History Film / Soldier

* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill: Colonel Mekum's response to the news that entire team of his vaunted, genetically-enhanced SuperSoldiers have been wiped out by an unknown adversary? Blow up the ''[[EarthShatteringKaboom entire planet]]''. And that thermonuclear, planet-killer warhead they use to achieve that? For even greater overkill, they have ''fifteen'' of them aboard.

* CatScare: With disastrous results. Todd gets spooked by one of the settlers, who just wanted to give him a friendly pat on shoulder. Being conditioned for his whole life to figth and defend himself, he almost ''murders'' the poor guy on instinct and ultimately gets exiled over this.

* ForcedToWatch: The SuperSoldier squad is forced to watch a pack of dogs attacking a wild boar as children during their training.

* RatedMForManly: So manly it barely needs any words.

* SoftGlass: Brings us a SuperWindowJump and DynamicEntry. As the three-man firetime assaults the colony, Todd jumps through one of the skylights to land behind a flamethrower-wielding soldier and slit his throat.

* WhyWontYouDie: A nonverbal version between Todd and Caine in their final fight. Todd has been hammered badly but just keeps getting back up, and Caine looks at something between confusion and horror.

* BadassNormal: Todd is one (absurdly prepared and mentally honed) guy against twenty genetically-enhanced troops with better weapons and armor. He wipes the floor with all of them.

* AppealToFamilialWisdom:
-->'''Church:''' My daddy always said, "When you want to insert a nail into a piece of wood, don't do anything fancy or glamorous. Just take the damn hammer and hit the son of a bitch until it's in."\\

* EvenEvilHasStandards: Captain Church has reservations about treating anyone they find on the planet as hostile, but dies his best to support Mekum's decision. He even agrees with Mekum's plan of [[ItsTheOnlyWayToBeSure blasting the planet from orbit]] to wipe out its inhabitants. However, when Mekum chooses to go through with this even if it means forsaking the lives of Church's unit, Church objects so strongly that Mekum executes him for defying his order.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: Captain Church has reservation sabout treating anyone they find on the planet as hostile, but dies his best to support Mekum's decision. He even agrees with Mekum's plan of [[ItsTheOnlyWayToBeSure blasting the planet from orbit]] to wipe out its inhabitants. However, when Mekum chooses to go through with this even if it means forsaking the lives of Church's unit, Church objects so strongly that Mekum executes him for defying his order.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: Captain Church has reservationsabout treating anyone they find on the planet as hostile, but dies his best to support Mekum's decision. He even agrees with Mekum's plan of [[ItsTheOnlyWayToBeSure blasting the planet from orbit]] to wipe out its inhabitants. However, when Mekum chooses to go through with this even if it means forsaking the lives of Church's unit, Church objects so strongly that Mekum executes him for defying his order.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: Captain Church follows his superior Colonel Mekum's lead and is the one to initially suggest [[ItsTheOnlyWayToBeSure blasting the planet from orbit]] to wipe out its inhabitants. However, when Mekum chooses to go through with this even if it means forsaking the lives of Church's unit, Church objects so strongly that Mekum executes him for defying his order.

* ChildrenAreInnocent: Averted with the boys chosen for Project Adam, since they were trained from birth to show no emotion and become desynthesized to violence by being forced to witness animals violently killing each other, trained in hand to hand combat, and to know how to uses firearms and explosives. Played straight with the children that were born on Arcadia, their parents were survivors whose ship crashed on an uninhabited planet, and raised them with the idea that in order to survive, they need to peacefully work together.

* CavalryBetrayal: Mace sees the military ship land and excitedly starts to approach, believing it to be a rescue party. He is promptly corrected by Todd with a firm, "Come with me, sir!"

* BeginWithAFinisher: {{Defied|Trope}} after Captain Church says they should just NukeEm From Orbit. "My daddy always said, 'When you want to insert a nail into a piece of wood, don't do anything fancy or glamorous. Just take the damn hammer and hit the son of a bitch until it's in.'" He's overruled by a pompus Colonel who wants to use his new genetically modified soldiers, which leads to the deaths of the soldiers, the Colonel, and the Captain.

* AnAssKickingChristmas: Christmas is celebrated by the inhabitants of Arcadia 234, and that's when the soldiers come in and invade the planet.

* ArmorIsUseless: The genetically-modified troops are mowed down easily by weapons fire and melee weapons. Although they stand up pretty well against the civilian weapons.

* SoftGlass: Brings us a SuperWindowJump.

* UntrustingCommunity: Justified. Due to his training, Todd has no social skills whatsoever. It has been absolutely drilled into him never to speak unless spoken to, and even then he gives only curt responses. He doesn't volunteer to explain why he's not with his unit until a settler directly accuses him of desertion, which makes him angry enough to choke out that he was replaced by newer soldiers. Moreover, several of the colony leaders are fully aware of the kind of training he went through, honed from infancy to be a remorseless and efficient killing machine. The breaking point comes when holding a gun makes him have a violent flashback, nearly killing a random guy with his deadly reflexes before coming to his senses. The colony leaders exile him by (more or less) politely explaining that they fear that his training and indoctrination have made him truly incapable of ever integrating in a peaceful society. The fact that their fears are entirely rational makes it hurt all the more for Todd. But the survivors come around when he saves them from the advance force.

* SpiritualSuccessor: A [[ExpandedUniverse sidestory]] to ''Film/BladeRunner'', which is arguably the Citizen Kane of science fiction films. This actually isn't as crazy as it sounds at first glance: it's not just a film the studio wanted to cram into the ''Blade Runner'' universe; the scriptwriter David Webb Peoples was actually one of the two scriptwriters on ''Blade Runner'' itself. So if anyone could justifiably make a side-story in the same universe, he can (also it's not just a rip-off of ''Blade Runner'' - there are some tonal similarities and Shout Outs in the background but they don't hit you over the head with it).

* AFatherToHisMen: Todd to his unit. Once he reunites with them (as they're arming the TimeBomb), they immediately stop what they're doing, salute him and fall in line behind him. For the rest of the film, they follow his orders without question.
** To a lesser extent, Captain Church cares for the Veterans and speaks very highly of them. He is absolutely disgusted when Colonel Mekum simply wants to abandon them after things go south on Arcadia [[spoiler:and gets killed when he refuses to obey his order]].

** One of Todd's decorations is the [[Film/EscapeFromNewYork Plissken Patch]].