Robocop 2 is an American sci-fi/action flick directed by Irwin Kershner(who directed the Star Wars sequel "The Empire Strikes Back" in 1980) written by Frank Miller and Walon Green and stars Peter Weller (reprising his role as the titular character),Nancy Allen (reprising her role as his partner),Dan O'Herilihy(reprising his role as OCP's Chairman) Ton Noonan (as the main villain Cain) and Gabriel Damon (playing the thug kid named Hob) It's is the sequel to 1987's blockbuster "Robocop"
The story is set in Detroit in a dystopian future where the plot follows our hero becoming embroiled in a scheme made by Omni Consumer Products to bankrupt and take over the city while also fighting the spread of a street drug called "Nuke" and it's gang of dealers lead by Cain (Noonan) The film was shot on location in Houston,Texas (the fourth largest city in the United States)
When it came time to do a sequel to "Robocop" Orion had already greenlit the development of the sequel in September of '87 so the writers of "Robocop" Edward Neumeier and Michael Miner began working on the first draft,while also writing for another Orion project called 'Company Man". The deadline to complete the script was December 31,1987. Their draft of the sequel would be called Robocop 2:The Corporate Wars set 25 years after the first film,when they presented it to the people at Orion. They HATED IT!!!! The reason why is because the people at Orion wanted them to to a PG rated Robocop sequel that would target children to see the film unaccompanied by an adult,plus tie in to the 12 episode animated series Robocop that was done by Marvel Productions in 1988. So when it came time to re-write the script to Orion's liking The 1988 Writers Giuld of America Strike happened and the two writers Neimeier and Miner were FIRED for refusing to work during the strike. So they was replaced by Frank Miller and his draft was accepted into Robocop 2,while the draft Neumeier and Miner worked on ended up being "Robocop 3" in 1993.
Miller's draft was less comic and had a bigger emphasis on corporate facism than the final film,with the last showdown being Robocop fighting OCP forces instead of Robocop 2. Producer Jon Davison was good with that for it's grittiness,inventive action,humor and politics,so were good to go,until the ASSHOLES at Orion rejected it as "unfilmable" and brought in "Wild Bunch" screenwriter Walon Green to re-write it.
There was material cut out that included backstories for Officer Lewis and the marriage of Alex and Ellen Murphy. That would lead to Miller using his treatment as a story for his own series of Robocop comics published in the 2000's which was in his mind "Giving a BIG FUCK YOU towards the Orion Film Company who were far dictatorial for Robocop 2 than they were in the first movie,by strongly going against the input of Frank Miller,Director Irwin Kershner and the actors themselves,even going so far as to schedule a release date before the story was even completed. Neumeier and Miner reported this activity going on claiming the film company controlled material based on business decisions rather than creativity. The planned release date would have been around Christmas time in 1989 but settled for a June 22,1990 release.
In the movie the Detroit Police Department went on strike after OCP decides to bankrupt the city after their pension plans were terminated and salaries were cut which lead to an increase in street crime,wll the while OCP began to foreclose on all public property taking over the city's government and allowing their master plan to redevelop Detroit into Delta City. Meanwhile Robocop and Officer Lewis remained on duty after raiding a manufacturing plant of Nuke a new street drug plaguing Detroit,The carte;s frontman Cain along with his young henchman Hob escape. We fast forward to OCP struggling to develop Robocop 2 a police droid filled with brains of legally dead cops that were intended for mass production to replace the striking cops. The resurrected cops committed suicide upon activation. ENTER THE MORALLY WARPED DR.JULIETTE FAXX. She theorized that Murphy's strong moreal code and strict Catholic upbringing were critical in it's initial success so she convinced the chairman aka OLD MAN to allow her to lead a project to recover their 90 million dollar research and development investment. What Dr.Faxx's plan was to seek the use of death row inmates that desire power and immortality than the police officers. Meanwhile Cain fears he's losing his grip on the city and used a dirty uniform cop by the name of Officer Duffy to undermine OCP and Robocop's enforcement efforts. When Robocop tracked down Duffy he beats the information of Cain's hideout out of him. So he confront Cain's gang at an abandoned construction hideout,only to be ambushed and chopped apart and then dump pieces of his body at the Police precinct. That lead to Cain having Duffy dissected or as the way I call it Open Heart Surgery without sleeping gas. That scene was the most horrifying thing I ever saw and I seen some horrifying shit.
Anyway Robocop is repaired and the arrogant Faxx reprograms him with more than 300 new directives that severely impedes his ability to perform his duties so that her project can be selected. Suddenly Robocop clears them all by shocking himself with a high voltage transformer and rebooting his system. So now rebooted and out for revenge Robocop rallies up the striking officers to aid him in raiding Cain's hideout. As Cain tries to escape,Robocop wounds and apprehends him,while Hob escapes with Cain's girlfriend Angie as he took over Cain's drug empire. This lead to Faxx using Cain's brain and controls him with a canister of Nuke by selecting his brain for her Robocop 2 project. Surgeons placed his brain into a robotic body similar to ED-209 and Cain is reactivated.
Then we get to a meeting between Hob and the Mayor and the kid offers him a deal to retire the city's debt in exchange for "hands off" policy towards Nuke thereby nullifying OCP's scheme and preventing Delta City's construction. Threatened by this move OCP has Cain now going by Robocop 2 invade the meeting slaughtering all of Hob's henchmen and killing Angie in the process,but The Mayor managed to escape with his very life. Robocop arrives shortly there after and finds a wounded Hob and he informs him of who did this before he died.
Then we get to the presentation ceremony conducted by the Old Man revealing Delta City and Robocop 2/Cain,it was when he presents a canister of Nuke Cain's out of control addiction caused him to be defiant and go on a rampage killing many civilians and cops Robocop arrives and fought Cain to the death,after rpping out his brain and Smashed it to bits. At the end The Chairman and his executive Donald Johnson decide to throw Faxx under the bus for Cain's attack as Lewis complains that OCP is not accepting accountability,Robocop reminds her while tuning his own head to be patient "Were all Human."
"Robocop 2" was released on June 22,1990 after a budget of $25-30 million to make which did $45.7 million at the box office the film got mixed reviews.
My overall rating for this movie is a 65/100 the common complaint this film got was it didn't focus enough on the title character or his partner and that the film's human story trapped inside a machine was drowned by a sea of violence and the movie's screenplay is a confusion of half-baked and unfinished ideas. Orion shit the bed when they controlled most of the film's creativity as far as I was concerned.
