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One genre-bending film
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that broke all the rules.
3
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There's a new guy in town.
4
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One tragic hero
5
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who embodied the human spirit.
6
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Murphy, it's you…
7
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And one iconic title…
8
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Who is he? What is he?
9
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…that changed science fiction.
10
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RoboCop?
11
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They're changing that title, right?
12
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You must be kidding.
13
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Yeah, fair enough.
Maybe some context is in order.
14
00:00:46,170 --> 00:00:50,091
You see, this violent dissection
of American culture…
15
00:00:50,174 --> 00:00:51,795
I'd buy that for a dollar.
16
00:00:51,884 --> 00:00:54,795
…was directed by a European.
Go!
17
00:00:54,887 --> 00:00:57,468
…whose sophisticated approach
to filmmaking…
18
00:00:57,557 --> 00:00:59,176
Paul's a world-class director.
19
00:00:59,267 --> 00:01:00,767
…can mostly be defined by…
20
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"Bigger."
"I need bigger. I need bigger."
21
00:01:03,479 --> 00:01:06,150
Which was a big problem
for those on the crew…
22
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Everyone had a horrible time on RoboCop.
23
00:01:08,525 --> 00:01:10,316
…who were all feeling the heat…
24
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Sweating our balls off.
25
00:01:11,945 --> 00:01:13,025
…of the tight budget…
26
00:01:13,114 --> 00:01:15,534
Which was not
a tremendous amount of money.
27
00:01:15,617 --> 00:01:16,527
…tight schedule…
28
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That just immediately set them back.
29
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In super hyper-crunch mode.
30
00:01:20,412 --> 00:01:22,123
…and very tight suit.
31
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Can't take a piss.
32
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This is the excruciatingly…
33
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Agh!
…painful story…
34
00:01:28,754 --> 00:01:31,375
Parts were rubbing him wrong.
…of how RoboCop…
35
00:01:31,466 --> 00:01:33,466
I am the future of law enforcement.
36
00:01:33,551 --> 00:01:34,801
…gracefully hobbled…
37
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It's gonna look like that?
…into cinematic history.
38
00:01:37,347 --> 00:01:39,137
Really action-adventure.
39
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Forever cementing the undeniable fact…
40
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Ooh.
…that…
41
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RoboCop is a brilliant title
and a brilliant film.
42
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Exactly.
43
00:02:10,170 --> 00:02:13,471
These are The Movies That Made Us.
44
00:02:16,760 --> 00:02:18,600
In the early '80s…
45
00:02:20,764 --> 00:02:22,474
a movie was made…
46
00:02:22,558 --> 00:02:23,938
And I was like, "What's it about?"
47
00:02:24,894 --> 00:02:26,774
…that inspired filmmakers…
48
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"It's about a robot."
49
00:02:28,438 --> 00:02:30,938
…and wannabe filmmakers alike…
50
00:02:31,025 --> 00:02:33,235
It was just the biggest set
I'd ever seen in my life.
51
00:02:33,777 --> 00:02:36,108
…which left everyone asking…
52
00:02:37,656 --> 00:02:39,026
What is this shit?
53
00:02:39,116 --> 00:02:41,326
They also asked…
"What is this movie?"
54
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No, not RoboCop,
if that's what you're thinking.
55
00:02:44,163 --> 00:02:47,084
He's talking about the movie
that very directly spawned it.
56
00:02:47,167 --> 00:02:50,456
Called Blade Runner. They said,
"It's about a robot." That's the robot.
57
00:02:50,545 --> 00:02:52,375
Of course, it is.
Sean Young.
58
00:02:53,046 --> 00:02:55,046
And I remember my first response was…
59
00:02:59,219 --> 00:03:01,009
That's not a robot.
Okay.
60
00:03:01,097 --> 00:03:04,766
Well, this movie about robots
that don't look like robots…
61
00:03:04,850 --> 00:03:07,020
They were designed to copy human beings.
62
00:03:07,103 --> 00:03:12,073
…inspired this movie about
a robotic policeman otherwise known as…
63
00:03:13,318 --> 00:03:14,987
RoboCop.
Which is what?
64
00:03:15,694 --> 00:03:18,194
This shiny hulking mass of justice…
65
00:03:18,281 --> 00:03:19,950
You are under arrest.
66
00:03:20,033 --> 00:03:21,622
…which was created from the residue…
67
00:03:21,700 --> 00:03:23,950
Clear.
…of a real human man.
68
00:03:24,037 --> 00:03:27,076
Left behind from
an excessive use of force…
69
00:03:28,040 --> 00:03:29,461
Good night, sweet prince.
70
00:03:30,460 --> 00:03:33,420
…and reassembled into a mighty…
71
00:03:33,503 --> 00:03:34,343
…sharp-witted…
72
00:03:34,421 --> 00:03:35,632
Stay out of trouble.
73
00:03:35,715 --> 00:03:38,375
…sharpshooting "robo cop."
74
00:03:39,509 --> 00:03:40,509
This guy's really good.
75
00:03:40,594 --> 00:03:43,175
But when the morsels of his humanity
76
00:03:43,264 --> 00:03:45,813
leak into the remnants of his brain…
77
00:03:45,891 --> 00:03:48,391
We killed you.
…through the help of his partner
78
00:03:48,478 --> 00:03:51,768
and the haunting memories of his family…
Can you do that, Dad?
79
00:03:51,855 --> 00:03:57,066
…he's able to rid the new Detroit streets
of the criminals, the corruption…
80
00:03:57,152 --> 00:03:58,402
You're fired!
81
00:03:58,947 --> 00:04:01,907
…and the competition.
You're illegally parked.
82
00:04:03,075 --> 00:04:06,156
All in a day's work for Officer…
83
00:04:07,705 --> 00:04:08,615
Murphy.
84
00:04:08,705 --> 00:04:10,425
And while the events of this film
85
00:04:10,457 --> 00:04:12,497
are set in Detroit in the near future,
86
00:04:12,585 --> 00:04:16,415
its origins can be traced
to Burbank of the 1980s.
87
00:04:16,505 --> 00:04:18,716
Specifically Warner Bros. Studios.
88
00:04:18,800 --> 00:04:21,800
My office, which was in a trailer,
was on the backlot.
89
00:04:21,886 --> 00:04:26,175
Where a young script reader,
Ed Neumeier, was pondering his existence.
90
00:04:26,266 --> 00:04:28,475
When you're a reader,
you're very frustrated,
91
00:04:28,559 --> 00:04:30,649
'cause all you wanna do is something else.
92
00:04:30,728 --> 00:04:34,268
You read thousands of scripts
and most of them not very good.
93
00:04:34,356 --> 00:04:36,356
But despite his dissatisfaction…
94
00:04:36,442 --> 00:04:37,651
I would get done with the day
95
00:04:37,735 --> 00:04:39,894
and instead of going home,
I would just go to the set.
96
00:04:39,987 --> 00:04:41,817
But not just any set.
97
00:04:43,533 --> 00:04:44,533
Blade Runner.
98
00:04:44,617 --> 00:04:47,947
There were so many people on the set,
that they didn't know who was working.
99
00:04:48,036 --> 00:04:50,956
And so, Ed secretly embedded himself…
100
00:04:52,457 --> 00:04:54,338
…amongst the crew's art department.
101
00:04:54,836 --> 00:04:59,915
I made trash for the streets by filling
big garbage cans filled with newspapers
102
00:05:00,007 --> 00:05:02,218
and making them wet,
then spreading them around.
103
00:05:02,302 --> 00:05:04,182
I did that three or four nights in a row.
104
00:05:04,262 --> 00:05:06,351
And it was there on the Blade Runner set
105
00:05:06,430 --> 00:05:12,060
that Ed had himself a bit of a moment
that would change science fiction forever.
106
00:05:13,146 --> 00:05:16,605
It was, like, four in the morning
and I remember looking at that car,
107
00:05:16,690 --> 00:05:18,781
which was called a Spinner.
108
00:05:18,860 --> 00:05:22,569
And I was thinking about what I thought
a robot would be in that world,
109
00:05:22,654 --> 00:05:25,824
and I suddenly had this image
that came into my mind,
110
00:05:25,908 --> 00:05:29,788
of a robot standing
next to that car on that street.
111
00:05:30,579 --> 00:05:34,379
And then, the title came into my mind,
which has never happened before or since.
112
00:05:35,543 --> 00:05:36,543
It was RoboCop.
113
00:05:38,170 --> 00:05:40,420
Which just as quickly fused
114
00:05:40,505 --> 00:05:43,045
with another idea
that Ed had been dabbling with.
115
00:05:43,134 --> 00:05:45,553
I had this notion of corporate
execs killing each other,
116
00:05:45,636 --> 00:05:48,305
and that all
kind of came together that night.
117
00:05:50,600 --> 00:05:52,519
Wiping the trash from his hands,
118
00:05:52,601 --> 00:05:55,562
Ed got to work
on his very first feature script.
119
00:05:55,646 --> 00:05:58,105
It was actually thought then
that your first script
120
00:05:58,191 --> 00:06:01,190
shouldn't be science fiction,
because they're very expensive.
121
00:06:04,822 --> 00:06:08,581
So, some might have thought
that writing RoboCop first was…
122
00:06:08,658 --> 00:06:11,449
Risky business.
Yes, but what wasn't was…
123
00:06:11,536 --> 00:06:12,536
Risky Business.
124
00:06:12,622 --> 00:06:13,742
As in this movie.
125
00:06:14,624 --> 00:06:17,173
Which for Ed, turns out,
was more of a safe bet.
126
00:06:17,250 --> 00:06:20,341
My big breakthrough was
I read a script called Risky Business.
127
00:06:20,420 --> 00:06:21,300
A party?
128
00:06:21,380 --> 00:06:24,380
I liked it so much,
I wrote an 18-page report on it.
129
00:06:24,466 --> 00:06:28,547
And when the movie came out and hit,
I was offered a job as an executive.
130
00:06:28,637 --> 00:06:29,677
Pretty neat.
131
00:06:29,764 --> 00:06:33,774
At just 25,
this young executive had it made.
132
00:06:33,850 --> 00:06:34,730
However…
133
00:06:34,810 --> 00:06:36,441
Now, I had always wanted to write.
134
00:06:36,521 --> 00:06:38,161
And he wanted to write RoboCop.
135
00:06:38,189 --> 00:06:40,528
It was an ongoing outline
for a number of years,
136
00:06:40,608 --> 00:06:43,437
and I would keep going back to it
and keep going back to it.
137
00:06:43,528 --> 00:06:44,528
And then…
138
00:06:45,112 --> 00:06:48,702
And then, he realized he needed help.
139
00:06:48,783 --> 00:06:51,663
I was looking around
to write it with somebody,
140
00:06:51,744 --> 00:06:53,293
but I didn't have anybody in mind.
141
00:06:53,370 --> 00:06:57,380
Abusing his executive powers
for the good of RoboCop…
142
00:06:57,457 --> 00:07:00,168
You know, I was auditioning people
whether they knew it or not.
143
00:07:00,252 --> 00:07:02,552
For his perfect partner in crime.
144
00:07:03,130 --> 00:07:07,891
Or in the case of Mike Miner,
an almost perfect partner in crime.
145
00:07:07,968 --> 00:07:11,259
Ed and I are very different
personality types.
146
00:07:11,346 --> 00:07:15,687
I am a little bit more
of an experimental filmmaker.
147
00:07:15,768 --> 00:07:17,648
Maybe more than films?
148
00:07:17,728 --> 00:07:19,358
Experimented with psychedelics.
149
00:07:21,774 --> 00:07:23,653
A "leap before I look" kind of person.
150
00:07:23,733 --> 00:07:26,033
And with seemingly nothing in common,
151
00:07:26,112 --> 00:07:28,492
Ed might well have leapt the other way.
152
00:07:28,572 --> 00:07:31,742
He said, "I'm shooting
a rock video about a robot."
153
00:07:34,286 --> 00:07:37,367
So I told him about RoboCop, the story.
And he just immediately said…
154
00:07:38,331 --> 00:07:41,672
"My God! Let's do that.
We'll write it together." I said, "Okay."
155
00:07:41,752 --> 00:07:43,461
This guy's gonna be your new partner.
