Starship Troopers movie storyline. In the 23rd century, humanity 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 savage, unrelenting killing machines, though there are suggestions that they were provoked by the intrusion of humans into their habitats.
In the Federation, citizenship is a privilege, earned by performing such activities as military service, which grants individuals opportunities prohibited to basic civilians. John “Johnny” Rico, his girlfriend Carmen Ibanez and best friend Carl Jenkins attend high school in Buenos Aires. Fellow student Isabelle “Dizzy” Flores is in love with Rico, but he does not reciprocate.
They all enlist in the Federal Service after graduation, despite Rico’s parents disapproving of military service and wanting him to enroll at Harvard University instead. Carmen becomes a spaceship pilot assigned to the warship Rodger Young, while mentally gifted psychic Carl joins Military Intelligence. Rico enlists in the Mobile Infantry, expecting to be with Carmen, but is surprised to find Dizzy, who deliberately transferred to his squad to be near him.
In Mobile Infantry basic training, Career Sgt. Zim trains the recruits. Rico is later promoted to squad leader after showing initiative and quick thinking during training exercises, and befriends Ace Levy. He later receives a Dear John letter from Carmen, as she desires a career with the fleet and now serves under Rico’s high-school sports rival, Zander Barcalow.
Following a live-fire training incident that kills one of Rico’s squad and causes another to quit out of guilt, he is demoted and flogged. He resigns and calls his parents to ask them if he can return home, but the call is cut off when an asteroid, launched by the Arachnids, obliterates Buenos Aires, killing his family and millions of others. Rico rescinds his resignation and remains with the Mobile Infantry as an invasion force is deployed to Klendathu.
Starship Troopers is a 1997 American satirical military science-fiction action film directed by Paul Verhoeven and written by Edward Neumeier. It originally came from an unrelated script called Bug Hunt at Outpost Nine, but eventually licensed the name Starship Troopers from a science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein. The story follows a young soldier named Johnny Rico and his exploits in the Mobile Infantry, a futuristic military unit.
About the Story
Director Paul Verhoeven (Showgirls, Total Recall) reunited many from his 1987 Robocop team for this $100-million science fiction adventure, adapted from Robert A. Heinlein’s 1959 novel, originally serialized in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction (October-November, 1959). After graduation, Johnny Rico (Casper Van Dien) volunteers for the Mobile Infantry to do his Federal service — but also to win over his girlfriend, Carmen Ibanez (Denise Richards), who has signed with the Fleet Academy to become a starship pilot.
Johnny joins other boot-camp recruits — Dizzy Flores (Dina Meyer), who has had a crush on Johnny since school, and Ace Levy (Jake Busey). Ace and Johnny become pals, and Johnny’s abilities earn him the squad leader position. A training accident occurs on Johnny’s watch, and he is about to resign when Earth is attacked by alien insects intent on eradicating all human life.
Johnny’s home, Buenos Aires, is no longer on the map. Horrified, he chooses to stay on and fight to destroy the insect threat. The Mobile Infantry travels to the planet Klendathu to battle the warrior bugs, a ruthless enemy with only one goal — survival of their species no matter what. In the initial encounter, some 100,000 lives are lost. At a distant fort, Johnny’s unit discovers that the bugs drain brains to acquire knowledge.
Soon they are overwhelmed by an advancing arthropod army of immense proportions, attacking both in space and on the planet surface. The notion of human extinction becomes a possibility. For this $100-million production, some 300 artists and technicians combined models and miniatures with CGI effects to fashion a variety of creatures — from breeder bugs to armored tanker bugs. The film employed hundreds of extras and has over 500 visual effects shots.
Filming began on April 29, 1996 in California (LA and Long Beach, where Cal State’s pyramid gym was used for the Jumpball game), New York, South Dakota, Wyoming (Casper, Hell’s Half Acre), and Utah (an abandoned Wendover airstrip where the Enola Gay WWII bomber crew trained). At an abandoned airfield in Fountain Valley, California, an elaborate set was constructed to resemble a military boot camp of the future — complete with an array of pup tents, gull-winged spaceships, hurdle obstacle course, and training facility buildings.
Starship Troopers (1997)
Directed by: Paul Verhoeven
Starring: Casper Van Dien, Denise Richards, Dina Meyer, Jake Busey, Neil Patrick Harris, Patrick Muldoon, Michael Ironside, Clancy Brown, Blake Lindsley
Screenplay by: Edward Neumeier
Production Design by: Allan Cameron
Cinematography by: Jost Vacano
Film Editing by: Mark Goldblatt, Caroline Ross
Costume Design by: Ellen Mirojnick
Set Decoration by: Robert Gould
Art Direction by: Bruce Robert Hill, Steven Wolff
Music by: Basil Poledouris
Distributed by: TriStar Pictures (USA & Canada), Buena Vista Pictures (International)
Release Date: November 7, 1997
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