* AlternativeJokeInterpretation: When [=RoboCop=] tells a couple of convenience store owners "Thank you for your cooperation" after attacking a robber, it is sometimes misinterpreted as him thanking ''the robber'' for his cooperation.
* AndYouThoughtItWouldFail: The screenplay had been offered to (and been rejected by) virtually every big director in Hollywood before Creator/PaulVerhoeven got hold of it. He threw it away after reading the first pages, convinced it was just a dumb action movie. However, his wife read it all the way through and convinced him that the story was layered with many satirical and allegorical elements, after which Verhoeven finally decided to direct the film.
* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: [[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=n4PQRpo2Wng The main theme.]]
* CatharsisFactor:
** Anytime [=RoboCop=] guns down a criminal, considering how horrible all of them are. Special mention goes to the scene where Robo shoves a helpless Boddicker through a bunch of windows and later stabs him in the throat, or finally puts an end to Dick Jones by shooting him out of a window.
** His killings of both Jones and Clarence themselves are insanely satisfying all on their own, especially Jones who loses his PlotArmor shield immediately before in what's a particularly crowd-pleasing moment.
* CompleteMonster: The BigBadDuumvirate:
** [[AxCrazy Clarence Boddicker]] is the de facto crime boss of Old Detroit. An infamous CopKiller, Boddicker is under suspicion of murdering 31 police officers, and opens the movie killing three more. When Alex Murphy, the future [[Characters/RoboCopTheCharacter RoboCop]], attempts to arrest him, Boddicker [[CruelAndUnusualDeath draws out his death]], [[{{Fingore}} shooting off his hand]] with his shotgun, before letting his men continuously shoot Murphy in the chest until they're out of ammo, at which point Clarence himself [[BoomHeadshot shoots Murphy in the head]]. Later, Boddicker takes immense pleasure in assassinating Bob Morton, the corporate rival of Boddicker's ally Dick Jones. As he plays a taunting message from Jones, Boddicker shoots Morton repeatedly in the legs, then leaves behind a live grenade to finish him off. The leader of a sadistic gang of criminals, Boddicker [[BadBoss cares nothing for the lives of his men]], at one point cracking a joke as he kills one of them by throwing him into the path of a pursuing police car as a distraction. Trying to assassinate [=RoboCop=] and his partner, Anne Lewis, at the climax of the film, [[PsychoForHire Boddicker]] shows that in addition to being paid for his crimes, he takes psychotic pride in them every step of the way.
** [[ADickInName Dick Jones]] is not only a CorruptCorporateExecutive in [[MegaCorp Omni Consumer Products (OCP)]], but is also Clarence Boddicker's boss. Jones is fully aware of how awful Boddicker is and uses his thirst for violence to his own advantage and prosperity. Jones [[LackOfEmpathy doesn't care]] when his ED-209 malfunctions and blows holes in an innocent executive, believing it was a necessary loss to test his subject out. Jones orders Boddicker to kill plenty of good-working and innocent cops so that he can make money with their deaths and get more support for ED-209, so that his project will be the one that profits. When Bob Morton gets the upper hand with his [=RoboCop=] project, Jones has him killed, [[EvilGloating leaving a message]] to taunt him and taking pride in his victory. When [=RoboCop=] later confronts and tries to arrest him, it's revealed that he's had Directive Four installed in [=RoboCop=] to have him shut down if he goes against an OCP member as an insurance policy to himself. Jones orders ED-209 to go after [=RoboCop=] to destroy what he believes is Morton's "mistake" and has him [[FrameUp framed as a dangerous enemy]] when he survives. Jones has Boddicker and his men, whom [=RoboCop=] had all arrested, released just for the purpose of killing him and then later [[HostageSituation takes the Old Man hostage]] and threatens his life to try to get away when he's exposed.
