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"Can't shoot a kid, can you, fucker?"
Hob

A sequel to RoboCop, released in 1990. Irvin Kershner would replace Paul Verhoeven in the director's seat, and the film also has the distinction of being Kershner's last directorial effort on the silver screen before his death in 2010. The screenplay, meanwhile, was contributed by Frank Miller and Walon Green, based on a story by the former. Peter Weller would reprise his role as RoboCop/Alex Murphy, with several other actors from the original film also reprising their roles.

The plot involves the spread of a new drug called Nuke, considered the most addictive narcotic in history, as the police department is on strike. RoboCop struggles to stem the flow by going after Cain (Tom Noonan), a drug kingpin with a messiah complex.

Meanwhile, OCP has failed to replicate their success creating the first RoboCop. After several failed attempts, an unscrupulous OCP executive hypothesizes that the mind of a criminal with a strong desire for power and immortality could survive the procedure. When RoboCop finally takes Cain down, OCP immediately sticks Cain's brain in "RoboCop 2" and counts on his addiction to Nuke as a Restraining Bolt (you get no points for guessing how long he stays loyal). Now RoboCop must face his Evil Counterpart — who is far more heavily armed than himself.


This film has examples of:

  • Aborted Arc: Murphy’s inner conflict about whether or not to try to be in his wife’s life gets dropped partway through the movie.
  • Abusive Advertising: One of the bits of In-Universe advertisement we see is a TV commercial in which an executive angsts about how he cost his company a lucrative contract because he chose a cheaper, slower communications company to send data, then blows his brains out - with a zoom on a picture of his kid right when the gun goes bang - before the ad fades into an "OCP Communications" logo and slogan.
  • Adaptational Wimp: What ultimately happened in the actual version here compared to Frank Miller's original script, as Murphy was much more resistant to the additional directives Love programs in him there than he was in the actual movie.
  • Alas, Poor Villain: Robocop encounters Hob after he's been fatally injured by Cain as Robocop 2 and they spend their last seconds begging Murphy to stay with him and say that he now understands that "dying sucks".
  • Amoral Attorney: Holzgang, a smug, arrogant, slimeball of a man. Holzgang is unfeeling, cruel and an expert at manipulating legal matters.
  • And I Must Scream: Cain's very suggested fully conscious disembodied brain and eyes getting an eyeful of his empty, decapitated head would presumably cause this in spades.
  • And Show It to You:
    • RoboCop does this to Cain. Instead of the heart, Robo uses the brain. Presumably, we're talking wi-fi here.
    • Brain in a Jar Cain gets a really good look at his own decapitated, cored-out head through the glass.
  • Antagonist Title: Technically given that the antagonist has the same name as the film.
  • Arbitrary Gun Power: When Hob fires his M21 it's shown as a scarily powerful machine gun that guns down at least two cops, with one bullet punching straight through the front and back plates of body armor. The actual M21 is a submachine gun firing pistol rounds, effective against civilians or unarmored targets but which wouldn't be a lethal threat against an armored police force.
  • Arc Words: And ones that tempt fate at that, being the phrase "We're going to make Made In America mean something again", both used by Cain and his Nuke cult and the Old Man. Anytime those words or any conversation based around those words are uttered, something terrible usually happens that goes to show that whatever situation that unfolds is as shoddy and dysfunctional as all jokes about American craftiness go, and justified in that both enterprises are long term undermining and self-destructive practices: Cain plans to flood civilization with drugs to turn everyone into an addict, while the Old Man's Delta City would cause unhelpful gentrification and sterilization of the everyday man.
  • Are These Wires Important?: Robocop puts a stop to the rampaging Robocop Mk. II by yanking out the jar Cain's brain is housed in and smashing it on the ground.
  • Artificial Stupidity: 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:
    • Walking towards a hostile firing his handgun at Murphy, as if he just needs someone to talk to. He ends up shooting himself in the head due to a shot ricocheting back at him but Murphy's program can't recognize this fact.
    • Reading Miranda Rights to said dead suspect who shot himself dead accidentally.
    • Giving a motivational speech to a junior league baseball team that enables them to escape.
    • Most glaringly, Murphy firing a deadly weapon at a man smoking, making an outline of bullet holes around his head and saying: "Thank you, for not smoking.'
  • Artistic License – Biology: The complete loss of the ozone layer would be a mass-extinction-level event in California, sterilizing the region with UV radiation. There would be much worse problems than needing extreme sunblock for exposure to the sun. If this happened over the entire planet, then the situation would be overwhelmingly dire. Ultraviolet radiation in large enough doses is actually able to kill microbes, which is why it sees use as a means of sterilizing surfaces.
  • Artistic License – Economics: The telethon fundraising goal to get Detroit out of debt is 37 million. This is a ridiculously low figure for a city the size of Detroit, even in the state of decline depicted in the film. At the time the movie was made, the annual budget for the city of Detroit was more than one billion, and could run a 50 million budget deficit in just one year. When the city filed for bankruptcy in 2013, it was in debt in excess of 18 billion. There is also the issue that failure to pay the debt would apparently cause OCP to gain control of virtually all of the city's public services. The combined worth of that would likely be in the billions, and as such having that as collateral for a 37 million dollar debt makes no sense.
  • Artistic License – Physics: Both RoboCop and RoboCop 2 fall over 100 stories — but survive undamaged and unharmed, due to the durability of their mechanical parts. While their parts may certainly have been that tough, their organic parts still would have felt the crunch of a very sudden stop inside those metal shells.
  • Attack! Attack! Attack!: RoboCain's primary strategy in combat. Of course, he has the firepower and nigh-indestructible body to back it up. RoboCop only manages to defeat him by exploiting his addiction to Nuke, which distracts the cyborg long enough for RoboCop to rip his brain out and smash it into chunks.
