RoboDoc: The Creation of RoboCop: Episodes 1-4

February 11, 2025 4:04 AM - Season 1, Episode 1

An immersive 4+ hour journey into the making of the seminal sci-movie RoboCop (1987)
posted by TheophileEscargot (7 comments total)

Great look at the making of the classic movie. The basic story of the nightmare shoot with clashing egos, method acting and scarily dangerous stunts was familiar, but good to see everything together.

The interviews with Peter Weller and Paul Verhoeven were compelling. It highlights the genius of Weller's performance, I'd never noticed the leading-with-the-chest thing but it really gives a sense of something not quite human.

Some fascinating details of the effects, like the VCR noises being used for RoboCops movements, the different drones for his emotional states. Stuff I didn't notice included the magic disappearance of the lower face mask when Robo unscrews his helmet, and the way his shadow gets bigger and bigger as he approaches the creeps. Physics works the other way: it should get smaller and they filmed him walking backwards to get it.

Also liked the way they kept submitting and re-submitting the movie to the MPAA with a few frames difference until the MPAA finally gave in and rated it R instead of X... but changed their rules on how often you could submit one movie.
posted by TheophileEscargot at 4:05 AM on February 11

This is right up there with Superior Firepower (2003) and Dangerous Days (2007) as an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink behind-the-scenes breakdown. I loved every minute.

Like the recent Aliens: Expanded (2024), I think this started as a Kickstarter fan project and then it grew in scale (by securing bigger name participants) but narrowed in scope from what was originally meant to cover the whole Robo trilogy to just being about the first one, which is fine because Robo 2 is barely watchable and Robo 3 is dreadful IMO.
posted by Molesome at 10:55 AM on February 11 [2 favorites]

robocop 3 is a fever dream of a film
posted by AlbertCalavicci at 9:23 AM on February 12

I really enjoyed this, but I came away feeling that as much as I admire Peter and Paul, those guys are assholes.
posted by Stanczyk at 3:01 PM on February 12

I'm only a short way into the first episode, but I'm already hooked with the revelation that Verhoeven made a connection between Robocop and Jesus, whom he's written a book about. When I made this comment in a FanFare thread about another Verhoeven movie, I was kidding... but maybe he wasn't.
posted by Halloween Jack at 7:57 PM on February 12

I knew that the death of Murphy was the Crucifixion, but I didn't realise that they built a slightly submerged platform just so that Robo could literally walk on water near the ending, and that was a purely intentional Jesus reference.
posted by TheophileEscargot at 2:43 AM on February 13 [3 favorites]

as much as I admire Peter and Paul, those guys are assholes

Robo wants an Oreo
posted by Molesome at 4:03 AM on February 13 [2 favorites]