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Starship Troopers (film): Difference between revisions
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{{quote|''Join the Mobile Infantry and save the galaxy. Service Guarantees Citizenship! Would you like to know more?''}}
The Paul Verhoeven film is generally considered to be the biggest [[Flipping the Bird|middle finger]] the [[Starship Troopers (novel)|novel]] will ever receive, and that is no accident. It's a satire of militarism, the Cold War, dehumanization of the enemy, war movies, propaganda and military sci-fi in general. It originally started out as an unrelated script called ''Bug Hunt'', before the studio acquired the rights to the novel and rewrote the script to accommodate it. The film was intentionally designed as the polar opposite of the book in terms of message, characterization, and theme --an attack on the "pro-war fascist dogma" detractors of the novel attribute to it. A fairly detailed exploration of the film's themes can be found on [http://www.avclub.com/articles/starship-troopers,41966/ The AV Club].
There was a direct to video sequel or two, with [[Puppeteer Parasite]] in the form of brain-eating Control Bugs and the introduction of [[Powered Armor]] and religious subtext (respectively). They can be viewed on Hulu.
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* [[An Arm and a Leg]]: {{spoiler|Rasczak in spades.}}
* [[Artificial Limbs]]: Rasczak's mechanical left hand.
* [[Artistic License: Biology]]: In a Biology class in the beginning of the film, the teacher refers to the Bugs as both "arachnids" and "insects." Moments later, she calls up a holographic image of one. It only has four legs.
* [[Ascended Extra]]: Male!Dizzy was a [[Sacrificial Lamb]] for the first scene of the novel; Carl was killed offscreen -- er, off-page. Both have more important roles in the movie.
* [[Author Tract]]: According to his commentary, almost every scene was supposed to convey some sort of social or political message.
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** Dax in the second film qualifies.
* [[Banister Slide]]: Carmen does one while running to a shuttle in the first film.
* [[Beauty Is Never Tarnished]]:
** Rico's hair is always perfect. ''Always''. Even when he just took off his helmet after marching around a hot desert planet.
** [[Bridge Bunny|Holly]] gets [[Covered in Gunge]] in ''Marauder''. All of her ''except'' her head, so her face and hair remain clean.
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* [[Big Book of War]]: In ''Marauder'', General Hauser is attacked by a civilian and cites every regulation he is violating by attacking an officer. Yes, for each punch, uppercut, and kick to the balls there is a regulation for that.
* [[Big Creepy-Crawlies]]
* [[Black Dude Dies First]]:
** Inverted in the first movie, where the black dude dies last {{spoiler|[[Heroic Sacrifice|holding the line for his comrades to escape]], with a [[Taking You with Me|ticking tactical nuke in one hand]].}}
** And in the third the only major black character not only makes it to the end of the movie but gets a massive promotion {{spoiler|and the girl}}.
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* [[Boom! Headshot!]]: In ''Marauder''. To be fair, he was ten feet away, shooting at a ''brain bug''. There's nothing ''but'' headshots to get with that thing. And it takes the entire magazines of two different guns to put it down.
* [[Bottomless Magazines]]: In spite of the massive amount of ammo expended, you can pretty much count on one hand the number of times anyone reloads on-screen.
** Apparently lampshaded in the video game tie-in, as your basic weapon never runs out of ammo.
* [[Brother Chuck]]:
** Ace, Carl, and Carmen are nowhere to be seen in the third movie. In the case of Carmen, [[Real Life Writes the Plot|Denise Richards had a schedule conflict]].
** Carmen does get a reference, though; she's the one that tipped Rico off to the Sky Marshal's visit.
* [[California Doubling]]: Buenos Aires, the Mobile Infantry boot camp, and Klendaathu all look suspiciously like the same Southwestern US desert. Which is ironic in a way, because the scenes set on alien planets were all filmed on Hell's Half Acre, in Wyoming.