156
00:07:43,545 --> 00:07:46,665
And once Ed had the help
he so desperately needed…
157
00:07:46,757 --> 00:07:50,757
I said, "I'm gonna go away
and I'm gonna write the first act."
158
00:07:51,471 --> 00:07:52,391
Okay.
159
00:07:52,471 --> 00:07:55,521
So, I took ten days off
from my job as an executive.
160
00:07:55,600 --> 00:07:59,519
I said that my grandfather had died
and I had to go, but I told a lie.
161
00:07:59,603 --> 00:08:00,524
Funeral's tomorrow.
162
00:08:00,605 --> 00:08:04,605
And the studio sent me flowers.
And I still feel bad about it today.
163
00:08:05,192 --> 00:08:07,322
And after overcoming his guilt…
164
00:08:07,403 --> 00:08:10,283
I wrote the first act,
and that was as far as I got.
165
00:08:10,363 --> 00:08:14,624
And upon reading this action,
sci-fi, corporate murder story…
166
00:08:14,701 --> 00:08:16,502
Na-na-na-na.
Mike had a note.
167
00:08:16,579 --> 00:08:19,959
He kept saying, "Why is this funny?"
And I said, "Well, it should be funny."
168
00:08:20,040 --> 00:08:21,290
Na-na-na-na-na…
169
00:08:21,375 --> 00:08:25,375
It played to my sensibility,
because I have a twisted…
170
00:08:27,255 --> 00:08:28,875
and ironic sense of humor.
171
00:08:28,966 --> 00:08:31,175
Well, give the man a hand!
172
00:08:31,259 --> 00:08:32,970
And completely embrace that tone.
173
00:08:33,678 --> 00:08:35,969
And we then went down
that rabbit hole together.
174
00:08:36,057 --> 00:08:39,136
Emerging six months later with a script
175
00:08:39,226 --> 00:08:42,187
unlike anything
Hollywood had ever seen before.
176
00:08:42,270 --> 00:08:45,821
The RoboCop script hit the desk
of virtually every studio.
177
00:08:45,899 --> 00:08:47,149
We just gave it to anybody.
178
00:08:47,235 --> 00:08:50,105
Most of the people
we brought it to enjoyed the read.
179
00:08:50,196 --> 00:08:51,735
But they all said…
180
00:08:51,822 --> 00:08:52,991
No.
181
00:08:55,909 --> 00:08:58,250
Eventually, it worked its way to Orion.
182
00:08:58,328 --> 00:09:01,328
And in case you don't know
what Orion makes…
183
00:09:01,414 --> 00:09:05,495
They make movies that get
a lot of recognition creatively.
184
00:09:07,004 --> 00:09:09,607
They also made this one.
The Terminator.
185
00:09:09,631 --> 00:09:11,182
But not everything they made
186
00:09:11,259 --> 00:09:13,969
was a critically acclaimed
box-office smash.
187
00:09:14,761 --> 00:09:17,142
Look at this one.
Flesh and Blood isn't very good.
188
00:09:17,222 --> 00:09:20,432
Forget the flesh of Christ! Let's drink!
189
00:09:20,518 --> 00:09:22,138
Well, you can't win them all,
190
00:09:22,227 --> 00:09:25,307
but still, when this script
that had been all over town,
191
00:09:25,398 --> 00:09:27,477
written by two unknown writers,
192
00:09:27,567 --> 00:09:30,606
hit the desk
of the senior vice president of Orion…
193
00:09:30,695 --> 00:09:33,524
I said, "What is it?"
And he said, "It's called…"
194
00:09:33,614 --> 00:09:34,453
RoboCop.
195
00:09:34,532 --> 00:09:36,282
And I said, "You gotta be kidding."
196
00:09:37,951 --> 00:09:41,831
The "he" to whom Barbara refers
was legendary producer…
197
00:09:41,913 --> 00:09:42,923
Jon Davison.
198
00:09:42,999 --> 00:09:46,668
One day, he called me and said,
"I think this is kind of interesting."
199
00:09:46,751 --> 00:09:50,631
Which was encouraging.
But Barbara, as you'll remember…
200
00:09:50,715 --> 00:09:51,715
"You gotta be kidding."
201
00:09:51,798 --> 00:09:53,509
…still needed to be convinced.
202
00:09:54,092 --> 00:09:56,302
And Jon's answer was, "Read it."
203
00:09:57,388 --> 00:09:59,268
And I said, "Okay."
204
00:09:59,347 --> 00:10:02,768
It was a brilliantly written script,
205
00:10:02,851 --> 00:10:05,652
and I was just completely convinced
I had to make it.
206
00:10:05,730 --> 00:10:07,570
But before she could do that,
207
00:10:07,648 --> 00:10:10,988
Barbara would have
to convince her boss, Mike Medavoy.
208
00:10:11,067 --> 00:10:13,898
I'd been a part
of seven Academy Award movies.
209
00:10:14,488 --> 00:10:18,778
And if you look up there,
you'll see eight Golden Globes.
210
00:10:21,287 --> 00:10:23,116
I don't think RoboCop is one of them.
211
00:10:23,663 --> 00:10:25,463
Spoiler alert, it isn't.
212
00:10:25,541 --> 00:10:29,551
However, clearly, Mike had a good eye
for which movies to make.
213
00:10:29,629 --> 00:10:31,958
I thought the concept was really strong.
214
00:10:32,048 --> 00:10:34,378
And for a hitmaker like Mike Medavoy,
215
00:10:34,466 --> 00:10:38,386
it was looking like
the stars were aligning for Orion.
216
00:10:38,471 --> 00:10:41,270
Suddenly, they were optioning it
and we were signing papers.
217
00:10:41,349 --> 00:10:43,139
And RoboCop…
Thank you.
218
00:10:43,225 --> 00:10:44,384
…was ready to roll.
219
00:10:44,476 --> 00:10:45,596
No.
In a bit, that is.
220
00:10:45,686 --> 00:10:47,186
We need something more.
221
00:10:47,270 --> 00:10:49,191
And that something was a director.
222
00:10:49,273 --> 00:10:51,692
And that's when they started
to literally go through
223
00:10:51,775 --> 00:10:53,985
the alphabetized list of all these people.
224
00:10:54,070 --> 00:10:58,279
And toward the very,
very back of the Rolodex, they found…
225
00:10:58,365 --> 00:10:59,446
Paul Verhoeven.
226
00:11:00,033 --> 00:11:03,453
Dutch director Paul Verhoeven
had made a name for himself
227
00:11:03,537 --> 00:11:07,537
directing film and television
with European sensibilities.
228
00:11:07,625 --> 00:11:10,495
I said, "You know, this guy has got
a nasty cynical side."
229
00:11:10,586 --> 00:11:13,916
"His violence is very direct
and consequential."
230
00:11:14,005 --> 00:11:17,125
And he'd already
recently directed a movie for Orion.
231
00:11:17,217 --> 00:11:20,008
His first for an American studio, in fact.
232
00:11:20,929 --> 00:11:22,559
Very sadly, it was this one.
233
00:11:23,807 --> 00:11:26,307
And as we know…
Flesh and Blood isn't very good.
234
00:11:27,769 --> 00:11:29,309
Verhoeven lost them a lot of money.
235
00:11:29,397 --> 00:11:33,567
But keep your enemies closer
or, you know, the person that the…
236
00:11:33,650 --> 00:11:36,071
the… I don't know
what the right phrase is…
237
00:11:36,153 --> 00:11:37,863
Well, Barbara's got one for you.
238
00:11:37,947 --> 00:11:40,027
You gotta be kidding.
You're joking.
239
00:11:40,825 --> 00:11:44,195
Flesh and Blood,
it went incredibly over budget.
240
00:11:44,286 --> 00:11:45,995
I had to fly to Spain.
241
00:11:46,080 --> 00:11:49,539
Where she delivered the first
of what would be many scoldings
242
00:11:49,625 --> 00:11:50,625
for Paul Verhoeven.
243
00:11:50,710 --> 00:11:52,840
I said to him, "You have them up there,
244
00:11:52,919 --> 00:11:57,970
right at the edge of this rampart
and they're not properly hooked up."
245
00:11:58,676 --> 00:12:00,505
Are you all right?
I'm fine.
246
00:12:00,594 --> 00:12:02,354
They must be forcing her to say that.
247
00:12:02,429 --> 00:12:04,970
At which point, he ran up to the ramparts…
248
00:12:06,057 --> 00:12:08,727
and is waving around
and screaming back at me…
249
00:12:10,354 --> 00:12:11,693
… "It's not a bit dangerous."
250
00:12:13,732 --> 00:12:17,783
While I'm below just watching him
along with the entire cast.
251
00:12:17,861 --> 00:12:19,491
You bastard!
252
00:12:19,572 --> 00:12:23,162
It was a nightmare,
and it didn't do any business.
253
00:12:23,241 --> 00:12:26,292
And now you're saying Paul Verhoeven?
They were.
254
00:12:26,370 --> 00:12:27,620
What, are you crazy, man?
255
00:12:27,705 --> 00:12:30,225
The more they thought of it…
256
00:12:30,291 --> 00:12:32,711
…somehow, the better the idea seemed.
257
00:12:32,793 --> 00:12:38,222
I always felt at that time that Europeans
do America better than Americans.
258
00:12:38,298 --> 00:12:40,928
Foreign filmmakers
making films about America,
259
00:12:41,009 --> 00:12:43,509
you know, give it a little bit
of a different flavor.
260
00:12:43,596 --> 00:12:44,596
Specifically…
261
00:12:44,638 --> 00:12:47,138
These people have not eaten
too many cheeseburgers.
262
00:12:47,224 --> 00:12:50,274
And so, the consensus at Orion was…
263
00:12:50,351 --> 00:12:52,351
He'll be very good if he'll do it.
264
00:12:53,230 --> 00:12:54,230
Okay…
265
00:12:54,940 --> 00:12:55,820
will he do it?
266
00:12:55,899 --> 00:12:57,899
He goes, "RoboCop?"
267
00:12:57,985 --> 00:12:59,195
And then he reads a few pages,
268
00:12:59,278 --> 00:13:01,817
and the opening is
all this carnage and stuff.
269
00:13:01,905 --> 00:13:04,615
He goes, "This is everything
I hate about America."
270
00:13:04,700 --> 00:13:06,039
And he throws it away.
271
00:13:07,035 --> 00:13:08,946
But fate had other plans.
272
00:13:09,038 --> 00:13:10,957
Now, his wife picks it up.
273
00:13:11,039 --> 00:13:13,330
Reads it. He comes back and she goes,
274
00:13:13,417 --> 00:13:15,667
"Reread it,
there are things here you missed."
275
00:13:15,753 --> 00:13:17,763
And he rereads it and he goes,
"My God."
276
00:13:17,837 --> 00:13:20,418
"There are things I missed.
There are layers here."
277
00:13:20,508 --> 00:13:21,927
In fact, RoboCop…
278
00:13:22,009 --> 00:13:24,389
Has got layers and layers…
279
00:13:24,470 --> 00:13:26,009
It's like a 60-layered cake.
280
00:13:26,096 --> 00:13:29,015
But Verhoeven still
wasn't quite convinced.
281
00:13:29,099 --> 00:13:30,808
So, I called him up.
282
00:13:31,309 --> 00:13:33,559
And what Barbara said to Verhoeven
283
00:13:33,645 --> 00:13:37,105
was so extraordinary,
so convincing that…
284
00:13:37,191 --> 00:13:38,650
Well, we'll tell you later.
285
00:13:38,734 --> 00:13:41,823
For now, all you need to know
is that Verhoeven said…
286
00:13:42,696 --> 00:13:44,775
I like it!
287
00:13:45,407 --> 00:13:47,366
That was that.
Okay, that was easy.
288
00:13:47,408 --> 00:13:51,078
So, the veritable Verhoeven
made his way to America,
289
00:13:51,163 --> 00:13:53,582
and RoboCop was all systems go.
290
00:13:53,665 --> 00:13:56,836
Ed and Dave were busy rewriting
with the new director.
291
00:13:57,794 --> 00:14:00,544
Paul Verhoeven came in
and made it all that much better.
292
00:14:00,630 --> 00:14:05,591
And we spent many days, nights,
and weekends writing a second draft.
293
00:14:05,677 --> 00:14:08,427
And a third, and a fourth, etcetera.
