If you decide to pick up Robert A. Heinlein's novel "Starship Troopers" because you enjoyed
Paul Verhoeven's movie version, you might be disappointed — and vice versa. These
are the biggest distinctions between the 1959 book and its film adaptation.
To this day, some film critics and audiences still don't quite get
"Starship Troopers," sometimes taking it for genuine pro-military propaganda when in fact
it's tongue-in-cheek satire. Labeled "one of the most misunderstood movies ever" by The Atlantic,
it seems that many failed to notice how the film's comically exaggerated style was poking
fun at the ridiculous nature of fascist authoritarianism, rather than condoning it.
However, some of the confusion is a little more understandable when one is more acquainted with
the book, which is wildly different in tone and has a more sincere pro-military message.
For those familiar with the movie, it might raise an eyebrow to learn that combat action
only plays a small role in the "Starship Troopers" book. Author Robert A. Heinlein was much more
interested in discussion of moral philosophy, critiques of early 20th century liberalism,
individual rights, and responsibility to the collective. The book is also filled to the
brim with detailed explorations of the command structure and tactics of the Mobile Infantry,
making it often feel like a technical manual. But the book is indeed overtly political:
the Bugs are described in no uncertain terms as representing communism,
and several key passages muse on the benefits of authoritarianism over a free democracy.
Though some critics didn't see it at the time, "Starship Troopers" the film was an
attempt by director Paul Verhoeven to criticize Heinlein's belief in a government ostensibly
run by the military. For those reading the book for its right wing political message,
the film's clear satire likely ruffled more than a few feathers — assuming they noticed it at all.
In Paul Verhoeven's 1997 film, the romantic love quadrangle involving Rico, Carmen,
Dizzy, and Zander sits at the center of the story. You could argue that the movie is as
much about Rico's attempt to find love as it is about Earth's battle with a race of
interstellar insects. But in the original novel, there's no such romance to speak
of — the four-sided love affair among the young heartthrobs was entirely invented for the film.
In fact, the character of Zander doesn't exist in the original text,
while Carmen is mentioned only a handful of times. Dizzy, meanwhile, only appears on a single page,
and he's dead when he first appears. Yes, you heard that correctly — in the novel,
Dizzy Flores is a man. He's a compatriot of Rico's in the Mobile Infantry who "buys it"
before the story has barely begun. As for Rico, his relationship with Carmen is more like an
unrequited schoolboy crush than anything else. Carmen is described as a woman who
will never settle down and is happy to play the field, and they're merely good friends.
In the film it's quite the opposite, as Rico and Carmen's relationship is a major
plot point. It motivates him for much of the story, while their break-up makes him
rethink his service entirely. In the book, it's the court-martial of another soldier in boot
camp that makes Rico reassess his decision. Carmen only re-enters the story much later,
when they catch up while on leave and Rico is surprised to see her with a shaved head.
Over the years, "Starship Troopers" has built a fervent fan following for
its thrilling space marine action. But while the movie spends less than twenty minutes in
boot camp training for the Mobile Infantry and more than an hour at war with the Arachnids,
it's actually the reverse in the book. More than half of the novel is set during Rico's
time in training, and it covers with great detail his journey from fresh-faced recruit
to hardened soldier. His instructor Zim is one of the few major characters in the book.
Compare the movie with the book and you'll find that many of the boot camp scenes from Heinlein's
novel are translated into the film, including Zim challenging new recruits to a fight and
a soldier questioning him on why they need to learn to use a knife. But these sequences play
out very differently in the book, where they often spark lengthy philosophical discussions
on the nature of war and power. We get far more insight into Rico's personal journey,
the importance his service holds to him, and the camaraderie he feels towards his fellow soldiers.
When the war does break out, it's not nearly as dramatic in the book. It happens mostly off-page,
with Rico simply remarking that Earth had gone from "peacetime"
to "state of emergency" to "war" while he had been in training.
