MovieChat Forums > Starship Troopers (1997) Discussion > Like it, but has issues:

Like it, but has issues:

posted 9 years ago by morbius001
15 replies | jump to latest

The distance from Klendathu to Earth I have and issue with:
Maybe the ships can 'warp' space, or fold, or use a magic wand... but the bugs knocking the meteors out of their orbit... those puppies have to travel to Earth at sub-light speeds. So, from the other side of the galaxy, the best-case scenario would be hundreds of thousands of years.

And nearly as big of an issue: If you have a technology that enables you galactic travel... to other star systems in hours-days-weeks... then surely, you've developed your weapons technology above bullits... I mean really!... Chemically propelled projectiles... seriously?!!!

I dunno why I'm so fond of this flick, but I am. Normally, major issues like those above would have me singing the praises of the booger-flickers.

[–] criztu 9 years ago

The distance from Klendathu to Earth I have and issue with:

Klendathu being on the opposite side of the galaxy, 2000 light years away from Earth, is a clue!

... to allow you to realize that:
1. it is the humans who are waging war against a species that lacks space travel - this is inferred in the scene where Carmen tells the teacher that "humans created space travel" in response to the teacher saying that bugs are "perfect selfless members of society".
2. the "asteroid sent by the bugs" is a false flag, an inside job, by the SkyMarshals, against the human race, to justify and perpetuate their monopoly on power.

[–] morbius001 9 years ago

Well... (trying hard to, in a meaningful way, fold your reply into some comparison that's not like apples and oranges)... ummm... my issue is unrelated to motivation regarding anything, and even disregarding Skymarshall this or that... because none of that has any bearing in any way.
This is 100% about distance vs. speed... whether 'that' distance is 2000 LY or a gazillion... 'cause even one light-year's distance would make this whole thing implausible, considering that our NEAREST star is just over 4 light years away, meaning that at the speed of light, it would take over 4 years to reach Earth from there, let alone, from 2000 light year's distance. And, there are the countless course-corrections that would be needed along the way, other celestial bodies... gravitational pull from stars, planets, asteroids, and comets. Remember- we're talk8ng about,"shooting meteors out of their orbit with bug plasma"... which would be like setting up a shot in a game of pool in NYC, and using the cue ball to strike the 8 ball, and sink the corner pocket... in Tokyo... with a gazillion other balls in motion, and bouncing around in 3 dimensions... and that's a simplified example, because you also have time working against you.
To aim for a target, you have to see a target... and even if a bug (or anyone) could see 2000 light years across the galaxy... you're looking 2000 years into the past, not the present.
It might be different if we were talking about the distance from the Earth to the Moon (about one light second).
And... also, those meteors are traveling at sublight speeds, not at warp. Nah... the author(s), for the book or the screenplay, would have added considerable credibility by lessening that distance... or dreaming up something that coulda been done a bit more rationally. I mean, even in Star Trek... at warp 9.98, the Enterprise ain't makin' no trips to the other side of the galaxy... and remember the graphic they use to show where Earth is, vs. Klandathu (or whatever)... draw a line from point A to point B, and you go straight thru the center of the galaxy... which has the heaviest concentration of EVERYTHING, including supermassive blackholes.
No... it doesn't matter WHY bugs do or don't, or Skymarshalls dress pretty, or nothin'... cuz the math just don't hold water.

[–] criztu 9 years ago

Nah... the author(s), for the book or the screenplay, would have added considerable credibility by lessening that distance... or dreaming up something that coulda been done a bit more rationally.

dude, "bugs from 2000 light years away shot plasma at a meteor in our solar system" is a lie from the Sky Marshals.
A meteor is a rock that burns up in the atmosphere, doesn't even touch the ground.

[–] morbius001 9 years ago

No... you're wrong. A meteorite is a meteor that makes it all the way thru the atmosphere, and actually strikes the ground... technically speaking.
So the strike that wiped out Rio, was a meteorite.
Look it up... google it.

[–] morbius001 9 years ago

Sorry... just woke up.
You said the same thing, a different way.
Ok... you're saying the Skymarshalls lieing?
Well what's the deal with the Rio strike?... and the explaination... propaganda or not?

[–] criztu 9 years ago

it's Buenos Aires, not Rio.

A meteor is a meteoroid, which burns up in the atmosphere, doesn't touch the ground.
A meteorite is a meteoroid, which reaches the ground.

The man inside the tv says clearly: "bug plasma coming from Klendathu, sent a meteor to Earth".

The Sky Marshals are lying about what destroyed Buenos Aires.
In fact you can hear Rico's father noticing the sudden darkness, and saying: "it looks like rain". Well, a burning rock falling from the sky, looks nothing like rain.

The destruction of Buenos Aires, allows Sky Marshal Meru to remove Sky Marshal Dienes from power.
The destruction of Buenos Aires, allows the Sky Marshals' government to use the bugs from Klendathu, as scape goat. Instead of questioning the legitimacy of the military junta, people like Rico, are busy hating on the bugs, thinking that a bug 2000 light years away from Earth, somehow killed his parents. Rico is blinded by the pain of losing his parents, and so he is easily manipulated into hating the bugs.

Why do the Sky Marshals need to manipulate Rico, and send him to die on a planet 2000 light years away from Earth?
Because Rico chose to become a citizen, and exercise power. Rico wants power.
But, to become a citizen, Rico has to serve in the army.

And the army is in perpetual war. Rico and every other civilian who wants to exercise power by becoming citizens, are sent to die by the hundreds of thousands, in a ill prepared war, where the marines are sent to fight in t-shirts, with no artillery or tanks to help them.
Matter of fact, the fleet could just wipe out the entire bug planet from orbit! The humans have the technology to travel 2000 light years away, in no time. So, wiping out a planet shouldn't be a problem.
Yet, you can see how the battle cruisers crash into each other, like headless chicken, unable to evade slow blobs of plasma sent by the bugs from the surface of the planet, as they lack space technology.

