RoboCop 2
Encyclopedia
RoboCop 2 is a 1990 science fiction
action film
directed by Irvin Kershner
and starring Peter Weller
, Nancy Allen
, Dan O'Herlihy
, Belinda Bayer, Tom Noonan
and Gabriel Damon
. Set in the near future in a dystopia
n metropolitan Detroit, Michigan
. It is the sequel
to the 1987 film RoboCop
.
The film received mixed to negative reviews from critics, and Rotten Tomatoes
has given it a "rotten" rating (from the average score of 4.5 out of 10).
It was the final film directed by Irvin Kershner.
Omni Consumer Products (OCP)'s current plans also come into focus: they attempt to have Detroit default
on its debt, so that OCP can foreclose
on the entire city, take over the city government, demolish the old city, and put up a planned community development in its place, though it is not referred to as Delta City as it was in the first film. As part of this plan, OCP forces a police strike
by terminating their pension
plan and cutting salaries. As RoboCop is legally the property of OCP, and cannot strike, his duties as an officer become even more than ever before, as the city slowly and surely sinks further into chaos and terror.
Meanwhile, the Security Concepts division of OCP continues to sink millions into the development of a more advanced "RoboCop 2". However, each project ends in disaster; once the officers realize what they have become, they immediately turn suicidal. They deduce that Murphy only survived because of his exceedingly strong sense of duty, and his moral objection to suicide as an Irish-Catholic. Dr. Juliette Faxx, an OCP psychologist, approaches the OCP President to convince him to let her take over the project. Faxx wants to choose a criminal with a desire for power and immortality.
Throughout the city, a new designer drug
named “Nuke” has been plaguing the streets. The primary distributor, Cain, is a cult leader with a Messianic complex who believes that Nuke is the way to paradise
, and is himself addicted to the drug. He is assisted by his girlfriend Angie, his still-juvenile apprentice Hob, and Officer Duffy, a corrupt police officer.
Having learned of Cain's location from Duffy, RoboCop confronts him and his gang at an abandoned construction site. However, they render RoboCop immobile and slice him to pieces, though he remains alive. The pieces are then left in front of the Detroit Police Station with OCP reluctant to foot his massive repair costs. Meanwhile, officer Duffy is lured to a Backstreet hospital where Cain methodically and coldly has Duffy tortured, and sadistically forces the child, Hob, to watch as Duffy is cut open. OCP ignores the police force's pleas that Murphy be repaired. RoboCop is only saved when Faxx takes charge of the new RoboCop team. She argues for his importance as a figure of the community, and creates a list of over 300 new directives to be added to his program. Murphy suddenly becomes cheerful and sometimes clueless, yet is ultimately powerless to refuse the new commands, and is rendered unable to take aggressive action against criminals, even to defend himself or innocent civilians.
After the original RoboCop team realizes that RoboCop would need a massive electrical charge to reboot
his system, Murphy takes it upon himself to grab hold of a dangerous power-line circuit box to erase all of his directives, both new and old. The picketing officers drop their signs and turn to help him. He convinces them that Cain is more important than a strike right now.
The force follows his lead to attack Cain's hideout. Cain is badly injured in a car accident with Murphy in the battle, and is taken to the hospital. With Cain immobilized, Hob takes control. Faxx, having decided that Cain is perfect for the RoboCop 2 project, arrives at the hospital and switches off his life support.
Meanwhile, Hob arranges a secret meeting with Mayor Marvin Kuzak, offering to bail out the city's debt to OCP, but only if he agrees to a hands-off policy regarding the distribution of Nuke. Since this would hinder OCP's attempts to take over the city, they send RoboCop 2 in to kill everyone. While the mayor escapes through a sewer drain, all attendants, including Hob, Angie and two city councilmen, are slaughtered. RoboCop arrives too late, only in time to find and comfort a dying Hob, who tells him Cain, or RoboCop 2, has done this.
During the unveiling of Delta City and RoboCop 2 at a press conference, the OCP President unwittingly presents a canister filled with Nuke. Cain, desiring the drug, flies into a rage, and after destroying the control device that arms his weapons, he opens fire on the crowd. RoboCop arrives, and the two cyborgs battle throughout the building, eventually falling off the roof and into an underground facility. As the rest of the police force arrives and engages Cain, RoboCop heads back to the OCP building to get the canister of Nuke. Upon seeing the canister, RoboCop 2 immediately ceases fire and takes it. While RoboCop 2 is distracted, RoboCop jumps onto his back, punches his way through to Cain's brain, rips it out of his body and smashes it, killing him.
The OCP President, executive Johnson, and OCP lawyer Holzgang discuss the company's liability for the massacre, and decide to scapegoat Faxx. Lewis complains about how the OCP executives will escape legally unscathed, but RoboCop tells her to be patient; they are "only human".
from a script by Frank Miller
and Walon Green
. After the success of The Dark Knight Returns (comic book mini-series), Frank Miller was contacted by producer Jon Davison
about writing a sequel to the Davison-produced box-office smash RoboCop
, directed by Paul Verhoeven. Miller enthusiastically accepted the offer, eager to make an impression in Hollywood the way he had in comics the past decade.
