History YMMV / StarshipTroopers

* FollowTheLeader: The original script "Bug Hunt" was an ''Film/{{Aliens}}'' ripoff, and much of ''Film/{{Aliens}}'' was inspired by the original ''Literature/StarshipTroopers'' novel.

* ShallowParody: Those with a good understanding of the history behind UsefulNotes/WorldWarII tend to be a lot less impressed with Creator/PaulVerhoeven's very rudimentary idea of satire, which pretty much starts and stops at "Militarism, nationalism, and propaganda [[HitlerAteSugar are all evil because they're things the Nazis did]]!", ignoring that not only did the Nazis ''not'' invent any of them, but those same concepts were also what the Allies in part relied on to ''defeat'' Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan.

* ShallowParody: Those with a good understanding of the history behind UsefulNotes/WorldWarII tend to be a lot less impressed with Creator/PaulVerhoeven's very rudimentary idea of satire, which pretty much starts and stops at "Militarism, nationalism, and propaganda [[HitlerAteSugar are evil because they're things the Nazis did]]!", ignoring that not only did the Nazis ''not'' invent any of those, but those same concepts were also what the Allies relied on to ''defeat'' Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan.

* ShallowParody: Those with a good understanding of the history behind UsefulNotes/WorldWarII tend to be a lot less impressed with Creator/PaulVerhoeven's very rudimentary idea of satire, which pretty much starts and stops at "Militarism, nationalism, and propaganda are evil [[HitlerAteSugar because they're things the Nazis did]]!", ignoring that not only did the Nazis ''not'' invent any of those, but those same concepts were also what the Allies relied on to ''defeat'' Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan.

* ShallowParody: Those with a good understanding of the history behind UsefulNotes/WorldWarII tend to be a lot less impressed with Creator/PaulVerhoeven's very rudimentary idea of satire, which pretty much stops and starts at "Militarism, nationalism, and propaganda are things the Nazis did!", ignoring that not only did the Nazis ''not'' invent any of those, but those same concepts were also what the Allies relied on to ''defeat'' Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan.

* FandomRivalry: There's quite a schism between fans of Heinlein's novel and fans of the movie for reasons that should be pretty obvious.

** Distilled into a single act, no less--the asteroid [[ColonyDrop that destroyed Buenos Aires]] was claimed by the PropagandaMachine to have been launched by the aliens... [[FridgeLogic but there's no evidence aside from the claim made on the news to back this up]] and [[SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale it makes absolutely no sense in terms of physics]]. It wouldn't be the first time a freak accident was used to inspire people to go to war. Alternatively, the Federation did the ColonyDrop itself as a FalseFlagOperation to get support for the BugWar.

** Dizzy especially when her wavy red hair is let loose and in her tank top (with her arm tattoo visible), resembles Meryl as she appeared in the first''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid''.

** The ''{{Futurama}}'' episode "War Is the H-Word", which parodies ''Starship Troopers'', gets funnier in the Italian dub given that Rico and Sgt. Zim share the same dubbers as Fry and Zapp Brannigan (Creator/FabrizioManfredi and Creator/AlessandroRossi, respectively).

** Recruits Breckinridge and Djana'D are introduced together, and leave it around the same time when Djana'D slips up during a live-fire training exercise and accidentally shoots Breckinridge in the head. In real life, their respective actors ''[[RomanceOnTheSet they got married]]'', and have been together ever since.

* HilariousInHindsight: NFL wideout Jerome Simpson actually pulled off [[http://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-cant-miss-plays/09000d5d8255d978/WK-16-Can-t-Miss-Play-Jumpin-Jerome-Simpson the Flip 6-3 hole]]. ''In the same uniform, no less!''

** Recruits Breckinridge and Djana'D are introduced together, and leave it around the same time when Djana'D slips up during a live-fire training exercise and accidentally shoots Breckinridge in the head. In real life, ''[[RomanceOnTheSet they got married]]'', and have been together ever since.

* {{Anvilicious}}: Creator/PaulVerhoeven knows of no other way to present a message, though for some people the message is [[LostAesop still lost]], and the movie appears to be a gung-ho sci-fi romp in which War is Awesome.

** [[Series/{{Psych}} Lassie]] works for the government's psychic program. Kind of ironic......
** Fans of ''Series/TheWire'' and ''Series/TheWalkingDead'' will recognize Creator/SethGilliam as the sergeant who [[spoiler:sacrifices himself to take out hundreds of bugs]] in the end.

* CriticalResearchFailure: In arguing for why ViolenceReallyIsTheAnswer, both a student and her teacher early in the film seems to be under the impression that the city of Hiroshima ceased to exist entirely after the end of World War II. This is changed from the speech in the book, where [[UsefulNotes/PunicWars Carthage]] is cited instead. The change, along with everything else about the film, is deliberate when one considers Verhoeven's beliefs about the United States government in the 90s-current day.

* FairForItsDay: The protagonist is a non-stereotypical Asian and he's serving in a fully-integrated military where women are respected officers and even the [[WhatMeasureIsANonhuman neutral aliens]] are treated as allies and equals. Having a Filipino as the main character of a mainstream sci fi action story would still be considered notable in American media even today, much less in the fifties when miscegenation was illegal in most of the CONUS.

