In the distant future, the Earth is at war with a race of giant alien insects. Little is known about the Bugs except that they are intent on the eradication of all human life. But there was a time before the war...

Upon graduating school, Johnny Rico (Casper Van Dien) volunteers for the Mobile Infantry to do his Federal Service. Far from having patriotic motives, Johnny has joined the infantry to win the heart of his girlfriend, Carmen Ibanez (Denise Richards) who has signed up for the Fleet Academy to become a starship pilot.

Johnny undergoes rigorous military training at boot camp along with other young recruits including Dizzy Flores (Dina Meyer), who has harbored a crush on Johnny from their school days, and Ace Levy (Jake Busey) who earns Johnny's respect and friendship. Johnny accepts the challenge of boot camp and displays remarkable abilities that eventually earn him the position of squad leader.

When a tragic training accident occurs while on his watch, Johnny realizes that he joined up for the wrong reasons. He is about to resign when the Earth is attacked by the Bugs, and the city of Buenos Aires -- Johnny's home -- is wiped off the map. Horrified by the death of his family and friends, Johnny's grief turns to anger and he determines to stay in the Mobile Infantry and fight to destroy the insect threat to human civilization. The Mobile Infantry travels to distant alien planets to take the war to the Bugs. They are a ruthless enemy with only one mission: Survival of their species no matter what the cost...

Starship Troopers, stars Casper Van Dien (Tarzan and Jane, On The Border) as Johnny Rico, Dina Meyer (Dragonheart), Denise Richards (Wild Things), Jake Busey (Contact), Neil Patrick Harris (the stage musical "Rent"), Clancy Brown (The Shawshank Redemption), Seth Gilliam (Courage Under Fire), Patrick Muldoon (television's Melrose Place), Marshall Bell (Total Recall) and Michael Ironside (Total Recall).

The impressive behind-the scenes creative team includes director of photography Jost Vacano (Total Recall, RoboCop), production designer Allan Cameron (Showgirls, Tomorrow Never Dies), editor Mark Goldblatt (True Lies, Terminator 2: Judgment Day), Creature Visual Effects Supervisor Phil Tippett (Jurassic Park, Return of the Jedi), Spaceship Visual Effects Supervisor Scott E. Anderson (Babe, James and the Giant Peach), Human Visual Effects Supervisor Kevin Yagher (Tales From the Crypt, Child's Play), Costume Designer Ellen Mirojnik (Showgirls, Basic Instinct) and Composer Basil Poledouris (RoboCop, The Hunt For Red October).

Paul Verhoeven's career as an internationally acclaimed director has been both prolific and diverse. His motion pictures from his Dutch period covered genres that ranged from historical epics and war movies to erotic psychological thrillers and coming-of-age dramas. Verhoeven developed a reputation as a director whose work was honest and often brutal with frank depiction's of sexuality and violence. His movies were a direct reflection of the society in which he lived and he never hesitated to depict life as he saw it. Turkish Delight was Verhoeven's love story which both shocked and moved audiences with its brutal realism and explicit sexuality. The 4th Man was Verhoeven's first exploration of the psychological thriller uniquely made with his very personal brand of graphic realism that made it the classic that it is regarded as today.

Verhoeven's films from his Dutch period are a remarkable series of social, sexual and historical explorations that are by turns, bitter, cruel, funny, tragic and witty. His films were also noted for his dazzling command of style. The camera possesses a personality as essential to the narrative as that of any character.

When Verhoeven moved from Holland to the United States he decided that he initially needed to take a different approach to the subject matter of his films. As the director says, "In all my movies I have always tried to communicate to a broad audience. I have never tried to focus on an intellectual or artistic sub-group. Because my Dutch films were released in the United States in art houses it looked to the American audiences that way but in fact, they were made for audiences as so-called 'popcorn movies.'

"When I came to the United States I felt that initially I wouldn't know enough about American culture to make movies that accurately reflected American society. I felt that I would make a lot of mistakes because I would not be aware of things such as expressions and social behavior.

"I felt that I could make science fiction movies because I wouldn't have to worry about breaking any rules of American society. Science fiction reflects those rules but does not represent them."

