The Weekly Planet - RoboCop - Caravan of Garbage

Episode Date: August 18, 2023

The original RoboCop from 1987 is incredible. Directed by Paul Verhoeven and starring Peter Weller as the titular RoboCop/Alex Murphy it remains one of the best sci-fi films of all time. With its retro futuristic, satirical and hyper-violent aesthetic it truly is a one of a kind experience that will never be replicated. Despite RoboCop 2, RoboCop 3, the 2014 reboot, the two tv series, multiple games and upcoming legacy sequel. Thanks for watching!SUBSCRIBE HERE ►► http://goo.gl/pQ39jNHelp support the show and get early episodes ► https://bigsandwich.co/Patreon ► https://patreon.com/mrsundaymoviesJames' Twitter ► http://twitter.com/mrsundaymoviesMaso's Twitter ► http://twitter.com/wikipediabrownPatreon ► https://patreon.com/mrsundaymoviesT-Shirts/Merch ► https://www.teepublic.com/stores/mr-sunday-moviesThe Weekly Planet iTunes ► https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-weekly-planet/id718158767?mt=2&ign-mpt=uo%3D4The Weekly Planet Direct Download ► https://play.acast.com/s/theweeklyplanetAmazon Affiliate Link ► https://amzn.to/2nc12P4 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Welcome back, everybody, to Caravan of Garbage, where we're going to be going through four Robot Cop movies. That's correct. And look, we're doing this for two reasons. One, because Robocop Rogue City, the video game, is coming out. That's correct. And look, we're doing this for two reasons. One, because Robocop Rogue City the video game is coming out. That's right. And two, at least one of these movies is really good. I can't wait to get

to it. The one where he's got the jetpack. That's right. I always said from day one, why doesn't this guy have a jetpack? Right for jetting about. Okay, I've got a confession to make. Uh oh. For one, I would love everybody to leave a like on this video. Bitches leave a like on this video. Bitches leave a like on this video. That's right.

And I've got another confession to make, Mason. Oh, is this a confession that would cause Robocop to apprehend you and or shoot you in the nuts? Let's see. He's going to shoot you in the nuts. I'll leave a poll below. Okay. He doesn't leave a poll below.

Because he shoots you in the nuts. Yeah, he shoots you in the nuts. Yeah, yeah. There's that scene also. People will probably want us to mention it oh yeah yeah we'll talk about

that later the remake but um as a kid I was more of a Terminator person okay

like I watched those first two movies again and again that's how you would introduce yourself at like after school

events hi I'm a Terminator person I actually think Terminator 1 is better than Terminator 2

not a lot of people think that your brother thinks that yeah well he's wrong. Or he's right. They're both pretty good, actually.

Your brothers? No, only one's good. No, no, no, no, no. Only one's good. I did not say that. So I came to this when I was a little bit older, like in my teens. But what an incredible movie. I was going to say I was first introduced to this via trading cards.

Oh, let's talk about that. Because I had the Robocop trading cards. From Tops, you'd get the cards and the bubble gum. Yeah. Very normal trading cards. Oh, let's talk about that. Because they had the Robocop trading cards. From Tops, you'd get the cards and the bubble gum. Yeah. Very normal trading cards. Very normal. Outlined all the stuff in the movie. Just a man getting his arms and legs shot off.

Well, there's also the one where the guy who's been melted by toxic waste. Yes, uh-huh. That's a trading card. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. This was in the era, and we see this series go in that direction where they would release something like this, and they'd also just be a bunch of toys for kids. Yeah, yeah, yeah. This was in the era, and we see this series go in that direction, where they would release something like this and they'd also just be a bunch of toys for kids.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. There wasn't really the kind of G to PG action franchises, the way that they're more is kind of now. Oh, absolutely. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was really that element of there was a movie and it was violent and grown up, but it sort of had that sci-fi aspect to it

and older kids would maybe show it to younger kids sci-fi aspect to it and like older kids would maybe show it to younger kids or like you know your parents would watch it and then you would see it in my case i saw it at the local video shop and i said dad i'm nine years old can i can we rent this and he went sure i guess and i watched it and you watched it wrecked my brain james i bet it this is why i'm like. Did you love the moment where after the guy gets all melted he gets hit by the car and he just sloshes apart. Absolutely. Like his skin was barely holding him

together. His head comes off like a balloon. It's incredible. And you know what? The absolute restraint of both director Paul Verhoeven and the actor Kurt Woodsmith. He does not turn on the windscreen wipers. He could. They would now. But he didn't then. Yeah.

