Starship Troopers (1997)

November 4, 1997 (Westwood) November 7, 1997 (United States) — November 4, 1997 (Westwood)
November 7, 1997 (United States)

Starship Troopers is a 1997 American science fiction action film directed by Paul Verhoeven. The film is based on the 1959 novel of the same name by Robert A. Heinlein and was written by Ed Neumeier. Set in the 23rd century, the film follows the story of teenager Johnny Rico and his friends as they serve in the military under the Earth world government, known as the United Citizen Federation. As humanity explores and colonizes outer space, they come into conflict with an alien species known as the Arachnids, leading to an interstellar war. The film stars Casper Van Dien, Dina Meyer, Denise Richards, Jake Busey, Neil Patrick Harris, Patrick Muldoon, and Michael Ironside.

Development of Starship Troopers began in 1991 as a separate project called Bug Hunt at Outpost 7, written by Neumeier. Producer Jon Davison noticed many similarities between Neumeier's work and Heinlein's book and asked him to re-work the script to more closely follow the novel and gain more interest from studio executives. Even so, development was slow, with studios remaining non-committal on funding the expensive project up to the filming date. Filming began in April 1996 on a $100–110 million budget, nearly half of which was committed to the extensive computer-generated (CGI) and practical effects required to vivify the Arachnid creatures, before concluding that October.

Released on November 7, 1997, Starship Troopers received negative reviews from critics, who perceived the film as promoting fascism, criticized its violence and the performances of its central cast, and several leveled accusations against Verhoeven and Neumeier of being Nazi sympathizers. Despite initial success, the negative reviews and poor word-of-mouth led to the film’s box office grosses dropping week after week until it left theaters, and it earned $121 million against its budget, becoming only the 34th-highest-grossing film of the year. The poor performance of Starship Troopers was blamed, in part, on competition from a high number of successful or anticipated science fiction and genre films released that year, and its satirical and violent content failing to connect with mainstream audiences. Verhoeven believed that audiences' misconceptions about the film were the result of poor marketing that presented Starship Troopers as an action film instead of a satire.

Since its release, Starship Troopers has been critically re-evaluated, and is now considered a cult classic and a prescient satire of fascism and authoritarian governance that has grown in relevancy. The film helped launch a multimedia franchise that includes four sequels, Starship Troopers 2: Hero of the Federation (2004), Starship Troopers 3: Marauder (2008), Starship Troopers: Invasion (2012), and Starship Troopers: Traitor of Mars (2017), as well as an animated television series, Roughnecks: Starship Troopers Chronicles (1999), video games, comics, and a variety of merchandise.

Storyline[]

Johnny Rico completes his graduation and joins the Mobile Infantry to serve the nation. Soon, he finds himself fighting against alien bugs that are hell-bent on destroying life on Earth.

Starship Troopers (1997)

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