Steel mill

"We've located that van by the old mill in sector 3D, now where's that backup?"

―Alex Murphy

The old steel mill was a comprehensive steelmaking facility in Old Detroit, derelict, rusting and falling to pieces. Although abandoned, many areas were still "live", with power and lights, heavy machinery was still on power and hazardous materials had simply been left in situ.

History

Detroit Police Department Officers Lewis and Murphy chased the Boddicker gang's van to the mill, which was used as the gang’s hideout. Only minutes after the police entered the building, Murphy was ambushed and shot to death.

After Anne Lewis rescued RoboCop – a cyborg created from Murphy's remains – from Lt. Hedgecock's SWAT team, they hid at the mill. Clarence Boddicker and his gang soon arrived and RoboCop distracted them. He killed Joe Cox and while Emil Antonowsky tried to ram him with their van, instead crashing into a storage of toxic waste. Emil was then run over by Clarence, causing him to crash his car into water. Clarence crawled out of his totaled car and injured Lewis in the leg, causing her to fall into on the water, but before Clarence could kill her, RoboCop arrived and Leon Nash dropped some debris on him with a crane. Leon was then killed by Lewis who fired Clarence's Cobra Assault Cannon at the crane's control room, completely obliterating it and then she passed out. Clarence, now enraged, stabbed RoboCop with an iron pole and taunted him. RoboCop deployed his data spike and fatally stabbed Clarence in the throat. He removed the pole out of his chest and told Lewis that a medical team was on the way.

The Street Vultures gang later claimed the mill as their turf.

Behind the scenes

The steel mill scenes were filmed at Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Mill in Monessen, Pennsylvania (40°9'38"N 79°53'45"W). The mill has since been demolished but Google Earth has an archived satellite image of it from 1993.