  • Author Tract: The Drugs Are Bad plot wasn't original to Frank Miller, but the Political Correctness Is Evil subplot definitely was, in line with his well-publicized libertarian views. Originally, it would've been even worse, with Dr. Faxx being named Dr. Love, an evil pop psychologist, and behind everything bad that happens, complete with being the personality inside Robocop 2. As anyone who's read Batman: The Dark Knight Returns or The Dark Knight Strikes Again will tell you, Frank doesn't have a very high opinion of that particular type of celebrity.
  • BFG: The Cobra Assault Cannon from the original film returns to be used by RoboCop against Cain.
  • Bait the Dog: When RoboCain runs into his former lover Angie in the warehouse shoot-out, he lowers his gun and tries to caress her face with his robotic hands, almost seeming like he'll let her live... before snapping her neck. Presumably out of frustration, since he can no longer enjoy a woman in his roboticized state.
  • Barrier-Busting Blow: RoboCop politely knocks on the (armoured) drug kitchen door. When the guard comes to check the viewport, Robo's fist comes through to wallop him in the solar plexus.
  • Best Served Cold: At the end of the movie, seeing the smug OCP executives drive off, Lewis comments that they're going to get away scot-free after all the death and destruction they've caused. RoboCop however is not perturbed.
    RoboCop: Patience, Lewis. We're only human.
  • Better to Kill Than Frighten: RoboCop nearly captures Cain from information supplied by Dirty Cop 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, "Doesn't he look scared?"
  • Big Bad: Cain, the distributor of "Nuke" who's made into RoboCop 2 by OCP and goes on a rampage.
  • Big Guy Rodeo: RoboCop jumps on and rides RoboCain like this in order to rip out his brain and spine while the criminal-turned-cybercop is distracted with his Nuke high.
  • Bilingual Bonus: The slave woman hiding in the limo after Murphy busts the drug lab, begs Cain to take her with him so that she won't be arrested. It doesn't work.
  • Biting-the-Hand Humor: After being reprogrammed by Faxx, one of RoboCop's new directives is to "avoid Orion meetings."
  • Blunt Metaphors Trauma: RoboCop stops some kids from playing with an open fire hydrant. He attempts to dispatch some old adages of homespun wisdom but botches several of the sayings. It's worth noting that he's been reprogrammed with so many conflicting directives that he can barely think straight.
  • Body Horror:
    • The failed attempts to build a New and Improved RoboCop 2 always end with the projects turning on themselves.
    • RoboCop ends up in a pile of pieces after his first, failed attempt to get Cain.
    • Cain, reduced to a brain, spinal column, and two floating eyeballs, forced to silently watch as the doctors casually chat over his disembodied, empty head with its slack face contorted in a rictus of horror. If he wasn't already insane, that would have done it.
  • Bomb Whistle: Accompanies RoboCain and RoboCop when they fall from the OCP building.
  • Bottomless Magazines: 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. It is played 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.
  • Boxed Crook: Cain, who becomes a new prototype RoboCop after having his brain harvested, is given the promise of Nuke for his addiction in exchange for cooperation.
  • Brain in a Jar:
    • Cain, at least temporarily, while they're preparing his robot body. He still has his eyes attached to his brain, allowing him to see his own face that's been cut off of his body, with the surgeon casually holding it like a coffee cup.
    • The first failed Robocop 2 prototype appears to be a whole human head (which, amusingly, still has his mustache) hooked up to tubes and suspended inside an armored shell.
  • Briefcase Blaster: As Hob is escaping he's carrying what appears to be a small metal briefcase. When confronted by Officer Lewis he unfolds it into a machine gun and tries to shoot her. It's an actual weapon, the Ares FMG
  • Call-Back:
    • The gang taking RoboCop apart is reminiscent of Murphy's death in the original film.
    • When Murphy confronts Cain in the Civic Centrum, he is armed with a Cobra Assault Cannon, featured in the first film. Good thinking, since it took out the ED-209 in two shots.
  • Came Back Strong: Overwhelmed by armor-piercing weaponry, cut into pieces and left hanging by a thread, Murphy gets rebuilt into a renewed, shiny and properly fixed-up version. After getting rid of extra directives intended to make him ineffective, he goes against the same people who disabled him the first time around and really tears them a new one.
  • Car Fu: Lewis hits RoboCain with a light armored vehicle to stop his rampage. It doesn't work.
  • Chemical Messiah: Mostly edited out of the final cut, but Cain is a cult leader and drug dealer who thinks "Nuke" is the key to higher consciousness.
  • A Child Shall Lead Them: A preteen ends up in charge of a Nuke ring.
  • Cloudcuckoolander: RoboCop, after he's saddled with a couple hundred politically-correct directives.
    RoboCop: Isn't the moon wonderful tonight?
    Lewis: It's still daytime.
    RoboCop: It's the thought the counts.
  • Condemned Contestant: Cain's brain is put in RoboCop 2 against his will after he is taken in by RoboCop.
  • Continuity Nod: RoboCop brings one of the Cobra Rifles that Clarence Boddicker's gang used in the finale of the last movie to his confrontation with RoboCain, though it does not cause much damage.
  • Continuity Snarl:
    • 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 Murphy's butchering age-old sayings was, the comic adaptation of the original script for RoboCop 3, RoboCop: Last Stand does confirm that "Warren" was intended to be Reed's name as he was addressed there as "Sgt. Warren Reed" with the now-retired Reed's only rebuttal being he was no longer a cop.
    • Something however that can't be explained away as the result of Faxx's screwing with Murphy, however, is MediaBreak referring to the precinct Murphy is stationed at as "Metro North" instead of "Metro West" as in the other films.
  • Corruption of a Minor: The Detroit druglord Cain allows a young boy, Hob, to join his gang. While Hob appreciates the "badass" things this allows him to do (like shooting at RoboCop), he is less appreciative when Cain forces him to watch a Dirty Cop being vivisected in front of him.
  • Creator Cameo:
    • The film writer Frank Miller plays one of Cain's chemists, named...Frank. Who is blown up.
    • The head inside the first Robocop 2 is that of the special effect supervisor Craig Davies who designed the failed prototypes.
