RoboCop TL

I don't know how many people remember this, but RoboCop was supposed to be future history back in '87. So let's see if we can make a TL that reflects the movie, minus the cyborg cop bit. Now I don't have the film at hand but I did see it some 2 weeks ago, so these are the relevant details that I remember:

Pretoria is a "besieged" (by Africans, presumably) white-ruled city-state possessing a French-made neutron bomb.

There is a Peace Platform that is part of the Star Wars program.

Detroit is even more crime-ridden and its police department is privatized.

A component of Star Wars misfires and kills Santa Barbara, killing 3 (?) former US presidents among others.

Artificial hearts exist.

If anyone remembers anything else it would be helpful. Let's say that this was supposed to be 2000.
 
This could turn political so easy. You must save the Soviet and the argument if it was Reagan who did it or not is political. Even worse, you must destroy the economy, THE political issue, and how you do that is a debate we should have in political chat. It's that simple.(*)

There is one way to acchive this without becomming to political. Soviet manage to pull of the senario from Red Storm Rising and paralyse NATO and then take the Middle East in one bold move. The rising oil price and general insecurity destroy the economy hitting Detroits auto industry extra hard.
 
It strikes me that it's possible to see it as a very polarizing AH/FH about Reagan. Either as a warning about what he is about to do (privatizing etc...) or a story about a world without him where Soviet Union stay strong and the economy collapse without the leadership of Reagan.

Hence my opposition to the question.
 
Maybe Gorbachev dies early in an accident and the USSR survives resulting in the continuation of the Cold War, also Japan would continue its economic boom.
 
if you put the time of Robocop in say 2020 instead of 2000, you might not need a POD at all. If you get a hawkish president in the white house in 2012 we may have missile defense system up and if the government bailout doesn't work the Big 3 could go byebye effectively destroying what's left of michigans economy, say detroit takes a page from Chicago's book and starts privatizing to make up budget shortfalls. Finally have the US economy not recover soon enough and have the US government default on chinese investments into US debt and you get a really powerful communist country that is pissed at the US, maybe they start trying to subvert democratic nations that are friendly to the US. I would say that realistically you could get a situation pretty similar to Robocop in the real future without any POD, which is pretty sucky, I better go tell paul mccrane to watch out for falling vats of acid!!!
 
The Pretoria city-state doesn't really work as part of FH.

or even a working american auto industry espicially one that sell car that have an average fuel consuption of 8.2 miles per gallon (which is worst than some hummer) :D

I think the TL would go around thing simply go worst for everyone and everyone get a bit crazy.

Maybe a functionning star wars program (with heavy corporate involvement) ushered in a new technological ages by megacorporation. When Reagan get shoot it dammage his mind so the country go steadily worst from that point.
 
Presidents of the US in TTL

Ronald Reagan 1981-1989 Republican
Michael Dukakis 1989-1993 Democrat
Dan Quayle 1993-1997 Republican
Al Sharpton 1997-2001 Democrat
Pat Buchanan 2001-2009 Republican
Ann Coulter 2009-
 
Throw out the TV series, the two following movies, and take alook at RoboCop: Prime Directives. According to this TV miniserie RoboCop is really taking place in an alternate earth where tech is extremely advanced. Murphy, the human portion of RoboCop offically died in 1984.
 
Let's incorporate the sequels and what was on the news in them - or at least Robocop 2.

1. There was a war in the Amazon where mercenaries (including Cain/Kane) fought. Also, a nuclear power-plant in the Amazon "blew its stack".

2. Board Games that incorporate some form of hologram are available.

3. Video phones are very common

4. California has lost the Ozone Layer

5. It's apparently legal to kill someone who has broken into your car.

6. Government officials are stupid enough to sign a contract that states an entire city can be handed to a corporation if it defaults on payments to run the police department.

7. Despite being in the future, kids are still playing Midnight Resistance and Ghostbusters in arcades.

In the novelisation of Robocop 2, it is stated that after the fall of communism, Eastern Europe is heavily invested in by Japan and they take apart America's manufacturing base. The River Rouge Complex is a last ditch attempt at luring investors but quickly falls into ruin which is why Cain/Kane chooses it as his base of operations to make drugs. The novel also says that the Arab world tries to buy Israel from the Jews for U$3 trillion but the offer is rejected.
 
I know this is something of a dead thread but I did read the original Robocop novelisation last night; the book references the MediaBreak shows and one of them specifically states that Sylvester Stallone dies from an attempted brain transplant at the age of 97. He will reach that age in 2043 so that's the "near future" epoch the Robo-verse is set in.
 
I know this is something of a dead thread but I did read the original Robocop novelisation last night; the book references the MediaBreak shows and one of them specifically states that Sylvester Stallone dies from an attempted brain transplant at the age of 97. He will reach that age in 2043 so that's the "near future" epoch the Robo-verse is set in.

Probably one of the few time I think its better if the future is less far than officially stated then, I just think the 2000's make more sense since its basicly about things of the 80's who have gone overboard
 
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