** The notion of restricting voting rights beyond "all adults" also rings hollow given the history of voter suppression efforts in the United States.
** Comparing the emphatic support the book expresses for service compared against the actual impacts of nations where military or civil service is mandatory for some or all citizens is also illuminating: such programs heavily influence conservative political views of nations, have been criticized as acting as a form of social control, and are often deeply unpopular with refusal to serve sometimes resulting in prison sentences.

* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: The opinion of the novel's fans. There's some overlap with WTHCastingAgency at the ''directorial level,'' since you don't hand ''Creator/PaulVerhoeven'' a novel that states that WarIsGlorious and say, "Adapt this into a movie! Change whatever you like."

** When Rico's father asks him where his uniform is when he's calling to tell them he's resigning and coming home, was he just making an awkward question, or despite being highly against Rico joining the army he secretly hoped he'd earn citizenship for serving and proceed to live in his son's glory?

* GeniusBonus: The repeated line "Come on, you apes! You wanna live forever?" is paraphrased from a famous [=WW1=] Marine order from the Battle of Bellau Wood.

* MarySuetopia: The film is a SpiritualAntithesis to [[Literature/StarshipTroopers its own source novel]]. Whereas Heinlein attempted to depict a liberal utopia with a strong military, Verhoeven set out to present the Federation as a warmongering fascist state. However, beyond PuttingOnTheReich, the Federation conspicuously lacks much of the endemic corruption found in RealLife fascist regimes. While the society is shown to be very jingoistic and subject to a lot of propaganda, the civilians are otherwise shown living comfortable middle class lives beyond not being able to vote (in the film's universe, voting is a right one earns through military service; fascism rejects all forms of democracy on principle), and there is no discrimination based on race or sex, with [[GenderIsNoObject integrated units]]. There's FantasticRacism against the Arachnids, but they're never depicted as anything other than a genocidal HordeOfAlienLocusts that eat brains. There is no almighty Fascist dictator whose rule cannot be questioned -- the Sky Marshall immediately ''resigns'' when he's held responsible for a major military defeat (did Hitler resign after losing the Battle of Stalingrad?). The Federation's motto, "Service guarantees citizenship", is basically the opposite of what a fascist would say, i.e. "Citizenship guarantees service".

* MarySuetopia: The society was a sort of Mary Suetopia, based on Heinlein's later conservative ideals. Specifically, after a revolution in the twenty-first century, the corrupt technocracy that grew out of the liberal democracies was replaced with some sort of hybrid political structure that can best be described as a radical meritocracy. The functionality of such a state depends however on the political beliefs of the author having been proven unquestionably true in-universe. It should be noted that in the beginning of the book it's implied there's corruption at a certain degree, see CommonKnowledge, and voting rights can be acquired without the moral superiority obtained trough military service, but this is never addressed past the recruitment bit.

* GoddamnedBoss: ''[[UpToEleven All of the bosses]]'', because they had absurd amounts of health and armour and could often only be hurt by attacking tiny, [[AttackItsWeakPoint constantly moving weak spots]].

*** Despite the fact that Paul Verhoeven is anti-war and anti-fascism (he came mighty close to becoming 'collateral damage' when he was a child in the Netherlands in World War II), people will accuse him from now until judgment day of making a movie that ''glorifies'' war, fascism, and blind, jingoistic patriotism. To think Paul Verhoeven made the mistake of being ''too subtle''.
*** This Misaimed Fandom gets an InUniverse example in ''Film/HaroldAndKumarEscapeFromGuantanamoBay''. The paranoid, racist, warmongering Homeland Security agent tells Creator/NeilPatrickHarris that ''Starship Troopers'' inspired him to get into his line of work.
*** This expands to the creators of the sequels as well, who clearly missed out the implication that the Arachnids were innocent victims who were being provoked by the xenophobic and jingoistic humans, and portrayed the humans as the lesser evil.
*** Critics lambasted the fact that the characters were flat and uninteresting. According to [[WordOfGod Paul Verhoeven]], he was ''aiming'' for ''[[Series/BeverlyHills90210 90210]]'' '''[[JustForFun/RecycledInSpace IN SPACE!]]''' because the entire film ''was'' a ''propaganda film''.
*** Somehow even ''Series/TheDailyShow'' (which did movie reviews back then -- one of many instances of EarlyInstallmentWeirdness) missed the satire, picking up on Neil Patrick Harris' [[PuttingOnTheReich SS-like uniform]] but ''not the fact that the audience wasn't meant to be rooting for the humans.''

** "I'm from Buenos Aires and I say "kill'em all"!"

* CommonKnowledge: Military service is ''not'' the only way to earn the right to vote (in the original novel at least; [[AdaptationDisplacement the films are another story]]), ''federal'' service is. In other words, you ''can'' become a full citizen by being a civil servant in certain capacities ([[SpaceTrucker Merchant Marine service]] is said not to count, but AsteroidMining apparently does) - the aim is to demonstrate a commitment to service over self.

* ClicheStorm: A force five hurricane, especially the death scenes, but with it being in-universe propaganda, this actually may be intentional.