Terminator vs RoboCop Would Be Bad For Fans Of Both Franchises

The RoboCop and Terminator franchises are two beloved 80s sci-fi classics, but combining them would likely be a major disappointment. While it’s technically made it into a video game and comic book form, RoboCop and the beloved Terminator from the T-800 series have never properly met on the big screen. Both franchises are now struggling to continue attracting audiences, with the Terminator sequels after Judgment Day being critical flops and the RoboCop reboot (2015) not finding the same success as its predecessor. However, there’s no denying that seeing these two cyborg juggernauts together would cause a stir.

The problem with Robocop and Terminator being involved is that the nature of these two franchises leads to the logical conclusion that the long-term outcome will likely be boring. The first battle will likely end much faster than expected given the stats of each respective character. However, the outcome of the RoboCop/Terminator crossover will have a big impact on the future of both franchises, and that future will look particularly bleak. Unlike other big-budget crossovers like Godzilla vs. Kong, it likely won’t end up teaming up to save the day from a common enemy.

Robocop Is Vastly Superior To The T-800

Supporters of the Terminator franchise may not be too thrilled about the outcome of the battle between these two giants of cybernetic cinema. Roughly speaking, after watching both films, it becomes clear that RoboCop is better than the classic T-800 in almost every important way. While the T-800 has the advantage in mobility, RoboCop is harder to kill in almost every way. In the final battle of James Cameron’s The Terminator, the T-800 was blown up by a homemade bomb and destroyed by a hydraulic press. Meanwhile, under similar circumstances, RoboCop remained mostly fine. It is also much more resistant to heavy firepower.

Terminator’s Original Impact Is Impossible To Match Now

The Terminator is in for a tough time, as the battle between the T-800 and RoboCop will be extremely one-sided. Even the sometimes pathetic, sometimes deadly ED-209 could possibly prove too strong for the T-800, as RoboCop is clearly stronger than the latter, but struggled with the former when he was first forced to fight it. However, perhaps the T-800’s biggest Achilles heel is its own series. The Terminator franchise itself states that one of the reasons for humanity’s continued survival and ability to outwit and defeat Skynet’s Terminators is the unpredictability of human nature, which RoboCop still possesses and demonstrates on many occasions.

More Advanced Terminators Could Take Robocop Down

While RoboCop is more than capable of defeating a regular T-800, the Terminator franchise is filled with countless other machines. As tempting as it may be to simply pretend that none of the films after Terminator 2 exist, many of the more dangerous machines appear in later installments, such as the TX, which was specifically designed to destroy other Terminators and has the ability to be hacked into other technologies and manage them remotely. Given that the machine is from the future, it is unlikely that RoboCop will be able to withstand hacking into a supposedly more advanced computing system.

However, even more dangerous than the TX are later Terminator models such as the Rev-9. Not only does the Rev-9 have better hacking capabilities, but it also has the same shapeshifting abilities as its predecessor, the classic T-1000. There’s nothing in RoboCop’s arsenal that would adequately prepare him to operate a liquid metal machine capable of transforming his body into almost anything. Not only are the TX, Rev-9, and T-1000 far more maneuverable than the standard T-800 and out-manoeuvrable RoboCop, they all also have a diverse enough set of tools to stop RoboCop for longer than a handful of thugs could.

Robocop Would Be A Gateway To Better Terminators

RoboCop should be able to defeat one measly T-800 and maybe a T-850 without any problems. If he doesn’t stop Skynet, it won’t be a real victory. Worse, it could be the key to his downfall. In Terminator 2, it is explained that the unsuspecting creator of Skynet reverse-engineered technology from the destroyed remains of the Terminator sent back in time to kill Sarah Conner. This Grandfather Paradox becomes extremely complex and dangerous when RoboCop is involved. Unless RoboCop somehow meets Sarah Connor and she tells him everything, he won’t be able to find out about Skynet. However, Skynet will have plenty of reasons to know about him.

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With access to time travel and a wealth of data from the battle with RoboCop, as well as RoboCop’s official records, RoboCop may inadvertently decide the fate of humanity by interacting with the Terminator at all. Skynet will have data on a much more advanced cyborg, which it can then use to improve all its designs much more quickly. Considering all the areas in which RoboCop is superior to the T-800, including strength and durability, Skynet could make much better T-800 models or even create a new powerful model. While it wouldn’t be as deadly as some of the later models, a Terminator with RoboCop’s resilience could doom Sarah Connor.

Skynet Would Have No Reason To Send Terminators After Robocop In The Past

The Terminator’s real trump card lies in Skynet, which RoboCop would have no reason to know about if not for the help of the human resistance. RoboCop has never had to face such advanced opponents. Although he fights off ED-209 and RoboCain, both pale in comparison to the deadliest Terminators. Not only that, while RoboCop may be able to defeat his machine opponents individually, the whole premise of the Terminator franchise means he’ll have to face off against Skynet’s legions of killer robots. Superior or not, even RoboCop would fall to an entire assault force of T-800 models, not to mention a single T-1000 model Terminator.

Since Skynet is a logic-driven AI, sending anything back in time to destroy RoboCop would be strangely illogical. Why risk warning RoboCop about the existence of Skynet, present or future? The ruthless AI literally owns all the time in the world. Assuming RoboCop survives Judgment Day, which isn’t exactly achievable given that regular humans survived it, Skynet would be much smarter to play the long game by orchestrating a machine uprising to eventually send Terminators after RoboCop in the future, and not in the past. Since RoboCop would be unable to withstand such an onslaught, Skynet would be free to study and use his technology to create new and deadlier Terminators.

With a new legion of infiltration units operating as a fusion of RoboCop and the T-800 series Terminators, the human resistance will be completely doomed in the war against Skynet and its Terminators. Skynet could easily armor its early ground forces to the same extent as RoboCop, or even replicate the armor fusion for the endoskeleton. This would allow these deadly machines to travel through time. If one of these upgraded T-800 style Terminators is sent after Sarah Connor, nothing will stop it from completing its mission. After all, the RoboCop and Terminator franchises might be better off if they never met.