up,

'cause they're gonna
blow it up.

On the other side, are stores
and people living above it.

So, the AD comes out
with a bullhorn, right?

And he says that the people
that are in their apartments,

he says, "Please step back
from the windows."

"Go back. You're not safe there.
Go back."

"These are live charges.

Please step back
from the windows.

Actors, stand right here."
[laughs]

So, we were just like, "Dude."

Shit.

And I looked at Kurtwood,

thinking, "If they're not safe,
what are we doing right here?"

But we hear, "Roll, and action."
And I pull the trigger.

[explosion]

And all I remember
is a wall of flame

coming straight at me.

[explosion]

And we were all like...
[screams]

EMIL:
Heads up, you guys!

[explosion]

You can see even the actors
doing this, you know?

Because it was much bigger
than everybody thought.

[explosion]

PAUL MCCRANE:
I turned around,

and Kurtwood Smith's jacket
is smoking.

RAY:
We were just close enough

to feel some
of the little pieces of glass

hit us on the side of the face,
a little bit, little--

tiny little slivers.

And we had a couple of
blood spots on our face.

And that was a $500-bump,
as I recall.

They actually ended up paying us
stunt pay for that.

-LEON: Whoo!
-CLARENCE: Go, go, go, go, go!

Hey, the guns are trick,
Clarence.

[chuckles]

JESSE:
And stuff is blowing up
and blowing up.

I said to myself,
"I need to sit back."

And I sat back,
and a piece of glass comes...

[exhales sharply]

...straight through the truck.

I was like, "Dude,
this is, like, way too real."

PAUL MCCRANE:
My favorite thing
about the whole thing

was that Paul afterwards
came up to me,

and he said, "You know,
normally, I don't ask an actor

to do something that
I won't do myself,

but this time,
I think I don't do it."

No.

RAY:
That night, when we blew up
that street completely,

was one of the most fun nights
I've ever had in my career.

But charity work
ain't your style, man.

[explosion in distance]

What's the real deal
behind this turkey shoot?

Delta City, man.

I figure it's the future
of organized crime.

Good business
is where you find it.

Goin' to the steel yard,
round 'em up.

LEON:
All right. Cut the whole street.
We're movin' out!

CLARENCE:
Come on, Emil,
get your ass in the truck!

I could tell from the dailies
that the action was working.

You know,
the action was really working.

[♪♪♪]

ED:
There was a sequence
in the third act

where there was a car chase
on the way to the steel mill.

And when we were in Dallas,
it was on the schedule.

I looked at that one day,
and thought,

"We don't really need this."

We could just go
from here to here.

And so, I brought it up
in a production meeting,

and they were all like, "Fuck."

And Paul went,
"Yeah, yeah, we don't."

'Cause that was like,

a half a day
or a day of shooting.

And it's not saving money.

It's more like saving
the audience time.

So, you know, I expected them
to be really happy with me

for doing that,
but they weren't.

They just were like,
"Yeah, go away." So...

[chuckles]

STEPHAN:
I remember at the hotel,

going out with the Robo team
with Rob and drinking a lot

with Peter Weller,

and then Peter and him
would get into it.

And they were like
fucking around with each other

all the time, you know?

Rob's a sweet guy.

Maybe-- maybe
he doesn't like me.

I don't know. I-- I mean...

STEPHAN:
They got into it like,

"I'm making more money
than you are,"

and so on and so forth. [laughs]

PETER WELLER:
I called Rob,
and apologized to him.

And I apologized to him again
for any kind of wound

that he might have suffered
from my insolent mouth talking

about whatever the difficulties
of movie-making were.

Because he was nothing more
than inventive,

and creative, and fantastic.

I have to tell you,
I must have been very obnoxious,

'cause at a certain point,
Jon just stopped talking to me.

-And-- and it was like...
-No.

ED:
...you know?

And occasionally,
he would say something,

like he'd come by and see me
doing something,

and he was like,
"Oh, there's the writer

fucking everything up again."

No, I don't wanna go there.

And Jon Davison fired me
off the picture in Dallas.

Right before
we were gonna leave Dallas,

he said, "You're wrapped."

"You probably have enough."

And I was like devastated.

I was just devastated
that you would separate me

from this movie.

And Paul Verhoeven
had to go to him, and say...

PAUL: (over telephone)
"No, we have to take
the writer with us

to Pittsburgh."

[♪♪♪]

PETER WELLER:
When RoboCop practices his aim,
the baby jars are the metaphor.

What RoboCop is doing there
is annihilating

the force-fed problem.
And that's how technology

is thinking of him
as their baby.

He's killing it.

[gunshot]

And he's annihilating the thing
that technology gave him

to keep him sapling.

My targeting system
is a little messed up.

PETER WELLER:
And he's asking
another human being for help.

He is becoming Murphy.

[♪♪♪]

[gunshots]

Can I help you?

Aim for me.

ED:
In the abandoned third draft,

there may have been
a romantic idea there.

It sounds like something
Paul would have wanted to do.

NANCY:
I had no idea about any of that
until we all did a Q&A.

And I heard that story.
I thought,

"Oh, that's interesting.
I never heard that before."

In some ways, Paul and other
directors are always trying

to get a kiss in at the end
of a movie.

It's not always necessary.

Yeah. I'm glad it--
it didn't go that way.

That would have been
kind of strange.

More to the left.

Here.

ED:
One of the things that's cool

about the relationship
between them is

it's a non-romantic,
a non-sexist,

in a way, relationship.

And I think that Paul
really embraced that as well.

I figure that's dead-on.

Thank you.

PAUL:
The scene was written

in the original story
for a car cemetery.

You see all these cars
on top of each other.

That was written
for that, basically.

But then for some way,
we couldn't find it.

And then somebody was talking
about a steel factory.

[gunshots, explosion]

JESSE:
When we were shooting
Joe's death scene...

CLARENCE:
Dammit!

JESSE:
...first of all,
falling with a 45-pound gun,

you really
gotta position yourself,

so you don't break a finger
or something.

Looking for me?

[groans]

JESSE:
Man, when that shit blew up,

I had bruises on my chest
like for a month.

They hit so hard, I was like,
"I'm okay. It's okay."

"I'm-- I'm all right."

Boy, I had to try to man up
behind that,

but you know, tears
were kinda like

coming out the side of my eye.

I was so glad
I was laying on the ground,

nobody could see me.
That shit hurt. [laughs]

[♪♪♪]

PETER WELLER:
The process of making a movie
makes everybody an asshole.

