Penned by famed comic book scribe Frank Miller (who also cameos in the film as a drug chemist), Robocop 2 was not only a sequel to the 1987 Paul Verhoeven film, but was also representative of the plot itself. The story, which features Robocop’s continuing battle with his past humanity gave him competition from a new model, was heavily altered from Miller’s original script. Ironically, Miller’s contribution came only after fellow legendary graphic novelist Alan Moore turned down the opportunity to write the script. Tim Hunter and Norwegian Nils Gaup were originally offered the director’s chair before it finally made it to Empire Strikes Back director Irvin Kershner. Both Houston and Los Angeles doubled for futuristic Detroit (Dallas had substituted in the original).
The city of Detroit begins to sink into chaos as the police go on strike due to pension cuts by a powerful corporation (OCP) intent on demolishing the old city in favor of a new one. Being robotic, Robocop finds himself pulling multiple shifts, even as he struggles to leave behind his old life (and wife) as Alex Murphy. In order to cope with the strike – and make billions in the process – OCP pours more money into the development of the next generation Robocop. But when each ‘Robocop 2’ keeps committing suicide, the brass decides to forego using police officers in favor of a drug dealer named Cain (Tom Noonan) whose lust for power and immortality make him the ideal candidate. Cain’s distribution of the synthetic drug “Nuke” leads Robocop to their hideout where a super magnet is used to capture, disable, and disassemble him. The new mastermind behind the Robocop team, Dr. Juliette Faxx, has him put back together, but this time with over three hundred directives (instead of the original four) that render him harmless to virtually anyone.
But a violent electrical surge helps to clear Robocop of all his directives and he immediately leads the striking police on an assault of Cain’s hideout. When Cain is severely wounded in the attack, Faxx essentially murders him and uses the brain to create the new Robocop 2, a violent law enforcer controlled Nuke. When Cain’s replacement tries to negotiate a deal with the mayor to save the old city, OCP sends Robocop 2 in to break up the proceedings with lethal intent. Having learned of the event, Robocop faces off against Robocop 2 at the unveiling of the new city in a battle to the death.
While most fans prefer the humanity and wit of the first film, the second one was successful enough (an adequate $45 million at the box office) to make room for a second sequel, Robocop 3 in 1993. But fans of violent dystopian futuristic settings need look no further. The film itself contains a few plot holes that are remedied with an appeal to many of the Miller-written deleted scenes that were edited out of the final cut. Miller’s original script did make it to the mainstream however in a 2003 graphic novel titled Frank Miller’s Robocop.