  • Credits Gag: The film has absolutely no opening credits. Not even a studio bumper.
  • Crooks Are Better Armed: The Cobra Assault Cannon only knocks RoboCain off balance for a moment without doing any damage, showing just how tough RoboCain is.
  • Cutting the Knot: RoboCop is given a slew of new directives essentially intended to render him completely useless. When he overhears that a power surge could get rid of them, he walks over to an electrical box and zaps himself, wiping out all his directives.
  • Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: OCP has been trying to make a RoboCop 2 for some time (five months, as the Old Man tells Johnson) by the time the events of the movie take place. However, every time they try to do so (using other cops killed in the line of duty), the resurrected cyborg turns suicidal upon realizing what they've become. Turns out, Alex Murphy was a one-in-a-million shot who had an overwhelming dedication to uphold the law and being a devout Irish-Catholic, a complete aversion to suicide. The average person won't take being turned into a cyborg after dying very well. Dr. Faxx decides to use a criminal mind instead, reasoning that for a grandiose psychopath the overwhelming power of their new robot body would outweigh the loss of their flesh. She's only partially right; Cain isn't suicidal after being turned into Robocop 2, but he ends up going on a massive rampage due to his Nuke addiction and complete lack of moral restraint.
  • David Versus Goliath: RoboCop vs RoboCain.
  • Deadline News: Among the dozens of victims of the massive shootout that pitted RoboCain vs Murphy, the Detroit P.D., and O.C.P. Security were members of the press who were originally called down to the convention center to report on the unveiling of Delta City, and the new RoboCop 2.
  • Death of a Child: Hob, the youngest member of Cain's cult, gets gunned down behind a truck door while trying to hide from RoboCain.
  • Deathly Unmasking: OCP's attempts to create a successor to Robocop are met with several ruinous failures, likely due to the unwilling nature of the cyborg modification process. In one particularly horrific case, the prototype actually goes so far as to rip its helmet and faceplate off to reveal the wire-studded human skull beneath it - severing its life support system in the process.
  • Death by Adaptation: In the novelization, Catzo, a.k.a. "Elvis Guy", is killed in a knife fight with Lewis during the big raid. The scene was filmed but cut from the movie, resulting in the character in question becoming a case of What Happened to the Mouse? in the film itself.
  • Determinator: After numerous disastrous attempts at attempting to build a second law enforcement cyborg, Dr. Faxx speculates that the reason why Alex Murphy has survived as RoboCop for so long without issues is that his profile — devout Irish Catholic and an intense devotion to duty — and personality keeps him from eating a bullet.
  • Dirty Cop: Officer Duffy is used by Cain as an inside source so that Cain and his gang can get inside information on police raids against their hideouts and prepare. After RoboCop beats Cain's location out of Duffy, Cain has Duffy killed by vivisection.
  • Disastrous Demonstration:
    • The two RoboCop 2 prototypes don't exactly pan out in the testing phase. One shoots several people and then blows its own brains out. The second, which they wisely did not provide with a loaded weapon, immediately tore its helmet off, revealing a screaming skull before dropping dead.
    • RoboCain goes berserk at a press event after the Old Man unwisely waves a canister of Cain's favorite drug around in front of it. You'd think Faxx would have briefed him on that.
  • Distaff Counterpart: Dr. Faxx is basically Dick Jones as a female OCP psychologist.
  • Double-Meaning Title: The title is your standard Numbered Sequel fare and an Antagonist Title for Cain's eventual cyborg body.
  • Dragon-in-Chief: Dr. Juliette Faxx: A subordinate in OCP, she plans to use death row convicts as a contrast to Murphy's moral values and Catholic upbringing. Later, she overloads his system with numerous useless directives. After this fails, she puts Cain's brains into a robotic body, seeking to control Cain by means of his addiction to Nuke.
  • Dramatic Unmask:
    • The second attempted RoboCop 2 prototype removes his face-plate and helmet... and reveals to be nothing more than a bloody, screaming skull attached to lots of wires, which immediately collapses to the ground.
    • RoboCain's screen-for-a-face also pulls this on his former girlfriend Angie before breaking her neck.
  • Driven to Suicide:
    • One of OCP's commercials has a man lamenting his choice of a cheaper but inferior phone service, which cost his company a lucrative business deal. He then shoots himself in the head. Buy OCP, folks!
    • Both RoboCop 2 prototypes kill themselves when faced with their new cybernetic existence.
  • Electric Torture:
    • 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. And There Was Much Rejoicing for Murphy's fellow officers.
    • Cain's gang incapacitates Robocop by firing a grappling claw into his chest armour and then running electricity down its cable.
  • Enfant Terrible:
    • Hob, the youngest member of Cain's cult, makes them look innocent in comparison. He's not above killing cops, even trying to garrote Lewis while RoboCop is beating up Officer Duffy, and uses his age to avoid getting gunned down by RoboCop. Later in the film, he almost manages to buy Detroit by making a deal with the mayor. Then RoboCain shows up and massacres the meeting...
    • There's also a junior baseball team that is robbing an electronics store. Lewis is momentarily nonplussed when she realizes the criminals are a bunch of twelve-year-olds.
  • Epic Fail: The attempted RoboCop 2 prototypes were driven to self-destruction. The first one pulls his gun and shoots two of the guys overseeing the test (Dr. Schenk is shot in the arm and is wearing a sling when the tape plays, wincing uncomfortably at that scene), before turning the gun on himself. The second prototype pulls off his faceplate and helmet, revealing a screaming skull that promptly topples over with a loud crash. It's likely that one would have tried to shoot someone, too, but the scientists were actually smart enough not give the second prototype live ammunition.
  • Even Evil Has Standards:
    • 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.
    • Mr. Johnson may be an amoral corporate employee but he finds Faxx's proposal in creating Robocop 2 appalling and was more than thrilled to throw her under a bus at The Old Man's orders following Cain's rampage.
  • The Evils of Free Will: Dr Faxx when she reprograms Murphy's prime directives.