294
00:14:08,514 --> 00:14:10,433
We tugged over every line.
295
00:14:10,515 --> 00:14:13,765
We discussed every moment
in that script many, many times.
296
00:14:13,852 --> 00:14:15,982
You are gonna be a bad motherfucker.
297
00:14:16,688 --> 00:14:19,292
It was all happening.
Suddenly, we were hiring people.
298
00:14:19,316 --> 00:14:20,645
Jon Davison had access
299
00:14:20,734 --> 00:14:25,874
to the most talented, low-budget,
independent technicians on the planet.
300
00:14:25,947 --> 00:14:29,158
He knows how to make
a dollar look like three dollars.
301
00:14:29,743 --> 00:14:31,582
I'd buy that for a dollar.
302
00:14:31,662 --> 00:14:33,251
Don't you mean…
$3.
303
00:14:33,330 --> 00:14:36,289
Well, he'd definitely need to, because…
304
00:14:36,375 --> 00:14:39,205
Orion wanted us to make the movie
for the cost of Terminator,
305
00:14:39,294 --> 00:14:40,705
which was seven something.
306
00:14:40,796 --> 00:14:43,336
Which was not
a tremendous amount of money.
307
00:14:43,423 --> 00:14:46,974
In other words…
Very cheap, and I don't think we could.
308
00:14:47,052 --> 00:14:48,892
Pretty simple math, Bob?
309
00:14:48,971 --> 00:14:52,600
And so, Orion decided,
"Okay, we can spend the extra money."
310
00:14:52,682 --> 00:14:54,773
Yeah.
Upping the budget to…
311
00:14:54,851 --> 00:14:57,652
Ten million, seven hundred
and some-odd thousand dollars.
312
00:14:57,730 --> 00:15:00,833
Which is peanuts, really.
But that's what we needed for the movie.
313
00:15:00,857 --> 00:15:03,107
Now, speaking of nuts…
314
00:15:03,192 --> 00:15:05,993
there was one task
that only the bravest could face.
315
00:15:06,071 --> 00:15:10,120
A job so important that
if they failed, the movie might.
316
00:15:11,201 --> 00:15:12,750
The suit.
The suit?
317
00:15:12,827 --> 00:15:14,577
We mean this suit.
318
00:15:14,663 --> 00:15:18,793
The first person who took
a crack at it was Chris Walas,
319
00:15:18,875 --> 00:15:21,206
who is known
for The Fly and stuff like that.
320
00:15:21,294 --> 00:15:22,705
It wasn't what we wanted.
321
00:15:22,796 --> 00:15:25,505
It looked like someone threw up
on a guy in a wet suit.
322
00:15:27,091 --> 00:15:30,761
And I remember Jon saying,
"Okay, I gotta call Rob Bottin."
323
00:15:30,846 --> 00:15:33,515
Well, here's the thing
about Rob Bottin.
324
00:15:33,599 --> 00:15:34,519
He did it.
325
00:15:34,600 --> 00:15:36,850
As in the movie, The Thing.
326
00:15:36,936 --> 00:15:40,355
As well as The Witches of Eastwick
and Innerspace.
327
00:15:40,438 --> 00:15:41,318
However…
328
00:15:41,398 --> 00:15:44,738
You know, Rob is a perfectionist,
and he might not be on your timetable.
329
00:15:44,817 --> 00:15:47,172
Sounds familiar?
You gotta be kidding.
330
00:15:48,279 --> 00:15:50,740
Great, and so, Rob sprang into action,
331
00:15:50,823 --> 00:15:53,663
first dialing up
concept artist Miles Teves.
332
00:15:53,744 --> 00:15:55,663
He said, "How are you at drawing robots?"
333
00:15:55,745 --> 00:15:57,826
And I said, "Fantastic, I love them."
334
00:15:57,914 --> 00:16:01,495
Even though I hadn't drawn
a robot since I was a kid.
335
00:16:01,585 --> 00:16:03,955
And after a crash course in robotics…
336
00:16:04,046 --> 00:16:06,336
We looked at all the robots
in movie history.
337
00:16:06,423 --> 00:16:08,302
…Miles was ready for direction.
338
00:16:08,384 --> 00:16:10,474
The director wanted him to be sexy,
339
00:16:10,552 --> 00:16:13,892
heroic, and also show
kind of a lineage of Detroit
340
00:16:13,972 --> 00:16:16,062
from its golden days of automotive design.
341
00:16:16,140 --> 00:16:18,230
Makes sense, considering…
Detroit is
342
00:16:18,309 --> 00:16:21,019
the manufacturing capital
of the world at the time.
343
00:16:21,105 --> 00:16:26,644
The idea of a designed suit
was like another cool car.
344
00:16:26,735 --> 00:16:30,404
So, Miles got to work.
Drew for hours and hours and hours.
345
00:16:30,489 --> 00:16:32,778
And after a week,
left his pile of drawings
346
00:16:32,865 --> 00:16:35,115
in the capable hands of Rob Bottin.
347
00:16:35,869 --> 00:16:38,538
But there was much more drawing
to be done,
348
00:16:38,621 --> 00:16:41,131
because RoboCop has a nemesis.
349
00:16:41,207 --> 00:16:44,248
We got two robots in this.
One's a man in a suit. What's the other?
350
00:16:44,336 --> 00:16:46,086
This is…
351
00:16:48,716 --> 00:16:51,426
A terrifying enforcement droid…
352
00:16:52,427 --> 00:16:53,798
dedicated to peace and…
353
00:16:56,682 --> 00:17:00,942
…urban pacification,
but designing and executing…
354
00:17:02,229 --> 00:17:03,629
Probably not the right word to use.
355
00:17:03,688 --> 00:17:07,318
…ED-209 was a breeze
because, unlike RoboCop…
356
00:17:07,401 --> 00:17:10,740
I said, "It shouldn't look like a man."
He said, "We'll get Phil."
357
00:17:10,820 --> 00:17:12,701
That would be Phil Tippett, who,
358
00:17:12,780 --> 00:17:15,201
when it came to stop-motion animation,
359
00:17:15,284 --> 00:17:16,453
was the man.
360
00:17:16,535 --> 00:17:19,954
He had done
the Walker sequence in Star Wars.
361
00:17:20,748 --> 00:17:23,958
But even this seasoned veteran
of the silver screen
362
00:17:24,042 --> 00:17:27,343
had a common reaction
to his first read of the script.
363
00:17:27,421 --> 00:17:29,590
I didn't quite get, um…
364
00:17:30,883 --> 00:17:32,843
it, I mean,
it seemed kind of silly to me.
365
00:17:32,925 --> 00:17:36,056
Silly or not,
this job was easy money for Phil.
366
00:17:36,137 --> 00:17:39,268
And a little bit harder
for the guy he delegated the job to.
367
00:17:39,348 --> 00:17:41,452
"Here, you wanna do this job?"
"Design a giant robot?"
368
00:17:41,477 --> 00:17:43,017
Unlike his mentor…
369
00:17:43,103 --> 00:17:45,022
I'm like, "I'm in, you know."
"Okay, cool."
370
00:17:45,105 --> 00:17:47,224
Craig wouldn't think
this script was silly.
371
00:17:47,273 --> 00:17:49,153
I read the script. I thought it was silly.
372
00:17:49,233 --> 00:17:51,074
But I'm in.
373
00:17:51,153 --> 00:17:53,492
And soon he was banging out drawings
374
00:17:53,572 --> 00:17:55,912
that drew on numerous inspirations.
375
00:17:55,990 --> 00:17:59,080
Kind of a combination
of just bad automobile design…
376
00:17:59,827 --> 00:18:01,367
mixed with helicopters, tanks…
377
00:18:02,247 --> 00:18:03,826
even things like killer whales.
378
00:18:03,915 --> 00:18:07,455
The head of the thing is kind of like
a carbon fiber killer whale head.
379
00:18:07,544 --> 00:18:09,183
Collaborating with the writers…
380
00:18:09,253 --> 00:18:12,634
I had a Japanese model,
and it was called a Glaug trooper.
381
00:18:12,715 --> 00:18:14,715
I said, "Well, this is what
I was thinking for ED."
382
00:18:14,759 --> 00:18:15,759
The director…
383
00:18:15,803 --> 00:18:18,932
"What is this? Certainly this looks like...
It's like some stupid plant."
384
00:18:19,013 --> 00:18:21,233
As well as Rob Bottin and his crew.
385
00:18:21,307 --> 00:18:23,188
We never talked.
Or not.
386
00:18:23,268 --> 00:18:24,768
He's doing that. We're doing this.
387
00:18:24,853 --> 00:18:26,363
All for the one thing:
388
00:18:26,438 --> 00:18:28,978
a movie with a shoot date
fast approaching.
389
00:18:29,066 --> 00:18:32,776
You know, Rob is a perfectionist,
and he might not be on your timetable.
390
00:18:32,861 --> 00:18:34,820
He wasn't.
391
00:18:34,904 --> 00:18:37,025
Rob Bottin said he needed six months
392
00:18:37,115 --> 00:18:41,115
from the time we cast the lead
until he could have the suits ready.
393
00:18:41,869 --> 00:18:46,000
So, we hadn't cast the lead at that point.
394
00:18:46,083 --> 00:18:48,792
Well, the time had come to find out…
395
00:18:48,876 --> 00:18:50,916
Who's going to star in RoboCop.
396
00:18:51,421 --> 00:18:53,260
The very first person
397
00:18:53,339 --> 00:18:58,140
that Paul Verhoeven wanted
to portray RoboCop was Michael Ironside.
398
00:18:58,220 --> 00:19:01,180
He goes, "Okay, first thing
we have to do is rewrite the script."
399
00:19:01,265 --> 00:19:03,555
"And I want RoboCop to have a harem."
400
00:19:03,642 --> 00:19:07,402
Let the professionals do their job.
They said, "See you later, Michael."
401
00:19:08,188 --> 00:19:09,728
And hello to…
402
00:19:09,815 --> 00:19:12,654
Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Schwarzenegger wanted to be RoboCop.
403
00:19:13,192 --> 00:19:16,992
He and Mike Medavoy had become
close friends at Orion Pictures
404
00:19:17,071 --> 00:19:19,321
because The Terminator
was an Orion picture.
405
00:19:21,910 --> 00:19:23,789
So, Arnie said to Mike…
406
00:19:23,871 --> 00:19:25,211
I'll be back.
407
00:19:25,288 --> 00:19:26,999
And then they started to design
408
00:19:27,082 --> 00:19:30,342
with Rob Bottin the RoboCop suit
to make it fit Arnold.
409
00:19:30,419 --> 00:19:31,669
Your clothes.
410
00:19:32,837 --> 00:19:33,667
Give them to me.
411
00:19:33,755 --> 00:19:36,295
But it turned out
looking like the Michelin Man.
412
00:19:36,383 --> 00:19:37,432
But it's true.
413
00:19:37,509 --> 00:19:38,838
It was just too exaggerated.
414
00:19:38,926 --> 00:19:39,846
It was too big.
415
00:19:39,927 --> 00:19:42,887
If you're gonna have
something this large, there's no drama.
416
00:19:44,307 --> 00:19:45,927
This thing is indestructible.
417
00:19:47,059 --> 00:19:49,519
It's unstoppable.
I thought, "Nah, this is not gonna work."
418
00:19:49,605 --> 00:19:50,724
Get out.
419
00:19:50,814 --> 00:19:52,773
But one of the most interesting
was Peter...
420
00:19:52,857 --> 00:19:55,188
The one and only, Peter We...
Fonda.
421
00:19:55,903 --> 00:19:57,492
Peter Fonda.
422
00:19:57,570 --> 00:20:01,201
Peter Fonda actually walked into
the production office, unannounced,
423
00:20:01,282 --> 00:20:05,873
and said to the casting people,
"Here I am. You've found your RoboCop."
424
00:20:05,953 --> 00:20:07,624
They really hadn't.
425
00:20:07,705 --> 00:20:11,375
But they were able to find,
at least what it was they needed to find.
426
00:20:11,460 --> 00:20:13,670
A directive, you might even call it.
427
00:20:13,753 --> 00:20:16,423
What are your prime directives?
One, he had to be skinny.
428
00:20:16,506 --> 00:20:20,336
The second thing was,
they have to be incredibly physically fit.