The war is not designed to defeat the bugs.
The war is designed to kill or disable, all civilians who want power.

[–] morbius001 9 years ago

Hmmm... as many times as I've watched it, but I've never gotten that 'take'.
I'm gonna have to watch it again with that slant in mind, to see if... well, if I see that perspective.

[–] cockroachcharlie 8 years ago

The movie blows it hard in this regard. Basically, the only way for it to work is that the meteor was a deliberate excuse to launch a war against the bugs. In the book, the bugs are MUCH more technologically advanced (they carry personal firearms for instance).

[–] GSReis 9 years ago

The problem for me is not the distance itself, but the way the bugs travel, which is completely unrealistic. In terms of distance, it might only work if their planet was in our Solar System, but even then, how would they aim and hit the target? In the book, they had advanced technology, including spaceships.

I also agree on the weapons. Every time I watch the movie (I like it, too), I keep thinking of how stupidly ineffective they are.

[–] Nikulturny 9 years ago

The meteor that hits Buenos Aires has to be a put-up job by the Federation, a meteor from Bug space would take millions of years to travel the distance we're shown in the movie. It's just used to justify going to war.

Some of the weapons technology in the movie is pretty advanced, like the self-guiding nuclear tipped missiles we see the troopers using at times. Firearms might seem a bit old-hat but they're still an efficient, man-portable means of killing your enemies. The Feds might arguably be advanced enough to produce laser rifles which are as powerful as firearms but Star Wars style blaster weapons are just a fantasy, and would also have detracted from the verisimilitude of the movie.

"There is no more human race. There is only.. the Master race!"

[–] Nautius_Maximus 9 years ago

I've never considered the time/space travel aspect, but my main complaint about the movie is the seemingly endless amount of ineffective ammunition the mobile infantry uses. It takes an astonishing amount of bullets to kill just one of those arachnids, and from multiple shooters. It's showing on Syfy right now & I just noticed the clips they use can't possibly hold the amount of ammunition they need without re-loading (which you almost never see).
You would think that this far in to the future, even the mobile infantry wouldn't restrict themselves to mostly light weaponry, but also employ heavier weapons and armor, as well as air support.

Life's short, stunt it!

[–] GreyHunter 8 years ago

I choose to believe that the endless bullets situation is likewise satire of the public appetite for unrealistic violence, including guns that never seem to need reloading. This was a mainstay of action movies long before "Starship Troopers" came on the scene, and was ripe for satirization. Hell, did you notice how the guns suddenly became way more effective in the final fight as they were escaping from the cave? Yet another mainstay cliche of violent action movies, where the hero[e]'s weapons (or fighting technique) suddenly manage to take out a villain that seems to be almost indestructible prior to the climax of the movie in question. It's the ultimate contrived climax -- even when violence has been ineffectual for most of the movie, violence is always the answer, in the end.

This movie works a lot better, I think, if we just assume everything, including the lack of realism, in it is satire. As far as I'm concerned, it mocks not just militarism as a concept, but the entire culture, and attendant entertainment media, that revels in gratuitous violence.

[–] morbius001 8 years ago

I dunno. So many bullets... and yet, they never reload. I don't remember seeing any spent casings.
No... I'm sorry. If you can develop interstellar travel, with all of the technology that it would require, it's just crazy to think they'd still be using chemically fired bullets. That's like... doing brain surgery with sharpened rocks.
And the bug plasma just couldn't knock those massive meteors out of orbit, without breaking the up, and propelling them into warp, on route to the Terran system... with the trillions of course-corrections required... and finally, directly to Earth. Just ain't even kinda close to workable.
That being said... I still like the first film.

[–] dr-kandimba-1 8 years ago

This movie works a lot better, I think, if we just assume everything, including the lack of realism, in it is satire.

I totally agree with this.
There are other irrealistic aspects in the meteor attack, begging questions like: how did the arachnids hop on the meteor? How do they survive in space, where there is no atmosphere? How do they survive the meteor entry in earth's atmosphere, when the meteor is on fire? How do they survive the impact of the meteor as it crashes, equivalent to a major bomb?
This is so stupid that I cannot believe that Verhoeven would not notice it. Such a glaring "plot hole" is there, in reality, as a way to show that people will believe any kind of lies the military tell them, no matter how unbelievable they are. To suggest otherwise is to suggest that Verhoeven does not pay attention to details, and this movie, with its thousand micro-details that show how the fascist human society is no more evolved than the bug one, clearly demonstrates otherwise.

[–] gundamknight111 8 years ago

http://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/42615/how-did-the-bugs-in-starship-troopers-launch-the-asteroids-towards-earth

as to the Buenos Aires strike, I believe the [link]poster's 3rd explanation is correct that they used pre-existing wormholes to bombard earth with asteroids - like a scout was sent first & calibrated their aim generally to hit Earth, but it was still a distance away from Earth.

I have yet to find a film that beats this hands-down as a Mil-Sci-Fi. Probably because it covers so much & is a great life lesson to anyone that looks beyond the scenes - also if you're thinking of a military career/"service" yourself.

They probably did have other advanced technology, or never saw the need to advance above basic projectile weapons as they're just warring against other humans, if they did at all - which is likely given how citizens and civilians were treated differently.

It's far more likely that guns that fired brass bullets were more cheap to mass-produce than any alternative as we do see more advanced weaponry in later films, or could be easier to help the audience identify with the movie.

- none of those sequels are considered sequels in my opinion.