Verhoeven was also a huge fan of the science fiction movies of the '50s and had never lost his fascination with them. Science fiction was also a genre that Verhoeven felt was only possible to tackle with the resources of a major American company and that opportunity was very alluring to him.

One of the many scripts that passed Verhoeven's desk was a draft of the screenplay RoboCop. Initially Verhoeven rejected the idea of making the movie. Only when he was convinced to reread the script at the insistence of his wife, Martine, did he begin to imagine the subtext he could bring to the material. In fact, the directors vision augmented the screenplay to such an extent that the story reached a profound level of action mixed with a subtext of death and resurrection. The movie became an enormous success with both audiences and critics alike.

As Newsweek reported, "The triumph of Verhoeven's slick, lively movie is that it never loses its soul to its hardware. It's got a fresh, B-movie spirit: even as it slams you against the wall, it's tickling your ribs."

Starship Troopers was the brainchild of RoboCop producer Jon Davison and RoboCop screenwriter Ed Neumeier. Verhoeven, who followed up the success of RoboCop with another hit science fiction film, Total Recall starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, was approached by Davison about another foray into the realm of the fantastic. The project, an adaptation of Robert Heinleins' 'Starship Troopers,' was met with an enthusiastic response from the director. Verhoeven soon committed to the project bringing on board his Basic Instinct and Showgirls producer Alan Marshall to share duties with Davison on the mammoth undertaking.

As Davison recollects, "Like most everybody else I read Robert Heinlein's 'Starship Troopers' when I was a child. I never forgot it. I remember the storm of political controversy it kicked up which continued for years. For the screenplay we wanted to keep the book's politics. We thought the idea of a fascistic utopia was new to recent film; it was both interesting and amusing."

The project originated when Neumeier came to Davison with a script titled Bug Hunt in 1991. The story piqued Davison's interest and led him to acquire the rights, with Tristar Pictures, to the Heinlein novel.

Verhoeven began to meet regularly with Neumeier. "We had these meetings every week or two to develop the story," recalls the director. "We spent a great deal of time digging into our memories. I could use my experiences in the military service as a Navy officer in Holland. We brought up elements from our high school days as well. We would talk and he would write things down. I was just putting forward ideas, developing characters with him at the table.

"I wasn't concerned with preserving the original elements from the book because I knew that Ed, who had studied it so well, would ensure that. I felt that my contribution would be from both the visual and character point of view. We added characters and developed ones from certain minimalist characters in the novel. We fleshed out characters, particularly the females, because we always felt it was interesting to have a society where males and females were equal. Also, in our set-up we elaborated greatly on the confrontation with the alien insects."

Davison adds, "To translate Heinlein's polemics into drama, we devised the Fed Net, which echoes back to the media breaks in RoboCop."

These government "infomercials" underlay the conflict between man and insect and keep a satiric undertone running through the film. The script also captured the tone and feeling of the World War II films of Hollywood's past.

The filmmakers would get together, as Davsion recalls, "and screen movies like Air Force, Action in the North Atlantic and Clouds Over Europe. That was the spirit we wanted to capture. At its heart, 'Starship Troopers' is an epic war movie."

Verhoeven elaborates, "In the second world war you had the enemies, the Germans and the Japanese, who were really evil. Everybody knew that, so basically it was okay to say we're going to fight these people. In our film the insects are clearly evil and have only one thought, to kill whatever is close to them. So 'Starship Troopers' feels like the situation during the second world war. Of course not all the Germans and Japanese were bad but that's the way people looked at it at the time, with a simplification that seemed easy to apply to our movie."

After two years of working on drafts of the screenplay the filmmakers decided it was interesting enough to present to TriStar. However, at that point TriStar felt that while the screenplay was compelling it was difficult to imagine what this race of monstrous alien insects would look like and how realistically they could be depicted. A decision was then made to create a special short film that would consist of a soldier fighting for his life against two ferocious alien bugs.

Jon Davison had effects wizard Phil Tippett onboard the project from the very beginning. Tippett's stop motion work on RoboCop was exceptional and Verhoeven was very excited at the prospect of working with him again.

Verhoeven says, "One of the attractions of working on 'Starship Troopers' was to work very closely as a team with Alan Marshall, Jon Davison, Phil Tippett and Ed Neumeier. I felt that we had assembled a very interesting creative team where everybody would be equally important and have as much creative input as possible."

