All language subtitles for RoboDoc-The-Creation-of-RoboCop-s1-e2_720p-English---English-[CC]

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CALVIN:
Everyone came out like,
"This is really good."

My name is Calvin Jung.

I played Steve Minh in RoboCop .

JESSE:
It just kinda struck me
as being kinda funny.

[laughs]

Jesse Goins, I played Joe Cox.

[chuckles]

[cheers]

I like it!

PAUL MCCRANE:
We had a lot of laughs.

We joked around a lot.

EMIL:
Think you can outsmart a bullet?

I'm Paul McCrane
and I played Emil.

Why don't you let us
take over from here, Emil?

RAY:
I'm Ray Wise.

I play Leon Nash,
number two bad guy on RoboCop .

Yeah.

The original RoboCop .

Well, give the man a hand.

KURTWOOD:
Kurtwood Smith.

Yeah!

I'm the man in Old Detroit.

And I played Clarence Boddicker.

CLARENCE:
Cops don't like me,
so I don't like cops.

When I heard the title,

I thought this is gonna be
terrible, horrible, ridiculous.

And I read the script,

and I thought
it was really cool.

I had played a number of sort
of very sensitive

or fragile characters
in my young career.

Hey, could--
could you sign my head?

Yeah, sure.

And I, around that time,
told my reps

that I wanted to go up
for bad guys.

And they thought
I was out of my mind.

[laughs]

PAUL MCCRANE:
And so, I just sort of
started refusing auditions

for the type of parts
that I'd been doing,

just '‘cause I wanted to
branch out,

do something different.

You're in the wrong business.

PAUL MCCRANE:
This is one of the things
that they were able to get me

in the room on.

JESSE:
I'd been in LA
for about seven years

and done some work.

[groans]

What was cool
about the audition was

Paul was great, and he said,
"You know, just--

Just give me what you got.

Just give me what you got",
you know?

And so-- so we did.

CALVIN:
I was brought in to audition.

I met Paul Verhoeven,

and then as I got up
and I was leaving,

the casting lady ran out,
she says, "Calvin, he loved you,

but he thinks
you're too pretty."

Ancient Chinese secrets.

I was like, "What the fuck?
Too pretty?"

I said, "No one's ever said
I was too pretty."

Unless you want
your fuckin' head blown off.

She says, "I'm pullin' for you."

And then um, I think a day
later I got the call.

My agent, we got--
I got the gig.

How did I get involved?
Well, let's see.

Uh, how many years ago
has it been?

You try to interfere with
another one of my properties,

and they won't be able
to put you guys back together

with Krazy Glue.

RAY:
I went in and I read,
originally for Murphy.

Double wages for the lead men.

I was all set to play Murphy.

I wanted to play Murphy.

Nice shootin', son.
What's your name?

Murphy.

RAY:
But, I got the dregs.

I got the part of Leon Nash,

which turned out to be
not such a dreg after all.

[chuckles]

I was still kickin' around uh,
playin' uh, mostly bad guys

on television.

He's calling up information
on the A-team.

KURTWOOD:
Bad cops, or bad administrators.

I'm Clarence.

KURTWOOD:
Had a really nice role finally
in a feature

called "Flashpoint".

Think about it, whiz kid.

KURTWOOD:
Turned out that one
of the producers of RoboCop ,

Arne Schmidt, had been
the first AD on that film.

Arne uh, was the one
who would actually say,

"Yeah, see this guy."

Well, you heard the man,
hotshot.

KURTWOOD:
They asked me to audition
for two roles.

Clarence, and Dick Jones.

Based on things
I'd done in the past,

I assumed they were more serious
about the Dick Jones role.

I work for Dick Jones!
Dick Jones!

KURTWOOD:
But Clarence, of course,
was the more fun part.

So, I was really excited
when I was Clarence.

CALVIN:
We're all
theater-trained actors.

Theater-trained actors
understand

what ensemble work is,

whereas people
who wanna be movie stars,

they really don't get that.

So, that was really easy
for all of us.

Because Jon Davison
wanted to make sure

we were kinda multicultural,
the gang became, you know,

every color under the rainbow.

I think the diversity
of our cast,

that transcends into the acting,

leaves a memory for people.

Erica Phillips, she was the uh,
costume designer,

and she wanted to know
what I wanted to do,

and it ended up that she and I
just went shopping.

RAY:
I think she took into account
the way I looked.

I kinda had
kinda the widow's peak look,

and the hawk nose,
and um, aquiline, I like to say.

And uh, she saw that look,

and she felt that
I would look the best in black.

KURTWOOD:
I had a very clear idea
in my mind about

what they were like.

That they did have
a kind of military look to them,

but with a scarf, you know?

JESSE:
We added things to it, you
know, like the sneakers,

you know, rather than boots.

So, we all had some input.

The sort of weird beard thing
that I did was uh--

I'll take credit for it,
that was mine.

I knew I wanted to do something
a little odd hairwise.

So, I walked onto the set
with it

and showed it to Paul,
and he said, "Yeah, I like that,

so keep it", so I did.

CALVIN:
My ex-wife, when we were dating,

she says,
"You weren't in RoboCop!"

I go, "Yeah, I was the guy
with the bandan--"

"No, that was a Mexican guy!"

I go, "No, it's me."

This is the all,
the all-seeing eye.

Leon's glass eye.

My medallion that I wore
all through the movie.

So, quite a bit of action.
A little shrapnel.

But as you can see,
still looks pretty good.

Shit!

[Jesse chuckling]

JESSE:
I loved it.

We were in the truck
and Kurtwood looks at the money,

he says, "You burned
the motherfuckin' money!"

You burned the fuckin' money!

I had to blow the door!
What do you want?

It's as good as marked,
you asshole!

You stupid, stupid...

Now, that's not the way

that a normal military leader
might behave

in that kind of a situation.

And that's '‘cause he's k--
kind of loaded all the time,

you know?

Clarence, he's the kind of guy
who could run Old Detroit,

but could never run Detroit.

He didn't go that far.

But within his world,
he was the man.

Clarence Boddicker,
unofficial crime boss

of Old Detroit,

now sought in connection
with the deaths

of 31 police officers.

Today, he's at large.

KURTWOOD:
So, we were all on location,
in downtown Dallas,

and in the van
when we were first shooting it--

We got a cop on our tail!

KURTWOOD:
I wanted to play it
kinda full go,

including kicking the back
of Paul McCrane's seat.

...and do it! Just do it!

[laughs]

Paul didn't particularly enjoy
that part.

Oh, for God's sake.

We were like little kids
playin' in the sandbox.

Yeah!

I did some things in RoboCop
that now that I think about it

uh, it was crazy.

Why did I ever do them?

[yells]

RAY:
Hangin' out of the back
of the van,

with no really safety lines
on us.

You know, if I had slipped
and fallen out of the back,

I would've been run over
by the police car.

Ed and I worked on scenes
pretty much on the set.

You know, he was always looking
for kind of hipper ways

to say things.

When it came time
to throw the guy out...

Leon, pick him up.

...I thought, "I just
throw the guy out, you know?

I should say something to him,
you know?"

This guy burned the money.

This guy
screwed this whole thing up.

And so,
I wanna say something nasty.

I thought, "Well, you know,
I'm gonna throw him out.

let's see if he flies."

Can you fly, Bobby?

Clarence, no!

Can you fly, Bobby?

[yells]

RUSSELL:
The part wherever
they throw the guy

out of the back of the truck
on to the car,

and the car spins around,

whenever they threw him
out of the car,

that was in Dallas.

When he landed on the car,
that was me here in LA.

If you look real close,

you can see that it's me
on the hood of the car,

spinnin' around.

I certainly know

from my father being
a police officer

that your partner is someone
that you're as close to

as your wife.

Well, you call it.

Let's do it.

It's a very intimate
relationship.

There's a really strong bond,

you rely on one another
for your life.

RAY:
It was an old steel mill
in uh, Monessen, Pennsylvania.