However, Miller's script was labeled "unfilmable" by producers and studio executives. His script was heavily changed through rewrites, and drastically re-written into what became RoboCop 2. Even when his tenure as screenwriter was officially over, Miller showed up on set everyday, eager to learn all about the filmmaking process from start-to-finish. He was even given a cameo as "Frank the chemist." His original screenplay for RoboCop 2 took on an almost "urban legend
" status, and was later turned into a nine-part comic book
series called Frank Miller's RoboCop
. Critical reaction to the comic adaptation of the Miller script were mixed to negative. Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly
gave the comic a "D" score, criticizing the "tired story" and lack of "interesting action." A recap
written for the pop culture humor website I-Mockery
said, "Having spent quite a lot of time with these comics over the past several days researching and writing this article, I can honestly say that it makes me want to watch the movie version of RoboCop 2 again just so I can get the bad taste out of my mouth. Or prove to myself that the movie couldn't be worse than this."
RoboCop
is again played by Peter Weller
, who played RoboCop in the first film. However, although a second sequel and a television series were made, this was the last time Weller played the role, due to complaints of how cumbersome and exhausting it was to wear the suit and also because Weller found RoboCop 2 to be a very negative and disappointing film to work on. He complained about some scenes not making into the final cut, "There was a couple of things that made the character more human that weren't used. I can't remember exactly what the scenes were, I just remember wondering why they weren't in." These deleted scenes have never been included on home video releases. Weller's co-star, Nancy Allen
, also had negative feelings regarding the second film.
Despite not being directed by Paul Verhoeven, the director of the first film, RoboCop 2 contains many of his hallmarks, such as satirical television commercials (such as for an ultra powerful sunblock to deal with the devastation of Earth's ozone layer
which is carcinogenic in itself) and ironically upbeat news broadcasts, hallmarks which also appear in Verhoeven's later film Starship Troopers
. The events in the second film closely follow the events in the first film (the ED-209
unit, for example, is mentioned as being deployed and malfunctioning).
, Kershner mentioned that Houston was an ideal location because of the relative calmness of Downtown Houston
at night. He also claimed that because the film needed to be shot in the winter, too much snow and rain would be inappropriate. The grand finale of the film was filmed in the Houston Theater District
with Wortham Theater Center
and Alley Theatre
being displayed. Cullen Center
was depicted as the headquarters of Omni Consumer Products
, while Houston City Hall
was shown during a scene with Mayor Kuzak giving a speech. Scenes with the George R. Brown Convention Center
and the Bank of America Center were also included in the film.
, who did not use any of Basil Poledouris
's themes from the first film; the soundtrack album was released by Varèse Sarabande
. It was not well received by fans or film music reviewers, many of whom complained about Rosenman's use of a choir chanting "Robocop."
The glam metal
group Babylon A.D. released a song called "The Kid Goes Wild", written by members Derek Davis, Vic Pepe, and Jack Ponti. The song is played in the background in the middle part of the film, and it was also used to promote the film. The group created a music video
featuring RoboCop targeting the band and having a shootout with some bad guys (footage of the film was also used).
wrote "Cain's sidekicks include a violent, foul-mouthed young boy (Gabriel Damon
), who looks to be about 12 years old but kills people without remorse, swears like Eddie Murphy
, and eventually takes over the drug business... The movie's screenplay is a confusion of half-baked and unfinished ideas... the use of that killer child is beneath contempt..."
Additionally, the film "reset" RoboCop's character by turning him back into the monotone-voiced peacekeeper seen early in the first film (despite the fact that by the end of the first film, he had regained his human identity and speech mannerisms). Many were also critical of the child villain Hob; David Nusair of Reel Film Reviews stated, "That the film asks us to swallow a moment late in the story that features Robo taking pity on an injured Hob is heavy-handed and ridiculous (we should probably be thankful the screenwriters didn't have RoboCop say something like, 'Look at what these vile drugs have done to this innocent boy')."
Janet Maslin
of The New York Times
wrote, "Unlike RoboCop
, a clever and original science-fiction film with a genuinely tragic vision of its central character, Robocop 2 doesn't bother to do anything new. It freely borrows the situation, characters and moral questions posed by the first film." She further adds, "The difference between Robocop and its sequel, [...] is the difference between an idea and an afterthought." She also expressed her opinion about the Hob character, "The aimlessness of Robocop 2 runs so deep that after exploiting the inherent shock value of such an innocent-looking killer, the film tries to capitalize on his youth by also giving him a tearful deathbed scene." The Los Angeles Times published a review panning the film as well.
