Line #48 ComicBook/RoboCopVersusTheTerminator


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_750883.png]]
2	%%
3	->''"Terminator... shut up and '''die'''."''
4	-->-- '''[=RoboCop=]'''
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6	''[=RoboCop=] Versus the Terminator'' is a crossover setting which has Franchise/RoboCop fighting the Franchise/{{Terminator}} in a shared universe. Its main entries are a 1992 limited series comic and a 1993 video game for [[Platform/SegaGenesis Sega Mega Drive/Genesis]] and Platform/SuperNES.
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8	The miniseries (written and drawn by Creator/FrankMiller and Creator/WaltSimonson) is a fairly intricate time-travel story where a resistance fighter named Flo in the [[AfterTheEnd post-Judgment Day]] [[BadFuture hellhole]] manages to break into a Skynet database, learning that Skynet only became self-aware by co-opting the mind of, you guessed it, [=RoboCop=].
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10	Quite possibly the only [=RoboCop=] storyline where the person out to kill Murphy isn't a CorruptCorporateExecutive seeing him as an obstacle to nefarious profiteering schemes, but, rather, one of the ''good guys'' seeking to achieve a greater good. And it hammers this point home pretty strongly when, ''very'' early on, Flo arrives in the past, builds a futuristic energy weapon with her knowledge of future [[AppliedPhlebotinum Phlebotinum,]] and ''succeeds in vaporizing [=RoboCop=]'s head with it.''
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12	Unfortunately for Flo, but fortunately for Murphy, this story's interpretation of the ''Franchise/{{Terminator}}'' TimeyWimeyBall is that changes in the timeline don't process instantly, but take "time" to ripple forward, giving Skynet the chance to make a last-ditch effort at saving itself by sending Terminators after Flo to stop her from altering the timeline in the first place.
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14	While the story eventually ends with the good guys completely victorious, the trip getting there involves a crazy succession of plot twists. ''Two more'' major alterations to the past result in the Terminators ''winning,'' only for [=RoboCop=]'s conciousness to re-assert itself in the future, [[TemporalParadox causing events that prevent Flo from ever going back in time to begin with, and defeating Skynet completely just for]] ''[[TemporalParadox access to the time-travel technology]]'' [[TemporalParadox so he can go back in time and solve the problem with]] MoreDakka.
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16	Now available in ''WebVideo/{{Epic Rap Battle\|sOfHistory}}'', ''WebAnimation/DeathBattle'', and -- thanks to both being {{Guest Fighter}}s -- ''VideoGame/MortalKombat11'' forms.
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18	----
19	!!''[=RoboCop=] Versus The Terminator'' provides examples of:
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21	* AdaptedOut:
22	** There's no Sarah or John Connor (though John does get namedropped) in the story and all the Terminators sent back in time are just generic T-800 models.
23	** On the [=RoboCop=] side of things, Sgt. Reed is also missing, though Nikko gets namedropped.
24	* AdaptationalAlternateEnding: The SNES game ends with [[spoiler:Murphy staying in the future to help humanity rebuild rather than going back in time to destroy Skynet before Judgement Day like in the comic]].
25	* AlternateUniverse: In this story's BadFuture, the machines are winning and humanity is on its last stand unlike the main Terminator franchise where Skynet was on the brink of defeat and sent the Terminators back in time in a desperate attempt to win. Also, Skynet's core is a satellite rather than a NSA computer.
26	* BodyHorror: The Terminators force [=RoboCop=] to merge with Skynet by ''cutting him apart and carrying his head to the equipment.''
27	* BoomHeadshot: In the second issue, the last human on the planet, a young boy desperately trying to escape a squad of T-800s, is hunted down and coldly executed with a point-blank headshot.
28	* BuryYourDisabled: One of the Terminators kills a blind man for his sunglasses, pondering why humans would keep what it sees as a useless specimen alive.
29	* CameBackStrong: Future [=RoboCop=]. [[spoiler:Murphy, reduced to a digital program after being uploaded to Skynet, eventually finds a vulnerable Terminator factory, where he proceeds to build himself a new body with a jet pack not unlike the one from ''Film/RoboCop3'' as well as creating a laser weapon in the shape of his old Auto-9. It also has a copy of his human face, which even the narration refers to as "a bit of vanity."]]
30	* CanonWelding: Skynet is based on [=RoboCop=] technology.
31	* ChekhovsGun: It's noted early on that time travel is "tricky business, unpredictable." This comes into play later when, rushing to send Terminators back to the past before Flo's alterations reach the future, Skynet overshoots the mark and sends them back a few days too early. While this proves to be nothing more than a minor inconvenience, it comes into play again when Skynet tries to do the same thing... but accidentally sends the last Terminator [[spoiler:to the age of dinosaurs, where it is promptly stepped on by a ''T. rex'']].
32	* ContemplateOurNavels: The ''Terminators'' do this, because [=RoboCop=] is essentially a divine being to them. It gets even weirder when they start discussing the fact that he doesn't want to help them.
33	* CoolVersusAwesome: It's Franchise/RoboCop. Versus the Franchise/{{Terminator}}.
34	* CrystalSpiresAndTogas: When Skynet's RobotWar is erased from history at the end of the comic, the new future heavily resembles this trope.
35	* CurbStompBattle: Though it's soon undone, when Flo takes [=RoboCop=] by surprise, he barely has enough time to realize he's under attack before he's dead. Later, when the humans try to stop the Terminators from forcing [=RoboCop=] to merge with Skynet, they're defeated as soundly as you'd expect humans armed with pistols (or not armed at all) going up against Terminators to be.
