ED-209
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The Enforcement Droid Series 209 (or ED-209) is a fictional character featured as one of the design and special effect highlights of the 1987 movie RoboCop, and its two sequels. ED-209 serves as a heavily-armed obstacle and foil to RoboCop’s title character and others throughout the series, as well as a source of comic relief due to its tendency to malfunction. It remains an often referenced and lampooned fixture of American popular culture.
The ED-209 was designed by Craig Davies, who also built the full size models, and animated by Phil Tippett, a veteran stop-motion animator. Davies and Tippett would go on to collaborate on many more projects. As one of the set pieces of the movie, the ED-209’s look and animated sequences were under the close supervision of director Paul Verhoeven.
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[edit] Design
Director Paul Verhoeven made it clear very early on that ED-209 should not look “cute.” He wanted the robot to look hard and mean. For this reason, various common robot features were left out. There are no eyes on the ED-209, for instance, since Craig Davies believed they conveyed too much emotion as well as being clichéd.[citation needed]
Craig Davies also incorporated his ideas about modern 1980s American design, especially car design, into the robot. He envisioned futuristic designers making the robot look good in order to make it marketable before they made it work well, “just like an American car.” The crew commentary audio track on the Criterion Collection DVD release confirms the obvious commentary on ridiculous corporate design policies, with such features as an obviously over-designed hydraulic system, over-attention paid to cosmetics and the placement of obviously vulnerable features such as the radiator grill on the very front of the robot.
The audio for the ED-209 was composed by Stephen Flick and John Pospisil of audio effects company Screaming Lizard. The hydraulic heavy machinery feel of the robot was composed of various motor and piston noises. An intimidating growl produced by ED-209 in the first movie was created by playing a jaguar growl backwards. Its distorted human voice was recorded by the film’s executive producer Jon Davison. It was never intended to be in RoboCop’s theatrical release and was only recorded for an initial screening. However, it was kept as the voice of ED-209 all the way to the theaters.
[edit] Appearances
The ED-209 is featured in every RoboCop major motion picture, while it is missing from the series’ direct-to-video releases and the television series.
[edit] RoboCop
ED-209 is primarily featured in the first film, where it appears three times. The 209 series was an attempt to create a series of law enforcement robots, the brain child of the movie’s main villain, OCP Senior President Dick Jones. During its unveiling to the OCP board, it malfunctions, causing it to brutally gun down an OCP executive even though he had complied with the robot’s orders to “surrender” (the reason as to why the guns were loaded for a simple demonstration was never explained but a display of ED-209’s marksmanship may have been planned, accounting for why it had bullets). In light of this disastrous malfunction, the RoboCop program is given the green light.
The ED-209 appears again when RoboCop confronts and attempts to arrest Dick Jones. The robot manages to seriously damage RoboCop. ED-209’s faulty nature is again highlighted when it trips and becomes disabled while attempting to traverse an ordinary flight of stairs. It also loses an arm during the battle.
The robot’s final appearance is in OCP Plaza, assigned to protect the building during a police strike. When it attempts to interfere with RoboCop, he destroys the robot with a Cobra assault cannon taken from Dick Jones and Clarence Boddicker’s minions.
[edit] RoboCop 2
RoboCop 2 features only quick cameos of the robot, where it is featured as a security bot for an OCP building on a television news report. The robot promptly trips on an open manhole and flails about uselessly while trying to disperse demonstrators.
A full-scale model (or out of commission) ED-209 also appears in the background as the executives are discussing their problems with the RoboCop 2 program.
In the widescreen version of the film, just before the Mayor enters the OCP CEO’s office, an ED-209 unit is spotted standing on the right side of the screen outside the building.
[edit] RoboCop 3
RoboCop 3 has one scene of ED-209 once again used as a security bot for an OCP building, this time an armory. Resistance fighters are able to easily hack the ED-209 via a dataport in its leg with a portable computer (“I am authorized to...be loyal as a puppy”). The ED-209 is promptly turned against its owners, and opens fire upon OCP security personnel.
[edit] Animated Series
It made numerous appearances in RoboCop: The Animated Series, but did not appear in RoboCop: Alpha Commando.
[edit] Video Games
The ED-209 is also used as a boss in the RoboCop video game, and the video game RoboCop vs. the Terminator.
[edit] Comics
There were two ED-209s in the comic Robocop vs. Terminator (though it is mentioned that there are 200 of them deployed), assisting RoboCop in shooting down Terminators bent on killing Flo. However, their limited intelligence remained a problem. In one instance, when ordered by RoboCop to “scan for cybernetic activity,” the ED-209s immediately registered RoboCop as a target and opened fire, hitting each other by accident.
In Marvel’s 1990 Robocop comic, OCP Vice President Donald Johnson orders the creation of the ED-309.