429
00:20:20,426 --> 00:20:23,967
Three, he's gotta have
great chin and great lips.
430
00:20:24,056 --> 00:20:26,226
This holy trinity
431
00:20:26,307 --> 00:20:30,688
of skinniness, strength,
and supple lip beauty,
432
00:20:30,770 --> 00:20:32,270
led them to conclude…
433
00:20:32,355 --> 00:20:36,026
We should cast for a long, long time,
and just see everybody.
434
00:20:36,108 --> 00:20:38,778
Hoping RoboCop would walk in that door.
435
00:20:38,862 --> 00:20:41,241
In the meantime,
plenty of other people did.
436
00:20:41,323 --> 00:20:43,242
Miguel Ferrer walked in, the room cracked.
437
00:20:43,325 --> 00:20:46,115
And I remember Jon Davison
looking at me going…
438
00:20:46,202 --> 00:20:47,623
And that was it, that was Morton.
439
00:20:47,703 --> 00:20:49,834
Hell of a guy, really, wouldn't you say?
440
00:20:49,914 --> 00:20:52,285
The same thing happened
with Kurtwood Smith.
441
00:20:52,375 --> 00:20:54,496
You probably don't think
I'm a very nice guy.
442
00:20:54,586 --> 00:20:57,455
Well, that's the thing,
most probably would.
443
00:20:57,547 --> 00:21:00,626
Clarence Boddicker was just great.
He didn't seem like a bad guy.
444
00:21:00,717 --> 00:21:01,967
Which was by design.
445
00:21:02,051 --> 00:21:05,811
I always had him as wearing glasses.
I wanted him to be considered smart.
446
00:21:05,888 --> 00:21:09,019
I based him on the terrorist,
Carlos the Jackal,
447
00:21:09,101 --> 00:21:13,020
who was known to throw a hand grenade
into a crowded marketplace.
448
00:21:13,105 --> 00:21:16,275
But this would-be-killer
hadn't quite blown up yet.
449
00:21:16,357 --> 00:21:18,988
I was still kind of a struggling actor.
450
00:21:19,068 --> 00:21:23,449
So, I get the script sent to me
for RoboCop and I went, ""
451
00:21:24,532 --> 00:21:27,702
And I went, "Well. Maybe it'll be fun."
452
00:21:27,786 --> 00:21:29,326
But like those before him…
453
00:21:29,413 --> 00:21:30,292
There are layers.
454
00:21:30,372 --> 00:21:31,872
…Kurtwood had skipped dessert.
455
00:21:31,957 --> 00:21:33,576
It's like a 60-layered cake.
456
00:21:33,666 --> 00:21:35,376
That once he bit into…
457
00:21:36,336 --> 00:21:39,336
Then, all of a sudden for me,
it went from, ""
458
00:21:39,423 --> 00:21:41,633
to playing this villain,
459
00:21:41,717 --> 00:21:45,257
who I was determined
to have a lot of fun with.
460
00:21:45,345 --> 00:21:46,555
Bitches, leave.
461
00:21:47,763 --> 00:21:49,854
And then…
Murphy, meet Lewis.
462
00:21:49,932 --> 00:21:51,272
…there was RoboCop's partner.
463
00:21:51,351 --> 00:21:54,770
Lewis was always meant to be
just a partner and not a love interest,
464
00:21:54,855 --> 00:21:56,974
and that was important
to me at the very beginning.
465
00:21:57,065 --> 00:21:58,394
And in the beginning…
466
00:21:58,482 --> 00:22:02,113
Stephanie Zimbalist was
the first person to be cast as Lewis.
467
00:22:02,194 --> 00:22:05,865
Known for her hard-nosed
detecting on TV's Remington Steele,
468
00:22:05,949 --> 00:22:10,328
Zimbalist was the very example
of a strong, equal, female counterpart.
469
00:22:10,412 --> 00:22:11,582
And then she couldn't do it.
470
00:22:11,663 --> 00:22:14,583
There's only so much room
in one's schedule for counterparty.
471
00:22:14,665 --> 00:22:17,246
Anyway, I'm glad it worked out for me.
472
00:22:17,336 --> 00:22:19,455
This lucky lady is Nancy Allen,
473
00:22:19,546 --> 00:22:21,296
who, when it came to playing…
474
00:22:21,381 --> 00:22:23,931
A gender-neutral female character.
475
00:22:24,718 --> 00:22:25,758
I like to turn men on.
476
00:22:25,844 --> 00:22:28,854
Probably isn't the first person
you'd think of, but…
477
00:22:28,930 --> 00:22:29,849
I'm an actress.
478
00:22:29,931 --> 00:22:32,851
An actress who was
more than prepared to play this part.
479
00:22:32,933 --> 00:22:36,023
My dad was a cop
for almost 30 years in New York.
480
00:22:36,104 --> 00:22:37,693
And I thought, "I know this character."
481
00:22:37,772 --> 00:22:39,442
She was just right, and she got it.
482
00:22:39,523 --> 00:22:41,574
But in order to slip into character…
483
00:22:41,651 --> 00:22:42,780
She's pretty tough.
484
00:22:42,861 --> 00:22:45,361
…Nancy was going to have to slip
into something else.
485
00:22:45,447 --> 00:22:47,947
When I was talking
to my friend about this character,
486
00:22:48,032 --> 00:22:50,163
she said to me,
"You know, you're really feminine."
487
00:22:51,161 --> 00:22:53,830
"What if you wore men's underpants
under your costume?"
488
00:22:53,913 --> 00:22:55,834
Now why would you want
to do a thing like that?
489
00:22:55,915 --> 00:23:00,296
Because it kind of affects
how you feel, so I tried that.
490
00:23:01,962 --> 00:23:03,803
Gotta jock it up a little bit here.
491
00:23:03,882 --> 00:23:06,551
And as Nancy got in touch
with her masculine side,
492
00:23:06,634 --> 00:23:10,005
the film was about to get in touch
with its RoboCop.
493
00:23:10,096 --> 00:23:13,057
Because after a long seven-month search…
494
00:23:13,141 --> 00:23:14,020
Peter came in.
495
00:23:14,101 --> 00:23:15,891
What, again?
Here I am.
496
00:23:15,977 --> 00:23:17,616
Not Peter Fonda. Peter Weller.
497
00:23:17,686 --> 00:23:20,606
Now the reason they went with Peter is,
they made Buckaroo Banzai.
498
00:23:20,690 --> 00:23:24,819
Raking in a profit of...
It didn't actually make a profit at all.
499
00:23:24,903 --> 00:23:26,573
But it was big in Japan, so…
500
00:23:26,654 --> 00:23:28,154
The studio was interested in him.
501
00:23:28,240 --> 00:23:29,660
And Weller was interested
502
00:23:29,740 --> 00:23:33,621
in auditioning for RoboCop
in his own special Weller way.
503
00:23:33,702 --> 00:23:36,083
He didn't wanna read on tape.
504
00:23:37,665 --> 00:23:40,536
So, Paul and I went out to lunch with him,
505
00:23:40,626 --> 00:23:43,257
and then Paul had him read with me.
506
00:23:43,337 --> 00:23:46,577
But I remember I was really nervous.
Don't worry. You got the part.
507
00:23:46,633 --> 00:23:48,893
And so, obviously, did Peter Weller…
508
00:23:48,969 --> 00:23:50,388
Get your armor and suit up.
509
00:23:50,470 --> 00:23:52,759
…because he fit
those directives to perfection.
510
00:23:52,847 --> 00:23:56,057
Peter Weller was a marathon runner.
So, you've got two right there.
511
00:23:56,143 --> 00:23:58,563
Go on. What about the most important one?
512
00:23:58,644 --> 00:24:01,765
If you look at Peter, Peter has
a Cupid bow, he's got wonderful lips.
513
00:24:01,856 --> 00:24:04,527
Three out of three.
It's you.
514
00:24:04,608 --> 00:24:07,068
And while Peter Weller
was the total package…
515
00:24:07,153 --> 00:24:08,034
Pretty neat.
516
00:24:08,113 --> 00:24:10,823
…he was also part of a package deal.
517
00:24:10,906 --> 00:24:17,037
He had been schooled by a mime expert
in the New York theater scene. Moni Yakim.
518
00:24:17,122 --> 00:24:20,882
He had asked for us
to hire this guy as a movement coach.
519
00:24:20,959 --> 00:24:25,838
He worked on certain moves
that allowed Peter to look more robotic.
520
00:24:25,922 --> 00:24:28,011
Which would prove quite useful.
521
00:24:28,090 --> 00:24:30,300
Just as soon as there was
a suit for him to wear,
522
00:24:30,384 --> 00:24:33,845
which would only take
about six months to create.
523
00:24:33,930 --> 00:24:37,680
Assuming that is,
that all those designs were squared away.
524
00:24:38,226 --> 00:24:41,266
And Rob said, "This isn't working.
The director doesn't like it."
525
00:24:41,354 --> 00:24:42,564
He had become very bulky.
526
00:24:42,646 --> 00:24:45,067
He sort of had this huge,
sort of cylinder for a chest
527
00:24:45,150 --> 00:24:48,650
and a helmet that looked kind of like
a stylized Greco-Roman helmet.
528
00:24:48,737 --> 00:24:51,197
So, after six months of hard work…
529
00:24:51,280 --> 00:24:53,201
We're at that stage of
530
00:24:53,282 --> 00:24:55,452
completely reconstructing
from the ground up.
531
00:24:55,535 --> 00:24:57,325
You can't say you weren't warned.
532
00:24:57,412 --> 00:24:59,041
He might not be on your timetable.
533
00:24:59,122 --> 00:25:03,132
And he wasn't.
So, Miles did what he does best.
534
00:25:03,210 --> 00:25:05,589
Just drew for hours and hours and hours.
535
00:25:05,670 --> 00:25:09,720
Except this time, he was in…
In super hyper-crunch mode.
536
00:25:09,798 --> 00:25:12,429
But Miles would really
have to get the lead out,
537
00:25:12,510 --> 00:25:15,221
as production was quickly
gearing up to load up
538
00:25:15,305 --> 00:25:20,684
and move out to the film's setting,
Detroit, Michigan, kind of.
539
00:25:20,769 --> 00:25:23,498
We didn't end up shooting there.
There was a good reason.
540
00:25:23,521 --> 00:25:24,811
I mean, the question was budget.
541
00:25:24,897 --> 00:25:27,938
And we went to Dallas,
because we got a good deal there.
542
00:25:28,026 --> 00:25:30,276
I gotta hand it to you,
you sure can pick 'em.
543
00:25:30,362 --> 00:25:32,662
Besides, it wasn't
just about the bottom line.
544
00:25:32,739 --> 00:25:35,118
Dallas had some particular things
when we scouted it
545
00:25:35,200 --> 00:25:37,200
that really worked for our script.
546
00:25:37,285 --> 00:25:39,285
A script set in the future.
547
00:25:39,371 --> 00:25:41,411
Dallas was perfect for us
because at that time,
548
00:25:41,498 --> 00:25:43,327
it had this period of growth
549
00:25:43,415 --> 00:25:45,496
where they had a lot
of interesting modern buildings.
550
00:25:45,585 --> 00:25:47,954
So, with a location and a cast,
551
00:25:48,046 --> 00:25:51,925
there really was just the one thing
that they were waiting on.
552
00:25:52,008 --> 00:25:53,837
What happened was, I brought in a book…
553
00:25:53,926 --> 00:25:55,297
Not just any book.
554
00:25:55,386 --> 00:25:58,557
This exact, super sexy
Japanese robot book.
555
00:25:58,640 --> 00:26:00,599
…from the Japanese illustrator, Sorayama,
556
00:26:00,683 --> 00:26:04,193
and he was known for drawing
these sexy chrome robots.
557
00:26:04,270 --> 00:26:08,191
And what did Rob Bottin make
of these sensual synthoids?
558
00:26:08,275 --> 00:26:10,644
I remember he picked the book up
and said, "This is it."
559
00:26:11,278 --> 00:26:15,117
"If we can take this aesthetic
and graft it onto Peter Weller,
560
00:26:15,198 --> 00:26:16,367
we can make this work."
561
00:26:16,449 --> 00:26:18,078
It looked immediately right.
562
00:26:18,159 --> 00:26:20,949
And it just was like,
"Wow, that's fantastic."
