History Characters / RoboCopTheCharacter

* OnlySaneMan: Both before and after post-"cyborgification," he's considered to be this in comparison to his more frustrated and cynical colleagues who wanted to go on strike.

* WouldntHurtAChild: Since it's one of his prime directives to protect the innocent, and ChildrenAreInnocent, he cannot bring himself to harm children. Exploited by Hob in the second film, who notes that Robo won't shoot a child even if the child is armed and shooting back.

* UndignifiedDeath: As mentioned in CruelAndUnusualDeath above, his death is very gruesome and Murphy was screaming in agony throughout.

* UnlikelyHero: In a sense, at the time of the film's making, he was played by a [[DarkhorseCasting little known actor named Peter Weller]] and invokes TheEveryman RidiculouslyAverageGuy aura for not being played by an A-lister like Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger, who himself was considered for this role, and started out as just another human policeman fighting crime before ending up just another RedShirt cop as common in action and crime films, but after getting killed then resurrected, he becomes the iconic cyborg cop tattooed in the memories of movie-goers.

* StrappedToAnOperatingTable: While OCP is reconstructing him, he can do nothing but lie there hearing them casually discuss, for example, whether they ought to remove his arm or not. Horrifying inverted in ''[=RoboCop=] 2'', when [[spoiler:Cain and his gang dissemble him, all while Robo is fully aware what's going on and is clearly experiencing some sort of pain from it.]]
* StrollingThroughTheChaos: Likewise, walking right into the firefight at the drug lab, not even bothering to respond for several seconds while two dozen guys are shooting at him, then casually [[OneManArmy raising his gun and wasting a bunch of them.]]

* RidiculouslyAverageGuy: Before his death, Murphy was just another unremarkable, mild-mannered, yet still skilled and honest "average Joe" of a police officer, albeit not as cynical as his other colleagues. When he becomes [=RoboCop=], he is ''a lot'' more distinctive than he was before.

* PoliceBrutality: Murphy's not above this, considering he tossed Boddicker through several windows, punched former city councilman-turned-terrorist Ron Miller out of a window, his interrogation of DirtyCop Duffy involved throwing him into several arcades machines and smashing his face into a screen, and infamously used his gun to castrate a rapist.

** The fourth directive, which is classified. [[spoiler: It prevents him from acting against a senior member of OCP's board of directors.]] The third film also adds one that prevents him from acting against Rehab personnel (but not their equipment). Predictably, Robo gets around both. It's deleted in both the second and third films.
** Technically, his other directives are this as well, but since Murphy was already a cop who lived by these tenets already, it's not so much of a deal. The third directive (Uphold the law) does come into play in the first film when he's got Boddicker at his mercy and brings him in instead of killing him.

* HeroWithBadPublicity: Zigzagged greatly. Generally, [=RoboCop=] is admired by children and responsible adults alike. When it comes to teenagers, the impoverished, and those less savvy of the law however, they think of him as a pathetic monument to ineffectual and ineffective authority, be it that of the failures of the system to the people or as a walking dumb sack of steel shaped in the fashion of a "pig". For some major examples:
** After Dick Jones decides to have him killed because HeKnowsTooMuch, and sends the entire Detroit police force to gun him down in the parking garage of OCP headquarters. Despite his heavy armour, he barely escapes with his life.
** In 2, [=RoboCop=] enters into an arcade that also doubles as a meeting ground and hotspot for drug activity. Whimsically asking the youths that it must be a school night, everyone of the teens then pelt [=RoboCop=] with junk food and popcorn, knowing that he wouldn't harm anyone who doesn't meet the legal age range of an adult, and out of the fact that he is a tool of authority. Later when he becomes reprogrammed to be a more "PC" figure of the law, he ineffectually confronts kids in a low income neighborhood who outright tell him to fuck off.
* HeroicBuild: His armor gives him an exaggerated masculine form, with a broad chest and huge arms.

* HairOfGoldHeartOfGold: He was blond. Once he becomes [=RoboCop=], he lost the blond hair but not the heart of gold, not ''[[DoubleConsciousness completely]]''.

* GrewBeyondTheirProgramming: OCP never expected his human side to re-appear.

** Doubly so in ''Robocop: Rogue City'' - it's more than possible to play RoboCop as a genuine value to the community: going out of his way to help the civilians of Old Detroit by rescuing their cats, doing odd jobs and being extremely lenient towards more minor crimes - while at the same time being more than capable of mowing down entire armies of gang-members by shooting them all in the dick.