History Headscratchers / RoboCop1987

** ED-209 wasn't meant to clean up the streets in the traditional sense. Old Detroit had to be cleared for the construction of Delta City. The idea was to blow away a few [[AcceptableTargets criminals]] to demonstrate that OCP isn't kidding around, and everyone will be running out scared.

** As Jones succinctly put it, "Who cares if the damn thing works". Pacifying Old Detroit was just to drum up publicity. The real money was in getting the military to buy, and they were interested.

*** FridgeBrilliance: Even if "You're fired!" is technically not sufficient to get Jones dismissed from OCP in itself, it's surely enough to ''suspend his executive privileges'' until the Board of Directors confirms the Old Man's decision. He might still be entitled to a few months' severance pay and the chance to clear out his office, but no company has to allow a just-sacked CEO to keep issuing orders, lest said CEO seize the chance to loot its coffers or sabotage its operations on the way out. In effect, the Old Man can ''demote'' Jones instantly to being just a regular employee, and Robocop can impose justice on ''non''-executive OCP personnel without a hitch, no matter how golden of a parachute they have coming to them.

** His chest already looks like a bulletproof vest, which is why everyone always immediately recognizes him as a cop without him ever having to show his badge. A police hat isn't necessary.

* Why did the police force never give Murphy/[=RoboCop=] a regular police hat to humanize him after his memories return? Or maybe that's more of a headscratcher with the sequels?

*** Well, that's easy enough to explain: ED-209 was supposed to be ready to deploy. They were using the same software that it would be deployed to the streets and battlefields with, not some special demonstration software. If it had ''worked'' the guy wouldn't have been in any real danger. Of course he also wouldn't have been in any real danger if, as the OP noted, it hadn't been loaded with live rounds.

*** Bob Morton (the guy you referred to) didn't seem to have much power in the company. I mean, he didn't even have access to the VIP restroom. Plus he seemed genuinely shocked about the ED-209 incident. Nothing in the film really suggests that he may had a had on it.
** I see this question all the time. I never thought much of it because it was clear that what we see in the boardroom scene is only the beginning of a longer presentation for ED-209. I assume there would have been a part where they would all be led into a shooting gallery (or the shooting gallery would be brought into the room) to demonstrate ED-209's accuracy and prowess; for this, he would have needed live ammunition. Obviously no one expected the thing to malfunction, since it had likely been tested hundreds of times prior; the chances of a guy being murdered were likely considered less than zilch.

*** Basically this. Jones was arrogant and didn’t care about putting anyone in danger. That’s one of themes of the movie - the rich and powerful see humans as disposable products.

** FridgeBrilliance: Which slimy corporate suit has reason to sabotage the project? That's right, Morton, the one that shortly afterwards has a good cop - Murphy - butchered so he has a test subject for ''his'' project.

* How did Murphy manage to survive having his limbs blown off ''and'' a gunshot wound to the head execution-style long enough to be admitted to hospital after dark and only being declared dead after a couple hours on the operating table?
** Depends on if the viewer thinks Murphy a) barely survived or b) outright died from the ordeal. If a) then note he only lost his right arm from the initial attack (the other limbs survived but were probably riddled to hell too). He's wearing substantial body armour as a riot cop in Old Detroit, so that helped too. People have survived worse in freak incidents of NighInvulnerability, yes even with gunshots to the head. And this version of the future might have advanced tourniquets and other medical equipment, used by cops deployed in scumhole areas, which might have helped Officer Lewis to sustain him until the paramedics arrived. Don't read too much into the sunset either; the car chase likely started shortly before it so the passage of time is plausible. If however you think b) is the case, then you have to grant that OCP's advanced cybernetic technology must be outright capable of resurrecting dead people in a cybernetic form, complete with vocal accent and residual memories from the subject's prior life (much as the MegaCorp would rather that these memories were deleted).

* ED-209 was supposedly designed for "urban pacification". I can see it possibly being deployed in urban war zones alongside regular infantry, but as a replacement for a police force? Police officers are also supposed to arrest people and bring them in for questioning. All ED-209 could do is shoot and blow things up. It couldn't even use stairs. Plus, would anybody really want to move somewhere with killer deathbots patrolling the streets?