That's great. I mean, this movie should really be called Squibs in Stop Motion. Oh, yeah. Because this is where it's at, man. Yeah, that's right. My goodness. The practical effects in this, and I know stop motion isn't technically practical in the sense that it's a series of still images.

Oh. Yeah, structured in a way that makes it look like that it's moving, Mason. But my goodness like just the level of squibbing in this so excessive yeah in the best kind of way apparently they toned down that boardroom scene like it was more squibbing i think it's in like the extended one yeah right even but 40 minutes of a man getting riddled with bullets yeah absolutely yeah now i don't know if you notice this go on And not a lot of people do pick up on this. Let me know in the comments.

But there's actually a bunch of real-world parallels in this, Mason. What? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So this isn't just pure fantasy. It's actually just a little bit of, there's a tinge of satire running through this. Is that the term for this? Yeah.

Cue all the comments saying, no, there isn't. It's a real common thread among Paul Verhoeven movies, just people going, no, it actually, no, it's just, I think those men wearing all the all-black uniforms with the insignia on them and fighting the bugs, I don't think that's a metaphor for anything. No, it's nothing. It's just normal.

It's just killing bugs. You never killed a bug? It's like that. They're bigger. They're bigger bugs. I mean, I know it's been talked about that this kind of predicted the future of news, but news was kind of like this at the time anyway. I mean, it's worse now, but just the idea of this just scattershot nightmare of information.

Yeah, all delivered with a smile. It's actually quite quaint. Three minutes. A lot of this, look, I love this movie. I think most of it has aged really, really well. And I think the satire you were calling it, is that what this is, this satire? That's what some say.

Interesting. I didn't see any. I think it definitely still holds up, but I do feel like some elements of it are a little bit quaint. One is that I feel like the new stuff of like, give us three minutes, we'll give you the world. I'm like, that's actually quite a lot these days. And also my favourite aspect I think that hasn't aged well is if we can jump right to the end,

it's the point where Robocop goes to the boardroom, the OCP boardroom, and he shows the OCP executives the evidence of Dick Jones admitting to killing Bob Morton and Dick Jones immediately grabs a gun and takes a hostage and I feel like in the present day you could show someone irrefutable evidence of an executive admitting to a murder and you go, that wasn't me. Yeah, exactly.

And if it was me, you guys are probably on my side actually. And it was photoshopped. And that guy was an actor, but it's not me. And you'll hear from my lawyers. And I'm rich, so nothing will happen to me. You're actually going to jail. That's right.

You're going to jail for unauthorized use of our audio video system. Absolutely. I do love that this is a world where it happens twice in this. Board members are gunned down in front of people and everyone's just like, well, get in the elevator. Miguel Ferrer is just like, I think this is my opportunity, right? There's a window here for me. Not to fall out of, but to take a step up and then be tortured at home.

But yeah, just the ineffective police force, corporate decision-making just ruining communities. The fact that Ed 209 sucks. I love that so much. There is no real confrontation between Robocop and Ed 209 at the end because ED-209 sucks. He's been deliberately made badly. He's like a puppy that's been kicked too many times

or a puppy that's been inbred for too long so he can't go up and down stairs. Because they're like, well, you know what? We'll sell this to everybody and it won't work. But they're locked in a contract so they'll have to upgrade. We'll make some extra billions off this. Just the idea of having one of these out on the street and just doing anything, I love that.

And I wish we could actually see it. And I know they circle back to this in the remake, which we'll come back to in a few weeks. But, yeah, just incredible. And what an amazing piece of special effect as well. Piece of special effect? A wonderful piece of special effect. We should give it our coveted piece of special effect as well. Piece of special effect? A wonderful piece of special effect. We should give it our coveted piece of special effect award.

But yeah, you know, I'm sure I've been critical of stop motion in the past, but it's got that Ray Harryhausen vibe. I've seen videos where people have like smoothed out the stop motion and I think it makes it worse. I think there is something about the kind of mechanical nature of its movements, which helped this movie. Yeah.

Yeah. Even though you think it's bad. Is that what you said? I did say that. Or you don't get it. I'm giving it our coveted worst of special effect award. Whoa. That's right.

Yeah. Anyway, Robocop himself, the reveal of that character, I love, like it's a slow reveal because you're given time to kind of really sit in the horror and also the joy that people have in putting this monstrosity together.

