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 Johnny Rico(Casper Van Dien), one of three friends who sign up to the military one year before Earth declares war on the Arachnids.
The film opens to a futuristic television viewing sequence. The news is dominated by an ongoing war with the aliens, called Arachnids or Bugs due to their appearance.
A one year flashback takes the scene to the posh Buenos Aires high school of a young man named John "Johnny" Rico (Casper Van Dien).
A blind, strutting biology teacher (Rue McClanahan) loudly corrects her students by pointing out the numerous daunting ways the Arachnids are superior to humans regarding competitive survival.
Rico is shown to have high athletic ability, a very competitive nature, low math aptitude, great, but mostly unreturned, love for his girlfriend Carmen Ibanez (Denise Richards).
In a short scene where Johnny and Carmen have to dissect a bug as part of a Biology lesson, Johnny is also shown to have a strong stomach.
Required to dissect a bug for Biology class, Johnny nonchalantly carves open and pulls out the creature's innards while Carmen vomits at the sight of the entrails and runs out.
When Carmen decides to join the Federal ServiceJohnny decides to follow her into the Service out of love for her. His parents show immediate revulsion at his choice, which involves two years of sacrifice and uncertain survival.
Largely based on their academic test scores, Rico is assigned to Mobile Infantry, while Carmen is assigned to Flight School, and his best friend Carl (Neil Patrick Harris) to the elite Games and Theory (military intelligence).
A girl from Rico's high school football team, "Dizzy" Flores (Dina Meyer) (long enamored of him), secretly joins the Mobile Infantry and successfully requests a transfer to Rico's training unit.
The initial invasion of Klendathu is a complete disaster, with 100,000 dead in one hour including several of Rico's fellow boot-mates, including Shujumi (Anthony Ruivivar) and Kitten Smith (Matt Levin). Rico is one of the few wounded to survive.
The Federation supreme commander, Sky Marshal Dienes, resigns and is replaced by Sky Marshal Tehat Meru. She declares that "to fight the Bug, we must understand the Bug", leading to altered and more intelligent battle plans.
Rico, Dizzy and his friend from training, Ace Levy, 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, as has Rico's.
He 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.
In the offensive, the Rodger Young explodes when hit by Bug plasma, shot from giant Bug abdomens. Carmen and Zander barely survive, and 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.
Rico organizes a rescue attempt and manages to save Carmen in the nick of time by threatening the brain bug with a miniature "Nuke".
They 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 fighting.
Rico, Carmen, and Carl renew their friendship, and the now fearful brain bug is sent to Earth for study in an attempt to find a way to defeat the Bug menace. The film ends with an enlistment message, using Rico, Carmen, and Ace as examples of heroes of the military.
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