RoboCop Quotations

RoboCop is a 1987 science fiction action movie, directed by Paul Verhoeven. It features a dystopian near-future, set in Detroit, Michigan. Violent crime is out of control, and the city is in financial ruin. The city hires the megacorporation Omni Consumer Products (OCP) to operate the police department, in effect privatizing it. OCP is interested in rebuilding "Old Detroit" and replacing it with what they call "Delta City". Before this large construction project can begin, OCP wishes to end crime in the city, and creates RoboCop.

Dialogue

[Dick Jones directs Kinney to threaten ED-209. Kinney points a gun at the robot.]

ED-209: Please put down your weapon. You have 20 seconds to comply.

Dick Jones: I think you'd better do what he says, Mr. Kinney.

[Alarmed, Kinney quickly tosses the gun away. ED-209 growls menacingly.]

ED-209: You now have 15 seconds to comply.

[After ED-209 experiences a malfunction in a board meeting, killing a man named Kinney in the boardroom.]

The Old Man: Dick, I'm very disappointed.

Dick Jones: I'm sure it's only a glitch. A temporary setback.

The Old Man: You call this a glitch?! We're scheduled to begin construction in 6 months. Your temporary setback could cost us 50 million dollars in interest payments alone!

[As Lewis and Murphy chase Boddicker's open truck, he has his men lift another one of them.]

Clarence Boddicker: Can you fly, Bobby?

[In the abandoned warehouse, Lewis catches Boddicker gang member Joe Cox urinating.]

Lewis: Okay. Let's see those hands, nice and easy.

Joe Cox: Sure. Mind if I… zip this up?

[Antonowsky reaches for a shotgun.]

Murphy: Go ahead and do it. Dead or alive, you're coming with me.

[Boddicker kicks the captured Murphy around.]

Clarence Boddicker: Where's your partner? Where's your partner?!

Joe Cox: Well, guys, other one was upstairs. She was swe-e-e-e-e-e-t, um! Um, um. I took her out. Ha ha ha ha ha!

Clarence Boddicker: You probably don't think I'm a very nice guy, do ya?

Murphy: Buddy, I think you're slime.

Clarence Boddicker: See, I got this problem. Cops don't like me. So I don't like cops.

[Boddicker shoots off Murphy's right hand.]

Clarence Boddicker: Well, give the man a hand!

. . .

[Boddicker finishes Murphy off with a shot to the head, then leaves.]

Joe Cox: Good night, sweet prince. Ha ha ha ha ha!

[The RoboCop team wheels their equipment into the station as a drunk talks to the desk sergeant.]

Prisoner: I-I'm what you call a repeat offender. I repeat, I will offend again!

Sergeant Warren Reed: Shut up, asshole.

[Staring at the not-yet-revealed-to-the-audience Robocop.]

Bob Morton: "You're going to be a bad motherfucker!"

[Morton tests his new creation.]

Bob Morton: What are your prime directives?

RoboCop: Serve the public trust. Protect the innocent. Uphold the law.

Dick Jones: I remember when I was a young executive at this company. We used to call the old man funny names. "Iron Butt", "Boner", once I even called him... "asshole". But there was always respect. I always knew where the line was drawn. And you just stepped over it, buddy-boy. You've insulted me. And you've insulted this company with that bastard creation of yours. I had a guaranteed military sale with ED-209. Renovation program. Spare parts for the next decade. Who cares if it worked or not?

Bob Morton: The old man thought it was pretty important... Dick.

Dick Jones: You know... he's a sweet old man. And he means well. But he's not gonna live forever. And I'm number two around here. Pretty simple math, huh, Bob? You just... fucked with the wrong guy!

Bob Morton: You're out of your fucking mind!

Dick Jones: You better pray... that that unholy monster of yours doesn't screw up.

[Repeated line from a TV program.]

Bixby Snyder: I'd buy that for a dollar!

[RoboCop calmly bashes a violent convenience-store robber, then turns to the proprietors.]

RoboCop: Thank you for your cooperation. Good night.

[RoboCop stops a rape attempt by firing through the woman's dress into the testicles of one rapist, then turns to the other.]

Robocop: Your move, creep.

[Former city councilman Ron Miller, holding the mayor hostage, makes demands of the police.]

Lt. Hedgecock: Okay, Miller! Don't hurt the mayor! We'll give you what you want!

Ron Miller: First, don't fuck with me. I'm a desperate man! And second, I want some fresh coffee. And third, I want a recount! And no matter how it turns out, I want my old job back!

Lt. Hedgecock: Okay!

Ron Miller: And I want a bigger office! And I want a new car! And I want the city to pay for it all!

Lt. Hedgecock: What kind of car, Miller?

Ron Miller: Something with reclining leather seats, that goes really fast, and gets really shitty gas mileage!

Lt. Hedgecock: How about the 6000 SUX?

Ron Miller: Yeah! Okay, sure! What about cruise control? Does it come with cruise control?

Lt. Hedgecock: Hey, no problem, Miller. You let the mayor go, we'll even throw in a Blaupunkt!

Ron Miller: Lieutenant, don't jerk me off! When people jerk me off, I kill them! You wanna see? [Walks over to mayor] Get up, Your Honor. Get up! Get up. Your public wants to see you. [pulls mayor to the window and points a gun to his head] Nobody ever takes me seriously! Well, get serious now... and kiss the mayor's ass goodbye!

