"I don't wanna fuck with you Sal, but I got the connections. I got the sales organization ... I got the muscle to shove enough of this factory so far up your stupid wop ass, that you'll shit snow for a year!"
- - Clarence's business acumen at its finest.
Clarence Boddicker is a character in the first film and the secondary antagonist.
Character Overview
A murderous, weaselly criminal with a snidy, nasal voice,and mostly seen chewing bubble gum, an utter disregard for life and a particular hatred for the police, Clarence J. Boddicker is the guy in Old Detroit. He has assembled a capable bunch of thugs for protection and enforcement and has allied himself firmly with many powerful people, including a certain number two guy at OCP. If you need to get hold of something, if you need something taken care of, or if you need something shifted, Clarence is your man. Just make sure your will's up to date before you make the call.
Throughout most of the movie, Clarence believed himself to be invincible, until a certain cyborg proved otherwise. And the results speak for themselves.
Bank Robbery
Boddicker is first shown in a photo of him and Leon in the first Mediabreak session. He appears next when he and his gang are on the run from a robbery, blazing - or more accurately, gently escaping - along Industrial Way in a beat-up van. After checking their haul - a huge clutch of banknotes - Clarence is enraged to find that much of the money has been burned by Bobby's incompetence with explosives. Before he can do anything about it though, Emil, the wheelman, pipes up - there are cops on their tail. Surrounded by his men and adequately armed, Clarence reckons they can shoot their way to freedom. The battle is brief and intense, ending after Bobby is shot and incapacitated by Murphy. (Only after Clarence tosses Bobby out of the van and onto the hood of Lewis's police car, shattering the windshield) spinning the car out and allowing them to escape.
Death of Alex J. Murphy
He is next seen after Leon and Steve Minh appear to rescue Emil from Murphy, turning up in the nick of time as his boys are about to set upon the policeman. Clarence orders them to back off, then deals with Murphy himself, questioning him as to the location of Lewis. He beats Murphy with his sawed-off shotgun, stopping only when Joe Cox strides in and confidently announces he's taken care of her. With no logical reason to continue torturing him for information, Clarence tortures him for fun, taunting him about Lewis, and engaging in a horrible, tense and brutal bit of entertainment. With his arm trapped beneath Clarence's foot and the rest of the gang with shotguns pointed to his head, Murphy can only look on in terror as Clarence directs the shotgun over his different locations on his body, all the while making a sound like he's some sort of autocannon locking onto target. His boys chuckle, the sound Clarence makes quickens and slows, rises and falls, and the shotgun hovers over potential targets: Murphy's terrified face, his neck, his chest... before Clarence reaches a crescendo and fires... blowing Murphy's hand off at the wrist in a with a dreadful ragged wound. Clarence's attitude to this sort of torture is summed up by a casual joke thrown to his boys:
- "Well give the man a hand!"
He then leaves Murphy to his fate, being shotgunned to within an inch of his life. After his gang run out of ammo, Emil calls his boss over, who strides over, raises his customized Desert Eagle and shoots Murphy through the head, dropping him, announcing "Okay... fun's over."
Murder of Bob Morton
"Bitches leave!"―Clarence Boddicker[src]
Clarence about to Kill Bob Morton because he made a mistake.
Clarence next appears in Bob Morton's house, sent there to do a job by Dick Jones. As Bob is enjoying himself with cocaine and high-class hookers, the doorbell rings. Instead of the champagne he was expecting, Bob finds Clarence's Desert Eagle stuck in his face. He is forced into his living room, the hookers are ousted and then Clarence screws a custom suppressor onto his pistol, immediately opening fire, catching Bob in the leg. He collapses in shock and pain, and Clarence coldly unloads several more shots into his kneecaps and shattering them, rendering him crippled and pleading for his life.
Clarence tastes every grenade before use.
Slowly, with no hurry, Clarence slides a computer disc into Bob's entertainment system, then moves around to the discarded cocaine, helping himself to a little snifter as a mockingly cruel message from Dick Jones plays to Bob. The next time Bob looks up at Clarence, he is waving a neat looking grenade at the helpless man. Disregarding Bob's pleas for mercy, Clarence slowly pulls the pin with his tongue, starting an electronic countdown. He then places the grenade on the coffee table not far from Bob's reach, and makes his way unhurriedly out of the condo, even taking time to gently pull closed the front door. Bob Morton fumbles for the grenade, but clumsily knocks it off the table out of his reach as moments later, a huge explosion tears the condo - and Bob Morton - to pieces.
