One of the foundations of ’80s cinema was property damage. The entire idea of most action movies probably started with a coked-up screenwriter talking about all the things the movie was going to blow up. But what would be the real world cost if you cut, say, RoboCop loose on the streets?
A bit more than you’d expect, according to this breakdown by Cinema Sins. Still, you won’t be able to repair the damage RoboCop causes with a dollar:
There are a few prices one finds questionable, like the fact that it’s cheaper to repair a factory wall than a glass window, albeit abandoned factories are really only valuable as playgrounds for cybernetic law officers. And Dick Jones probably has very fancy glass windows. Similarly, no way the ED-209 cost that little, even if it did not, in fact, actually work.
If you’re wondering about the total, apparently during the actual time period RoboCop was supposed to be set in, 1997, Robo racks up more than $5 million in property damage. Legally speaking, he and the Detroit PD probably aren’t on the hook for most of it, but you can probably go ahead and double that once you factor in legal proceedings. Maybe OCP should have made a robotic civil action attorney instead.