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RoboCop 3 is a science fiction film, released in 1993, set in the near future in a dystopian metropolitan Detroit, Michigan, and filmed in Atlanta, Georgia. Most of the abandoned buildings seen in the film were slated for demolition to make way for facilities for the 1996 Olympics. It is the sequel to the 1990 film RoboCop 2.
The film was directed by Fred Dekker, a director primarily known for cult horror films. Popular graphic novelist, Frank Miller, returned to write the screenplay for the film. Major themes of the plot were taken from the Miller's original (rejected) draft of Robocop 2. The star of the previous films, Peter Weller, did not reprise the role (due to scheduling conflicts with Naked Lunch, as well as being tired of reprising his role due to how cumbersome and exhausting it was to wear the suit) and thus it was left up to Robert John Burke to play the cyborg character. The RoboCop suit worn in the movie was originally built for RoboCop 2 (1990). Since Robert John Burke is taller than Peter Weller, he complained that wearing it was painful after a short time.[citation needed] Other important casting changes had to be made for the third film. The actor who played the OCP CEO from the previous two films, Dan O'Herlihy, and his successor are both absent from this film.
Another pre-production problem with the film was pressure from media watchdog organizations for the film to be rated PG-13;[citation needed] the first two films had been rated R. Hence the profanity, graphic violence, mature sexual content, and references to illicit drugs and prostitution all had to be reduced or taken out altogether. The gritty environment of the first two films was severely diluted.
RoboCop 3 was rushed into production soon after RoboCop 2 was complete. Although completed in 1991, RoboCop 3 would languish on the shelf until 1993 as Orion Pictures went through bankruptcy and was bought out. RoboCop 3 earned $4.3 million on its opening weekend, ending its run with $10.6 million domestically, far short of recouping its estimated $22 million production budget.
Plot:
The main plot of RoboCop 3 involves RoboCop finding a new family, as he has apparently given up hope of seeing his wife or son again. He finds an extended family in the form of an orphaned little Japanese American girl (her parents had died when they were escaping), an underground paramilitary resistance of underprivileged urban families that OCP wants to relocate in order to build Delta City, and one of the original scientists from the first two films that built and operated on him.
Meanwhile, OCP is on the verge of bankruptcy, and Detroit law enforcement is gradually superseded by OCP's brutal mercenary security force, the Rehabs, under Commander Paul McDaggett. The Delta City dream of the former CEO and "Old Man" lives on through the help of a Japanese Zaibatsu, the Kanemitsu Corporation, who bought a controlling stake in OCP. Kanemitsu is prepared to use its own ninja robots (called "Otomo") to overcome the resistance of the defenders of the impoverished neighborhood. When RoboCop tries to defend unarmed civilians from the Rehabs, his longtime partner, Anne Lewis, is killed by McDaggett, and RoboCop joins the resistance.
Eventually, RoboCop defeats the three Japanese robots, the evil McDaggett, and enlists the aid of the Detroit City police department to stop the development and thus save the blue collar urban neighborhood from invasion while OCP collapses into bankruptcy.
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