Absolutely. And the reveal essentially goes over the entire movie because we never even really see what he looks like until the start of the third act when he's trapped in the industrial district and he finally takes the helmet off and you see what he has become i look and peter weller is the he's the perfect robo incredible many have tried to replicate it and they've done the best they can but man he he projects the the humanity when he's in the robot form and like when he's just alex murphy he's just he's not a gung-ho super. He's just a guy who's there to do a job. And I really liked that.

He's an okay cop. That's right. That's pretty. Maybe. We don't really know. We don't really know. Cause we, we see him, we see him do cop stuff for like 10 minutes. Yeah.

And it doesn't go well. But here's the thing though, because, and this is something I only picked up on, uh, up on, on this rewatch. Uh, but I guess it was obvious. It's been obvious at the time, that he gets transferred to Detroit and then Bob Morton points out later that they've been moving people around,

suitable candidates for the Robocop program. So they moved him there because they knew sooner or later he'd get killed and he'd be the perfect person to put in the suit. They've got eight or nine people just running about and they're just rubbing their hands. Just waiting, yeah. That guy with the mustache who's always always wants to go on strike he's probably one he was probably number one candidate for robocop definitely but uh but he

just he just wouldn't die he probably died the next day that's right well chuck him in a bin i guess so when in full robocop costume apparently apparently Peter Weller would remain in character between takes and he would only respond to instructions from director Paul Verhoeven when he was addressed as Robo. Apparently Verhoeven, though, found this too funny and then he just dropped it after a couple of weeks. All right, okay. Also, I feel like Robo as a nickname, it doesn't work, do you think?

Robo is better. Robo is way better. Apparently also, people know this, he was just dying in the suit. Yeah. work yeah doesn't work do you think yeah robo is better robo is way better apparently also people know this he was just dying in the suit yeah it was between half a million to a million dollars for the suit to you know to get it from its inception to where it was i went through like a judge dread kind of phase at one point where it just looked like judge dread oh interesting well i was gonna say uh the one thing that i love is in re-watching this, I've also been watching on YouTube a bunch of interview and Comic-Con stuff with Peter Weller.

He comes out and he's very nice and he answers a lot of questions and then he'll often meet fans, many of whom have built their own 3D printed RoboCop suits and I bet he's like, Dan, that looks light. That looks light and airy. Probably just in and out of that, I reckon. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Almost certainly has like a zip off to pee, know absolutely yeah well he was losing three pounds a day in water weight and the first fitting took 11 hours and you can see that especially when the mask comes off and the way it just looks like his head is sewn into that thing yeah i know it's not literally they make it look like there's negative space where they've chipped parts out of him. And all this mind work that he did beforehand, he based it more on kind of snake-like movements. He's like, I can't. As women, our life stages come with unique risk factors. Like when our estrogen levels drop during menopause, causing the risk of heart disease to go up.

Know your risks. Visit heartandstroke.ca. FX's The Veil explores the surprising and fraught relationship between two women who play a deadly game of truth and lies on the road from Istanbul to Paris and London. One woman has a secret, the other a mission to reveal it before thousands of lives are lost. FX's The Veil, starring Elizabeth Moss, is now streaming on Disney+. Will you rise with the sun to help change mental health care forever? Join the Sunrise Challenge to raise funds for CAMH, the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health to support life-saving progress in mental health care.

From May 27th to 31st, people across Canada will rise together and show those living with mental illness and addiction that they're not alone. Help CAMH build a future where no one is left behind. So who will you rise for? Register today at sunrisechallenge.ca. That's sunrisechallenge.ca. sunrisechallenge.ca. Do this. So he had to learn to move again. And I've been talking about things that I don't think anybody's really nailed since.

The movement that he does. And it's not even, it's not an over-the-top robot, is it? No. Like little head turns, the way he'll take a corner. Just little things, really subtle. He'll drink some oil. He'll drink some oil. You know? He'll'll kiss an electrical socket so on and so forth i just think the way it all comes together uh rob botine designed this but you know his performance every reaction he has the sound

design the leg holster incredible yep the the data spike yeah as soon as that comes out in the movie that's chekhov's data spike. You know somebody's going to cop that right in the neck by the end. And they do. Yeah. Yeah. I also like that he's not really built for good. And sometimes he's just not doing good.

There's a moment where he wrecks a convenience store. The money those criminals would have taken is not worth what you did to this store. That's true, yeah. I mean, amazing. Also, did you know this fun fact? The Robocop gun and the Judge Dredd gun from Judge Dredd, same gun. Same gun, different attachments? That's correct, yeah.

