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where was robocop filmed

“RoboCop” (1987) is set in Detroit, but most of it was actually filmed in and around Dallas, Texas, with key additional scenes shot at steel mills in Pennsylvania and California. A few establishing elements come from Detroit itself, mainly in the form of stock or brief location footage.

Main filming cities

  • Dallas, Texas – Primary shooting location, standing in for futuristic “Old Detroit,” including many downtown exteriors and corporate buildings.
  • Pennsylvania (Duquesne/Pittsburgh/Monessen area) – Used for the grim industrial steel mill environments in the later parts of the film.
  • Southern California (Fontana) – A Kaiser Steel Mill in Fontana was also used for steel mill scenes.
  • Detroit, Michigan – Appears briefly through limited location or stock footage to ground the story in the real Motor City.

Notable Dallas locations

  • Dallas City Hall (1500 Marilla St) – Used as the exterior of the towering OCP headquarters, extended on screen with optical effects.
  • Plaza of the Americas & downtown streets – Provide much of the sleek corporate “future Detroit” cityscape.
  • Hotel Crescent Court garage – Used for OCP’s parking structure, including the scene where RoboCop is pinned down by police gunfire.

Steel mill and industrial sites

  • Duquesne Steel Works, near Pittsburgh – The abandoned steel mill where Murphy/RoboCop hides out and faces Boddicker’s gang was filmed at this now-demolished plant.
  • Kaiser Steel Mill, Fontana, California – Credited as a major steel mill filming location for some of the industrial sequences.

Fun “where was RoboCop filmed” trivia

  • Many fans are surprised to learn that what looks like grimy Detroit is actually mostly sleek 1980s Dallas architecture dressed down with clever production design.
  • Forum and Reddit discussions about “where was RoboCop filmed” regularly feature locals from Detroit and Dallas chiming in with on-the-ground memories of spotting the shoot or recognizing their city on screen.

TL;DR: When people ask “where was RoboCop filmed,” the accurate short answer is: mostly Dallas, Texas, with important steel mill scenes in Pennsylvania and California, plus a small amount of real Detroit footage for authenticity.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.