To celebrate the release of Robocop on Blu-ray and DVD, Total Film was invited to a gritty underground car park in East London to take part in a 'Robo-reflexes' experience, where we got to test our shooty shooty skills in (sort of) the same way as Joel Kinnaman's newly converted cyborg in Jose Padhilla's action-packed remake.
OK, so we were shooting at propped-up metal mannequins rather than trained droids – thankfully – but, once we'd tooled up and put on our state-of-the-art, no-expense-spared robo-masks (i.e. motorbike helmets with a fetching red line painted across the front), we were ready to take out those targets like a man and woman possessed. Here's how we got on...
HARD TARGET
First up was some air rifle training, courtesy of Mike and Ben from events company Stirling Airsoft (stirlingairsoft.com), during which we were taught how to keep the gun stable – by lodging the rifle butt into our shoulder and resting it against the side of our cheek – and, most importantly, how to aim using the targets on the top.
STEPPING UP
Next was learning how to move properly, starting by adopting a fighting stance and striding forward with one leg, and pivoting on our back leg to change direction. Getting the movement right was tricky, but keeping the gun steady and our eye on the crosshairs at the same time was the real challenge – especially when we couldn't help thinking about Ross from Friends every time they yelled "PIVOT!"
GUN SHOW
After mastering - well, getting OK at – the rifle, it was time to move on to pistol training. Luckily, the movements were pretty much the same. The difficult bit was holstering the weapon and switching between the two at speed (as well as fighting the urge to make 'pew pew' noises...)
SHINING LIGHT
After a brief run through of the drills, it was time to step up. Luckily, the guys kitted our weapons out with spotlights - with all the smoke and the greyed-out visors, we were more likely to walk into our targets rather than shoot them!
GRUDGE MATCH
This was it - time to take on the course. In a head-to-head timed battle, we were tasked with clearing a maze-like building with targets in every room, switching between the two different guns at various intervals and incurring five-second penalties every time we missed a target.
MAZE RUNNERS
On our best run-through of the course, there was only three seconds keeping the two TF 'Robocops' apart, with Rich coming in at 39 seconds and Emily at 42. We might not have given the real Murphy a run for his money, but it was a hell of a lot of fun trying – and at least neither of us walked into any walls... Well, maybe just one or two.
Robocop is available on Steelbook Blu-ray, Blu-ray, DVD and digital platforms now.