This was out of work already
since years.

But you had the feeling,
the workers,

they'd just left
yesterday night.

JESSE:
Pittsburgh's my home town.

So, my parents
could see me work.

They came out to the set,
and they watched me.

Of course, they--

JESSE:
My mom got to see me
do the pissing scene.

So, I'm like,
"Oh, this is great."

My mom was right over there.
And this is really artistic.

"Yeah, I'm makin' money, mom.

This is
what I went to college for."

Mind if I zip this up?

I love the bad boys.
I love them!

You know, they were
collectively, I'll just say,

the nicest, really sweet,
wonderful guys.

Didn't drink, didn't smoke.

No.

You know,
those things will kill you.

And to see them be so mean,
and rotten,

and horrible on the movie,

it just kinda tells you
how good they all are.

[laughs]

KURTWOOD:
We would steal the golf carts
from the ADs, you know,

because they had to drive around
those things all the time,

come and get us.

Then we would
have our own little races around

and stuff.

It was-- we had--
we had a lot of fun there.

I liked all the guys
that I was working with.

[laugh together]

PAUL MCCRANE:
You know, I think Peter
attacks things with a gusto

and with an intensity.

And that was impressive
to watch.

MURPHY:
Go ahead and do it.

PETER WELLER:
Murphy thinks, he believes,
he's a faith holder.

He's like a positivist,
you know?

He's like the guy you want
as the cop.

Dead or alive,
you're coming with me.

JON:
The experience creating it
was just, I think,

a really grueling experience
for everybody.

I mean, I don't think anybody
would tell you

they had a good time
on that picture.

And if they did,
they weren't there.

Every Sunday, Bill Bernstein
from Orion Pictures

would fly down and say,
"You've gotta stop the bleeding.

You're spending too much money.

You just gotta
stop the bleeding", you know?

So, finally,
I just stopped the bleeding.

I shut down the picture,

without shooting
the most crucial scene

in the picture,
the death of Murphy,

and we all went back
to Los Angeles,

'‘cause I knew that eventually
they were gonna have to

give me the money
to shoot the death of Murphy.

MURPHY:
Lewis, I got a situation here,
girl.

We shot that scene
of uh, the destruction of Murphy

in a warehouse,
in Long Beach California.

Put your hands on your head.
Lewis?

I remember we were all there
with our guns,

and I had my favorite
sawed-off shot gun.

Why don't you let us
take over from here, Emil?

The torture murder uh,

we spent a long time
choreographing that.

Your ass is mine.

CLARENCE:
No.

MICHAEL:
Paul executed
what we had on the page.

Not yet, it ain't.

PAUL VERHOEVEN:
Murphy gets killed
after 50 minutes

or something like that.

I thought that this--
this execution of Murphy

had to be extremely powerful,

So that people would
never forget Murphy, you know?

Because you have seen him
only 50 minutes,

and then basically
he wears a mask, you know?

So, that's difficult
for an audience.

PETER WELLER:
So, you've got a guy.

And the guy is a good cop,
and Mr. Nice Guy,

and signs into the new precinct.

Murphy, transferring in
from Metro South.

And immediately gets wind
of the politics

that are coming down, you know,

or the privatization
of the police force.

He came from a part of Detroit,
you know?

That didn't have a lot
of action

and he was thrown
into Old Detroit purposely,

you know?

We work for a living down here,
Murphy.

Get your armor and suit up.

PETER WELLER:
He was set up by OCP
to go into a place

that had a lot of action
and a lot of violence.

And subsequently,
that's why OCP chose him

to be this guinea pig
for RoboCop .

BOB:
We've restructured
the police department

and placed prime candidates
according to risk factor.

PETER WELLER:
And he's an innocent.

But nope,
the bigger plan has got him.

VOICEOVER ON TV:
With 12 years on the force,
and 21 commendations,

Murphy was a good cop.

And in 1991,
a good cop doesn't die.

PETER WELLER:
I maintain you have to have
the cruelty,

and the brutality of that--
that scene of Murphy,

in order to,
later on in the film,

endow Robo with his um,
redemption.

You can't have it
unless you really, really

have been upset
by what's happened to Murphy.

[groans]

[laugh together]

PETER WELLER:
And not just violently so,
but emotionally so.

Where's your partner?
Where's your partner?

Well, guys,
the other one was upstairs.

I was really tryin' to--
tryin' to figure out

what I could do
that would be different.

Jesse came up
with that laugh he uses.

She was sweet. Mm, mm, mm.

I took her out.

[laughs]

JESSE:
And the laugh just came.

I said, "This guy
is a real sadistic bastard.

He's a real sadistic,
but he enjoys it.

[laugh together]

So, why make him all dark
and sadistic,

just make him, you know?

[laughs]

In your face kinda sadistic.

They'll laugh at you,
like he's a joker.

[laughs]

Wooh!

[chuckles]

You know,
I thought that was great,

you know?

And-- and then as actors,
ensemble, you're like,

"Shit, man!
Wish I'd thought of that."

CAMERA OPERATOR 1:
Mark.

PAUL VERHOEVEN:
Action.

[laughs]

Boy, I'll bet
that really pisses you off.

[laugh together]

KURTWOOD:
So, I had breakfast with Paul

and we talked
about the movie a lot.

We talked about Clarence um,

and I told him what I wanted
to do with it,

and it really seemed
that we were on the same page.

You probably don't think
I'm a very nice guy, do you?

Buddy, I think you're slime.

[laugh together]

KURTWOOD:
Clarence was not as funny
in the original script

and that was something
that I wanted to add.

If we can give this character
a dark sense of humor,

it can work
in a variety of ways.

One is funny,
and two is that when, you know,

something chilling about
really sadistic sort of people

and the kind of sense of humor
that they might have.

You see, I got this problem.

Cops don't like me,
so I don't much like cops.

I loved Clarence's thing
with the little gun.

I don't--

[mimicking whirring]

[laugh together]

[mimicking whirring]

We're like, dude.

[laughs]

That's great!

[mimics whirring]

[mimics gunshot]

[laugh together]

PAUL VERHOEVEN:
Action.

FRANK:
A violent film like that.

A guy blows off a guy's hand
and he goes...

Well, give the man a hand!

Give him a hand.

[laugh together]

He's all yours.

I think
it's vintage Paul Verhoeven.

PAUL VERHOEVEN:
Go forward up.

JOE:
Alright, alright, look out.

[Joe laughing]

PAUL VERHOEVEN:
[indistinct speech]

[grunts]

PAUL VERHOEVEN:
Cut.

Paul grew up in World War II,
you know,

where he saw real violence
every day.

During World War II,
when he was living in Hague,

there were bomb runs
by British bombers all the time.

This was when the Nazis
were occupying Hague.

So, he grew up
under a fascist rule.

And he's a young boy,
he remembers this quite vividly.

And he told me about one day
his dad taking him to school,

and the night before,

a British bomber
had been shot down,

and there were body parts

all lying in the street
everywhere,

and German soldiers were
going around with steel pales,

and just
throwing body parts out.

And Paul's father said,
"Don't look."

And Paul, being six, seven,
had no sense of perspective.

He was taking cues
from the adults.

But the people around him
were acting

like they were
just cleaning the streets up.

And Paul said to me,

"The thought
went through my mind,

'‘Oh,
that's what people look like!

Oh, look at that.

That's what
a severed hand looks like.'"

So, it was
this certain detachment,

because there was no emotional
connection, right?

'‘Cause you're too young.

I think
that it shaped his worldview.

I shot the-- the--
the killing of Murphy

in the mi-- most gruesome way.

JOE:
...man. Pretty boy!
Hey, come on here.

[laugh together]

[Joe yells]

And-- and for me,
that was really the crucifixion.

[yells]

PAUL MCCRANE:
I think Paul was tryin'
to make a point with it

about violence
becoming entertainment.

It wasn't just meant to be
a splasher, slasher movie

in any sense.

