NOTICE: This is a Recap page, so all spoilers will be left unmarked, per wiki policy. Read ahead only with caution! You Have Been Warned.
Wiz: It's unavoidable; the warrior of the next millennium is the machine. Such as the Terminator, the time-traveling metal assassin.
Boomstick: And RoboCop, Detroit's cyborg defender.
Wiz: These mechanized combatants have fought before, but never in a no-holds-barred, one-on-one deal to the death.
Boomstick: Or without brand restrictions.
In the sixth episode of the second season, we pit these two mechanical warriors of the 80's against each other. One built to destroy humanity, the other to protect it, Wiz and Boomstick are here to analyze their weapons, armor and skills to find out who would win, a death battle.
Wizard and Boomstick began with Skynet, a human-created global defense computer network, which turned on them and unleashed a nuclear holocaust known as Judgment Day. To combat the remaining human resistance, it created the Terminators, warriors of living flesh over a hyper-alloy endoskeleton. This allows them to infiltrate the humans and then kill them. There are several models of Terminator with various faces, but this battle will specifically focus on the Model 101, which looks like Arnold Schwarzenegger. One Model 101 was sent back in time by Skynet to assassinate Sarah Connor, the mother of John Connor, the leader of the human resistance, while two more were reprogrammed by the resistance and sent back in time to protect John Connor.
The Model 101 T-850 is powered by two hydrogen fuel cells, which each can last 120 years, but will explode like a mini-nuke when ruptured. The Terminator can remove and dispose of a damaged cell before that happens and can function with just one.
The Terminator is programmed with all data on weaponry, combat skill, human anatomy, and psychology, making him one of the most experienced warriors of all time. In the future, he wields the M-27 Phased Plasma Rifle, which is too heavy for humans to hold properly. Since inorganic matter cannot travel through time unless it is surrounded by living tissue, he makes do in the past with the AMT Hardballer .45 Longslide, the Franchi SPAS-12 Shotgun, the M79 Grenade Launcher, and the Handheld GE M134 Minigun.
He can learn and adapt to human behavior through observation and interaction. Given enough time, he can develop genuine emotions. He can figure out loopholes, like shooting people in the kneecaps when ordered to not kill anybody.
The Terminator has defeated several physically superior models, like the T-1000 and the T-X (which was specially designed to destroy other Terminators). He can survive being knocked through an entire city. The first few models were made of titanium and vulnerable to being melted, so Skynet started making them out of coltan, which has a much higher melting point. The Terminator can be detected by dogs and is hackable. Despite these weaknesses, he is one of the deadliest assassins in movie history.
Moving on to the Terminator's opponent, the hosts tell the story of Alex J. Murphy, a family man and police officer whose life changed forever when he was transferred to Detroit, Michigan. On a routine patrol, he was ambushed and gunned down by a gang. As he was dying, his body was recovered by the mega corporation Omni Consumer Products. They rebuilt him as RoboCop, a cyborg with the prime directives:
Protect the innocent.
Uphold the law.
RoboCop quickly cleared Detroit of almost all crime in just a few days. However, while the corrupt OCP tried to keep him under their control, Murphy's mind still lived within the machine. His struggle to maintain his humanity and freedom is one of his most defining traits.
He is armed with an Auto-9 machine pistol, several Tactical Ordinance Grenades with adjustable power levels (1-10, 3 is enough to destroy a metal security door), a left arm that can be replaced with one sporting a machine gun, flamethrower, and anti-tank missiles, a Cobra Assault Cannon, and a jet pack. His eyes can scan and record data, and he has a data transference spike that can double as a shiv. His body is made of carbo-ceramic reinforced titanium covered with kevlar. His feet have ram bolts he can use to anchor himself into the ground. He is able to catch bullets and even shoot them out of the air. He has defeated several physically superior machines like the ED-209. He even appeared on WCW to help Sting.
Murphy is extremely slow however. His battery only lasts for 24 hours, and can be depleted by battle damage. His remaining human parts are vulnerable and can get sick, but when he has a cold, he can sneeze lightning bolts. For all his faults, he is a badass.
