"This guy's a serious asshole."
Robert "Bob" Morton was a young, ambitious executive of Omni Consumer Products' Security Concepts and project leader of the RoboCop program.
Biography
RoboCop program
Morton spearheaded the RoboCop program with Security Concepts, having paved the way for the project by restructuring the police department to "place prime candidates according to risk factor," the candidates being subjects for the project, which aimed to use human remains to create a cyborg police officer.
On the way to a board meeting, Morton spoke with Johnson and Mr. Kinney, discussing the notorious reputation of OCP Senior President Dick Jones, who had summoned them for the unveiling of his project, the Enforcement Droid Series 209, or ED-209.
The ED-209 did not work quite according to specifications, riddling Mr. Kinney with large-caliber shells even after the junior executive complied with its orders. As Dick Jones struggled at trying to explain his failure to the "Old Man," Morton stepped up and stole the contract with the RoboCop project. Jones attempted to silence Morton, though was quickly stopped by the Old Man with interest in the project.
After the death of Officer Alex Murphy, Bob personally oversaw the project's development. He expressed annoyance that the surgical team were able to save his left arm, reminding them that they agreed on total body prosthesis and that human qualities were a secondary concern. Johnson filled him in with the legal particulars of their position before Bob ordered them to proceed with the surgery.
Bob also tested out RoboCop's titanium laminated arm, which was capable of exerting 400 pounds of pressure.
RoboCop's activation
"You're gonna be a bad motherfucker!"
After the many weeks of development, Morton dramatically unveiled RoboCop to the development team as a celebration. The cyborg was quickly loaded into a truck and his various equipment was stowed in a convoy of vans, bound for the Metro West precinct.
Bob Morton was immediately confronted by Sergeant Reed, to whom he informed of the proceedings as OCP business and to "please, get lost."
Bob personally oversaw, with glee, the testing of RoboCop's marksmanship, tracking and record/playback functions, then ordered him to recite his Prime Directives. Bob was pleased, and RoboCop was pronounced ready for the field.
Confrontation with Jones
It was the success of RoboCop which made Morton finding himself in the seat of the Vice President of OCP. After RoboCop's initial success, Bob gave a quick interview to Mediabreak about the foundations of Delta City, where he predicted that crime would be a "thing of the past" within months.
Later, Morton entered OCP's Executive Lounge with a colleague, Walker, discussing Dick Jones. However, Bob did not notice that Jones was in the lounge, and continued to talk behind his back with Walker.
"You just fucked with the wrong guy!"
Realizing Jones heard every word, Walker quickly left before he had finished relieving himself. Bob held his ground, moving to the sink as Jones sidled up behind him. Jones appeared calm and congratulated Bob for his work in Security Concepts, and regaled him with stories of his own days as a young executive. The situation worsened when Dick grabbed Bob by the hair, telling him he had made a big mistake in insulting him personally and insulting the company with his "bastard creation." When Bob became visibly shaken and Dick backed off, leaving him in the lounge.
Morton then received a call from the OCP science team at Metro West precinct. RoboCop had experienced a severe emotional response and, without warning, walked out of the building. After learning that this simply meant he had a dream, Bob berated Officer Anne Lewis for daring to ask RoboCop's name and proceeded to threaten Reed, before backing down.
Death
A few days later, Bob Morton invited Chandra and Tawny to his home and ordered champagne and cocaine. The doorbell rang, which Bob initially believed to be the champagne he ordered earlier. Not wishing the girls to cool off, he rushed to the door, barely able to greet Clarence Boddicker, who brandished a pistol and forced Morton to backpedal into the room. Boddicker rudely ordered the girls to leave before pushing Bob away into the middle of the room.
Bob managed to regain a little of his composure, demanding to know what was going on. Clarence answered him by slotting a suppressor onto his pistol, and without hesitation, shot Morton several times in the legs, dropping him to the floor. As he struggled on the floor, Bob begged Clarence to spare his life, looking helplessly on as Clarence slotted a CD into Bob's entertainment suite. As Clarence helped himself to some cocaine, Bob saw, to his absolute horror, that the message playing to him was from Dick Jones, who he quickly determined had paid Clarence to kill him.
Bob tried to barter his life by offering Clarence double whatever Dick was paying, but this did not work and Clarence produced a grenade with a digital timer. Bob plead and begged to no avail and Clarence gently pulled the pin with his teeth, placed it on the glass coffee table, then left Morton's home.
Bob was left, struggling to reach the grenade, with Dick Jones' mocking message playing out on his media suite. Bob's fingers brushed the shell of the grenade, fumbling it, and knocked it further from his fingertips. The grenade detonated mere feet away from him, blasting the frontage of his home to pieces.
Behind the scenes
Bob's character was supposed to be more unpleasant and evil, but after Miguel Ferrer was cast, Paul Verhoeven and Edward Neumeier realized he was going to be well liked by the audience, and adjusted his role accordingly. However, he's a patronizing, condescending, arrogant, power hungry, insulting, uncaring, womanizing and inhuman CorpDog who deliberately puts honest police officers in harm's way just so he can harvest their brains and organs for his personal project, so it's not clear exactly how he could have been much more evil and unpleasant.
Appearances
- RoboCop (1987)