    Faxx: You are free— no worries, no doubts, no puzzling questions.
    Robocop: I am free.
  • Evil Is Not a Toy: Do you think it would be a bad idea to take a notoriously violent and sociopathic Junkie Prophet and transform him into a massive, combat robot with Nigh-Invulnerability that is armed to the teeth and in perpetual agony from drug withdrawal? Then congratulations, you're smarter than the employees of OCP who did exactly that with Cain and tried to use him as a replacement for RoboCop. Just to repeat that, OCP thought they could use a barely-controlled walking tank constantly on the verge of roid rage as a police officer. Even funnier/crazier is that he does have a Restraining Bolt... which he casually snatches out of his creator's hands and smashes before going on a killing spree.
  • Exact Words: A very dark, but utterly hilarious example, that summarizes Cain’s character when he has Duffy vivisected while he’s still conscious.
    Angie: You said you were just going to scare him!!!
    Cain: Doesn’t he look scared?
  • Executive Meddling: There's some in-universe meddling with Murphy's brain. OCP saddles him with many dozens of politically correct software directives. These directives may work fine for creating corporate executives or cubicle mice, but for "rules of engagement for the one-cyborg high threat response unit in the most corrupt and brutal city in Michigan", they were maddening. The politically correct directives were a Take That! against Moral Guardians.
  • Eye Scream: Two prostitutes beat and rob a guy who just had robbed an old lady, and he gets a heel in his eye. There is also one guard during the raid on Cain's hideout that gets a Scope Snipe courtesy of RoboCop.
  • Face Palm: The Old Man's response to the failed RoboCop prototypes.
  • Failure Montage: The result of OCP's first attempt to make a new RoboCop.
  • False Reassurance: Cain assures Angie and Hob that he's only going to scare Officer Duffy with torture. When the Torture Technician starts vivisecting poor Duffy with scalpels, he replies to their shock that Duffy is scared. You can see that Angie and Hob are both very sickened.
  • Fanservice Extra: Used deliberately in a cut sequence, to show how Robo has come to terms with the fact that he is just a machine. While walking through the OCP police station, Robo comes across the co-ed locker room, where an unnamed female officer is showering naked. Robo stops and stares for a few moments, then continues on his way.
  • Fantastic Drug: 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 operates by playing off of or countering negative emotions made by the brain's chemistry. Nuke actually comes in a number of different varieties, including Red Ramrod, White Noise, Black Thunder and Blue Velvet.
  • Flatline: Done when Dr. Faxx shuts off Cain's life support system so his brain can be harvested.
  • Flaw Exploitation:
    • Robocop Would Not Hurt A Child even though Hob is holding a Desert Eagle. Hob cold-bloodedly lampshades this, then shoots him.
    • Hob uses Angie's addiction to Nuke to keep her in line after Cain's absence.
    • Dr. Faxx uses Cain's addiction to Nuke to control him once he's revived... but Cain soon realizes that he can just overpower anyone in his way. RoboCop better utilizes Cain's addictions in the final battle— despite having superior firepower and a nearly indestructible cyborg body, RoboCain's withdrawal-addled mind allows RoboCop to fight on nearly even terms through better strategy.
  • Freudian Threat: Of sorts, and a particularly nasty one. Near the beginning of the movie, the OCP exec bullies Murphy into renouncing his attempt to reconnect with his family by hinting that he no longer has a penis, and would be unable to satisfy his wife.
  • Friendly Tickle Torture: Alex Murphy tickles his wife on her bare feet while painting her nails. She quite enjoys it.
  • From the Mouths of Babes: Detroit has deteriorated to the point where gangs of violent and foul-mouthed kids are going on crime sprees. Then there's Hob, who is crueler, smarter and more ambitious.
  • Full-Conversion Cyborg: When the villain Cain is critically injured and captured, OCP uses the opportunity to convert him into a cyborg against his will (temporarily rendering him a Brain in a Jar while he goes through drug withdrawal, which doesn't help his mood), banking on using his Nuke addiction to keep him under control. Go figure, it turns out placing a brain with a god complex, a sadistic sense of humor, and zero empathy into a massive, heavily armed robotic body is a bad idea, and Cain goes on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge against OCP and the police the second he has a chance.
  • Funny Background Event:
    • During the first RoboCop 2 demonstration, when it shoots one of the scientists, Johnson sinks to the floor and crawls away. Also, during the second demonstration, a huge automated sentry turret is present in the background, presumably in case the second prototype tries to go on a rampage also.
    • The contortionist violinist that plays for the telethon accidentally breaks his violin when he tries to stand up. He can be seen walking off in the background, staring at the pieces.
  • Game of Chicken: During the Motorcycle Jousting between RoboCop on a cycle and Cain in an armored car, the two drive straight at each other. RoboCop ends up going through the armored car's windshield and grabbing Cain.
  • Gatling Good: RoboCain's main weapon is a pair of these, which are very destructive against whoever is present.
  • Getting High on Their Own Supply: Hob is the only major member of the gang not getting high off of Nuke, with Cain himself and Angie being the biggest offenders. Cain went so far as to know what was wrong with the latest bunch when he shoot it into himself.
  • Gone Horribly Wrong: The initial RoboCop 2 prototypes went horribly wrong as they couldn't handle their existence as cyborgs, and were Driven to Suicide. Turning Cain into RoboCop 2 goes horribly right instead.
  • Gory Discretion Shot: Several times in the movie, we simply got strong hints as to how awful the violence being done was, such as 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 Cain takes him to an abandoned hospital where we only see the initial cut of his vivisection.
  • Grave Robbing: Before he meets Cain for the first time, RoboCop runs into the stolen corpse of Elvis Presley.
  • Great Offscreen War: 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 Frank Miller's original script, Sgt. Reed would've been revealed to have also served in the conflict and gone Oh, Crap! from seeing the Rehabs (a concept recycled for RoboCop 3), recognizing them as mercenaries who also served in the conflict.
