We've got the future under control.
Television personality Pat Novak (Samuel L. Jackson) starts off an episode of his show "The Novak Element" by pointing out that every country in the world except for the United States is under high security with droids from multinational conglomerate OmniCorp. His camera crew takes a look from Tehran where one OmniCorp employee, Rick Maddox (Jackie Earle Haley) is handing out red asset bracelets to the camera crew and others as they observe the large droids and other robots doing a scan on citizens in the area. From inside a compound, a mother and her son, Navid (Noorin Gulamgaus), watch the droids do their work. Navid's father Arash (Meysam Motazedi) leads a group of suicide bombers outside to capture themselves getting killed on television. They launch their attack, with all the bombers getting themselves killed by the droids, though they succeed in taking out some of the robots themselves. Navid runs out with a knife, and a droid identifies him as a threat, giving it probable cause to shoot and kill the boy. The camera crew captures all of this.Novak continues by admiring how the droids handled the situation, pointing out that OmniCorp CEO Raymond Sellars (Michael Keaton) has the right idea to push forward for use of these droids in the U.S., but Senator Hubert Dreyfuss (Zach Grenier) is against it, having issued the Dreyfuss Act to prevent this type of law enforcement. Novak ends by asking why America is so robophobic.We cut to Detroit (it is the year 2029) where we meet Officer Alex Murphy (Joel Kinnaman) walking to a meeting with Chief Karen Dean (Marianne Jean-Baptiste). In her office are two other cops, Lake (Daniel Kash) and Daniels (KC Collins). Dean reprimands Alex for taking on a case without bringing it to her first, as it cost the lives of six individuals and put his partner in the hospital. Alex tells her how he and his partner Jack Lewis (Michael K. Williams) went on a mission to take down crime boss Antoine Vallon (Patrick Garrow). After getting a lead from a crook named Jerry (Jordan Johnson-Hinds), Alex and Jack meet with Vallon in a restaurant. Vallon's men come by and shoot up the place, with Alex and Jack exchanging fire. Vallon gets away and Jack gets shot. Alex calls for help immediately.In Washington, DC, Sellars is at a meeting with Senator Dreyfuss in regards to the matter of using OmniCorp droids as law enforcement. Dreyfuss argues that a machine could not feel anything if it were to kill anybody, even a child. Sellars later returns to OmniCorp Headquarters to meet with his marketing associates, Liz Kline (Jennifer Ehle) and Tom Pope (Jay Baruchel). Realizing that more than half of the country's population will not stand behind a machine protecting its citizens, Sellars proposes that they get a man into a machine.In the rehab center for OmniCorp, Dr. Dennett Norton (Gary Oldman) and his assistant Kim (Aimee Garcia) are tending to a man who had his arms replaced with artificial robotic limbs. Although he is nervous to use them at first, Norton convinces him to give it a go. The man starts to play the guitar, and he and his wife are overcome with joy. The man's emotional levels begin to rise, which would interfere with the program. He tones it down but then says he needs emotions to play. Norton is then called away by Sellars. They, along with Kline and Pope, review potential amputee candidates for the man-in-a-machine program, but Norton and Sellars dismiss them all either due to their physical form or their personal reputations.We see Lake and Daniels meeting with Vallon, apparently working for him. They tell him that Alex is going to visit Jack in the hospital. As this occurs, the dirty cops plant something on the wheel of Alex's car.Alex goes home to his wife Clara (Abbie Cornish) and 10-year-old son David (John Paul Ruttan). After putting David to bed, he and Clara start to get intimate when the car alarm starts going off. Worrying that it'll wake David, Alex goes to turn it off. He steps outside and is caught in an explosion when the car blows up. Clara runs outside to find her husband lying on the front steps of her house, burning.Clara is met by Norton and his associates to discuss Alex's condition. He has suffered fourth degree burns, both his legs and one arm were amputated, he is blind in one eye, and will probably be deaf. The team attempts to persuade Clara to give consent to use Alex for the program, but she is concerned as to what kind of life he will have.THREE MONTHS LATERAlex is at a party with Clara, along