563
00:26:22,580 --> 00:26:26,000
Then Peter went in
and they molded his body and his head…
564
00:26:26,710 --> 00:26:29,750
so that the whole suit fit him well.
565
00:26:29,837 --> 00:26:33,298
But this last-minute scramble
to redesign the suit
566
00:26:33,383 --> 00:26:35,552
put Rob and his team behind.
567
00:26:35,634 --> 00:26:38,964
And when shooting started
in early August, 1986…
568
00:26:39,055 --> 00:26:40,384
They didn't have a suit.
569
00:26:40,472 --> 00:26:42,643
I thought we agreed
on total body prosthesis.
570
00:26:42,726 --> 00:26:45,766
And so that just
immediately set them back.
571
00:26:45,854 --> 00:26:49,614
And so, they had to start, because they
had a very short production window.
572
00:26:49,691 --> 00:26:52,070
So suddenly the schedule
got flopped around.
573
00:26:52,152 --> 00:26:55,951
Scrambling to find anything
that didn't involve the star.
574
00:26:56,030 --> 00:26:57,820
There ain't a lot to shoot without Weller.
575
00:26:57,906 --> 00:27:00,406
There's a bit.
The very first shot
576
00:27:00,492 --> 00:27:05,623
was the confrontation between Dick Jones
and Bob Morton in the executive washroom.
577
00:27:05,707 --> 00:27:07,957
Fucked with the wrong guy.
578
00:27:08,042 --> 00:27:09,712
You're out of your fucking mind.
579
00:27:09,794 --> 00:27:11,763
Well, that's one shot in the can.
580
00:27:11,837 --> 00:27:13,968
There must be more they could do.
581
00:27:14,048 --> 00:27:17,719
After all, time was money and...
There's an idea.
582
00:27:17,801 --> 00:27:21,432
"I'll buy that for a dollar."
I'd buy that for a dollar.
583
00:27:23,182 --> 00:27:25,103
That was the first two days of shooting.
584
00:27:25,184 --> 00:27:27,184
They shot vignettes for the television.
585
00:27:27,269 --> 00:27:30,359
And the inspiration
for this fictional knee-slapper?
586
00:27:30,440 --> 00:27:32,569
Is a direct spoof of Benny Hill,
587
00:27:32,651 --> 00:27:37,240
the English comedian
who would grin impishly to the audience.
588
00:27:37,322 --> 00:27:40,531
Did you see that?
The show was called It's Not My Problem!
589
00:27:40,616 --> 00:27:43,866
Which, in itself,
was a subtle nod to Paul Verhoeven.
590
00:27:43,952 --> 00:27:47,173
If we would come to him with,
like something wasn't working
591
00:27:47,248 --> 00:27:49,667
or we had a problem,
and he often would say,
592
00:27:49,750 --> 00:27:51,750
"Well, certainly, that's not my problem."
593
00:27:51,836 --> 00:27:53,506
"Well, that's your problem, not mine."
594
00:27:53,587 --> 00:27:57,218
But it was increasingly
becoming Paul Verhoeven's problem,
595
00:27:57,299 --> 00:27:59,890
because after all the dollars were spent
596
00:27:59,969 --> 00:28:03,179
shooting all of the scenes
that didn't require a robo-suit…
597
00:28:03,263 --> 00:28:05,233
We ran out of stuff.
598
00:28:07,727 --> 00:28:11,727
We sat around just like, "My God!"
599
00:28:12,231 --> 00:28:14,152
Stewing in the Dallas heat.
600
00:28:14,233 --> 00:28:15,903
It was a billion degrees there.
601
00:28:15,984 --> 00:28:18,194
Just sweating our balls off.
602
00:28:18,278 --> 00:28:22,159
An idle cast and crew
were left to pass the time
603
00:28:22,241 --> 00:28:24,951
watching Peter work on his body movements.
604
00:28:25,036 --> 00:28:26,955
There in an empty parking lot
605
00:28:27,038 --> 00:28:30,667
in 95-degree Texas heat
606
00:28:30,750 --> 00:28:35,339
was Peter and this mime
marching around the parking lot.
607
00:28:35,422 --> 00:28:38,261
And we thought,
"It's gonna look like that?"
608
00:28:38,340 --> 00:28:40,721
Well, they were about to find out,
609
00:28:40,801 --> 00:28:42,301
because after two weeks…
610
00:28:42,386 --> 00:28:43,636
It comes finally.
611
00:28:43,721 --> 00:28:46,432
And finally,
the crew could spring into action.
612
00:28:46,516 --> 00:28:49,135
And Peter, he sprang into the new suit.
613
00:28:49,227 --> 00:28:51,896
Ready to make up for all that lost time.
614
00:28:51,980 --> 00:28:54,230
We all got there in the morning and…
615
00:28:57,317 --> 00:28:59,067
I would say it was at least eight hours.
616
00:28:59,153 --> 00:29:00,534
It took him ten hours.
617
00:29:00,613 --> 00:29:02,323
Twelve hours.
618
00:29:02,406 --> 00:29:06,326
The first time, I think it took
14 or 15 hours to get him in the suit.
619
00:29:06,411 --> 00:29:08,371
And they lose the entire day.
620
00:29:08,454 --> 00:29:11,535
And what went through my mind
was either we're going to be here
621
00:29:11,624 --> 00:29:13,423
for the next six months…
622
00:29:14,461 --> 00:29:16,171
or they're shutting us down tomorrow.
623
00:29:18,006 --> 00:29:19,336
Now, meanwhile, Paul Verhoeven,
624
00:29:19,423 --> 00:29:22,644
who has got a lot riding
on his shoulders for the show,
625
00:29:22,719 --> 00:29:24,298
is going completely crazy.
626
00:29:24,386 --> 00:29:27,267
But while Verhoeven
was fretting lost time,
627
00:29:27,347 --> 00:29:31,228
Weller was about to find himself
plunged into his own crisis.
628
00:29:31,310 --> 00:29:35,820
After spending four months
of rehearsing with Moni Yakim,
629
00:29:35,898 --> 00:29:37,528
once he gets into the suit…
630
00:29:39,152 --> 00:29:42,162
The director just didn't like it.
It wasn't a sort of robotic movement
631
00:29:42,238 --> 00:29:44,617
that we ended up with in the film.
It was a different thing.
632
00:29:44,699 --> 00:29:47,739
He did have this weird thing he did.
633
00:29:47,826 --> 00:29:49,037
Robo, come on in.
634
00:29:49,119 --> 00:29:51,619
He was trying
to look like a ballet dancer,
635
00:29:51,705 --> 00:29:54,536
and that just simply didn't fit
into the concept.
636
00:29:55,125 --> 00:29:57,685
I imagine I might've been
thrown into a panic by that,
637
00:29:57,711 --> 00:29:59,711
because nothing I've thought about works.
638
00:29:59,798 --> 00:30:02,548
I can't do this, I can't do that.
I can't even take a piss.
639
00:30:02,634 --> 00:30:06,263
Can't use any of this stuff,
and so he's furious.
640
00:30:06,346 --> 00:30:08,806
And as for the hot and sweaty crew…
641
00:30:08,890 --> 00:30:12,019
It was just like, "Please, we just all
sat here for ten hours waiting."
642
00:30:12,101 --> 00:30:13,191
"Just get on the damn set."
643
00:30:13,269 --> 00:30:16,108
Awkwardly stumbling forward
with the shoot.
644
00:30:16,189 --> 00:30:19,979
So, we don't have him kick open doors and
flop in like Lloyd Bridges from Sea Hunt.
645
00:30:20,943 --> 00:30:24,324
Verhoeven directed it so that RoboCop
would be revealed in layers.
646
00:30:24,404 --> 00:30:26,065
Layers and layers and layers…
647
00:30:26,156 --> 00:30:26,987
Layer one.
648
00:30:27,075 --> 00:30:29,194
A plastic covering comes off the POV.
649
00:30:29,285 --> 00:30:30,115
Layer two.
650
00:30:30,202 --> 00:30:33,413
We see the POV walk by a video monitor,
651
00:30:33,498 --> 00:30:35,627
and that's the first time
you see the suit.
652
00:30:35,708 --> 00:30:39,127
Layer three.
RoboCop is walking behind frosted glass,
653
00:30:39,211 --> 00:30:41,731
and then eventually emerges.
And the final layer…
654
00:30:41,798 --> 00:30:45,298
He's behind this wire mesh holding cell.
655
00:30:45,384 --> 00:30:47,845
But their suit problems
couldn't be disguised
656
00:30:47,929 --> 00:30:49,759
by clever direction for long.
657
00:30:49,847 --> 00:30:50,887
In the meantime,
658
00:30:50,973 --> 00:30:53,733
at least other people
were hitting their stride.
659
00:30:53,809 --> 00:30:55,140
I really liked driving the car.
660
00:30:55,228 --> 00:30:57,688
I'd better drive until you know
your way around.
661
00:30:57,771 --> 00:30:59,402
Paul liked it when I drove the car.
662
00:30:59,481 --> 00:31:01,571
He thought I was more reckless
than the stunt driver.
663
00:31:01,651 --> 00:31:02,941
Hit it!
664
00:31:03,027 --> 00:31:05,567
I don't know what came over me
when I got behind that wheel.
665
00:31:05,654 --> 00:31:08,365
It was clearly the same
determination and drive
666
00:31:08,449 --> 00:31:09,909
that came over Kurtwood Smith.
667
00:31:09,992 --> 00:31:12,752
The first day that I shot
668
00:31:12,828 --> 00:31:15,459
was when RoboCop dragged me
into the police station,
669
00:31:15,539 --> 00:31:18,210
threw me up against the counter and said…
Book him.
670
00:31:18,292 --> 00:31:20,752
The first thing I did was
go to Paul and say, "Paul,
671
00:31:20,836 --> 00:31:23,166
how about if I spit blood on the desk?"
672
00:31:23,256 --> 00:31:27,715
And Paul was like, "Yes, let's try that."
673
00:31:28,510 --> 00:31:30,931
Boom! That was it for me and Paul.
674
00:31:31,013 --> 00:31:33,854
From then on, we were on the same channel
for the rest of the movie.
675
00:31:33,932 --> 00:31:37,732
But for Peter and Paul,
they were fighting over the remote.
676
00:31:38,688 --> 00:31:40,647
There was already quite a bit of,
677
00:31:40,981 --> 00:31:45,612
shall we say, resentment brewing
over the director-actor relationship.
678
00:31:45,694 --> 00:31:48,154
And thus ensued a dance of sorts.
679
00:31:48,239 --> 00:31:51,659
So if all of a sudden, you're doing
these balletic samurai moves,
680
00:31:51,742 --> 00:31:53,702
which is what Peter wanted to do…
681
00:31:54,202 --> 00:31:56,542
it just didn't jar with the conception.
682
00:31:56,623 --> 00:32:00,173
Or Verhoeven.
Paul is a perfectionist.
683
00:32:00,250 --> 00:32:06,381
He wants a look. He wants a performance.
He wants a mood. He wants…
684
00:32:06,465 --> 00:32:10,385
…Peter Weller to understand
one simple prime directive.
685
00:32:10,470 --> 00:32:13,640
You are playing a machine
that doesn't know it's a man.
686
00:32:13,722 --> 00:32:16,682
Not a man that thinks
he's a shiny metal ballerina.
687
00:32:16,768 --> 00:32:18,897
I think that caused a crisis in the actor,
688
00:32:18,978 --> 00:32:21,647
and it made him
very insecure about the movie.
689
00:32:21,730 --> 00:32:24,361
So he started to kind of fight back
in other ways.
690
00:32:25,652 --> 00:32:29,362
And ironically…
It all came down to his prime directives.
691
00:32:29,446 --> 00:32:33,527
Serve the public trust.
Protect the innocent. Uphold the law.
692
00:32:33,617 --> 00:32:36,680
He didn't want to say them, he wanted
to come up with his own versions of them.
693
00:32:36,703 --> 00:32:40,463
And they went from these one-line things
to these baroque amendments.
694
00:32:40,540 --> 00:32:43,840
They were like,
"Four score and seven years ago,
695
00:32:43,920 --> 00:32:46,509
when I became a cyborg…"
Blah, blah, blah.