I think
he exaggerated the violence

in order to make a point
about violence,

and our being endured to
violence

in popular entertainment.

Bein' part of a gang,
and bein' a bad ass,

I mean, you know, h-- h--
how many kids wanna play that?

It's pretty easy.

We were enjoying
blowin' at just,

"Bam, bam, bam, bam, bam."

It was great.

[indistinct speech]

[screams]

When I ran out of-- out of ammo,
I'm like, "Oh, shit,

I'm out of ammo!"

Oh, shit, I'm out of ammo!

That's not in the script.

Hey, Clarence, he's still alive.

[groans]

You know,
we had to keep doing it,

and there was just
blood all over the place

all the time.

PAUL VERHOEVEN:
Yeah, what's that?
[indistinct speech]

-CREWMEMBER 1: Yeah.
-CREWMEMBER 2: Yeah.

PAUL VERHOEVEN:
Okay, fight!

[yells]

After a while, it just was
kind of sickening, you know?

[groans]

CAMERA OPERATOR 2:
Cut!

That wasn't so hard to shoot.

I have to tell you,

I've been shot
with squibs before.

Blood!

[screams]

Now, there's no squibs anymore,
thank God,

'‘cause they're just a pain.

They're a pain to put on,
they're also really dangerous.

I've had my eye burned,
my cheeks burned, back burned,

everything burned, man.

They go sideways.

Real violence,
the minute I see it,

I'm horrified.

Screen violence, I really like,
and I--

And it's not real violence.
It's beautiful.

ASSISTANT DIRECTOR:
And action!

[screams]

ED:
And so,
one of the things that happened,

that was interesting,
was that I met Paul.

And Paul and I we're like,
you know,

it's like you meet that girl

who likes
the same ice cream you do.

[laughs]

That was just like, "Oh!"

And we would say things
like that,

"Well, I think violence
is beautiful."

And he would go,
"Yeah, it is, it is.

Yeah."

The hardest thing
was the prosthetic

of the arm going off.

ASSISTANT DIRECTOR:
Three!

[screams]

RAY:
There was a certain amount
of um, uncomfortability.

But then after a while
it got to be so ridiculous

with all the-- all the--
all the shooting

that it did become humorous
to us.

Oh, shit, I'm out of ammo!

-Nice shot.
-[laugh together]

[overlapping speech]

He wouldn't die!

[laugh together]

And so, the laughs
were more real, I suppose.

Uh, the dialogue is fantastic,
I think.

"Does it hurt? Does it hurt?"

[laughs]

Does it hurt? Does it hurt?

[laugh together]

JESSE:
All of that was improvised,
you know?

"Good night, sweet prince."

JOE:
Good night, sweet prince.

[Joe laughing]

JESSE:
That's all improvised.

The puppet,
that was a very big deal.

That was another one.

"Oh, by the way, we need a set

that's got
about four feet underneath it,

so we can get our puppeteers
in there

to operate this puppet
of Peter Weller."

Rob Bottin had built this

incredibly lifelike version
of Peter Weller.

ARNE:
It was shocking
how detailed it was.

You could see like every pore
in his skin.

Rob was there for that

and Rob was directing
the sequence, practically,

because it has to be
shot this way

with the gun that's connected
to the fake head.

It's got
like an eccentric motor,

like a car polisher in it,
so the thing is shaking,

and it's-- it's just incredible.

Okay, fun's over.

[groans]

[laugh together]

[yells]

CLARENCE:
Okay, let's get out of here.

On one take, I said,
"Hey, Jesse, you know what?

You know, fuck it.
Let's moonwalk out."

And then you see
we did a little moonwalk

as were leaving, right?

[chuckles]

And then there's
that pile of coke, right?

So, we moonwalked out,
I saw the coke.

Boom!

I popped my head in the coke,
came up,

you have all this coke
on your face.

Jesse would do that.

And we moonwalked out,
and then we came up, we said,

"Paul?"

He was like, "Oh, no,
that's okay! That's okay!"

He didn't care what you did.

You know, obviously
it was devastating for Anne

to not get there
when she knew

and she could hear
that something was happening,

she couldn't get through,

and say,
"This is very traumatic."

Murphy.

Just thought,
"Hey, this is great."

You know,
we're kind of goin' over

to type with these guys,
these killers.

They shot that guy,
what, 500 times?

That there was anything left
to put together is--

is a miracle.

It's so crazy bloody
and seeming.

It wasn't violent,
but it was real bloody.

And I thought, "Oh,
we're really in for it now,

you know, with this."

NURSE:
Got a pressure of 60 palp.

EMERGENCY DOCTOR:
Alright,
we have to intubate this guy.

NURSE:
His pressure's dropping.

EMERGENCY DOCTOR:
Okay.

PETER WELLER:
He's a good guy,
he's a happy guy,

he's an upbeat guy, man.

He ain't no downbeat,
cynical policeman.

Let's prep him
for a central line.

PETER WELLER:
He's got a family,
he's got a life.

When I look at the movie,

I think that's
what gives him his humanity.

Is that he had this wife,
and this child,

and a woman who loved him,

and she doesn't know
what happens to him.

She thinks he's murdered,

and he's killed
in the line of duty.

PETER WELLER:
He's a public servant,
that's what he is,

that's what he wants to do.

And he likes doing his job.
Bang!

He gets thrown
into this den of vipers,

and uh, it's over for him.

EMERGENCY DOCTOR:
Alright,
I think that's all we can do.

Let's call it.

DEL:
I think
it's one of the most brave

and amazing uses of black screen
in the history of movie making.

Most filmmakers will
never let the screen go black

for eight seconds,
because that's deadly.

But he was makin' the point of
he's dead.

He dies,

and then slowly basically
he comes back to life again.

It's a certain kind of life.

This different idea of shooting
from this point of view,

which is now used
in video games,

and every--
you see it all the time now,

but then it was very unusual.

Can he understand
what I'm saying?

The executive saying
he signed a release form,

we can pretty much
do anything we want.

He's legally dead.

We can do pretty much
what we want to.

MICHAEL:
And then his partner saying...

ROOSEVELT:
Doesn't matter.

We're gonna blank his memory
anyway.

There's a lot to do
with ownership of the self,

obviously, and an audience
is justifiably outraged

when they hear someone else
say, "Give him the amnesia."

Not only has he been
brutally killed,

but now
he's a corporate product.

And he's owned by somebody.

MICHAEL:
That was a very barbed criticism
of capitalism

and what ownership is.

Shut him down.
Prep him for surgery.

SAGE:
I had all my own wardrobe.

The glasses were mine,
and it was my idea

that Paul was
not very happy with

in the beginning.

He said something to me
about being attractive

and he didn't understand
why I wanted to wear them,

and to me, it was her being
able to put a barrier to say,

you know, "Take me seriously",

because she was working
with all these men.

And the one time

she allowed herself
to be vulnerable, you know,

were those moments
when she took them off.

Happy New Year.

Somebody asked me once,

"You know, you fell over
and they got that on camera",

and it's like,
"No, that's called acting."

[cheers]

Oh!

SAGE:
Certainly, Miguel was, I'd say,
my favorite person on the set.

MIGUEL:
Well, I played Bob Morton,

who is a-- a sort of up
and coming executive

with this company OCP.

The company itself
is kind of scary.

It's like, "We are Beatrice",
you know?

We own the police,
we own the hospital, it's great.

FELTON:
The new mega corporation.

And now, they've figured a way
to go into law enforcement.

We'll come up
with the best cop they ever saw.

You're gonna be
a bad motherfucker.

[chuckles]

Rob Bottin had several
specific suggestions for Paul

directorially.

BOB:
We get the best of both worlds.

You know that if you introduce
that thing wrong,

and you get a laugh,

you're dead
for the rest of the picture.

BOB:
The fastest reflexes
modern technology has to offer,

onboard
computer-assisted memory,

and a lifetime of on-the-street
law enforcement programming.

