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eyeofhorus237 · 4 years

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Starship Troopers is a 1997 American satirical military science fiction action film directed by Paul Verhoeven and written by Edward Neumeier. It originally came from an unrelated script called Bug Hunt at Outpost Nine,[2] but eventually licensed the name Starship Troopers from the science fiction novel of the same name by Robert A. Heinlein. 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 insectoid species known as "Arachnids".

The only theatrically released film in the Starship Troopers film series, it received mostly negative reviews from critics upon release[3] but has garnered a more mixed reception in retrospect. It grossed $54.5 million in the US and a total of $121.2 million worldwide against its budget of $105 million.[1] The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects at the 70th Academy Awards in 1998. In 2012, Slant Magazine ranked the film #20 on its list of the 100 Best Films of the 1990s.[4]

Plot

In the 23rd century, while colonizing new planets, humans have encountered a hostile non-technological insectoid species known as Arachnids or "Bugs".

In the Federation, citizenship is earned by performing such activities as military service, which grants individuals opportunities prohibited to basic civilians. After graduating from high school in Buenos Aires, John "Johnny" Rico, his girlfriend Carmen Ibanez, and psychic best friend Carl Jenkins enlist in the Federal Service, despite Rico's parents' disapproval of military service. Carmen becomes a spaceship pilot, while Carl joins Military Intelligence. Rico enlists in the Mobile Infantry and is surprised to find Isabelle "Dizzy" Flores, his fellow ex-student, has deliberately transferred to his squad.

In Mobile Infantry basic training, Career Sgt. Zim trains the recruits. Rico is later promoted to squad leader and befriends Ace Levy. He later receives a Dear John letter from Carmen, as she desires a career with the fleet and now serves under Rico's high-school sports rival, Zander Barcalow. Following a live-fire training incident that kills one of Rico's squad members and causes another to quit out of guilt, Rico is demoted and flogged. He resigns and calls his parents to ask them if he can return home, but rescinds his resignation after an asteroid, reported to be launched by the Arachnids, obliterates Buenos Aires, killing his parents and millions of others.

An invasion force is deployed to Klendathu, the Arachnids' home planet, but the operation is a total disaster. Rico is severely wounded and mistakenly reported KIA. After recovering, he, Ace, and Dizzy are reassigned to the "Roughnecks", an elite unit commanded by Lt. Jean Rasczak, Rico's former high-school teacher. He quickly gains the respect of his peers and is promoted to the rank of Corporal after taking out a tanker bug. His relationship with Dizzy continues to grow, and they have sex during their night on Tango Urilla.

The Roughnecks respond to a distress call from Planet "P", where they reconnoiter an outpost that has been devastated by Bugs. They soon realize that the distress call is a trap, and the Arachnids swarm the outpost. Rico, now an acting sergeant, euthanizes a mortally wounded Rasczak after a buried Bug bites off his legs. Dizzy is killed, but the surviving Roughnecks are rescued by Carmen and Zander. Rico and Carmen encounter Carl, now a high-ranking intelligence officer, at Dizzy's funeral. Carl reveals that there is reason to believe an intelligent "brain bug" is directing the other Bugs and has been learning how to fight humans. He field-promotes Rico to lieutenant and gives him command of the Roughnecks, ordering the Mobile Infantry units under his control to return to "P" in an attempt to capture the brain bug.

The Fleet encounters unexpected heavy fire from the Bugs and Carmen's ship is destroyed. Carmen and Zander's escape pod crashes into a Bug tunnel system near Rico. They are surrounded by Bugs and a brain bug uses its proboscis to pierce Zander's skull and eat his brain. As it is about to do the same to Carmen, she cuts off its proboscis with a knife. Rico, Watkins and Ace arrive and threaten the Bugs with a small nuclear bomb, which the brain bug recognizes. They flee while the brain bug makes its escape. Arachnids pursue them and Watkins, mortally wounded, sacrifices himself by detonating the bomb to enable the others to escape.

After returning to the surface, they find that former Sergeant Zim, who had requested a demotion to private so that he could serve at the front, has captured the brain bug. Carl tells Rico and Carmen that the humans will soon be victorious now that Military Intelligence can study the brain bug. Carl mentally scans the Bug and reveals that it is afraid, to the cheers of the troops. A propaganda clip shows Carmen, Ace, and Rico as model servicemen, encouraging viewers to enlist in the armed forces.