* CrossesTheLineTwice: The scene near the beginning with the demonstration of the ED-209 in the Director's Cut. In the theatrical version, it merely just shoots the executive for a second or two to kill him in a perfunctory manner. In the uncut version, it unloads [[Main/MoreDakka hundreds of bullets]] into him with gallons of HighPressureBlood spraying everywhere as the engineers try to disable the robot. This goes on for about 15 seconds, long after any human being could survive with ED-209 just chewing up the corpse. To top it off, some random guy says "Somebody wanna' call a goddamned paramedic?" after ED's done turning the guy into swiss cheese. The original intent of the film was to make it so outrageously violent you couldn't take it seriously. The [[ExecutiveMeddling studio cut forced out]] much of the violence so that some scenes ended up a bit more depressing than others.
* DoNotDoThisCoolThing:
** It's at least partly in effect, since the ultraviolence is often depicted in an over-the-top and somewhat campy manner (as mentioned above, the famous ED-209 scene often mentioned was deliberately intended to be so ludicrously violent that the audience would end up [[CrossesTheLineTwice laughing at how over-the-top it was]]) and when [=RoboCop=] starts taking down the borderline-{{Complete Monster}}s he's facing throughout the movie with similar gratuitous violence it's hard not to find it triumphant on some level, especially given how violent Murphy's death was - [[AssholeVictim these guys]] have ''earned'' it.
** The directors played the movie for some real life police, and thought they would be horrified by the brutal arrest at the lab scene. Instead the officers cheered, saying this is how Miranda rights should be read.
* EnsembleDarkhorse: ED-209, thanks to a very cool design and a highly memorable SignatureScene. So much so that he became a franchise staple rather than just a minor character; ED-209 is the one of the only characters besides [=RoboCop=] himself that appears in nearly ''every'' work of ''[=RoboCop=]'' fiction, even including Robo’s {{Guest Fighter}} appearance in ''VideoGame/MortalKombat11''.[[note]]However, ED-209 doesn't appear in ''Series/RoboCopTheSeries'' and ''Series/RoboCopPrimeDirectives''[[/note]]
* EveryoneIsJesusInPurgatory: A good man is wrongfully tortured to death in a cruciform position, complete with vicious trauma to his hands, head and chest, but comes back from the dead and brings justice to the world. At one point, he actually walks across water shallow enough he seems to be walking on ''top'' of it. Bonus points; his ultimate enemies are militaristic ("We practically ''are'' the military!") moneylenders ("You're our ''product!''") aka Romans. Verhoeven even confirmed it, going on to mention that the graphic violence was part of the satire. [=RoboCop=] is, after all, an ''[[{{Eagleland}} American]]'' Jesus.
* EvilIsCool: As nasty a piece of work as he is, Clarence Boddicker displays plenty of VillainousVirtues, doesn't back down from much, and despite being a normal, squishy human, is vicious and resourceful enough to still pose a credible threat to a NighInvulnerable hero like Robocop.
* FoeYayShipping: It's noted on the commentary track that the scene between Bob Morton and Dick Jones is loaded with homoerotic subtext.
* GenreTurningPoint: Just a few months after ''Film/SupermanIVTheQuestForPeace'' became an embarrassing flop that threatened to make SuperHero films feel like a nothing genre, this hit film with its thrilling action, cutting satire and moving human drama gave the genre newfound dramatic credibility.
* HarsherInHindsight: The film was described by Creator/StephenColbert in 2013 as [[http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/07/26/colbert-turns-out-robocop-was-optimistic-view-of-detroits-future/ turning out to be more optimistic than the real Detroit]], which at that point had become the largest city in America to file for bankruptcy.
** One newscast mentions how Mexican government and U.S. forces are engaged in battle with rebels that have besieged the city of Acapulco, and in the scene where Murphy has the CatapultNightmare of being murdered by Boddicker, one scientists casually jokes that his vacation to Acapulco has been cancelled due to the rebels taking, and destroying the airport. As of 2018, [[https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/traveladvisories/mexico-travel-advisory.html the U.S. State Department has issued a strict warning to U.S. citizens to stay out of the Mexican state of Guerrero, where Acapulco is located]] due to drug-gang related violence. [[note]] Then in 2020 the COVID-19 pandemic made the U.S. State Department issue a strict warning to ''not travel at all''. [[/note]]
** Murphy's death is also this. In the [[Series/RoboCopTheSeries spin-off TV series]], we see he has a mother and a father. Imagine how they must've felt when they heard he got brutally gunned down by a gang of criminals.
