Who won the movie
Paul Verhoeven
Roger Ebert
Just one Oscar
Sound effects
Cruise or Hanks
Tom Cruise as RoboCop
The Stephen A. Smith Hottest Take Award · 1:12:36
Kyle Brandt: The Dick Jones puppet fall is called a terrible last-second special effect.
Kyle Brandt: The fall is compared unfavorably with Hans Gruber’s fall one year later.
The Coach Finstock Award for Best Life Lesson · 1:44:50
Bill Simmons: The return of Murphy’s humanity supplies the first lesson.
Selected cast credits · Film reference
In the order the hosts got to it. Open a row for the discussion.
The ED-209 boardroom demonstration
Murphy’s brutal execution
RoboCop returning to Murphy’s former house, despite its importance to the ending
A drug lord carrying estate Cabernet around the cocaine house is the inaugural example.
Leza Gibbons
The politics, dual villains, media satire, SUX commercial, Peter Weller’s committed suit performance, and a remarkable 1987 theater lineup
RoboCop’s organic food paste
RoboCop’s expanding alley-wall shadow during the rescue
No existing needle drop
Dick Jones
RoboCock is the immediate parody title.
RoboCop open-mouthed in the factory chair
A warehouse half-court basketball game for Clarence’s gang
The movie being too short and its unexplored Murphy-family story
The sequels and 2014 remake, police strikes, a WCW RoboCop tie-in, suit-production conflict, and Clarence Boddicker’s name age worst.
ED-209
The Dick Jones puppet fall nearly ruins the technical achievement; Kyle Brandt as RoboCop
Peter Weller ultimately won the role after a long search; the discussion covers many alternate Murphy, Lewis, and Boddicker choices.
Ray Wise
Ed 209
Craig argues RoboCop is slow, inflexible, easy to escape, and only about an 82 in Madden terms.
Peter Weller answering only to Robo or Murphy on set
The costly suit, writers, Dallas locations, Nixon promotion, killer cop names, set incidents, ratings fight, Ford Tauruses, VHS success, and Leza Gibbons
Peter Weller, Detroit’s early-1990s sports era, Ronnie Cox, and Miguel Ferrer receive apex support; other candidates are rejected or debated.
Philip Seymour Hoffman is cast as a scene-stealing laboratory worker or Mr. Kinney.
ED-209’s live ammunition and stairs, Murphy’s tactics and family gaps, RoboCop’s exposed jaw, and Boddicker walking freely into OCP
A video game, rather than another sequel or remake
The imagined Gus Johnson call of RoboCop’s alley rescue
Sound effects
The panel asks when the story occurs and whether Bob Morton engineered Murphy’s transfer; the transfer theory is treated as answerable.
The Nuke ’Em home game and RoboCop’s mask
You can kill someone but cannot take their humanity; weapons demonstrations should use blanks.
