Continuity mistake: The bullet holes on Robocop in the convenience store appear /disappear between shots. (00:35:05)
Audio problem: At the end of the movie where Dick Jones is falling from the OCP building. At the end of the shot you can hear the splat sound. But he's not near the ground yet. He is still seen up in the air. (01:36:00)
Revealing mistake: In the closing scenes where Robocop pulls up outside the offices of OCP, he fires the rifle (in fact built around a slightly modified Barret Light 50 fifty caliber semi-auto rifle) at the ED209 across the roof of the car and destroys it. As he watches the robot and grins just before putting the rifle down, you can see he has what is known as a "stovepipe", in other words the last fifty caliber blank crimped shell fired has failed to eject fully and is stuck there poking out the side of the action just in front of his face (towards the left of the picture). The crimped end of the large brass case is easily seen. This is common with blanks in a gas operated semi auto which may not cycle the action fully - not the live ammo he's clearly meant to be using.
Factual error: The film takes place in Detroit, but it is glaringly obvious that it was shot in Dallas. First of all, in the early scene where Murphy chases Boddicker's gang on the highway, Reunion Tower, one of Dallas's most famous landmarks, is visible in the background. Much of Dallas's skyline is also visible in the final scene where Robocop confronts Dick Jones in the OCP boardroom. (00:15:15)
Audio problem: When RoboCop is being tested in the shooting gallery, he puts his gun away in his leg. But the sound effects for his leg closing are out of sync with the actual movements of his leg. (00:32:55)
Continuity mistake: When Clarence is in Bob's house killing him, he sets a grenade on the table. If you watch carefully after Clarence pulls the pin out of the grenade, the timer is actually facing towards Bob as it is set on the table. When Bob crawls over to it the numbers are facing towards the camera, so we can see it counting down. (00:58:33)
Revealing mistake: When Robocop is completed and they are going over his gear, they show a tracker that shows his location at all times. The tracking unit is obviously fake; the street layout is a decal and the "blip" that is Robocop is in a fixed position. (00:30:20)
Visible crew/equipment: When Robocop is riding in his patrol car just before the "Mom and pop" store robbery, if you watch closely as the camera is behind the cage in the car. You can see a camera man's silhouette in the lower right corner enjoying the ride. (00:33:45)
Revealing mistake: When RoboCop is getting into his car after remembering about his former life, and breaking out of the police station, look at the bottom of the screen. You can see that Peter Weller is only wearing half of the RoboCop costume, his right leg comes into shot as he gets into the car. (00:46:40)
Plot hole: When Murphy is in the changeroom at the station, he learns that an officer has just died and that his funeral (according to the captain) would be the next day. There's simply no way a funeral can take place one day after someone's death. All the planning, prep work and getting the body released to the funeral home would take about a week...plus many other things. Simply cannot be done.
Continuity mistake: If you look closely at the computer panel in the OCP boardroom, there is no silver hole for RoboCop's spike, it is all black in colour. Yet there is a hole for his spike when he turns to prove Jones killed Bob. (01:29:56)
Continuity mistake: When the guy holding the mayor hostage gets thrown out of the window, we see the only two TV cameras near the location follow his fall down to the ground. A few seconds later on the news though, the footage is the same shot we saw in the film, staying focused on the window. (00:39:55)
Continuity mistake: You have to watch REALLY closely for this one. When Clarence and the gang are in the mill looking for RoboCop, we see RoboCop on the floor above them. He walks to the ledge with the mirror in his hands, but when we see a closeup of him, he has to bend down to pick up the mirror. (01:24:37)
Factual error: Robocop foils the convenience store robbery by (in part) grabbing the robber's machine gun by the barrel and bending it downwards. For this to happen the robber would have to have a grip strong enough to hold a steel machine gun steady in his hands. That is absurd. The gun would simply be levered out of his hands intact If he did manage to hold on tightly enough (unlikely) he'd he lifted off his feet.
Continuity mistake: In the end scene Robocop shoots Dick Jones out the window while he is standing in front of the television screens, then he spins his gun and puts it into his right leg. The camera view changes to focus on his leg, and you can see he is not standing in front of the screen and a person's legs appear standing behind Robocop, with black corporate pants and leather shoes. In the next shot when it focuses back on Robocop, he is back in front of the television screens again after putting his gun away. Obviously the leg view is from a dummy, because the blood & damage on it was missing in that shot. (01:36:00)
Visible crew/equipment: Just before Clarence Boddicker crashes his SUX into the water, the camera view zooms down to the driver's window. If you look in the paintwork below the drivers window, you can see the camera and operator being reflected. (01:29:35)
Continuity mistake: The blood Clarence spits on Robocop's visor disappears after he gets thrown through the window. (01:05:40)
Continuity mistake: When Bob is reaching for the grenade on the table, we can see that there is cocaine all over the table, when the camera view changes to Dick's face on the TV and back again to the table, it's clean. (00:58:48)
Continuity mistake: RoboCop walks past the police department lobby for the first time, following Bob Morton. Robo is walking at a very slow, deliberate pace. The rest of the cops in the department run as fast as they can to the far end of the building to see where they are taking him. Despite running about four times faster than Robocop he has already cleared the end of the hallway and is in the regeneration room before the cops get there. (00:29:50)
Continuity mistake: When Robo is shooting at the police station at the practice area, he's firing for a while before we see the target, and it's nowhere near destroyed enough for the number of bullets he's already fired at it.
Answer: Because he knew he was doing illegal activities. Robocop was said to be highly efficient at his job and Jones did not want to risk him out on the streets without the insurance of shutting him down if Robo came after him.
MasterOfAll