Paul Verhoeven’s outrageous satire about a fascist future in which dying for the state is what everyone aspires to.
In the 23rd Century, the totalitarian United Citizen Federation is sending people from Earth on colonisation missions to other planets. Three youngsters join the army to go to space and battle the arachnids, a race of insectoid aliens.
Fascists who don’t know they’re fascists? That was Paul Verhoeven’s idea when he made his still frighteningly accurate satire Starship Troopers, based on the controversial novel of the same name by Robert A. Heinlein. With his team from RoboCop – including visual effects wizard Phil Tippett, Imagine 2024’s Guest of Honour, who was nominated for an Oscar for his work on Starship Troopers – Verhoeven created an underrated, hyperviolent masterpiece. The absurd world of machismo and militarism was his reaction to George W. Bush’s 1990s policies, but feels even more relevant now. And the propaganda videos on tv network FedNet are as hilarious as ever.
The screening of Starship Troopers on 26 October will be introduced by Phil Tippett himself, our Guest of Honour!
