You’ve probably seen a lot of Space Marines in your timeline lately. This is largely thanks to the surprising and slightly overwhelming success of Hellraiser 2, which literally decorated my timeline with plenty of snippets of human-insect-stroke-automaton action. This is a classic case of word-of-mouth, with a fun and cool clip taking it to a level higher than any type of advertising campaign. Ironically, around the same time, the internet was also abuzz with talk about Starship Troopers (deep sigh). ironnically, starship troopers If you liked Hellraiser 2, this movie happens to be the perfect movie for you to watch.
If you know the premise of Helldiver, you pretty much already know the premise of Starship Troopers, but I’m going to break it down for you anyway. The film, directed by Paul Verhoeven, is set in the 23rd century and tells the story of teenager Johnny Rico and his friends who sign up to join the military. This specifically involves fighting alien bugs who allegedly want to wipe out the human race, described as being both smart enough to deliberately launch asteroids at Earth from light-years away, but stupid enough to survive solely on their murderous instincts. There is nothing else but that – and of course the contradictory nature of these two things is intentional.
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You see, although the protagonist of the film is Johnny, he is not what you would call a good guy. He originally signed up for the Army just because his girlfriend signed up for it, he had no real purpose in life, he just joined the Army because of what his hormones told him to do. His family is wiped out by bugs (supposedly) not long into the film, and lo and behold, that’s his motivation! He now hates bugs and wants to get rid of them all.
The problem is, as the movie progresses, you start to notice that there’s no real indication as to why these bugs are so hell-bent on killing humans. You can’t even really tell if the bugs are colonizing the planet or something, and you never know the cause of the war – you just know that the humans are the good guys. certainly. obviously.
Then, you start to notice that some of the military symbols look a lot like the ones used by the Nazis…and the military is too glamorized…and there’s Johnny with his strong chin, his blond hair that’s a little too handsome, and his blue eyes. ……ah. Are we bad people?
The answer to this question is likely yes, since Verhoeven’s interpretation of the 1959 novel of the same name was actually based on his own experiences as a child in Nazi-occupied Netherlands. Despite what some on Twitter may think, Starship Troopers is actually pretty anti-fascist. It satirically deconstructs far-right propaganda while showing how militaristic rule can lead to bloody, gruesome deaths (it doesn’t feel like an accident that you see so many of the characters killed being people of color).
Starship Troopers wasn’t that popular upon its release as many people interpreted it as relative
It feels like a perfect companion piece to the equally ironic Hellraiser 2, whose video game format is perhaps better suited to over-the-top violence and action. It’s not always easy to watch (there are several scenes of limbs being chopped off and bodies being torn in half), but if you need something to wear while you wait for Helldiver 2’s servers to empty out a bit, here’s the Starship Troopers is a good choice and worth pursuing.