RoboCop is a 1987 American Sci-Fiction film directed by Paul Verhoeven which features a police officer that's been brutally murdered but had been eventually restored to life and became a super human cyborg. It’s not only a regular police hero story because the film also features a larger them on media, resurrection, corruption, privatization, capitalism and human nature.
In the near future, Detroit, Michigan is on the brink of collapse due to financial ruin and uncontrolled criminal offenses. The mega-corporation Omni Consumer Products enters into an agreement with the city to run law enforcement force. OCP plans to destroy "Old Detroit" to replace it with the utopia of "Delta City". Recognizing that human law enforcers are inadequate to end the crime spree, OCP runs several programs to find robotic replacements. One program, the ED-209 enforcement droid, headed by senior president Dick Jones (Ronny Cox), malfunctions and kills an executive during its exhibition. As a result, the OCP Chairman (Dan O'Herlihy) opts for a cyborg program helmed by junior executive Bob Morton (Miguel Ferrer), named "RoboCop". Jones is furious at Morton for going over his head.
The RoboCop program requires a recently-deceased "candidate" for transformation; to obtain one, OCP reorganizes the police force to the crime-ridden Metro West precinct expecting an officer will die in duty and become a candidate. One such officer is veteran Alexander James Murphy (Peter Weller), who is partnered with Anne Lewis (Nancy Allen). On their first patrol, they chase down a team of crooks led by crime boss Clarence Boddicker (Kurtwood Smith) to an abandoned steel mill. Murphy and Lewis split. Lewis is later rendered unconscious by one of the gang, while the rest of Boddicker's men corner Murphy and sadistically mutilate him with shotguns before Boddicker executes him with a pistol shot to the head. Lewis, disarmed and unable to assist, witnesses the murder in horror. Murphy is pronounced dead at the hospital, but OCP takes his body and uses it to create the first RoboCop.
RoboCop is guided by three prime directives written into his programming: serve the public trust, protect the innocent and uphold the law. This is followed by a classified 4th directive that he's unaware of. He is able to single-handedly deal with much of the violent crime in the city, inducing the rest of the police force to become worried they may be replaced. Unknown by his human monitors, RoboCop still retains memories of his existence as Murphy, including short glimpses of his wife and son, and the action of spinning his gun before holstering it, a trick Murphy had done for his son. Lewis recognizes these elements from Murphy's mannerisms, and tries to learn more from RoboCop, but he remains quiet on the issues. Because of Robocop's success, Morton is promoted to become one of OCP's Vice Presidents.
Morton's success and arrogance leads Jones to have Boddicker, secretly in his employ, eliminate the young executive. Meanwhile, an armed gas station holdup by one of Boddicker's men allows RoboCop to track down Boddicker to a cocaine bunker. RoboCop bursts into the facility and a shootout between him and the bandits ensues. Boddicker explains his alliance with Dick Jones. RoboCop then apprehends Boddicker. RoboCop visits Jones at his offices at OCP, showing him Boddicker's statement and getting ready to arrest Jones.
The previously unknown and secret fourth directive, preventing RoboCop from arresting or harming any senior executive of OCP, activates, incapacitating RoboCop. Jones boasts to RoboCop about the Fourth Directive, which Jones added to RoboCop's program. Jones also boasts about his role in Morton's murder, and then sends an ED-209 against RoboCop. RoboCop, impaired by the directive, engages the machine. The ED-209 proves incompetent at climbing down a stairway, enabling RoboCop to leave. When RoboCop enters the parking complex of the building, a police SWAT team is waiting for him with orders to eliminate him. The hail of bullets greatly damages RoboCop's armor, but he is saved by Lewis, his former partner.
Lewis tends to RoboCop's injuries at the same steel mill where Murphy was killed, and discovers that there's still some of Murphy's old self present despite the cyborg enhancement. Meanwhile, the police launch their long-threatened strike, sending the city into turmoil. Jones arranges for Boddicker and his men to be released from imprisonment and funds them with new cars and assault cannons perfect for puncturing RoboCop's heavy armor. Boddicker's team converges on the steel mill using a tracking device provided by Jones. RoboCop and Lewis defend themselves and kill the entire gang. RoboCop finds Lewis badly wounded but alive.
RoboCop returns to OCP headquarters alone and uses one of the assault cannons to destroy the ED-209 guarding the building. Arriving during an executive board meeting with the president, Jones, and other executives, RoboCop plays back Jones's confession to Morton's murder and explains his incapacity to arrest OCP employees. Jones quickly grabs a firearm, takes the president hostage and begins making demands. The president, after being told about the Fourth Directive by RoboCop, fires Jones from OCP, allowing RoboCop to shoot him. Jones then crashes through the window and falls to his death. The president commends RoboCop for his ability and asks for his name, to which he responds, "Murphy".
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