Rob suggested that Paul,
as he introduced RoboCop ,

conceal him.

It is my great pleasure

to present to you, RoboCop .

MICHAEL:
And it's a beautiful
directorial suggestion.

Come on, come on, come on.

That's for you.

MICHAEL:
The first time we see RoboCop

is when the plastic
is pulled off

and there he is
on the video screen.

Then we see him
behind frosted glass

as he's walking
into the police department.

And we just see a turn
as he goes through a door.

It felt like something special
was happening.

What is this shit?

Then there is wire mesh
in front of him

when we see him in his chair.

When you're at rest,
you will sit in the chair.

Yes, I understand.

Rob Bottin,
in collaboration with Paul,

choreographed that,

so that we slowly
introduce the illusion.

And by the time
we actually see him,

he's in the chair
surrounded by metal,

And they're really selling
this thing really well.

That, to me, was brilliant.

The footstep test for RoboCop ,

we did
104 individual footstep tests.

Because Paul wanted Robo
to be massive.

This is the sound effects prop
for RoboCop 's foot.

It's a truck timing chain.

It's--
it's pulled out of a truck.

It's an old truck timing chain
with uh, with handles on it.

STEPHEN HUNTER:
We hand cut these
sort of cartoony,

low-frequency whoops.

Every time Rob walks,
he's got a larger than life,

cartoon element to him.

We could perform it

on all the surfaces
Robo walked on.

STEPHEN HUNTER:
We could perform it
dramatically

if he had to scuffle,
if he had to go fast.

And because Robo
was a heroic character,

without being spurs
or roundels, like a Western,

it had that flavor.

Peter Weller
had these jackets made for us.

Um, he also gave us all
nifty nicknames.

Mine was "Sci-fi",

which was probably
the least derogatory of--

Of everyone elses.

What were the nicknames?

I made nicknames for them.

Mine was
"His Royal Swami Blondness."

It was like "Doc"
from like the Seven Dwarves.

Yeah, I remember
calling Stephan "Doc".

[laughs]

PETER WELLER:
Stephan is a genius.

He's a Dick Smith protégé.

Todd Trotter, my assistant,
was a great guy.

Todd and Gregor were like nerds.

Bart is one of the greats.

Dennis was like
just working constantly.

And Dennis here
is like the chief mechanic,

he does all the--
supervises all the repairs,

because there are
people working on this suit

round the clock.

Beautiful, beautiful guys, man.

Guys were fantastic.

GREGOR:
To say
it was a monumental effort

to keep that suit running
is an understatement.

It was a 24-hour a day process
to keep the few suits we had

screen ready.

PETER WELLER:
You got a Formula 1 team
around you,

changin' out arms,
and all the stuff.

And it took 45 minutes
to warm up, stretching.

Then workin' the inner suit,
doin' all of the stuff.

Pop! Yeah?
So, don't go neatly.#*

Your-- uh, your steps were
not completely coordinated here.

He greased the machine, Bottin,

and he got it down
to like a 90-minute put-on,

which is the best we could do
without really messing it up.

GREGOR:
The main under suit
was made out of foam latex

and it was molded to his body.

BART:
We had a bald cap,

and then there was
a black foam neck piece,

and the foam jaw piece.

The helmet was fiber glass.

Everything else
was a flexible urethane.

GREGOR:
Urethanes just
don't take paint very well.

So, it would blister and peel,

and so the suit was repaired
almost every day.

And by repaired
I mean repainted from scratch.

STEPHAN:
The paint job
was like different coats

of blues, yellows, purple,
silver, and so on.

So, it kind of changed color
when he was walking around

in different sort of lighting,
which was really cool.

BART:
The chest
was a front and back piece

that screwed on.

And then there were
the little rings

on the shoulders,
we just Super Glued those on.

The arms were one piece
that slid up

and had Velcro on the shoulders
that anchored those to the suit.

The black gloves
were foam latex.

RoboCop couldn't be dressed
without the power of K-Y jelly.

To get his gloves on,

there was quite a few gallons
of K-Y jelly

that were used to do that.

BART:
Those little details,

there's like a pivot point
on the hip

that's like right
at the pivot point.

So, it looks like the leg
is swingin' from that point.

MILES:
I remember Rob
was really frustrated

that Verhoeven said,

"There's something wrong
with the butt.

I don't like it.
It looks like a butterfly.

It must be changed.
We can't have a butterfly."

And the-- the Robo butt
was a big point of contention,

for some reason.

And you don't see it very often
in the movie.

I can't imagine the film
bein' a success

without Robo team's
make-up work,

because it really is just a guy
in a plastic suit.

PETER WELLER:
There's one line I didn't like.

ROBOCOP:
What are your prime directives?

PETER WELLER:
I didn't like
"Serve the public trust."

It just
seemed lightweight to me,

and Paul convinced me
to say it anyway.

And uh, I like it now.
I'm glad I said it.

Serve the public trust.

Because finally,
what is a policemen

except serving the public trust.

Once this physique,

and the physicality of the robot
became organic to me,

it became apparent

that I had to lower the octave
of the voice.

Protect the innocent.

You have to go, "Bravo--"

[vocalizes]

You gotta relax it.

So, you're drinkin' hot tea
during the day.

Not talkin' to people helps.
Relax the vocal cords.

And the diction
has to be human but robotic.

Uphold the law.

When I'm doing this voice,
it's down here.

Stay out of trouble.

Stay out of trouble.

And yeah, they tweaked it
in post a little bit.

STEVE LEE:
They did a little bit
of processing on Robo's voice.

Serve the public trust.
Protect the innocent.

Uphold the law.

That was actually done
on the dub stage,

so that they could control
the amount of it

depending on where he was
in the film.

ROBOCOP:
Come quietly
or there will be trouble.

Come quietly
or there will be trouble.

STEPHEN HUNTER:
And Robo himself
had voice processing

that was put through
some guitar stomp boxes.

ROBOCOP:
You are under arrest.

And by the way,

Peter's voice was just perfect
for this character.

ROBOCOP:
Keep him talking.

And then, of course,
there was Paul Verhoeven,

the crazy Dutchman.

This movie
without Paul Verhoeven

is impossible.

The energy and the passion.

Verhoeven was the man.

PAUL VERHOEVEN:
Thank you very much.
Thank you.

And he was the man
we tried to please.

[yells]

Action.

NANCY:
The drive of the movie
comes from Paul.

Hello. Hi. Hey. Come on, guys.

ED:
It's impossible
to imagine it without him.

PAUL VERHOEVEN:
Pack up!

NANCY:
He infused the set every day.

There's nothing there.

Just give me
a little more there.

And he'd just walk on the set,
and he'd say,

"Why are we not shooting?"
you know?

And that's right there,
you're ready to go, you know?

And uh, he'd act out
all the roles.

Pop, pop.

And everything coming over
here,#*

and then he was here #* "Phew!"

You're thrown from the window.

And when you're thrown
from the window, #* "Boom!"

you're thrown
from the other window.

So many gun.

He's like,
"Bam, bam, bam, bam, bam!"

[yells]

"And so, give me that."
And we're like, "Okay."

[laughs]

The Verhoeven mantra
on RoboCop was blood,

I want more fucking blood.

Bloody, extremely bloody.

And he would scream that
every day.

One thing he'd like to say,

I want sprouting blood!
Sprouting blood!

Arms blowing off!"

[mimics explosions]

[mimics gunfire]

And we have [mimics gunfire]

[mimics gunfire]

JOST:
What he always say,
"Yeah, I mean, what is life?

Life is about sex,
and about violence,

about fighting,
and about blood."

I love this.

He just clearly really loved
what he was doin'.

he was wildly enthusiastic.

He's such a highly
intelligent guy.

And he loved actors.

PAUL VERHOEVEN:
Go!

I think my influence
and the style

has much more to do with the way
I work with the actors,

which is I spend, I think,
much more time with the actors

than you would normally do
for an action picture.