Sal's Drug Factory
Clarence is next seen at Sal's drug factory, forcing the drug baron into business with him, offering him a large clutch of used notes, probably those from the robbery at the start of the film. Sal tosses the money back to Clarence and reminds the unofficial crime boss of Old Detroit what the score is: Clarence Boddicker is a loose cannon, feared by many, and if Sal were to "put him out of business", as he calls it, lots of people would be grateful. Clarence does not take this veiled warning lightly, retorting that he has the contacts, he has organization and, most importantly, he has the muscle to destroy Sal and his business. Sal immediately tells his men to kill him, but Clarence's bodyguards are ready and instantly have guns in Sal's face. In the ensuing standoff, Sal backs down, and the two criminals relax.
At that moment, the heavy main door to the factory shakes and bangs, alerting everyone in the place. They all ready weapons and take up positions, with Clarence and his boys on a raised walkway. In seconds, the door is smashed right off its hinges and comes crashing down in a cloud of cocaine. Robocop strides into the room and orders everyone to surrender. Steve Minh says what everyone else is thinking and opens fire, joined seconds later by everyone else in the room. Boxes of coke are riddled with bullets and ampules of the drug are smashed in the firefight and soon the air is thick with cocaine as Robocop marches in, shooting anyone putting up a fight, killing Steve Minh and incapacitating Joe Cox. Sal is cut down by stray fire from one of his own bodyguards and then, before he knows what's going on, Clarence is the only one left on his feet. Panicking, he leaps from the catwalk onto the roof of a small office building, but the ceiling falls apart, depositing Clarence on the floor... by Robocop's feet.
Robocop begins to soften him up, throwing him first through one window, then another. As the ordeal progresses, Clarence begins to crack, screaming at the cyborg that he's "got protection" and divulging information on Dick Jones... but Robocop does not seem to care, hurling Clarence through yet another window. By now Clarence, bleeding, his face lacerated, has become quite frantic, picking himself up as he bellows a series of things at the determined machine, including something extremely vital:
- "Don't you get it, you cocksucker! I work for Dick Jones! DICK JONES! He's the number two guy at OCP! OCP runs the cops! You're a cop!"
But the pleading seems to fall upon deaf ears as Robocop wraps his immensely powerful hand around Clarence's throat, choking the life out of him. As Clarence's eyes bulge and his oxygen supply is cut off, mouthing the words "cop!", Robocop is compelled to release him, his directives insisting he do so as much as his supreme sense of duty. With an emotion almost that of disappointment, Robocop grudgingly acknowledges:
- "Yes. I am a cop."
Arrest and release
- "Drugs. Gambling. Prostitution. Virgin territory for the man who knows how to run it all."
- "Well, I guess we're going to be friends after all. Richard."
- - Dick Jones and Clarence.
Sergeant Reed is in the station shouting down his men's demands for strike action. Five cops were lost last week, the force is getting creamed out there. At this moment, the door flies open and in strides Robocop, carrying the beat-up, bloodied form of Clarence Boddicker with him. He tosses him into Reed's desk, remarking that Clarence is a cop killer, and leaving him to the fuming officers inside.
Unfortunately, Clarence simply demands a phone call, a phone call to none other than Dick Jones, who has him out of custody in 24 hours.
Clarence strides into Dick's office the following day, a free man. Dick is less than pleased, however, remarking that Robocop is a cyborg and not only did he record everything Clarence said, but that his memory is admissible as evidence. Dick orders him to kill Robocop. Clarence simply refuses, rationalizing that OCP built Robocop, so OCP can deal with the problem. In reality, Clarence is probably also wary, understandably so, of tangling with Robocop again, since the machine has single handedly killed, injured or arrested everyone Clarence knows, and Clarence himself.
However, Dick reminds him that Delta City begins construction in two months and two million workers will be brought into the area, lots of potential for selling drugs, hookers and whatever other services Clarence can sell. Unable to resist such a tantalizing offer, Clarence relents, agreeing to Dick's terms, and addressing him in more respectful terms.
Clarence also, wisely, asks Dick for some heavy weaponry. Dick provides him with several vehicles, Cobra assault cannons, a tracking device and, though not seen on screen, frees the imprisoned members of his gang.
