A satirical slap in Heinlein's face, a love triangle that doesn't exist,
and a seriously gutting "happy" ending. Maybe the bugs were the real heroes after all.
Most filmmakers take on book adaptations because they enjoy the source material. That wasn't the
case for Paul Verhoeven when he agreed to direct Starship Troopers. He interpreted
Robert Heinlein's novel as ideologically fascist and pro-war, and since Verhoeven
grew up in Nazi-occupied Holland during World War II, it's understandable why he lambasts
these ideas. In an interview with Digital Spy, the director explained that he wanted to make a movie
about a "fascist utopia" where citizens aren't aware of what was really going on. In the film,
Casper Van Dien's Johnny Rico and his Mobile Infantry unit are happy to risk
their lives on the battlefield, despite how they're viewed by their higher-ups,
"Fresh meat for the grinder, eh?"
While Starship Troopers is mostly a cautionary tale about totalitarianism,
the movie boasts a cast of likable characters who are easy to root for. If you overlook their
enjoyment of blasting through bugs and how they blindly follow a questionable regime,
the heroes are regular people. This drives home the idea that everyday folks easily become spokes
in the wheel of an authoritarian state if they don't hold their leaders accountable.
Starship Troopers isn't exactly subtle in how it skewers fascism. The film is
littered with Nazi imagery and nods to German propaganda films from World War
II. The opening shot was pinched from Leni Riefenstahl's infamous propaganda film,
Triumph of the Will, and the officers' uniforms are reminiscent of the Nazi SS and Gestapo.
While these visuals were included to get the filmmakers' point across to the audience,
Verhoeven's crew also appreciated the aesthetic appeal of the uniforms.
According to an interview with Entertainment Weekly, screenwriter Ed Neumeier claimed
"Germans made the best-looking stuff"
This appealed to the film's art directors and costume designers,
with Verhoeven adding that the goal was to deconstruct propaganda films,
giving the viewers some food for thought regarding the bigger issues. Verhoeven said,
"I tried to seduce the audience to join [Starship Troopers'] society,
but then ask, 'What are you really joining up for?'"
Hollywood likes a good romance story, especially if it involves a love triangle increasing drama
and conflict between the characters. Starship Troopers was going down that route, until test
audiences reacted poorly to the subplot where Denise Richards' Carmen couldn't decide if she
wanted to be with Rico or Patrick Muldoon's Zander Barcalow. While a love triangle is
teased — with Rico often acting jealous — Starship Troopers is more interested in Carmen's personal
qualities than her love life. She's depicted as a smart, career-driven pilot who's good at her
job and doesn't need to be romantically involved with anyone to be interesting.
"I think I'm gonna go career. I want to command a ship of my own, you know?"
According to The Guardian, Richards described Carmen as a strong woman and great role model,
noting that the lack of a romantic resolution for her character was
the best decision. Young love is messy and everyone gets their heart broken at
some point. If there's any message about love inside Starship Troopers — besides
fascists loving war — it's that there's no such thing as living happily ever after.
We all clearly noticed the room full of naked people, regardless of what age we saw this movie,
but we may not have appreciated the subtext until later. There's
an argument to be made that the co-ed shower scene in Starship Troopers isn't necessary,
designed to incite thirst and nothing more — let's not forget that Verhoeven directed Basic
Instinct and Showgirls immediately prior to this film. However, this scene isn't as
gratuitous as it might first appear. The main group of recruits discuss their reasons for
enlisting in the military. One of them wants to escape the farm life and see the universe,
and another has political aspirations. The scene highlights the camaraderie between the troopers,
and at no point do they showcase any physical desire toward each other.
This scene reinforces the idea that all of the soldiers are regarded as equals — quite
progressive for a fascist military industrial complex. Starship Troopers is considered so
refreshing in its portrayal of gender politics, it passes the Bechdel Test several times over.
Starship Troopers has a nearly all-white main cast, and most
of them are good-looking. But the movie's lack of diversity was certainly intentional.
Verhoeven spoke directly to the idea when talking about casting Van Dien as Rico.
"Mark Wahlberg and Matt Damon auditioned, but I was looking for the prototype of blond, white and
arrogant, and Casper Van Dien was so close to the images I remembered from Leni Riefenstahl's films"
That said, it's worth noting that there's more diversity in the original novel. The book's lead
character is a Filipino man named Juan. While this aspect was overlooked for artistic reasons,
it still makes Starship Troopers one of the many Hollywood blockbusters to
have whitewashed people of color from the original source material. At the same time,
commenting on fascism wasn't the only reason for casting '90s heartthrobs like Van Dien,
Richards, Neil Patrick Harris, and Jake Busey in the main roles.