Paul made us
really care desperately

about those characters.

JON:
I mean I never saw a director
worked as hard as Paul.

But he was difficult.

Paul was a very volatile guy.

Paul was rather a mad man.

Yeah, he could be a monster.

He had attitude.

You could tell
he was a-- a sexual man.

Full of energy, you know? Crazy.

Yeah, he was kinda manic.

Genius, brilliant director.

I thought
he was a little maniacal,

but I thought he was a genius.

And he was
a challenging director

to work with.

There was no question about it.

JON:
Paul Verhoeven
could be terrifying.

I mean, he's a brilliant guy

and a great cat to have dinner
with, and so forth,

but he's another human bein'
on a set.

CREW MEMBER 3:
Dan, we're comin' up next.

PAUL VERHOEVEN:
Come on, come on!

I don't think
he trusted initially

the American crew.

I think there was some friction,
because the American crew

had this sense of
"We're Hollywood and you're not,

and we're gonna show you
how to make a movie",

which was pretty funny,

'‘cause he like
kicked their asses.

PAUL VERHOEVEN:
Okay, do it again!

Do it again. Do it again!

Shooting with the crew
is always the same.

I feel of that--
if that's a Dutch crew

or an American crew, I think,

filming all over the world
is the same.

So, there is nothing specific
to discuss basically

than normal filmmaking.

He treated people pretty poorly
in many instances.

I've seen him go off on crews
in ways

that you just
would not want to be around

when that's happening.

Paul would get in their faces

and just frickin' scream
at them.

"I want more! It's not enough!
You're fucking up my movie!"

"What? Why?

You're conspiring
to ruin my movie!"

I mean,
he was just so crazy about it.

He would blow up
and go running off.

Yelling and screaming,
"Y'all! Boom, boom!"

[indistinct speech]

"This is crap!

You Americans
don't know how to do it!"

PAUL VERHOEVEN:
Wow!

The tensions were very high
at that time,

because everybody
had his own problem,

annoying things happened,
and this and that.

It was always about things
not being ready,

things that
he had been promised.

I'll say this,
it was always because

he was tryin'
to push the envelope

not to get a nicer trailer
for himself,

not to have
a fancier hotel room,

it was always about the movie.

JON:
He just was fighting everybody
for the best.

It's only intuition.

I really go on intuition,

and I've learned that
in 90% of the cases I'm right.

And in 10% I'm wrong.

And that's basically--
is enough.

The thing with Paul is
that Paul's nuts.

But he's inspiring, man!

You know, you feel like
you're in the deck

with Neil Armstrong, bro.

That's what you feel like
working with Paul.

He's a quick, and inventive,
and unsettled guy.

And that took getting used to,
but once I got used to that,

which really
didn't take a large adjustment,

because I'm sort of unsettled
and-- and uh, restless.

One I got used to that,
we got used to each other

that that's where
we're gonna begin,

then it was phenomenal.

KEVIN KUTCHAVER:
The Robo vision stuff.

I had a guy once ask me
what computer I was using

back then in '87,

and I said,
"I think I had a calculator,

so I could do my invoicing."

Remember that back then,
this wasn't done on a computer.

This was all done
photographically and--

And optically.

One of the things
that was a little tough

was to try to come up with

what they wanted Robo vision
to look like.

Let me see.

PETER KURAN:
What I came up with
was kind of a video line.

It-- it was an actual video,

it wasn't
photographed off a video,

it was actual optical printing
with two sets of lines.

One set of lines
to lay in the first image

every other line,

and then the next set of lines,

and I kind of shifted it
a little bit,

so it looked like it had
kind of a jagged uh, appearance.

It was a very technical process
in those scenes,

because there was
gonna be a grid, you know?

"Give me a grid."

Give me a grid.

-BILL: Got it.
-TECHNICIAN 2: It's there.

-Target.
-TECHNICIAN 1: Check.

And coordinating everything

with what was gonna be
on the screen later,

making sure
that we were all looking

in a particular direction
at the same time,

and it was a monumental task.

Now, follow.

It was basically
followin' the pen.

KEVIN KUTCHAVER:
It was like all hands on deck,

because the stuff was really,
really tedious.

Things like the targeting,
as an example,

would be uh, hand-drawn art.

We would actually,
on a clear cell,

paint the cross and the box
on separate layers.

We would then
paint black outside of them,

cover them with Exeter paper
and black tape.

That-- that's really,
at that time, all we had.

It--
it seems like it was ridiculous

now to talk about it.

What, are you kidding?

This was in the '‘80s, right?

Yes.

KEVIN KUTCHAVER:
We project the work print down,

line the art work up,
plot it out,

and then bottom light the art.

I did
a lot of optical printer testing

of different types of effects
to show to Paul

and get an idea of what it was
that he liked.

You'd have the crosshairs,
animating.

Then you'd have another element
of the box,

and either we could basically
do a second exposure

where we'd have the box
animate on and off,

or Pete could do that
in the optical printer.

It really all depended on
what the shot was at the time.

Pete could then go
into the printer, and color,

and add a diffusion
to give it a glow,

and do these multiple passes
and stuff to give it a--

a kind of stylized look,
so it wasn't just so raw.

To make it look

like it was some form
of digital technology,

without actually using
any digital material or effects.

All the visuals on Robo's POV
came from sounds

that John Pospisil had made...

...From an ARP 2600,

which were beeps, and dips,
and zips.

You could control these
early analog synthesizers

to make
any kinda sound you wanted,

but it took
a very long time to do.

KEVIN KUTCHAVER:
Most of the text came
from like Kodalith on high icon,

high contrast film,

which gave you a stark
contrasty black-and-white image.

There were pages of font
that you could buy,

that you could basically
paste up

like in the old publishing days.

Pete was really kind of
the master of designing stuff

on the optical printer.

Voice stress analyzer 1, 2...

[vocalizes]

The voice analyzer,

that I actually photographed off
of like an oscilloscope

and then composited
that into the shot.

I had to envision

what the visual effects team
was gonna do.

So, I would get a s-- uh,
a sketch that I could see,

but it was very difficult
for me to actually, you know,

do the timing,

except from the way
the people read it.

You can sort of imagine it
when it's written,

but how well it was done...

[vocalizes]

SAGE:
...that was really incredible.

Give me a full frame.

Say there was probably
somewhere in the neighborhood

of 120 shots like that.

Oh!

[kisses]

I fuckin' love that guy!

Verhoeven came to me one day
and he said,

"I need you to take Nancy Allen
and teach her how to shoot,

'‘cause she doesn't know
how to shoot.

And I want you to reach her
to run like a man."

And she goes, "Oh, Verhoeven ."

It was very different
than anything

that I had done before.

For me, what was great about it
is that I had so many women,

young women,
sometimes little girls,

write to me
about that character,

and how it made them feel,

like they could be
really important,

and do something
really important in their life.

"Wow!

Yeah, a woman can be
that tough, too."

You know,
they put us behind glass,

so that they could dolly across
in front of us

with all of us firing.

YOLONDA:
They're all comin' down on it
like a dolly, like--

[mimics dolly moving]

I mean everybody
shootin' over their heads

and stuff, and I was like "Lord,
I don't wanna shoot anybody."

[laughs]

They were blanks obviously,

but I just remember
it being very loud and all that.

The noise and everything
in reality was really--

It was deafening.

The Robo gun presented
a very interesting challenge,

because it had to be
this huge gun

that's bigger
than all the others.

The scene in the shooting range,
where you see it back there,

it had to stand out.

It had to be a reason
for all those others guys

to stop shooting and look.

The actual firing,

they sweetened
the hell out of that

with so many other guns.

STEVE LEE:
And John Pospisil,
he was our mad genius.

He made
all kinds of synth sweeteners.

And just made it huge.

[yells]

JOHN:
To see that--
that freakin' creation and--

And those cannons
that he pulled out of his thing

and started blastin' away with,
it was uh, it was--

It was kind of great.
It was kinda-- it was very cool.