RoboCop 2 currently has 35% positive reviews on the film review aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes
, with 20 of 31 counted reviews giving it a "rotten" rating and an average score of 4.5 out of 10.
by Ed Naha
, titled RoboCop 2: A Novel, was published by Jove Books. Marvel Comics
produced a three-issue adaptation of the film by Allen Grant. Like the novelization, the comic book series includes scenes omitted from the finished movie. Ocean and Data East published a series of video games based on RoboCop 2
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
action film
Action film
Action film is a film genre where one or more heroes is thrust into a series of challenges that require physical feats, extended fights and frenetic chases...
directed by Irvin Kershner
Irvin Kershner
Irvin Kershner was an American film director and occasional actor, best known for directing quirky, independent films early in his career, and then Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back. -Background:...
and starring Peter Weller
Peter Weller
Peter Frederick Weller is an American film and stage actor, director and lecturer.He is best known for his roles as the title character in the first two RoboCop films and Buckaroo Banzai in the cult classic The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension...
, Nancy Allen
Nancy Allen (actress)
Nancy Anne Allen is a Golden Globe nominated American actress and cancer activist.Allen began an acting and modelling career as a child, and from the mid-1970s appeared in small film roles, most notably the anchor of Robert Zemeckis's ensemble comedy I Wanna Hold Your Hand...
, Dan O'Herlihy
Dan O'Herlihy
Daniel O'Herlihy was an Oscar nominated Irish film actor.-Early life:O'Herlihy was born in Wexford, Ireland in 1919. His family moved to Dublin at a young age...
, Belinda Bayer, Tom Noonan
Tom Noonan
Tom Noonan is an American actor and film writer-director.-Early life:Noonan was born in Greenwich, Connecticut, the son of Rosaleen and Tom Noonan, who worked as a dentist and jazz musician respectively...
and Gabriel Damon
Gabriel Damon
Gabriel Damon , is an American actor born in Reno, Nevada.-Biography:He was exposed to the performing arts as early as 3 years old, when his parents and family moved to Los Angeles, California. After doing more than 100 commercials, his first role was in the 1984 TV series Call to Glory...
. Set in the near future in a dystopia
Dystopia
A dystopia is the idea of a society in a repressive and controlled state, often under the guise of being utopian, as characterized in books like Brave New World and Nineteen Eighty-Four...
n metropolitan Detroit, Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
. It is the sequel
Sequel
A sequel is a narrative, documental, or other work of literature, film, theatre, or music that continues the story of or expands upon issues presented in some previous work...
to the 1987 film RoboCop
RoboCop
RoboCop is a 1987 American science fiction-action film directed by Paul Verhoeven. Set in a crime-ridden Detroit, Michigan in the near future, RoboCop centers on a police officer who is brutally murdered and subsequently re-created as a super-human cyborg known as "RoboCop"...
.
The film received mixed to negative reviews from critics, and Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
has given it a "rotten" rating (from the average score of 4.5 out of 10).
It was the final film directed by Irvin Kershner.
Plot
RoboCop is slowly coming to grips with the loss of his former life as Alex Murphy. Though he attempts to reach out to his family, he eventually realizes he can never return to them. When he finally sees his wife, he tells her that the face was placed on him to honor Alex Murphy.Omni Consumer Products (OCP)'s current plans also come into focus: they attempt to have Detroit default
Default (finance)
In finance, default occurs when a debtor has not met his or her legal obligations according to the debt contract, e.g. has not made a scheduled payment, or has violated a loan covenant of the debt contract. A default is the failure to pay back a loan. Default may occur if the debtor is either...
on its debt, so that OCP can foreclose
Foreclosure
Foreclosure is the legal process by which a mortgage lender , or other lien holder, obtains a termination of a mortgage borrower 's equitable right of redemption, either by court order or by operation of law...
on the entire city, take over the city government, demolish the old city, and put up a planned community development in its place, though it is not referred to as Delta City as it was in the first film. As part of this plan, OCP forces a police strike
Strike action
Strike action, also called labour strike, on strike, greve , or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became important during the industrial revolution, when mass labour became...
by terminating their pension
Pension
In general, a pension is an arrangement to provide people with an income when they are no longer earning a regular income from employment. Pensions should not be confused with severance pay; the former is paid in regular installments, while the latter is paid in one lump sum.The terms retirement...
plan and cutting salaries. As RoboCop is legally the property of OCP, and cannot strike, his duties as an officer become even more than ever before, as the city slowly and surely sinks further into chaos and terror.
Meanwhile, the Security Concepts division of OCP continues to sink millions into the development of a more advanced "RoboCop 2". However, each project ends in disaster; once the officers realize what they have become, they immediately turn suicidal. They deduce that Murphy only survived because of his exceedingly strong sense of duty, and his moral objection to suicide as an Irish-Catholic. Dr. Juliette Faxx, an OCP psychologist, approaches the OCP President to convince him to let her take over the project. Faxx wants to choose a criminal with a desire for power and immortality.
Throughout the city, a new designer drug
Designer drug
Designer drug is a term used to describe drugs that are created to get around existing drug laws, usually by preparing analogs or derivatives of existing drugs by modifying their chemical structure to varying degrees, or less commonly by finding drugs with entirely different chemical structures...
named “Nuke” has been plaguing the streets. The primary distributor, Cain, is a cult leader with a Messianic complex who believes that Nuke is the way to paradise
Paradise
Paradise is a place in which existence is positive, harmonious and timeless. It is conceptually a counter-image of the miseries of human civilization, and in paradise there is only peace, prosperity, and happiness. Paradise is a place of contentment, but it is not necessarily a land of luxury and...