with Jack and his wife. Alex and Clara dance to a Frank Sinatra song. This turns out to be a memory that Norton and Kim are viewing as they put the finishing touches on Alex's new mechanical suit. They wake him up, and he is in shock as to what he sees. He grabs Norton by the throat and throws him down. Kim tries to shut Alex down as he runs out of the room, but Norton tells her to let him go. Alex continues to run until he hops over the wall of the facility and through a field. Norton tells Kim to shut him down.Back in the lab, Norton speaks with Alex face-to-face and shows him just what is left of him - only his head, heart, lungs, and brain are there. Alex is horrified by this and requests that he die. Norton reminds him that Clara signed the consent forms, so if they let him die, the work will have been for nothing. Alex later talks to Clara through a video chat. She is happy to hear from him again. Afterwards, he later sees news reports on his attempted murder, a lack of evidence to trace back to Vallon, as well as interviews featuring Lake, Daniels, and Jack.Alex is put through training and is set to get familiar with his program. As Maddox shows him, his suit can respond to a threat, taking out a gun if it needed. Alex is taken a simulator room where he is placed next to a basic robot. As shown on a monitor, the robot responds to threats quicker than Alex, who hesitates and is conscious of potentially harming civilians. Maddox quips that he "wouldn't buy that for a dollar" (a nod to the original film).In another training facility, Alex is put to the test against Maddox in an exoskeleton along with other robots. As Alex easily maneuvers through the robots' gunfire, he shoots them all. Norton tells Sellars that although Alex thinks he is the one carrying out these actions, he is merely carrying out orders as programmed. Kline points out that this is illegal, but Sellars thinks it's fully legal for a machine to think it is a man. Once Alex is done, he tases Maddox for good measure.Norton drives Alex to his home where he will get to see Clara and David for the first time. David set up a "welcome home banner" for his father. Alex enters his home, and although both Clara and David are surprised by his new appearance, they still embrace him.A public press conference is held to present Alex to the city. While he is getting set up, Norton and Kim see on a monitor the emotions going through Alex's head as they put the police database information into his head. When he starts to remember his attempted murder, he becomes overwhelmed and starts to have a seizure. Norton catches him and starts to get pressed by Kline and Pope to find a solution. He and Kim resolve to lower Alex's emotional levels. He walks out to find Clara and David waiting for him. David says hi to his dad, but Alex just continues walking with no expression. He passes Sellars and the mayor as they extend their hands to him. Once he steps out before everybody, it gets silent. Through Alex's vision, he assesses that nobody is a threat until he spots one man in the crowd, Thomas King (Dwayne McLean). Alex learns that King is wanted for murder, and he calls the man out to arrest him. King begins to run until Alex hops into the crowd and shoots him in the back, leaving him to get arrested.Novak brings this up on the show as a reason for people to finally get behind this new program. He notes that King stood in front of two cops who could not identify him and that he has eluded the police for six years on charges of rape, assault, and murder, yet Alex was able to catch him within a minute. As a result, public opinion on the Dreyfuss Act begins to change. The citizens of Detroit begin to embrace Alex, giving him the nickname of RoboCop, though some are against this due to the belief that the police work belongs to actual cops and not a robot. However, Sellars tells Norton to not allow Alex to see his wife and son.At the police station, Alex comes in as Dean briefs the other officers on several murder suspects. Alex says he will take on the case to look for a criminal named John Biggs (Robert Thomas). He patrols through the city on his motorcycle. He catches a few junkies, getting one to tell him where Biggs's drug lab is. Alex finds the lab and has a shoot out with Biggs's goons. Biggs tries to run but Alex has him cornered. He tries to throw a grenade at Alex, but he gets tased and drops it. The grenade blows up and kills Biggs.As Alex is set to continue, he is stopped on the street by Clara. She pleads for him to hear her