And I remember the entrance of--
of RoboCop into that scene,

and how-- how exciting it was.

To see that character
in that full regalia,

with a gun,
was just frightening.

OFFICER RAMIREZ:
Hey, hang on, it's Super Cop.

Hey, Lewis, it's Super Cop.

Look at that fuckin' gun.

[laughs]

That fuckin' gun.

TYREES:
That was so cool,

'‘cause I got to say "fuckin'"
on film.

I thought it was great.

[Tyrees laughs]

At first, I was very interested

in the Israeli Desert Eagle
as RoboCop's gun,

'‘cause that was a new gun.

But when we saw it
with the costume,

it was like a-- a tiny toy.

RANDY:
And they said my big problem is

the finger doesn't fit
in any triggers.

And I said, "Well, you know,
I have a gun in my car."

My car gun that I show--
being from Texas, you know,

we all have car guns.

I had a Beretta 93R
in my vehicle,

and I showed 'em
the extended trigger guard.

It allowed the RoboCop finger
to go in with the glove on.

At that point,
we sat down with the 93R,

and then Paul Verhoeven
and I drew

what he wanted to see.

ED:
And we sat down one afternoon
and we designed that gun.

And it was one of the most
creative moments of my life.

CLARENCE:
Gonna need some major firepower.

RANDY:
They wanted sides.
I did the vent rib on the top.

We were adding texture,
so that's why it's thin.

The object is
to make it visually interesting

and to make it also function.

They were gonna do
a lot of lower shots,

lookin' up, under the gun,
and everything.

And I said,
"Well, if we do that,

we need to
put the flame out the side."

The three ports in the front
are to give us the bowtie flame.

PETER WELLER:
So, this is the gun.

And the first time I fired,
it was on that firing range.

And it was loud.
It was really, really loud.

RANDY:
The gun is capable
of firing three shot,

seven shot, or full auto,

depending
on the counting mechanism

in the side that we put in.

The standard gun fires
three-shot bursts only,

or semi-auto.

Semi-automatic, you gotta go,
pull the trigger every time.

The bullet expands the shell.

On the set,
you knew that was a cool gun.

And I think it's one
of the coolest guns there is.

PAUL VERHOEVEN:
My directing was
more movement directing.

It was not about
character acting, you know?

I mean, the character was like,
"Bang!"

[chuckles]

MARK GOLDBLATT:
The reason that they needed
a second unit director

was because Paul
was on a very tight schedule.

So, he had to keep moving,
and moving, and moving.

And then
in some of the sequences,

he couldn't get all the coverage
that he wanted.

So, I shot close-ups
of the targets getting shot,

and different characters
reacting to RoboCop.

PETER WELLER:
And when you fire blanks,

the blank will kill you
if you're close to it.

Full loads
are the capacity of powder

in a nine-mil shell

that's gonna fire a bullet,
right?

A projectile.

You gotta put something in there
for that compression

to shoot out.

RANDY:
Those blanks, as far as I know,

are the most powerful blanks
ever been used in a movie.

And you pull the trigger,
and hold it down.

It's gonna freak you out, man.

PETER WELLER:
And I was like
fire one-handed, man.

I never liked
doin' the police stuff, man.

I like holdin' it here.

This guy's really good.

He's not a guy, he's a machine.

OFFICER MANSON:
What are they gonna do?
Replace us?

NANCY:
When he does
the spinning of the gun,

and she remembers and recognizes
that that's probably him.

That's someone
who really pays attention.

This is
what it says a lot about her.

She really pays attention.
She doesn't miss anything.

'‘Cause that could be something

that you could forget
in a second.

But she's very sharp
in that way.

RANDY:
Robo team made a leg
that sits vertically,

and it's just to the hip.

One guys opens the doors
with cable operation.

Another guy
makes the holster go out.

Weapon goes in, holster goes in,
doors close.

One of the many surprises
about seeing the movie

was just the-- the--
you had no idea

what the sound effects
were gonna be.

Well, back in the days
before there was paper

and people used cuneiform
on clay tablets,

there were things called "VCRs".

So, Robo mostly was a Betamax.

And a VHS, VCR.
Loading movement.

And we cut them so
that they matched action.

And when sounds match action,
they tell the truth.

STEPHEN HUNTER:
The lead editor on Robo
was Dave Whitaker.

And he even wrote this--
this document.

It was like a 12-page document
"How to cut Robo"

that had all the numbers
of the library

and all the different servos.

Little diagrams on, you know,

the sound of this,
and the sound of this.

And all the little--

[whizzes]

Stuff that they put in post.

For the whole movie,
every little detail just

really helped
to bring him alive.

STEVE LEE:
John P is the mystery man.

You'd ask him to make something
and he'd come back

with something
a couple days later

that was just
absolutely perfect.

You dropped it into picture
and--

"Oh, yeah, that's--
that's exactly it."

He made a lot of sort of cheesy,
synthy sweeteners and--

And things to accent stuff.

This is before the digital age,

and it was all cut
on magnetic film.

STEVE LEE:
So, you have
hundreds of these reels,

sitting in a hallway,
waiting to be dubbed.

And it was a glorious sight
seeing all these dubbers

with all these reels of sound
going back and forth in sync

while they dubbed the movie
in the theater.

It's really a monumental job.

Even though the number crunchers
were tryin' to you know,

"No, we're not spending
another dime on this thing",

Sol Lomita got us
another $200,000 or $300,000,

for the sound effects,

and it won the Academy Award
for sound effects.

STEPHEN HUNTER:
Just being there,

I felt as if I was walking
four feet above the ground.

And then, when I got home
from the Oscars,

Peter Weller had sent me
two dozen yellow roses

to say "Congratulations."

Peter is
not only a wonderful actor,

but he's probably one of
the most disciplined people

I've ever met in my life.

I had to get into that animal.

And that's a method deal, man.

I just couldn't
walk out in that thing and go,

"Hey, yeah, I'm Peter."

So, I talked to no one
except the Robo team.

I listened to no one
except Paul.

That's the guy who'd come up.

But everybody else was out.

When he stepped on the set,
he was that guy.

The first day on the set,
he announced to everyone,

"Call me '‘Robo'."

Robo, excuse me! Robo!

KURTWOOD:
When I first got there, I said,
"What's this Peter Weller like?"

And they said,
"Well, I don't know.

YOU KNOW, I guess he only wants
to be called '‘Robo'

or '‘Murphy'."

I was like, "What?"

[chuckles]

ROBOCOP:
Clarence!

Once I was in there,
they called me "Robo",

and you know,
I don't give a fuck about--

You know,
certain people would come up,

"Do people call--
really call you "Robo"?

You go do that
in 105 degree heat.

You prep that for six months,
and put on that suit.

Once I get suit on, tough shit.
That's who I am.

Paul Verhoeven called me "Robo".

One last rehearsal, please,
for Robo.

When Peter told me that

when he's in the police suit,
I'm Murphy,

and when I'm
in the RoboCop suit,

I'm RoboCop ,

I just looked at him and,
"Sure."

And that--
and that irritated him to death.

[chuckles]

Don't you have a name?

So, I just decided
that I wouldn't talk to him,

because uh, I wasn't gonna try
to befriendly with some guy

and be calling him "Robo".

I clashed, at one point,
with almost everybody

on that movie.

Clash, but it was a quick clash.

He was always telling jokes
and stories,

and playing his trumpet,

which sometimes
got on people's nerves.

He uh, plays a man jazz trumpet,
studying Kendo.

Chases female cyborgs, you know,
things like that.

[chuckle together]

Is he on this floor?

[chuckle together]

No. He-- he's great,
he's terrific.

Fun at parties, hell of a guy.
Really.

Wouldn't you say?

The working relationship
was always good,

because I think, you know,
misery loves company.

We both were
in the same situation

all day long.

Both of us just, you know,
sittin' there and goin',

"God, is this hot?",
and he said, "Yeah."