Reporter: Robo, excuse me, Robo! Any special message for all the kids watching at home?

RoboCop: Stay out of trouble.

[RoboCop confronts Antonowsky, holding up a gas station.]

RoboCop: Dead or alive, you are coming with me.

Emil Antonowsky: I know you. You're dead! We killed you!

[Clarrence enters Bob Morton's house, draws a gun on him and brings him into his living room, where he notices two women are sitting down.]

Clarence Boddiker: Bitches, leave!

[Boddicker meets with Sal in the latter's drug factory.]

Clarence Boddicker: I dunno, I dunno, maybe I'm just not making myself clear. I don't want to fuck with you Sal, but I've got the connections, I've got the sales organization, I got the muscle to shove enough of this factory so far up your stupid wop ass, that you'll shit snow for a year!

Sal: Frankie, blow this cock sucker's head off.

[Sal's men pull weapons on Boddicker and his crew, who draw their own weapons.]

Clarence Boddicker: Ooh, guns, guns, guns! Come on, Sal! The Tigers are playing...tonight! I never miss a game.

. . .

[RoboCop bashes his way into the factory.]

RoboCop: Come quietly or there will be trouble.

Steve Minh: Aww, fuck you!

RoboCop: You're in big trouble!

[RoboCop enters Dick Jones's office to arrest him.]

Dick Jones: I usually don't see anybody without an appointment, but for you, I'll make an exception.

RoboCop: You are under arrest.

Dick Jones: Oh? On what charge?

RoboCop: Aiding and abetting a known felon.

Dick Jones: Sounds like I'm in a lot of trouble. You're gonna have to take me in.

RoboCop: I will.

[But before he can do so, "Directive 4" interferes with RoboCop's attempt to arrest Jones.]

Dick Jones: What's the matter officer? I'll tell you what's the matter. It's a little insurance policy called "Directive 4", my contribution to your very psychological profile. Any attempt to arrest a senior officer of OCP results in shutdown. What did you think… that you were an ordinary police officer? You're our product. And we can't very well have our products turning against us, can we?

[Jones tosses Boddicker RoboCop's tracker.]

Dick Jones: Destroy it.

Clarence Boddicker: Gonna need some major firepower. You got access to military weaponry?

Dick Jones: We practically are the military.

[Boddicker spears RoboCop/Murphy with a sharp metal pole.]

Clarence Boddicker: Sayonara, RoboCop!

[Seriously wounded Lewis and RoboCop/Murphy look at each other across a muddy pit.]

Lewis: Murphy! I'm a mess!

RoboCop/Murphy: They'll fix you. They fix everything.

[Robocop forces the doors open on a high level conference meeting of OCP senior personel.]

Old Man: How may we help you, officer?

Robocop: Dick Jones is wanted for murder.

Dick Jones: This is absurd! That...thing...is a violent, mechanical psychopath!

Robocop: My program will not allow me to act against an officer of this company.

Old Man: These are some serious charges. What is your evidence?

[Robocop moves toward the TV monitors, and plays back Dick Jones confessing "I had to kill Bob Morton because he made a mistake; now it's time to erase that mistake."]

[Jones pulls a gun on the Old Man in a board meeting.]

Dick Jones: I want a chopper! Now! We will walk to the roof, very calmly! I will board the chopper with my hostage. Anybody tries to stop me, the old geezer gets it!

[Robocop aims his firearm in the general direction of Dick Jones, but makes no intention to shoot him.]

The Old Man: Dick, you're fired!

[Directive 4 disappears from RoboCop's vision.]

RoboCop/Murphy: Thank you.

[Robocop shoots Jones out of the window]

The Old Man: Nice shooting, son. What's your name?

RoboCop/Murphy: Murphy.

RoboCop: Excuse me, I have to go. Somewhere, there is a crime happening.

Cast

Peter Weller — Officer Alex J. Murphy/RoboCop
Nancy Allen — Officer Anne Lewis
Dan O'Herlihy — The Old Man
Ronny Cox — Dick Jones
Kurtwood Smith — Clarence Boddicker
Miguel Ferrer — Bob Morton
Robert DoQui — Sergeant Warren Reed
Ray Wise — Leon Nash
Paul McCrane — Emil Antonowsky
Jesse D. Goins — Joe Cox
Lee de Broux — Sal
Mark Carlton — Ron Miller
Gene Wolande — Prisoner
S.D. Nemeth — Bixby Snyder
Jon Davison — ED-209 (voice)

About RoboCop

RoboCop, a futuristic story about a policeman shot to death and then revived after all parts of his body have been replaced by artificial substitutes, introduces a more tragic note: the hero who finds himself literally "between two deaths"—clinically dead and at the same time provided with a new, mechanical body—starts to remember fragments of his previous, "human" life and thus undergoes a process of resubjectivication, changing gradually back from pure incarnated drive to a being of desire. (...) [I]f there is a phenomenon that fully deserves to be called the "fundamental fantasy of contemporary mass culture," it is this fantasy of the return of the living dead: the fantasy of a person who does not want to stay dead but returns again and again to pose a threat to the living.
- Slavoj Žižek, Looking Awry: An Introduction to Jacques Lacan through Popular Culture, p. 22. ISBN 026274015X

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