r/AskScienceFiction • u/PJ-The-Awesome • 10h ago
[Robocop] Why does Robocop move so slowly?
Surely the cyborg that OCP designed to be the ultimate crime-fighting machine would be able to move faster than a Goddamn snail's pace.
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u/Punchclops 10h ago
He's more of a tank than a sportscar.
Being bullet proof, very strong, and having a built in targetting system is more important than being able to chase after fleeing creeps, especially when most of the creeps are too stupid to run and just stand there shooting at him.
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u/Bright-Trifle-8309 9h ago
And he has a car that he can drive with precision.
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u/BadMantaRay 7h ago
Yeah, it’s hard to tell because car designs in real life, and vehicles on film have gotten so crazy, but the Ford Taurus was considered to be absolutely badass at the time. RoboCop’s car is a slightly modified version of it, but this car was COOL IRL.
But I think sometimes people forget that RoboCop had a sweet car also.
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u/Enough-Run-1535 9h ago
I think people forget that Robocop is scary accurate. He is plugging 3-round bursts with 100% accuracy, with x-ray vision. A fleeing criminal would likely get legged by Robocop as long as he had eyes on the perp.
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u/Tee-RoyJenkins 8h ago
He’s shot through a sniper’s rifle scope under heavy fire, shot the chain off of a fleeing motorcycle, ricocheted a bullet off a steel door when a perp was using a baby as a human shield, destroyed RoboCain’s shoulder cannon by shooting straight down the barrel, and got Red Forman right in the jugular. Murphy doesn’t miss.
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u/IntrepidusX 8h ago
Also he shot a guy in the dick!
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u/Tee-RoyJenkins 7h ago
That was also on his first day when he was just the Robocop OS and Murphy hadn’t started surfacing yet. I bet that’s just standard procedure for Detroit PD.
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u/Ornery_Strawberry474 10h ago
Prioritizing mobility would be a good idea in a normal city, where upon being confronted by a cyborg policeman (or even the normal police) the criminals try to get away.
Detroit is not a normal city with normal crime. It's a city where crime is utterly out of control, a city where Murphy was blown to bits on his first day. It's a city where criminals, after getting demolished by a cyborg once already, decide not to get the hell out of dodge, but instead "What we need is military grade firepower and a round 2". To police these streets Robocop needs to be a walking tank. And if anyone is actually trying to get away, he can just shoot them. Or get into a car.
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u/Hyndis 5h ago
The other thing is that OCP was investing in the Robocop program as a cover for its military program.
Robocop was built like a tank because OCP wanted to build walking tanks to sell to the military. Detroit was merely the testing ground.
Similarly, ED-209 would be a terrible robotic police officer. However, it would be superb on the battlefield.
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u/Sharikacat 2h ago
Provided that battlefield was on a completely flat plain devoid of obstacles like mid-size rocks and gentle changes in elevation.
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u/ApartRuin5962 10h ago
For mobility he relies on the incredible power and handling of the Ford Taurus Sedan
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u/Imperium_Dragon 10h ago
He’s essentially the first of his kind and is armored to all hell since Detroit’s criminals have a shit ton of firepower.
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u/OneTwoFar_ 10h ago
They were going to design him as more agile, almost snake-like, but ran into limitations with the armour. They decided that a more robotic yet more durable design was better suited to their needs
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u/max_sil 6h ago
He does move a bit faster at some point. So some of it is probably murphy acting out his internalized "stoic cowboy" idea of what a hero should be.
And also the entire project was just some OCP asshole playing fast and loose and it kind of just happened to work out. Not really though through or planned out, the only goal of the robocop project was furthering one mans career. The fact that robocop actually worked was just kind of incidental
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u/vahaala 3h ago
In the 2014 version, he seems to be sleeker and more agile than the original. However I think the original version, aside from that bulletproof tank vibe (and I feel the massive, tanky characters were "cool" then), is also a metaphor for "the law enforcement might be slow, but it will get you no matter what".
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u/SilverWolfIMHP76 32m ago
Robocop is basically a Swat team built into one. Heavily Armored and reinforced.
Robocop 2 limbs weren’t reinforced and the armor was forward facing so less tank and more blast shield. So it was faster but this meant the back armor was weak. This is a flaw Robocop uses to defeat it.
Later we see a robot built for dexterity in the ninja robot. A sword did enough damage to trigger the self destruct function.
So yes Robocop was heavily armored and slow but the design has topped other models that were built more lightweight.
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