Cast

Casper Van Dien as Pvt./Cpl./Sgt./Lt. John "Johnny" Rico

Dina Meyer as Pvt. Isabelle "Dizzy" Flores

Denise Richards as Lt./Capt. Carmen Ibanez

Jake Busey as Pvt. Ace Levy

Neil Patrick Harris as Col. Carl Jenkins

Patrick Muldoon as Lt. Zander Barcalow

Clancy Brown as Career Sgt./Pvt. Zim

Michael Ironside as Lt. Jean Rasczak

Seth Gilliam as Cpl. Sugar Watkins

Bruce Gray as Sky Marshal Dienes

Marshall Bell as General Owen

Eric Bruskotter as Private Breckinridge

Brenda Strong as Captain Deladier

Christopher Curry as Bill Rico

Lenore Kasdorf as Mrs. Rico

Denise Dowse as Sky Marshal Meru

Amy Smart as Pilot Cadet/Lt. Lumbreiser

Dean Norris as Commanding officer

Rue McClanahan as Biology teacher

Dale Dye as Unnamed general

Anthony Ruivivar as Shujumi

Robert David Hall as Recruiter

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ramajmedia · 5 years

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10 Things About Starship Troopers That Haven't Aged Well

From the director of such great satirical science fiction films as Robocop and Total Recall, Starship Troopers is about Earth's fighting elite protecting the planet from an infestation of alien bugs. It starred a bunch of young and impossibly pretty people, predicted that we'd all be living in a Utopian society, and posited that fanatical nationalism would help us win the war on bug terrorism.

RELATED: 10 Sci-Fi Movies That Predicted The Future

When it premiered in 1997, the public had already had their fill of science fiction films involving extra-terrestrial invaders with Men in Black and Independence Day. They didn't warm to Starship Troopers, despite the fact that it has to this day some of the most amazing CGI aliens on screen. We're not going to discuss the minutiae of bug CGI, however, but rather the aspects of the film that didn't age gracefully, like the weak plot, and the made-for-TV acting stylings of Casper Van Dien. Below are 10 things about Starship Troopers that haven't aged well, because apes can't live forever.

10 THE SUPERFICIAL STORY

Many people went into Starship Troopers just wanting a big loud action movie with a little humor, ala Independence Day. Well, they got that in spades with bugs exploding all over the place, starships, high-tech weapons of destruction, and corny dialogue.

Though the film was meant to be a satire on fascist propaganda and a totalitarian regime, it doesn't answer the questions about war its satire raises. At its core, the story centers around a bunch of shiny soap opera actors who sign up for military service and end up blowing up bugs. Sci-fi fans used to nuanced series like Altered Carbon or films like Interstellar may not appreciate its simplicity.

9 THE 90210 OF WAR MOVIES IN SPACE

There sure are a lot of beautiful people in blockbusters - they provide big box office draw as well as help immerse audiences into the fantasy of the film. A movie like Starship Troopers is no exception, which is why we have people like Casper Van Dien and Denise Richards.

The movie was criticized at the time for its glossy leads, who seemed altogether too perfect looking to be believable in their gritty roles (yes, the future has pretty people, but so many? And in the military?). With that said, the film answers what would happen if the cast of 90210 were involved in space wars.

8 THE '90s VISION OF THE FUTURE

Here's the deal. Starship Troopers takes place in the 23rd Century, as confirmed by the director in the DVD commentary. That's practically Star Trek territory. Yet people are walking around with missing limbs, and when they get outfitted with a prosthetic one, while they have the technology to make it simulate human flesh, it's a robot arm.

Now, sci-fi films can only show a future as advanced as the era in which they're made. It's why the scoreboard of their space football game still uses LEDs instead of holograms, or why there are people using pencils in a classroom despite the fact that even now, most things are already done using a computer. For that reason, the movie looks dated.

7 THE VIOLENT NATIONALISM

One of the standout features of the film is its hypertrophied nationalism. It's taken to an almost violent extreme, where propaganda to join the military is everywhere. Once enlisted, you're expected to be bursting with as much pride in your country and your planet as a bug that landed on a grenade.

RELATED: 10 Most Shockingly Violent Movies Ever Made

Due to the fact that this sense of nationalism is everywhere in the film, it doesn't help it age gracefully. As movie-going audiences get more discerning, this sort of jingoism can be disturbing when it takes over an entire movie. That, and there are people out there that still don't realize it is meant as satire.