696
00:32:47,298 --> 00:32:49,877
And Peter just kept resisting.
697
00:32:49,968 --> 00:32:52,798
Which, under these circumstances,
really didn't go down well.
698
00:32:52,886 --> 00:32:55,176
We don't have the time
to rewrite the movie.
699
00:32:55,263 --> 00:32:56,604
We gotta shoot it right now.
700
00:32:56,682 --> 00:33:00,313
With the situation
quickly spiraling out of control…
701
00:33:00,394 --> 00:33:03,305
Medavoy called Weller's agent and said…
Jesus, you really screwed up.
702
00:33:03,397 --> 00:33:06,147
No…
What he said was much worse.
703
00:33:06,733 --> 00:33:10,284
"I will fire your guy
and eat several million dollars…"
704
00:33:10,363 --> 00:33:11,363
You're our product.
705
00:33:11,446 --> 00:33:14,826
"…if he doesn't get in line
and say the prime directives as written."
706
00:33:14,909 --> 00:33:17,670
To which Peter replied…
"I'm not gonna say your lines."
707
00:33:18,578 --> 00:33:20,209
The production said, "Okay."
708
00:33:20,789 --> 00:33:21,829
"You can leave."
709
00:33:23,500 --> 00:33:25,711
And they started
really looking for other people.
710
00:33:25,795 --> 00:33:28,454
And that was a big crisis
for this production.
711
00:33:28,548 --> 00:33:31,508
But a big opportunity for somebody else.
712
00:33:31,592 --> 00:33:33,511
"Here, I am, you've found your RoboCop."
713
00:33:33,594 --> 00:33:35,723
I'm Peter Fonda.
Not Peter Fonda. No!
714
00:33:35,805 --> 00:33:38,515
This man. Stunt coordinator, Gary Combs.
715
00:33:38,598 --> 00:33:41,308
I'm the stunt guy, I'm not an actor.
716
00:33:41,394 --> 00:33:42,854
Not yet, at least.
717
00:33:42,936 --> 00:33:45,977
One night, this producer
of this show, he called me. He said,
718
00:33:46,065 --> 00:33:48,434
"How are you with dialogue?"
I said, "What do you mean?"
719
00:33:48,526 --> 00:33:50,066
I'm talking to you. What do you say?
720
00:33:50,153 --> 00:33:51,613
"You're gonna be RoboCop."
721
00:33:51,695 --> 00:33:52,986
And so, he was.
722
00:33:53,072 --> 00:33:55,991
At least just while
they figured out what to do with Peter,
723
00:33:56,075 --> 00:33:58,035
who Gary was nothing like.
724
00:33:58,118 --> 00:34:01,249
There was never a complaint.
He did everything he was supposed to do.
725
00:34:01,329 --> 00:34:03,789
All the stuff that they were doing
were just reactions.
726
00:34:03,875 --> 00:34:06,035
I was in the suit,
so you couldn't tell the difference.
727
00:34:06,126 --> 00:34:08,126
But Peter Weller could.
728
00:34:10,047 --> 00:34:13,797
I think that jostled him
a little bit like, ""
729
00:34:14,342 --> 00:34:16,143
"Maybe I shouldn't be such a…"
730
00:34:17,096 --> 00:34:18,175
Okay, okay.
731
00:34:18,681 --> 00:34:23,141
There was a big "come to Jesus" moment,
if you will, between Peter and Paul.
732
00:34:23,226 --> 00:34:24,726
Paul basically said,
733
00:34:24,811 --> 00:34:27,271
"Look, we're both upset.
Let's move on from this."
734
00:34:27,356 --> 00:34:29,476
"Shake my hand and there'll be
no more problems."
735
00:34:29,567 --> 00:34:32,697
And Peter Weller stared
at the hand and shook it.
736
00:34:32,778 --> 00:34:36,119
And from that moment on,
well, we'll see.
737
00:34:36,199 --> 00:34:38,278
Skip forward
a couple of weeks in production,
738
00:34:38,367 --> 00:34:41,907
and things were moving along
at a decidedly quicker clip,
739
00:34:41,996 --> 00:34:43,706
with no small thanks owed to…
740
00:34:43,789 --> 00:34:45,789
…Paul Verhoeven.
741
00:34:45,875 --> 00:34:48,414
There's a certain energy on the set.
There's like this machine…
742
00:34:48,503 --> 00:34:50,422
Action!
It's constantly moving.
743
00:34:51,755 --> 00:34:54,675
Go!
And Paul was the engine.
744
00:34:54,759 --> 00:34:56,259
He was the driving force.
745
00:34:56,844 --> 00:34:59,313
Which is a very polite way of saying…
746
00:34:59,387 --> 00:35:01,518
He hated waiting for things.
747
00:35:01,599 --> 00:35:04,728
Okay. Next shot.
Thank you very much. Thank you.
748
00:35:04,811 --> 00:35:07,400
You know, putting mics on people
and all of that,
749
00:35:07,480 --> 00:35:09,400
he doesn't wanna be bothered with that.
750
00:35:09,481 --> 00:35:11,481
And about those mics…
751
00:35:11,567 --> 00:35:14,067
The sound people said,
"We can't get it, we have to wire them."
752
00:35:14,152 --> 00:35:17,242
And Paul lost his shit.
753
00:35:18,490 --> 00:35:21,791
"They're conspiring!
They're conspiring to ruin my movie."
754
00:35:23,036 --> 00:35:24,867
Peter said to me, "Did you see Paul?"
755
00:35:24,956 --> 00:35:28,416
Paul was literally sitting on the ground
756
00:35:28,501 --> 00:35:31,050
with his legs crossed,
his head in his hand,
757
00:35:31,128 --> 00:35:32,608
because he had to wait for something.
758
00:35:32,672 --> 00:35:35,472
If Paul thought
the entire crew was conspiring
759
00:35:35,550 --> 00:35:39,260
to make just his life miserable,
well, he was wrong.
760
00:35:39,344 --> 00:35:42,005
Everyone had a horrible time on RoboCop.
761
00:35:42,097 --> 00:35:44,097
No, we didn't have a good time.
762
00:35:44,182 --> 00:35:47,652
And the reason why?
"You trying to fuck my movie?"
763
00:35:47,728 --> 00:35:50,307
Well, we can only speculate as to that.
764
00:35:50,398 --> 00:35:54,688
But there was no doubting why
Peter Weller wasn't having a good time,
765
00:35:54,777 --> 00:35:56,447
putting that suit on every day.
766
00:35:56,528 --> 00:35:57,949
It ain't easy, pal.
767
00:35:58,030 --> 00:36:01,909
It was painful. He was getting blisters.
Parts were rubbing him wrong.
768
00:36:02,492 --> 00:36:03,492
I can feel them.
769
00:36:03,536 --> 00:36:07,246
Which in turn led him
to rub crew members wrong.
770
00:36:07,331 --> 00:36:08,541
Like poor Gregor here,
771
00:36:08,623 --> 00:36:11,384
who helped squeeze Peter
into that suit every day.
772
00:36:11,460 --> 00:36:13,630
I'm having a bit of difficulty getting in,
773
00:36:13,713 --> 00:36:17,052
you know, something screwed in
on his ankle and he's like,
774
00:36:17,132 --> 00:36:19,472
"Can you get somebody else
over here to do this?"
775
00:36:19,552 --> 00:36:22,722
And I looked at him,
I go, "Hey, Peter. Fuck off."
776
00:36:22,804 --> 00:36:24,715
And he looked at me,
he goes, "I like you."
777
00:36:24,806 --> 00:36:26,927
And we were good from that point on.
778
00:36:27,684 --> 00:36:29,804
And while he didn't want
to be in the suit,
779
00:36:29,896 --> 00:36:32,896
Peter did, however,
want to remain in character.
780
00:36:32,981 --> 00:36:33,902
Do you have a name?
781
00:36:33,983 --> 00:36:37,282
I had been told,
Peter only wanted to be called "Robo."
782
00:36:37,360 --> 00:36:38,400
Just Robo?
783
00:36:38,487 --> 00:36:39,487
Go, Robo!
784
00:36:39,530 --> 00:36:42,780
And I thought, "Well.
I'm just not gonna talk to the guy."
785
00:36:42,867 --> 00:36:45,237
Rob Bottin refused to call him Robo.
786
00:36:45,327 --> 00:36:49,367
So he would, you know, just aggressively,
like, "Hey, how's it going, Peter?"
787
00:36:49,456 --> 00:36:51,536
"That's Robo." "Yeah right, Peter."
788
00:36:51,626 --> 00:36:55,456
And while on-set tensions
threatened to flare up at any moment…
789
00:36:56,547 --> 00:36:59,797
it was an altogether
different type of explosion…
790
00:36:59,884 --> 00:37:02,353
"Bigger. Bigger. I need bigger!
I need bigger!"
791
00:37:02,427 --> 00:37:06,057
…that would mark the end
of the production's time in Dallas.
792
00:37:06,556 --> 00:37:09,556
The gas station scene,
I think, was one of those scenes where
793
00:37:09,643 --> 00:37:12,313
the effects crew had heard enough
from Paul about how much
794
00:37:12,396 --> 00:37:15,936
he wanted "bigger, bigger, bigger,"
in terms of the effects and explosions.
795
00:37:16,025 --> 00:37:19,565
When I overheard one of the guys saying,
"He wants big? We'll give him big."
796
00:37:22,739 --> 00:37:24,699
The gas station explosion
797
00:37:25,534 --> 00:37:29,463
was far too big to have happened
in a downtown area.
798
00:37:29,538 --> 00:37:32,827
It broke windows for,
you know, a couple of blocks away.
799
00:37:32,916 --> 00:37:36,746
I imagine it set off
a lot of motion alarms in the area.
800
00:37:36,836 --> 00:37:40,626
It also genuinely set
into motion law changes in Texas.
801
00:37:40,715 --> 00:37:45,175
And with that, the RoboCop crew
had definitely outstayed their welcome,
802
00:37:45,262 --> 00:37:46,972
and headed to their next location.
803
00:37:47,056 --> 00:37:48,766
Where did he go?
Pittsburgh.
804
00:37:48,849 --> 00:37:50,478
Yeah, we went to Pennsylvania.
805
00:37:50,559 --> 00:37:54,768
At a shuttered steel mill
which was stunning and spectacular.
806
00:37:54,855 --> 00:37:59,105
And it was here
that a spectacular display of violence
807
00:37:59,193 --> 00:38:02,612
was unleashed on all these rotten baddies.
808
00:38:02,697 --> 00:38:06,277
They were the worst people in the world,
but they were just having the best time.
809
00:38:06,367 --> 00:38:08,286
But as for the cast and crew…
810
00:38:08,369 --> 00:38:11,708
It was like the rest of the movie.
It was always uncomfortable.
811
00:38:11,789 --> 00:38:13,958
For some, it was uncomfortable in a…
812
00:38:14,041 --> 00:38:15,880
Dirty, disgusting water.
813
00:38:15,960 --> 00:38:16,789
…kind of way.
814
00:38:16,876 --> 00:38:18,666
I refused to put on a wet suit
815
00:38:18,753 --> 00:38:22,054
under my costume because I was afraid
I would look fat in the water.
816
00:38:22,132 --> 00:38:23,592
I'm a mess.
817
00:38:23,675 --> 00:38:28,175
I got in the water. It was freezing cold.
That was a really big mistake.
818
00:38:28,264 --> 00:38:31,184
But for others,
it was uncomfortable in more of a…
819
00:38:31,266 --> 00:38:33,516
Face was all swollen up.
Eye was super puffed up.
820
00:38:33,601 --> 00:38:34,481
…kind of way.
821
00:38:34,561 --> 00:38:37,612
Extraordinary hours in a makeup chair.
822
00:38:37,690 --> 00:38:40,126
And while McCrane
worked out the appropriate sound…
823
00:38:43,653 --> 00:38:46,623
…it was down to our friend Miles Teves…
Yeah.
824
00:38:46,699 --> 00:38:50,239
…to work out how someone might look
when they're melted down by toxic waste.
825
00:38:50,327 --> 00:38:53,577
I just started drawing skin melting off
of the bones of the guy's hand.
826
00:38:53,664 --> 00:38:57,673
We sculpted the flesh hanging down,
put weights inside the ends of the flesh,
827
00:38:57,751 --> 00:38:59,251
so they would hang down properly.