Reunion with Gang
With all of his captured gang members out of jail, the men enjoy a destructive reunion and familiarize themselves with their heavy weapons. Joe Cox sees first hand the raw power of the Cobra when Clarence destroys his brand new 6000 SUX, ostensibly because it was the same car Clarence had, but slightly newer. After a few more shots and a lot more fun, the gang is reeled in and directed to the old steel mill, where Robocop is holed up after the shootout at OCP headquarters.
"Bye bye, Baby."
Despite having superior weapons and numbers, one by one the gang falls apart. Clarence tries to cut Robocop off by circling around the site on the service road as Emil goes the opposite way, but Lewis intercepts Clarence in the police car, following him closely. Glancing over his shoulder at just the wrong moment, Clarence fails to notice Emil, smoking and wailing as his toxic waste bath continues to eat away at him, who staggers onto the service road. Clarence barely has time to pucker up as he runs Emil down, his comrade erupting in bodily gel and liquids, which coat Clarence's windscreen. Unable to see, and before he can operate any controls, the 6000 SUX leaves the road, leaps over a mound of scrap and comes down roof first in a shallow drainage canal.
Lewis pulls up a second later and gets out, surveying the scene. With cat-like reactions, Clarence is suddenly up and fighting, pumping rounds in Lewis's direction with his customized Desert Eagle, striking her at least once, dropping her down the embankment and into the reddened, rusty water. As Clarence prepares himself for the final shot, a voice makes him turn. Robocop has the drop on him. However, high above them, Leon Nash is still alive and well, and, seeing the situation unfold below him, sprints up to the control room of a huge crane, a massive load of scrap metal still held in its jaws. Clarence feigns defeat, tossing his pistol into the water and raising his hands:
- "Okay, okay, I give up!"
But Robocop has other ideas, advancing on Clarence with his pistol leveled and ready:
- "I'm not arresting you anymore."
Clarence continues to barter as Leon reaches the controls. Of note is how Clarence switches from pleading for his life at Robocop to shouting up to Leon almost in the same breath:
- "Hey wait a minute, you're taking this kinda personal aren't ya? Come on man, come on now you're making me nervous, come on you can't do this. Come on now! Don't mess around! Hey, HEY! Come on man, don't get cute!"
Death
The end of Clarence.
But Leon's calculations are masterfully accurate and, pulling the appropriate lever, sends tonnes of girders, slabs and chunks of metal raining down, piledriving Robocop into the water. The pair cheer, but, as they shout and whoop to each other, Lewis squeezes off a shot from Clarence's Cobra, obliterating the crane control room. Shocked at his last henchman's sudden death, Clarence directs his rage at Robocop, taking a length of jagged metal and leaping over to him, battering the cyborg, then plunging the bar through Robocop's breastplate, causing obvious pain. Leaning in for the coup de grace, he makes the mistake of getting too close to the machine taunting "Sayornara Robocop!" and the cyborg lunges for him, stabbing him through the neck with his data spike. The wound severs a major artery, causing powerful spurts of blood to come shooting forth in time with Clarence's elevated heartbeat, which reduce in intensity as Clarence staggers, then falls, before expiring in the rust filled waters leading to the defeat and dissolution of his gang and his body is taken away by medical team led by Warren Reed and Mayor Gibson.
Memorable quotes
Clarence is renowned for his memorable lines, some of which have become cult favorites.
- "Can you fly, Bobby?"
- - Clarence's ultimate response to Bobby's incompetent handling of explosives.
- "You a good cop, hot shot? Sure you are. You gotta be some kinda... great cop, coming here all by yourself. Where's your partner?"
- - Murphy on the receiving end of Clarence's sadistic streak.
- "You probably don't think I'm a very nice guy, do ya?"
- "Buddy, I think you're slime."
- "Y'see, I got this problem. Cops don't like me. So I... don't like cops..."
- - Murphy and Clarence exchange pleasantries before the shotguns start blazing.
- "Well give the man a hand!"
- - after blowing Murphy's hand off.
- "Bitches leave!"
- - barked at Bob Morton's high-class hookers before he proceeds to torture and kill him.
- "Just gimme my fuckin' phone call."
- - spat at Reed after gobbing out a mouthful of blood onto the desk.
- "Heya... Barbara. I'm here to see Dick Jones, but after that I got some free time. Maybe you could... "fit me in"?"
- - harrassing the staff at Dick Jones's office.
- "Bye bye, baby."
- - About to execute Lewis.