Starship Troopers (film)

Starship Troopers
Directed by	Paul Verhoeven
Produced by	Jon Davison Alan Marshall
Written by	Original novel: Robert A. Heinlein Screenwriter: Edward Neumeier
Starring	Casper Van Dien Denise Richards Dina Meyer Jake Busey Neil Patrick Harris Clancy Brown Michael Ironside
Music by	Basil Poledouris
Cinematography	Jost Vacano
Editing by	Mark Goldblatt Caroline Ross
Distributed by	USA/Canada TriStar Pictures International Touchstone Pictures
Release date(s)	November 7, 1997
Running time	129 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$105,000,000
Gross revenue	$121,214,377
Followed by	Starship Troopers 2: Hero of the Federation

Starship Troopers is a 1997 American satirical military science fiction film, written by Edward Neumeier (screenplay), directed by Paul Verhoeven, loosely adapted from Starship Troopers, a science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein. It was the first of three films released in the Starship Troopers franchise. The film had a budget estimated around $105 million and grossed over $121 million worldwide.

The story follows a young soldier named Johnny Rico and his exploits in the Mobile Infantry, a futuristic military unit. Rico's military career progresses from recruit to non-commissioned officer and finally to officer against the backdrop of an interstellar war between mankind and an arachnoid species known as "the Bugs".

Starship Troopers was nominated for an Academy Award (visual effects) in 1998. The film has attracted controversy and criticism for its social and political themes, which some critics claim promote militarism.^[1]

Plot

In the distant future, humans are at tense relations with an alien race named the Arachnids, or "Bugs", whose homeworld is the planet Klendathu, along with many colonies in its system. John D. "Johnny" Rico (Casper Van Dien), his girlfriend Carmen Ibanez (Denise Richards), and best friend Carl Jenkins (Neil Patrick Harris) (who possesses psychic abilities--an uncommon but not unheard of trait among humans) graduate from high school in Buenos Aires; Carmen and Carl enlist in the military to become citizens, citizenship being an "earned" honor in this future society versus a right by birth.

Johnny, wanting to follow Carmen, goes against his parents' demands and enlists himself. He finds that his grades are too low to join Carmen in Flight School and eventual status as a commissioned officer in the Fleet, and is assigned to the Mobile Infantry while Carl joins Military Intelligence. He and the rest of the recruits are drilled by the brutal Career Sergeant Zim (Clancy Brown). Johnny shows himself to be an outstanding leader and in time is made squad leader. He also meets a former high school classmate, "Dizzy" Flores (Dina Meyer), who requested transfer to Johnny's unit ostensibly because the unit is the toughest but mainly because she is infatuated with Johnny.

Johnny learns that Carmen is happy with her training and is working with his high school rival, Zander (Patrick Muldoon), who is also in Flight Training as a prospective officer in the Fleet. Her decision to make the Fleet her career dashes Johnny's dreams as well as the future of his romance with her. After a training incident in which one of his squad members is killed, Johnny is demoted from squad leader and publicly flogged. As Johnny is telling his parents via videophone that he is quitting the Infantry, the transmission is interrupted; the Bugs have directed an asteroid at Earth, destroying Buenos Aires and killing millions, including his parents. Earth declares war on the Bugs, and Johnny stays with the Mobile Infantry.

The Federation's forces mount a large-scale invasion of Klendathu, which becomes an unmitigated disaster due to underestimation of the Bugs' combat abilities. The Bugs discharge "plasma" from the surface as a very effective surface-to-space barrage that destroys much of the Fleet. Cut off from their air support, the Mobile Infantry contingent is swarmed by thousands of Bug warriors on the surface, and tens of thousands of troops are killed before a retreat can be made. Johnny's squad is almost wiped out, and Carmen believes he is dead due to an error on the casualty list. Federation scientists are baffled by the Bugs' use of military tactics and postulate that there must be a caste of "Brain Bugs" that serve as generals for the Arachnids.

Johnny, Dizzy, and fellow squad member Ace (Jake Busey) are brought into the "Roughnecks", a company led by Johnny's old high-school teacher, a disabled combat veteran and citizen who has returned to active military service, Lieutenant Jean Rasczak (Michael Ironside). A new Sky Marshal revises the campaign, using strikes on other planets in the Klendathu system to learn more about the Arachnids. After aerial strikes by the Fleet against the planets, Lt. Rasczak's company lands on Tango Urilla to mop up. Johnny's leadership and his skill in combat while destroying a tanker bug earn him a field promotion to Corporal. That night, Lt. Raszcak grants the unit rest and relaxation, during which Johnny and Dizzy wind up in bed.

A few days later, the Roughnecks are assigned to investigate an outpost on the planet. They find the garrison killed and learn that the Bugs have sucked out the brains of some of the dead. The outpost is ambushed, killing many of the squad, including Lt. Rasczak. Johnny takes command and requests an evacuation ship, which happens to be flown by Carmen and Zander. Dizzy is stabbed by a Bug and dies in Johnny's arms.

