Starship Troopers
In the 23rd century, Earth is governed by the United Citizen Federation, a stratocratic regime founded generations earlier by "veterans" after democracy and social scientists brought civilization to t…
Starship Troopers
In the 23rd century, Earth is governed by the United Citizen Federation, a stratocratic regime founded generations earlier by "veterans" after democracy and social scientists brought civilization to the brink of ruin. In the Federation, citizenship is a privilege earned by performing such activities as military service, which grants individuals opportunities like procreation and voting which are prohibited to basic civilians. Federal service (such as joining the mobile infantry) is seen as a collective duty and people are encouraged to do "their part." Earth has become a space-faring civilization. While colonizing new planets, humans have encountered an insectoid species known as Arachnids or "Bugs," with their home being the distant world Klendathu. The bugs appear to be little more than unrelenting killing machines, though there are suggestions that they were provoked by the intrusion of humans into their habitats and may be more intelligent than their initial savagery suggests. The bugs send meteors to destroy Earth, which is defended by an immense lunar network of weapons that blow the meteors up with missiles. Klendathu orbits a twin-star system, where brutal gravitational forces create an unlimited supply of bug meteors in the form of an asteroid belt. Klendathu is on the other side of the Galaxy, and the humans believes that for their survival, the Klendathu bug planet must be eliminated. Earth is planning to launch an invasion force to Klendathu in one year. John "Johnny" Rico (Casper Van Dien), his girlfriend Carmen Ibanez (Denise Richards), and best friend Carl Jenkins (Neil Patrick Harris) attend high school in Buenos Aires. Fellow student Isabel "Dizzy" Flores (Dina Meyer) is in love with Rico, but he does not reciprocate as he has eyes only for Carmen. Jean Rasczak is their teacher, who has only one arm. He reviews what he has taught his class during the school year; the history of the Federation, how it was founded after democratic forms of government failed, that peace and prosperity have lasted for generations since and that this utopia was achieved through violence, which he refers to as the "supreme authority". They all apply to Fleet Academy. Carmen scores 97% on her math tests, which are the first scores checked by the academy. Rico scores a 35% on his math. Rico is not good with Psychic abilities either, while Jenkins excels at it. Jenkins has a pet ferret named Cyrano. Carmen is also doing some light flirting with school jock Zander Barcalow, who is also going to the Fleet Academy. Zander and Rico play the same American football-like sport on rival teams. Rico's parents (Mr. Rico (Christopher Curry) and Mrs. Rico (Lenore Kasdorf)) disapprove of military service and want him to enroll at Harvard University instead, arguing that young people too often die in military service. Rico comes from a rich family but wants to make his own name and career rather than relying on his parents. His parents try to entice him into staying by offering a gap year with an all-expense paid trip to the outer rings of the galaxy, including Zegema Beach, which Rico always wanted to see. At the graduation party, Jean Rasczak says that choosing their path in life is the only real freedom that an individual has and that Rico should use it. Carmen entices Johnny to accompany her home after the dance; her parents are away and they can have a private romantic night together. The friends all enlist in the Federal Service after graduation and Carmen makes them (herself, Rico and Carl) take a vow that they would always be friends. Rico's parents believe that he is throwing away his life to impress Carmen. Despite Rico declaring his love to Carmen, she does not reciprocate his feelings. Carmen quickly becomes a spaceship pilot assigned to the battleship Rodger Young, while mentally gifted psychic Carl Jenkins joins Military Intelligence. Rico enlists in the Mobile Infantry expecting to be with Carmen, but is surprised to find Dizzy, who deliberately transferred from Fort Cronkite to his squad to be near him. Rico believes that Dizzy joined mobile infantry to pursue him romantically, but he makes it clear that he will maintain his distance from her. At Mobile Infantry training, Career Sgt. Zim (Clancy Brown) reviews the recruits. Sgt. Zim is a tough taskmaster and tells the recruits to quit if they cannot keep up the pace at the training center. Rico is later promoted to squad leader after showing initiative and quick-thinking during training exercises and befriends Ace Levy (Jake Busey). Rico was only able to excel at training simulations due to suggestions from Dizzy and thanks her for it, leading to a mild reconciliation between them. Meanwhile, Carmen