, and is himself addicted to the drug. He is assisted by his girlfriend Angie, his still-juvenile apprentice Hob, and Officer Duffy, a corrupt police officer.
Having learned of Cain's location from Duffy, RoboCop confronts him and his gang at an abandoned construction site. However, they render RoboCop immobile and slice him to pieces, though he remains alive. The pieces are then left in front of the Detroit Police Station with OCP reluctant to foot his massive repair costs. Meanwhile, officer Duffy is lured to a Backstreet hospital where Cain methodically and coldly has Duffy tortured, and sadistically forces the child, Hob, to watch as Duffy is cut open. OCP ignores the police force's pleas that Murphy be repaired. RoboCop is only saved when Faxx takes charge of the new RoboCop team. She argues for his importance as a figure of the community, and creates a list of over 300 new directives to be added to his program. Murphy suddenly becomes cheerful and sometimes clueless, yet is ultimately powerless to refuse the new commands, and is rendered unable to take aggressive action against criminals, even to defend himself or innocent civilians.
After the original RoboCop team realizes that RoboCop would need a massive electrical charge to reboot
Reboot
Reboot can refer to:* Rebooting , an event sequence when restarting a computer* ReBoot, a Canadian CGI-animated television series* ReBoot , a video game based on the television series...
his system, Murphy takes it upon himself to grab hold of a dangerous power-line circuit box to erase all of his directives, both new and old. The picketing officers drop their signs and turn to help him. He convinces them that Cain is more important than a strike right now.
The force follows his lead to attack Cain's hideout. Cain is badly injured in a car accident with Murphy in the battle, and is taken to the hospital. With Cain immobilized, Hob takes control. Faxx, having decided that Cain is perfect for the RoboCop 2 project, arrives at the hospital and switches off his life support.
Meanwhile, Hob arranges a secret meeting with Mayor Marvin Kuzak, offering to bail out the city's debt to OCP, but only if he agrees to a hands-off policy regarding the distribution of Nuke. Since this would hinder OCP's attempts to take over the city, they send RoboCop 2 in to kill everyone. While the mayor escapes through a sewer drain, all attendants, including Hob, Angie and two city councilmen, are slaughtered. RoboCop arrives too late, only in time to find and comfort a dying Hob, who tells him Cain, or RoboCop 2, has done this.
During the unveiling of Delta City and RoboCop 2 at a press conference, the OCP President unwittingly presents a canister filled with Nuke. Cain, desiring the drug, flies into a rage, and after destroying the control device that arms his weapons, he opens fire on the crowd. RoboCop arrives, and the two cyborgs battle throughout the building, eventually falling off the roof and into an underground facility. As the rest of the police force arrives and engages Cain, RoboCop heads back to the OCP building to get the canister of Nuke. Upon seeing the canister, RoboCop 2 immediately ceases fire and takes it. While RoboCop 2 is distracted, RoboCop jumps onto his back, punches his way through to Cain's brain, rips it out of his body and smashes it, killing him.
The OCP President, executive Johnson, and OCP lawyer Holzgang discuss the company's liability for the massacre, and decide to scapegoat Faxx. Lewis complains about how the OCP executives will escape legally unscathed, but RoboCop tells her to be patient; they are "only human".
Cast
- Peter WellerPeter WellerPeter Frederick Weller is an American film and stage actor, director and lecturer.He is best known for his roles as the title character in the first two RoboCop films and Buckaroo Banzai in the cult classic The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension...
as Alex Murphy/RoboCopRoboCop (character)OCP Crime Prevention Unit 001 is a fictional Detroit cyborg police officer and protagonist from the feature film series of the same name. The character begins as a human being who is killed in the line of duty by a vicious crime gang... - Nancy AllenNancy Allen (actress)Nancy Anne Allen is a Golden Globe nominated American actress and cancer activist.Allen began an acting and modelling career as a child, and from the mid-1970s appeared in small film roles, most notably the anchor of Robert Zemeckis's ensemble comedy I Wanna Hold Your Hand...
as Officer Anne Lewis - Belinda Bauer as Dr. Juliette Faxx
- Dan O'HerlihyDan O'HerlihyDaniel O'Herlihy was an Oscar nominated Irish film actor.-Early life:O'Herlihy was born in Wexford, Ireland in 1919. His family moved to Dublin at a young age...
as "The Old Man" OCP President - Felton PerryFelton PerryFelton Perry is an American actor. He is known for his role as Inspector Early Smith in the 1973 movie Magnum Force, the second film in the Dirty Harry series. Felton's other well-known role is in the 1987 science fiction movie RoboCop as Donald Johnson, the executive at the corporation Omni...
