We're introduced to this by talk show host Pat Novak (Sam Jackson), who appears throughout the film, brazenly promoting Pentagon propaganda, trying to convince what he calls a bizarrely "robot-phobic" American public that OmniCorp drones can make the U.S. safer, too. It's a damning starting point that already positions America as the propagator of emotion-less killing machine. When the story shifts to Detroit, it gives the whole film the frame of: Would we treat ourselves how we treat those abroad?
Opening the U.S. market to its drones is judged imperative by OmniCorp. CEO Raymond Sellars (Michael Keaton) is flanked by executive Liz Kline (Jennifer Ehle) and marketing wizard (Jay Baruchel, brilliantly smarmy). To turn the political tide, they decide they need (literally) a more human face. For their RoboCop prototype, they find Detroit police detective Alex Murphy (Joel Kinnaman), who has been badly maimed by a car bomb meant to derail his pursuit of a drug kingpin. Gary Oldman (always good, less frequently tested) plays the scientist who preserves little more than Murphy's brain in his new steel body, controlling his emotions and memory with lowered levels of dopamine.