6 THE ACTING

It's been pondered what a reboot of this movie would look like with more competent actors in it. Even the biggest blockbusters have quality acting these days, just look at Robert Downey Jr's performance in Iron Man.

Casper Van Dien goes through the entire film without really demonstrating much of a personality, and Denise Richards as Carmen doesn't fare any better. It appears the only actors having fun and not taking themselves too seriously are Michael Ironside, Neil Patrick Harris, and Jake Busey, who all turn in memorable performances.

5 THE GLORIFICATION OF WAR

With the advent of social media in a post 9/11 world, we all see a lot more violence and conflicts around the world than ever before. We see the ramifications of war and genocide play out in real-time. Much like the state of the nation after the Vietnam War, Americans are not as predisposed to glorify war without also commenting on its repercussions.

RELATED: Wondrous Warfare: The 10 Best Sci-Fi & Fantasy Battles Ever Filmed

If taken at face value, Starship Troopers glorifies war. The thrill of battle seems to be what the military of the future lives for, and all the citizens who volunteer to serve in it. As any veteran will tell you after their first tour, war is nothing to celebrate but something to learn from.

4 THE IDEALIZED GOVERNMENT

The citizens of Earth live in a Utopian society in Starship Troopers, and the government is idealized because it's bolstered by citizen service and steered by elected officials with military backgrounds. Everyone "does their part" and the collective society benefits.

Perhaps it's because people are more jaded and cynical today, but this sort of society seems corny and impossible to achieve. Not since Star Trek's Federation of Planets has everyone gotten along so well, with no political in-fighting, racism, or sexism. There was a reason humanity rejected the first Matrix.

3 THE IN-YOUR-FACE SATIRE

Unless you were really young, blind, infirm, or a Brain Bug sucked out your grey matter, you understood that Starship Troopers was a satire when it was released. In fact, it is so in your face that it might get overbearing on repeat viewings.

There are endless propaganda videos playing the background for military recruitment. There's Neil Patrick Harris in a Gestapo uniform. There are kids taking bullets like they're candy. The entire film plays out like a propaganda film for the characters of the Starship Troopers universe.

2 THE SCRIPT

Though we know the film was based on the book by the same name, the film satirizes the up-level fascism philosophy that the book glorified. Verhoeven is noted for having only gotten a few chapters into the book before throwing it down in disgust, as he'd lived in Nazi-occupied Holland in the '30s, and decided his film would deride the book's message.

RELATED: 10 Cheesy Quotes in Popular Movies

So if at times the cheesy dialogue from the film seems more in common with the ideas expressed in the book, that's because Verhoeven originally had a film idea called "Bug Hunt" which he wrote a script for, and then Frankenstein-ed it to fit the Starship Troopers storyline.

1 THE CGI DEATH SCENES

In all fairness, for 1997, Starship Troopers' CGI is pretty great. It's some of the best CGI of the era, and it's clearly where all the 100 million dollar budget went. The bugs are incredibly realistic for homicidal extra-terrestrials, even in the scenes where there's hundreds of them.

The CGI of some of the death scenes, however, is where things gets funky. People don't just sort of "explode" the way they do when they get torn into by a bug. That, and some sequences with the Brain Bug making a snack of Doogie Houser.

NEXT: 10 Movie Franchises That Made Sense At First (And Then Jumped The Shark)

source https://screenrant.com/starship-troopers-things-havent-aged-well/

#screenrant

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slicktwix · 5 years

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Star ship troopers

Starship Troopers is a 1997 American satirical military science fiction action film directed by Paul Verhoeven and written by Edward Neumeier. It originally came from an unrelated script called Bug Hunt at Outpost Nine,[2]but eventually licensed the name Starship Troopers from a science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein. 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 insectoid species known as “Arachnids”.

the aliens in starship troopers are organised by a hive mind where team work is key a lot of the creatures and monsters in starship troopers are based on preexisting insects made to look larger and more intimidating

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bearsonfilm · 4 years

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136 - Starship Troopers

This week we’re hunting down some big ol’ bugs with Doogie Howser and the chick from Wild Things, all while discussing the 1997 action cult-classic ‘Starship Troopers’.

Starship Troopers is a 1997 American satirical military science fiction action film directed by Paul Verhoeven and written by Edward Neumeier. It originally came from an unrelated script called Bug Hunt at Outpost Nine, but eventually licensed the name Starship Troopers from Robert A. Heinlein's 1959 science fiction novel. 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 insectoid species known as "Arachnids".

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