Johnny and Carmen are joined by Carl, now a high-ranking colonel in military intelligence. Carl admits that the Roughnecks had been used as bait to test a theory, which angers Carmen, but the theory has proven correct: that "brain bugs" exist that control much of the Arachnids' behavior. Carl assigns the Roughnecks to search for a brain bug and gives Johnny a promotion to lieutenant and command of the Roughnecks.

As the Roughnecks explore the surface of Planet P, the warship Rodger Young, to which Carmen is assigned, is hit by Arachnid fire, and Carmen and Zander evacuate in an escape pod that lands deep inside a Bug nest. Johnny learns of Carmen's situation and tells the rest of the squad to keep searching while he, Ace, and Sugar Watkins (Seth Gilliam) search for Carmen; it is indicated that Carl guided him along somewhat with his telepathic abilities. They come across Carmen and Zander shortly after Zander's brain has been sucked out by a brain bug. Carmen saves herself by injuring the bug with a knife that Zander handed to her earlier. Watkins, injured, sacrifices himself with a handheld nuclear device to wipe out the bug nest.

Johnny, Ace and Carmen arrive on the surface and learn that the brain bug was caught by the Mobile Infantry, led by former Drill Sergeant Zim, who had himself demoted to Private in order to take part in combat. As everyone celebrates, Carl joins Johnny and Carmen on the surface, explaining that they will be able to learn how the Bugs think and can turn the tide of the war. Johnny, Ace, and Carmen continue their service in the military as heroes and prime examples to incoming recruits, with Johnny as a Lieutenant and leader of the Roughnecks and Carmen as captain of her own ship in the Fleet.

Cast

• Casper Van Dien as Pvt./Cpl./Sgt./Lt. Johnny Rico
• Dina Meyer as Pvt. "Dizzy" Flores
• Denise Richards as Lt./Capt. Carmen Ibanez
• Jake Busey as Pvt. Ace Levy
• Neil Patrick Harris as Col. Carl Jenkins
• Clancy Brown as Career Sgt./Pvt. Zim
• Seth Gilliam as SFC. Sugar Watkins
• Patrick Muldoon as Lt. Zander Barcalow
• Michael Ironside as Lt. Jean Rasczak
• Bruce Gray as Sky Marshal Dienes
• Marshall Bell as Gen. Owen
• Eric Bruskotter as Pvt. Breckinridge
• Brenda Strong as Capt. Deladier
• Christopher Curry as Bill Rico
• Lenore Kasdorf as Mrs. Rico
• Denise Dowse as Sky Marshal Meru
• Amy Smart as Pilot Cadet/Lt. Lumbreiser
• Rue McClanahan as Biology Teacher
• Dale Dye as unnamed General

Development

Production

Badlands of Hell's Half Acre, Natrona County, Wyoming, where parts of Starship Troopers were filmed.

The "bug planet" scenes were filmed in the badlands of Hell's Half Acre in Natrona County, Wyoming.^[2]

Several cameos in the film include producer Jon Davison as the angry Buenos Aires resident who says to the FedNet camera, "The only good Bug is a dead Bug!", and screenwriter Ed Neumeier as the quickly captured, convicted, and condemned murderer in another FedNet clip. Former U.S. Marine Dale Dye, whose company Warriors, Inc. provided technical military advice on the film, appeared as a high-ranking officer following the capture of the Brain Bug ("What's it thinking, Colonel?"). Director Paul Verhoeven, producer Jon Davison, writer Edward Neumeier, creature effects designers Phil Tippett and Craig Hayes, and composer Basil Poledouris were all involved with the original RoboCop movie. Actor Michael Ironside was also considered for the role of Murphy/RoboCop. Ironside did appear in Verhoeven's Total Recall. The cast agreed to do the naked shower scene only if the director agreed to direct the scene naked. Verhoeven directed the scene with no clothes on.^[2]

The movie received much criticism in that many of the characters are described as just graduating from high school, despite the fact that the actors who played them were in their late twenties or early thirties at the time the movie was filmed. In the commentary track of the DVD release of the film, Verhoeven remarks that he had hoped to cast actors whose age more closely matched that of the characters—and indeed of real-world soldiers—but that the producers felt such actors would look too young. The teacher and leader of the "Roughnecks" in the novel are combined into one role played by Michael Ironside.^[2]

Test audience reactions led to several minor changes before the film was released. Originally it was clear that Carmen was torn between Rico and Lt. Zander. Test audiences, regardless of gender, strongly felt that a woman could not love two men at once so scenes which portrayed this were cut. These audiences also felt it was immoral for Carmen to chose a career ahead of being loyal to Rico to the extent that many commented that for chosing the career Carmen should have died instead of Dizzy. While admitting it may have been a bad commercial decision not to change the film to accommodate this, the directors did cut a scene from after Zander's death where Carmen and Rico kiss, which the audience believed made the previous betrayal even more immoral.^[2]

Like Verhoeven's films before this, Starship Troopers was threatened with an NC-17 rating. Bits cut included several shots of mutilated bodies and a decapitation.