"Why is my Winnebago
not in front of the studio?

I have to walk!"

You know, that was me.
I did that. I became that guy.

And hopefully,
I'm not that guy now,

but I was definitely that guy
to some people.

And I'm sure
a couple of people thought

that I was, you know, uh,
not necessarily a nice guy.

I can think of two people,
and I probably wasn't.

RANDY:
When we were in Monessen,
Pennsylvania,

shooting the steel mill,

Peter's upstairs.
We were up two or three floors.

You had to go upstairs
to get to him.

We had an explosion behind him.

We'd make the explosion hot.
We were ready to go.

I went upstairs,
and I was carrying,

I don't know, about eight Oreos
you know, in a stack.

I'd hand him his weapon.
I say, "Peter, safety's off."

And he wouldn't take the pistol.

And he says,
"Robo wants an Oreo."

And I looked at him, and I go,

"No.
It's just you and I, Peter.

Robo doesn't get an Oreo.

If Peter wants an Oreo,
Peter can have an Oreo."

And he clip-clops in the suit
over to the edge of the railing,

and Peter starts bellowing,
"Robo wants an Oreo."

And when the steel mill
just echoes,

"Randy has Oreos"
or "Robo wants an Oreo."

And Steve Lim
over the radio goes,

STEPHEN: (on radio)
Uh, Randy, do you have Oreos?

So, I stuffed that whole stack
in my mouth,

and then crunched them,
and let 'em fall down

three stories
onto everybody below me.

And I, "Not anymore."
And Robo got upset.

I haven't got a damn clue

about Randy Moore
and his fuckin' Oreos.

Randy Moore's a friend,
but half the time,

I don't know what the hell
he's talking about.

So, he's got all these stories
from RoboCop.

I don't remember 'em.

RANDY:
Steve Lim's going,

"Can we get this shot?
And then Robo can have an Oreo."

And Peter said, "No."
So, they had to cut.

They were rolling.
They were ready to go.

Now, we're hot on the explosive.

They had to send a PA
up the stairs.

They feed him an Oreo.

And now, he's got Oreo
in his teeth.

So, then the PA has to pick
the Oreos out of his teeth.

And then he says,
"Okay, I'm ready,"

and then we shot it.

[explosion]

So, after that,
Peter would always say,

"Robo wants an Oreo."

So, I had a gentleman
that worked with me.

And his official title
should have been

The Peter Feeder,
because that's what the crew

called him,
as "The Peter Feeder",

because for some reason,
weapons had to feed Peter Oreos.

Randy, love you madly.

I don't believe one fucking word
out of your mouth, bro.

[♪♪♪]

PAUL MCCRANE:
I thought Ed and Mike's script

was really good
and really smart.

And I thought the film improved
on the script,

which I was really happy about.

RUSSELL:
There in that scene,
it was one of those, you know,

just survival.

[car revving]

RUSSELL:
Well, he doesn't really run,

but he gets out of the way
very fast.

I mean,
it was one of those things

that you can only do

what the suit
would allow you to do.

Okay! Now, I've got ya!

RUSSELL:
You're standing there,
and as he's coming at you,

you just have to get out
of the way

at the very last moment.

[gunshots]

And one of those things
is you just got to time it

to where you go, "Okay.

How fast can I move
in this suit?"

Everything was very meticulous.
Peter would correct me,

and he goes, "Okay, do this,
'cause this is what I would do."

BART:
I like the melting man gag.
I think that's a lot of fun.

You go in this tank,
and you wash out,

you become a monster.

Those are the kind of things
that I think are funny.

MILES:
I remember Rob coming
into the room, and saying,

"Oh shit, we've got to create
this makeup for this character."

He gets thrown into a vat
of toxic radioactive waste,

and he starts to melt.

[splashing]

PAUL MCCRANE:
The toxic waste section
was a stunt guy

that did the actual roll out
of the stuff.

But then getting up,
obviously, was me.

[groans]

MILES:
We have pictures of the actor.

I did some tracings of him,
and then Rob

brought me a picture of a guy
who's got stung

by a wasp on his eye,
and his eye was swollen up huge.

So, I incorporated that
into the design.

I think he just said,
"Go for it."

He said, "Imagine
that the guy's skin

is made of ice cream
and it's starting to melt

off of his body."

[groans, screams]

PAUL MCCRANE:
We shot that over two days.

The first day, it was six
and a half hours of makeup

before we started shooting,

where Rob Bottin's team,
great, great guys,

literally were like gluing
this torso prosthesis on me

every square inch.

BART:
I think we had two different
stages on the head.

I think the first stage
was mainly this side,

and we used a fair amount
of his face over here.

Also, added
this little road rash.

That was a continuity thing
from when he fell off

the motorcycle
at the gas station.

EMIL:
You're dead. We killed you!

And then when he comes

staggering out a little later
and gets hit by the car,

then we had a facial piece
on the other side as well.

[♪♪♪]

STEPHAN:
We were eating,
sleeping RoboCop, you know?

We were in the shop
working at night,

repairing stuff,

and then shooting it
during the day.

It was nonstop.

[♪♪♪]

GREGOR:
I think we showed up to work
at 3:00 in the morning

and didn't leave until 2:00
at night.

So, it was a long, long day.

We shot it,

and it was about two
or three hours to take it off.

The next day, they got it down
to, as I recall,

about three hours to put it on.

[screams]

MILES:
Hands were part of it,

and he wanted to see
finger bones sticking out.

And I said, "Well, are you gonna
have a melting effect

or is this gonna be all done
in rubber?"

"No, no, no. We're just
gonna do it all out of rubber."

"Okay. So, you want like,
melting skin like hanging down

like it's dripping?"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah.

"It'll just-- it'll work.

We'll just wave the ends
of the fingers,

and they'll just kind of dangle,
and it'll work."

I tried to take

physical positions
that seemed to reflect

what he had designed.

I looked in the mirror
once I had the thing on.

[whimpers] Help me.

[screams]

PAUL MCCRANE:
The vocalizations I did

and all that kind of stuff
were just my playing with things

based on what Paul asked for
and what Rob had built.

[screams]

[gasps, screams]

RAY:
My favorite line of the movie,

Leon comes running
around the corner,

Paul comes up to him,

and his fingers are melting,
and his face is melting.

And Leon does not want him
to melt on him.

So, he says,
"Don't touch me, man!"