  • Groin Attack: Two prostitutes attack a man on the streets, and one of them kicks him in the nuts while he is on the ground.
  • Head Smashes Screen: When Murphy and Lewis bust the arcade where part of Caine's gang is hiding, Murphy grabs officer Duffy and interrogates him as to where Caine's hideout is by, among other things, smashing Duffy's face onto the screen of an arcade machine and grinding him into the glass.
  • Heart Drive: Cain's brain after he is turned into RoboCop 2.
  • Hero Stole My Bike: When RoboCop gets knocked off Cain's armored car, three motorcyclists are coming up on him as he's lying prone. Two of them ride over him. The third slows down and goes around, and that guy gets knocked off and has his cycle taken so Robo can pursue Cain. It's worth noting that the first two were lighter sport bike models while the third was a heavier cruiser. Robo might have rightly assumed the third was the only one capable of bearing his weight.
  • Heroic BSoD: When Robo encounters the kid villain Hob, he has a full BSOD with flashbacks to his son.
  • He's Dead, Jim: After Hob is seriously wounded Robocop takes his hand. Finally, Hob's grip relaxes and his hand falls open, so Robocop knows he's dead and leaves him.
  • Higher Understanding Through Drugs: Cain likes to say that the Nuke he's selling provides people with this, a complete control over their emotional lives, and he's a Messianic Archetype that just gets some bucks on the side (and even make "Made In America" mean something again while he's at it). The truth is that he's a wanna-be Dark Messiah with a cult of personality, and Nuke is so addictive that people are willing to commit suicidal acts of terrorism for a dose.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: Dr. Faxx used a deadly criminal as a test subject for RoboCain (he ended up acting like the criminal he used to be); then she tried to keep him in check with Nuke (may have worked if he was fully human and his body, not just his mind, actually craved it); then tried to use feminine wiles to avoid responsibility (she was the most likely OCP scapegoat anyway, as she authorized the use of Cain's brain).
  • Hope Spot: 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.
  • Hostage Situation: A hostage-taker holding a baby gets it in the head when Robocop points his gun away from the guy, but calculates a ricochet shot off a metal wall.
  • I'm Cold... So Cold...: After Hob has been fatally shot by the Cain cyborg, he tells RoboCop that he's cold.
  • Immune to Bullets: The title replacement's robot body proves completely immune to bullets fired by regular firearms. Even when the original Robocop uses the Cobra Assault Cannon on him, it does no damage at all.
  • Improbable Age: Hob is the only child member of Cain's gang, but has much control of it as he does. This might be because he's one of the few people in the gang that isn't using Nuke.
  • Inappropriate Hunger: The doctor that removes Cain's brain remarks that he's hungry immediately afterward.
  • Ironic Echo: The music introducing the RoboCop 2 prototypes that killed themselves is the same that plays when RoboCain is unveiled at the Delta City press conference.
  • Jerkass Has a Point: The OCP executive who points to RoboCop that stalking his wife and family, when he won't ever be the same husband to her and that he's torturing her with her not knowing if he's her husband or not.
  • Karma Houdini:
    • As the movie ends, Lewis and RoboCop last see the Old Man and his supporters driving off in a limousine into the night. Lewis complains that OCP will get away unscathed for the night's events, but RoboCop insists that they must be patient, as "they're only human".
    • On a lesser scale, the two prostitutes who do a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown on a man at the start of the movie. Granted, said man was an Asshole Victim, but still...
  • "Kick Me" Prank: A child spray-paints KIK ME on the back of RoboCop while he deals with a bunch of them playing with a fire hydrant.
  • Kids Are Cruel: Almost all kids shown on-screen are little monsters who enjoy violence and law-breaking. Yet RoboCop's conscience won't allow him to target a child. Hob, in particular, is an outright villain and a pretty evil one at that. The kids playing with the fire hydrant are a milder example of this as their only form of cruelty is to give RoboCop a spray-paint job.
  • Killed Mid-Sentence: The Surgeon General's death at the beginning of the movie: gunned down in the middle of a speech about the spread of Nuke, ironically by a militant Nuke addict working for Cain.
  • Laser-Guided Karma: After having Duffy vivisected to death because You Have Failed Me, Cain ultimately winds up in a similar predicament when he's Forced to Watch OCP dissect him and convert him into RoboCop's Evil Counterpart.
  • Lack of Empathy: While Cain most definitely did deserve having his life support turned off and his body used for horrific experiments, the troubling, detached, scientific curiosity that Faxx looked upon him as he lay dying reeked of this trope.
  • Leave No Witnesses: As OCP are trying to bankrupt the city, they discover that the Mayor is going to cut a deal with a drug lord to get the necessary funding. They send RoboCop 2 to kill the Mayor, specifically stating that there must be no witnesses. Ironically the Mayor is the only one to escape the subsequent massacre, but can't afford to admit what he was up to anyway.
  • Mixed Metaphor:
    Robocop (Murphy): Waste makes haste, for time is fleeting. A rolling stone is worth two in the bush.
  • Moe Greene Special: The first person shot by RoboCop when the cops raid Cain's lab is a sniper who gets a round to his right eye.
  • More Dakka: Robocain's berserk rampage as he shrugs off and returns thousands of rounds of ammunition.
  • Morton's Fork: The Ozone layer has deteriorated so much that even a very short period of time in the sun is too much. Sunblock 5000 carries a Surgeon General's warning that frequent use can cause skin cancer. So, it's basically down to a choice between skin cancer and skin cancer.
  • Motorcycle Jousting: RoboCop has a joust with Cain: RoboCop on a motorcycle, Cain in an armored car. Robo leaps from his ride right as Cain hits him, tackling Cain through the windshield.
  • Must Let Them Get Away: At the end, the Big Bad who had OCP create a giant robot that killed many police officers and civilians is walking away.
    Officer Lewis: That son of a bitch is getting away with it and we can't even touch him.
    RoboCop: Patience, Lewis. We're only human.
