The RoboCop Scene That Made A Film Critic Complain To The Projectionist Isn't What You'd Expect

Paul Verhoeven's 1987 film "RoboCop" is one of the most violent, bullet-riddled, neck-stabbing, genital-shooting, entrance-wound-making, thug-mutating, CEO-murdering movies ever made. Although made as a criticism of the gross ultra-capitalism of the Reagan administration, it still plays well today, functioning as a commentary on unchecked corporate malfeasance and the ever-increasing militarization of the police. It was initially advertised as a standard sci-fi/action flick, but over the years, it's proven to be one of the most important movies of its decade. It took the zany Dutch filmmaker behind "Showgirls" to unpack the horrors of U.S. violence.

Even at the time, critics keyed into the satirical elements of "RoboCop," and few recoiled from its abundant violence. The Washington Post's critic loved its "droll underpinnings," happy to see a corporate yes-man get shot full of holes. Roger Ebert similarly noted that the shooting scene was meant to be — and actually was — quite funny. He gave "RoboCop" three stars, observing there's "pointed social satire, too, as the Robocop takes on some of the attributes and some of the popular following of a Bernhard Goetz." (Goetz was a notorious real-life vigilante active shortly before "RoboCop" hit theaters.)

So, there was little moral handwringing about "RoboCop," at least from U.S. film critics. There was one critic, however, who once insisted that a screening of the movie be shut down partway through because she found it too startling. Specifically, it seems that one of the critics for the Los Angeles Times, likely Sheila Benson (who was a staff writer when "RoboCop" opened in theaters), was left a little off-balance by a fake commercial within the movie. As relayed in Esquire's 2014 oral history of "RoboCop," she thought a reel from the wrong film was being shown when a stop-motion animated dinosaur suddenly appeared on-screen.

One of the most striking features of "RoboCop" is the fake TV commercials that appear periodically throughout it. The film set in a dystopia where cheery, absurd advertising continues to happen while violence and corporate crime run rampant, including ads for a world-destroying board game called "Nuke 'Em" and a crude sedan amusingly deemed the 6000 SUX. In particular, the ad for the 6000 SUX is a retro-sci-fi commercial featuring a stop-motion dinosaur rampaging through the streets of Detroit. The dinosaur was animated by legendary animator and special effects guru Phil Tippett.

According to Verhoeven, the dinosaur was so unlike the rest of "RoboCop," it confused one critic. Verhoeven liked the TV ads specifically because they were such a jarring cut away from the film's central action. It seems, however, they were too jarring for at least one person. As he related: 

"In fact, the television ad that starts with footage of a claymation dinosaur really startled the Los Angeles Times' film critic. She complained to the projectionist that he'd put in a reel of the wrong movie. The critic had seen two-thirds of the movie already, so she knew what those kinds of harsh cuts would be like. But it was so jarring, that it still made her think she was watching the wrong movie!"

Recall that, back when movies were projected on celluloid, projectionists either had to construct multiple 20-minute reels onto one gigantic platter or, in some instances, run them reel-to-reel, switching back and forth between two projectors every 20 minutes or so. It's possible that an inattentive projectionist could mix up reels. Hence, the critic in question went to the booth to complain. But no, it turned out "RoboCop" was just wonderfully weird.