-[groans, whimpers]
-Don't touch me, man!

PAUL MCCRANE:
It's one of those things

I'm glad that I did,
but I wouldn't particularly

wanna do it again.

[♪♪♪]

JOST:
There's one shot
with the wheel cap coming loose.

I mean, this was not planned
that way.

It just happened.

I was in the camera,
and I heard it like, whee,

went over my head.

Maybe it could have ended
with another credit

at the end of the film
for two DPs,

the one before he died
and the other one who took over.

GREGOR:
I also helped set up
the big splat.

I helped dress the dummy
to look like Emil,

and took
all the old prosthetics,

put it on there,
and then helped load the thing

with all the
methylcellulose slime.

CRAIG:
I remember just screaming,
you know?

I just-- it was so funny,
just this big splat.

[screams]

CLARENCE:
Shit! [laughs]

It was extremely funny,
because he's blown to pieces.

[tires screechin, thud]

Oh, God.

[groans, chuckles]

MICHAEL:
Verhoeven has a great
sense of humor.

His use of humor where people
wouldn't even see humor.

It's like, "Oh, this is fine.
Oh."

[laughs mockingly]

It's really nice to have been
a part of something that uh,

seems to have made a mark,
you know?

You wanna live forever?

[groans]

[screams]

[laughs]

There's no guarantees
in this business about anything,

however good you think it is.

JESSE:
Things got a little bit

contested between crew
and-- you know, and Paul.

So, the crew had a countdown.

That said, you know,
"20 more days with this,

and 15 more days of this,
10 more days."

Verhoeven, I felt,
was a little on the tough side.

He had an attitude of, you know,
maybe very militaristic,

you might say.

ED:
We were miserable, I guess,

to be around,
and all we wanted to do

was make this movie
all the time.

So, by the end,
we were the only people

who would talk to each other.
I mean, no one would talk to us.

The producer
wouldn't talk to us.

The whole crew hated us.

And we were always alone
in the restaurant.

And everybody was snarling at us
or we were snarling at them.

Everybody was suffering,
and it was hard.

I mean, it was a hard shoot.

But at the same time,

every day, you loved
being there, 'cause you knew

you were making a great film.

SOL:
That famous scene

and the chase between the cars
going through the area

and all of that,
it's a rough look, okay?

If you wanna put it that way,
that's what it had to be,

because of the apocalypse
of the period, you might say.

NANCY:
At the end of the shoot,

we ended up in Monessen,
Pennsylvania.

I guess it was mid-November.

So, East Coast,
it was really cold.

I'd never been squibbed before.

That is quite an experience
that I would not wish on anyone.

[gunshots]

NANCY:
In a strange way,

feeling those little thumps
and bumps around your body

help you
with what it is you have to do.

Worse than the squibs?
The water.

The absolutely disgusting,
rusty water

that I had to get into
that was freezing cold.

So, I'll take the squibs
any day.

[♪♪♪]

PAUL:
For me, it had that
very specific atmosphere,

you know, because of these
enormous amounts of steel

that were there.

There was these enormous walls.

It really felt like Troy
or Jerusalem, you know?

Ed and I talked a lot

about the man in the iron mask,
uh, a quest for identity.

But the Christ metaphor,
Paul pretty much brought.

-Bye-bye, baby.
-ROBOCOP: Clarence!

[♪♪♪]

PAUL:
I had built something

under the water, basically,
so he could walk there

because I wanted him to be Jesus
walking over the water.

Okay. I give up.

PAUL:
And now, he says...

I'm not arresting you anymore.

"I'm not going to
arrest you anymore.

I'm going to kill you."

And that's, for me,
the American Jesus.

RAY:
I had to run out on that catwalk

on the top
to get to the crane booth,

so that I could drop the steel
down on RoboCop.

And I saw how high up it was,
and it was kind of scary,

to tell you the truth.

PAUL:
RoboCop comes over the water,

and then the other guy
pulls the handle,

and then all these beams fall
on RoboCop.

RUSSELL:
They had a dummy there

that it actually-- all the big,
heavy beams

actually fell right on him.

Die, you bastard!

Wow.

I got him, Clarence!

I got him!

-[gunshot]
-[grunts]

RAY:
That black costume

that I had on,
they also put on the dummy.

They gave me that costume
after it was blown up.

It's in tatters.

It was blown all to hell,
but um, I still have it.

I always have it.
And all I have to do is find it.

RUSSELL:
And then whenever

he's all entangled,
and the beams

were all fake ones,
but that was Peter.

PETER WELLER:
And I can't get out of it.

And then Kurtwood
in a desperation,

comes over
and stabs me with that spike.

[grunts]

[screams, groans]

Sometimes, the violence
was very, very direct and--

and-- and real.

[♪♪♪]

PETER WELLER:
There was just a discussion

with Paul
that I should take this

as if there is, you know,
a nerve center

somewhere responding to it.

So, the body's response
is all I'm doing

is like in the agony
of the robotics.

STEPHAN:
When he stabbed in the neck,

that was what I called
the Paul Verhoeven "take that".

BART:
For whatever reason,

as you would work it
and just kind of handle it,

the mechanism would start
getting a little sloppy.

And it would like,
just go off by itself sometimes.

So, Paul's like,
"Let me see the-- the hand",

'cause he's gonna set up
the shot.

And they like pass the hand
over to him,

and just the motion triggers it.

The spike comes out,
and it's just like,

probably like,
that close to his eye.

And he just like
looks over at me,

and I'm like,
"Oh, I didn't do it," you know?

And as he gets close...

Sayonara, RoboCop!

[clicks]

PETER WELLER:
...the cop takes over.

And then it's like the cop
takes vengeance.

[exclaims] Boom.

[Clarence groans]

STEPHAN:
Paul is just like,
"Give me this cup."

And then he fills it
with fake blood,

and the camera's on-- on Peter,
and it goes like splat.

It was not subtle,
but hey, it worked.

PAUL:
[indistinct speech]

[clapper grunts]

-PAUL: And action!
-[groans]

KURTWOOD:
I had no doubt that that movie
was gonna be a hit.

First of all, it was much more
in the comic book vein

than we had seen before.

And there's so much more to it
in terms of what it had to say

about machines and men.

Lewis!

Murphy, I'm a mess.

PETER WELLER:
Nancy reminded me.

She said, "Don't you remember?"

At the end of it, you know,
when I say,

"They'll fix you.
They fix everything."