The Old Man: Nice shooting, son. What's your name?
RoboCop: [smiles] Murphy.
All right, the combatants are set. Let's end this debate once and for all. It's time for a robo-death battle!
The Terminator travels back in time and arrives inside a gun shop in Detroit. The shop's owner is amazed, and Terminator demands his guns and clothes. When the man refuses, Terminator kills him and blows up the store. He emerges from the flames in his trademark black leather jacket, pants, and boots, with all his preferred weapons on his back. He pauses to don some shades.
RoboCop drives up. He steps out of his vehicle and says Terminator is under arrest. He draws his pistol and tells him to come quietly or else. Terminator draws his own pistol and declines, offering the officer the chance to walk away. He scans RoboCop for possible weaknesses. RoboCop scans Terminator as well and says he's coming with him, alive or dead.
FIGHT!
They fire at each other while marching forward, though the bullets don't affect each other. Terminator discards his pistol and uses his shotgun, which knocks RoboCop back a few times until he manages to shoot it out of Terminator's hand. They trade punches, but Terminator is clearly faster and more skilled. After RoboCop lands a punch that damages the sunglasses, Terminator throws him hard enough to make a crater in the concrete, pummels him, then throws him through his own police car's windshield. He quips, "Hasta la vista, baby!" before blowing the car up with his grenade launcher.
RoboCop emerges from the flames on his jet pack and says, "Good news, scum. You are no longer under arrest." He opens fire with his Cobra Assault Cannon and Terminator retreats, pausing to retrieve his shotgun. RoboCop gives chase, but loses track of his opponent, who climbs up the side of a building.
The officer asks if he plans on hiding forever. Now on top of a building, he replies, "No." and opens fire on him with his minigun. RoboCop takes some damage, drops the Cobra Assault Cannon, and struggles to evade. Now reduced to 85% power, he scans the minigun and finds its weakness. He fires some bullets into the minigun's barrels, jamming them. Terminator discards the minigun and fires his grenade launcher, which damages the jet pack and makes RoboCop crash onto the roof of another building. The jet pack comes off and flies away in a random direction. He replaces his left arm with the weaponized one.
Terminator discards the grenade launcher and jumps to the other building, but RoboCop blasts him with his flamethrower, while reciting his List of Transgressions as, "Property damage, resisting arrest, assaulting an officer, murder... your hot streak ends here." Terminator emerges from the fire with his face damaged and retorts, "Fuck you, dickwad!" RoboCop says, "You have the right to remain silent..." kicks him off the building, "I suggest you exercise it." and shoots him with a missile, which knocks him into a fuel truck and blows it up.
RoboCop jumps down to street level, but Terminator emerges from the flames, reduced to his metal skeleton. He pulls a plasma rifle out of his chest cavity and fires several shots, two of which damage RoboCop's left arm and right leg. The officer limps away and then hurls a car, which pins down the Terminator's right arm that was holding the plasma rifle, forcing him to break it off. Undaunted, Terminator opens fire with his shotgun while advancing. RoboCop screams in pain as he is blasted backwards with each shot. He's reduced to 5% power, but his scans reveal Terminator's waist hinge is a weak spot. Terminator prepares to shoot him in his human face, but his gun runs out of ammo. RoboCop throws a Tactical Ordinance Grenade at the Terminator's waist, sets it to Level 10, anchors himself with his ram bolts, quips, "Checkmate.", and shoots the grenade to detonate it.
The officer doubles over in pain and exhaustion, but the Skynet assassin, now missing his legs, crawls toward him with his remaining arm. RoboCop incredulously picks him up by the back of the neck and says the fight is over. Terminator turns his head 180 degrees to face him and says, "NOT. YET!" RoboCop, now reduced to 1% power, detects Terminator's hydrogen fuel cells, which have been ruptured and are about to explode. Terminator declares, "YOU. ARE. TERMINATED!" RoboCop desperately looks around and finds that his jet pack landed nearby. He carries Terminator to the pack and straps him to it, then launches him out of the city. As he flies away, he defiantly roars, "I'll be back!" He explodes at a safe distance from the city, and his skull lands at RoboCop's feet. The officer twirls his gun and holsters it.