"Is this miserable?"
"Yeah."

PETER WELLER:
And there were
some difficult times,

really difficult times.

PETER WELLER:
RoboCop was a-- was an obsessive
discipline for me.

I am the future
of law enforcement.

That says it all, doesn't it?

Thank you, Robo.
That's good job.

Thank you.

What did I tell ya?
Be lookin' for him.

The first day that we were
shooting with the suit,

we scheduled a very late day.

-BOB: Reed! SGT.
-REED: Yeah.

BOB:
He needs a car.

And the shot was,

Peter walks through
the police station

and catches the car keys.

He's wearing
his kinda rubber gloves

and he-- you know,

he wasn't really supposed to
look at it.

He was supposed to
just catch it.

And the car keys
would bounce at him.

No.

PAUL VERHOEVEN:
Cut.

We must've shot that

from 9:00 at night
to 1:00 in the morning,

tryin' to catch the car keys.

Thank you.

Sure, anytime.

It was that kinda show.

Go get '‘em, boy.

When I'm driving,

the Robo team
would take the legs off,

so I could like uh,
sit in the car and drive it.

And yeah, it was me driving
most of the time,

with Jost
shooting this wonderful stuff,

and Paul's in the backseat
saying,

"Let's drive up here,
let's drive up there."

You know that we spent months,
and months, and months

creating a new police car.

We built the car for RoboCop ,

but they didn't
take into consideration

that when he got in the car,
he would have that suit on.

And he didn't fit.

PAUL VERHOEVEN:
Of course, it was a disaster.

So, we then bef--
I abandoned

all kind of wonderful
production design ideas.

I throw it all
out of the window.

Yeah, there is
this kind of strange person,

but rest is all normal.

Paul came up with the idea,

"Okay, a completely rundown
police department

doesn't need to have very nice,
wonderful, new, shiny cars.

No."

That car, we abandoned that
and we used a normal car.

The new Taurus
at that time we used.

♪ Taurus ♪

♪ Now, there is a personal car ♪

♪ That has exactly
what we've been looking for ♪

PAUL VERHOEVEN:
It was just in production.

Looked a little bit modern,
so we took that.

CRAIG:
Science fiction,
it's very easy for it

to become sort of enmeshed
in a world view

that's hyperdesigned,
hyperfocused, and stuff.

And what I thought
was really cool

about RoboCop was,

it really
put a lot of that stuff aside

and just was what it was.

And I thought that just worked
in service of the picture.

It couldn't have been better

that these things were
just Ford Tauruses

painted flat black.

PAUL VERHOEVEN:
I remember how important it was
for the movie

that we didn't have
so much money.

Because you come up
with solutions

that are extremely simple and--
and effective.

It was interesting to see
a gleaming, shining robot

against the crumbling
infrastructure of Dallas,

standing in for Detroit.

I find that a very interesting
juxtaposition of images.

A lot of RoboCop
has reflections,

and I mean that literally.

Uh, they polished up the suit
with oils,

and everything around him
is just shining.

And that was intentional.

And it was Paul's way of saying

that this was a very steely,
cold mechanical world.

GROCERY MOM:
Will there be anything else,
sir?

HOPHEAD:
Yeah, empty the register
and put the money in the bag.

We went in that liquor store

and it was
a practical liquor store.

Hophead enters

and in passing
this nefarious robbery,

he picks up a copy
of uh, a Marvel Comic.

Strangely,
they're all Marvel Comics.

There's a copy of Blade Runner,

which was also part
of the origins of the script,

because the film inspired
the idea of RoboCop.

And the issue he picks up
is this one,

which is Iron Man 142,

and it's where Iron Man displays
his new high-tech armor,

which is of course
what RoboCop does

in the very next scene.

...two.

Fuck me.

RON:
Avram Gold
was our dialogue supervisor

I remember him having
a problem with a scene one day,

and he came in to me, and said,
"Ron, there's this scene.

There's this guy, he goes in,
and he shoots up a liquor store,

and he only says two words,
and he just repeats them.

It's "fuck me, fuck me, fuck me,
fuck--"

Fuck me! Fuck me! Fuck me!

But you can't use that
for the TV version

or everything else
that he has to get ready.

So, he lookin' for--
"Ron, is there anything else?"

You know, we had to go through
da-- No!

I never thought of any--
you know,

shooting anything else for TV,

or just to have other words
in there.

So, yeah, you know,

they obviously
had to re-- rerecord him.

Why me?

Drop the gun.
You are under arrest.

Why me? Why me?

Why me? Why me? Why me?

[chuckles]

[laughs]

He's walking around there,

shooting at him
all over the place.

Like, "Pop, pop, pop!"
I mean, so on.

And I said to myself, "Well,

if he's getting shot
all over the place,

we should show some damage
on the armor."

Then Rob said, "No!

This is like an indestructible
sort of like new armor,

so it shouldn't show
too much damage.

I said, "Oh, okay,
I get the picture."

Paul wanted him
to pick up the guy

And throw him into this thing.

So, we built this big fridge
with breakaway glass,

candy glass,
and breakaway balsa wood.

It was kicks, baby. Kicks!

The timing of that,
"God, that's great."

Thank you for your cooperation.
Good Night.

ADAM:
I was originally cast
to be in RoboCop 1.

Uh, RoboCop 1 was filmed
in Dallas,

and I was born and raised
in Dallas,

that's where
I got my acting career started.

So, I got a small part in that.

So, my part was
that I'm a little tiny kid

and I have on like this little
army jacket kind of thing,

and I'm walking around,

and I'm looking
at the guy behind the counter

and looking at candy bars,

and so I take a candy bar,
and slide it into my jacket.

That's when the guy comes in

and starts robbing
the liquor store.

Give me your money. All of it!

And don't fuck around!
Where's the safe, old man?

We-- we don't have a safe.

Open the safe, pops,

or I'm gonna blow junior here
all over the candy rack.

GROCERY POP:
Oh, don't hurt the boy.
I'll open the safe.

You're stallin', old man!

You got the count of three
to get that safe open.

One, two--

Drop it. You're under arrest.

Wow!

HOPHEAD:
Fuck you, cop!

You're in a lot of trouble.

Oh, fuck me.

[yells]

ADAM:
I'm like standin' there,
you know,

lookin' in awe as a child
at RoboCop, and he says--

Prisoner transport
will arrive shortly.

Thank you for your cooperation.

Good night,
and have a pleasant evening.

ADAM:
Now, I stare at him
and watch him walk out the door,

and so the end of the scene
is me,

like taking the candy bar
out of my pocket,

and putting it on the counter,
and saying--

"How much for this?"

That obviously didn't appear
in the original movie,

because Texas child labor laws
at the time,

possibly even now uh,
would not let a minor

stay up and work past midnight,

and it was, you know,
a night scene,

and the shooting
was running long

based on I don't--
things I wasn't aware of,

so they just cut that part
out of the movie.

I mean I still got paid
and everything,

'‘cause I did show up,

but, you know,
it-- it was crushing.

It was like, "Aw,
I was really excited

about doin' this thing.

It was gonna be fun."

Shit! He's fucked up.

Bad language makes
for bad feelings.

ADAM:
Long story short,

the casting director
remembered me,

and so when RoboCop 2
came around, I was cast in that.

It's Robo!

[crowd cheering]

[laugh together]

I'd buy that for a dollar.

[laughs]

I think in some ways as a line

that captures the spirit
of RoboCop ,

"I'd buy that for a dollar"

is just kind of
an amazing little pop line.

The line
that almost is meaningless

and yet sums it all up.

I'll buy that for a dollar.

[laughs]

I'm S.D. Nemeth

and I play the part
of Bixby Snider.

This was one of the first,

if not practically the only role
I ever auditioned for

in which I got cast.

BIXBY:
It's not really
the right time right now.

Maybe you can
come back a little later on.

S.D. NEMETH:
For me, it was a gas.

It was
just actually playing myself.