  • My Friends... and Zoidberg:
    The Old Man: [Mayor Kuzack enters the room] My friends, welcome to our city as it should be, and as it will be in the hands of responsible private enterprise. [applause] And a special welcome to mayor Kuzack and the outgoing administration.
  • Name of Cain: Cain, the villain in the second film, is a drug lord, torturer, and murderer.
  • Neck Lift: When Cain (in his RoboCop 2 body) meets Angie in the warehouse, he grabs her head and performs a Neck Snap, then lifts her off the ground and holds her in the air while snapping her neck a few more times for good measure.
  • Never My Fault: At the end of the film, after RoboCop's intended successor has killed and injured people, Johnson from OCP suggests blaming Dr. Faxx. It's a twisted example in that it actually was her fault, but OCP brought her in and her superiors turned a blind eye to what she was doing while her subordinates were too afraid to challenge her. In fact, Johnson is the only one who really isn't at fault, having opposed Faxx at every turn. It was more the CEO of OCP, known only as the Old Man, who needed the blame to be shifted, and then for legal reasons.
  • Nightmare Face: RoboCain's digitized face, particularly when he flies into a rage, and especially once Murphy yanks his brain out of his chassis.
  • No-Sell:
    • At the beginning of the movie, Murphy calmly walks out of his destroyed patrol car and calmly guns down the gun store robbers who riddled his car with bullets and two RPGs'.
    • 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 using an APC only slows him down for a few seconds.
  • Not Himself: When Robo starts showing off his new Politically Correct programming:
    Lewis: Hit the gas, Murphy
    Robo: The posted limit is 35. We should set an example, Anne. Your hair looks lovely that way
    Lewis: (frowns) It's OCP, they did something to you
    Robo: I'm fine. Isn't the moon wonderful tonight?
    Lewis: It's still daytime.
    Robo: It's the thought that counts.
    Lewis: (rolls her eyes) Oh, Jesus, we're heading back to the station, that's all there is to it.
  • Nothing Personal: Cain makes a big show of expressing this towards Robocop just before tearing him to pieces.
    Cain: Jesus...had days like this...hounded and attacked like a criminal. But like him, I don't blame you. They program you, and you do it.
  • "Not So Different" Remark: 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: I'm gonna die. You know what that's like, don't you? It really sucks.
    RoboCop: Yes, it does.
  • Oh, Crap!:
    • Cain's reaction as he sees Dr. Faxx make a phone call announcing that he has just expired and his brain is to be harvested, and then he appears to try to reach with his arm to block her from disconnecting his life support.
    • Cain's face monitor shows his eyes bulging out just as RoboCop smashes his Brain in a Jar to the asphalt.
    • Duffy upon realizing that Cain intents to have him killed for ratting his location out to Murphy.
    • One of the guys ransacking the gun shop upon realizing that the officer they shot at is not only still alive, but is RoboCop.
  • Only Sane Man: OCP Executive Don Johnson. He's the only one who realizes that loading RoboCop down with a senselessly complex command program will cripple him and he's one of two men involved in the RoboCop 2 project who does see the problem with giving the sort of sociopaths who end up on Death Row an indestructible robot body.
  • Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Dr. Faxx. Belinda Bauer manages to sound broadly American only a handful of times. For the rest, she swings between vaguely English, Irish, even German and French on a few occasions. What nationality is the actress? Australian.
  • Out-of-Character Alert: How Lewis and RoboCop's primary technician promptly realize something is very wrong after RoboCop is rebuilt; RoboCop says he's "touched", remarks on it being "a beautiful day" and he calls the captain by his first name; all things Murphy would never do.
  • Out of the Inferno: After his car has had two rockets shot at it, causing it to flip over and then shot up and blown up, RoboCop steps out of the destroyed police car, no worse for wear and ready to take out the criminals that did it.
  • Political Overcorrectness: 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. 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: 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.
  • Pre Ass Kicking One Liner: "Cain, let's step outside!"
  • Predatory Prostitute: A mugger robs an elderly lady to establish what a lawless hellhole Detroit has become. He's immediately ambushed by two female hookers who beat the shit out of him, gouging his eye out in the process.
  • Privately Owned Society: The plot revolves around OCP coming to the mayor to collect on a loan. Apparently, if the mayor doesn't pay up, the city of Detroit officially belongs to the company. While the mayor tries to appeal to the citizens, claiming that democracy will be gone, the chairman retorts that each citizen of the new Delta City will become an OCP shareholder and thus have a voice in the company.
  • Product Placement:
    • Because Data East 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.
    • Unlike in the original movie, the Cobra Cannon here is built out of a largely forgotten Pauza P50 rifle. And during the gun store robbery in the beginning, the robbers can be seen taking scoped Pauza P50s from a display case which is specifically marked "Pauza Specialties".
  • Produce Pelting: Arcade customers pelt RoboCop with popcorn and boo him when he wonders aloud "Isn't this a school day?"
  • Proscenium Reveal: The movie starts with a car thief running into a parking garage and breaking into a car. As soon as he gets in, an alarm goes off, restraints pop up around him and the seat fries him like he's being executed in an electric chair. Cut to a salesman standing outside the car, revealing that we are actually watching a MagnaVolt ("lethal response!") commercial.
  • Psycho Psychologist: Juliette Faxx is pretty crazy, as when she's given control of the RoboCop project, she decided to look into death row inmates for viable candidates and decides on Cain, a known deal cult leader, and murderer— and is overjoyed when after she put his brain into the RoboCop 2 body, he survives an attempt to destroy him, never mind that he's just been massacring people.
  • Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: Used when RoboCop is questioning Duffy.
    Where — is — Cain?
  • Punny Name: From the newscast, we have:
    Jess Perkins: $500 million in cash, Nuke money seized by police, but State Attorney Sphincter won't let the bankrupt city government touch it.
  • Put Down Your Gun and Step Away: The title character orders his partner to put her gun away to stall for time and lull the hostage taker into complacency. He then holds his gun off to the side and shoots the bad guy in the head with a carom shot.