* HilariousInHindsight:
** The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tC_5mp3udE original trailer]] for the film features Brad Fiedel's theme for ''Film/TheTerminator'' and Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger was originally considered for the title role, then comes ''ComicBook/RoboCopVersusTheTerminator'', followed by the two meeting once again in ''VideoGame/MortalKombat11''.
** "[[WesternAnimation/SouthPark Oh my God, ED-209 killed Kinney!]]"
** The line "Bitches, leave!" is more amusing after hearing the line "Bitches, come!" in ''Film/XXx''.
** The 6000 SUX, "An American Tradition!" (note: 8.2 mpg gas mileage) became so thanks to the Hummer H-class series of gas-guzzling [=SUV=]s hitting the road in the 2000s.
** On the subject of cars, the producers choosing the then-new Ford Taurus as the vehicle of choice for the future Detroit police. At the time, it was because of the aerodynamic, streamlined look the car had (in comparison to most other 80s cars, which were still brick-like); now, it's more an UnintentionalPeriodPiece than anything else, but it gets funnier when you remember that Ford began selling the sixth-generation Taurus to police departments after the Crown Victoria was discontinued in 2011.
** Just the idea that [[Creator/KurtwoodSmith Clarence Boddicker]] would go on to [[Series/That70sShow threaten to shove his foot up peoples' asses]].
*** Also, Clarence Boddicker is a CopKiller. Guess who voiced one of the most famous cops in fiction and the TropeNamer of TheCommissionerGordon on ''WesternAnimation/BewareTheBatman''. Additionally, Leon [[WesternAnimation/BatmanTheKillingJoke was also the]] TropeNamer for TheCommissionerGordon.
*** It gets better: Creator/PeterWeller went on to play [[WesternAnimation/BatmanTheDarkKnightReturns The Dark Knight]] himself.
** The board game ''Nukem'' is [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmSSVt7Mfkk depicted]] as being more or less a modern-day version of ''TabletopGame/{{Battleship}}'' for the age of MutuallyAssuredDestruction. Thanks to both ''VideoGame/{{Civilization}}'' and ''VideoGame/{{DEFCON}}'', one can now play ''Nukem'' in real life, albeit as a video game instead. (The line from the ad in which the boy complains about how "Pakistan is threatening my border" calls to mind [[MemeticMutation Nuclear Gandhi]][[note]]According to rumor, a bug in the first ''Civilization'' game made Gandhi switch from a pacifist to a warmonger the moment his nation switched to Democracy, and he would happily sling it around. This became an EasterEgg from Civilization V onwards, where Gandhi now eagerly pursued the development of nuclear weapons once he got the required technology, as a nod to the urban legend.[[/note]] in particular.) And of course, it shares its name with a famous video game protagonist, VideoGame/DukeNukem.
** Paul [=McCrane=], playing CopKiller Emil Antonowsky in this film, would go on to play a police deputy a year later in ''Film/TheBlob1988''
** The Auto 9 pistol used by RoboCop is stated to have a massive magazine size of 50 rounds. In 2020, it was leaked that Kel-Tec [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kel-Tec_P50 designed a pistol with the exact same magazine size.]]
** In Spain, the line "Sayonara, Robocop!" is unintentionally funny due to the change of "Hasta la vista, baby!" in ''Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay'' to "Sayonara, baby!" in order to KeepItForeign. So now it looks like there cannot be an American 80's action movie with a killing robot without also having a "Sayonara, X!" line.
* ImprovedByTheReCut: The 103-minute director's cut is generally seen as superior to the theatrical cut due to the increased violence, which does more to showcase Creator/PaulVerhoeven's intention of satirizing action flicks though BlackComedy.
* LoveToHate: Boddicker and his gang are a pack of sadistic cop-killing drug pushers, but they get some decently funny lines, cool shoot-outs, and distinctive designs that earn them their fans.
* MandelaEffect: Murphy dies 26 minutes into the movie, but many people remember him dying much earlier.
