History Trivia / StarshipTroopers

* WordOfGod: In the director commentary on the Blu-ray DVD Creator/PaulVerhoeven stated showing the mutilated bodies on FedNet was to encourage more people to join the Federation, the cow being censored was due to PETA animal supporters, and the experiments on the Brain Bug were censored as it was classified information.

* DawsonCasting: Casper Van Dien, Patrick Muldoon and Creator/DinaMeyer were ''twenty-nine'' playing ''high school graduates'', Creator/DeniseRichards was 26, Creator/NeilPatrickHarris was 24, and the other "high schoolers" weren't much younger.

* FakeNationality: ''EVERYONE'' playing Argentinian characters are just Americans [[NotEvenBotheringWithTheAccent using their normal accents.]]

** The USM Auriga in ''Film/AlienResurrection'' appears to have been made from a modified model of the Rodger Young, or one of its sister ships.

* RomanceOnTheSet: Eric Bruskotter and Tami-Adrian George, who played recruits Breckinridge and Djana'D respectively. They are both introduced together as new recruits, and they both leave the movie together when [[IJustShotMarvinInTheFace Djana'D accidentally shoots Breckinridge in the head during a live firing round]], and Djana'D quits. [[HappilyEverAfter They have been married ever since]].

* WordOfSaintPaul: Casper Van Dien says he was often asked why a blonde-haired, blue-eyed actor would play the Argentinian Juan Rico. He suggests that his character was the descendant of exiled Germans. [[ArgentinaIsNaziland Argentina was famously a hiding place of German war criminals after World War II]].

* DawsonCasting: Casper Van Dien, Patrick Muldoon and Creator/DinaMeyer were ''twenty-nine'' playing ''high school graduates'', Creator/DeniseRichards was 26, and the other "high schoolers" weren't much younger.

* RecycledScript: This film was originally to be an ''Film/{{Aliens}}'' ripoff called "Bug Hunt", then Verhoeven got the rights to the Heinlein story. Many wept that day.

** ''VideoGame/StarCraftII'' has a Terran grenadier soldier called the Marauder.

* NoExportForYou: An OVA adaptation of the novel has never been officially released in the states.

* BoxOfficeBomb: Didn't fare very well in the United States. Budget, $105 million. Box office, $54,814,377 (domestic), $121,214,377 (worldwide).
* CreatorKiller: This was the final American film Creator/PaulVerhoeven supervised; he never really fully recovered from ''Film/{{Showgirls}}'' and moved back to Europe after this movie.

* WordOfSaintPaul: Casper Van Dien says he was often asked why a blonde-haired, blue-eyed actor would play the Argentinian Juan Rico. He suggests that his character was the descendant of exiled Germans. Argentina was famously a hiding place of German war criminals after World War II.

* ImageSource: This film provides the page image for:
** BugWar

** The premise of ''VideoGame/StarCraft.'' Power-armored action heroes fighting a BugWar (with Skinnies being upgraded to a third faction of SpaceElves because Blizzard was also inspired by Warhammer 40,000).

* DyeingFoYourArt: Casper Van Dien lost 15 pounds for the whipping scene.

** Creator/MarkWahlberg turned down the role of Johnny Rico. Creator/JamesMarsden was also considered.

** The original prop for the Morita assault rifle was going to be made out of the [[CoolGuns/MachineGuns M60]], with [[http://www.imfdb.org/images/7/79/StarshipTroopersM60Morita.jpg various added and removed or modified parts]] to change the look of the weapon; ultimately, the rifles were built out of the Ruger AC556 in a bullpup conversion kit. The only hint towards the original design for the final weapon is that the props include M60 muzzle brakes.