They'll fix you.

They fix everything.

That's my line.

There are notes
that I gave to Jon Davison.

"Can we do this?
Can we change that?

Can we..." whatever.

JESSE:
Murphy says, "They'll fix you.
They fix everything."

And I was like, "Wow."
[chuckles]

And I was just floored.

I was just knocked out

by how good
I thought the film was.

[grunts]

[car whooshes]

[♪♪♪]

CRAIG:
So, at the end, when RoboCop
approaches the building,

ED-209 is guarding
the building there.

His upper torso swivels over.

So, this is one of the things
we kind of built

the capacity for
into the full-scale prop.

He had a hinging point.

That was one of our big
live-action movements

for ED-209.

CRAIG:
When RoboCop destroys ED-209,

the day before, they had done
the actual shooting

of Peter Weller
with the actual cannon.

Boom!

[gunshot, explosion]

CRAIG:
And the blanks

were strong enough
that they rattled

all of the windows
in the entire building,

you know, almost
to the point of shattering.

Yikes. Is that fun, man.

CRAIG:
This was, of course,
quite a big deal.

And a lot of police came out.

And they tried to arrest
Paul Verhoeven.

How are you doing?

CRAIG:
And Paul Verhoeven's like,

"I don't have a driver's
license.

How do we arrest you?"

[laughs]

So, the next day,

when it came time
to blow the robot up,

which should have been
a big destruction scene,

I think
everybody was very gun shy.

So, the charge ended up
being a lot smaller

than they might
have wanted to be.

[gunshot, explosion]

So, yeah. We went back in,
and optically added

explosion elements to that
to sort of get the actual

full, you know,
extent of destruction.

Once the thing was blown up,
you cut back to it.

That then was the actual
stop-motion puppet.

[robot whirring]

PHIL:
It had a lot of moving parts
to it.

I was doing an in-camera
composite with smoke

and all sorts of things

that had to go
at a certain time.

CRAIG:
They had to very trickily,

sort of, animate
in the smoke elements.

A lot of these things
are done in-camera.

So, you're basically
sort of animating elements

to follow a moving object.

PHIL:
I was about halfway
through the shot,

and Jon called me up,
and said, "Hey, you know what?

Can you do something funny
at the end of the shot?

'Cause the movie's too serious."

So I'm like, "Yeah, okay."

JON: (over telephone)
Good.

PHIL:
And so, the thing with the foot
was a very last-minute thing.

You know, at that point,
I just took it farther.

I had him, you know,
walk in as like a drunk thing

and then have like,
a little whirligig spinning.

And then he falls over,

and does the thing
with his foot.

JON:
You know, we were budgeted
9,995, and we were at about 13.

So, we were over
the 10 percent contingency.

And the completion bond company
had every right

to take the picture over
and just finish it themselves.

And they didn't have to do
the effects.

They didn't have to put
sound effects in.

They could take it over.

And Mike Medavoy
wouldn't let 'em do it.

He had the faith in the picture
to tell the completion bond,

"No, you're not taking it over.

And we'll pick up the overages,"
and uh, it saved the movie.

[electrifying tune]

STEVE:
John P. made a lot of great

synth sweeteners
and sounds to accent things.

And one of the best ones
that I love

is when the doors swing open
in the boardroom

at the end of the film.

And there's that great,
cheesy, synthy whomp

that has no business
being there whatsoever.

But it works.

BART:
They're shooting
the boardroom stuff at the end.

So, we get him all made up
with the makeup.

And we had him ready,
and they weren't getting to it.

And we kept sending word up
like, you know,

"He's been in the makeup
for a couple hours.

It's gonna start breaking down.
You know, what's going on?"

STEPHAN:
Paul was shooting

like all the wide shots
and everything but the makeup.

Paul could only shoot it
for five hours,

'cause the face
would essentially collapse.

And the edges
were peeling off everywhere.

And Stephan Dupuis had begged.

Like,
"Shoot the close-ups first."

And he didn't.

GREGOR:
Instead, he decided

it was more important
to shoot all those action shots.

And by the time it came
to shooting the close-ups,

the makeup was not acceptable.

STEPHAN:
And of course,
the makeup was fragile.

I mean, it was all in one piece.

It was not easy to apply,
'cause you couldn't fuck up.

And they just kept

putting us off
and putting us off.

And at some point,
Stephan just went upstairs

'cause craft service
was up there.

So, he's up there like getting
some coffee or something.

And Paul sees him,
and Paul's just like,

"I don't know
when we're gonna get to it!"

You know, just kinda like,
screaming at him.

And Stephan's just like, "Oh."
And he goes back downstairs.

He goes, "I'm not going to set
until he comes and apologizes."

So, uh, then I decided
to act like a fucking diva.

Stephan just said,
"I'm not shooting this makeup.

In fact, me and my whole team
are walking off the set now."

BART:
So, then we're like

sitting in the trailer,
and they're like,

"Okay, they're ready for him."

And he's like, "Nope.
I'm not gonna go."

And I said, "Okay.

He's not coming on the set,
because the makeup

is fucked up now.
You didn't listen.

Okay? Lesson learned?
I hope so."

Stephan essentially

let production know that no one,
no one could knock on that door.

BART:
Peter's like,

"Well, I'm not going
if you guys aren't going."

And so, we're all just
sitting there.

And then finally Verhoeven
comes down, and he's like...

-Well, I mean...
-BART: He goes,

"I guess you want me to say,
'I'm sorry,' but I can't."

STEPHAN:
So, we had it out

in the trailer,
me, the producers, and Paul.

And yeah,
that was very stressful day.

Yeah.

How can we help you, Officer?

Dick Jones is wanted for murder.

Obviously, the first time
you see RoboCop,

there's a lot of processing
on his voice.

PETER WELLER: (over device)
Yes, I understand.

STEVE:
As he gets more human,
they pull it out.

My program will not allow me

to act against an officer
of this company.

It's a social critique

that went very specifically
about corporate power,

corporate greed.

These are serious charges.

PAUL M. SAMMON:
These impersonal
killer executives.

What is your evidence?

PAUL M. SAMMON:
The businessmen

who are out there
trying to one up each other.

I had to kill Bob Morton,
because he made a mistake.

[gasps]

DICK: (on tv)
Now, it's time
to erase that mistake.

And just raised it another notch

where they literally
do kill each other.

[gun clicks, board members
clamoring]

PAUL M. SAMMON:
And it's not only forecasting,

it's putting its finger
right on it.