** The robot was quite clearly designed for military purposes, not for law enforcement. OCP wanted to put the damn thing on the streets to kill two birds with one stone, giving it a live test run to prove the unit's worth to any potential buyer, and to clean the streets by any means necessary in order to facilitate the building of the new Detroit.

** Considering how much of a burnt out hell hole much of Detroit is, using it as a proving ground for the ED-209 prior to being deployed to the battlefield doesn't actually seem like a bad idea. If you're routinely losing police every day to gang activity, a walking tank isn't the overkill it might seem.
** Verhoven has said ED-209 and OCP are a satire on American industry at the time, particularly the car industry. Design is rushed, construction is done by the lowest bidder, corners are cut everywhere. It just has to look impressive enough to get the buyers to sign the contract.

** He was the cops. Granted, he should have let someone know what he was doing before heading out, and left a copy of the evidence somewhere, but he did have the authority to walk into Jones' office and arrest him. Of course, how well the charges would have stuck is another question. Recording or not, all [=RoboCop=] really had for evidence was the unsubstantiated testimony of a drug dealer who had murdered a cop and was trying to keep the officer taking him down from summarily lynching him. A good attorney could convince a jury that Boddicker was making that testimony up to protect himself - especially if Boddicker suffered an accident before he could reveal any physical evidence linking him to Jones before it comes to trial (Which the local police wouldn't try to hard to prevent given that he had murdered a cop).
*** That's what I meant. However I'm pretty sure he had video of Dick Jones confessing after confronting him with his evidence.
*** Yep, the video has Dick making a direct confession. Of course video can always be manipulated.
*** I imagine that unless Robocop went straight to the board and the Old Man directly - who goes on to ask him to display evidence - that Directive Four might well have started up again and shut Murphy down if he tried to show anyone else the video. It's also important to note that every police officer in the city is gunning for him as a defective product as per Dick's orders. By going straight to the Old Man, Murphy is able to display the evidence, but is still unable to physically act against Jones until he no longer belongs to OCP. So I think it's the Old Man asking for proof that initially bypasses Directive Four.

*** The gun in the demonstration was taken from a case. The gun Jones used to hold the Old Man hostage as taken from an identical case that was lying on a side table.
*** The case doesn't look like a demonstration case. It looks like an expensive custom case for an expensive gun. I just assumed that it belongs to the Old Man, and he keeps it in the board room as a symbolic gesture of his power, as well as means of self-defense in the case some nutcase managed to get through his security.

* Why on Earth would someone design an urban pacification military bot that is not only incapable of walking on stairs, but is actually surprised by the fact that stairs even EXIST?

*** I always thought it was the sound of it overstretching and/its parts grinding as it tries to right itself.

** What would be the point? He has a video of Jones directly confessing to first degree murder. A video of the hitman he hired to perform the murder making his own confession would be redundant, especially since Boddicker is already dead by that point.

** From a scripting point of view it's clearly intended to be a fatal IdiotBall moment on Jones's part, *because he takes hostage and threatens the one person in the company who has the power to terminate his employment verbally and with immediate effect*.
** He can't be in our world. In the screwed up world of Robocop he apparently can.

*** Whether or not Jones could be fired that easily, we're talking about ''program''. A piece of code hardwired into his brain. It cannot work on things like belief or self-conviction, and you cannot tell it: "See? His boss has just de facto fired him. Now let me shoot him." I presume there would have to be a list of people in Robo's database that he cannot target, and Jones would have to be removed from it, before he could target him, and obviously they wouldn't give Robo himself this ability. So I agree, this is a gap in logic.
*** This is not a gap in logic. Sure, you can't fire someone this fast normally, but even in real-life, it is possible to do that depending on the contract (https://smallbusiness.chron.com/can-employee-fired-warning-31282.html). Even if you have a good contract that prevents you from being fired this quickly without warning, you can still be fired quickly in a legal way if an act of misconduct or crime is committed on the company's premise. This is grounds for immediate dismissal in most companies and at this point, the dumbass trying to takeover the company is holding his boss at gunpoint in front of a robot with a built-in camera. Even if Richard wasn't dropped to his death and tried to take the company to court over his 'wrongful termination', all Omni would have to do is show the recording of him holding the boss at gunpoint threatening to kill him and the case would be thrown out. Then, Richard would be taken into custody as a criminal or sued by Omni Consumer Products for wasting their time in court (and that is with modern laws, imagine the laws in the world of [[Franchise/RoboCop RoboCop]] where corporations run everything).
*** Probably unintentional FridgeBrilliance on the part of the writers - multi-threaded programming was in its infancy at the time, but it is absolutely technically possible for a program to create a separate "thread" which runs independently of the main program and can update data without the main program thread having to "know" about it.
*** The Old Man has stated his intent to have Jones fired. The Old Man is essentially God of OCP. If he told Robocop that someone does or doesn't work for the company, his word is law, regardless of paperwork. Besides, it's shown to work, therefore it works, and the gap in logic is really of your own making.