* [[The Call Knows Where You Live]]: Buenos Aires. Note that in the novel, only one of Rico's relatives was in B.A., and he didn't even find that out until months later.
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* [[Child Soldiers]]: In a blink-and-you-miss-it scene, we're shown Rico's new troops. They're all teenagers, some of them look as young as 14 years old. They're not shown again for the rest of the movie, presumably because showing [[Ludicrous Gibs|the]] [[Redshirt Army|inevitable]] [[Chunky Salsa Rule|outcome]] [[Infant Immortality|wouldn't be acceptable]].
* [[Colonel Badass]]: Michael Ironside as Lieutenant Rasczak from the first movie qualifies.
** General Shepherd from the second flick seems like this at first. He eventually becomes the movie's [[Big Bad]] after he gets [[Puppeteer Parasite|infested]], and gives the heroes a pretty nasty [[Hannibal Lecture]].
* [[Communications Officer]]: A series of ([[Red Shirt|usually short-lived]]) characters fulfill this role throughout the first film, including [[Unlucky Childhood Friend|Dizzy]] and [[Jerk with a Heart of Gold|Ace]] towards the end.
* [[Composite Character]]: In the novel, Carl is Rico's childhood friend who dies offscreen, the only psychic is an unnnamed "sensitive" who makes one brief appearance (and Rico suspects his talent is really just very good hearing), and Jenkins is one of Rico's later squadmates. Also in the novel, Colonel DuBois, Rico's teacher, and Lt. Rasczak are separate characters, but [[Michael Ironside]] pulls double duty when the two are combined.
* [[Covered in Gunge]]: [[Ludicrous Gibs|Bug guts]] ''everywhere''.
* [[Cult Colony]]: Port Joe Smith is a colony founded by "Mormon Extremists" just inside the Arachnid Quarantine Zone. Bugs apparently found them quite tasty. Well duh. No cigarette or coffee after taste, and caffeine-free. Delicious and nutritious!
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* [[Death of the Hypotenuse]]: {{spoiler|Dizzy. And, for that matter, arguably Zander.}}
* [[Digital Head Swap]]: Done in-universe in ''Marauder'' to create the illusion that Sky Marshal Omar Anoke is still around.
* [[Distress Call]]:
** Happens in the third movie, but most of the time is spent focusing on the survivors, and [[The Cavalry]] preparing their [[Humongous Mecha]] for the rescue mission.
** A fake [[Distress Call]] is sent out in the first movie. While the grunts never saw it coming, it was in fact, an [[Obvious Trap]] to Intelligence, who [[Deliberately Triggering the Trap|tripped it with aforementioned grunts to see if there was a brain bug on the planet.]]
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* [[Gender Is No Object]]: Men and women serve together in all parts of the Federation military (and even shower together). In the book the Mobile Infantry is strictly male, and women do serve, but they are almost universally in the Space Navy since they make better pilots.
* [[Good Is Not Nice]]: The Federation
* [[Good
* [[Half the Man He Used To Be|Half The Woman She Used To Be]]: Carmen's commander, thanks to a descending bulkhead door.
** [[Half the Man He Used To Be]]: The bugs ate up this trope. Literally.
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** Briefly averted in the third film, where Colonel Rico rallies his troops and they make the best of their weapons and terrain (using grenade launchers to force the bugs back while the troopers advanced, with troopers walking along the tops of the trenches to give them covering fire). Indeed, his defense of Roku San proved to be quite effective, until {{spoiler|the perimeter defenses were shut down by [[The Mole]]}}. Later, the military's introduction of mech units proves to be a vast improvement as well.
* [[Humans Are Bastards]]: Although the later movies seem to indicate that the bugs are pretty big bastards too. Indeed, it's never made clear just who started the fighting. The Federation already has space stations inside Arachnid territory, ''before'' Buenos Aires gets taken out.
** This may go so far as being [[Anvilicious]] or a [[Take That]] since the obligatory colony that gets annihilated by the bugs is a ''Mormon'' colony named Port Joe Smith which was apparently set up in bug territory against Colonial authority.
