Editing RoboCop (section)

=== Humanity and death ===
[[File:The Resurrection by Carl Heinrich Bloch, 1881.jpg|thumb|upright|left|alt=A painting of the resurrection of Christ by Heinrich Bloch|''The Resurrection'' by Carl Heinrich Bloch, 1881. Murphy's transformation into RoboCop is analogous to the [[Crucifixion of Jesus|crucifixion]] and [[resurrection of Jesus]].]]
Another central theme is the question of what humanity is, and how much of Murphy is left in RoboCop.<ref name="WaPoReviewKempley"/><ref name="RogerEbertReview"/> Neumeier wanted to leave audiences asking "what's left" of Murphy, and described the character's journey as coping with his transformation.{{sfn|Bates|1987a|p=23}} As an officer, Murphy works for a corporation that insists it owns individuals based on waivers and can do what it wants with Murphy's remains. He does the right thing, however, and fights against the demands of his corporate masters.<ref name="EsquireOral"/> Despite his inhuman appearance, RoboCop has a soul, experiences real human fears, and has a core consciousness that makes him more than a machine.<ref name="IndieWire10Things"/> Brooks Landon says that Murphy is dead, however; although he remembers Murphy's life, RoboCop is not (and can never be) Murphy and regain enough of his humanity to rejoin his family.{{sfn|Landon|1987|p=20}} Dale Bradley writes that RoboCop is a machine who mistakenly thinks it is Murphy because of its composite parts, and only believes it has a human spirit within.{{sfn|Bradley|2008|p=16}} An alternative view is that RoboCop's personality is a new construct, informed partially by fragments of Murphy's personality.{{sfn|Bradley|2008|p=17}} [[Slavoj Žižek]] describes Murphy as a man between life and death, who is deceased and simultaneously reanimated with mechanical parts. As he regains his humanity, he transforms from being programmed by others to his former state as a being of desire. Žižek calls this return of the living dead a fundamental human fantasy, a desire to avoid death and take revenge against the living.{{sfn|Žižek|1992|p=22}}

Murphy's death is prolonged and violent, so the audience can see RoboCop as imbued with the humanity taken from him by Boddicker's gang and OCP.<ref name="LATimesVerhnMakesGood"/> Verhoeven considered it important to acknowledge the inherent darkness of humanity to avoid inevitable mutual destruction. He was affected by his childhood experiences during [[World War II]] and the inhuman actions he witnessed. Verhoeven believed that the concept of an immaculate hero died after the war, and subsequent heroes had a dark side they had to overcome.<ref name="LATimesVerhnMakesGood"/> Describing the difference between making films in Europe and America, Verhoeven said that a European ''RoboCop'' would explore the spiritual and psychological problems of RoboCop's condition; the American version focuses on revenge.<ref name="LATimesVerhnMakesGood"/> He incorporated Christian mythology into the film; Murphy's brutal death is analogous to the crucifixion of Jesus before his resurrection as RoboCop, an American Jesus who [[Jesus walking on water|walks on water]] at the steel mill and wields a handgun.<ref name="EsquireOral"/><ref name="IndieWire10Things"/> Verhoeven said that he did not believe in the [[resurrection of Jesus]], but "[he] can see the value of that idea, the purity of that idea. So from an artistic point of view, it's absolutely true".<ref name="EsquireOral"/><ref name="IndieWire10Things"/> The scene of RoboCop returning to Murphy's home is compared to finding the [[Garden of Eden]] or a similar paradise.<ref name="DallasHistory"/><ref name="EsquireOral"/>

Brooks Landon describes the film as typical of the [[cyberpunk]] genre because it does not treat RoboCop as better or worse than average humans (just different), and asks the audience to consider him a new life form.<ref name="LATimesVerhnMakesGood"/>{{sfn|Landon|1987|p=20}} The film does not treat this technological advance as necessarily negative, just an inevitable result of a progression that will change one's life and one's understanding of what it means to be human.{{sfn|Landon|1987|p=20}} The RoboCop character embodies the struggle of humanity to embrace technology.<ref name="TheDissolveNeumeier"/> The central cast do not have romantic interests or overt sexual desires. Paul Sammon described the scene of RoboCop shooting bottles of baby food as symbolic of the relationship he and Lewis can never have.<ref name="UproxxRetro"/>{{sfn|Sammon|1987|p=39}} Taylor agreed, but believed that the confrontation between Morton and Jones in the OCP bathroom was sexualized.<ref name="IndieWire10Things"/>
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