In "Starship Troopers," the Arachnids are an unstoppable foe, a race of primitive insect
warriors that can tear through an entire Earth army with ease. They're a species that humans are
intimately familiar with: Rico and his classmates dissect them in school, and news footage tells us
there has been a fragile peace for years. But it's also hinted at more than once that their attack on
Buenos Aires — the strike that triggers the war — was actually in response to human intrusion.
The Bugs we meet in Heinlein's book, however, are markedly different. In addition to being
more human-sized, they're also known to be highly intelligent and technologically advanced. They use
traditional sci-fi weapons like laser rifles, with their own starships and even cities on
their home planet of Klendathu. When they strike Buenos Aires, it's a clear act of aggression,
and there's never any suggestion that the Terran Federation might have in any way provoked a
retaliatory assault. The Bugs are evil, they are the enemy, they are a dangerous hive mind — hence
the communist allegory — and they are a clear and present mortal threat to all human life.
It's even said in the book that Bugs can breed faster than the Mobile Infantry can kill them,
able to produce new soldiers almost on a whim. Like in the movie,
their soldiers are near-mindless workers,
taking instruction from the brain bugs that lurk beneath the surface of the planet.
In one of the most notable changes from the novel, the movie version of "Starship
Troopers" eliminated a key component of the space marine tech: their hulking mech
suits. A signature element of the book, these suits encase each soldier like a mobile tank,
and much of the novel goes into lengthy detail about their capabilities, benefits,
and drawbacks. They're such a major part of the story that they appear on
the cover of several editions of the novel that have been published over the years.
In addition, Rico and his fellow Roughnecks don't just arrive planetside in a simple drop ship,
pouring out of their landing craft like they're storming the beaches of Normandy. Instead,
they drop from the sky in their mechs like rain,
inside giant capsules that crack open on impact. These techno-capsules protect
Mobile Infantry soldiers from incoming enemy fire — and of course, plenty of time is spent
in the book discussing their function and hammering home the dangers of each drop.
In other adaptations of the book — including a six-part anime from 1988 — the mech suits
play an integral role. They also show up in role-playing games and a 2012 CGI-animated
movie. Given their large role in the novel and importance to the story, the lack of the armored
suits in the movie is a big reason why fans of the book sometimes struggle to enjoy the film.
One of the weirder elements in "Starship Troopers," a movie already packed with weirdness,
is the presence of psychic powers. We first learn of them through Rico's friend Carl Jenkins,
when he plays a special card game with Rico meant to detect latent psychic abilities. Carl's powers
allow him to read the thoughts of non-humans and even implant suggestions in their minds.
Towards the climax, though, after Carl has spent some time working with military intelligence,
it's even hinted that Carl has mastered the ability to use his powers on people, too.
But in the novel, there are no characters who possess any kind of psychic abilities
or mind-reading powers whatsoever — certainly not Carl, who plays only a very tiny role in
the story. It would seem that the psychic abilities were invented for the film,
perhaps as a way of allowing the audience to understand the Arachnids' state of mind in the
ironic ending. However, the movie doesn't completely conjure them up out of nowhere.
In the book, there's a special branch of the military,
a highly-trained division of the Logistics & Communications group,
called simply "special talents." Though they're not said to have any superhuman powers, their
agents are described as so extraordinarily gifted that it borders on what Rico calls "black magic."
Much has been written about how Heinlein's "Starship Troopers" outlined the author's
own strongly-held libertarian beliefs in a military-run, authoritarian government that
rejected 20th century ideals. Perhaps nowhere in the novel was this more laid bare than in
the character of Emilio Rico, Johnnie's father. Like their film counterparts, Johnnie Rico's
parents are firmly against his decision to enlist. They're staunchly anti-military,
and his father — who goes unnamed in the movie — forbids him to join the service.
This mirrors some initial scenes in the book — but from there, the story diverges.