DICK:
I want a chopper now!

MICHAEL MINER:
Jon suggested a way

to invalidate
Directive 4 at the end.

We'd all show up

at the office every day,
and we'd kick stuff around.

Anybody tries to stop me...

JON:
You know, saying,

"Oh, what about this,
or what about that?"

...the old geezer gets it.

And I, as a joke, said,
how about "You're fired"?

I never thought

that the "You're fired" line
would work.

I-- You know, and Paul, and Ed,
and Jon were going,

"Yeah, it's gonna work.
Yeah, it's gonna work."

I said,
"You know, I don't know."

Dick, you're fired!

And it worked beautifully.

So, you know,

even when you're really
involved in it,

you can be wrong. Right?

-Thank you.
-[groans]

-[gunshots]
-[board members clamoring]

RONNY:
They put squibs
front and back, big heavy loads.

And I'm not blowing smoke,
when they put those off,

I practically went to my knees,
and I was physically ill

for about an hour
after that happened.

That hurt.

They made a mistake.

And they came to me afterwards,
and said, "We fucked up."

[chuckles]

-[woman screaming]
-[gunshots]

[Dick screaming]

[screaming fades]

ROCCO:
I had a little bit
of stop-motion experience,

and I talked with Jon Davison,
and he asked me

about the possibility
of doing it

as a stop-motion character.

And I told him
that I'd be willing to try it,

and um, thought that I could do
something that looked good.

It ended up looking
kind of iffy.

[screams]

[scream fades]

The Rocco Gioffre shot

where he falls out the window
is a little dodgy.

That guy falling out
of the building at the end

with the really long arms. Oh.

We could have done better.
[laughs]

I don't know
what happened to that,

but I was-- I was disappointed.

Dick, I'm very disappointed.

ROCCO:
Of course,

I'd like another crack
at the Dick Jones thing.

There's some stuff
that I would-- would do

very differently.

Although, I don't think
that it's the fault

of stop motion that that looks
the way that it does.

It's the proportions of his arms
in relationship to the lens

that we chose and the way
that it looks distorted.

RONNY:
The way this shot

was supposed to work
from what I heard

was my character
was gonna go out the window.

They were gonna have ostensibly
a camera down halfway.

They were gonna articulate
my character coming down,

down, down, down
toward the camera.

And then they were gonna flip
the camera

and take my character away
until he landed in the street.

[thud]

RONNY:
Well, obviously,
that didn't work.

That would have been great.

That's the reason
they made that little doll

to look exactly like me.

[indistinct chatter]

PETER WELLER:
There's nothing like RoboCop.

I mean, there isn't.

That has a social message
like this

that gets you on four or five
different levels.

Verhoeven's power,
I mean, he knew

the end of that movie is...

Nice shooting, son.
What's your name?

PETER WELLER:
"What's your name?"

Murphy.

PETER WELLER:
"Murphy."

PAUL:
I'll never forget that.

Before Peter Weller
could answer Murphy...

Nice shooting, son.
What's your name?

...the whole theater
in one voice said, "Murphy!"

Yes!

That was so amazing.

But like, "Murphy!"

That was a moment
that you will never forget,

you know, that people
were so into the movie.

It was like this transformation
from human to robot,

and back to human.

It lives because of its theme.

And the theme is executed
right down the line, man.

And the theme is resurrection.

[♪♪♪]

MICHAEL MINER:
When the film was tested,

it was actually
a fourth media break.

And there was a sequence
in which Bixby Snyder

is arrested as a pedophile.

And Nancy Allen
is in the hospital

being interviewed,
having survived the shootout.

Excuse me, Your Honor.

Anne, ever consider
another line of work?

No. I like being a cop.

Well, the original ending
did have Anne Lewis saying,

"If you can't stand the heat,
get out of the kitchen."

It parrots something that
you hear earlier in the film.

If you can't stand the heat,

you better stay out
of the kitchen.

You know what they say.

If you can't stand the heat,
get out of the kitchen.

STEVE MINH:
I don't know about you,

but I'll sleep
a little better tonight.

I saw the dailies.

I didn't really like it
very much.

The audience always felt

that Murphy
was the way to go out.

So, that fourth media break
was never shown.

It was one of those things

where when I heard
they weren't using it,

I was sort of relieved,
because it just seemed so blah.

You bet!

Next time you see a cop, smile.
Thanks for watching.

[♪♪♪]

FRANK:
We were on a tight schedule.

I was done with RoboCop
probably 10 days

after we finished shooting.

There wasn't like
the four-hour cut of RoboCop.

There was the--
If RoboCop's 114 minutes,

there was the 118-minute cut
of RoboCop.

That was the rough.

CHARLES:
First of all, I was all for it
being a very violent movie.

I was interested in those ideas
and Paul was, too.

And I was surprised

when we were even shooting
these sequences.

I was thinking to myself,

"There's no way these are ever
gonna make it.

It's never gonna make it
on screen."

I think Paul's idea
was actually, "Push it

as far as you can push it,

and then we'll dial it back
later."

If you can't push the envelope,

you know,
don't write the letter.

We wanted to grab people
by the throat,

and give 'em a good time
and a real good ride.

FRANK:
Our biggest problem

on the editing of the movie
was with the MPAA.

And so, we had to cut it,

and cut it, and cut it eight,
nine times.

You know, we had to go back
to back, back, back, back.

But that original version
basically is really funny.

[gunshots]

It's safe to say

the ratings board
did not get the satire.

Of course, they gave us an X.

And so, we made a few trims,
and sent it back,

and we got another X.

So, Paul went back in,
and he kept cutting away

the shot where Peter Waller
loses his hand,

because it was too graphic.

It was supposed to be so big,

so too much, that it in a way,
lost its impact.

And the more you cut it down,
the more real it became.

And somehow, those censors
just didn't see that.

In a way, they made the violence
worse for us as a viewer.

FRANK:
We had this one shot

where they shoot him
in the head,

and it was a complete move
right from his face,

all the way
to the back of his head.

[groans]

And the MPAA
wouldn't allow me to use it.

I could only use the impact
just from the front

and then the back.

And it probably was more violent
doing it that way

than just showing
the whole move.

ED:
There was a shot of the floor.

It was a wide shot.

And the floor was covered
with blood.

It looked
like a butcher shop floor.

In the first preview of it,
10 women got up

at that moment
and left the--

the screening room.
It was just amazing.