[edit] Armaments
The ED-209’s primary weapon in all films are three machine guns, two on the left arm and one on the right arm. It also featured a three-round rocket launcher on its right arm and twin launchers for mortar rounds or gas grenades behind its head. The grenade launchers are never used on film, but are shown on models and schematics of the ED-209.
[edit] Other appearances
- In an episode of The Simpsons (“I, D’oh-Bot”), Homer fights an ED-209 look-a-like built by Professor Frink and his son in a robot-fighting television show called Robot Rumble.
- In an episode of South Park (“Korn’s Groovy Pirate Ghost Mystery”), Kenny wears a life-sized ED-209 Halloween costume. Coincidentally, in the RoboCop film, the ED-209 malfunctions and kills a man named “Kienney.”
- Another South Park episode, “A Ladder to Heaven,” featured an ED-209; in this episode the ED-209 is depicted as guarding a house.
- In another South Park episode, “The Terrance and Phillip Movie Trailer,” the television transforms into a ED-209 because of the confusion with the TV remote.
- In Aladdin and the King of Thieves, the Genie turns into a parody version of ED-209 armed with laser beams to secure the “Aladdin and Jasmine wedding perimeter.”
- The ED-209 makes a cameo appearance in the show Family Guy (“Running Mates”) as the “XL-K” hall pass enforcement robot. The scene in which an OCP executive is killed after complying with orders is also parodied when a young girl is confronted by the XL-K and requested to present a hall pass. It attacks her even after she complies.
- In the comic book Sin City: Hell and Back, the character Wallace hallucinates that his buddy, the Captain, looks like ED-209. Sin City is written and drawn by Frank Miller, who wrote the original screenplays to RoboCop 2 and RoboCop 3.
- The computer adventure/action game Deus Ex features military and security robots similar to the ED-209.
- ED-209 appears in the final sequences of Space Quest II, before the player escapes from Vohaul’s asteroid.
- ED-209 appeared in a short skit with Robocop and Paul Reubens (as Pee-Wee Herman) during the 60th Academy Awards ceremony in 1988.
- ED-209 appears as an advanced enemy in Might and Magic III: Isles of Terra.
- Transformers:The Animated Series often has police robots that bear a passing resemblance to ED-209s. The units were built from Cybertronian technology on automated assembly lines. They are shown to be mostly ineffective, and prone to glitches. The series is based in Detroit in the indeterminate future.
- One of the more well-known tracks by Silver Bullet is “20 Seconds to Comply.” The track features several samples from RoboCop including the famous ED-209 sample from which the track gets its name.
[edit] Toys and Models
- Kenner toys in 1990 featured an ED-209 figure in their RoboCop and the Ultra Police line. It had a rotating waist and articulated legs. The figure was not to scale and did not have any automatic actions or accessories. It was renamed “ED-260” for the line.
- Mez-Itz RoboCop line contained an SD (Super Deformed) ED-209 figure in its RoboCop figure pack, which also contained RoboCop and Officer Anne Lewis.
- Kotobukiya toys featured a figure line in Japan based on the RoboCop movies. ED-209 came in a singular pack which had to be assembled. Also, in a two-pack, RoboCop came with the damaged legs of the ED-209 from the first RoboCop film.
- Sideshow toys produced a 15 inch Battle Damaged ED-209 figure.
- JAM Japan has produced a 2.36 inch ED-209 figure.
- Movie Masterpiece has produced a 15 inch ED-209 model. The model was so popular it spawned a second run and a Battle Damaged version of the ED-209. There are numerous bootlegs, as listed below.
- An unknown manufactorer in Thailand is producing a vinyl 1/9th scale ED-209 model.
- The same Thai manufactorer has a 1/12th scale ED-209 model as well.
- Hot Toys produced a 1/6 scale ED-209 model.
[edit] Behind the scenes
- According to RoboCop writer Ed Neumeier, the ED-209 robot was designed to resemble a bipedal Vietnam War-era Huey helicopter.
[edit] Reviews
ED-209 was listed as #5 in Wizard Magazine on the “10 Villains We’d Like to Forget.” The text reads: “Cool looking? Sure. Functional? Hell no. Forget about the fact it killed an innocent man and blew off its own arm; the dumb thing couldn’t even master stairs.”
Cracked.com listed the ED-209 as #7 on “8 Classic Movie Robots That Actually Suck at Their Job”, which addresses its flaws by saying, “As a law enforcement robot, we’re left to wonder, even if it didn’t malfunction, what exactly was it planning on doing? It doesn’t have hands, or any ability to transport people to jail. It just has giant machine guns.”
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- ED-209 at the Internet Movie Database
- Behind the scenes look at making ED-209
- The first Robocop in reality (2006)
[edit] References
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