MovieChat Forums > RoboCop (2014) Discussion > Glaring plothole: speeding up Murphy was...

Glaring plothole: speeding up Murphy wasn't necessary

posted 8 years ago by Citizens_Auxiliary_Police
5 replies | jump to latest

So Murphy's 4 seconds slower than a pure AI-controlled bot in a course of fire. So what? He's still faster and more accurate than 99% of humans and is very heavily armored. The bots weren't used for law enforcement, so they were the improper control. The control should have been a human cop or even a SWAT/ER team. Once the results showed that Murph was plenty fast and durable enough compared to the human baseline, his imperceptibly slower response time would not have been an issue.

He outclasses anyone found on the battlefield today--speeding him up to meet the threat of common street criminals was wholly unnecessary.

[–] Londonlad2001221 8 years ago

Why do you think they make cars that will do 0-60 in 5 seconds if they're just gonna sell to a consumer that's restricted by speed limits?

Because they know people will buy something that's better then the previous product

[–] LocalDoctor 8 years ago

You argue the robots shouldn't have been used to test him, but a human force instead. However, the people who created him were trying to find a way around the Dreyfus Act without taking away the advantages the robots gave. In other words, the robots were necessary as a performance test for their goals.

I suppose you might say that Murphy being as good as a robot is unnecessary if he's already much better than humans, but when it comes to crime prevention, faster is always better. The first performance scene also states this clearly when the characters state that Murphy slower reaction gives more time for mistakes/casualties to occur.

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[–] ChiefYYZ 8 years ago

I'm watching the movie right now, just about to see the scene after his "upgrade." I came on here having the same thought as the OP.

They are facing essentially a PR issue. Wouldn't they be better off with a cyborg that falls short of the full on robots?

Put the cyborgs out there, get people used to them, then say "look, they're doing great, but look how much better the robots do."

Seems to me like a human/robot hybrid falling short of their robots would be the perfect scenario for them long term.

[–] bluefarmer14 8 years ago

To be honest the entire movie wasnt necessary..

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[–] thisnameinuse 8 years ago

I feel the same way as the OP. Dr. Norton was right, it WAS the human in the machine that was causing the delays, but that's what the people wanted, the extra control layer of a human mind.

That means a few extra seconds lagging on corners and hesitating at a criminal before just arbitrarily executing them.

And Mattox and Sellars both overplayed this, but that was most likely everything to do with the script and not with the actors in question.

And the very moment I saw these scenarios, that was my same thought... yeah well let's see RoboCop versus a human officer in those situations, and watch what happens.

With the scene where Norton then takes away Murphy's free will during combat, and Sellars specifically saying "You've created a machine that thinks it's Alex Murphy," I guess that's exactly what they were going for. But I wish this would have been played up more in the context of the movie, and in the debate within the movie. Perhaps that was, and it wound up on the cutting room floor for the theatrical release.

I should see if the original script is available out there.

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