* MemeticMutation:
** "I'd buy '''that''' for a dollar!" Notably later used in the game ''VideoGame/SmashTV''.
%%** "Can you fly, Bobby?"
%%** "I know you. You're dead. We killed you. We killed you!"
%%** "Dead or alive, you're coming with me."
%%** "Please put down your weapon. You have 20 seconds to comply."
%%*** "You now have fifteen seconds to comply. You are in direct violation of Penal Code 113, Section 9."
%%*** "You now have five seconds to comply. Four, three, two, one. I am now authorized to use physical force. ''*[[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill BANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANG]]*''
%%*** "[[BlackComedy Somebody want to call a goddamn paramedic?!]]"
%%** "Bitches, leave."
%%** "Your move, creep!"
%%** "I like it!"
%%** A less-used quote is "Come quietly or there will be... trouble."
** "Robo wants an Oreo" [[note]]Taken from the documentary ''[=RoboDoc=]: The Creation of [=RoboCop=]. During filming, Weller wanted some Oreos from a prop master, which he did by constantly yelling "Robo wants an Oreo".[[/note]]
* MisaimedFandom: Given Verhoeven's extremely heavy-handed ideas of satire and social commentary, this was inevitable:
** A sizable portion of the film's fans love the film for its gratuitous ultraviolence. Said film is a brutal satire, attacking (particularly American) media for glorifying and commercializing violence while ''real people'' living in ''real cities'' are struggling with ''real violence'', and implies that the only people who can stomach such violence are insane and sadistic criminals, and those so scarred by violence that they've lost their humanity.
** One of the earliest fans to misunderstand this part may be Creator/FrankMiller, who wrote ''Film/RoboCop2'' as a fight between Robo and PoliticalOvercorrectness.
** As noted in EnsembleDarkhorse, the fandom as a whole loves ED-209, and it's become one of the iconic MiniMecha designs. This is despite every scene involving ED-209 -- from its gory introduction (incompetent to the extreme) to its falling down the stairs(a police robot that can't climb ''stairs?'') to its obvious weak point(a giant hole in its forward armor for its ''sports car-style radiator grille'') -- being meant to convey the fact that ED-209 is an overpriced piece of junk. Granted, its design is meant to invoke the RuleOfCool in-universe, so it was bound to happen.
** The film is a crystal clear satire, and a warning against unbound capitalism taking over basic services like law enforcement, portraying the corrupt executives of OCP as no different than monstrous gangsters like Boddicker (who are in fact on their payroll). Did not stop neoliberals from embracing OCP's takeover and rebuilding of Detroit as an ideal to be emulated, and Robocop as a stalwart of their ideals rather than a victim.
* MisaimedMerchandising: Despite its ultraviolence and very adult themes, and a brief spoof of the commercialization of violence to children with the ''Nukem!'' board game, the movie was nonetheless used to produce toys, a sunday morning cartoon, and a [[Film/Robocop3 third installment]] that was openly aimed at children. The [[https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EYyzXMOX0AI0KV1?format=jpg&name=medium meeting]] of UsefulNotes/RichardNixon and Robo at an act of the Boy Scouts of America where the latter was promoting the release of the film in home video may be the epitome of this phenomenon.
* MoralEventHorizon: Dick Jones was already a greedy, power-hungry asshole. He crosses the line into sociopathic murderer when he hires Clarence to assassinate Bob Morton as punishment for talking some trash in a bathroom as much as creating [=RoboCop=] and jeopardizing his military contracts.
* {{Narm}}:
** [[spoiler: Dick Jones]] falling out the window looks [[SpecialEffectsFailure absolutely atrocious.]]
** Similarly, the scene where Emil is drenched in toxic waste and is reduced to a moaning, gargling sack of flesh can come off as more [[BlackComedy grotesquely hilarious]] instead of horror-inducing, particularly Leon Nash's "Don't ''touch'' me, maaan!" when Emil tries to grab him.
* NarmCharm: Paul Verhoeven's idea of "satire" is so ham-fisted and overblown that it comes off much more darkly hilarious than thought-provoking, but it works extremely well because of the film's BlackComedy tone.