828
00:38:59,336 --> 00:39:00,706
Help me!
829
00:39:00,795 --> 00:39:03,465
I did the wasp-sting eye.
It was actually a lot of fun.
830
00:39:03,548 --> 00:39:05,969
Nice someone was having fun.
831
00:39:06,052 --> 00:39:10,512
I had to feed him lunch, because
he couldn't eat with the melted face.
832
00:39:10,597 --> 00:39:12,847
Nobody could really eat lunch that day.
833
00:39:12,932 --> 00:39:17,193
I had to hit this guy with the car.
It was a pretty good dummy.
834
00:39:17,271 --> 00:39:20,780
And they throw watermelons
and pig intestines at the windshield.
835
00:39:20,858 --> 00:39:23,818
And I was the guy that tossed the gak.
836
00:39:23,902 --> 00:39:27,452
I know Paul wanted bigger
and more grotesque all the time.
837
00:39:27,530 --> 00:39:30,701
But amidst the explosive grotesqueness,
838
00:39:30,784 --> 00:39:33,244
the biggest bloodbath was the budget.
839
00:39:33,329 --> 00:39:37,119
You know, we're up
to $12-million-and-bleeding range.
840
00:39:38,250 --> 00:39:43,010
That's right. The budget was
a veritable gore fest, hemorrhaging cash.
841
00:39:43,922 --> 00:39:45,632
Paul had a lot to do with it.
842
00:39:45,715 --> 00:39:49,215
And for Barbara, well,
perhaps she was wrong going Dutch.
843
00:39:49,302 --> 00:39:52,813
You're asking, "How did I let
this happen after Flesh and Blood?"
844
00:39:52,889 --> 00:39:55,230
Because by this time,
we knew how Paul shot.
845
00:39:57,811 --> 00:39:58,942
Or we should have.
846
00:39:59,021 --> 00:40:00,860
The production and Orion Pictures
847
00:40:00,940 --> 00:40:04,650
soon found themselves
at a bit of an impasse.
848
00:40:04,735 --> 00:40:06,644
When the studio is getting all worked up,
849
00:40:06,737 --> 00:40:10,067
you know, you try and come up
with something you can give up.
850
00:40:10,157 --> 00:40:13,327
But Paul Verhoeven was
in no mood for concessions.
851
00:40:13,411 --> 00:40:16,581
He was having an argument
with one of the producers over money.
852
00:40:16,664 --> 00:40:21,634
And all of a sudden, we hear,
"Just tell me if you're going to fuck me!"
853
00:40:21,710 --> 00:40:23,840
"Tell me you're going to fuck me,
and then I will know
854
00:40:23,920 --> 00:40:25,630
if you are going to fuck me!"
855
00:40:25,713 --> 00:40:28,724
Luckily, it wouldn't come to that,
856
00:40:28,800 --> 00:40:30,010
all thanks to a little…
857
00:40:30,094 --> 00:40:31,570
Glitch.
No, not glitch.
858
00:40:31,594 --> 00:40:34,005
"Glitch" is the wrong word.
More of a clerical error.
859
00:40:34,097 --> 00:40:35,268
Late in the production,
860
00:40:35,349 --> 00:40:38,809
the studio sent
Jon Davison some paperwork.
861
00:40:39,353 --> 00:40:41,402
Somebody screwed up in business affairs,
862
00:40:41,480 --> 00:40:44,940
because it was something that
should've been signed in pre-production.
863
00:40:45,025 --> 00:40:46,525
Which was months ago.
864
00:40:46,610 --> 00:40:51,280
And it said the movie is budgeted for
ten million 700 some-odd thousand dollars.
865
00:40:51,364 --> 00:40:54,235
And signing here,
it says that you can make it for that.
866
00:40:54,326 --> 00:40:57,576
And I said to Jon,
"You know, you can't sign that,
867
00:40:57,663 --> 00:40:59,213
because we're already well over that."
868
00:40:59,873 --> 00:41:02,673
He called his lawyer,
the lawyer called the Orion guys and said,
869
00:41:02,751 --> 00:41:05,300
"He won't sign it.
He'd be falsifying a document."
870
00:41:05,378 --> 00:41:07,918
Which, of course, would be a very blatant…
871
00:41:08,007 --> 00:41:09,007
Crime.
872
00:41:09,090 --> 00:41:11,760
You can't sign to a lie, and they didn't.
873
00:41:11,844 --> 00:41:14,224
With shooting
well on its way to completion,
874
00:41:14,304 --> 00:41:17,594
Orion had no choice
but to own up to its boo-boo.
875
00:41:17,682 --> 00:41:18,523
Just kidding.
876
00:41:18,601 --> 00:41:23,271
And we did the right thing, I think.
Gave them money they needed.
877
00:41:23,355 --> 00:41:26,644
And they bumped the budget up to,
I think it was 13.9.
878
00:41:26,733 --> 00:41:28,943
And so, Orion agreed to say,
879
00:41:29,027 --> 00:41:32,617
"Okay, we'll finish in Pennsylvania,
we'll regroup in Los Angeles."
880
00:41:32,697 --> 00:41:34,237
And with the pressure off…
881
00:41:34,324 --> 00:41:36,864
Paul Verhoeven was so…
Happy? And relaxed?
882
00:41:36,952 --> 00:41:39,331
He was so unhappy and miserable.
883
00:41:39,413 --> 00:41:42,172
He said, "They're giving me two more,
they're giving me 13 million."
884
00:41:42,248 --> 00:41:44,838
"This is a 17-to-20-million-dollar film."
885
00:41:44,918 --> 00:41:48,458
"How do they expect me
to do this film for this amount of money?"
886
00:41:48,547 --> 00:41:50,047
"This is not possible!"
887
00:41:50,132 --> 00:41:53,092
But eventually
Paul was able to collect his nerves.
888
00:41:53,177 --> 00:41:55,677
And the production
came back to Los Angeles
889
00:41:55,762 --> 00:41:59,813
to complete the final and arguably
most important part of the movie.
890
00:42:00,476 --> 00:42:03,186
The scene where Murphy
gets killed by the gang.
891
00:42:03,269 --> 00:42:05,230
Well, what have we here?
892
00:42:05,856 --> 00:42:07,266
And that was a wild set.
893
00:42:07,358 --> 00:42:08,858
First, they blow off his hand.
894
00:42:09,527 --> 00:42:10,686
Then blow off his arm.
895
00:42:11,612 --> 00:42:12,952
Then they blow off his head.
896
00:42:14,197 --> 00:42:15,197
It's…
897
00:42:15,657 --> 00:42:17,577
Na-na-na-na-na…
898
00:42:17,659 --> 00:42:20,579
Just… awful.
899
00:42:20,663 --> 00:42:24,503
While the set was teeming with
enthusiasm at the beginning of the day…
900
00:42:24,583 --> 00:42:27,422
Paul directed the scene
with a great deal of vigor.
901
00:42:27,503 --> 00:42:28,552
"Now, you kill him."
902
00:42:28,628 --> 00:42:33,009
…the morbid scene unfolding
began to take its hole… sorry, toll.
903
00:42:33,092 --> 00:42:35,391
It looked so real, even there.
904
00:42:35,469 --> 00:42:38,759
It was surprisingly like… ew.
And everybody on the set felt it.
905
00:42:38,847 --> 00:42:42,306
And the only one
who felt it more than Peter Weller
906
00:42:42,393 --> 00:42:43,983
was the other Peter Weller.
907
00:42:44,061 --> 00:42:47,190
The prosthetic Peter Weller
that Rob Bottin had built,
908
00:42:47,273 --> 00:42:49,612
it was extremely lifelike.
909
00:42:49,692 --> 00:42:51,442
And then the thing sits up.
Go!
910
00:42:51,527 --> 00:42:54,817
Paul had set up this great tracking shot
and you hear this, "Shoot!"
911
00:42:55,447 --> 00:42:58,657
The back of his head blows out,
and there's a hole that you can see.
912
00:43:00,159 --> 00:43:01,619
Okay, let's get out of here.
913
00:43:01,704 --> 00:43:04,463
And that was a strange moment,
like, everybody was like…
914
00:43:05,873 --> 00:43:07,043
Yeah.
915
00:43:07,126 --> 00:43:08,786
It was a grim set.
916
00:43:08,876 --> 00:43:13,416
And at the end of the day,
it was, thankfully, a wrapped set.
917
00:43:13,507 --> 00:43:15,047
Okay, let's get out of here.
918
00:43:15,134 --> 00:43:16,764
And I remember Arne Schmidt going,
919
00:43:16,844 --> 00:43:18,554
"Is this okay?"
920
00:43:18,637 --> 00:43:21,516
You know, that's what editing is for.
921
00:43:21,599 --> 00:43:23,599
Which was already underway.
922
00:43:23,684 --> 00:43:24,943
I didn't see a rough cut.
923
00:43:25,018 --> 00:43:28,648
I saw scenes on the movie, all of it,
Frank Urioste was putting together.
924
00:43:29,815 --> 00:43:32,855
And I thought, at that moment,
that we had lightning in a bottle.
925
00:43:32,943 --> 00:43:34,583
After finishing the first cut,
926
00:43:34,652 --> 00:43:38,663
a preview screening was organized
to see if audiences felt the same way.
927
00:43:38,740 --> 00:43:41,380
People were laughing right away,
and I thought, "This is good."
928
00:43:41,952 --> 00:43:44,751
Twenty minutes in, things got bumpy.
929
00:43:45,331 --> 00:43:47,210
We had some walkouts.
Let's get out of here.
930
00:43:47,291 --> 00:43:48,920
When Murphy got murdered,
931
00:43:49,001 --> 00:43:52,251
it was so intense that ten people got up
and they left the room.
932
00:43:53,005 --> 00:43:56,545
Red alert.
And the nightmare begins again.
933
00:43:56,634 --> 00:44:00,474
Because the film
is quickly hit with an X rating.
934
00:44:01,472 --> 00:44:04,181
This was completely unacceptable.
935
00:44:04,266 --> 00:44:07,516
We got a problem.
An X rating would mean no HBO.
936
00:44:07,603 --> 00:44:10,483
It'd mean no cartoon, no action figures.
937
00:44:10,563 --> 00:44:14,903
And most importantly,
no RoboCop bubble bath.
938
00:44:14,985 --> 00:44:19,945
There were just all kinds of implications
of this movie being an X-rated movie.
939
00:44:20,032 --> 00:44:24,291
But when Verhoeven was asked
to edit the film down to an R rating…
940
00:44:24,369 --> 00:44:26,250
He fought every second of it.
941
00:44:26,329 --> 00:44:27,750
Of course he did.
942
00:44:27,831 --> 00:44:31,001
He said, "I'm not gonna do it.
It will never be released."
943
00:44:31,085 --> 00:44:33,295
But that wasn't Verhoeven's call.
944
00:44:33,378 --> 00:44:36,628
Medavoy had to say, "Give us a break."
Yeah.
945
00:44:36,715 --> 00:44:39,045
"We've done everything
to get this movie made."
946
00:44:39,134 --> 00:44:40,764
"Do what you're supposed to do."
947
00:44:40,844 --> 00:44:43,353
And what Verhoeven was supposed to do,
948
00:44:43,429 --> 00:44:44,889
contractually speaking,
949
00:44:44,972 --> 00:44:46,983
was deliver an R-rated film.
950
00:44:47,059 --> 00:44:49,849
You know, so we did have
to make some changes.
951
00:44:49,936 --> 00:44:54,186
They were painful, I'm sure, to Paul,
but they were totally necessary.
952
00:44:54,273 --> 00:44:57,244
Though not entirely extensive either.
953
00:44:57,777 --> 00:44:59,358
You're talking about seconds.
954
00:45:00,905 --> 00:45:02,985
It really was seconds.
955
00:45:03,574 --> 00:45:07,034
Which was just enough
to earn the film its R rating.
956
00:45:07,538 --> 00:45:08,458
Thank you, sir.
957
00:45:08,539 --> 00:45:11,708
And the next time we showed the movie,
only one person got up and left.
958
00:45:11,791 --> 00:45:13,882
And with its new R rating,
959
00:45:13,960 --> 00:45:16,300
the film was ready
for its opening weekend.
