'The future left Detroit behind': How a prophetic note scribbled on the Robocop film script by its screenwriter in 1987 came true | Mail Online

Robocop trailer: Did film predict the fall of Detroit?

Mr Neumeier says Robocop, the story of a terminally-wounded officer who returns to the force as a powerful cyborg to police the city's crime-ridden streets, is a metaphor showing the 'industrial decline in America'.

He insisted on Detroit being the setting for the film as it has always been very dependent on a single industry - car manufacturing which led to the city being dubbed 'Motor City' or 'Motown' because of this.

But the decline of the industry in the 1980s, when Japan emerged as new rival in the automotive world, started to have a major impact on the city's prosperity. 

Mr Neumeier told CNN: 'The reason Detroit is important is because it's facing an economic blight that you can imagine happening in a lot of places.

Decline: Buildings in what was once Detroit's prime business district sit largely abandoned after the city's population shrunk to 700,000

The abandoned Fisher Body Plant in Detroit - the cradle of the automobile assembly line and a symbol of industrial might - after the city filed the biggest municipal bankruptcy in American history after decades of decline

'In retrospect, the idea of "RoboCop" really goes back to the car industry. The sculpture of it is very much Detroit road-iron. Having grown up in the sixties when the muscle car was so prominent, the notion of cars was very important to me then and ultimately to the formation of RoboCop.'

Looking to the future: Writer Ed Neumeier wrote 'the future left Detroit behind' on the first page of the Robocop script - which proved to be an accurate prediction of what would happen to the city

The U.S. government bailed out the automotive industry to the tune of $80 billion between 2008 and 2010 but that has done little to stop the financial decline in Detroit.

It has an unemployment rate of 16 per cent of its 700,000 population as the number of jobs in the automotive industry continue to decline.

Detroit was also been named the most dangerous city in America in 2012 by Forbes magazine and the most miserable in 2013.

Those living in the city face major cuts to public services under debt restructuring proposals.

The city's current plight shares striking similarities with the future Detroit portrayed in Robocop.

In the film, Detroit is reliant upon a multinational corporation, called Omni Consumer Products (OCP), which runs everything from hospitals to its police force.

Mr Neumeier believes that private companies are playing an ever increasing role in all areas of our lives - just like in Robocop.

He said: 'We are now living in the world that I was proposing in RoboCop. We are increasingly asking corporations to do these things for us... to provide human services. But their objectives are different to public service needs.'

Ironically, with a cheap and educated labour force, Mr Neumeier adds that Detroit is in need of a modernisation and advancement - making it the ideal place to start a robotics company.

He added: 'There is a cheap and educated labor force. Some kind of high-tech would be good for them... I would say with the industrial and mechanical legacy there, somebody should start a robotics company.'

Ruins: There are believed to be around 30,000 homes that need to be demolished in Detroit after decades of decline left it too poor to pay billions of dollars owed bondholders, retired cops and current city workers

Run down: A 'Neighborhood Watch' sign stands in front of dilapidated houses on Mackay Street in Detroit

Similarities: Robocop, about a wounded officer who is brought back as a cyborg to police Detroit's streets, proved to be an accurate prediction of the financial future of the city

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