RoboCop (2014) | Sci-Fi Saturdays

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Meet the cop who can’t be stopped.

A remake of the classic 1987 RoboCop brings a new level of detail and spectacle to a nearly thirty-year-old franchise, but why? Remakes have grown more popular in the 21st Century, but do they offer the audience something more than the original, or are they simply a repackaging of a product that lacks the level of humanity needed to engage the viewer?

First Impressions

Crime is on the rise, and a police officer is shot in the line of duty. A television anchor says that a technological revolution is coming, as a businessman says he wants to put a man into a machine. The man who is picked can’t believe what he’s been turned into, but there’s no doubt he’s an effective weapon. The trailer asks who’s in control: man or machine, as a voice over states that emotions will interfere with the system. It’s what makes RoboCop unique.

Presented below is the trailer for the film.

The Fiction of The Film

Conservative talk show host Pat Novak (Samuel L. Jackson) takes a live interview from a reporter in Tehran, showing drone robots, including the massive ED-209 and the more humanoid EM-208, pacifying the citizens. The reporter indicates how the locals have “embraced” these efforts as several men in suicide vests attack the robots. Novak indicates that, unfortunately, these drones cannot be used inside America due to the Dreyfus Act, a bill created by Senator Hubert Dreyfus (Zach Grenier). Novak ends by supporting Raymond Sellars and his company, OmniCorp, makers of these robotic soldiers.

At the Detroit Police Department, Officer Alex Murphy (Joel Kinnaman) explains to Captain Dean (Marianne Jean-Baptiste) how their bust went wrong, injuring his partner, Lewis (Michael K. Williams). Murphy believes that the weapons used were stolen from the police impound, an inside job. Meanwhile, Sellars devises an idea about circumventing the Law by creating a cyborg and putting a human into one of their drones. Street criminal Antoine Vallon (Patrick Garrow) works with two dirty police officers, having them plant a bomb in Murphy’s car, which explodes, nearly killing him.

Three months later, Murphy, who now consists of most of his brain, head, and face, his lungs and heart, and his right hand, is awoken from the dream state he’s been in to reveal he’s now mostly a cyborg. Dr. Norton (Gary Oldman) explains what has happened to Murphy and allows him to call his wife. Alex requests to be killed, but they can’t do that since he’s the property of OmniCorp. He is introduced to Rick Mattox (Jackie Earle Haley), a drone controller and soldier who is responsible for training Murphy on his new body and weaponry. Sellars is upset that even though his team did what he requested, Murphy is less efficient than their drones due to his human feelings and consciousness. He demands that Norton make it better.

Norton lowers Murphy’s dopamine levels to be almost non-existent, which removes his personality, and rewrites the software to make him feel like he’s in control, when in reality, it only gives the illusion of free will. Before his pubic unveiling as RoboCop, they upload the Detroit PD database of surveillance footage and unsolved crimes into Murphy’s hard drive. Having immediate access to the data allows him to arrest a criminal at the rally that day. He becomes a popular public figure, while Sellars works to keep Murphy’s wife, Clara (Abbie Cornish), at a distance. She becomes more concerned that something is wrong with Alex after he is allowed to visit their son David (John Paul Ruttan), but shows little emotion towards her or the boy.

Alex is able to override his system priorities and begins reliving the explosion that nearly killed him. As he begins to piece together fragments of his accident, he starts to solve his own murder. He goes after the men responsible, including Vallon, and the two officers working for him. Realizing Captain Dean is also behind this conspiracy, Murphy confronts her but is shut off by Mattox before anything happens. Clara holds an impromptu press conference claiming that she is being denied access to her husband by Sellars and OmniCorp. Norton becomes fed up with the eroding ethical line he’s been forced to walk and snaps at Sellars.

Public opinion sways, which forces the Dreyfus Act to be repealed. Sellars lies and tells Clara that Alex has died, but Norton secretly releases him, sending him after the true villain behind his accident, Sellars. Clara and David visit OmniCorp, believing something fishy is up, and Sellars uses them as potential hostages when Murphy comes to kill him. Unfortunately, a red asset code prevents Murphy from turning on his boss. Seeing his wife and son reveals strong emotions in what is left of the man, and he is able to get one shot off, killing Sellars. Murphy is released from his servitude and put back on the police squad. Novak goes on air to belittle the President for upholding the Dreyfus Act, and claims that America is still the greatest country on the face of the Earth.