Adds Davison, "I worked with Phil Tippett on many projects since we met on 'Piranha': the man is a genius. The first budget allocation for pre-production was in 1993 for Craig Hayes of the Tippett Studio to do some design work on the bugs. By this time Paul was getting involved and the decisions as to the look and the behavior of the bugs could be made. This led to the CGI 'Bug Test' which Paul directed in the summer of 1994."

Verhoeven and Tippett spent six months creating the short film which was then presented to the executives at the studio.

"That ultimately convinced Tristar that it was possible and they got extremely enthusiastic when they saw it," notes Verhoeven.

For the casting process Verhoeven decided it was essential to find actors who were young enough to convincingly play high school students even if that meant forgoing the casting of star names.

Verhoeven says, 'We take these characters from school where there's an ultra romantic aspect to the movie where the feeling is that life is fine and then switch gears. First with boot camp, which is already a little harsh and then when war breaks out when nothing is good anymore. The innocence of youth is replaced by the cruelty of war."

Verhoeven cast a group of young talent based on their look and character. For the pivotal role of Johnny Rico, Verhoeven cast then relatively unknown actor, Casper Van Dien after auditioning hundreds of young hopefuls for the part.

"It's basically an ensemble piece," says Davison. "The picture spends a good amount of time and effort setting up and defining all the characters. Paul wanted to take the time necessary to allow the audience to care about the characters. If you don't like them, you're not going to give a damn about what happens to them.

"We wanted to be true to Heinlein's book and keep the cast as young as possible. These are kids graduating from what is basically high school. The reality is that there are not many movie stars in their early twenties, so we decided to just get the best cast we could that fit the characters."

Principal photography on Starship Troopers began April 29th 1996 on location at Hell's Half Acre, 45 miles outside the city of Casper, Wyoming where two of the film's most spectacular sequences were shot: the attack on the infantry by an army of bugs on Planet P and the massive night time invasion of Klendathu. The company then moved to the scorching Badlands in South Dakota to shoot the battle on Tango Urilla.

The filmmakers scoured the country for suitable shooting locations before deciding on Hell's Half Acre as one of the primary locales.

Explains Verhoeven, "We found this location in Wyoming that looked other-worldly. It's strange because there's a very flat landscape for miles and miles around and then suddenly, in the middle of nowhere, there is this enormous hole in the ground. You descend into this pit and into these canyons that go on for miles and miles. You really feel like you are walking on Mars. Hell's Half Acre is basically an unknown location and it's unlike anything else I've seen."

As producer Alan Marshall adds, "To actually sell the idea that we were on different planets we chose locations that were rather isolated. The difficulty was then in being able to find accommodation for a crew of over 500 members which invariably turned out being quite a distance from the locations. Transportation was at a premium just to get the crew from their respective hotels to the location everyday."

Marshall worked closely with local officials in Natrona County to figure out the difficult set of logistics that lay before him. An agreement was made to build a road that would enable access down into the enormous canyons of Hell's Half Acre.

Marshall says, "We had an amazing amount of cooperation from Natrona County. Their assistance in putting roads into the location, as well as making available huge staging areas, made it possible for us to shoot there with the minimal amount of effort."

When shooting moved to a private ranch in the Badlands of South Dakota the production had to build two and a half miles of road in order to be able to access the site.

The production also had to contend with variable weather patterns. As Marshall notes, "We went from the sublime to the ridiculous with snow falling the day prior to shooting to flash floods, hurricane strength winds and temperatures that eventually went over the 100 degree mark."

In addition to its staggering visual effects Starship Troopers was an enormous production undertaking. As Marshall says, "Of course you read the script and think of it as a visual extravaganza but you can't be quite sure how big the film was going to be until you actually realize what we undertook during the shooting of this film."

Principal photography spanned six months in locations as diverse as Wyoming, the Badlands of South Dakota, Orange County, California, Malibu and downtown Los Angeles. Huge sets were erected including the formidable fortress in which the Mobile Infantry fight off an attack by an army of insects, the Camp Currie boot camp at Mile Square park with its intricate training courses as well as spaceships, battle stations, subterranean tunnels and the caverns in which the arachnids dwell, all built on the historic sound stages of Sony Pictures' Culver City studio lot.