aims to be a starship pilot. Carmen's training takes place on a space station orbiting around the moon where her class trained on flying various categories of spaceships, before being assigned to the battle cruiser Rodger Young. A star drive is a device that allows Star Ships to attain warp speeds and enables inter planetary travel. Rodger Young is led by Captain Deladier (Brenda Strong). Rico later receives a Dear John letter from Carmen, as she desires a career with the fleet (which means that she will be with the fleet for a much longer duration and won't be able to meet Rico when his term concludes at 2 years of service). Carmen now serves under Rico's high school sports rival, Zander Barcalow (Patrick Muldoon), who is her flight instructor. Carmen ends her relationship with Rico in a video message due to their diverging career paths and her growing feelings for Zander. Following a live-fire training incident that kills one of Rico's squad members (the trooper had a helmet malfunction and Rico asked him to remove it, which resulted in him being shot in the head) and prompts another to quit out of guilt (she was the one who fired the shot that killed the other squad member), Rico is demoted and flogged. Rico is not discharged as Sgt. Zim believes that Rico can still be salvaged. Ace Levy is promoted to Squadron Leader and Rico feels a tremendous amount of shame and remorse that he can't get a grip on. Out in space the Rodger Young encounters an asteroid. An attempt to maneuver away from the asteroid results in a collision that tears off the ship's communications module. The Young is unable to warn Earth of the approaching asteroid. Carmen was praised for her quick thinking that saved the rest of the ship. The crew determine that the asteroid came from the Arachnid quarantine zone. Rico resigns and calls his parents to ask them if he can return home, but the call is cut off when the asteroid the Rodger Young encountered obliterates Buenos Aires, killing his family and millions of others. Rico rescinds his resignation and remains with the Infantry as an invasion force is deployed to Klendathu. The invasion force gathers at an advanced space station called Ticonderoga deep inside the quarantine zone. Carmen and Rico come face-to-face for the first time since they enlisted and Rico gets into a physical altercation with Zander when Zander taunts him. Dizzy separates them and says that Mobile Infantry and Fleet do not mix. An invasion force is deployed to Klendathu, the Arachnids' home planet (which is defended by Bug batteries, which resemble anti-aircraft fire but for spaceships), but military intelligence underestimates the Arachnids' defensive abilities. Soon, the bug batteries start taking out the fleet in orbit. Carmen's own ship is hit by the battery and severely damaged. The ground operation on Klendathu is a total disaster, with hundreds of thousands of casualties. Rico, Dizzy and Ace all see several of their comrades die horribly in direct contact with the Arachnid warrior class, who viciously tear the human troops apart or drag them off into the tunnels they take refuge in. When Ace fails as squad leader to lead his unit into battle, Rico takes charge and orders them to advance. Rico is severely wounded in the leg and mistakenly classified as KIA, causing Carmen to believe he is dead. Rico is rescued and put into rehab with the remainder of his unit. Back on Earth, the Federation's Sky Marshal, Dienes, resigns following the disastrous invasion and his replacement, Tehat Maru, orders up a new strategy for fighting the war. Rico, Ace, and Dizzy are reassigned to the 'Roughnecks,' an elite unit. When Ace suggests that their commander is reputed to be severely harsh in his command, one of his new unit members punches him out, saying that he's saved many lives, including her own, Rico's, Ace's and Dizzy's on Klendathu in the failed invasion. The Roughnecks' commander is none other than Jean Rasczak, Rico and Dizzy's former high school teacher. He tells his new unit members that he has only one rule, "Everyone fights, no one quits" and that he'll personally execute them if they fail to give their best. Under Sky Marshal Maru's command, the Infantry will fight on the outer planets of the Klendathu system first, eventually working their way inward. The Roughnecks are assigned to clear the planet Tango Urilla. After the vaunted Federation Fleet "glasses" the planet with fire bombs, killing hordes of Arachnid warriors, the Infantry will reconnoiter the surface in order to "mop up". Rico is given a field promotion to Corporal after destroying a Tanker Bug and impressing Rasczak. Rico asks Ace to be his new squad leader but Ace refuses since he failed in the initial invasion. Rico turns to Dizzy, who happily accepts. During R&R, Rico finally reciprocates Dizzy's love for him. The Roughnecks respond to a distress call from Planet "P," a desolate world dominated by canyons. During