[exclaims]

ED:
I think the first thing
I realized

was red was a problem.
Just red, the amount of red.

[whimpers]

JON:
We had a preview,

and about the highest
rated thing in the movie

was Emil getting hit by the car.

And the MPAA said,
"Absolutely not.

You cannot have that.
It's decapitation."

And God bless Mike Medavoy,
because to his credit, he said,

"We are not cutting that shot.

We'll go to the mat
with the MPAA on this.

We're not taking it out."

RON:
Jon Davison
made the whole crew T-shirts.

One side would say "RoboCop,"

and the other side
would say, "Fuck the MPAA."

JON:
It was like,
"Well, wait a minute.

If they wanna play games,
we'll play some games."

Okay, okay.
I get a kick out of it.

TERESSA:
You end up wearing
them down, you know?

You cut maybe a frame out.

But you keep sending
the same stuff back

and they eventually give in.

[chuckles]

They changed the rules

after that movie
about how many times

you can submit a film.

[indistinct chatter]

ED:
There was a moment

in the cutting room
where I remember Jon and Paul

immediately started
getting into a fight

and Sol Lomita,
who was the head

of post-production at Orion,
who was a very tough guy,

starts yelling at Paul.

And Paul starts yelling back.

And I said,
"Wait a second, guys.

What if we cut the arm out?"

Because I always thought
it looked shitty anyway.

"Let's cut the arm out!"

[groans]

And they both looked
at each other.

"Okay." And that was that.
And then we sent it in.

And with the arm out of it,
we got the R-rated.

[gunshots, screams]

[screaming fades]

When I came back
from this movie,

I just felt like I was dead.

It was a very challenging movie
to work on.

Constant tension and--
and conflict.

People were exhausted.

ED:
We had all had this terrible

rep party where everybody
behaved badly.

And on the plane the next day,

there were people
who hated each other,

but we were all so hung over
that we couldn't even like...

It was just like... [groans]

You know,
after finishing RoboCop,

I decided that I was going to go
to the mountains

and raise ducks
for the rest of my life.

It was that bad.

[♪♪♪]

ED:
When the picture
was about to come out,

the head of marketing
at Orion Pictures said,

"I cannot market this movie.

It's impossible to m-- to go out
with a movie called 'RoboCop'."

[chuckles]

NARRATOR:
RoboCop, mechanical body,
human memory,

the ultimate law enforcement
operative of the future.

RoboCop was scheduled

to come out, I think,
after Labor Day.

And that summer,
the big blockbusters

from the studios
just didn't cut it.

And it turned out,
there were slots

that became open.

PAUL M. SAMMON:
Orion didn't have much
of a budget for marketing.

It was a small-- you know,
it was a low-budget picture.

And I said, "Don't position it
against something,

you know,
that's going to be bigger."

So, they put it out
in the summer.

NARRATOR:
RoboCop, the future of law
enforcement, rated R.

Starts Friday, July 17th
at a theater near you.

Orion made a trailer,
and it was pretty terrible.

NARRATOR:
The summer's new superhero

is America's new
super hit movie.

RoboCop.

I really love that guy.

NARRATOR:
Rated R.

And so, I hired a friend
of mine, Miller Drake,

from the New World
Trailer Department.

And he came in,
and spent a week,

and cut the trailer.

It is my great pleasure
to present to you...

RoboCop.

MARK:
Orion Pictures was putting
together a trailer.

And they didn't have any music
from our movie yet,

because the music
hadn't been written.

ROBOCOP:
Let the woman go.
You are under arrest.

MARK:
So, they utilized

Brad Fiedel's score
from Terminator .

You have the right
to remain silent.

[glass breaks]

You have the right
to an attorney.

-What is this? [screams]
-[glass breaks]

It's not a great trailer,
but it's an awful lot better.

"The future of law enforcement.

RoboCop."

[gun shots]

NARRATOR:
RoboCop, the future
of law enforcement.

ED:
And of course,

when it was accepted,
it seemed like,

"Well, what other title
could there be?" You know?

It is a perfect title in a way,
because it tells you

exactly what the movie is.

I was told I was almost gonna be
the poster for the movie,

because my character
with the machine gun

being pulled through the wall,

with the two RoboCop arms
sticking through

was quite a photograph.

So, it was one of two or three
that they were considering,

but they went
with the right one.

PAUL M. SAMMON:
They managed to come up
with an iconic shot,

which is Robo
getting out of the cruiser.

"Part man, part machine,
all cop."

And that was actually a still
that was done

by the on-still photographer
named Deana Newcomb.

And they just essentially,
what we would now call,

"photoshopped it".

That became the iconic image.

PETER WELLER:
And it's become
an iconic poster.

Somebody came up with the ad
thing on the-- on the poster,

and said, "This cop don't stop
at no donut shop."

One of the great
marketing things ever.

NANCY:
I thought it would have
a very limited audience.

I thought, "It's so strange.

It's so different
than anything."

And I thought, "This is just not
gonna work on a large scale."

MICHAEL MINER:
Then the premiere

at the Academy Theater,
900 people,

my family in the audience. Wow.

We went to the premiere,

and I-- I thought
the movie was fantastic.

I just thought it was great.

You know, "here I am in like
the place

in Hollywood show business.

Wow, man!"

I mean, it came out in July
of '87, and people loved it.

NARRATOR:
Everybody loves RoboCop.

CALVIN:
Holy shit!

We got a monster hit here.

NARRATOR:
RoboCop, two thumbs up.

SISKEL: (on TV)
RoboCop is a wonderfully funny,

inventive, and agreeably violent
piece of science fiction.

And I can't remember
the last time

I put all those adjectives
together.

NARRATOR:
Newsweek calls it,
"Slick, lively.

Audiences will eat it up."

-Wow.
-Wow.

Wow. This is something special.

NANCY:
It opened to such a huge
box office and a reception

from you know,
across the board.

YOLONDA:
I don't think anybody knew

that it was gonna be as big
as it was.

PAUL:
It was so fantastic.

I had never seen that
in my life, you know?

The day I saw the film,
it was lightning in a bottle.

NARRATOR:
He's a stainless steel,
unstoppable Clint Eastwood.

PETER WELLER: (on TV)
I think you should run
to see this movie.

And not only because I'm in it,

but because, well, we'll talk
about it later.

Go see it.

I will.

BOB: (on TV)
There's a new guy in town.