Comparison with the novel

There are many differences between the original book and film. A report in an American Cinematographer article states that the Heinlein novel was optioned well into the pre-production period of the film, which had a working title of Bug Hunt at Outpost Nine; most of the writing team reportedly were unaware of the novel at the time. According to the DVD commentary, Paul Verhoeven never finished reading the novel, claiming he read through the first few chapters and became both "bored and depressed."^[3]

The film does not depict anything resembling Heinlein's mechanized Mobile Infantry; in the novel, troopers wear powered 'man amplifier' suits that follow the trooper's movements but add force and speed beyond human limits, as well as shielding the head and body from most weapons; in the film, troopers wear unpowered armor that provides little protection from the Bugs. Their weaponry is somewhat advanced, including the use of small shoulder-launched tactical nuclear missiles. However, the MI fight as infantry for most of the film, and aside from a single scene featuring air support (Lt. Rasczak states that they will land only after air support has "glassed the planet"), employ virtually no form of combined arms.

The Bugs in the film are similar to the ones in the novel in that they are insectoid; the Bugs in the novel have superior technology, including starships and beam and plasma weaponry.

Most of the characters have been significantly altered. In the novel the lead character is a Filipino named Juan Rico who speaks Tagalog at home. The characters in the novel have Hispanic surnames because they were from the Philippines; they were changed to Caucasians from Buenos Aires in the film in order to make them more marketable to white audiences. Flores is female in the movie and is intimate with Rico. In the novel Flores is male, has no relation to Rico beyond being soldiers in the same platoon, and is only mentioned in the first chapter, dying during a drop. In the novel there are no women in the MI; they serve almost exclusively as starship pilots. Additionally, there is no "Carl Jenkins" in the novel. Carl and Jenkins are completely different people, with Carl being Rico's best friend, and Jenkins simply being another soldier.

Release

Reception

Starship Troopers polarized audiences and critics as did the book. A prominent theme of the film is the human practice of senseless violence without reflection or empathy, which resembles the senseless aggression of the "Bugs". This is reflected in a mixed critical response.^[4] Starship Troopers was nominated for a number of awards in 1998 which included a nomination for the Academy Award for Visual Effects and won Saturn Awards for Best Costumes and Best Special Effects at the 1998 Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films, USA Awards.^[5].

The film included visual allusions to propaganda films such as Why We Fight, Triumph of the Will, The Battleship Potemkin and wartime newsreels. The symbols of the Federation and some of the clothing styles are modeled on the Nazis' clothing styles (e.g., windbreaker, suits, cap etc and the military intelligence officer's uniforms bear a striking similarity to SS uniforms). The satire was embedded in action sequences with special effects.^[6][7]

In the DVD audio commentary for the film Paul Verhoeven states that the movie's message is "War makes fascists of us all" and evokes Nazi Germany, through fashion, use of propaganda, and iconography which he sees as a natural evolution of the post-World War 2 United States. Ed Neumeier (who had previously worked with Verhoeven on RoboCop) broadly concurs, although he sees a satire on human history, rather than solely the United States. Since the filmmakers did not make these statements at the time of the film's release, viewers have interpreted it variously: as a satire, as a celebration of fascism or as a simple action film.^[2]

The direct-to-video sequel Starship Troopers 2: Hero of the Federation (2004) was not as popular as the first, mostly due to its low budget and the fact it was more in the horror genre than the science fiction/action original. In May 2006, MovieHole.net reported that Ed Neumeier returned to write the script for a second sequel, Starship Troopers 3: Marauder, and also stated that original cast members would be returning.^[8] This movie was released directly to DVD in August 2008.

Merchandise

In 1997, Avalon Hill released Starship Troopers: Prepare For Battle!, a boardgame based on the film version rather than Heinlein's book. Its gameplay focused on limited skirmishes rather than larger battles. The "Skinnies" do not appear, nor is there a political element.^[9] Avalon Hill released a game called Robert Heinlein's Starship Troopers in 1976.^[10] The 2000 real-time tactics video game titled Starship Troopers: Terran Ascendancy was released. This game also incorporated the powered suits in Heinlein's novel into the Verhoeven version of the Mobile Infantry. It was developed by Australian software company Blue Tongue Entertainment. A first-person shooter game also titled Starship Troopers was released November 15, 2005. This version was developed by Strangelite Studios and published by Empire Interactive. Set five years after the events of the movie, the game also featured Casper van Dien voicing the in-game version of Johnny Rico. Sega Pinball released a pinball machine based on this movie.^[11]

The movie was released simultaneously with a graphic novelization, which retold events from the movie. There were also additional series that were released based in the Verhoeven universe, though not directly related to the movie. Further series were published by Dark Horse Comics and Markosia. The film was followed by the CGI animated television series Roughnecks: Starship Troopers Chronicles, which is loosely set inside the events of the movie just after Rico and Diz join the Roughnecks but before Rico gets promoted (though the events and tone of the show differ from those of the film).

References

External links

• Starship Troopers at the Internet Movie Database
• Starship Troopers at Allmovie
• Starship Troopers at Box Office Mojo
• Starship Troopers at Rotten Tomatoes