Starship Troopers

1997 Directed by Paul Verhoeven

The only good bug is a dead bug.

Set in the future, the story follows a young soldier named Johnny Rico and his exploits in the Mobile Infantry. Rico's military career progresses from recruit to non-commissioned officer and finally to officer against the backdrop of an interstellar war between mankind and an arachnoid species known as "the Bugs".

Casper Van Dien Dina Meyer Denise Richards Jake Busey Neil Patrick Harris Clancy Brown Michael Ironside Patrick Muldoon Seth Gilliam Rue McClanahan Blake Lindsley Steven Ford Ungela Brockman Bruce Gray Denise Dowse Amy Smart Tami-Adrian George Julianna McCarthy Dale Dye Dean Norris Marshall Bell Eric Bruskotter Matt Levin Anthony Ruivivar Brenda Strong Christopher Curry Lenore Kasdorf Teo Curnal Achilles Aulisio Show All…

Alternative Titles

Tropas Estelares 1 Las Brigadas del Espacio, Starship Troopers 1, Svemirski vojnici, Vesoljski bojevniki, Infanteria stelara, Svemirski marinci, Invasión (Starship Troopers), Vesmírna pechota

science fiction thriller adventure action

129 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by Adam Friedland 10

I would let Denise Richards destroy my life. Ruin my credit, murder my family, fuck my ass, manipulate me into plotting to kill the president. I would sacrifice years off the end of my life, decades, I would die tomorrow. Just one kiss. All I need is one kiss Denise. My queen. My angel. I am so horny
Also never realized mazzy star playing during the bar fight lol
Review by Adam Cook ★★★★½ 31

There are two reasons why I dislike James Cameron’s Titanic: The first, and obvious reason is that it isn’t a very good film, but most importantly it was responsible for me missing out on seeing Starship Troopers on the big screen. So popular was Cameron’s behemoth that every other film was sold out thanks to people being unable to get into see Winslet’s breasts and DiCaprio’s bad acting.
The sheer spectacle of Verhoeven’s bug-blasting epic would have blown my mind on the big screen but thankfully it is still an undisputed joy at home too. Even back in ‘97 it surprised me how few people really got the film. Not only was Verhoeven very well known for his playful and…
Review by Griffin Newman ★★★★★

No one will ever sneak a film of this size through the studio system ever again.
Review by Neil Bahadur ★★★★½ 5

"This year we explored the failure of democracy, where the social scientists brought our world to the brink of chaos. We talked about the veterans, how they took control & imposed the stability which has lasted for generations since.."
Verhoeven actually has precious little to say about fascism which we don't already know (at least in the context of 2017) - but even moreso than the advertisements which resemble propaganda of both Republican and Democrat alike, what remains interesting is the dime-store teen angst plot devices, which in their generic qualities reveal to us the propagandistic nature of these devices themselves. More than a film about fascism, it remains relevant because it's a film about the nature of propaganda, media & spectacle.…
Review by matt lynch ★★★★½ 1

Goes so far out of its way to identify itself that it's almost impossible to understand how badly misread it was on release. Possibly the Verhoeven Rosetta Stone, not least because the Mad Dutchman was never afraid to show you how spectacular and seductive violence can be.
Review by David Jenkins ★★★★★ 3

1997: What the hell is this overly glossy, idiotic, militaristic apologia for fascism?
2007: Oops it was all for lols.
2017: Realism.
Review by Coolnilk ★★★★½ 4

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

Absolutely enjoyed this. Wanted to check out more of Paul Verhoeven's directorial work as Robocop is easily one of the best films that he has ever made, so I decided to choose Starship Troopers based on some glowing recommendations as the next one and this did not disappoint me at all.
It honestly blew me away in a ton of aspects really as you could definitely look at this one in a variety of ways. It does feel like an epic space war film as there are a ton of remarkable action sequences sprinkled in here and there filled with gory brutality to satisfy anyone that just wants to have an entertaining time, which I surely did have. But this…
Review by K. Austin Collins 3

Denise Richards’s breakup video ... the editing, the costume change ..... To die for. I’m glad we have this movie, a monument to how fascinatingly pop-poised and interesting she is, and in on it. Verhoeven gets it. She needed other good directors. God I wish we had a De Palma with her. I’d even settle for a Canyons.
Review by Richard S. He ★★★★½ 4

François Truffaut once said, “It is impossible to make a true anti-war film, because the act of looking at violence is inherently exciting”. Robert A. Heinlein wrote, “Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than has any other factor”. Paul Verhoeven’s Starship Troopers would have had them both rolling in their graves. Verhoeven’s 1997 adaptation throws good taste — and Heinlein’s original novel — out the window. The rare film that indulges the horrors of war and the joys of watching it vicariously, Starship Troopers makes the wrong feel so appealing because, quite simply, it is.
Starship Troopers opens with what might well be 90210 in space. As the sensitive jock, doe-eyed love interest and the brainy joker,…
Review by ScreeningNotes ★★★★ 19

