Written by Mr. Mouseburger 11th Jun 2005
Like any young bootlick trying to make a name for himself in the boardroom, young Mr Kinney only too readily agrees to be a test subject for the prototype ED-209 (ED stands for Enforcement Droid).
Alas, ED-209 is an insane robot who can't be tamed for "urban pacification" and he subsequently fires an unnecessarily large volume of bullets into Mr Kinney, bringing Kinney's glittering career in middle management to an untimely end.
Mr Kinney realises too late that the company's termination policy is disturbingly literal
The CEO sums up this disaster beautifully when he tells Dick Jones (q.v.), ED-209s creator, he "is very disappointed".
Hmm. A bit underrated. The most famous death in Robocop!
I always sympathized with this guy. He did nothing to provoke his death (in fact, did everything possible to prevent it) but still he was moved down. And it seemed that no one in the office really cared. Aside from worrying about getting blood on their clothes, they had no feelings for this guy, and in fact, they pushed and shoved and forced him to face his fate because of their own cowardice.
His only crime? Brown-nosing. Sure, I'd love to see such a thing happen to more than one of my own co-workers, but this guy was flotsam. Plankton. Kill a shark, why dontcha? But see, there it is: that's what makes the villain's death so satisfying. Anyone that regards so casually the loss of a human life is someone desperately deserving of a nice gory death himself.
I do agree Ocafi.... But I still love this scene!!!
You have fifteen seconds to comply....
I think this scene really sets the whole mood of the film. The total lack of respect for fellow humans, and the complete brutality of the whole society shown throughout the film. "Very dissapointed!" Classic!
I just love Verhoeven's work! His dystopian futures are stupidly perfect fun! How can these be amusing to us?? I don't know, and I really don't care... I just love them!
I really like the "very disappointed" and "you call this a glitch" comments, the CEO being more concerned with the bottom line on the accounts than the bloody mess that was Mr Kinney on the boardroom table.
The name is spelled differently, but I sometimes wonder whether or not this death scene inspired the creators of South Park to start the "Oh my God, they killed Kenny!" running gag.
Shouldn't this be "machinery" as well? 'Twas a machine that made lasagna out of the poor schmuck, after all.
Machine would work. This should also get Accidental because the ED-209 was intended to not kill Kinney as soon as he dropped the gun.
You know I really did feel bad for the poor little weasel, all he wanted was a promotion, not to be blown into oblivion by ED-209.
As for South Park's Kenny, there was a Halloween episode where Kenny's costume is an ED-209, and another where chef's new TV transforms into ED-209. So even if the whole Kenny getting slain scenario wasn't inspired a little bit by this scene, it is not hard to see why one might think so, Trey Parker and Matt Stone seem to like to reference ED-209 without a doubt and hell why not!!?? He is an iconic bad guy, from an iconic 80's action film.