“Americans don’t want a machine. They want something that knows what it feels like to be human. We’re gonna put a man inside a machine.” – Raymond Sellars

History in the Making

RoboCop is a reboot/remake of Paul Verhoeven’s 1987 film RoboCop. And while the plot of the film is similar, with a Detroit police officer named Alex Murphy nearly getting killed and then used as the basis for a program to integrate a human being with robotic parts, that’s about where the similarities end. This version of the film has little to none of the cynical parody that featured in the original, with the exception of Samuel L. Jackson’s conservative talk show host. As a film about how humanity can supersede a robotic world, RoboCop feels soulless and unemotional in the same way that Murphy is portrayed to the public.

This film is the seventh major remake, or reimagining, of a classic film in the 21st Century. Some of these reboots were mid-20th Century films adored for their originality and design, with remakes that ranged from moderate to well done. These include The Time Machine, The Day The Earth Stood Still, and War of the Worlds. While others were later films that have developed their own franchises and cult following, such as Planet of the Apes, I Am Legend, and Total Recall. The majority of these remakes, and likely any remake in the last quarter century, do not offer anything new in terms of advancements in story or character, only seemingly enhancing the visual effects of these “vintage” films. RoboCop offers more of the same, creating a film based on name recognition but adding little more to the discussion of human/robotic hybrids.

The question arises regarding the intention of filmmakers when it comes to deciding which films to remake. Is it someone captivated with the style and popularity of the original, and so they are getting some type of pleasure playing in the same universe? There is probably some element of ego involved in trying to remake a popular film. It’s reminiscent of the quote from Jurassic Park, they were “so preoccupied with whether or not they could that they didn’t stop to think if they should.” No one would think to remake a classic like Back to the Future or Star Wars (and hopefully rights holders wouldn’t allow it), so how do some of these other films pass their gatekeepers to get greenlit for a remake? Updating the “look” of the film, whether that’s cinematography or visual effects, should not be the sole purpose in creating a new version of the film. Does the new version offer a revised world view? Can it provide additional commentary on the social implications of the original? And for gosh sakes, don’t ham-fistedly try to shoehorn all the popular quotes back into the new film without reason. It’s sacrilegious!

Genre-fication

Ignoring the fact that RoboCop is a remake, it presents plenty of material that places it firmly as a sci-fi film. The film opens with the use of the military-grade robots ED-209 and EM-208. These are not prototypes or one-offs. There are multiple, larger ED-209s and dozens of the humanoid EM-208s in use by the military, which means this is an ongoing program that has achieved some level of buy-in from the Pentagon and the government. The film takes place in a near-future where the building of robotic drones and the use of autonomous AI controls is commonplace enough to outfit military outfits with the technology. This technology is being advanced by Dr. Norton, stateside, in his rehabilitation program. The funding provided by Sellars’ OmniCorp allows Norton to work with various individuals and their families to provide cybernetic replacement parts for limbs that were lost.

When Norton is introduced, he is working with a bilateral amputee who has had two extremely nimble, yet mechanical, arms attached to their body. Norton offers the man a guitar, urging him to play. With two robotic arms, the man is able to play an extremely difficult, yet subtle, song with all the nuance and dexterity of having real fingers. Yet when his emotions begin to spike while playing, his control over the new arms falters. Norton tells him he needs to control his emotions in order to control the appendages. The rise in chemicals released during the emotional moment affects the interface between man and machine. Unfortunately, the man says that without emotion, he cannot play the songs he loves. This sets up the downside of the program, which is that humans cannot fully interface with the machines, or at least not allow the machine full control, due to their emotions, which is the one thing that still makes them human.