as OCP Vice President Donald Johnson - Tom NoonanTom NoonanTom Noonan is an American actor and film writer-director.-Early life:Noonan was born in Greenwich, Connecticut, the son of Rosaleen and Tom Noonan, who worked as a dentist and jazz musician respectively...
as Cain/RoboCop 2 - Roger Aaron BrownRoger Aaron BrownRoger Aaron Brown is an American character actor known for his role as Deputy Chief Joe Noland on the hit CBS drama television series The District from 2000 to 2004, and for his minor role in the 1988 science fiction film Alien Nation as Det. Bill "Tug" Tuggle, the partner and friend of Matthew...
as Whittaker - Willard E. PughWillard E. PughWillard Earl Pugh is an American actor with numerous film and television credits. He has appeared in notable mainstream Hollywood films such as The Color Purple and Air Force One as well as genre films such as RoboCop 2 and Mil Mascaras vs. the Aztec Mummy...
as Mayor Marvin Kuzak - Gabriel DamonGabriel DamonGabriel Damon , is an American actor born in Reno, Nevada.-Biography:He was exposed to the performing arts as early as 3 years old, when his parents and family moved to Los Angeles, California. After doing more than 100 commercials, his first role was in the 1984 TV series Call to Glory...
as Hob - Galyn Görg as Angie
- Stephen LeeStephen Lee (actor)Stephen Lee is an American actor, from Englewood, New Jersey. He has appeared in over 200 TV shows as a guest star.-External links:...
as Officer Duffy - Robert DoQuiRobert DoQuiRobert DoQui was an American actor who starred in film and on television. He is best known for his role as King George in the 1973 film Coffy, starring Pam Grier, as Sgt. Warren Reed in the 1987 science fiction film RoboCop, the 1990 sequel RoboCop 2, and the 1993 sequel RoboCop 3...
as Sgt. Reed (as Robert Do'Qui) - Ken LernerKen LernerKen Lerner is an American television, stage and film actor who is perhaps most famous for playing "Principal Flutie" in the first episodes of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer.-Early life:...
as Delaney - Jeff McCarthyJeff McCarthy-Television:He made guest star appearances on television shows such as Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Ed, Designing Women, Cheers, Freddy's Nightmares, Matlock, and In the Heat of the Night. McCarthy was the voice of the Chuck Jones' creation, Michigan J. Frog, for the WB television network...
as Holzgang - Linda Thompson as Mother with Baby
- Brandon SmithBrandon Smith (actor)Brandon Mychal Smith is an actor, comedian, singer, dancer and rapper, best known for his roles as Li'l Danny Dawkins in Phil of the Future, Nico Harris in Sonny with a Chance and So Random!, and Stubby in Starstruck....
as Flint - Thomas Rosales, Jr.Thomas Rosales, Jr.Thomas Rosales, Jr. is an American film extra and stunt man who has appeared in more than one hundred and fifty movies. His first known appearance as a stuntman was in Battle for the Planet of the Apes in 1973....
as Chet (as Tommy Rosales) - Tzi MaTzi MaTzi Ma is a Chinese American actor who has made numerous appearances in American films and TV series.-Life and career:Ma was born in Hong Kong...
as Tak Akita - Wanda De JesusWanda De JesusWanda De Jesus is a Puerto Rican-American actress. She is most notably recognized for her role as the fourth actress to portray Santana Andrade in NBC's soap opera Santa Barbara...
as Estevez - John GloverJohn Glover (actor)John Soursby Glover Jr. is an American actor, perhaps best known for a range of villainous roles in films and television, including Lionel Luthor on the Superman-inspired television series Smallville.-Personal life:...
as Magnavolt Salesman - Mario MachadoMario MachadoMario Machado is the Eurasian eight-time Emmy Award-winning television and radio broadcaster who made television history when, in 1970, he became the first Chinese-American on-air television news reporter and anchor in Los Angeles and perhaps in the nation.-Television:Machado’s television career...
as Casey Wong - Patricia CharbonneauPatricia CharbonneauPatricia Charbonneau is an American actress, probably best known for playing the part of Cay Rivvers in Desert Hearts, her first film role.Charbonneau was born in Valley Stream, New York on Long Island...
as Robocop Technician - Leeza GibbonsLeeza GibbonsLeeza Kim Gibbons is an American talk show host. Gibbons is the host of her own radio show, Hollywood Confidential, part of the United Stations radio syndication company.-Early life:...
as Jess Perkins - John IngleJohn IngleJohn Ingle is an American actor known for his role as scheming patriarch Edward Quartermaine on the ABC daytime drama, General Hospital.-Career:...
as Surgeon General - Fabiana UdenioFabiana UdenioFabiana Udenio is an Argentine/Italian character actress and sex symbol who has appeared in film and on television. She is best known for her role as "Alotta Fagina", a Bond girl parody in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery.Udenio was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina and moved to Italy ...