Wait, which Judge Dredd? Judge Dredd. Judge Dredd. Stallone Judge Dredd. Stallone Judge Dredd, yeah. We've looked at both of those movies. That's right. And not only that, we did videos on them.

Okay. There's one thing I think we are in agreement on this movie. Okay. Something that doesn't hold up. It's the one thing. It's stop motion or it's some puppet work. It's puppet work. It is really what it is.

It's when Robocop finally, sorry, when the old man fires Dick Jones and then it cancels out Robocop's directive for that he can't arrest or otherwise riddle with bullets an OCP employee. And he shoots Dick Jones a whole bunch of times and then he falls out a window. And that's all great. That's all great. Oh, that's all great.

Up until that point. Oh my God. There's the point where Bob Borton's buddy's like, yeah, get him, Robocop. Yeah. I love that guy. I do not have the actor's name in front of me, but what an incredible performance from that guy. It's on the screen. Just being a great buddy, and I love that.

Yeah. But, yeah, but when Dick Jones falls out, he just becomes this. He's got Kermit arms is what happens with that guy. He just becomes this – he's got Kermit arms is what happens with that guy. And I feel like we often get people like Corridor Crew, amazing VFX guys, will add some visual effects to some scenes or, like you said, smooth out the movement of Ed 209. But all I'm saying is shave off six inches from each of those arms.

And it's the perfect movie. That being said, it's great. It's a great moment because it looks so weird. Also great. Nancy Allen is great as Lewis, at least in part because it's not a romantic relationship. They're just work buddies for that 15 minutes before Murphy gets riddled with bullets. Yeah, he gets shot.

But she's competent, she's cool. I love that. She recognises who he is. That's right. Kurtwood Smith, of course, as Clarence Boddicker with his little Heinrich Himmler little glasses. Just a perfect... Does that mean anything?

No, I wouldn't think so. Nah. Just a weird future 1980s psycho with big slacks on. Boy, does he. Oh, those slacks are so big. Just complete disregard for everybody around him. And his crew. Everybody.

Yeah, that's what I mean. Yeah. Literally everybody. But I'm saying all those guys as well. Oh, yeah, right. Just great faces and just great reacts, you know. Because we've talked about this before, and you might see it in a car chase in, say, like a Marvel movie

where it's all black suvs and all the villains henchmen are just kind of like guys that vaguely look the same you know tactical ish and you sort of lose track of how many there are and what have you so where is this yeah they all have their personalities and their big hair their big hair and their big slacks one of the melts yep you melt he gets melted melty a meal that's memorable all of that yeah you really just there's effort in the little details yeah because you don't need to do any of that it could just be four guys in black t-shirts and it's interesting as well because i as i understand it uh paul verhoeven passed on this script originally yeah he's like i don's like, I don't get this.

I don't even think he read it. I think his wife read it and then was like, actually, there might be something going on here. There might be something just under the surface. I don't know if that's true. Paul, you could use some of your famous satire. And he's like, I won't be doing that. I do not believe in satire.

That's not what I'm about, quite frankly. He wasn't an action movie guy either was he yeah and i think bringing that kind of aesthetic to this works because it's approached in a way that that movies kind of hadn't been you know this could have gone any number of ways bad yep which we'll talk about in future releases but did a great job he did a great job directing the classic movie robocop that everybody loves, basically. That's right, he did. Yeah.

Do you know what it's time for? What's it time for? It's time for the section of the show where we do a little bit of trivia. This time it's called Trivia Cop. I love that. Thank you. What about A-Tab?

What? Can we call it A-Tab? A-Tab? All trivia are bastards. Okay. Peter Weller. It's unrelated, though. No.

It's unrelated. All trivia is a bastard to put together Yeah I bet I watch a bunch of behind the scenes A lot of it's pointless A lot of them just feel like promo It's just promo Being like I love working on this movie

And I'm like I don't believe you I don't get that This took me 11 hours to get in this suit And then I had to act I thought they'd put me in the suit And then I could go home Peter Weller only wore the top half Of the Robocop outfit and underwear in the car. Otherwise, he wouldn't fit.

