Though he represents some fascinating ideas about humanity, the extent to which machines have integrated themselves into modern life and the social implications of private business expanding into public services, Detective Alex Murphy (otherwise known as RoboCop) is a hero who’s not much of anything at all without a host of colorful villains to dispatch. Luckily, the series has never disappointed in that department.
From goons and criminals on the streets to nefarious business people at the highest level of society, the RoboCop franchise’s vision of a futuristic Detroit is never wanting for evil-goers to be wiped away by its cyborg champion. Here are the ten best RoboCop movie villains so far.
Rick Mattox
Mattox, played by Jackie Earle Haley, is a weapons expert and military tactician who specializes in the use of the drone technology at the heart of the 2014 RoboCop’s story. He not only seems incapable of viewing Alex Murphy as a human being, but also clearly has a grudge against him from the word go for encroaching on his territory.
Their rivalry only intensifies when Murphy’s new abilities are let loose in a training exercise, where he humiliates Mattox in front of his employers.
Raymond Sellars
The head of the unscrupulous Omni Consumer Products (OCP) in the 2014 reboot of the franchise, Raymond Sellars was played by Michael Keaton. His character was clearly one that the producers wanted to get just right, passing the role around several prominent actors before finding the right fit. Keaton nails the sly two-faced ways that the character requires.
Sellars understands the importance of image above everything else. He’s a ruthless operator who will do anything to achieve his goal of legalizing the use of his military drone technology on home soil.
Bob Morton
Bob Morton, though nothing more than a seemingly-standard ladder-climbing sleazeball at OCP, holds a special place in the history of RoboCop villains, and the RoboCop franchise overall, as he’s technically the first person responsible for the creation of RoboCop.
Bob is a prime example of the stereotypical 80s business cutthroat that Paul Verhoeven’s original movie so spectacularly sent up. He has no regard for human life and views his crude behavior as a winning quality in his dog-eat-dog world. However, he crosses a far bigger dog at OCP and it results in his grisly murder.
Pat Novak
Played by the incomparable Samuel L. Jackson in the 2014 reboot, Pat Novak is a media personality who hosts a shouty infotainment show called The Novak Element, which acts as a perfect satirical take on a flashy entertainment show masquerading as news.
Novak was one of the many elements left hanging at the end of the reboot, which fans are unlikely to ever see fulfilled in any way. If parts of the reboot were ever carried into future movies, Novak would be a must-have choice.
Dick Jones
A Senior Vice President at OCP, Dick Jones is practically a gangster who works in a high-rise office. His desire to further his career through the unsound ED-209 robots is scuppered when an enterprising Bob Morton seizes on Jones’ public failure with the ED-209 and pushes for RoboCop to take center stage.
Jones uses his hired muscle to brutally murder Bob Morton, but his secretly recorded confession is played by Alex Murphy to the OCP board, resulting in his termination. This allows Murphy to overcome the programming that forbids him from acting against an OCP employee, resulting in Jones going through a top floor window.
Hob
Like an R-rated Bugsy Malone or a real-life Bart Simpson, Hob is a foul-mouth from RoboCop 2 who’s tougher and wiser than most of the hardened criminals in Detroit. He was a point of controversy when the movie was released, but he’s grown in popularity over the decades, as has the movie itself.
Hob is pretty unrepentantly devious, which is what makes him so much fun to watch, but his character is predominantly a tragic one. He comes to exemplify what Murphy struggles against the most in the movie: the total corruption of innocent youth.
“The Old Man”
The president of OCP, simply referred to as “The Old Man”, is one of the few villains to survive the events of more than one RoboCop movie. He’s never as directly evil as his employees, but that’s because he’s never as directly involved in their schemes (most of which seem to end up profiting him).
“The Old Man” is more than happy to pit his workers against one another for the prospect of a higher position, and their scrambling to get to the top often results in chaotic plans that he’s always shielded from in some way.
Donald Johnson
The most successful of the ladder-climbers within OCP, and one of the few characters and actors to appear in all three of the original RoboCop movies, Felton Perry’s Donald Johnson proves himself smarter than the rest of his co-workers, simply by staying either alive and out of prison despite the disastrous failures of those around him.
Johnson practices a level of caution that other OCP executives wilfully lack and you feel that he’s consistently underestimated as a result of that, much to his benefit. Think Smithers from The Simpsons, only far more cunning.
Cain
The leader of a gang that revolves around the production, sale and consumption of a fictional drug called “Nuke,” Cain is the main antagonist of RoboCop 2. Through addiction to his drug, he cultivates a status as some kind of revolutionary guru.
When his body is totalled by RoboCop, his brain is placed into the body of a much larger, much more deadly, machine intended to become Robocop 2. Needless to say, Cain wreaks absolute havoc with his new powers and built-in weapons.
Clarence Boddicker
Of the original RoboCop’s plethora of villains, Clarence Boddicker still remains the most vividly memorable and entertaining of the movie, and, indeed, the franchise. He has far fewer overall goals than your standard RoboCop villain, who’s usually trying to facilitate a master plan to control the city. Boddicker mostly seems concerned by just continuing day-to-day as a violent criminal, killing and stealing anything he wants, whenever he wants.
Emboldened by his support from Dick Jones at OCP, who uses Boddicker to do his dirty work, he has an unforgettable level of confident swagger and menace. Especially for a character played by actor Kurtwood Smith, perhaps best known as "the dad from That ‘70s Show."