* [[Humongous Mecha]]: In the third movie. FINALLY! And while they used [[Hollywood Tactics]] when using them, they did much, much better than how the grunts did normally in the films.
* [[I Just Shot Marvin in the Face]]: The horridly unsafe live-fire exercise where, [[Tempting Fate|sure enough]], someone gets accidentally shot in the face. [[Didn't See That Coming]].
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* [[Ludicrous Gibs]]: And then some.
* [[Meaningful Echo]]: Many of Rasczak's lines to his men.
* [[Mercy Kill]]: Lt. Rasczak snipes one of his own men who has been carried to a distant ridge by a flying bug and tells his troops, "I'd expect any of you to do the same for me." {{spoiler|And of course, Rico has to do so later.}}
* [[Mini-Mecha]]: Serves as the [[Title Drop]] and [[Big Damn Heroes]] moment in the 3rd sequel, "Marauders", where Johnny Rico and his team of troopers bomb the "God Bug" Behemecoatyl and kill hundreds of arachnids to love interest Lola and assistant Holly from being devoured and assimilated.
* [[Moral Dissonance]]: Invoked. "It's afraid!" *cheers*
* [[New Meat]]: Used quite a bit. A common phrase used to refer to new recruits is "fresh meat for the grinder". Quite funny, in a horrible sort of way. In the sequel a soldier says "Grow up big and strong, we need fresh meat for the grinder" to a newly-born child ''in the arms of its mother''. Upon receiving new arrivals at the end of the first one (earily reminiscent of [[World War II]] footage of the Nazis throwing in [[Child Soldiers]] by the end of the war), Rico asks "Who are all these kids?", the reply being "we just got 'reinforced'". Upon this he quips that they ([[Dawson Casting|20-year old soldiers]]) are the "old men" now before proceeding to give them the exact same speech the unit commander he replaced did when he, Ace, and Dizzy joined the unit.
* [[No New Fashions in the Future]]
* [[Nuke'Em]]: the MI seem to have only two weapons-- assault rifles, and tactical mini-nuke grenades.
** This troper imagines the fine print on these grenades somewhere along the lines of
*** "Tactical Nuclear Grenade. Throw very, very, VERY far away..."
* [[Oh Crap]]: Done a lot throughout the film. Several happen in rapid succession during the invasion of Klendathu, starting with the MI's reactions to a [[Leeroy Jenkins]] getting ripped apart, then another from a girl that falls into a bug hole does one right before she gets [[Nightmare Fuel|dragged into one]], then from the [[Mass "Oh Crap"|rest of the MI]] when they see the bugs swarming out towards them, then another from the Roughnecks on Planet P when they see the giant army of bugs coming at them, and finally Carmen when she sees that she and Zander are surrounded by bugs. Her reaction is probably the most telling.
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** Funny story, after getting passed around Hollywood for years several of the suits were eventually sold for use in the third movie, making this a weird circular trope.
** The [[Alien Resurrection|USM Auriga]] appears to have been made from a modified model of the Rodger Young, or one of its sister ships.
* [[Psychic Powers]]:
** Carl uses these on his pet ferret ("Go bug Mom!"), the brain bug at the end ("It's afraid!"), and {{spoiler|to guide Rico to Carmen}}.
** In the second movie, Lieutenant Dill has psychic abilities as well. [[Informed Ability|sort of.]] At the very least, he can "sense" oncoming swarms of bugs. [[Action Girl|Sahara]], too. When she tells the lieutenant that she's pregnant, he informs her that pregnancy has been known to enhance psychic abilities.