Before the cameras started rolling the cast was put through a grueling work-out regimen at the Sony Fitness Center. That was followed by an even tougher assignment. In order to give those actors who would play members of the Mobile Infantry a real feeling for their roles, Technical Advisor Dale Dye set up a ten day boot camp in Wyoming under Verhoeven's supervision.

As Casper Van Dien recalls, "Our first night out we set up our 'tents' which were basically our ponchos tied together and held up by sticks. During the night a blizzard hit and the ground was covered in two feet of snow. All we had to protect us were our sleeping bags and the makeshift shelter. On another night we were hit by hurricane winds which tore our ponchos apart but we stuck it out. Everyday we were running a couple of miles, doing calisthenics and practicing with our weaponry. We went over military technical terms and did a lot of marching. Our meals consisted of MREs which is a military abbreviation for Meals Ready to Eat but we called them Rat End Tails. We just lived out there and they put us through the grind. We never stopped during the twelve days."

This training regimen put the actors in the proper mind set needed for battling a race of gigantic alien insects. The creation of these frightening opponents was one the movie's most remarkable accomplishments. Created by Phil Tippett and his team of technicians the insects are completely unique creations that eclipse Tippett's work on the blockbuster "Jurassic Park."

As Verhoeven explains, "In the past, creature movies only showed the monster in glimpses. The frightening aspect comes from the fact that you know it is waiting just around the corner or it lunges at you in the dark. It's suddenly there then it's suddenly gone. Digital technology has enabled us to take these creatures out of the dark and utilize them to a much greater degree as in 'Jurassic Park.' The challenge for Phil and I was to emphasize the aspect of their full visibility. That challenge was to show these insects in full daylight and make them completely acceptable in the environment.

"Phil and I decided that we would create an enemy where the rules by which they lived would be laid out by biology. They are based on real insects and cannot do more than what an insect can do. Their strength is multiplied by their enormous size of course. They are a ferocious biological force and conduct warfare by striking, shaking and crushing their prey."

For the creation of the giant alien insects Verhoeven and Tippett closely examined spiders and other insects for their inspiration. Macro-photographs were used for detailing the tiniest details on these creatures.

Verhoeven says, "We basically took the jaws from one species and the legs from another. Phil built these new kinds of gigantic insects that combined features from different bugs all of which came from real life. For instance, the Warriors are basically insects but have the mobility of a spider. It took forever to find a bug that could spray magma but when we did it helped to inspire the Tanker Bug."

As Phil Tippett recounts, "We originally met with Paul and the producers to discuss concepts. Craig Hayes from my studio then developed a menagerie of creatures and from there we eventually culled that down to six characters.

"We then developed these maquettes which are little three dimensional models based on the design drawings. We used these for our crew to construct the computer graphics models. The models were also used for the visual effects company ADI in the construction of the full scale bug parts.

"We were very lucky to have some very talented animators on this show, but we weren't able to rely exclusively on traditional computer graphics animation." In addition to the key frame Softimage animation that was used for the film, Craig Hayes' motion input devices, which he had developed for 'Jurassic Park,' were heavily utilized. The Tippett team along with ILM won an Academy Award in 1996 for Best Technical Achievement for the creation and development of the Direct Input Device. This device allow conventional stop motion animators to work on one or any number of frames at a time. The computer is instructed to duplicate the animation of a moving object which has been attached with encoders enabling the perfect duplication of its moves and enabling the animator to develop an entire performance.

"You can also use this method as a real time system for more elaborate stunts that would put a human in jeopardy. It captures the motion of a live actor doing something that can then be used to simulate a situation that would normally be impossible to shoot."

The incredible amount of CGI work used in the film created a set of incredibly difficult conditions under which Verhoeven had to work. The complexity of shooting enormous action sequences that involved sometimes hundreds of computer graphic creatures interacting with the live action was staggering.