Wow. This is different
than anything I'd ever seen.

BOB: (on TV)
His name's RoboCop.

PAUL M. SAMMON:
It was really something,

and pretty impactful
on the public.

People saw it,
and they wanted to see it again.

-WOMAN: RoboCop.
-MAN: RoboCop.

Oh, yeah, RoboCop!
That's so cool.

CHARLES:
People thought
that movie was off the chart.

The tone, everything, the humor.

NARRATOR:
RoboCop is dead-on!

Both as a thriller
and an unexpected comedy.

NANCY:
Truly, it's an interesting story

and it has a lot of depth to it,
but just on an action,

you know, shoot 'em up,
and blow it up,

and bloody it up.

You know, just on a popcorn,
crazy summer movie level,

it works on that, too.

The movie has a lot
of high-tech special effects.

It's an effective
summer thriller.

I enjoyed it.

MILES:
When I left the theater,
I felt sick to my stomach.

I couldn't believe
what I'd seen.

I had no idea working on it
that that film

was gonna be what it was.

Like, takes your viscera,

and makes you feel
part of the deal.

TERESSA:
It has some guts to it.

And I think
that's because of Paul.

A lot of people deserve credit
for this film.

The foremost, I guess,
is the highly regarded

Dutch director Paul Verhoeven.

We were kind of like dumbfounded

that, "Wow.
So, that's what Paul was--

was doing."

And Verhoeven, you know,

as difficult
as he was to work with,

you know, he had a vision
of what he wanted,

and he got his movie.

PAUL:
We went to a restaurant

opposite to the theater
in Westwood,

and we're sitting there,
and then saw this line of people

that went like this,

and they go on the streets,
and then the side street,

and around the corner.

But seeing them going,
I mean, you don't see

that much anymore this way.

It was a success,
because the budget

was 13, and it made 120
or something

in the world, you know?

So, I'm still getting money
from them, you know?

I owned half the movie,

and I gave pieces of it
to 13 or 15 people

that worked on the picture.

And to this very day,
we're still getting checks.

Still get some very decent
residual checks from RoboCop.

"Hey, man. Did you get the last
residual check?"

"Yeah, I got it."
"All right!"

RAY:
That'll give you an idea

of how popular
that movie was and still is.

JESSE:
People stopping you
on the street

and asking you to do the laugh.

You get the laundry,
folding your clothes,

and say, "Man, do that laugh!
Man, do that laugh."

I'm like,
"I can't do that laugh."

-[chuckles]
-[laughs manically]

People have said to me,

"Hey yeah, RoboCop."
I say, "Yeah, yeah."

Mm! [smacks lips]

Tastes like baby food.

Tastes like baby food.

FELTON:
That's the one line
they never forget.

Knock yourself out.

It changed the world for me.
And I can tell you,

I got out of two
speeding tickets because of it.

[chuckles]

CALVIN:
Motorcycle cop pulls me over.

He goes,
"License and registration."

Flips up his shades.

"RoboCop,
get the fuck out of here."

"Have you ever seen RoboCop?"

And of course,
right there, the beat.

[gasps]

"We have it on a loop
in the station.

We watch it all the time!"

We got onto that subject
and off that ticket went.

DIANE:
My friend's son was like,
"Oh, yeah.

At college, we all watch
RoboCop like every weekend.

I went, "You do?"

He goes, "Yeah."
He goes, "And you?

Everybody knows you.
You're like the coke whore."

I said, "I think I was a model."

[laughs]

The thing that is most
interesting to me

about all of this and I could
not have predicted it,

but I couldn't be more pleased,

is that this is somehow
like this cultural thing

that young men particularly,
but some young women, too,

really embrace.

JON:
I'm always amazed

when people come up to me,
and say,

"My dad took me
to see that movie

when I was 8 years old,
and it changed my life."

And I thought to myself,

"Why would your dad

-take you to see that movie?"
-I don't know.

"I saw it,
and I was way too young."

And you know...

And "My brother took me there
and I shouldn't have seen it."

"Oh, I saw this movie
when I was 8,"

or "I saw this movie,"
and I thought,

"Where were the parents?

You know,
what was going on there?"

Murphy.

JON:
It's a wonder you're not, you
know, a complete serial killer

or something. I mean, God!

And it's almost--
it becomes a rite of passage,

and kids would sneak off

to see it
at other people's houses.

"My uncle sneaked me in
and let me watch his VHS.

And it was cool!"
"This is my favorite movie.

-Don't tell your mom."
-RONNY: This is, sort of,

their touchstone film
in lots of ways.

It tapped
into your, sort of, sense

of-- of absurdity.

It was all the makeup,

and the faces dissolving,
and guns firing.

You know, it's that hardwired
of the charge of it all,

you know,
and the fascination with it all.

KEVIN:
I showed my kids,

and they thought ED-209
was kind of funny.

And I'm like,
"What's wrong with you?"

So, I took 'em out of the will,
I kicked them out of the house.

NARRATOR:
Kids, look up to him.

Stay out of trouble.

ANGIE:
I think as long as in a violent
film, there's a hero

that's a good role model
for kids, then you know,

it's got to be okay.

Can you do that, Dad?

There's an
interesting thing about

action films
and action characters

-that are horrifically violent.
-[groans]

And then the fallout

of the film begs
to the commercial world dolls.

Drop it!

NARRATOR:
RoboCop and the Ultra Police,
each sold separately.

Criminals, give up.

I didn't expect
all of the merchandising.

That was a surprise.

NARRATOR:
RoboCop and evil ED-260

face off
with rapid repeat cap firing.

STEPHAN:
I mean, RoboCop, right?

So, the kids want RoboCop
costume, you know, and stuff.

What do you expect
from the studios?

NARRATOR:
The helmet, the look,
the power of RoboCop.

PAUL POWER:
The idea of RoboCop

appealing to kids and everything
didn't surprise me in the least.

I expected it.

I went, "Wow.
This is a comic book film.

There's no comic book."

And then I think Marvel
did the comic after.

And it was just a natural.

Well, the audience for the comic
was never really very clear.

I think it was clearly--

it had to be for younger
age group.

Although, I was never really
totally certain why,

because actually
most comic books,

certainly by then,
were for late teenagers,

early 20s.

But you could tell
that the stories

were starting to go
in a direction

that you might expect
a good continuation

of the movie
to be coming up with.

You still couldn't show
people's heads being blown off

or anything like that.