their march to the outpost where the distress call originated, their comms officer is carried off by a flyer bug that mercilessly stabs him with it's stinger. Rasczak uses Sugar Watkins' (Seth Gilliam) sniper rifle to take out the doomed comms officer. The flyer bug instantly retreats and Rasczak tells the unit he expects the rest of them to do the same thing if he were in a similar situation. Rico is promoted to acting sergeant and they continue their march through the canyon until they discover the outpost. It has been invaded by the bugs and seemingly everyone is dead. One comms officer is found with a large hole in the top of his skull; his brain matter has been sucked out. They find the base commander, a General, Owen, who'd been hiding inside. Clearly traumatized by the devastation, he frantically tries to explain that his unit had been charged with a secretive mission to find out more about the leadership class of the bugs. The comms officer with the missing brain had been commanded by an as-yet-unseen breed of arachnid that controlled his mind and forced him to make the distress call. The General, growing ever more neurotic and believing the situation is hopeless is nearly executed by Rasczak. The arachnids had laid a simple trap for the Roughnecks and attack, surrounding the outpost in moments. Rasczak looks out over the wall of the outpost and sees a sea of arachnids. He quickly determines that his unit cannot possibly fight their way out but they'll hold them off as long as possible until a Fleet transport can rescue them. Rico and Dizzy make the call to Fleet. The arachnids eventually breach the walls and advance. A giant tanker bug burrows in from beneath, opening a pit under Rasczak, biting off his legs. He orders Rico to kill him, which Rico does. Another tanker bursts in through a compound wall and attacks but is killed by Dizzy, who throws a grenade into it's maw. While she celebrates, she fails to notice a warrior bug behind her that impales her several times before her comrades can free her. She dies in Rico's arms as they are rescued by Carmen and Zander in a fleet troop carrier. The group returns to the fleet assembled in orbit above P, where Dizzy is eulogized and her coffin is launched into space. Rico and Carmen reconnect and find Carl Jenkins, now a high-ranking colonel in intelligence. Jenkins reveals the Roughnecks were deliberately ordered into the trap, justifying it as a necessary sacrifice to confirm the existence of a "Brain Bug," an intelligent Arachnid strategically directing the others. He field-promotes Rico to Lieutenant and gives him full command of the Roughnecks, ordering the infantry to return to "P" and capture the brain bug. Rico accepts the new assignment and agrees that the mission to find the brain bug is paramount. As Rico's Roughnecks join the mission, the Fleet encounters unexpectedly heavy fire from the Bugs, and Carmen's ship the Rodger Young is destroyed. The Young's captain is killed during the evacuation and the escape pod carrying Carmen and Zander crashes into the Bug tunnel system near the Roughnecks' position. Unknowingly guided by a psychic suggestion from Carl, Rico takes Ace and Sugar Watkins into the tunnels to rescue them both, disobeying his mission orders but somehow knowing he's making the right move. Carmen and Zander are trapped in an underground bug chamber and surrounded by dozens of Arachnid warriors. They valiantly try to fight their way out but are captured, Zander impaled through his leg and Carmen pinned through her shoulder. Zander passes her a combat knife. A Brain bug is carried into the chamber and stops before Zander. He tells the Brain defiantly that the human race will destroy its species and is impaled through the top of his skull, his brain being sucked out by the Brain's long proboscis. Carmen is thrown before the Brain and slashes off it's proboscis before it can suck her brain out. Just as the bugs close in on her, Rico and his breakaway unit appear. Rico threatens the Bugs with a small nuclear bomb, which the Brain Bug is able to recognize and allows them to leave. Ace radios in the Brain's location and they retreat just as the Arachnids attack. Watkins is mortally wounded and stays behind, sacrificing himself by detonating the bomb while the others escape. After returning to the surface, they find that former Sgt. Zim, who had requested demotion to private so that he could serve at the front, has captured the Brain Bug. Carl scans the Brain's thoughts and reveals that it's afraid, bringing cheers from the Infantry that captured it. Carl congratulates Rico and tells him and Carmen that the humans will soon be victorious, now that Military Intelligence can study the brain bug. A propaganda clip shows the Brain being studied. It also stars Carmen (now a captain commanding a battleship), Ace, and Rico as model servicemen, demonstrations of new weapons and ships and encouraging viewers to enlist.