"I had to basically edit the movie in my head as we were shooting because I had to be so precise about what I shot. I could not shoot a 60 second shot and then have Phil work on filling in that shot only to later cut that shot down to 8 seconds. I had to tell him from the very beginning what part of the shot I was going to use. On the set I had to make an even more precise decision: because of time and budgetary constraints I could not ask him to do more digital rendering than was absolutely necessary. Every shot had to be measured precisely up to 4 frames at the beginning and end."

Verhoeven dealt Sony Imageworks the creative challenge of staging a realistic space battle with all the veracity of earthbound naval combat. Lead by effects supervisor Scott E. Anderson and Dan Radford, a team of over 300 artists and technicians utilize virtually every visual effects technique imaginable to realize these sequences. Complex computer generated imagery (CGI) was combined with extensive use of models, miniature and pyrotechnic photography. Each of more than 125 shots produced by Imageworks incorporated an average of 50 or more discrete elements, with some shots requiring more than 200 separate items all precisely composited into one flawless image.

In preparation for the final work in the computer, the team at Imageworks turned to Thunderstone, an innovative model shop, to build more than 100 models -- from tiny six inchers to an extraordinary 18 foot Roger Young, fully rigged with programmable fiber optic lighting. Imageworks' camera department was also responsible for building the production's innovative model movers, including one nicknamed "gigantor." 1,996 different model elements and nearly 3,000 pyro elements were shot during 11 months of model and miniature photography directed by Academy Award winning director of photography Alex Funke and Pete Kozachik. Production took place on three stages in Culver City as well as on remote locations. The model and miniature work was then combined with numerous two-dimensional and three-dimensional elements created in computers to complete the images. The result is one of the screen's most dynamic battle sequences ever.

In addition to the work undertaken by Phil Tippett and Sony Imageworks, the incredible amount of visual effects work needed for the film also meant enlisting the services of Industrial Light and Magic, Boss Films and VCE among others.

Producer Marshall says, "This film has a staggering number of visual effects shots by comparison to most movies. 'Starship Troopers' contains close to 550 visual effects shots. I believe the number of shots in The Lost World was at about 170 by comparison.

"The sheer magnitude of effects work meant enlisting the support of a number of visual effects companies. ILM were brought in to handle four sequences including the opening sequence where a giant asteroid is destroyed as it hurtles toward earth and the fleet trainer's exciting ride through space. Boss Films were given one specific sequence of an asteroid hurtling towards the Roger Young. We also employed the services of Banned From The Ranch to handle the graphics, Shockwave, who looked after the screens and Mass Illusion were subcontracted by Imageworks to complete some work."

The film's action sequences were so complex that a second unit under the supervision of veteran stunt coordinator and director Vic Armstrong worked alongside the first unit during the entire shooting process. Verhoeven often worked double duties to be available to coordinate with Armstrong, with whom he had worked closely on the second unit for Total Recall.

As Marshall says, "Vic Armstrong's almost 900 shots had to match identically to those of the first unit. Vic was having to match Paul's creative flair with a rather large unit and some rather difficult shots. In terms of integration Vic's shots were seamless. As the stunt coordinator Vic was also responsible for the first unit stunts although he left the day to day running of the set to Dickey Beer. He took on a huge load and came through with flying colors."

Hundreds of weapons were utilized for the battle sequences and the production set an all-time record for the most ammunition ever used in the shooting of a motion picture.

Marshall explains, "The production devised these guns called Moritas that contained an automatic weapon in the top barrel with a shotgun in the bottom barrel. As an automatic weapon it used a great deal of ammunition whilst getting the action right. Paul also found it was almost impossible to mime action without the gun actually firing. There was a real difference in pretending to feel the recoil and feeling it for real. As a result we looped a major proportion of the dialogue that was covered by the sounds of the firing. It certainly helped create better performances from the actors."

As Paul Verhoeven concludes, "Science fiction gives you a way of dreaming about all of life's other possibilities. You look at the sky at night and see all these stars, some of which are millions and millions of light years away. Most of these stars have planets that are at a distance that would make life on them possible. I'm very convinced that there are a lot of other life forms in the universe.

"From a time-space point of view, it's nearly impossible to ever get to these worlds. Some of these trips, even with light speed would take millions of years. It is something that we, in my lifetime, will never be able to achieve. So science fiction movies give us the possibility to break through the time-space continuum, forget about the rules of Einstein and