Thanks to Helldivers 2, more and more people are discovering Starship Troopers. However, the film is not received well by everyone as expected.
What kind of film is this? Starship Troopers is a science fiction film from 1997 that has developed into a cult classic over the years. It satirically addresses the fight of a military society against the threat of the “Bugs” and is quite violent in the process. This caused some issues at the time of its release, as not everyone could recognize the satirical approach.
A very similar approach is taken by the game Helldivers 2, which is clearly inspired by Starship Troopers. Due to the success of the game, the film has also gained a lot of attention again and found some new fans.
The star of the original film, Casper Van Dien, is currently out and about giving interviews about the film, the connection to Helldivers 2, and also a new game: Starship Troopers: Extermination.
You can see that in the trailer here:
Casper Van Dien talks about satire in Starship Troopers
In one of these interviews, with Gamerant, Van Dien, who played the protagonist “Johnny Rico” at the time, commented on the development of the new game, the film, and how it is received.
He was clearly excited about developer Offworld, who is developing the new game, and emphasized: “It was really fun for me, because they really understood it. That wasn’t the case for everyone,” says Van Dien.
In England, Van Dien recalls, the audience fully understood Starship Troopers, for instance, because the humor matched. In America, it wasn’t that easy back then, but that has improved, the actor explains: “In America, we might have missed it back then, but now people are coming back,” says Van Dien.
What is it like today? There has been more audience engagement, also because people have played the new game, Helldivers 2 or Halo.
And today it is often said: “‘How could anyone overlook that this was satire?’ That’s what the young audience says. And I believe that’s because educated people show it to them, older people show it to them, and also the audience simply has more wisdom regarding this kind of thing nowadays. For some reason, it has changed a bit, the satire is much better understood.”
How has the press changed? Even in the press world, it is easier today. Back during a press conference, as Van Dien recalls, someone even asked him to show a military salute.
He refused: “I’m not an idiot, maybe I play one in the movie, but I won’t do something like that. For me, it was confusing, maybe they wanted to trick me, maybe they really didn’t understand the film.”
Does everyone understand Starship Troopers today? He finds it really difficult at times to comprehend when people still do not see what Starship Troopers is above all:
Namely a satire. “I always try to be friendly. And I try to explain and have compassion, because I don’t think it’s fair to mock someone just because they aren’t there yet,” explains Van Dien: “Maybe they didn’t pay enough attention.” One could despair over that: “Yes, because it seems so obvious.”
Overall, however, Van Dien sees mainly positive aspects in the revival of Starship Troopers, to which certainly the success of Helldivers 2 contributed. In another interview, the actor had also commented on the topic, but emphasized: One should feel free to train elsewhere, but then preferably with him to fight against the Bugs in the new game about Starship Troopers.