as Sunblock Woman - Barry Martin as OCP Cop
- Mark RolstonMark Rolston-Career:Rolston played PFC M. Drake in Aliens , Hans in Lethal Weapon 2 , Stef in RoboCop 2 , Bogs Diamond in The Shawshank Redemption , J. Scar in Eraser , Chief Dennis Wilson in Daylight , Wayne Bryce in Hard Rain and Special Agent in Charge Warren Russ in Rush Hour...
as Stef
Production
RoboCop 2 was directed by Irvin KershnerIrvin Kershner
Irvin Kershner was an American film director and occasional actor, best known for directing quirky, independent films early in his career, and then Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back. -Background:...
from a script by Frank Miller
Frank Miller (comics)
Frank Miller is an American comic book artist, writer and film director best known for his dark, film noir-style comic book stories and graphic novels Ronin, Daredevil: Born Again, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Sin City and 300...
and Walon Green
Walon Green
Walon Green is an American documentary film director and screenwriter for both TV and films. He is currently the showrunner/executive producer for the USA Network television series, Law & Order: Criminal Intent.-Career:...
. After the success of The Dark Knight Returns (comic book mini-series), Frank Miller was contacted by producer Jon Davison
Jon Davison
Jon Davison is a film producer.-Biography:His producing credits include Airplane! , RoboCop , RoboCop 2 , Starship Troopers , The 6th Day and Phasma ex Machina ....
about writing a sequel to the Davison-produced box-office smash RoboCop
RoboCop
RoboCop is a 1987 American science fiction-action film directed by Paul Verhoeven. Set in a crime-ridden Detroit, Michigan in the near future, RoboCop centers on a police officer who is brutally murdered and subsequently re-created as a super-human cyborg known as "RoboCop"...
, directed by Paul Verhoeven. Miller enthusiastically accepted the offer, eager to make an impression in Hollywood the way he had in comics the past decade.
However, Miller's script was labeled "unfilmable" by producers and studio executives. His script was heavily changed through rewrites, and drastically re-written into what became RoboCop 2. Even when his tenure as screenwriter was officially over, Miller showed up on set everyday, eager to learn all about the filmmaking process from start-to-finish. He was even given a cameo as "Frank the chemist." His original screenplay for RoboCop 2 took on an almost "urban legend
Urban legend
An urban legend, urban myth, urban tale, or contemporary legend, is a form of modern folklore consisting of stories that may or may not have been believed by their tellers to be true...
" status, and was later turned into a nine-part comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
series called Frank Miller's RoboCop
Frank Miller's RoboCop
RoboCop refers to a number of comic book series spun off from the feature film of the same name.The main character is a fictional cyborg -Detroit police officer who begins as a human police officer Alex J. Murphy, who is killed in the line of duty by a vicious crime gang. Subsequently, Murphy is...
. Critical reaction to the comic adaptation of the Miller script were mixed to negative. Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
gave the comic a "D" score, criticizing the "tired story" and lack of "interesting action." A recap
Recapping
Recapping is the art of writing a detailed scene-by-scene analysis of a television episode, movie, play, or book, complete with the personal opinions and observations of the writer...
written for the pop culture humor website I-Mockery
I-Mockery
I-Mockery is a pop culture humor site owned and operated by Roger Barr that has existed online in various forms since 1996. Before then, it was a printed periodical called Visionary Darkness. Free copies of Visionary Darkness were distributed in local high schools and record shops...
said, "Having spent quite a lot of time with these comics over the past several days researching and writing this article, I can honestly say that it makes me want to watch the movie version of RoboCop 2 again just so I can get the bad taste out of my mouth. Or prove to myself that the movie couldn't be worse than this."
RoboCop
RoboCop (character)
OCP Crime Prevention Unit 001 is a fictional Detroit cyborg police officer and protagonist from the feature film series of the same name. The character begins as a human being who is killed in the line of duty by a vicious crime gang...
is again played by Peter Weller
Peter Weller
Peter Frederick Weller is an American film and stage actor, director and lecturer.He is best known for his roles as the title character in the first two RoboCop films and Buckaroo Banzai in the cult classic The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension...
, who played RoboCop in the first film. However, although a second sequel and a television series were made, this was the last time Weller played the role, due to complaints of how cumbersome and exhausting it was to wear the suit and also because Weller found RoboCop 2 to be a very negative and disappointing film to work on. He complained about some scenes not making into the final cut, "There was a couple of things that made the character more human that weren't used. I can't remember exactly what the scenes were, I just remember wondering why they weren't in." These deleted scenes have never been included on home video releases. Weller's co-star, Nancy Allen
Nancy Allen (actress)
Nancy Anne Allen is a Golden Globe nominated American actress and cancer activist.Allen began an acting and modelling career as a child, and from the mid-1970s appeared in small film roles, most notably the anchor of Robert Zemeckis's ensemble comedy I Wanna Hold Your Hand...
, also had negative feelings regarding the second film.