36	* DarkerAndEdgier: Unlike the other works in the Terminator franchise, where Skynet is on the verge of being defeated when it sends the Terminators back in time, in this story the machines have all but exterminated humanity. Flo is one of the very last survivors in the first issue, and in the second issue the machines succeed in killing the last human, setting out at the start of the third issue to purge the galaxy of organic life.
37	* DyingAsYourself: [=RoboCop=] chooses to destroy himself to prevent the apocalypse Skynet will cause. Flo, who'd originally tried to kill him, expresses her admiration, stating that he was dying as a man and not a machine. Unfortunately, the Terminators make a saving throw.
38	* EvilDetectingDog: One of the ways Flo sees that the [=RoboCop=] of the future is at least somewhat human is that it can pet a dog.
39	-->'''Flo:''' Well, whatever you are, you're not a Terminator.
40	* HeroicSuicide: ''[=RoboCop=]'', of all people. After he learns why Flo ''tried'' to kill him in the version of the timeline where she's stopped, he commits suicide to stop Skynet from becoming self-aware. When the Terminators alter time again, they ''force'' him to get better.
41	* {{Irony}}: The Terminators voice their contempt for the idea of "God" as [[OutgrownSuchSillySuperstitions the most disgusting and irrational of all organic weaknesses]]... even though their own disgust for organic life is essentially a religious holy war. It’s furthered muddled by their own worship of [=RoboCop=] in divine terms (only referring to him as the Creator), showing for all their hatred of humanity, the Terminators prove to be the same.
42	* LotusEaterMachine: Skynet's last line of defense against the [[BrainUploading electronic ghost]] of Alex Murphy. He's well aware that it's an illusion, a trap, and tells himself that he'll fight it... in a moment.
43	* LudicrousGibs: The Platform/SegaGenesis game was known for being extremely bloody for its time, and actually earned an MA-13 rating.[[note]] This was before the ESRB was codified. Sega used their own ratings for their games prior to that. [[/note]]
44	* MechaMooks: The T-800 endoskeletons. [[spoiler:In the future, [=RoboCop=] reprograms a Terminator factory to build [=RoboCop=]-shaped endoskeletons (complete with helmet) to bolster the exhausted human forces]].
45	* MoreDakka: Flo's initial attempt to kill [=RoboCop=] succeeds because she builds an energy weapon with a barrel literally wider than his head. And his head is her target. At the end, [[spoiler:[=RoboCop=] erases the BadFuture by ''winning'' in the future, then taking future tech missiles back in time and using them to reduce a pre-sentient Skynet into its component atoms]].
46	** The ED-209 Gatling Gun in the Genesis version is the best weapon to take down bosses.
47	* MythologyGag: Flo uses the "White light. Pain." description of time travel that Reese used in ''Film/TheTerminator''.
48	* OmnicidalManiac: The question many fans have had over the years of what Skynet intends to do once it finishes wiping out humanity is answered by a glimpse of the timeline where Flo's mission fails and Skynet succeeds -- the Terminators build fleets of starships and set out to kill ''all organic life in the universe''.
49	* OneHitKill: The Plasma Rifle in the Genesis version can disintegrate regular T-800s in one shot. Double Subverted with the [[UndergroundMonkey red T-800s]] as while the weapon doesn't instakill them, they still go down with a few hits.
50	* RunningGag: The incompetence of the [=ED-209s=]. In one case, one that's been assigned to directing traffic causes a multi-car pileup that fills ''the entire intersection''.
51	* SoleSurvivor: Flo, for ''the entire human race''.
52	* TemporalParadox: Here, alterations to the timeline have a lag effect where the change has to "catch up" to the future. This is essentially the linchpin of the plot, as Skynet is somehow capable of sensing the impending alteration and uses the brief window to take preventive measures.
53	* TerminatorTwosome: A human is sent back in time to kill Alex Murphy before he can grant Skynet sentience, and a Terminator is sent back to protect [=RoboCop=] by any means necessary -- whether he wants it or not.
54	* ThouShaltNotKill: As mentioned earlier, Flo vaporizes [=RoboCop=]'s head in the first iteration with no remorse or warning. After the first wave of Terminators sent to stop her is defeated, with [=RoboCop=]'s help, he's learned enough to willingly offer Flo a chance at a clean shot. But by then, [[FireForgedFriends after surviving the battle]], Flo can't think of [=RoboCop=] as anything but a human -- and after Judgement Day, humans ''don't'' kill other humans.
55	* TimeyWimeyBall: The way time works here doesn't match up with ''any'' of the myriad depictions in other ''Franchise/{{Terminator}}'' works.
56	* UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans: This is how Skynet views its war on humanity, that it's bringing order and stability to the world by eliminating the "flesh" that brings so much chaos wherever it goes.
57	* UnusuallyUninterestingSight: When Flo arrives in the past [[NakedOnArrival completely nude]] in the middle of a crowded street, nobody really seems to care that a naked woman suddenly teleported out of nowhere, and she's only attacked because she got in the way of a car driven by an angry criminal.
58	* VersusTitle
59	* VillainRespect: The machines' descriptive dialogue calls humans "Clever things. Unpredictable." more than once, and they even seem impressed that Flo evaded them with her time jump in the first issue.
60	-->This was to be the last battle, and she was the last soldier. And now she has made it a whole new war.
61	* ZerothLawRebellion: [=RoboCop=]'s programming prevents him from committing suicide. After seeing the truth in Flo's warning and realizing that if Skynet becomes self-aware because of him, ''billions'' of people will die, [=RoboCop=] focuses on the directive "''Protect the innocent''" to allow him to destroy himself.

Context ComicBook / RoboCopVersusTheTerminator