10 Best Movie Robots
6. RoboCop - RoboCop
Paul Verhoeven’s RoboCop is one of the 1980’s most violent movies, but to dismiss it out of hand as just another bloody action flick does it a massive disservice. It builds off the decade’s rapid modernisation, massive growth of the police state, increased commercialisation and gentrification to create a deeply thematic story with violence at its core.
RoboCop is the symbol of this timely narrative, and remains one of the best movie robots ever.
The movie begins with beat cop Alex Murphy being tortured then brutally murdered by a gang of criminals, setting the tone for the violence to come. He’s then rebuilt as RoboCop, and thus the character and movie itself begin to question what it means to be human.
The ultraviolence, while not to everyone’s taste, is a necessity for Verhoeven’s vision. This is American culture being forced to look in the mirror; this is the ‘80s.
RoboCop’s gory death, resurrection and final sequence as he wades through water casts him as something of a Christ figure, and that’s really just the start of the analysis you could do on the character.
Breaking up everything he represents might not be the funnest thing in the world, but it shows how developed he is.