Question: When Robocop is about to arrest Jones, he suddenly feels his system malfunctioning. Jones then explains that Directive 4 is used to shut him down if he attempts to arrest a senior officer of OCP. Why did Jones put this directive into Robocop? At the time nobody knew he was working with Boddicker.
Answer: When Bob Morton is told by a tech that one of Murphy's arm was saved, Bob stated that he wants total body prosthesis. Meaning Robocop's entire body was synthetic. None of his actual body was used. The only thing that was used was Murphy's actual face.
Also, his human brain, and possibly his spine, where OCP could wire him into the suit.
Answer: Most of his head and brain, about 40% of his upper torso, none of his pelvic area or limbs.
Question: Other than serving the plot, why were so many elements of his former life left in the now-vacant home? All evidence of the former family would have been removed before showing it to prospective buyers.
Answer: I'm watching it on the computer right now and it says "for sale" not sold, who says everything must be removed prior to selling? I'm not American so it may differ from country to country, but I've been to houses for sale during "inspection dates" and some houses STILL have items not removed probably because they are still living in them or still in the midst of alternate living options, some might need the money of the sale JUST so they can move remember his wife is a widow now and probably can't afford living there no more, where is she gonna get the money to move? Also not all houses I've seen had stuff removed (some did) during my house tours p.s Her husband was gunned down so she can't bare to remove anything yet, but her life is destroyed so she might as well put the house up for sale.
Chosen answer: There is no reason except that it is to serve the plot. Normally everything would have been removed by the time the house was put up for sale, but there needs to be some means for Murphy to connect to his past. This is achieved by showing physical objects from his former life to trigger his memory, creating sympathy for the character. This can be considered suspension of disbelief where the audience just accepts something is out of the ordinary for the sake of the story being told.
Question: I have two questions about this film. Firstly, was Clarence Boddicker killing cops simply cause he was crazy, or was he doing it under orders from Dick Jones (so he could get his ED-209's online faster)? And secondly, why was Clarence at the drug factory? I always assumed that he was purchasing drugs, but his conversation with the owner didn't mention this. Also it was a lot of money, and he never struck me as that much of a user. Any other reason?
Chosen answer: In part yes. By killing cops along the way, made more of a case for getting the ED-209's brought into service sooner. Clarence was at the drug factory to buy drugs, presumably to sell on for profit and fund his criminal activities.
Answer: Robocop asserts to Sgt. Reed during booking that Boddicker is a "Cop killer" so it's to be assumed he is a ruthless and notorious criminal. Clarence was at the drug factory to form an alliance and partnership with Sal. Clarence has the man power, executive protection and the sales organization to potentially triple Sal's distribution income. Clarence would receive the drugs at wholesale and Clarence would mark up prices.
Answer: In fiction for the character, it's stated to have a 50 round capacity. This may not be canon, since during the shooting range scene when he finally stops shooting, the round counter reads 141 and he is not shown to stop to reload. In reality the gun used was a modified Beretta 93R, which has a 15 round capacity,.
Question: Does anyone feel that Miguel Ferrer tinkered with the ED-209 causing it to malfunction so that his creation of Robocop could take its place? I'm asking because during his and Ronny Cox's argument, Ronny tells him he'd better hope his bastard creation doesn't fail... Or something like that.
Chosen answer: There's no particular evidence that the ED209 was actually sabotaged - it's stated in the movie that the reason the test failed was that it failed to register the noise of the gun hitting the floor because of the thick carpeting used in the conference room. Morton simply took the opportunity created by that failure to push his own program, royally pissing off Dick Jones, who doesn't want what he sees as an inferior project to make the company look bad.
Question: When Robocop is resting, and dreaming of Boddicker, the monitoring needles, as well as Robocop violently jerking, create a lot of attention-getting noise. Other than possibly serving the plot, why do the techs on duty not notice any of this? Are they possibly that deaf or stupid?
Chosen answer: Some people who work at offices or labs and have little to no work to keep them busy will pretty much lose themselves in thought or conversation. So they would hear very little of anything outside of thought or conversation.
Question: When the Swat team leader is trying negotiate with the guy in the Mayor's office, he says to him "Hey no problem Miller. Let the mayor go. We'll even throw in a Blaupunkt". Could someone please explain what a Blaupunkt is? I've never heard that word and its not in my dictionary.
Chosen answer: Blaupunkt is a major manufacturer of car stereos. Miller wants a car as part of his ransom demands, so the SWAT team leader is playing along with those demands telling him that they'll make sure the car he wants is fitted with a really cool stereo.
Question: Why, when Murphy/Robocop goes to his old house where he lived with his family, why are there burnt pictures/books lying around where he picks up the photo from? Surely, although his wife had moved on, she would not be so heartless as to burn all their memories together, even if she didn't want them she surely would have kept them for her son so he could have them to remember his dad.
Answer: Besides, it's the future. Just like in real life, she may have had those photos stored digitally.
Question: When Bob Morton is giving his speech just before Robocop is introduced, he touts one of Robocop's advantages as "A lifetime of law enforcement experience." But Murphy's memory was wiped before he was completed. Wouldn't this effectively remove all of his law enforcement experience?
Chosen answer: This can depend on two things: the nature of the memory wipe and what is meant by the term "experience". It is possible that they were able to wipe only those memories pertaining to personal identification and specific case memories. In which case the basic understanding of law and law enforcement could have been left intact. And the "experience" referred to could be referring to instinct. His mind has been working the streets for a long time. That can cause the brain to wire itself more specifically to think in certain ways that help that kind of activity. Even if the memory wipe were complete, it is possible that those rewirings in his brain were left intact, thus giving him a brain already designed for law enforcement. I admit, though, that the statement can appear, on the surface, to be at odds with the methods used to create him.
Question: Would Emil really be able to walk and talk after taking the bath in the vat of toxic waste?
Answer: Well, considering we don't know the exact composition of the toxins, that's impossible to answer with any certainty. What is certain is that stranger things have happened. One known case had a man, in the presence of police, attempt suicide by cutting his own throat with a knife. He was very effective, nearly severing the spinal cord in one stroke. The surpising bit is that before collapsing, he was able to advance on a heavily-built police officer and force him backwards down a flight of stairs. So virtually anything is possible.
Question: Why is Old Man unnamed?
Answer: I did a little research on this. According to Wikipedia, the Old Man was based on MCA Inc. CEO Lew Wasserman, who was considered to be a powerful and intimidating individual. I suspect the character was left unnamed to generally represent the cold, ruthless, detached nature of corporate America.
Answer: Because he knew he was doing illegal activities. Robocop was said to be highly efficient at his job and Jones did not want to risk him out on the streets without the insurance of shutting him down if Robo came after him.
MasterOfAll