*** With the first sure, but D4 ''was'' meant to constrain him and prevent him from making intelligent decisions (i.e. arrest the SOB). If not my way, how do you suppose it worked? They would input "Do not attack people who you think are executives of OCP, unless you can rationalise otherwise" into his brain and then treat him to a presentation of OCP staff? It seems needlessly complex compared to simply programming "Do not attack this list of people" directly into his brain.

*** Directive 4 was stated to be a secret contribution made by Jones himself to the programming; it doesn't prevent from shooting, just arresting. It originally didn't kick in until Robocop actually tries to handcuff Jones.

** Probably just crappy programming done on the cheap and without much forethought as to unintended consequences, just like everything else OCP does. A simple bit of code saying "If someone states OCP executive status then do not arrest. Invalidation of OCP Executive status only by other OCP executive of equal or more senior rank". Slap a bit of secrecy around it so no one else will find out about that key and they were good to go. Yes it is stupid and liable to fall apart, but that is part of the film's whole message.

*** To add, remember the point made above that the Old Man is basically God as far as OCP is concerned and his word is Law. So no doubt Robocop's programming operates on the basis the Old Man directly firing someone counts as an immediate termination their employment, regardless of whether or not they still have to fill out all the paperwork, so they are no longer covered by Directive Four.
** It's possible that while Robocop can't change his files, he can make updates. He would add recordings and details to reports for the purposes of litigation. In the case of Directive 4, he updated the file that the guy had been fired pending completion of paperwork. Sort of like making a phone bill payment through the automated system. It tells you that it can take fifteen minutes to be updated in all systems, but your payment has officially been received and processed.

** Executives come and go in major corporations. It's cheaper and easier just to have a blanket exemption with a simple override like the one above than to keep uploading an updated list of OCP executives. Each update requires Robo to be taken offline, which takes him off the streets and costs the company money. A more realistic solution would be to require an override code that would have to be authenticated, or to require several people (the Old Man, the HR director, and Jones for example) to verify an executive was terminated. But that puts too many people in the loop for Jones' liking, and OCP is demonstrated repeatedly to not really care whether something works ''well''.

** As the ED-209 debacle amply demonstrated, OCP doesn't give a rat's ass about the well being of their employees, including their executives. It shouldn't surprise anyone that upper management can fire anyone at a whim, termination effective immediately, with your cubicle and desk emptied with the contents thrown out onto the curb seconds before security does the same to you. It's probably in the first paragraph of their contracts.

** Also remember, D4 was sort of a bug installed by Jones secretly to protect himself against Robocop should the need arise (probably already anticipating that he was going to illegally get Morton out of the way). This means that rather than a clear cut legal directive, D4 was just a rather crude SpannerInTheWorks. Hence, the enforcement of D4 via complicated knowledge of labor and contractual laws was not necessary because it would make programming the D4 more difficult and expensive: all that Jones needed was for Robocop to identify an OCP senior employee in the broadest, simplest terms possible so he could be beyond Murphy's reach.

** Here's a rather plausible [[https://www.reddit.com/r/FanTheories/comments/1lguee/robocop_id_buy_that_for_a_dollar/ theory]] on how it could turn into a catch phrase.

** Boddicker was close enough to Robocop that he could have been seriously injured or killed by the explosion or flying shrapnel. The guy was putting Boddicker's safety ahead of killing Robocop; the gang as a whole seem to be close, and at the very least, Boddicker's the one with friends in high places that makes him so successful. Besides, Robocop was immobilized by the scrap metal and thus an easier target.