Starship Troopers
Action,Adventure,Sci-Fi
Film Details
In the 23rd century, Earth is governed by the United Citizen Federation, a stratocratic regime founded generations earlier by "veterans" after democracy and social scientists brought civilization to the brink of ruin. In the Federation, citizenship is a privilege earned by performing such activities as military service, which grants individuals opportunities like procreation and voting which are prohibited to basic civilians. Federal service (such as joining the mobile infantry) is seen as a collective duty and people are encouraged to do "their part." Earth has become a space-faring civilization.
While colonizing new planets, humans have encountered an insectoid species known as Arachnids or "Bugs," with their home being the distant world Klendathu. The bugs appear to be little more than unrelenting killing machines, though there are suggestions that they were provoked by the intrusion of humans into their habitats and may be more intelligent than their initial savagery suggests. The bugs send meteors to destroy Earth, which is defended by an immense lunar network of weapons that blow the meteors up with missiles.
Klendathu orbits a twin-star system, where brutal gravitational forces create an unlimited supply of bug meteors in the form of an asteroid belt. Klendathu is on the other side of the Galaxy, and the humans believes that for their survival, the Klendathu bug planet must be eliminated. Earth is planning to launch an invasion force to Klendathu in one year.
John "Johnny" Rico (Casper Van Dien), his girlfriend Carmen Ibanez (Denise Richards), and best friend Carl Jenkins (Neil Patrick Harris) attend high school in Buenos Aires. Fellow student Isabel "Dizzy" Flores (Dina Meyer) is in love with Rico, but he does not reciprocate as he has eyes only for Carmen. Jean Rasczak is their teacher, who has only one arm.
He reviews what he has taught his class during the school year; the history of the Federation, how it was founded after democratic forms of government failed, that peace and prosperity have lasted for generations since and that this utopia was achieved through violence, which he refers to as the "supreme authority". They all apply to Fleet Academy. Carmen scores 97% on her math tests, which are the first scores checked by the academy.
Rico scores a 35% on his math. Rico is not good with Psychic abilities either, while Jenkins excels at it. Jenkins has a pet ferret named Cyrano.
Carmen is also doing some light flirting with school jock Zander Barcalow, who is also going to the Fleet Academy. Zander and Rico play the same American football-like sport on rival teams. Rico's parents (Mr.
Rico (Christopher Curry) and Mrs. Rico (Lenore Kasdorf)) disapprove of military service and want him to enroll at Harvard University instead, arguing that young people too often die in military service. Rico comes from a rich family but wants to make his own name and career rather than relying on his parents.
His parents try to entice him into staying by offering a gap year with an all-expense paid trip to the outer rings of the galaxy, including Zegema Beach, which Rico always wanted to see. At the graduation party, Jean Rasczak says that choosing their path in life is the only real freedom that an individual has and that Rico should use it. Carmen entices Johnny to accompany her home after the dance; her parents are away and they can have a private romantic night together.
The friends all enlist in the Federal Service after graduation and Carmen makes them (herself, Rico and Carl) take a vow that they would always be friends. Rico's parents believe that he is throwing away his life to impress Carmen. Despite Rico declaring his love to Carmen, she does not reciprocate his feelings.
Carmen quickly becomes a spaceship pilot assigned to the battleship Rodger Young, while mentally gifted psychic Carl Jenkins joins Military Intelligence. Rico enlists in the Mobile Infantry expecting to be with Carmen, but is surprised to find Dizzy, who deliberately transferred from Fort Cronkite to his squad to be near him. Rico believes that Dizzy joined mobile infantry to pursue him romantically, but he makes it clear that he will maintain his distance from her.
At Mobile Infantry training, Career Sgt. Zim (Clancy Brown) reviews the recruits. Sgt.
Zim is a tough taskmaster and tells the recruits to quit if they cannot keep up the pace at the training center. Rico is later promoted to squad leader after showing initiative and quick-thinking during training exercises and befriends Ace Levy (Jake Busey). Rico was only able to excel at training simulations due to suggestions from Dizzy and thanks her for it, leading to a mild reconciliation between them.
Meanwhile, Carmen aims to be a starship pilot. Carmen's training takes place on a space station orbiting around the moon where her class trained on flying various categories of spaceships, before being assigned to the battle cruiser Rodger Young. A star drive is a device that allows Star Ships to attain warp speeds and enables inter planetary travel.