** In the third movie, Sky Marshal Anoke is a psychic. {{spoiler|This turns out to be a case of being [[Blessed with Suck]], as it's his telepathic sensitivity that allows the Brain Bug to [[Face Heel Turn|turn him to their side]].}}
* [[Puny Earthlings]]:
** The Bugs can take a full magazine of ammo (or more as [[Rule of Drama|drama demands]]) and still fight. In general it took three people all their ammo to kill one bug, which would kill at least two of them in the process. The only person who had an effective weapon only used it ''after'' the bugs had torn him in half. This is (almost) consistent with the book, as warrior bugs have no sense of self preservation and may not even feel pain: if your torrent of bullets fails to hit a vital organ but only chops away at limbs, the bug will keep coming so long as it has a limb left. But in the book, they realized this and aimed for the brain case on the back to disable them quickly. Not so in the movie... even though the psychic specifically recommended it to the troops!
** Subverted in the ending fight of the first movie. After they rescue Carmen, the protagonists are attacked by an army of bugs. The protagonists respond by letting loose with a torrent of bullets that causes a mountain of bug corpses to form in about three seconds flat.
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* [[Stealth Parody]]: Minus the "stealth". Though to the film's credit, it doesn't start trowelling on the parody until the actual war breaks out (except for the propaganda videos). Up until then it could be mistaken for an actual vapid teen drama.
* [[Strawman Political]]: Again.
* [[Stupid Sacrifice]]: When the girl and one of the good guys find themselves surrounded by aliens and with the big brain-eating alien readying to do just that. The good guy has a knife hidden, but he doesn't use it himself. No, he gives it to the girl and promptly gets his brain eaten. The girl then uses it to wound the brain-eating alien and escape. No clear reason is given why the guy didn't use the knife himself, other than that the public is supposed to hate him and enjoy his removal from the scene.
* [[A Wizard Did It|A Telepath Did It]]: apparently an in-canon explanation for how Rico rescued his conveniently-recently-lost-her-boyfriend ex-girlfriend.
* [[That's an Order]]: Rasczak says this after telling his troops to have fun during their party celebrating their vcitory.
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* [[Vasquez Always Dies]]: Dizzy and Rake.
* [[Video Phone]]: Johnny Rico is talking to his parents in Buenos Aires via [[Video Phone]] {{spoiler|when the Bug asteroid hits the city.}}
* [[Villain with Good Publicity]]: In the 3rd sequel, Omar Anoke, Sky Marshall of the Federation Forces and propaganda pop star, who secretly defects to the "God Bug" [[Behemocoatl]]'s side and orchestrated the massacre on Roku San by shutting down the electric fences thereby letting the bugs massacre the troops.
* [[War Is Glorious]]:
** Parodied - [[Do Not Do This Cool Thing|or at least they tried to, anyway]]. Sweaty bulging muscles, A faceless implacable enemy guilty of genocidal war crimes, big guns and comradeship. And if you don't fight you are a nonperson.
** The troopers are also alarmingly blase about the horrible deaths happening around them sometimes. When the panicked general during the trap is crushed by a bug, Ace has this big grin on his face like "Hey, that was really cool!" And even during a panicked evacuation, killing one big bug is enough to get at least a couple of them cheering like they're at a football game, even while they're supposed to be running for their lives.
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* [[We Will Wear Armor in the Future]]: Rather noticeably by fans, not [[Powered Armour]]. Here the armour is more like modern GI flak armour in terms of bulk and coverage.
* [[What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?]]: Many times. The [[Asskicking Pose|scene]] [[More Dakka|at the end]] of the second film [[No Kill Like Overkill|is notable]].
* [[What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic]]: Inverted. A character prays, in conjunction with obviously [[Doing in the Wizard|non-supernatural stuff]] happening around them. "Lord, send us an [[Humongous Mecha|army of angels]]. And arm them with [[Kill It with Fire|your fire]], and [[More Dakka|your sword]], that they may smite the evil around us."
** Bonus points for the fact that the suits' retro-rockets as they're [[It's Raining Men|air-dropping to the field]] are seen in the background behind her, ''distinctly'' forming a halo around her head as she prays.
* [[Writer on Board]]: Again, in the opposite direction.
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