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Starship Troopers tells the story of an interplanetary war between Earth and colonies of large insect-like aliens in the twenty-third century. It focuses on the experiences of John D. "Johnny" Rico (Casper Van Dien), one of three friends who sign up to the military.

The film opens to a futuristic television viewing sequence. The news is dominated by an ongoing war with the aliens, called Arachnids or "Bugs". A live report from a battleground on the Bugs' home planet Klendathu shows humanity to be taking terrible losses.

A flashback takes the scene to the upper class Buenos Aires high school of Johnny Rico. One-armed history teacher Mr. Rasczak (Michael Ironside) forcefully quizzes his students about the efficacy of "naked force" in dispute resolution. When Rico's girlfriend, Carmen (Denise Richards), decides to join the Federal Service (military), Rico also decides to follow her into the Service out of love for her and his desire to achieve "citizen" status, instead of remaining an ordinary "civilian." His parents show immediate revulsion at his choice.

Largely based on their academic test scores, Rico is assigned to Mobile Infantry, while Carmen is assigned to Flight School. His best friend Carl (Neil Patrick Harris) is assigned to the elite Games and Theory division, concerned with military intelligence. A girl from Rico's high school football team, "Dizzy" Flores (Dina Meyer), secretly joins the Mobile Infantry (MI) and successfully requests a transfer to Rico's training unit. Rico soon finds the grueling boot camp more difficult than anticipated, with terrible injuries being inflicted by the officers and NCOs -- particularly his drill sergeant, Zim (Clancy Brown) -- in an effort to train the recruits quickly and efficiently. Rico excels at the training and eventually is promoted to squad leader.

Carmen decides to "go career" because of her love of piloting massive starships, which precludes getting back together with Rico after two years of service, so she breaks up with him. A high school football rival of Rico, Zander Barcalow (Patrick Muldoon) has intentionally placed himself as Carmen's instructor on board the troop transport Rodger Young, and makes his romantic intentions known. She neither accepts nor rejects, seeming amused and remaining intent on her piloting.

After Rico makes an error as squad leader during a training exercise which results in the death of a squadmate, he is punished by public flogging and states his intention to quit. However, just as he is leaving the camp, a Bug asteroid destroys Buenos Aires, killing his entire family and millions of people. He rejoins his unit and the newly-declared war against the perpetrators of the attack: the elephant-sized Arachnids of the distant planet Klendathu.

The initial invasion of Klendathu is a complete disaster, with 300,000 dead or missing including several of Rico's fellow boot-mates. Rico is one of the few wounded to survive. Against all predictions, the Bugs used intelligent military tactics to repel the invasion; particularly in concentrating Bug-plasma bursts on the Terran fleet in orbit, cutting it to shreds and cutting off the infantry's air support. These intelligent military actions lead Terran scientists to speculate that there is a previously never encountered kind of Bug that forms a "leadership caste" within the Arachnid Hive. The Federation's new Sky Marshal, Tehat Meru, initiates altered and more intelligent battle plans. Rico, Dizzy and his friend from training, Ace Levy (Jake Busey), are reassigned to the super-tough MI unit, the "Roughnecks". Its soldiers are extremely loyal, most of whose lives have been saved by their commander, who turns out to be Rico's old high school history teacher (fitted with an artificial, robot arm), now Lieutenant Rasczak, executing the lessons he formerly taught. After a spectacular and heroic battle on one of the Bug worlds, Tango Urilla, Rico is field-promoted to corporal and assigns Dizzy as squad leader. After a celebration later that night, Rico and Dizzy share an intimate moment in Rico's tent at the MI's makeshift camp.

Their next mission plunges them into a trap, as they are assigned to investigate the silence of an outpost on one of the Bug worlds, Planet P. From the only survivor (and now a post-traumatic wreck) General Owen (Marshall Bell), they discover that the bugs possess a high intelligence, and are "sucking" the brains out of humans to learn directly from them. As the troopers realize their situation, a massive swarm of bugs attacks. Rasczak, Dizzy, Owen, and almost all of the Roughnecks are killed in the battle. The survivors barely evacuate in a ship piloted by Carmen and Zander. After a funeral service for Dizzy on the Rodger Young, Rico's old friend Carl, now a Colonel in intelligence, gives Rico and Carmen his unapologetic reason for the deaths of many of Rico's squad mates - the Roughnecks were used as bait. Rico is horrified, but Carl lets him know that humans are vastly outnumbered and the strategic sacrifice was necessary. Military intelligence had ascertained that there might be a centralized intelligence, a "brain bug", on Planet P, and he tells Rico that the Mobile Infantry will return to Planet P and attempt to capture the brain bug for research. Rico accepts the mission and Carl gives him command of the Roughnecks, who are then reinforced by fresh soldiers (barely in their teens) sent directly from boot camp.

In the offensive, the Rodger Young explodes when hit by Bug plasma, shot from giant Bug abdomens. Carmen and Zander barely survive, while the captain is killed when a door accidentally closes on her while getting to the lifeboat. Their escape pod lands deep underground in a Bug tunnel. They are captured, and Zander's brain is sucked out and ingested by the brain bug. As the brain bug is about to suck Carmen's brain out, Carmen pulls out a knife that Zander had handed her earlier and slices the brain bug's 'sucker'. Rico in the meantime organizes a rescue attempt and manages to save Carmen in the nick of time by threatening the brain bug with a miniature "nuke". A skirmish ensues and Private Watkins sacrifices himself to nuke the bug hole after being severely injured. Rico, Carmen and Ace escape to the surface safely, where the brain bug has been captured by Rico's former training sergeant Zim, voluntarily demoted to private in order to be allowed to transfer from training to combat. Rico, Carmen, and Carl renew their friendship. The brain bug is seen being studied by Federation scientists on Earth. Carl expresses the hope that with the secrets learned from the Brain Bug, they will be better able to defeat the Bugs, and that this marks the moment when the war turns in the humans' favor. The film ends with an enlistment message, using Rico, Carmen, Lumbresier (a flight school friend of Carmen's), and Ace as examples of heroes of the military.

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