Omni Consumer Products (RoboCop)

Omni Consumer Products

Type	corporation and laboratory
Founder(s)	The "Old Man"
Headquarters	Detroit and Delta City, Michigan
Products	Consumer products Space exploration Urban Pacification Tools Military grade weaponry Food products Private government

Omni Consumer Products (OCP) is a fictional megacorporation in the RoboCop franchise. It creates products for virtually every consumer need, has entered into endeavors normally deemed non-profit, and even manufactured an entire city to be maintained exclusively by the corporation.^[1][2] OCP is a modern example of the longstanding trope of the evil megacorporation in science fiction.^[3][4]

Fictional history

OCP is depicted as a megacorporation with divisions affecting nearly every level of consumer need, society, and government. Their products range from consumer products to military weaponry and private space travel. Their projects included the RoboCop, the ED-209, and the RoboCop 2 cyborg. OCP owns and operates a privatized Detroit Police Department and have been known to employ criminals to achieve their goals.^[1]

OCP, throughout its depictions in the RoboCop films, has sought to fully privatize Detroit, Michigan into Delta City, a manufactured municipality governed by a corporatocracy, with fully privatized services — such as police — and with residents exercising their representative citizenship through the purchase of shares of OCP stock. They also serve as part of the military-industrial complex; according to OCP executive Richard "Dick" Jones, "We practically are the military." Jones observes in RoboCop that OCP has "gambled in markets traditionally regarded as non-profit: hospitals, prisons, space exploration. I say good business is where you find it."^[1]

Later Depictions

In RoboCop 3, OCP is bought by a Japanese Zaibatsu, the Kanemitsu corporation. As a Kanemitsu subsidiary, OCP remains in charge of the destruction of old Detroit and the construction of Delta City. By the end of the movie, OCP's brutal policies concerning Delta City are brought to light, many of OCP's majority shareholders sell their stock, and OCP itself is forced into bankruptcy.^[5]

By the time of RoboCop: Prime Directives, OCP is shown being manipulated by a brash young executive who, through murder and reallocation of resources, ascends to power to automate Delta City under a new artificial intelligence. This is manipulated by a cyberterrorist, who seeks the destruction of the human race through a virus that can be introduced to computers and human beings alike.^[6]

References

1. ^ ^{a b c} RoboCop (1987)
2. ^ RoboCop 2 (1990)
3. ^ '"Flesh and Steel: Making RoboCop on the 20th Anniversary RoboCop DVD
4. ^ "Dr. Steven Best, PhD - Robocop: The Crisis of Subjectivity (1987)". Drstevebest.org. http://www.drstevebest.org/Essays/Robocop.htm. Retrieved 2009-04-17. 
5. ^ RoboCop 3 (1993)
6. ^ RoboCop: Prime Directives (2000)