There are no complete shots of him getting out of the car. Similar to Batman 89, actually. In Sacramento, California, a robbery suspect, this is a true story, fled into a darkened movie theatre to escape pursuing police. Sounds like the movie Robocop. Oh, yeah. He became so engrossed in the movie Robocop, which was playing on the screen,

that he failed to notice that the police had evacuated all the other patrons from the theatre. When the lights flipped on, the stunned man was taken into custody. When the lights flipped on? Do you mean at the end of the movie? Well, I was going to say, did he get to finish the movie? What?

Yeah. Did he stay till the end of the credits? The cops were like, no, no, let him. Yeah, there might be something after the credits. Let him have this before we take him out to the car park and beat him up. Because the hands of the Robocop suit were made from foam rubber, the car keys, in that scene where he catches the keys, would bounce off Peter Weller's hand every time he attempted to catch them.

The production took up to 50 takes and an entire day's worth of filming before finally getting that shot right. That's like that Spider-Man. Yeah. Tobey Maguire took a million takes. 156. 156, yeah, yeah. Other movies we've both watched and done videos on.

Had they considered just putting the keys in his hands and then reversing the shot? No. They didn't, obviously. They obviously didn't consider that. Yeah, well, if you're ever in that situation again, Paul and Peter, if you're ever in that situation again, might I recommend putting the keys in his hand

and reversing the shot, I'm just saying. That's some free advice for you right there. Also, like, Tobey Maguire caught an entire tray of food. That's true. It's more impressive, is all I'm saying. Catching a set of keys. A dog could do that. Last bit of trivia, mate. A dog would love to do that i know last bit of trivia for i know two left no this no this is the last bit i changed my mind again former president richard nixon

was hired to promote the home video release for 25 000 he donated the money to the american boys club uh also you're not going to believe what the american boys club have recently been in trouble for $25,000. He donated the money to the American Boys Club. Also, you're not going to believe what the American Boys Club have recently been in trouble for, Mason. Is it using $25,000 for too much good? No, it's bad. They did bad stuff, Mason. That's a shame. The suggested VHS sale price for the movie was $89.98.

Whoa. They were expensive, weren't they? Wow. Talk about a dystopian future. My goodness. You're not wrong. Wow. My goodness.

I could build my own Robocop for that. You could. You should. I will. I'm going to. The box office for this, on a budget of $13.7 million, brought in $53.4 million, which is exceptionally good considering that it's obviously

for a very specific audience of a certain age. But the biggest movies of that year were things like Three Men and a Baby and Fatal Attraction, which had similar budgets. But they brought in one of them $240 million and the other $320 million. But I guess the thing about those movies compared to this one was that this one has franchise and merchandise potential.

Oh, that is very true, yeah. Because next week, of course, we're going to be coming back to Robocop 2. Have you seen Robocop 2? Yeah, I've seen it, yeah. Interesting. Irvin Kershner directed that. He did. The guy who directed Empire Strikes Back, for people who don't know.

He did. Wild. Wild. That's a good movie. Which one? Empire Strikes Back. Yes. We'll talk about Robocop.

We'll have thoughts on Robocop 2 next week. But in the meantime, if you do want to see that early, you can actually head over to BigSandwich.co. But guess what? You say what? Oh, what. Okay. Didn't have to think. No, you justco. But guess what? You say what? Oh, what. Okay. Didn't have to think.

No, you just don't have to think. You say what? What? You don't have to say anything funny or interesting. What? Unless you want to. No. Okay.

You've given me an out and I'm taking it. What? The videos always get done early and they go up there by at least a day, often two. And in addition to that, there's bonus movie commentaries, there's video game let's plays, there's bonus movie commentaries. There's video game let's plays. There's bonus podcasts. Our podcast, The Weekly Planet, where we talk movies and comics

and TV shows, that comes out there Sunday as opposed to Monday. We talk the big movie news of the week, don't we, Mason? We love big new movie news. And you can love it too with us or just be infuriated by it. Just be like, oh, why is this happening? Why are they making this? Yeah. Whose idea?

Why? An algorithm. Yeah, an algorithm probably. The answer there, yeah. Or a lunatic at the head of something. Yeah. And that's very on brand for something, but I just can't. Nah, can't say it either.

Yeah. I wish movies meant something. Anyways. Well, too bad. Anyways, thanks everyone. Thanks very much. Grab that gem gem you guys oh and also um now you're finished here just go up to that search bar and type in robocop fatal

farm and you'll see the video of robocop shooting like 100 guys in the deck yeah and it's it's very explicit oh yeah you should know that going it is not safe at work or anywhere all right thanks everyone and thanks to ben and lawrence for the edit. Thanks, guys. Bye. Bye.