"Naked force has resolved more conflicts throughout history than any other factor."
Starship Troopers satirizes jingoism and military ideology by dressing itself up as a Nazi and making us laugh at it. From the Federal Network "Would you like to know more?" propaganda ("Join the Mobile Infantry and save the Galaxy!") to the pervasive "us vs. them" fascist mentality ("I'm from Buenos Aires, and I say kill 'em all!") to the drill instructor who misses the point of his own lessons ("The enemy can't push a button if you disable his hand!"), the film systematically reappropriates military iconography to make it laughable and expose its violent foundation. But the greatest reappropriation of all is the way Verhoeven's film itself takes…
Review by Eli Hayes ★★★★½ 11

Probably the best two hours I've had in the past week.
Review by 20oldboy03 ★★★★ 15

Ohne das Buch vorab gelesen zu haben, verbiete ich mir ein endgültiges Fazit zu machen, ob nun „Starship Troopers“ das plakativste Militärhurra oder reine Satire ist.
Er bleibt davon abgekanzelt ein Schlachtgetümmel der jedem (Film)Nerd die Herzchen in die Äuglein zeichnet. Die Gewaltspitzen sind over the top, selten wie nie flogen einem Bug-Blut und Bug-Gedärme entgegen wie hier.
Dazu ein großes Sonderlob an „Industrial Light & Magic“. Aufgerundete vierundzwanzig Jahre hat der Film auf den Buckel und die Effekte sehen heute wie damals hervorragend mit kleinen Abzügen in der B-Note aus.

Bleibt zu sagen: Sollten jemals Bugs erscheinen und uns Menschen den Krieg erklären, meine Messer sind gewetzt, denn nur ein toter Bug ist ein guter Bug.

Recent reviews

Review by Roderick Heath

"Verhoeven’s fork-tongued wit applies itself as much through style as storytelling detail. Part of his peculiar cachet as a director, the source of both his moments of great success and his ultimate failure in Hollywood, stemmed from the gusto with which he set out to nominally give audiences what they seemingly want, but piled on with a reckless excess quickly annexing camp and subversion."
Full review at Film Freedonia:
filmfreedonia.com/2021/01/14/starship-troopers-1997/
Review by Michael Benson ★★★★★

A satire masterpiece on war, being United through Groupthink and a whole bunch more. A thinking man's action classic.
Review by Omar_Caceres ★★★

Verhoeven se luce en esta fábula militarista. Acción sin complejos, bien rodada, escenas sanguiñolentas y brutales de unos enemigos sin piedad, secundarios que caen en batalla uno detrás de otro, sin tiempo a que el espectador reaccione, buenos efectos especiales, magníficos los del espacio, al igual que el sorprendente diseño de los bichos, en ocasiones repugnante, pero resultón.Y los actores, en especial los secundarios, sobresalen.
Review by Max ½

Just bloody awful.
Review by Philip ★★★★½

Auch nach all den Jahren immer noch brilliante Politsatire!
Review by Hamid ★★★★½

What I love the most about it is that you can read it in many ways and it would still make sense. You could watch it as a pro-military flick, you could watch it as a sheer propaganda movie, you could watch it as fascism in disguise, etc.
I wish the bug design was better tho, because they lack the sufficient transparency in design to be as intimidating as they should be.
Would you like to know more?
Review by Henry Arrambide ★★★½

Verhoeven's third stage of dystopia, placed beyond the whittling away of the old order seen in Robocop and the normalization of a new space-faring reality in Total Recall, takes us to a near-future consumed by fascist ideology. Best understood as a product of said society, Troopers plays like a future artifact sent back through time as a recruiting tool, a sexy advertisement for Joe Haldeman's inevitable Forever War that gamifies Genocide into Football, a regular function and pastime of a society that annihilates identity with an ideology of cynical death-driven platitudes made to be repeated but not dissected. The film stays true to concept tonally, keeping a lot of the lighting and writing on a superficial level that prevents it…
Review by MovieFanDan16 ★★★★★

🐜“It’s an ugly planet! A Bug Planet” 🐛
I remember when I first ever watched this film, I bought it for £3 on VHS out of my pocket money. I was very young and I stared at the back of the case all the way home from town waiting eagerly to put it on. I got in, slapped it on and got recruited by the mobile infantry. I must of gone career because I have loved this film ever since.
“Come on you apes, you wanna live forever?!”
Starship troopers is about a world in which democracy has failed. To gain citizenship in this world you serve at least a 2 year term in the military. Upon surviving you become…
Review by bekukmin ★★★★½

원작이 마음에 안 들었던 게 분명한 버호벤 옹.
Review by Andy ★★★★

A great tongue in cheek sci-fi film that's maybe takes a little too long to get to going.
The CGI has aged badly however there are plenty of awesome practical effects and gore to make up for it.
Unapologetically 90's and a real fun time all round
Review by Timothy Q Bartolini ★★★★½

I started out hating this movie when I saw it when it came out. Princeton MarketFair... had absolutely no desire to see it, but Paul insisted we all go. I hated it.
I hated it when it came out on video too.
I was young. The satire flew right over my head but it does say something about my natural disposition. A sly satire with overt fascism in the style of propaganda... designed to win over an unware audience and get them root for the fascists... and I, an 18 year old that did not get the satire at all, absolutely rejected it and wished everyone in it would be murdered by bugs.
So yeah... I've been doing this whole "fascists are jerks" thing for decades.
As an adult, I love and appreciate everything Starship Troopers does.
Review by seb ★★★★★

masterful