The X-Rated Cut Of 'RoboCop' Is Available To Stream On Amazon Prime Right Now

RoboCop is now available to stream on Amazon Prime, but it's not the version that most people are used to seeing.Paul Verhoeven's classic action thriller from 1987 is certainly an R-rated movie, but what you might not know is there's a much more bloody and violent version that originally received an X-rating from the Motion Picture Association of America. Somehow, this version has ended up as the default version on Amazon Prime right now.A user on Reddit has done the legwork to confirm that the RoboCop X-rated cut is the one available on Amazon Prime. This is a surprise since it's only ever previously been available to watch at home by way of the Criterion Collection LaserDisc and DVD of the film (both out of print), the 2005 trilogy box set, the 2007 anniversary edition, and the 2014 Blu-ray 4K master edition. This would appear to be the first time it's been offered through a streaming outlet in this fashion.Wikipedia explains some of the differences between the RoboCop X-rated cut and the more tame R-rated cut:

"To appease the requirements of the ratings board, Verhoeven reduced the blood and gore in the most violent scenes in the movie, including ED-209's shooting of Kinney in the boardroom (read about the making of this scene here), Bobby being shot in the leg, the Boddicker gang's execution of Murphy with shotguns, and the final battle with Boddicker (in which RoboCop stabs him in the neck with his neural spike and Boddicker's blood spatters onto RoboCop's chest). Verhoeven also added humorous commercials throughout the news broadcasts to lighten the mood and distract from the violent aspects of the movie (most of the commercials satirize various aspects of the American consumer culture, such as the commercial for the 6000 SUX sedan)."

But if you're looking for a more visual comparison, here's an example of the differences:

Much of the reasoning behind the X-rating involved more grotesque shots of splattering blood and body parts. It's crazy to think that was enough to get an X-rating at one point when the violence in movies today would likely never result in even an NC-17 rating. Nowadays, it's nudity and sexual content that will get you strapped with that extreme of a rating. You can find out about more of the differences when it comes to the blood and gore over here.

Interestingly enough, this cut of RoboCop isn't labeled as the X-rated cut on Amazon, so this could be a mistake that might get rectified. So if you've never seen this version of RoboCop, give it a watch before it potentially disappears from the library.