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Awesome / RoboCop (1987)

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  • "You have 20 seconds to comply." What follows proves to be one of the finest practical effect moments captured in an action film, it's a Red Shirt who dies and Nightmare Fuel that results.
  • Murphy, reborn as an invincible warrior of living steel known as RoboCop, bravely marches into a cocaine factory, batters down the armored door and sends every drug-pushing monster in it to hell where they belong with his mighty Beretta Auto-9.
    • Though action-packed, the scene is fairly slow-paced, with RoboCop slowly marching through the factory as the chaos unfolds. It shows just how horribly and utterly outclassed the drug runners were - Murphy takes the time to assess the situation and lock targets, and then proceeds to methodically tear through the entire gang one by one, waltzing from one target to another with 100% accuracy as their bullets simply bounce off him.
    • Murphy's apprehension of Boddicker is awesome in itself. He reads him his Miranda Rights, while sending him flying through windows.
      • Watching Boddicker go from a hardened criminal ("Fuck you!") to a blubbering mess willing to give up his boss at OCP to save his skin is Catharsis Factor defined.
        Robocop: Clarence Boddicker, you are under arrest. You have the right to remain silent.
        Boddicker: {spits blood in Robo's face} Fuck you.
        [Boddicker is thrown screaming through a window]
        Boddicker: Hey, wait a minute. Wait a minute! I'm protected, man. I've got protection!
        Robocop: You have the right to an attorney.
        Boddicker: What is this SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIT??! [Boddicker is thrown through another window]
        Boddicker: Goddammit! Goddammit! Listen to me! Listen to me, you fuck! There's another guy! He's, uh, he's OCP — he's a senior president!
        Robocop: [menacing] Anything you say may be used against you.
        Boddicker: IT'S DICK JOOOOOOOOOOONES!!! [Boddicker is thrown through one last window]
  • When RoboCop has Clarence completely at his mercy. Whether it's Alex Murphy's humanity or the repeated insistence of his Third Directive, RoboCop takes Clarence into custody rather than killing him.
    Boddicker: Don't you get it? You cocksucker! I work for Dick Jones! Dick Jones! He's the number-two guy at OCP! OCP runs the cops! [being choked by Robocop] You're a cop!
    _Directive 3: Uphold the law
    Robo: [eases his grip] Yes. I am a cop.
    _Arrest Mode
    • Right after this, Murphy's memories start to surface as he (violently) apprehends Boddicker, the most vivid being that of his death. He hauls Boddicker back to the station, shoves him at the officer on duty, says, "Book him!", and turns to leave. When asked what the charge is, he turns and says, in what is probably one of the best delivered (and most iconic) lines ever: "He's a cop killer."
  • Even before he became Robocop, Murphy proved he's awesome.
    • He convinces Emil to surrender with "Dead or alive, you're coming with me."
    • He had an iron will by taking twenty-something rounds of shotgun shells to the chest and refusing to go down.
    • There's a brief moment when Clarence's gang, after unloading on Murphy, look at him as if to say, "How the hell are you still standing?!?" It takes a Coup de GrĂ¢ce headshot by Clarence himself to knock Murphy off his feet.
  • After Dick Jones sends out the ED-209 to finish Robo off once and for all, the bigger machine smacks him around like a piece of cardboard. As the security robot gets closer, the camera zooms into Robo's face, where the audience can see through his broken visor, and his eye is wide open in surprise, as the music swells. As ED-209 levels its weapon at him, Robo lifts the arm with all his strength, forcing the bigger machine to fire on its other arm, and partially disabling it as the music reaches a triumphant crescendo.
  • When RoboCop uses one of the Cobra Assault Cannons to effortlessly annihilate a ED-209 when a previous ED had given him so much trouble.
  • When the Old Man shouts "Dick, you're FIRED!!", thus freeing RoboCop from Directive 4 and allowing him to finally kill the bastard.
    Robo: Thank you. (shoots Jones, blowing him out the window)
    • And another, immediately afterward:
      Old Man: (fixing his tie) Nice shooting, son. What's your name?
      Robo: (stops, turns — warmly smiling) Murphy.
      • It's a more subtle moment for the Old Man: he is the only person besides Murphy and Johnson that doesn't panic during the boardroom scene, only raising his voice to fire Dick. He's completely unshaken to see Dick get shot out of the window, and casually fixes his tie afterwards. Cool Old Guy indeed.
  • Robocop is apparently defeated and defenseless at Clarence Boddicker's feet, while he prepares to land a finishing blow with a metal rod, exclaiming "Sayonara, Robocop!". Robocop instead springs the spike used as a computer jack out from his hand, and stabs Boddicker in the neck with it, killing him.
  • When Boddicker and his gang show up at the steel mill to kill Robocop, he doesn't waste any time. He tosses a mirror past them to distract them, then promptly wastes one of them.
    Robo: Looking for me? (shoots henchman three or four times)
  • Also, the resurrected Robo/Murphy, having taken off his helmet to show his real face, walking on water to confront Boddicker and rescue Lewis.
  • A moment for Lewis: Boddicker shoots her three times after crashing his car, yet she not only survives, but uses the Cobra Assault Cannon he dropped to take out Leon.
  • RoboCop's first night on the job has some choice moments, like when he calculates how to shoot through a woman's dress to avoid hurting her while hitting the guy holding her hostage in the groin, or stopping a convenience store robbery by bending the perp's machine gun barrel down.
    (after saving the woman from her two assailants, one of whom is laying on the ground writhing in agony) Your move, creep!
  • The SWAT scene was more in the Tear Jerker territory, but the fact that Robo was able to keep moving despite being outnumbered and out gunned by concentrated firepower just shows he's more than a machine.

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