History Film / RoboCop2

* HopeSpot: The city attempts to pay off its debts via a telethon fundraiser, which falls short of its goal.
** After the telethon fails, Hob makes an offer to the mayor to pay off the city's debts in exchange for a "hands-off" policy towards Nuke, which would stop OCP's scheme and prevent the construction of Delta City. This is thwarted when Cain goes to the meeting, killing everyone except the mayor.

** After the telethon fails, Hob offers to retire the city's debts in exchange for a "hands-off" policy towards Nuke. This would-be deal also falls apart after Hob is killed.

* AlasPoorVillain: [[spoiler: Hob.]]

* BetterToKillThanFrighten: [=RoboCop=] nearly captures Cain from information supplied by DirtyCop Officer Duffy. Cain has Duffy brought to him and strapped down next to some surgical tools, an implied threat... that becomes a reality when Cain has Duffy disemboweled. When Angie sobs that Cain had said he was just going to scare him, Cain snarks, "He looks scared, doesn't he?"

A sequel to ''Film/{{RoboCop|1987}}'', released in 1990.

** The head inside the first Robocop 2 is that of the special effect supervisor.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Catzo simply disappears from the movie after the police raid on the Nuke lab. At least one script version included a death scene where Robocop knocks him into an entire vat of the drug and he dies in a euphoric overdose. (The arcade game adapts this to provide a boss fight with the drugs instead mutating him.) The novelization instead has Lewis shoot him during the raid.

* FantasticDrug: Nuke, which users have cult-like devotion to it. Nuke is also said to be created with household materials, and as the cult hints, it works off of playing off of or countering negative emotions by the brain's chemistry.

* AndShowItToYou: [=RoboCop=] does this to Cain. Instead of the heart, Robo uses the brain. Presumably, we're talking wi-fi here.
** Prior to that, BrainInAJar Cain gets a ''really'' good look at his own decapitated, cored-out head through the glass.

** The 37 million is the upcoming mortgage payment; but the film's Detroit is so low on money that they can't even come up with the cash to pay that cycle of interest, and they are going to default on their debt; from dialogue, it's implied that they took a loan from OCP's banking branch, and defaulting allows OCP to seize city assets, effectively putting them in control of the city's government. That's the reason it's comically tragic; the Mayor is willing to take a loan from the mafia because he and his subordinates are so incompetent and their predecessors so bad at management that they have run out of ways to obtain money. Even more so, they are so bad at their thing that the actual citizenship is looking at OCP taking over and they still can't even fundraise the cash to pay them off.

* BigBad: Cain.

* BloodierAndGorier: And given the ''first'' movie, that's a real achievement!

* BottomlessMagazines: Bizarrely averted in one scene, considering the film plays it terribly straight otherwise. When Hob first tries to use his fold-out machine gun on Lewis, she knocks him back and he squeezes the trigger. In less than two seconds, empty clip. Doubly bizarre because Hob manages at least ten seconds of sustained automatic fire with the same gun during the raid later. On the other hand, it's entirely possible she caught him with a nearly-empty magazine. It functions as a handy way to establish that Hob doesn't just carry around a gun for show; he actually uses it frequently enough for the magazine to occasionally run low at inconvenient times.
** Played completely and frighteningly straight when [=RoboCain=] disables the crutch on his minigun arm and destroys it. He mows down several innocent reporters and police officers and blows up many a truck and car without having to reload.

* CreatorCameo: The film writer Creator/FrankMiller plays one of Cain's chemists, named...[[TheDanza Frank]]. [[DeathByCameo Who is blown up]].

* TheDragon: Hob, to Cain.

* ElectricTorture: [[spoiler:Averted. With so many useless directives in his programming, Murphy grabs some wires from a nearby substation, sending thousands upon thousands of volts of electricity coursing through him, erasing the useless code outright, and wiping his memory clean.]] AndThereWasMuchRejoicing for Murphy's fellow officers.
** Played straight earlier on when Cain's gang incapacitate Robocop by firing a grappling claw into his chest armour and then running electricity down its cable.

* TheEvilGenius: Hob seems to be one of the more intelligent members of Cain's gang.
* EvenEvilHasStandards: The dirty doctor who vivisects Officer Duffy to death for squealing is wise enough to suggest to Cain that the very young Hob should leave the room because it would be too intense for him. Angie and Hob are also horrified when he starts cutting; Cain had told Angie the whole thing was a stunt to scare Duffy and the doctor wasn't going to actually hurt him. Hob tries to look away silently, only for Cain to force him to watch.

* GoryDiscretionShot: Several times in the movie, we simply got strong hints as to how awful the violence being done was, such as [[spoiler:a doctor showing us Cain's agonized face after the skull holding it was sliced away]]. Used to ''great'' effect when [=RoboCop=] is dismantled to pieces by Cain's crew -- we don't see what it looks like until they're done, but we see the process involves jackhammers, sledgehammers, and their own casual view of the process ''all from [=RoboCop=]'s perspective.'' It is a dark inversion of his "rebirth" in the first movie and references the visuals of that scene.
** After officer Duffy rats out Cain's gang [[spoiler: Cain takes him to an abandoned hospital where we only see the initial cut of his vivisection.]]