Societal Commentary

The main theme of this version of RoboCop is about the interaction between man and machine. Multiple characters argue, inaccurately, that machines are better than humans, at least in the realm of law enforcement. Mattox, who is able to control an entire squad of drones with his hardware interface, scoffs at the tests between one of his EM-208 robots and Murphy. In a tactical simulation, the drone performs perfectly, navigating all the targets with optimum speed, while Murphy hesitates before killing the terrorists. To Mattox, this indicates that the machine is 100% superior because it never hesitates. On his conservative talk show, Novak speaks about machines being corruption-free and urging the public that they could be “living in a country where law enforcement is not only efficient, but incorruptible.” What he fails to mention is that while machines may be incorruptible in the sense or moral or ethical issues, they still fall prey to things that might corrupt them, such as a computer virus, bug, or glitch. But his point is more about the fallibility of humans in comparison to machines. Mankind is weak and machines are strong. Yet, there’s always a human behind these machines, whether that’s Mattox controlling their immediate actions, Sellars and his ethical skirting of the letter of the law, or Norton doing what he needs to do in order to satisfy his boss and continue his funding. RoboCop assumes that there’s always a human in control somewhere.

These arguments for full integration of the OmniCorp product line into American society are countered by Senator Dreyfus (and others), who wants to create accountability for these machines, since they cannot be held accountable themselves. He asks Sellars what the machines would feel. The entrepreneur says that they feel no anger, prejudice, or fatigue, which makes them perfect law-enforcement tools. Dreyfus counters that he is being misinterpreted, and asks what they would feel if they accidentally killed a child, to which Sellars must state, “nothing,” which is precisely the problem. The lack of emotion, the soulless shell, of these robots makes them unworthy and unable to complete the work of a police officer who needs to have some type of empathy in their job. They should not just be an automaton that sees something that meets certain parameters and opens fire. They need to be able to assess and ascertain the issue, using both their intuition and their emotion–if only to prevent them from killing wantonly. This is what Murphy provides and must overcome. The impetus for his creation is to allow OmniCorp to place robots within America’s borders, which is good for business. But when Murphy becomes too emotional, causing his priorities to be overridden, Norton alters his body chemistry to make him more robotic. Yet, Murphy is able to combat this, as the human side of him defeats the machine side, if only for a moment.

The Science in The Fiction

This version of RoboCop illustrates more of the ways that the human part of Murphy interacts with the machine and how the scientists maintain his organic components. There are more shots that remind the audience just how much of Murphy’s organic body is left, and it’s not much. A head, some internal organs, and a single hand are the level of humanity left. The nightly ritual of removing old blood from his system and replacing it with fresh blood is shown, as well as the ability to dial in his hormonal levels to affect his mood. This would all be necessary since Murphy is missing most, if not all, of his endocrine system as well as his kidneys. Why this would not be built into the RoboCop system is unexplained, but it speaks to another level of control that the operators (and OmniCorp) have over him.

The builders of the AI systems have developed a way to keep certain individuals safe in a world with autonomous murder-drones, and that is the “red asset” tags. They are shown at the beginning of the film with the journalists having bracelets with red lights on them. It’s explained that the drones will ignore these individuals as targets or assets. This is what Sellars uses to prevent Murphy from killing him at the end of the film. Hardware with software protocols that prevent the drone systems from following a termination command. This is the equivalent of the “fourth protocol” in the original film, which prevents RoboCop from harming an employee of OCP, that is, until he is fired and no longer employed. The one thing not touched on with these bracelets is the ability for humans to still be injured via collateral damage. Perhaps the drone aims for someone and, given its heavy caliber gun, shoots through them, injuring another person. What then? As mentioned, the robot would feel absolutely nothing.

The Final Frontier

For all its shortcomings, RoboCop features some great actors doing some honorable work. Unfortunately, it’s not the lead actor. Through the fault of the script or direction, Joel Kinnaman presents a bland version of Murphy who never actually connects honestly with his wife, nor particularly his son–who is supposed to be devastated by his father’s accident. His monotone style feels as if Murphy is always running low on dopamine. Conversely, Keaton and Oldman put in good work as the antagonists, with Haley showing his proclivity towards vile characters as the unlikable Mattox. And, of course, Jackson shines with his over-the-top portrayal of the Alex Jones-style media mogul dictating policy from prime time.

In a surprise to no one, a sequel was planned for this film, but after the lackluster release, those plans evaporated. But time has proven that you can’t keep a good cyborg down, as plans continue for yet another filmic version (the original spawned two sequels) and possibly another television series (there have been four TV shows featuring RoboCop to date). Given all the new technological advancements and megacorporations in the world today, the best thing that can be gleaned from the RoboCop franchise is to always read the fine print on contracts that you sign (or End User Agreements) to ensure that you won’t end up in a similar situation, stitched together as part of a Boston Dynamics robot-dog.

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