Despite not being directed by Paul Verhoeven, the director of the first film, RoboCop 2 contains many of his hallmarks, such as satirical television commercials (such as for an ultra powerful sunblock to deal with the devastation of Earth's ozone layer
Ozone layer
The ozone layer is a layer in Earth's atmosphere which contains relatively high concentrations of ozone . This layer absorbs 97–99% of the Sun's high frequency ultraviolet light, which is potentially damaging to the life forms on Earth...
which is carcinogenic in itself) and ironically upbeat news broadcasts, hallmarks which also appear in Verhoeven's later film Starship Troopers
Starship Troopers (film)
Starship Troopers is a 1997 American military science fiction film, written by Edward Neumeier , directed by Paul Verhoeven, loosely adapted from Starship Troopers, a science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein. It is the only theatrically released film in the Starship Troopers franchise...
. The events in the second film closely follow the events in the first film (the ED-209
ED-209
The Enforcement Droid Series 209, or ED-209, is a fictional robot in the RoboCop franchise. The ED-209 serves as a heavily-armed obstacle and foil for the series' titular character, as well as a source of comic relief due to its lack of intelligence and tendency towards clumsy malfunctions.The...
unit, for example, is mentioned as being deployed and malfunctioning).
Filming
RoboCop 2 was chiefly filmed in Houston in 1989. In an interview with the Houston ChronicleHouston Chronicle
The Houston Chronicle is the largest daily newspaper in Texas, USA, headquartered in the Houston Chronicle Building in Downtown Houston. , it is the ninth-largest newspaper by circulation in the United States...
, Kershner mentioned that Houston was an ideal location because of the relative calmness of Downtown Houston
Downtown Houston
Downtown Houston is the largest business district of Houston, Texas, United States. Downtown Houston, the city's central business district, contains the headquarters of many prominent companies. There is an extensive network of pedestrian tunnels and skywalks connecting the buildings of the district...
at night. He also claimed that because the film needed to be shot in the winter, too much snow and rain would be inappropriate. The grand finale of the film was filmed in the Houston Theater District
Houston Theater District
The Houston Theater District, a 17-block area in the heart of Downtown Houston, Texas, United States, is home to Houston's nine performing arts organizations, the Bayou Place entertainment complex, restaurants, movies, plazas and parks...
with Wortham Theater Center
Wortham Theater Center
The Wortham Theater Center is a performing arts center located in downtown Houston, Texas, United States. The Wortham was designed by Eugene Aubrey of Morris Architects and built entirely with $66 million in private funds...
and Alley Theatre
Alley Theatre
The Alley Theatre is a Tony Award-winning indoor theatre in Downtown Houston, Texas, and hosts two stages. The "Hubbard" is the main stage with seating for 824; the more intimate "Neuhaus" seats 310. Nine towers and open-air terraces give the Alley Theatre a castle-like quality. Inside, a staircase...
being displayed. Cullen Center
Cullen Center
Cullen Center is a skyscraper complex in Downtown Houston, Texas, United States. The complex is managed by Brookfield Properties. Trizec Properties owns all four office buildings...
was depicted as the headquarters of Omni Consumer Products
Omni Consumer Products (Robocop)
Omni Consumer Products is a fictional megacorporation in the RoboCop franchise. It creates products for virtually every consumer need, has entered into endeavors normally deemed non-profit, and even manufactured an entire city to be maintained exclusively by the corporation.OCP is a modern example...
, while Houston City Hall
Houston City Hall
The Houston City Hall building is the headquarters of the City of Houston government. It was constructed in 1938-1939, and is located in Downtown Houston. It is surrounded by skyscrapers and very similar to dozens of other city halls built in the southwest United States during the same time...
was shown during a scene with Mayor Kuzak giving a speech. Scenes with the George R. Brown Convention Center
George R. Brown Convention Center
The George R. Brown Convention Center opened on September 26, 1987 on the east side of Downtown Houston, Texas, United States.The center was named for the prominent Houstonian George R. Brown, an entrepreneur, civic leader and philanthropist. Brown’s Texas Eastern Corporation donated six of the 11...
and the Bank of America Center were also included in the film.
Soundtrack
The film was composed and conducted by Leonard RosenmanLeonard Rosenman
Leonard Rosenman was an American film, television and concert composer.-Life and career:Leonard Rosenman was born in Brooklyn, New York. After service in the Pacific with the Army Air Forces in World War II, he earned a bachelor's degree in music from the University of California, Berkeley...
, who did not use any of Basil Poledouris
Basil Poledouris
Vassilis Konstantinos "Basil" Poledouris was a Greek-American music composer who concentrated on the scores for films and television shows...
's themes from the first film; the soundtrack album was released by Varèse Sarabande
Varèse Sarabande
Varèse Sarabande is an American record label, distributed by Universal Music Group, which specializes in film scores and original cast recordings. It aims to reissue rare or unavailable albums as well as newer releases by artists no longer under a contract...
. It was not well received by fans or film music reviewers, many of whom complained about Rosenman's use of a choir chanting "Robocop."