According to Screen Slate, Verhoeven wanted actors who looked wholesome,
innocent and classically beautiful, further enhancing the notion that war makes good
people do rotten things. While it can be argued that adding more diversity could have similarly
illustrated this point, there's no denying that Starship Troopers has clear intentions.
"Let me tell you something. I'm from Buenos Aires and I say kill them all."
It's no secret that Starship Troopers is a subversive movie. It was Verhoeven's
intention from the very beginning to satirize both the original pro-war novel as well as the
increasingly imperialistic nature of the United States. To that end, the movie made some key
changes from the book that seek to show how evil the military-run government really is underneath.
One of the biggest examples of this is the Buenos Aires plotline, which can easily be
taken at face value until you re-watch it as an adult. The mysterious enemy race of aliens — known
as the Arachnids — are seemingly capable of hurling asteroids across vast distances of
space to attack human targets. So when an asteroid decimates the Earth city of Buenos Aires — where
Rico's parents live — it sets humanity on a bloodthirsty path of revenge against the aliens.
"The only good bug is a dead bug!"
Yet, the filmmakers hint at more going on with this event than the characters would
make it seem. Many have speculated that the destruction of Buenos Aires was a false flag
attack by the human government to justify an invasion of the Arachnid homeworld, Klendathu.
The only information about the Arachnid's capability to send asteroids toward Earth
comes from the fascist military government, which casts doubt on the credibility of their claims.
Humanity's militaristic society does everything it can to paint the Arachnids as the most heartless
creatures imaginable. Multiple propaganda scenes exist solely to degrade, devalue,
and disrespect the alien foe as part of humanity's war effort, but how true are the claims? Fans know
that Verhoeven intentionally made the film seem like a piece of propaganda, portraying
a utopian fascist society that — to audiences in 1997 — would look absurdly nightmarish.
Because of its satirical nature and propagandistic tone, it's no surprise
that the characters of the film are so merciless to their enemies. In one scene,
we see children on Earth squishing real-life cockroaches. This is framed as a patriotic act
for the war effort, symbolizing humanity crushing the Arachnids. But it becomes
clear that the bugs are largely misunderstood creatures, forced into fighting a defensive war
against aggressive human colonization. The end of Starship Troopers shows just how victimized
the bugs actually are. After capturing the massive brain bug, Carl Jenkins — played
by Neil Patrick Harris — is able to feel its emotions and relay them to the army of troopers.
"It's afraid. It's afraid!"
While the end of the movie features all the explosive action that fans enjoy,
the first half of Starship Troopers focuses on how these attractive young humans are trained
for war. Rico, along with his friends — Carmen, Carl, and Dizzy — are all taught
by a roster of intimidating instructors who have experienced combat first-hand.
On first viewing, these scenes are overshadowed by the love rectangle between Rico, Dizzy, Carmen,
and Zander. But it isn't until revisiting Starship Troopers as an adult that the
depressing nature of the film's teacher-student dynamic becomes apparent. The instructors fought
against the Arachnids, suffering horrific physical disfigurements in combat. Michael Ironside's Jean
Rasczak is missing an arm, and the biology teacher —played by Rue McClanahan — is blind and heavily
scarred. These physical conditions foreshadow the fates of many students who will go off to war.
Starship Troopers seems to have a happy ending, with our heroes defeating their enemies and going
off to successful military careers. But thanks to the film's satirical edge, this excitement feels
hollow. Rico's character arc throughout the film shows us just how sad of an ending this really is.
At the start, Rico is a conflicted character who is unsure of his place in the military
machinery. He joins the mobile infantry, but not out of any sense of patriotic
duty. While it's true that his military service will guarantee him citizenship,
his desire to continue a romantic relationship with Carmen is what draws him into the war. He
shows compassion and conscientiousness during his training, as well as deep regret when he
directly contributes to the death of a fellow soldier during an exercise gone wrong. It's not
until the invasion of Klendathu, after his parents are killed in the Buenos Aires attack, that Rico
drastically changes into a killing machine. Starship Troopers ends with an in-universe
propaganda video encouraging new recruits to join the military so they can be heroes like Rico.
"C'mon, you apes! You wanna live forever?"
For a man as initially open-minded as Rico,
this is an unhappy ending. He is now, truly, just a cog in the war machine.