  • Putting on the Reich: The OCP banners are red with a white circle, and a black company logo inside them. The company's private army wears totalitarian longcoats and caps.
  • Reading Your Rights: RoboCop reads the Miranda warning to a dead body, and is astonished when Lewis points it out. He was reading him his last rights.
  • Reality Is Unrealistic: Cain snapping Angie's neck on the close-up shot was done with the actual actress, Galyn Görg, and not a dummy. According to Robert Tippet, she was incredibly flexible and had a very strong neck. Even when her head was almost at a 90-degree angle, she was completely fine and kept cranking her neck more when necessary.
  • Restraining Bolt:
    • Cain's addiction to Nuke is meant to be one. It never occurred to Faxx that, absent the physical symptoms of withdrawal, Cain wouldn't actually be hampered by his lack of it and could always take it by force.
    • Cain's weapons are controlled by a remote. Unfortunately, he just takes it, enables the weapons himself, then crushes it.
    • Murphy gets his brain scrambled by hundreds of committee-written directives, rendering him incapable of performing police duty - or to function at all, for that matter.
  • Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: One of the councilmen sells Mayor Kusak out to OCP upon hearing of an impending deal that would derail OCP's plans for Delta City. It doesn't exclude him of being targeted and gunned down by the newly made RoboCop 2 all the same.
  • Ripped from the Headlines: Nuke is clearly inspired by the Crack Epidemic which was raging at the time of the film’s release.
  • Robo Cam: Mecha-Cain appears to run on an early version of MacOS, complete with a skull logo in the upper left.
  • Robotic Psychopath: RoboCain is a giant armored robot with the brain of an Ax-Crazy criminal put inside it. Obviously, this makes it an uncontrollable death bot. Nice going, OCP execs.
  • Save the Day, Turn Away: The movie begins with OCP's legal team forcing RoboCop to turn away from Murphy's wife and kid. RoboCop doesn't want to give up on trying to connect with them, but his family are freaked out by his visits to their home - and are threatening to sue OCP - so RoboCop lies to his wife and convinces them that he isn't really her husband reborn as a warrior of living steel, but a robot built in honor of Murphy's memory.
  • The Scapegoat: Faxx spearheaded using Cain's brain and oversaw the project, but the Old Man gave her the go-ahead every step of the way. The Old Man is thus well-aware that OCP is legally going to be on the hook for all the carnage and destruction caused by the battle royale at the end of the movie. To save the company, Johnson suggests scapegoating Faxx and making it appear they had absolutely no idea what was really going on.
  • Scaramanga Special: Hob's lunchbox submachine gun. It's real.
  • Scope Snipe: RoboCop gives a sniper a Moe Greene Special through his scope.
  • Selective Slaughter: RoboCop is prohibited from shooting children. Hob takes advantage of this restriction to shoot him.
  • Sequel Escalation: After a street gang and ED-209, RoboCop now must take on a cultish drug gang and later their leader in a cyborg body that is a cross between ED-209 and RoboCop himself.
  • Sequel Reset: Despite the first film's ending, RoboCop talks like a robot and is still conflicted about his status as a being.
  • Shoot the Hostage Taker: During a raid on a drug lab, a criminal takes a baby hostage. RoboCop uses a ricochet shot off a metal door to shoot the hostage-taker in the head.
  • Shoulder Cannon: Part of RoboCain's arsenal is a shoulder-mounted assault cannon and at least one wrist-mounted Gatling gun.
  • Shout-Out: Cain is overseeing the development of new versions of Nuke, one of which is named Blue Velvet, likely after the song. But just maybe because the chemist working on it is named Frank.
  • SkeleBot 9000: One of the failed prototypes removes his helmet to reveal a bloody human skull before screaming and collapsing.
  • Sleeping Their Way to the Top: Juliette Faxx becomes the mistress of Omni Consumer Products' Clueless Boss, which lets her bulldoze her newest cybernetic police officer project past all opposition, even when her project uses a criminal psychopath as its operating system.
  • Sleeping with the Boss: Johnson goes to complain to the Old Man about Faxx selecting criminals for the RoboCop program, only to see Faxx walk into the Old Man's room in a revealing outfit.
  • The Starscream: While not shown actively plotting against Cain throughout most of the film, Hob was shown to resent being Forced to Watch Duffy's death. After he and Angie escape Metro West's raid on the Nuke factory, Hob also used the fact that he was Straight Edge Evil, whereas Cain and Angie were getting high on Nuke themselves and used Angie's addiction against her to take over the gang and force Angie to leave Cain to die in the hospital. This bites him after Faxx turns Cain into RoboCop 2 when Cain is sent after them and Mayor Kuzak.
  • Stay with Me Until I Die: Little Hob is mortally wounded by Cain's attack. RoboCop finds him and says he's going to call for medical help, but:
    Hob: Don't leave me.
    RoboCop: I won't leave you. [takes Hob's hand]
  • Straight Edge Evil: Hob was the only member of the man Nuke Cult trio not to be using the drug himself. Hob uses this fact by lording Angie's addiction over her head when he takes over the gang, forcing Angie to abandon Cain to his fate after he's captured and hospitalized.
  • Stupid Evil: Faxx, you honestly thought it was a good idea to put the mind of the city's greatest drug dealer and a serial killer into the body of a nearly unstoppable robot, all under the pretense that you think he's under your control, and then you use the remote control for his guns right in front of him? And her arrogance got countless people killed in the process.
  • Sucksessor: Every attempt to create a new and improved replacement for the original Robocop ends terribly. The first Robocop 2 prototype actually does appear more heavily armored than Murphy while retaining a reasonable humanoid size, but goes on a murder-suicide rampage almost immediately. The second prototype looks extremely bare-bones, as though the developers tried to salvage the project using whatever budget was left after the failure of the first prototype. It also offs itself immediately. Robocain is much more successful, but unfortunately is also a murderous psychopath in the body of a walking tank.