Actually, to my relief,
because the older I get,

the more squeamish I get.

MILES:
It was fantastic seeing RoboCop

come out in all these different
iterations,

the games, the toys, you know?

I mean, I like to buy 'em.

I must have put $100
worth of quarters

into uh, that machine.

-[fires shots]
- Don't move, creep!

It was bitchin'.

AUTOMATED VOICE:
Thank you for your cooperation.

NARRATOR: (on TV)
After being mortally wounded

in the line of duty,
Officer Murphy is outfitted

by OCP with bulletproof
titanium robotic parts.

When it came to the cartoons

and all that stuff, you know,
that stuff wasn't anywhere

near as violent as the feature.

NARRATOR: (on TV)
He has become
the ultimate super cop.

RoboCop.

And I was very impressed
with the guy who played my part.

I bet you don't think
I'm a very nice person.

ROBOCOP:
I think you're scum.

[laughs evilly]

It just blew their little minds.

It's okay, Murphy.

It's me, Lewis.

[laughs]

So, it was fun. You know,
it's fun to be part of that.

PAUL M. SAMMON:
You will have a time as a child,

where you'll see a picture
which will shape you

the rest of your life.

It gets into your head
and into your heart as a child,

and it becomes a loved thing.

And it really has a power
and a motive force

the rest of your life.

PETER WELLER:
One of the most
remarkable things is that

a mom came up to me, my age,
with a kid

in his 40s, and he said
he was on the wrong side

of the law when he was 12.

And his mom showed him
RoboCop.

He says, "I saw RoboCop,
and I wanna be a cop.

I left my friends,"
changed his playground,

and became this cop, man.

That's a service
that I can never dream

that any movie would do
or be of,

is that change a guy's life.

PAUL:
I know that Ed and I,

we talked for a moment
about the sequel,

but I think the studio felt
that we were not fast enough

and went other ways.

JON:
Orion was in financial trouble.

Because it was successful,

they immediately
wanted to do another one.

[systen clatters]

Taking over, creep.

[fires shot]

MICHAEL MINER:
The misfire of the sequel,

and then number three
was just horrible.

NARRATOR:
He's taking the future.

What in the name...

NARRATOR:
And giving it back
to the people.

RoboCop 3.

ED:
But that's more aimed
at children to make it PG-13.

So, then more people would come.

And some people like 2.

I don't know too many people
who like 3.

ALLAN:
You know, it set the stage

for the rest of 'em,
but they always say

the first one's the best.

There's that first flash
when you get hit in the face,

and that was probably
what the first movie was.

And then everything else
was just body shots.

[♪♪♪]

ED:
In the time
since that film has come out,

it's grown a massive following.

DEL:
It's really difficult to get
a movie that works everywhere,

and RoboCop works everywhere.

And it's still popular
to this day.

PAUL:
The success of RoboCop

is more basically
that it's still there now

than that it was
such a big success. That--

The idea of landing a superhero

within the consciousness
of Western civilization,

I feel very lucky
to have been a part of that.

KEVIN PAGE:
RoboCop predicted,

sort of, the decadence
of what our media is like today,

I think, and-- and our politics.

You better be careful, man.

-I hear Jones is a real shark.
-Who asked you, twerp?

We were so on target.

[gun shots]

The movie is so precise,

and there is really nothing
in the movie

that I would say
that was not good.

RAY:
There are parallels

you can draw to our--
our daily political life,

our daily social life.

There are aspects of it
that are still true today

and becoming more true
every day.

It also forecast

the militarization
of the police,

how the police
are all decked out

in these body armor
and kevlar vests,

and they have this massive
military presence.

-[gun shots]
-Halt it!

PAUL M. SAMMON:
Violence is on the rise,

citizens are defenseless,
the businesses are corrupt,

people build big products
that don't work.

ARNE:
And now, we have robots
taking over all kinds of jobs.

So, it's become more
of a reality than ever.

PAUL M. SAMMON:
And all of that, unfortunately,

and alas, has now gone up
a whole order of magnitude

in today's society.

It's prophetic.

ED:
I think we made a joke

about human nature,
and politics, and society,

and we had, sort of, a snapshot
we created.

PETER WELLER:
It's about the American tragedy,

and that's the legacy
of the classic.

The first glance,
it's about this.

Second glance, it's about
something much more profound.

JON:
Looking back on RoboCop,

what really sticks with me
is a lesson.

Time heals all pain.

The crew got thrown together

in this big cauldron
with this great story.

MICHAEL:
Ed Neumeier and Michael Miner,
the writers, were brilliant.

Add to that
a brilliant director.

GREGOR:
RoboCop was a miracle.

It was the right people
at the right time

coming together
to make something different.

PAUL:
I think what plays a part here

is my relying on intuition
and not knowing.

I think that RoboCop
is the best movie I made.

Drop it!

PAUL M. SAMMON:
The '80s just happened

to be a time when Hollywood
had finally discovered

that they could make A movies
out of B movies,

and they just went wild with it.

Who are you?

Being in RoboCop

is like being
in a little time capsule,

just a super cool,

frozen-in-time
pop culture moment.

STEPHEN:
We get lucky,

and we get to work on a show
now and again that resonates

and has some relevance
beyond just the entertainment.

The Tigers are playing tonight.

KURTWOOD:
I'm proud of the reaction

that I've had to my work
in RoboCop,

to know that you've had
an effect on people.

-It's pleasing to me.
-[mumbles]

ANGIE:
Wow! I can't believe it.

It has made such an impact
on people for so long.

RAY:
I think every
successive generation

discovers it for themselves,

and it becomes a whole new
thing all over again.

NANCY:
The thing that has sustained it,

I think, through the years
is the fact

that there is a heart
and soul to it.

Murphy, it's you.

ED:
I also think there's a sort of
an optimism in it also,

which says
"We'll go on somehow, you know?

We'll bumble along.

And some people will be fools,
but somehow,

right will prevail."

And in some ways,
RoboCop stands in for that.

Your move, creep.

ED:
He is that character

that will take us through,
that says,

"We can cope with these changes
of technology or politics."

PETER WELLER:
I am proud
to have been part of it,

and it is unique,
and that's why it lives.

-Dead or alive...
-You are coming with me.

And there's a punch in the face

-[glass breaks]
-and the heart with RoboCop.

About your world now
that'll be resonant

for a long time to come.

Thank you for your cooperation.
Goodnight.

[♪♪♪]

[♪♪♪]