* OlderThanTheyThink: The line "I'd buy that for a dollar!" is derived from a sarcastic put-down in the 1951 short story ''The Marching Morons'': "Would you buy it for a quarter?".
* RetroactiveRecognition: This film is the first major credit for future WesternAnimation/{{Goofy}} voice Creator/BillFarmer as reporter Justin Ballard-Watkins. This also serves as a CreatorsOddball for Farmer both in terms of content (with an R rating) and being a rare live-action project for Farmer.
* SignatureLine: "Dead or alive, you're coming with me."
* SignatureScene:
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Z5HIWjOKVc The title character shooting a rapist in the junk]].
** The cocaine warehouse scene definitely counts.
* SpecialEffectsFailure:
** During the scene where Lewis and Murphy pursue Boddicker's van after they stole loads of money, their car's windshield receives two shotgun blasts, but there's a scene immediately after where the windshield is pristine. The next time the windshield is seen again, it's shot up as it should be.
** The scene where Boddicker first amputates Alex Murphy's hand with a shotgun moves quickly but if you watch closely, then you'll notice the amputated prop hand being yanked away like its on a piece of string.
** Some shots of [=RoboCop=]'s handheld locating device show painfully clearly how the prop just has a painted-on small map with an embedded red LED. The scenes where it's actually put to use shows a close-up with proper animations.
** Several of the windows Boddicker gets put through while being interrogated are pre-shattered by a squib a little too early, as seen by the glass going from clear to near-opaque well before Boddicker actually hits it. This is also evident when [=RoboCop=] throws the convenience store robber into a refrigerator display.
** When [=RoboCop=] shoots [[spoiler:Dick Jones]] out of the building at the end of the movie, his arms morph to about twice his height and he looks horribly deformed as he falls. That's to say nothing of the horribly obvious greenscreen effect over which he has been crudely superimposed. Even in 1987, most critics and audiences thought the entire scene looked laughably fake.
* SpiritualLicensee: Many argue that ''[=RoboCop=]'' was a film adaptation of ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd''. Many of the themes are quite similar, particularly the use of BlackComedy. In fact, the reason a Dredd film wasn't made during TheEighties was because ''[=RoboCop=]'' came out before it could happen.
* {{Squick}}
** Boddicker's henchman Emil [[spoiler:gets dunked in toxic waste, causing him to melt. Then he gets hit by a car, and explodes into LudicrousGibs. His head slides gracefully along the top of the car, and a substance like dirty water emerges from his exploded body to coat the windshield.]]
** Murphy's death it made even squickier than it already is by the fact that the gang members taunt him viciously as they're turning him into hamburger. "Give the man a hand!" "Does it hurt? Does it hurt?" Also, at one point you see [[AnArmAndALeg his entire right arm get blown off.]]
** Watching the trauma team at Henry Ford try to resuscitate the poor guy is every bit as painful. It's one of the more realistic trauma code scenes committed to Hollywood film. The trauma team was played by real paramedics. Yes, they {{cast the expert}}s.
** The scene as planned by Creator/PaulVerhoeven was ''even gorier'' than in the director's cut. In particular, it was going to show the back of Murphy's skull blown apart by Boddicker's ''coup de grâce'' (that would foreshadow the back of his skull being replaced with metal in the scene where he takes his helmet off).
* StrawmanHasAPoint: A standard of Verhoeven pictures. OCP is depicted as callous and opportunistic for wanting to take over Old Detroit and rebuild it as Delta City... and yet we're shown a Detroit on the verge of chaos even before Clarence's men start being more openly provided weapons and funding by Dick Jones, leaving one to wonder if maybe it wouldn't be better off bulldozed and rebuilt. OCP is also shown as heartless and ruthless for taking over the police department... and yet little blame is put on the cops for going on strike and allowing the city to fall into literal lawlessness. And of course, OCP's projects are shown as evil and money-grubbing... and yet they give us [=RoboCop=], our hero, who we'll be cheering for during the next three movies as he stops rapists and terrorists.