  • Sudden Sequel Heel Syndrome: In the first movie, the Old Man, the CEO of Omni Consumer Products, is merely the head of an amoral company who really doesn't do anything outright villainous. Indeed, he's something of a genuine idealist, as he chides Dick Jones for his callous disregard for the office worker ED-209 killed, and his motivation for erecting "Delta City" genuinely seems to be out of a desire to give people jobs and security in the Crapsack World around them. Now, he's a flat-out Corrupt Corporate Executive, playing every trope in that particular book, who is somehow stupid enough to not figure out that there's no way putting a psychopath's brain in a super-cyborg body is going to end well. However, the fan site RoboCop Archive does point out in a video on their YouTube channel the Old Man was only seen twice at board room meetings in the first movie, as opposed to multiple times behind closed doors as seen here.
  • Super Window Jump: RoboCop plays chicken with Cain by putting his hijacked motorcycle against his van and uses the ensuing crash to jump through its windshield.
  • Taken Off Life Support: Dr. Fax visits a gravely injured Caine at the hospital, calls his doctor, posing as a nurse, and saying that he suddenly died. She unhooks the equipment keeping him alive, in order to harvest his brain for her Robo Cop-2 project.
  • Taking You with Me: Robocop finds himself hanging from RoboCain's legs as the latter clings to a rooftop. Finding no other way to damage the much larger cyborg, he decides to drop Cain many floors to the road below - even if he has to fall with him. Immediately afterward, as RoboCain is trying to melt his face off with a welder, Robocop tries it again, forcing the welder onto a nearby gas pipe and causing an explosion that engulfs them both. He stops trying suicidal methods after that, as neither proves effective.
  • Tank Goodness: Lewis rams RoboCain with an APC during the climax.
  • Telethon: Mayor Marvin Kuzack organizes a telethon to raise money to save Detroit from bankruptcy. However, we can see that he still has a long way to go.
  • That Man Is Dead: In a more complex way, RoboCop tells Murphy's wife that Murphy is dead and they gave RoboCop Murphy's face as a way of honoring the fallen officer. Sadly, we know he's still in there somewhere because he lies to his wife in order to let her go. He may not be dead, but he is no longer her husband.
    Ellen Murphy: [sees RoboCop without his helmet] Alex, is it really you?
    RoboCop: [gets up and walks to her, mesh metal fence separating them]
    Ellen Murphy: [crying] Don't you remember me? Whatever they've done to you... whatever has happened, we can work it out... start again...
    RoboCop: [leans forward] Touch me.
    Ellen Murphy: [she touches his lip, downhearted] It's cold.
    RoboCop: They made this to honor him.
    Ellen Murphy: [crying] No...
    RoboCop: Your husband is dead. I don't know you.
  • Theme Music Abandonment: Basil Poledouris' theme is absent from this film.
  • There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Attempted by the gun shop robbing criminals in the opening scene when they shoot up a seemingly random police cruiser with rocket launchers, bazookas, and automatic gunfire. Ultimately averted when they find out who is in the cruiser.
  • Title Drop: One of the rare cases this trope has been done by a sequel with a number in the title.
  • Too Dumb to Live: It's the OCP way!
    • Faxx, a psychologist, comes up with the idea of taking death row inmates and giving them a cyborg body, outright saying that criminals would make good candidates because the power and immortality would appeal to them and thusly they wouldn't go crazy like the cops who had been prior test models. At least Dr. Schenk called her out on that one, and Johnson is quick to shoot her down when she approaches him about it. Alas, she managed to convince the Old Man to go along with her idea.
    • Despite having a pretty serious problem with it in the first movie, OCP insists on giving its demonstration prototypes live ammunition. First Robocop 2A, who kills a scientist, wings another, and then shoots himself, then RoboCain who goes bananas with a frickin' minigun for nearly fifteen minutes.
  • Took a Level in Jerkass: The Old Man. He was one of the few in OCP who was sane and pragmatic in the original. He wanted results, but had reservations and didn't want to use poorly tested and dangerous equipment. Here he's almost as bad as Dick Jones. Only Faxx is worse than him.
  • Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: Hob, the villain's main henchman, is a boy of about 12 and very competent in criminal business.
  • Trashcan Bonfire: There are several on the streets of Detroit as RoboCop approaches Cain's first drug factory.
  • TV Head Robot: RoboCop2 prototype A, and RoboCain.
  • Unwilling Roboticization: It's implied very strongly — what with his powerless protests as Faxx is proclaiming him deceased and shutting off his life support — that Cain never actually consented to becoming the new RoboCop.
  • Upgrade vs. Prototype Fight: The OCP corporation decides to replace RoboCop with RoboCop 2, another robot with a human brain controlling it. At the climax of the movie, RoboCop battles RoboCop 2 to the death, and wins.
  • Villain Ball: Cain and his crew overpower RoboCop, dismember him, but then, instead of finishing him off and throwing him into an incinerator, dump the parts at the police station to rub it in the police's face, that they've beaten the best of them. Apparently, it didn't occur to them that RoboCop could be rebuilt, or they felt over-confident. Also, they could have figured the damage had already "killed" him. It's noted when the cops have RoboCop on his life-support systems that it's very lucky his organic components are still alive, and that he could die any time now if they don't get him into the resuscitative machinery at OCP.
  • "Wanted!" Poster: Referenced in the pre-fight dialogue between RoboCop and RoboCain:
    Cain: You want me?
    RoboCop: Dead or alive.
    Cain: One of us must die.
    RoboCop: Dead, then.
  • We Need a Distraction: When Lewis's attempt at hitting RoboCain with an armored vehicle fails to stop him, Murphy tells her to toss him the Nuke canister, so that while Cain is busy getting his fix Murphy can jump on his back and destroy his brainstem.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: 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 mutating him into a monster. The novelization instead has Lewis shoot him during the raid.

Lewis: That son of a bitch is getting away with it. We can't even touch him.
RoboCop: Patience, Lewis. We're only human.

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Robo Flops

The result of OCP's first attempt to make a new RoboCop.

How well does it match the trope?

5 (9 votes)

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