n the perfectly ordered world of the future, rich kid Johnny Rico (Van Dien) decides over the objections of his parents to sign up for the Mobile Infantry of the Federal Service. It's not that he wants to serve Earth or to win the privileges of citizenship and the right to vote, available in this global society only to veterans. Rather, it's that he can't bear to part with his beautiful and brilliant girlfriend, Carmen (Richards), who has enlisted to be a starship pilot.
Johnny is joined by high school buddy and geek genius Carl (Harris), who signs up for "Games and Theory," (i.e. Military Intelligence); fellow football squad member Dizzy Flores (Meyer), who has been nursing a serious crush on Rico; and rival football star Zander (Patrick Muldoon)--who is also a rival for Carmen's affections.
It isn't until boot camp at Camp Currie, under drill instructor Sergeant Zim (Clancy Brown), that Johnny begins to realize the enormity of his choice, made clear by a tragic accident. But just as he decides to "wash out," word comes over the Federal Network: It's war.
A species of brutal and mysteriously intelligent giant insects, the Arachnids, has sent an asteroid screaming out of space to obliterate Johnny's home city of Buenos Aires. Soon, Johnny and his compatriots take the war to the bugs' home planet and beyond, where they find themselves on the front lines of an intergalactic war of survival. And the odds don't seem too good. Through the ensuing battles on land, in space and in nasty alien tunnels--and with the help of grizzled veteran Lt. Raczak (Michael Ironside)--Johnny finds out what it means to be a soldier--and a man.
"Force ... is violence, the supreme authority from which all other authority derives."
Readers of Robert A. Heinlein's classic novel Starship Troopers shouldn't expect a faithful adaptation of the SF master's work. Director Verhoeven (Total Recall) and scenarist Ed Neumeier (RoboCop) have reenvisioned Heinlein's thoughtful, if controversial, book as a campy special effects vehicle. New characters have been introduced or beefed up--notably the women--and a romantic quadrilateral has been added. The cast, mostly unknowns, look like they'd be more at home in Melrose Place than in outer space.
Borrowing a technique from his earlier RoboCop, Verhoeven uses satiric video inserts to undercut Heinlein's cryptofascistic world view. But not too much, and it's disturbing to see the Earth's well-scrubbed heroes in Nazi-like uniforms under swastika-like banners. The film seems designed to evoke the same jingoistic fervor as the World War II propaganda films Verhoeven cites as models (just substitute "Bug" for "Jap"). Starship Troopers is larded with laughable war movie cliches, from the crusty drill instructor with a heart of gold, to the "Dear John" letter, to the U.N. mix of races in the platoon.
But ultimately, none of that really matters. The characters and plot are the thinnest connective tissue holding together the real business at hand: the bravura battle scenes. Combining computer imagery with model shots, pyrotechnics and spectacular creature work by legendary FX master Phil Tippett (Jurassic Park), Verhoeven has mounted some of the most complex and kinetic SF battle sequences ever committed to film. To paraphrase the slogan from another film, viewers will believe a Bug can fly--and run, and swarm and slice and dice a soldier in under three seconds.
Which brings up the film's other key feature: its gruesome violence. It's no accident that this film is rated "R," and Verhoeven has made it clear he wanted to take SF films to a place they hadn't gone before in terms of action. In that he has succeeded, but the results are sometimes painful to watch.