* PlayingAgainstType: Creator/ClancyBrown, normally a villain actor, playing a "good guy" in Sergeant Zim. It's one of only several of these types of roles he's done, with Captain Black and Super Moose from ''WesternAnimation/JackieChanAdventures'' (which also involved Sony/Tristar and is technically another military role[[note]]This show also features a ShockAndAwe villain, Tchang Zu the Thunder Demon, whose voice sounds like Creator/ClancyBrown's voice for [[VideoGame/CrashBandicoot3Warped Uka Uka]]; The Other Wiki credited the role to Creator/FrankWelker, but his name never showed up in the two episodes where Tchang Zu spoke. This series also had Adam Baldwin as a regular cast member, and he appeared in the film that inspired the DrillSergeantNasty trope that Brown did for ''Starship Troopers'', ''Film/FullMetalJacket''.) [[/note]]), Raiden in ''WesternAnimation/MortalKombatDefendersOfTheRealm'' [[note]] Another ShockAndAwe character, this time a hero; ironically, Casper Van Dien would go on to become a part of the franchise by playing Johnny Cage in ''WebVideo/MortalKombatLegacy'' [[/note]] and a doctor in ''Film/CowboysAndAliens'' being some of the few other good examples.

* OneOfUs: Casper Van Dien proudly proclaimed himself a sci-fi geek in 2008 when Website/RottenTomatoes asked him what his favorite films in the genre were, all of which are sci-fi classics (they are ''Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan'', ''Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay'', ''Franchise/StarWars Episode IV: Film/ANewHope'' (which got its ''Special Edition'' theatrical release prior to ''Starship Troopers''), ''Film/TheMatrix'', ''Film/{{Aliens}}'' and the original ''Film/RoboCop1987'' by Verhoeven and screenwriter Ed Neumeier.

** Creator/MarkWahlberg turned down the role of Johnny Rico. Creator/JamesMardsen was also considered.

* RomanceOnTheSet: Eric Bruskotter and Tami-Adrian George, who played recruits Breckinridge and Djana’D respectively. They are both introduced together as new recruits, and they both leave the movie together when [[IJustShotMarvinInTheFace Djana’D accidentally shoots Breckinridge in the head during a live firing round]], and Djana'D quits. [[HappilyEverAfter They have been married ever since]].

* WriterConflictsWithCanon: The controversies over the novel's ethical and political messages are exacerbated by the fact that some of the things Heinlein said about the worldbuilding in later interviews and essays don't seem to fit what is actually depicted in the novel, in particular what precisely qualifies in the novel's society as "public service".

* RomanceOnTheSet: Eric Bruskotter and Tami-Adrian George, who played recruits Breckinridge and Djana’D respectively. They are both introduced together as new recruits, and they both leave the movie together when [[IJustShotMarvinInTheFace Djana’D accidentally shoots Breckinridge in the head during]] [[DestructiveRomance a live firing round]], and Djana'D quits. [[HappilyEverAfter They have been married ever since]].

* DawsonCasting: Casper Van Dien, Patrick Muldoon and Dina Meyer were ''twenty-nine'' playing ''high school graduates'', Creator/DeniseRichards was 26, and the other "high schoolers" weren't much younger.

* PlayingAgainstType: Creator/ClancyBrown, normally a villain actor, playing a "good guy" in Sergeant Zim. It's one of only several of these types of roles he's done, with Captain Black and Super Moose from ''WesternAnimation/JackieChanAdventures'' (which also involved Sony/Tristar and is technically another military role[[note]]This show also features a ShockAndAwe villain, Tchang Zu the Thunder Demon, whose voice sounds like Clancy Brown's voice for [[VideoGame/CrashBandicoot3Warped Uka Uka]]; The Other Wiki credited the role to Creator/FrankWelker, but his name never showed up in the two episodes where Tchang Zu spoke. This series also had Adam Baldwin as a regular cast member, and he appeared in the film that inspired the DrillSergeantNasty trope that Brown did for ''Starship Troopers'', ''Film/FullMetalJacket''.) [[/note]]), Raiden in ''WesternAnimation/MortalKombatDefendersOfTheRealm'' [[note]] Another ShockAndAwe character, this time a hero; ironically, Casper Van Dien would go on to become a part of the franchise by playing Johnny Cage in ''WebVideo/MortalKombatLegacy'' [[/note]] and a doctor in ''Film/CowboysAndAliens'' being some of the few other good examples.

* ReferencedBy: The Prison Warden from ''Film/HaroldAndKumarEscapeFromGuantanamoBay'' states that the movie was the reason he joined the army.