960
00:45:16,380 --> 00:45:19,590
RoboCop will bombard
movie theaters on July 17th.
961
00:45:19,675 --> 00:45:21,585
But how would audiences react
962
00:45:21,677 --> 00:45:25,217
to this action, sci-fi,
robot, corporate, murder movie?
963
00:45:25,304 --> 00:45:29,434
After I finished shooting, I thought,
"Who the hell is gonna see this movie?"
964
00:45:29,518 --> 00:45:32,057
We all thought
it was gonna be crap, I'm pretty sure.
965
00:45:32,146 --> 00:45:34,056
I had seen the movie, you know, 400 times
966
00:45:34,148 --> 00:45:35,938
and I thought,
"Well, I'm not even gonna go."
967
00:45:36,023 --> 00:45:38,364
Couple friends of mine said,
"No, you have to go."
968
00:45:38,443 --> 00:45:41,744
And at last, after a grueling production
969
00:45:41,822 --> 00:45:44,742
marred by setbacks, recuts, and…
970
00:45:44,824 --> 00:45:46,364
"Tell me if you're going to fuck me."
971
00:45:46,452 --> 00:45:48,161
…more setbacks,
972
00:45:48,244 --> 00:45:51,824
Ed and Mike's passion project
was finally on the big screen.
973
00:45:51,914 --> 00:45:53,625
Nice shooting, son. What's your name?
974
00:45:53,708 --> 00:45:56,208
And at the end when he says,
"What's your name, son?"
975
00:45:56,295 --> 00:46:00,664
And he says, "Murphy," the audience roared
in a way I could not anticipate.
976
00:46:00,757 --> 00:46:03,838
It actually almost made me cry.
It was astonishing.
977
00:46:03,927 --> 00:46:06,637
That's when I realized
people really like this movie.
978
00:46:06,722 --> 00:46:10,681
People were going nuts
and we knew we had a hit on our hands.
979
00:46:10,768 --> 00:46:11,847
It was a thrill.
980
00:46:11,934 --> 00:46:13,304
It's a good movie.
981
00:46:13,394 --> 00:46:15,144
I remember sitting
in Medavoy's office.
982
00:46:15,230 --> 00:46:17,360
There was a guy
on a telephone, a payphone.
983
00:46:17,440 --> 00:46:20,110
He was out in front of a theater
in New York, saying…
984
00:46:20,193 --> 00:46:23,704
"They're coming out!
They're laughing! They like it!"
985
00:46:23,780 --> 00:46:26,621
And Medavoy who'd been there went,
"It's a hit. It's good."
986
00:46:26,699 --> 00:46:31,119
America's new super hit movie, RoboCop.
987
00:46:31,204 --> 00:46:33,114
And I didn't realize
how much people liked it.
988
00:46:33,206 --> 00:46:34,456
RoboCop!
989
00:46:35,666 --> 00:46:36,746
Thanks, RoboCop.
990
00:46:36,835 --> 00:46:38,164
It was an interesting period.
991
00:46:38,253 --> 00:46:40,052
Now playing at a theater near you.
992
00:46:40,088 --> 00:46:42,717
And very quickly, people stopped saying…
993
00:46:42,800 --> 00:46:45,219
"RoboCop? You must be kidding."
994
00:46:45,302 --> 00:46:47,447
And…
"They're changing that title, right?"
995
00:46:47,471 --> 00:46:48,931
It seemed kinda silly to me.
996
00:46:49,014 --> 00:46:51,184
And instead, people started saying…
997
00:46:51,266 --> 00:46:52,266
RoboCop.
998
00:46:54,228 --> 00:46:55,807
That's a fucking awesome movie.
999
00:46:56,480 --> 00:46:58,360
In fact, some even say…
1000
00:46:58,440 --> 00:47:01,280
It's a perfect story, perfectly told.
1001
00:47:02,027 --> 00:47:06,737
And like all perfect stories,
RoboCop is timeless.
1002
00:47:06,824 --> 00:47:10,083
It's an adventure about a guy
who gets turned into a robot if you want,
1003
00:47:10,159 --> 00:47:12,789
but you can also see it
as a sociological thing about cops.
1004
00:47:13,996 --> 00:47:15,786
And about corporate America.
1005
00:47:17,291 --> 00:47:18,791
This whole kind of notion that
1006
00:47:18,876 --> 00:47:21,547
the new power figure in the world
was the business executive.
1007
00:47:21,630 --> 00:47:25,429
You just fucked with the wrong guy.
1008
00:47:26,802 --> 00:47:29,351
It's about how a country is broken
1009
00:47:30,012 --> 00:47:34,563
and it requires one individual
to restore order to the broken place.
1010
00:47:36,269 --> 00:47:39,059
Well, it certainly took
more than one individual
1011
00:47:39,146 --> 00:47:41,016
to make this masterpiece.
1012
00:47:41,608 --> 00:47:44,148
The right decision was made at every step.
1013
00:47:44,235 --> 00:47:48,365
And a lot of those decisions
are thanks to this lot at Orion.
1014
00:47:48,865 --> 00:47:51,826
None more so than Barbara,
1015
00:47:52,619 --> 00:47:55,539
who, despite everything…
1016
00:47:55,621 --> 00:48:00,041
…managed to convince Paul Verhoeven
to look beyond the title…
1017
00:48:00,126 --> 00:48:02,496
"This is everything I hate about America."
1018
00:48:02,588 --> 00:48:04,717
…and to see the… you know what.
1019
00:48:04,797 --> 00:48:06,927
Layers and layers and layers…
1020
00:48:07,009 --> 00:48:10,298
My argument to Verhoeven was,
1021
00:48:10,804 --> 00:48:15,643
"You can make a machine,
and you can make man machine-like."
1022
00:48:18,228 --> 00:48:24,148
"But I'm telling you, this is about a man
who becomes a machine."
1023
00:48:24,233 --> 00:48:26,074
"But inside the machine…
1024
00:48:28,237 --> 00:48:30,027
the man remains."
1025
00:48:31,032 --> 00:48:33,123
"That means there's humanity."
1026
00:48:33,827 --> 00:48:36,036
"And that means we have a hope
1027
00:48:37,246 --> 00:48:38,916
for the Earth and the world."
1028
00:48:42,668 --> 00:48:44,298
Murphy, it's you.
1029
00:48:45,297 --> 00:48:48,717
And Paul, he let me get all of this out.
1030
00:48:48,800 --> 00:48:51,969
And then, he said, "Okay, I'll do it."
1031
00:48:52,887 --> 00:48:55,018
And we're glad he did.
1032
00:48:55,097 --> 00:48:56,097
Because, really…
1033
00:48:57,476 --> 00:48:59,346
it wouldn't be the same without him.
1034
00:48:59,436 --> 00:49:01,016
This is Paul Verhoeven's film.
1035
00:49:02,146 --> 00:49:03,476
It's his vision.
1036
00:49:03,981 --> 00:49:05,731
From Verhoeven's vision
1037
00:49:05,817 --> 00:49:08,317
to Peter Weller's performance,
1038
00:49:08,402 --> 00:49:15,163
really, it was the idea Ed Neumeier had
on the Blade Runner set, decades ago…
1039
00:49:15,242 --> 00:49:19,123
Thirty-three years ago today,
the movie premiered.
1040
00:49:19,206 --> 00:49:23,496
…that's led us right here,
to the streets of new Detroit.
1041
00:49:25,753 --> 00:49:27,264
This is Dallas City Hall.
1042
00:49:28,255 --> 00:49:32,215
I missed the top of the building,
but it was perfect for a matte painting.
1043
00:49:35,597 --> 00:49:37,677
There was a lot of pressure,
and not a lot of time.
1044
00:49:37,766 --> 00:49:40,436
We were always sort of fighting
to get the movie done.
1045
00:49:42,186 --> 00:49:45,726
The main thing we did here
was Robo versus ED-209 at the end.
1046
00:49:46,858 --> 00:49:50,318
"You're illegally parked
on private property. You have…"
1047
00:49:50,403 --> 00:49:52,244
Twenty seconds to move your vehicle.
1048
00:50:12,175 --> 00:50:13,585
'Cause whatever happens,
1049
00:50:13,677 --> 00:50:16,887
this corporation will live up
to the guiding principles of its founder.
1050
00:50:16,972 --> 00:50:20,561
Courage, strength, conviction.
1051
00:50:20,641 --> 00:50:22,851
To tell you the truth, making RoboCop,
1052
00:50:22,936 --> 00:50:24,436
I mean, it was hard and it was scary,
1053
00:50:24,521 --> 00:50:27,320
but it was such a cool thing
that we were getting to do this.
1054
00:50:27,398 --> 00:50:29,778
And we knew it, and we worked very hard.
1055
00:50:29,860 --> 00:50:31,610
And many people who worked on it
1056
00:50:31,695 --> 00:50:33,905
feel that was one of their most
creative efforts.
1057
00:50:33,989 --> 00:50:35,869
I'd better drive until you know
your way around.
1058
00:50:35,949 --> 00:50:38,579
It's one of the greatest
achievements of my career.
1059
00:50:38,659 --> 00:50:44,710
It makes me feel very fortunate
to be part of film history.
1060
00:50:45,291 --> 00:50:47,382
Murphy, I'm a mess.
1061
00:50:48,836 --> 00:50:53,257
It was very special, and something
I can't thank them enough for.
1062
00:50:53,340 --> 00:50:55,931
Sayonara, RoboCop.
1063
00:50:57,137 --> 00:50:59,556
Paul and Ed in particular.
1064
00:50:59,639 --> 00:51:04,349
We will meet each new challenge
with the same aggressive attitude.
1065
00:51:07,938 --> 00:51:10,068
Wow. It's good to be back.
1066
00:51:10,150 --> 00:51:13,110
One of the things
that I really wanted to do as a writer
1067
00:51:13,195 --> 00:51:15,505
was write a script where you wanted
to turn the pages fast,
1068
00:51:15,530 --> 00:51:16,570
where you kept reading.
1069
00:51:16,655 --> 00:51:19,025
Yeah, I think this is the place
where Kinney…
1070
00:51:19,117 --> 00:51:21,117
Yes, sir.
Come up and give us a hand?
1071
00:51:21,202 --> 00:51:23,583
Yes, sir.
Picks up the gun in a threatening manner
1072
00:51:23,663 --> 00:51:25,543
and points it at ED-209.
1073
00:51:26,666 --> 00:51:28,585
Please put down your weapon.
1074
00:51:30,878 --> 00:51:33,298
Well, we got the blood out of the carpet.
1075
00:51:34,007 --> 00:51:35,797
I never thought, "I did this."
1076
00:51:36,342 --> 00:51:38,012
I mean, I think it's fine to have an idea
1077
00:51:38,094 --> 00:51:40,304
and to write some good lines,
and to have a good story.
1078
00:51:40,387 --> 00:51:41,518
That was hard enough.
1079
00:51:41,597 --> 00:51:45,847
RoboCop was just a series
of great pieces of luck I had.
1080
00:51:45,936 --> 00:51:47,726
Well, really, we're all lucky…
1081
00:51:50,065 --> 00:51:53,235
…Ed came up
with the idea in the first place.
1082
00:51:53,318 --> 00:51:54,318
I got lucky,
1083
00:51:54,360 --> 00:51:58,161
because I got Paul Verhoeven.
I got Mike Miner, my partner,
1084
00:51:58,239 --> 00:51:59,909
I got Jon Davison, and I got Rob Bottin,
1085
00:51:59,990 --> 00:52:03,331
Phil Tippett and a hundred other people
who did an amazing amount of work,
1086
00:52:03,411 --> 00:52:04,871
and that's why it's so good.
1087
00:52:05,621 --> 00:52:09,461
And it turned out much better
than I could have hoped for.
1088
00:52:09,543 --> 00:52:12,782
Well, for all his humbleness…
It's good to be back here.
1089
00:52:12,838 --> 00:52:16,128
…Ed and the RoboCop team
shot the perfect movie.
1090
00:52:16,215 --> 00:52:17,835
Nice shooting, son. What's your name?
1091
00:52:17,925 --> 00:52:20,675
With the perfect name…
1092
00:52:21,637 --> 00:52:23,557
Murphy.
"You must be kidding."
1093
00:52:23,639 --> 00:52:25,889
Actually…
So, RoboCop.
89886
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