* TooBleakStoppedCaring: While it's not as bad as [[Film/RoboCop2 the sequel]] in this regard, the original film can still fall into this for some viewers due to its violent nature, venomous tone, and extremely [[CrapsackWorld crapsack]] setting. Essentially, no matter what the titular cybernetic lawman does, Detroit will still be [[WretchedHive an impossibly depraved hellhole]] dominated by {{corrupt corporate executive}}s, [[DirtyCop corrupt law enforcement]], and [[AxCrazy crazed psychopaths]].
* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: The film is very [[TheEighties '80s]] in both its look (especially some of the fashions, the use of StopMotion on the ED-209, and the [[OurGraphicsWillSuckInTheFuture crappy computer graphics]]) and themes (consumerism, the War on Drugs, [[ThereAreNoGoodExecutives free-market capitalism run amok]]) which make it a biting satire of the Reagan era. Of course, those themes are [[HistoryRepeats just as applicable today when viewed in the context of the late 2000s economic crisis and the failing auto industry, rising unemployment, and high crime rate in Detroit.]]
* UnintentionallySympathetic:
** Bob Morton is a {{Jerkass}} CorruptCorporateExecutive who helped reassign cops to risky areas and was partly responsible for placing Murphy in harm's way. After his promotion, he is shown snorting cocaine and playing with escort women. The filmmakers fully expected audiences to cheer when he got killed by Boddicker. Instead, to their surprise as disclosed in the audio commentary on the Criterion Collection DVD, they found that the audience actually felt ''sorry'' for him, if only because he was killed in a fairly grotesque manner. Plus, he's a relatively but significantly better person than Dick Jones and Clarence Boddicker. Also and more importantly, he's the one who rescues Alex from near death and turns him into Franchise/{{RoboCop}} (again, completely ignoring that he put Murphy and cops like him in harm's way ''in the first place'')! Creator/MiguelFerrer's natural charisma and èlan certainly helps him towering above the overall bleakness of the film, giving Morton some fatherly undertones of a man proud of his creation while overseeing Robocop's first steps. [[note]]The character Bob Morton was originally conceived as a stereotypical corporate executive, arrogant, unpleasant, and unlikable. However, when Miguel Ferrer signed on and gave his performance as an amiable and charismatic individual, Edward Neumeier and Paul Verhoeven realized that the audience would likely start sympathizing with the character, and Bob Morton was rewritten to become the (somewhat) more pleasant individual that he is in the movie.[[/note]]
** To some extent, Emil got this reaction with his [[CruelAndUnusualDeath infamously nauseating fate.]] At least to a few being melted alive in agony and ''splattered'' was far too extreme, even for a trigger-happy scumbag like him.
* SugarWiki/VisualEffectsOfAwesome: Not too many visual effects are used in this film beyond squibs and animatronics/prosthetics, but the stop motion used on ED-209 is very well done, and an entire million dollars, a thirteenth of the budget, was sunk into getting the suit just right (which makes sense, considering the suit practically ''is'' the main character, and is going to be on-camera a lot). To say nothing of the makeup job on Peter Weller without the full helmet, which manages the not-particularly-easy task of convincingly looking like Murphy's face is grafted onto a robotic skull.
* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotForKids: The movie is filled with over-the-top-violence about a grim future, dominated by corporations. ''Film/RoboCop2'' retained the R rating (although the original script by Creator/FrankMiller was far more bloody, explicit, and adult than the real movie, and the Executive Meddling made him disenchanted with Hollywood)... but then they decided to follow it with a LighterAndSofter ''Film/RoboCop3'' and ''WesternAnimation/RoboCopTheAnimatedSeries'', clearly trying to aim the franchise at children.
* {{Woolseyism}}: The Japanese dub of the film does some notorious changes in the translation and in the personality of many of the characters:
** Excluding the titular hero, Anne Lewis, and few other characters, the dubs includes [[SpiceUpTheSubtitles extra profanities not included in the original English versions]].
** Unlike the English versions, the Japanese voice actors vocalize many scenes which were either silent or with very few dialogue. This is especially more evident during the final duel between Boddicker and Robocop: In the Japanese dub, Boddicker yells "Die, you bastard!" while trying to kill Murphy with crowbar, while in the English version, he just yells like crazy.