K.O.!
RoboCop walks away, crushing Terminator's skull under his foot. While Terminator was faster, he was not as strong or as durable. RoboCop has survived explosions and hydraulic presses that have destroyed Terminators in the past, and shrugged off plasma weapons. He also had generally superior weapons. In addition, having Alex J. Murphy's human mind allowed him to find creative ways of fighting that Terminator couldn't immediately adapt to.
Wiz: The winner is RoboCop!
"Terminator VS RoboCop" provides examples of:
- An Arm and a Leg: RoboCop tosses a car at the Terminator which pins the arm holding his plasma rifle, forcing him to detach it. He then loses his legs to a Tactical Ordinance Grenade.
- Ballistic Discount: Terminator arrives in the present inside a gun shop, where he quickly kills the owner and steals his clothes and weapons.
- Defiant to the End: Even while getting jettisoned to the sky far away from RoboCop as he explodes, Terminator warns him, "I'll be back!" ...which he's wrong about.
- Dramatic Ammo Depletion: After unloading multiple rounds from his shotgun into RoboCop, the T-800 shoves the barrel right up to Robo's face and pulls the trigger, clearly intending to blast his brains out with one last shot... and then can only glance at the shotgun in surprise when he hears a *click*.RoboCop: Nine shots; you're out.
- Exorcist Head: Terminator does this near the end of the battle to face RoboCop when the latter lifts him from behind.
- Mistaken for Gay: When Terminator arrives in the present, he orders a gun shop owner to give him his clothes and guns. The owner says he doesn't swing that way before getting killed.
- Mythology Gag:
- Much like the first movie, the Terminator invokes Ballistic Discount on a gun store owner.
- The Terminator quips "Hasta la vista, baby!" before blowing up RoboCop's police car, the same one-liner he uttered before shattering a frozen T-1000.
- The post-fight animation shows RoboCop crushing the Terminator's head underfoot, much like the opening scene of Terminator 2: Judgment Day, which features an infantry T-800 crushing a human skull underfoot.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Boomstick's thoughts on the Terminator being modelled after Arnold Schwarzenegger to infiltrate human society, the video proceeding to list the SIXTEEN weightlifting and bodybuilding competitions Arnold has been crowned champion in, including four Olympic ones. Wiz points out that only the Model 101 line Terminators have this appearance.
- Pre-Asskicking One-Liner: After RoboCap emerging from the ruins of his police car with his jetpack:RoboCop: Good news, scum. You are no longer under arrest.
- Rasputinian Death: Terminator's launched into a gas tanker by a rocket, has his right arm crushed a car, and his lower body destroyed by a point-blank explosion from a level 10 ordinance grenade. What ultimately puts him down is his hydrogen fuel cells self-destructing.
- Shout-Out: When witnessing Alex Murphy's original death, Boomstick quips that he "can eat more bullets than 50 Cent".
- Take That!: When explaining that the T-850 can operate with only one of his two hydrogen fuel cells if necessary, Boomstick remarks that he's "like Lance Armstrong, but without the steroids".
- Taking You with Me: The Terminator attempts to invoke this by using his ruptured hydrogen fuel cells to kill RoboCop, but is strapped to RoboCop's jetpack and sent into the air, where the explosion will only destroy the Terminator.
- Victory by Endurance: A major factor in RoboCop's victory is that he's been known to No-Sell anything that's destroyed a Terminator, such as hydraulic presses and explosions (with the bomb RoboCop shrugged off being much bigger than the homemade pipe bomb that blew the Terminator in half). With his Super-Toughness being far greater than any of the Terminator's attacks, it was practically a Foregone Conclusion. In the fight itself, the only one of the T-800's weapons to really affect RoboCop is its plasma rifle, which momentarily cripple Murphy. Conversely, one of the best chances the Terminator had would be to lean on the trope himself and outlast RoboCop's extremely finite power supply, which comes close to happening in the battle, but RoboCop is powerful enough to destroy the Terminator before he runs dry.
