Starship Troopers

Set in the future, the story follows a young soldier named Johnny Rico and his exploits in the Mobile Infantry. Rico's military career progresses from recruit to non-commissioned officer and finally to officer against the backdrop of an interstellar war between mankind and an arachnoid species known as "the Bugs."

Starship Troopers landed as a critical disappointment on release, with the central controversy being whether Verhoeven was lampooning fascism or inadvertently endorsing it — a question many reviewers felt the film itself couldn't answer. The current score reflects a significant reassessment, as audiences and critics who read it as deliberate satire have rehabilitated it while the original pans remain on record.