** Almost every villain, especially Clarence Boddicker and his gang, [[LargeHam hams their dialogues to almost epic levels]].
** The titular Robocop is somewhat more emotional than the original English version, making two key scenes even more heart-wrenching than the original version:
*** When he faces Emil in the exploding gas station and when he interrogates him, Robocop is basically ''yelling'' "Who are you?" to Emil, instead of using Creator/PeterWeller's much slower but still intimidating tone.
*** After Robocop faces Boddicker in the drug factory and when he tries to strangle him with his own hands, Boddicker begs for his life in a way that sounds out-of-character for a criminal lord to a Japanese viewer, while still keeping the original context of the translation: While the Japanese dub keeps the "You're a cop" line when Boddicker reminds Robocop of his duty as a police officer before he can try to kill him, the line is translated as "Omae wa keisatsu[[UsefulNotes/JapaneseHonorifics -sama]]" (お前は警察様). By adding the "-sama" honorific before the "police/keisatsu" part, Boddicker sounds like a honorless butt-kisser who tries to beg for his life at Robocop's feet and also as a way to get Murphy to see reason, as it can also be translated as "You are an ''honorable'' cop", and as such, he wouldn't steep into petty revenge.
** If you're wondering how they translated Boddicker's PreMortemOneLiner "Sayonara Robocop!", the Japanese dub translated it as "Bye-Bye Robocop!" [[GratuitousEnglish in English]] instead.
** A curious change was done during the final duel between Murphy and Dick Jones: When the Old Man uses his authority as OCP's CEO in order to fire Jones and as such override Robocop's [[RestrainingBolt Directive 4]], the "DICK, YOU ARE FIRED!" line is changed to "[[LastNameBasis JONES]], YOU ARE FIRED!" (Jones, Omae wa kubi da!/お前はクビだ！). It seems that even in a hostage crisis, JapanesePoliteness still applies here.[[note]]Assuming this was intentional, or one hell of a coincidence, the word "kubi", beside meaning "being fired (from a job)", it also means either [[OffWithHisHead "neck" or "head"]], so the phrase would became, idiomatically speaking, "Jones, You are dead!". This also has another layer of meaning in Japanese, [[ValuesDissonance considering the time period of both the film and the Japanese dub]], as being fired from your job by dishonorable reasons (like trying to kill your boss in this case) would mean the metaphorical death of the person who did the deed, as [[{{Unperson}} that person would be likely being blacklisted from getting another job in Japanese soil for the rest of his life]]. In this case, the whole situation ends with both the metaphorical and also physical death of Dick Jones at the hands of both the Old Man (who fired him) and Robocop (who shoot him afterwards).[[/note]]
** While the change was done technically due to language limitations rather than any kind of censorship, considering the unholy amount of already profane language used in the dub, when Boddicker went to Morton's house to kill him, the "Bitches, leave" line was translated as "Get out (of here), you lowly women!", being "bitches" adapted to "onna-domo" instead.
** The original Hungarian dub did the opposite of the Japanese release and drastically toned down the dialogue, resulting in a very loose, mellow reinterpretation rather than a straight translation. Most of the lines carry the general gist of the originals but they're heavily simplified. Nearly all of the profanity was removed ("Darn!" in place of "Fuck!", "Shut up!" in place of "Fuck you!", "Stop!" in place of "Fuck me!", "Get out, girls." in place of "Bitches, leave!", and so on). Dick Jones is played much more solemnly in the dub, with a slow, suave, deep voice as opposed to the brash original. Many classic quotes were lost in the dub:
*** "Dead or alive, you're coming with me." became "Throw it away or I'll kill you."
*** "Cops don't like me. So I don't like cops." became "Well, then... well, then... don't be surprised at what you get."
*** "I'd buy that for a dollar!" became "Just this once, mommy!"
*** "Sayonara, [=RoboCop=]!" simply became "Die."
*** "They'll fix you. They fix everything." became "Hang on. I'm coming for you."
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