* GreatOffscreenWar: The Amazon War mentioned through the franchise is first mentioned here, as it's seen when Faxx is looking up Cain's background that he's served in the war. In [[ComicBook/FRankMillersRoboCop Frank Miller's original script]], Sgt. Reed would've been revealed to have also served in the conflict and gone OhCrap from seeing the Rehabs ([[RefittedForSequel a concept recycled for]] ''Film/RoboCop3''), recognizing them as mercenaries who also served in the conflict.

* NoSell: At the beginning of the movie, Murphy calmly walks [[OutOfTheInferno out of his destroyed patrol car]] and calmly guns down the gun store robbers who riddled his car with bullets and two [=RPGs'=].
** Later, after Robo-Cain goes on a rampage, he scans the crowd looking for Murphy while being shot at by the Detroit P.D., and O.C.P. security. Eventually, he gives up his search and only fires back because the hundreds of rounds hitting him are causing a minor annoyance. Lewis smashing into him [[CarFu using an APC]] only slows him down for a few seconds.
* NotSoDifferentRemark: [[spoiler: In his final moments, Hob now understands what [=RoboCop=] had to go through before being rebuilt, just by seeing the expression on Robo's face.]]
-->'''Hob:''' [[spoiler: I'm gonna die. You know what that's like, don't you? It really sucks]].\\
'''[=RoboCop=]''': [[NotSoStoic Yes, it does]].

* OutOfTheInferno: [=RoboCop=] stepping out from his destroyed car in the opening.
* PoliticalOvercorrectness: [=RoboCop=] is revamped to be a more politically-correct role model by having over two hundred directives installed in his brain to teach "pro-social" messages (as defined by a committee). It drives him effectively insane and unable to do any real policework. [[SarcasmMode At least the trope is used subtly...]]
** The multitudinous additional directives they added include, noticeable by freeze-framing them:
*** DIRECTIVE 233: Restrain hostile feelings.
*** DIRECTIVE 234: Promote positive attitude.
*** DIRECTIVE 235: Suppress aggressiveness.
*** DIRECTIVE 236: Promote pro-social values.
*** DIRECTIVE 238: Avoid destructive behavior.
*** DIRECTIVE 239: Be accessible.
*** DIRECTIVE 240: Participate in group activities.
*** DIRECTIVE 241: Avoid interpersonal conflicts.
*** DIRECTIVE 242: Avoid premature value judgments.
*** DIRECTIVE 243: Pool opinions before expressing yourself.
*** DIRECTIVE 244: Discourage feelings of negativity and hostility.
*** DIRECTIVE 245: If you haven't got anything nice to say, don't talk.
*** DIRECTIVE 246: Don't rush traffic lights.
*** DIRECTIVE 247: Don't run through puddles and splash pedestrians or other cars.
*** DIRECTIVE 248: Don't say that you are always prompt when you are not.
*** DIRECTIVE 249: Don't be oversensitive to the hostility and negativity of others.
*** DIRECTIVE 250: Don't walk across a ballroom floor swinging your arms.
*** DIRECTIVE 254: Encourage awareness.
*** DIRECTIVE 256: Discourage harsh language.
*** DIRECTIVE 258: Commend sincere efforts.
*** DIRECTIVE 261: Talk things out.
*** DIRECTIVE 262: [[TakeThat Avoid Orion meetings]].
*** DIRECTIVE 266: Smile.
*** DIRECTIVE 267: Keep an open mind.
*** DIRECTIVE 268: Encourage participation.
*** DIRECTIVE 273: Avoid stereotyping.
*** DIRECTIVE 278: Seek non-violent solutions.

* ProductPlacement: Because Creator/DataEast made the ''[=RoboCop=]'' arcade game (and were already working on another one based on this sequel), the arcade scene is filled with nothing but Data East cabinets.

* UpgradeVsPrototypeFight: [=RoboCop=] vs. [=RoboCain=].

* ArtificialStupidity: As a publicity stunt, Dr. Faxx has Robocop reprogrammed with hundreds of new directives based upon feedback from a group of concerned parents. However, no regard is made to prevent these directives from leading to contradiction leading to the following behavior:

** Reed's first name. After Faxx's tampered with his programming, Murphy addresses Reed as "Warren". However, in the first movie, when Bob Morton asks who Reed is, Johnson tells him he's "Sgt. John Reed". While it could initially have been chalked up to Faxx's tampering like butchering age-old sayings was, the comic adaptation of the original script for ''Film/RoboCop3'', ''[[ComicBook/FrankMillersRoboCop RoboCop: Last Stand]]'' does confirm that "Warren" was intended to be Reed's name as he was address there as "Sgt. Warren Reed".

** Reed's first name. After Faxx's tampered with his programming, Murphy addresses Reed as "Warren". However, in the first movie, when Bob Morton asks who Reed is, Johnson tells him he's "Sgt. John Reed". While it could initially have been chalked up to Faxx's tampering like butchering age-old sayings was, the comic adaptation of the original script for ''Film/RoboCop3'', ''[[ComicBook/FrankMillersRoboCop RoboCop RoboCop: Last Stand]]'' does confirm that "Warren" was intended to be Reed's name as he was address there as "Sgt. Warren Reed".

** Reed's first name. After Faxx's tampered with his programming, Murphy addresses Reed as "Warren". However, in the first movie, when Bob Morton asks who Reed is, Johnson tells him he's "Sgt. John Reed". Of course, as the overload of directives has Robo halfway to nuts and botching age-old sayings, it's possible he just used the wrong name.