as she tells him that David is traumatized and is having nightmares. He rides off and accesses CCTV footage to show the reporters hounding Clara and David as she tries to take him to school. Unable to show his face, David retreats to the car. Alex rides back to his home and inspects the crime scene where is car blew up. He reviews the footage of the explosion to show that David witnessed his father's burning body, leaving him fearful, anxious, and distressed. Afterwards, he locates Jerry and pulls him out of his car to get him to give him a number to one of Vallon's goons. He traces it to locate Vallon's warehouse. When the crime boss realizes this, he rallies his men to grab their guns and turn the lights off and watch out for Alex with night-vision goggles. The crooks open fire on Alex, getting his suit shot, but he kills all the men and finally shoots Vallon down. Alex picks up a gun and scans it for fingerprints, picking up prints from Lake and Daniels.Alex returns to the police station, followed by Jack. He interrogates Lake and Daniels, showing the meeting through every monitor in the station to prove their involvement in his attempted murder. Daniels tries to shoot Alex but gets shot in return. Lake admits that Dean was involved with both the shootout at the restaurant and the car bomb. He tases Lake and goes to confront Dean. Before he can get a confession out of her, Maddox, operating from the facility, shuts Alex down. Maddox reports this to Sellars who is in his helicopter.On another episode of "The Novak Element", Novak comments on how Alex exposed the corruption within the police department, further suggesting why it's time to finally put the robots out on the street. Meanwhile, Sellars meets with Maddox, Kline, and Pope to talk about the state of Alex's condition. Kline issues a statement to the public to say that Alex is in critical condition. Sellars decides that they can use Alex as a symbol of martyrdom to stir up sympathy. Additionally, the Dreyfuss Act is repealed. Clara demands to see her husband but is denied.Sellars sends Maddox and other mercenaries out to destroy Alex, preparing to tell Clara that Alex died from his injuries. Kline arrives at Clara's home and escorts her and David to HQ to meet with Sellars. With Kim's help, Norton runs into the facility where Alex is being kept, warning him that the mercenaries are sent by Sellars and are there to kill both of them. Alex wakes up in time to kill the two goons before they can fire at him and Norton.Alex rides his motorcycle to OmniCorp Headquarters and gets help from Jack. He tases one guard outside the building, forcing the others to stand down. He flips his motorcycle into the building, getting the attention of two ED-209 droids. They shoot at Alex, but he gets them to shoot at each other. A third droid is caught in the chaos and falls from a great height, and Alex's arm is caught beneath it. As more droids come in, Alex is forced to grab a gun and shoot his arm off. The droids shoot at him, bringing him down. Jack runs in and stands in front of him, giving Alex a chance to run. He is found by Maddox and another goon, both of whom are wearing red asset bracelets so Alex cannot shoot them. Before Maddox can deliver the fatal shot, Jack shoots him in the back and kills him, and then kills the other goon before getting shot himself. Alex assesses the wound and determines it to be non-fatal to Jack.Alex makes it to the rooftop of the building as Sellars is waiting for a helicopter. Clara and David are there with him, as are another mercenary, along with Kline and Pope. Alex orders the latter two to stand down, and they comply. He attempts to arrest Sellars for trying to have him killed, but he is also wearing a red asset bracelet, and therefore he cannot shoot him. Sellars aims his gun at Alex, and then at Clara and David. This gives Alex enough of a push to override his program and shoot Sellars, who returns fire. As Sellars dies, Clara and David rush to Alex's side.A while later, Alex is given a new repaired suit. Clara and David are there to visit him. He smiles as they come in.The last scene shows one more segment of "The Novak Element." The President has vetoed the repeal of the Dreyfuss Act once Norton testifies against OmniCorp's program. Despite this, Novak is still pro-robot, continuing to praise Sellars and bash Norton for being a whistleblower. As he concludes his show, Novak urges viewers to stop whining and to get with the program.
Score: 61 %
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