Watch out, Detroit. You’ve got an unpredictable, grizzled and virtually indestructible man patrolling your streets.
And we don’t mean Bob Dylan in that Chrysler Super Bowl ad.
The “RoboCop” movie reboot tackles the question of what will happen when machines are allowed to navigate our streets, fight our wars and kill human beings — something that’s already happening today with the use of drones.
And one thing that didn’t have to change much from the 1987 movie is the robot design for the titular main character (played then by Peter Weller and now by Joel Kinnaman).
“The original movie was absolutely our base and starting point,” says production designer Martin Whist. “We didn’t want to overlook it or completely reinvent it from scratch. We started there and wanted to update and make it a little more current.”
Check out the heavy metal you’ll be seeing on-screen and how it compares to the designs from the 1987 film.
THE OLD ROBOCOP
Weighting Game
Original RoboCop actor Peter Weller got the role, in part, because he was thin enough to fit into the costume. The first time the actor put it on, it took him 10 hours.
What A Jerk
Weller worked with a mime to create the robot’s jolting, deliberate movement.
Standing Room Only
The suit was too bulky to allow Weller to sit in a car. That’s why he’s only shown (in head-to-toe armor) entering or exiting a vehicle.
Hidden Talents
The scenes in which RoboCop draws a gun from a concealed leg compartment were accomplished by cutting away to a stand-alone leg prop.
No Flow
The costume was hot. Weller reportedly sweated off three pounds a day while shooting in the Dallas summer heat.
Not So Sleek
The costume is made of a flexible, black undersuit topped with a harness system, on which boxy pieces of the silvery outer armor were hung.
THE NEW ROBOCOP
Line Of Sight
The red light on the visor was meant to stand in for eyes. “If the visor is just one black reflective plane, you don’t know where [the robot] is looking,” production designer Martin Whist says. “It almost gives it a personality to have that line. You think that thing is observing you.”
Give Him A Hand
Director José Padilha insisted one of RoboCop’s hands remain flesh and blood, to represent that he’s more human than machine. “At least this way, you could shake his hand,” he says.
Darker Soul
RoboCop’s armor is now black. “Everyone in law enforcement I’ve ever met wears black,” Padilha says. “It’s harder for criminals to see you.”
Face Up
The new RoboCop has a retractable shield that, when raised, allows audiences to see more of actor Joel Kinnaman’s face — and to signify the shift between man (visor up) and RoboCop (visor down).
Killer Abs
In the movie, RoboCop’s builder, OmniCorp, wants to counteract the perception that its creation is “this faceless, emotionless robot,” Whist says. Hence human touches like the six-pack on the armor’s torso.
Sleek Silohoutte
This time around, the armor is less bulky. “We wanted to make him like a super-athlete,” Whist says. “I looked at the Stealth Bomber, Formula 1 race cars, time trial cycles. I gave him a body like Usain Bolt.” Plus, Kinnaman could get into the costume in about an hour and 40 minutes — often less.