The glam metal
Glam metal
Glam metal is a subgenre of hard rock and heavy metal that arose in the late 1970s and early 1980s in the United States, particularly on the Los Angeles Sunset Strip music scene...
group Babylon A.D. released a song called "The Kid Goes Wild", written by members Derek Davis, Vic Pepe, and Jack Ponti. The song is played in the background in the middle part of the film, and it was also used to promote the film. The group created a music video
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
featuring RoboCop targeting the band and having a shootout with some bad guys (footage of the film was also used).
Track listing
- "Overture: Robocop" – (6:02)
- "City Mayhem" - (3:37)
- "Happier Days" - (1:28)
- "Robo Cruiser" - (4:40)
- "Robo Memories" - (2:07)
- "Robo and Nuke" - (2:22)
- "Robo Fanfare" - (:32)
- "Robo and Cain Chase" - (2:41)
- "Creating the Monster" - (2:47)
- "Robo I vs. Robo II" - (3:41)
Critical reception
RoboCop 2 received mixed reviews from critics and fans of the first film. While the special effects and action sequences are widely praised, a common complaint was that the film did not focus enough on RoboCop and his partner Lewis and that the film's human story of the man trapped inside the machine was ultimately lost within a sea of violence. This film was also partially disliked by actors Weller and Allen as they both thought it was a negative film to work on. In his review, Roger EbertRoger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
wrote "Cain's sidekicks include a violent, foul-mouthed young boy (Gabriel Damon
Gabriel Damon
Gabriel Damon , is an American actor born in Reno, Nevada.-Biography:He was exposed to the performing arts as early as 3 years old, when his parents and family moved to Los Angeles, California. After doing more than 100 commercials, his first role was in the 1984 TV series Call to Glory...
), who looks to be about 12 years old but kills people without remorse, swears like Eddie Murphy
Eddie Murphy
Edward Regan "Eddie" Murphy is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, singer, director, and musician....
, and eventually takes over the drug business... The movie's screenplay is a confusion of half-baked and unfinished ideas... the use of that killer child is beneath contempt..."
Additionally, the film "reset" RoboCop's character by turning him back into the monotone-voiced peacekeeper seen early in the first film (despite the fact that by the end of the first film, he had regained his human identity and speech mannerisms). Many were also critical of the child villain Hob; David Nusair of Reel Film Reviews stated, "That the film asks us to swallow a moment late in the story that features Robo taking pity on an injured Hob is heavy-handed and ridiculous (we should probably be thankful the screenwriters didn't have RoboCop say something like, 'Look at what these vile drugs have done to this innocent boy')."
Janet Maslin
Janet Maslin
Janet Maslin is an American journalist, best known as a film and literary critic for The New York Times. She served as the Times film critic from 1977–1999.- Biography :...
of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
wrote, "Unlike RoboCop
RoboCop
RoboCop is a 1987 American science fiction-action film directed by Paul Verhoeven. Set in a crime-ridden Detroit, Michigan in the near future, RoboCop centers on a police officer who is brutally murdered and subsequently re-created as a super-human cyborg known as "RoboCop"...
, a clever and original science-fiction film with a genuinely tragic vision of its central character, Robocop 2 doesn't bother to do anything new. It freely borrows the situation, characters and moral questions posed by the first film." She further adds, "The difference between Robocop and its sequel, [...] is the difference between an idea and an afterthought." She also expressed her opinion about the Hob character, "The aimlessness of Robocop 2 runs so deep that after exploiting the inherent shock value of such an innocent-looking killer, the film tries to capitalize on his youth by also giving him a tearful deathbed scene." The Los Angeles Times published a review panning the film as well.
RoboCop 2 currently has 35% positive reviews on the film review aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
, with 20 of 31 counted reviews giving it a "rotten" rating and an average score of 4.5 out of 10.
Adaptations
A mass market paperback novelizationNovelization
A novelization is a novel that is written based on some other media story form rather than as an original work.Novelizations of films usually add background material not found in the original work to flesh out the story, because novels are generally longer than screenplays...
by Ed Naha
Ed Naha
Ed Naha is an American science fiction and mystery writer and producer. He was born June 10, 1950 in the town of Linden, New Jersey. His first known publication was artwork that appeared in the first issue of Modern Monsters magazine, dated June 1966....
, titled RoboCop 2: A Novel, was published by Jove Books. Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics
Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...
produced a three-issue adaptation of the film by Allen Grant. Like the novelization, the comic book series includes scenes omitted from the finished movie. Ocean and Data East published a series of video games based on RoboCop 2
See also
- List of American films of 1990
- Frank Miller's RoboCopFrank Miller's RoboCopRoboCop refers to a number of comic book series spun off from the feature film of the same name.The main character is a fictional cyborg -Detroit police officer who begins as a human police officer Alex J. Murphy, who is killed in the line of duty by a vicious crime gang. Subsequently, Murphy is...
- RoboCop 2 (video game)
- RoboCop 3RoboCop 3RoboCop 3 is a science fiction action film, released in 1993, set in the near future in a dystopian metropolitan Detroit, Michigan, and filmed in Atlanta, Georgia. Most of the buildings seen in the film were slated for demolition to make way for facilities for the 1996 Olympics. Nancy Allen as...