I had done a character on
radio, on KROQ,

called The Young Marquis.

THE YOUNG MARQUIS:
Me your idol, The Young Marquis.

[young Marquis chuckling]

THE YOUNG MARQUIS:
Special guest tonight.

Wow,
we've got a whole studio full!

S.D. NEMETH:
Actually,
this Bixby Snider part...

Bixby, who is this?

Oh, uh...

S.D. NEMETH:
...was just The Young Marquis.

THE YOUNG MARQUIS:
You mean me!

[young Marquis laughing]

Except behind a camera
and not just a microphone.

Uh, well, it's a--
it's a birthday present.

Uh, um,
someone sent me something

uh, '‘cause it is my birthday.

Well, look at this.
I wonder who could have sent it!

[babbles]

When I found out
that Paul Verhoeven

was gonna be the director,
I was just tickled pink.

[laughs]

S.D. NEMETH:
I had rehearsed the scene
the night before

with a tall blonde gal.

Her name was Heather.

Happy Birthday, babe.
She's from me!

Oh!

[laugh together]

S.D. NEMETH:
We got out parts down

and from then on
it was like the Three Stooges.

Well, hey,
can I have you both?

-Sure, why not?
-Sure, why not?

-We've had our shots.
-We've had our shots.

[laugh together]

I'd buy that for a dollar.

[laugh together]

I don't know that any of us
ever got that

that was gonna beco--
become an iconic line.

I'd buy that for a dollar.

[chuckles]

It was kind of almost a--
a sort of mystery

why-- why he was saying it.

I'd buy that for a dollar.

Corny, silly.

It was like-- it was like a--
a bad commercial at that time

that didn't necessarily appeal
to your sense of humor.

Oh. Oh.

-Bixby!
-Bixby!

[cheer together]

We had a massive food fight
as I recall.

Showed up on the set,

and I've never been plastered
with cake and frosting so much.

[laughs]

Some of it
is now a merciful blur.

Wow!

[laughs]

Wow! Did you see that?

[laughs]

I gotta go
get a piece of this myself!

It was a pleasure to work
with beautiful young girls.

Ooh, wow!

[laughs]

I'd buy that for a dollar.

[grunts]

And with a nice crew, loved it.
Loved it.

[laugh together]

It was a real gas,
let me tell ya.

BIXBY:
I'd buy that for a dollar.

[Bixby and women laughing]

DONNA:
It was an extremely long night

and everything just unfolded.

Paul Verhoeven, he said,

"Understand that
you're a really good girl

and you foolishly made
a really bad mistake

of walking down this ally,
you know, coming home from work.

And I'm like, "Okay."

He goes, "And then you're
gonna be attacked.

So, go all out like a good girl
would, you know?"

And I went, "Okay, so basically
that means '‘Don't be tough',

you know?"

[screams]

In the movie,
I played the Creep.

Don't touch me!
Get away! Get away!

We don't want your bag!

We want you!

Well, first,
we have to go back to wardrobe,

because I chose
these stomper boots

and I couldn't really move.

And if you can see me,
I'm kinda like--

you know, I'm...

[yell together]

Take it easy!

SCOTT:
#*Unknown actors, like we hope
to do various roles

and it was nice to be
in the uh, criminal element.

And I bleached my hair out,

but the humidity,
it lost its kinda cool spike.

At the time,
my hair looked like that.

[chuckles]

Take it easy!
We don't wanna hurt you!

CREEP 2:
That's too much hair!

I bought three wigs
in case we needed to uh,

you know, keep cutting,
and keep cutting.

We'll give her a haircut!

No!

[laughs]

SCOTT:
William had a knife.

He said,
"I'm gonna cut her,

I'm gonna cut her, you know?
I'm gonna cut her hair!"

And then Paul said, "Yeah!"
He got inspired.

He says, "Yeah,
now you point to her crotch

and you say,
"There's more hair down there."

And he laughed maniacally,
and I went "Oh, my God."

I ca-- oh, rea-- uh, really?
You-- you want me to say that?

Uh...

What?

There's more hair down there.

[both laugh]

SCOTT:
It was pretty bold at the time,
you know?

I just remember
being a little shocked

as an actor.

I was like "Whoa!
Okay, we're goin' there."

[laughs]

No!

PETER WELLER:
Paul is now an inspiration.

'‘Cause the second
that I come out of that thing,

Paul is in seventh gear.
No waiting, man.

I'm in a golf cart, a car,
or whatever, man,

I'm in the thing,
I got the guns,

I'm gonna be ready to go.

I mean, not a second wasted.

Him and Jost
have gone hit the deck.

RoboCop as a figure
should be bigger than life.

Higher than life.

Stronger than life.

That's all what the mystery
of RoboCop is about.

Jost was a brilliant guy.

I mean, he was doing stuff
so far ahead of his time.

The moment
where RoboCop is walking up

to confront the rapists,

you see his shadow looming,
and getting bigger and bigger.

Well, in reality, his shadow
would be getting smaller

and smaller.

So, what they did
was have RoboCop walk backwards

in that sequence.

Nobody thinks twice about it.

I worked with the camera
in a low position,

so he seems to be higher
than he actually is.

So, I enlarge him,
I stretch him a little bit.

I had an idea for Robo himself,

that Robo had to have attitude,

because he--
he became less talkative

as a character
when he became Robo.

So, we decided
we need attitude drones.

They slightly changed that

depending on
whether he was pissed,

whether he was relaxed.

So, it's just another subtle way
of moving the story forward.

Everything you're doing
in a film is telling the story,

and sound effects
are no exception.

Let the woman go.
You are under arrest.

Shit!

PETER WELLER:
Robo doesn't ever say anything
with intentionality for humor.

He just says things
from a position

of intentionality
for instruction.

That's it.

The intensity of being picked up

and waiting for that squib
to go off between my legs,

you know?

And I can remember very clearly,

he's grabbing me
as hard as he can,

and picking me up, and back,
and up and down,

and we had to make sure
we hit this certain height,

you know, so it looked
appropriate to the gun height.

He's gonna kill her!

The climactic moment

where he uh,
gets shot in the bullocks.

[screams]

JESSE:
RoboCop shoots him
in the crotch.

People are like, "Yeah,
mother fucker,

you deserved that shit",
you know?

[laughs]

Oh, my-- Oh, my God.

Because I can see the blood
squirting out of his--

[screams]

By the way, when I saw that
with an audience,

they-- the audience went crazy.

[laugh together]

[screams]

What they did is

they took one of those
very poor sponges, you know,

the sea sponge
type thing,

and they soaked it in the blood,

and then they shoved it
in his underwear,

and scored everything.

And I remember it going off
and dropping, and just going,

"Oh, my God!"
And I was so into it.

What you see
is very real of me backing away,

going like, "Oh, oh, oh",
you know?

PETER WELLER:
Beauty about Robo is

he's a straight man
to the world.

In other words,
Robo just says what's so.

"Your move, creep."

Your move, creep.

PETER WELLER:
Bang, you know?

No explanation, no fat on that,
no icing on the cake.

That's the deal.

PAUL VERHOEVEN:
We all know that Jesus
doesn't say much anymore

after His death.

And basically, if you look
at RoboCop his-- his-- his--

The monotony his--
of his voice,

the simplicity of the lines

correspond really
with somebody that is partially,

you could say, a zombie.

[screams]

Thank God.

Then the woman runs up
and throws her arms around,

and says "thank you",
and you get this moment

where she realizes
he's just a machine,

and he's very cold,
and she has this confusion.

If you watch the film again,
you'll see that moment.

Madam, you have suffered
an emotional shock.

I will notify
a rape crisis center.

PAUL M. SAMMON:
And you know,

there was no reason
to stage it like that,

but it's a really interesting
intimate human emotion

and reaction.

I knew no matter what happened
commercially to RoboCop ,

that man,
we were makin' somethin'

that was speaking!

[♪♪♪♪♪]

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