Paul Verhoeven‘s RoboCop nearly scarred me when it was released in 1987. While pegged as a sci-fi actioneer, the film is secretly a dystopian nightmare that’s nothing short of brutal. The scene in which Paul McCrane‘s character crashes into a vat of toxic waste and melts haunted me until my early teens. It’s an ultraviolent movie that was originally blasted with an X-rating by the MPAA.
Explains Wiki:
“To appease the requirements of the ratings board, Verhoeven reduced the blood and gore in the most violent scenes in the movie, including ED-209’s shooting of Kinney in the boardroom (read about the making of this scene here), Bobby being shot in the leg, the Boddicker gang’s execution of Murphy with shotguns, and the final battle with Boddicker (in which RoboCop stabs him in the neck with his neural spike and Boddicker’s blood spatters onto RoboCop’s chest). Verhoeven also added humorous commercials throughout the news broadcasts to lighten the mood and distract from the violent aspects of the movie (most of the commercials satirize various aspects of the American consumer culture, such as the commercial for the 6000 SUX sedan). “
The X-rated cut is pretty rare, although it was included on the Criterion Collection LaserDisc and DVD of the film (both out of print), the 2005 trilogy box set, and the 2007 anniversary edition, as well as the 2014 Blu-ray 4K master edition.
Now, the 103-minute X-rated cut is streaming for free on Amazon Prime. While it’s not listed as such, it’s been confirmed by this reddit user who spot checked all the deleted scenes. In fact, I started watching it as I’m writing this piece and boy is it violent!
It’s unclear if this is an error or not, so I would suggest watching it as soon as you possibly can in case it’s replaced with the MPAA-approved R-rated version (which is still amazing).