Firstly, the Rico family doesn't live in Buenos Aires, which becomes important later on. When
the attack on Buenos Aires occurs, it's only Johnnie's mother who's there — apparently on
vacation alone. Johnnie's father is more openly representative of liberal politics
in the book — but when the Bugs attack, he has a crisis of conscience that leads
him to re-evaluate his entire belief system. Ultimately, not only does Emilio Rico become
firmly pro-authoritarian, but he even enlists in the Mobile Infantry himself.
Later in the story, with the war raging, a now-Sergeant Johnnie Rico encounters his
father while transferring to a new ship. In the film, both of Johnny's parents are killed at
the same time by the meteor attack, which is what motivates him to remain in the service.
The broad timeline in "Starship Troopers" remains mostly the same from the book to the movie,
with Rico joining the service training before the Arachnids attack Earth. After that,
the Mobile Infantry are sent in to capture a Brain Bug in their efforts
to wipe out the enemy. Of course, there are plenty of changes in the story too,
most of which come in the form of the story's main characters. In addition to Dizzy Flores
being a male soldier and Carl not being a psychic, the most evident change is in Lieutenant Rasczak,
the tough-as-nails commander played by Michael Ironside in the film.
In the movie, Ironside plays a combination of two different book characters:
the combat leader of Rico's fighting force, Lieutenant Rasczak — and Mr. Dubois,
his high school History and Moral Philosophy teacher. Dubois plays a special role in the
novel, as a letter he writes is what inspires Rico to stay in the military.
Meanwhile, book Rasczak is simply the leader of the Roughnecks,
known to the troops only as "The Lieutenant." He appears only briefly,
but his death is a major blow to the squad. Even after his passing, the soldiers continue
to refer to the new Lieutenant by his old rank, and behave as if Rasczak is still their leader.
That's a far cry from what happens in the movie when Johnny Rico takes over.
We promise we're not making this one up. In Heinlein's original "Starship Troopers," in
addition to giant killer bugs and towering mech suit-powered soldiers, there also exist a group
of cybernetically enhanced, hyper-intelligent canines called Neodogs. These K-9 Corps members
are important animal soldiers, mutated from dog DNA. Not only are the Neodogs super-smart,
apparently as intelligent as a human child, but they can even talk crudely. Though limited
by their vocal capabilities, they are said to be able to articulate numerous human lingual sounds,
and a well-trained Neodog can learn a human's "accent" well enough to communicate with them.
Beyond just being a soldier's best friend, though, the relationship between the Neodog
and his human partner is extremely profound. As a military recruitment officer tells Rico
when he's first applying for the service, if a K-9 soldier is killed in action,
the Neodog is put down. That's because the bond that's been engineered is so powerful that the
animal would never be able to recover from the death of their human partner. And while humans
don't receive the same death penalty should their Neodog buy the farm, it can take months
to years of intense treatment for soldiers to recover from the loss of their canine comrade.
Though the movie completely ignores this element of the book,
the "Starship Troopers" comics and role-playing games have made use of these soldier pups.
When the "Starship Troopers" movie opens, we're given a civics lesson on the status
of interstellar affairs. This includes the introduction to the Terran Federation,
as well as an overview of Earth's galactic neighbors, the Arachnids. Humans and Arachnids
have a long history of conflict, as we're told that they've been hurling asteroids at Earth for
a while. Thankfully, Earth has powerful planetary defenses capable of stopping most attacks.
What the movie doesn't include is another alien race from the books, a species not-so-kindly
referred to as "The Skinnies." They're called that because, as you might guess,
they're tall, slender humanoid aliens. They live on a civilized planet much like our own,
and while they don't seem particularly aggressive, Earth is in the midst of an invasion of their
world when the book begins. They're described as being "belligerents" in the war with the Bugs,
often feeding the enemy arachnids information that helps them in their war on Earth.
Later in the war, the Skinnies seemingly switch sides, apparently providing
intelligence on the Bugs that aid in an assault on Planet P. Like the Neodogs,
the Skinnies also pop up in several "Starship Troopers" games outside of
the movies, as well as the television series "Roughnecks: The Starship Troopers Chronicles."