Starship Troopers

A closer look at the story

In the future, freshly graduated from high school, Johnny Rico joins the Mobile Infantry to impress his girlfriend Carmen, who has enrolled at the flight academy to become a starship pilot. A tragic accident during the gruelling training, however, makes Johnny realise he has signed up for the wrong reasons. Just as he is about to resign, an interstellar war erupts between humanity and an arachnid species known as "the Bugs". The war turns into a brutal test that will take Rico's military career from raw recruit to NCO and eventually to an officer's rank. Paul Verhoeven directs from Edward Neumeier's screenplay, based on Robert A. Heinlein's novel; the 129-minute 1997 film stars Casper Van Dien, Dina Meyer, Denise Richards and Neil Patrick Harris in satirical science-fiction action.