*** I never said I expected anyone at OCP to care who Robocop is. But you would think all the higher ups would know anyway, simply because they would have to run a background check on Murphy in order to make sure he was a suitable candidate for the project. That would require them to know his name weather they cared about him or not. Do you really think the Old Man wouldn't require Morton to get his personal approval for the candidate selected? I have a very hard time believing Morton wouldn't have to give a detailed presentation to the Old Man explaining why Murphy should be used.

* Did Emil set the gas station on fire on purpose or by accident?

* How is Lewis strong enough for Murphy to lean on her when he's "injured?" Not only is he bigger than her to begin with, he's ''made almost entirely out of metal.''

* Why did the police force never give Murphy/[=RoboCop=] a regular police hat to humanize him after his memories return? Or maybe that's more of a headscrather with the sequels?

* How is Lewis strong enough for Murphy to lean on her when he's "injured?" Not only is he bigger than her to begin with, he's ''made almost entirely out of metal.''

** A pretty common case of "You'll never take me alive, copper!"

* Why did Dougie reach for his gun when Officer Murphy told him "Don't move"? What made him think that was a good idea?

** Also remember, D4 was sort of a bug installed by Jones secretly to protect himself against Robocop should the need arise (probably already anticipating that he was going to get nasty towards Morton). This means that rather than a clear cut legal directive, D4 was just a rather crude spanner in the works. Since this could all get Jones in trouble if the public (or maybe even his peers at OCP) found out, the enforcement of D4 via complicated knowledge of labor and contractual laws was not necessary because it would make programming the D4 more difficult and expensive: All Jones needed was for Robocop to identify an OCP senior employee in the broadest, simplest terms possible so he could be beyond Murphy's reach.

* Did Emil set the gas station on fire on purpose or by accident?

* How did the van fill with toxic waste so quickly? The holes [=RoboCop=] shot in it weren't even that big.

*** Why shouldn't it shoot to kill? Being a walking gun platform, any less would be a failure of it's primary design.

*** Bob Morton (the guy you reffered to) didn't seem to have much power in the company. I mean, he didn't even have access to the VIP restroom. Plus he seemed genuinely shocked about the ED-209 incident. Nothing in the film really suggests that he may had a had on it.

** Dick was shown to be incredibly arrogant, to have very little regard for safety and was pathologically focused on the bottom line and his own advancement. He probably ordered it be armed for the demonstation. In the scene in the executives toilet, we see all the other executives on the company ''flee'' (one while not being finished yet, leaving a large stain on his pants), so it's safe to guess nobody wanted to question his order...

*** Probably unintentional FridgeBrilliance on the part of the writers - multi-threaded programming was in it's infancy at the time, but it is absolutely technically possible for a program to create a separate "thread" which runs independently of the main program and can update data without the main program thread having to "know" about it.

* How did the van fill with toxic waste so quickly? The holes RoboCop shot in it weren't even that big.

** The precise legality (not to mention the political stink) of creating what's essentially a cyborg slave from the remains of an officer who'd died in the line of duty was probably also something that the Old Man wanted to distance himself from, just in case a scandal erupted later on. Never bothering to find out that Robocop's nervous system came from an actual cop was a means of giving himself plausible deniability, should ghoulish revelations about the project necessitate him throwing Morton to the wolves.

** The precise legality (not to mention the political stink) of creating what's essentially a cyborg slave from the remains of an officer who'd died in the line of duty was probably also something that the Old Man wanted to distance himself from, just in case a future court decision or scandal erupted later on. Never bothering to find out that Robocop's nervous system came from an actual cop was a means of giving himself plausible deniability, should ghoulish revelations about the project necessitate him throwing Morton to the wolves.

** The whole job of a CEO is to delegate. You wouldn’t expect Shuntaro Furukawa to know every circuit board layout of the Switch by heart. It was Bob Morton’s project, the details were all in his court, the Old Man would really only want progress reports, not minutia. And even if the Old Man isn’t nearly as (obviously) corrupt as his board seems to be, he probably doesn’t stay up at night memorizing the details of a subordinate’s project unless it was necessary to.