31 Days of Halloween: Starship Troopers 2: Hero of the Federation

Day Thirty of...31 DAYS OF HALLOWEEEEEEEN!

A handful of Mobile Infantry are cut off and surrounded by a horde of Arachnids. Shenanigans ensue when one of the soldiers is infected with a new species of bug.

Starship Troopers 2 is a 2004 Direct-To-Video sequel to the cult classic Starship Troopers, directed by Phil Tippett. It was made on a budget somewhere between six and seven million dollars, a substantial step down from the first movie’s budget of a hundred and seven million. However, Tippett did a pretty good job considering it’s his first directing gig and the budgetary limitations he had to work with. He has a background in special effects and it shows. Everything looks pretty good, and there’s sparing use of janky early 2000s CGI which, let’s face it, most of that stuff has not aged well at all.

Now, I can pretty much guess what you’re thinking: Starship Troopers is a Sci Fi movie, so…what gives? Well, this movie leans pretty heavily into the Horror side, so much so that it really seems to have disappointed fans of the first movie who were expecting more rock ‘em sock ‘em action. In fact, I haven’t found any evidence to corroborate it, but I have a theory that this movie started life as a spec script about mind controlling aliens that had been sitting in someone’s desk drawer until the studio needed to do something with the intellectual property. You see, there’s usually a clause written into the contract when the studio buys the film rights to an IP that says there’s a deadline for them to complete a film or the studio loses the rights. Hence, why, for instance, we get a Fantastic Four movie every decade or so. It’s made just so Sony can keep the rights to the characters from reverting to Marvel.
So, essentially, I can’t help but think this was actually meant to be a Sci Fi Horror movie, and they added enough Starship Troopers elements into it to satisfy the contractual requirements. It certainly would explain the radical shift in tone in this one from the first movie.

They tried to get Clancy Brown back to reprise his role as Sergeant…er… Private Zim. However, there was apparently a scheduling conflict, so he couldn’t do the film. Though, let’s be honest, they didn’t have the budget to have him be in the movie very long anyway. Brenda Strong, who played Captain Deladier in the first movie, is back in this one as Sergeant Rake. I guess she got over being squished by that bulkhead door and took a demotion? Or maybe they just thought we wouldn’t notice. But we did. It’s kind of impressive given this movie’s low budget that they didn’t recycle any footage from the first one outside the stock footage in the Fed-Net opening at the start. The humans who are infected with the bugs all crave sugar, a nod to the antagonist Edgar from the movie Men In Black.

So if you’re looking for a little Sci Fi Horror this spooky season, give this one a shot. Just kind of think of it as the Halloween 3 of the Starship Troopers franchise, if that makes a little sense. If you watch it as its own thing and not part of the franchise it ostensibly belongs to, it’s pretty good.
Even if this doesn’t have an impressively mustachioed Tom Adkins in it.
Check it out!