Rodger Young is led by Captain Deladier (Brenda Strong). Rico later receives a Dear John letter from Carmen, as she desires a career with the fleet (which means that she will be with the fleet for a much longer duration and won't be able to meet Rico when his term concludes at 2 years of service). Carmen now serves under Rico's high school sports rival, Zander Barcalow (Patrick Muldoon), who is her flight instructor.
Carmen ends her relationship with Rico in a video message due to their diverging career paths and her growing feelings for Zander. Following a live-fire training incident that kills one of Rico's squad members (the trooper had a helmet malfunction and Rico asked him to remove it, which resulted in him being shot in the head) and prompts another to quit out of guilt (she was the one who fired the shot that killed the other squad member), Rico is demoted and flogged. Rico is not discharged as Sgt.
Zim believes that Rico can still be salvaged. Ace Levy is promoted to Squadron Leader and Rico feels a tremendous amount of shame and remorse that he can't get a grip on. Out in space the Rodger Young encounters an asteroid.
An attempt to maneuver away from the asteroid results in a collision that tears off the ship's communications module. The Young is unable to warn Earth of the approaching asteroid. Carmen was praised for her quick thinking that saved the rest of the ship.
The crew determine that the asteroid came from the Arachnid quarantine zone. Rico resigns and calls his parents to ask them if he can return home, but the call is cut off when the asteroid the Rodger Young encountered obliterates Buenos Aires, killing his family and millions of others. Rico rescinds his resignation and remains with the Infantry as an invasion force is deployed to Klendathu.
The invasion force gathers at an advanced space station called Ticonderoga deep inside the quarantine zone. Carmen and Rico come face-to-face for the first time since they enlisted and Rico gets into a physical altercation with Zander when Zander taunts him. Dizzy separates them and says that Mobile Infantry and Fleet do not mix.
An invasion force is deployed to Klendathu, the Arachnids' home planet (which is defended by Bug batteries, which resemble anti-aircraft fire but for spaceships), but military intelligence underestimates the Arachnids' defensive abilities. Soon, the bug batteries start taking out the fleet in orbit. Carmen's own ship is hit by the battery and severely damaged.
The ground operation on Klendathu is a total disaster, with hundreds of thousands of casualties. Rico, Dizzy and Ace all see several of their comrades die horribly in direct contact with the Arachnid warrior class, who viciously tear the human troops apart or drag them off into the tunnels they take refuge in. When Ace fails as squad leader to lead his unit into battle, Rico takes charge and orders them to advance.
Rico is severely wounded in the leg and mistakenly classified as KIA, causing Carmen to believe he is dead. Rico is rescued and put into rehab with the remainder of his unit. Back on Earth, the Federation's Sky Marshal, Dienes, resigns following the disastrous invasion and his replacement, Tehat Maru, orders up a new strategy for fighting the war.
Rico, Ace, and Dizzy are reassigned to the 'Roughnecks,' an elite unit. When Ace suggests that their commander is reputed to be severely harsh in his command, one of his new unit members punches him out, saying that he's saved many lives, including her own, Rico's, Ace's and Dizzy's on Klendathu in the failed invasion. The Roughnecks' commander is none other than Jean Rasczak, Rico and Dizzy's former high school teacher.
He tells his new unit members that he has only one rule, "Everyone fights, no one quits" and that he'll personally execute them if they fail to give their best. Under Sky Marshal Maru's command, the Infantry will fight on the outer planets of the Klendathu system first, eventually working their way inward. The Roughnecks are assigned to clear the planet Tango Urilla.
After the vaunted Federation Fleet "glasses" the planet with fire bombs, killing hordes of Arachnid warriors, the Infantry will reconnoiter the surface in order to "mop up". Rico is given a field promotion to Corporal after destroying a Tanker Bug and impressing Rasczak. Rico asks Ace to be his new squad leader but Ace refuses since he failed in the initial invasion.
Rico turns to Dizzy, who happily accepts. During R&R, Rico finally reciprocates Dizzy's love for him. The Roughnecks respond to a distress call from Planet "P," a desolate world dominated by canyons.
During their march to the outpost where the distress call originated, their comms officer is carried off by a flyer bug that mercilessly stabs him with it's stinger. Rasczak uses Sugar Watkins' (Seth Gilliam) sniper rifle to take out the doomed comms officer. The flyer bug instantly retreats and Rasczak tells the unit he expects the rest of them to do the same thing if he were in a similar situation.
Rico is promoted to acting sergeant and they continue their march through the canyon until they discover the outpost. It has been invaded by the bugs and seemingly everyone is dead. One comms officer is found with a large hole in the top of his skull; his brain matter has been sucked out.
They find the base commander, a General, Owen, who'd been hiding inside. Clearly traumatized by the devastation, he frantically tries to explain that his unit had been charged with a secretive mission to find out more about the leadership class of the bugs. The comms officer with the missing brain had been commanded by an as-yet-unseen breed of arachnid that controlled his mind and forced him to make the distress call.
The General, growing ever more neurotic and believing the situation is hopeless is nearly executed by Rasczak. The arachnids had laid a simple trap for the Roughnecks and attack, surrounding the outpost in moments. Rasczak looks out over the wall of the outpost and sees a sea of arachnids.
He quickly determines that his unit cannot possibly fight their way out but they'll hold them off as long as possible until a Fleet transport can rescue them. Rico and Dizzy make the call to Fleet. The arachnids eventually breach the walls and advance.
A giant tanker bug burrows in from beneath, opening a pit under Rasczak, biting off his legs. He orders Rico to kill him, which Rico does. Another tanker bursts in through a compound wall and attacks but is killed by Dizzy, who throws a grenade into it's maw.
While she celebrates, she fails to notice a warrior bug behind her that impales her several times before her comrades can free her. She dies in Rico's arms as they are rescued by Carmen and Zander in a fleet troop carrier. The group returns to the fleet assembled in orbit above P, where Dizzy is eulogized and her coffin is launched into space.
Rico and Carmen reconnect and find Carl Jenkins, now a high-ranking colonel in intelligence. Jenkins reveals the Roughnecks were deliberately ordered into the trap, justifying it as a necessary sacrifice to confirm the existence of a "Brain Bug," an intelligent Arachnid strategically directing the others. He field-promotes Rico to Lieutenant and gives him full command of the Roughnecks, ordering the infantry to return to "P" and capture the brain bug.
Rico accepts the new assignment and agrees that the mission to find the brain bug is paramount. As Rico's Roughnecks join the mission, the Fleet encounters unexpectedly heavy fire from the Bugs, and Carmen's ship the Rodger Young is destroyed. The Young's captain is killed during the evacuation and the escape pod carrying Carmen and Zander crashes into the Bug tunnel system near the Roughnecks' position.
Unknowingly guided by a psychic suggestion from Carl, Rico takes Ace and Sugar Watkins into the tunnels to rescue them both, disobeying his mission orders but somehow knowing he's making the right move. Carmen and Zander are trapped in an underground bug chamber and surrounded by dozens of Arachnid warriors. They valiantly try to fight their way out but are captured, Zander impaled through his leg and Carmen pinned through her shoulder.
Zander passes her a combat knife. A Brain bug is carried into the chamber and stops before Zander. He tells the Brain defiantly that the human race will destroy its species and is impaled through the top of his skull, his brain being sucked out by the Brain's long proboscis.
Carmen is thrown before the Brain and slashes off it's proboscis before it can suck her brain out. Just as the bugs close in on her, Rico and his breakaway unit appear. Rico threatens the Bugs with a small nuclear bomb, which the Brain Bug is able to recognize and allows them to leave.
Ace radios in the Brain's location and they retreat just as the Arachnids attack. Watkins is mortally wounded and stays behind, sacrificing himself by detonating the bomb while the others escape. After returning to the surface, they find that former Sgt.
Zim, who had requested demotion to private so that he could serve at the front, has captured the Brain Bug. Carl scans the Brain's thoughts and reveals that it's afraid, bringing cheers from the Infantry that captured it. Carl congratulates Rico and tells him and Carmen that the humans will soon be victorious, now that Military Intelligence can study the brain bug.
A propaganda clip shows the Brain being studied. It also stars Carmen (now a captain commanding a battleship), Ace, and Rico as model servicemen, demonstrations of new weapons and ships and encouraging viewers to enlist..