Soldier (film)
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| Soldier | |
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_poster.jpg/200px-Soldier_(1998)_poster.jpg) Soldier theatrical poster |
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| Directed by | Paul W. S. Anderson |
| Produced by | Jeremy Bolt Susan Ekins Fred Fontana R.J. Louis James G. Robinson Jerry Weintraub |
| Written by | David Peoples |
| Starring | Kurt Russell Jason Scott Lee Jason Isaacs Connie Nielsen Sean Pertwee |
| Music by | Joel McNeely |
| Cinematography | David Tattersall |
| Distributed by | Warner Brothers |
| Release date(s) | October 23, 1998 (USA) |
| Running time | 99 min. |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $75,000,000 |
| IMDb profile | |
Soldier is a 1998 science fiction film directed by Paul W.S. Anderson. The film starred Kurt Russell as Sgt. Todd, a soldier trained from birth. The film also featured Gary Busey, Jason Scott Lee, Jason Isaacs, Connie Nielsen, Sean Pertwee and Michael Chiklis.
It was written by David Peoples, who co-wrote the script for Blade Runner. By his own admission, he considers Soldier to be a "sidequel"/spiritual successor to Blade Runner.[1] It also obliquely references various elements of stories written by Philip K. Dick (who wrote the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, on which Blade Runner is based), or film adaptations thereof.
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[edit] Synopsis
The film begins in the year 1996 (year zero). A group of infants are chosen by a commander in the American forces, to be raised as soldiers. We watch one of the infants, Todd, as he matures and undergoes extreme mental and physical training to prepare for his career. This includes phrase repetition conditioning, running, weapons training, wrestling, boxing, and desensitization to violence. Todd appears to be one of the best in his group. After completing their training in 2013 (year seventeen), Todd and his group fight in multiple wars, including the War of the Six Cities (year thirty-eight), the Moscow Incident, and the Battle of the Argentine Moons.
The film then jumps to 2036 (year forty). Todd is now forty and a veteran of many battles. A commander named Colonel Mekum announces that he intends to replace Todd and the others with a new group of genetically-engineered soldiers. The commander makes it clear that the new soldiers are superior in strength, speed, endurance, ability, and complete genetic lack of emotion, making the "old ones", who were trained from birth, obsolete.
Todd's own commander, Captain Church, insists that his group is far from obsolete, and resists replacing them. The two commanders agree to a contest to see which unit is best, but Todd's group is no match for the genetically-engineered soldiers. Two of his comrades are killed while fighting a single opponent in hand-to-hand combat. Only Todd manages to seriously injure Caine 607 (Lee) before the contest ends, but even he is finally knocked unconscious and believed dead. The surviving members of Todd's group are remanded to menial support roles and stripped of the title 'Soldier'.
Todd and his dead comrades are transported, via P376 disposal ship, to Arcadia 234, a waste disposal planet with dangerously high wind velocities. Todd and his dead comrades are literally thrown out with the trash, dumping him onto the planet along with the debris. Though badly injured, Todd limps his way toward a group of humans who left Earth twelve years earlier, in 2024, on a voyage to the Trinity Moons. The colonists crash-landed on Arcadia 234, and have been stranded there ever since. They now live as a closely-knit community among the planet's trash heaps.
Todd has great difficulty adapting to the community due to his extreme conditioning. Many of the settlers are afraid of him, but still try to welcome him into the group. He is able to make friends with a settler named Mace, and tries to teach Mace's son, Nathan, to protect himself from a poisonous breed of snake that is indigenous to the planet. Unfortunately, Mace and his wife Sandra misinterpret Todd's actions as an irresponsible risk to their son. Mace worries that Todd might hurt Nathan or someone else in their community. He is also jealous of the attention Todd is paying to his wife.
Todd soon begins to experience flashbacks from his time as a soldier and mistakes one of the colonists for an enemy, nearly killing him. The settlers decide that Todd is too dangerous to live among them (even Mace initially agrees with the decision) so they exile Todd after giving him enough supplies to survive on his own. He then settles in an old rocket engine nozzle among the garbage heaps and sheds tears. Todd does not appear to understand what tears are, implying that this is the first time that he has cried. (Soldiers are presumably forbidden to cry or display "weak" emotions.)
When Nathan saves his parents from a snake due to a single lesson from Todd, Mace realizes that Todd was only trying to help his son and decides to find the soldier so he can invite him back into the community. But the new soldiers arrive on a training exercise and begin a ground battle against the colonists. Mace is killed in the initial attack. Though outmanned and outgunned, Todd's years of battle experience let him outmaneuver the replicant army with guerilla tactics. A final personal combat with Caine 607 ends with a hint of a happy future for Todd. Todd's former soldiers have been sent to ignite the explosion, but seeing Todd they show that, despite their conditioning, they are more loyal to Todd than the army. Todd salutes them and they follow suit. Todd and his comrades take over the ship, tossing Mekum and his aides out onto the planet. They and the colonists escape the planet just as it is destroyed by the planet killer weapon. After setting a course to the Trinity Moons, Todd embraces Nathan, and they look upon a galaxy as the film ends.
[edit] Cast
- Kurt Russell as Sgt. Todd
- Jason Scott Lee as Caine 607
- Jason Isaacs as Col. Mekum
- Connie Nielsen as Sandra
- Sean Pertwee as Mace
- Jared Thorne & Taylor Thorne as Nathan
- Mark Bringleson as Lt. Rubrick
- Gary Busey as Capt. Church
- K. K. Dodds as Lt. Sloan
- James Black as Riley
- Mark De Alessandro as Goines
- Vladimir Orlov as Romero
- Carsten Norgaard as Green
- Duffy Gaver as Chelsey
- Brenda Wehle as Hawkins
- Michael Chiklis as Jimmy Pig
- Elizabeth Dennehy as Jimmy Pig's wife
- Paul Dillon as Slade
[edit] Reception
Soldier was a box office flop. Shot with a budget of $75 million, the film only took in $15 million worldwide. [2]
[edit] Film references
[edit] To Blade Runner
Soldier is set within the same fictional universe as the 1982 cult science fiction film Blade Runner. David L. Snyder, who was the Production Designer for the film, was the Art Director for Blade Runner, and as noted above the film's writer (David Webb Peoples) also co-wrote Blade Runner.
Peoples specifically wrote the following references in his script for Soldier.
- Tannhauser Gate, a location mentioned by Roy Batty in Blade Runner ("I watched c-beams glitter in the dark near the Tanhauser Gate"), is referenced three times in Soldier. Near the beginning of the film, Todd's accomplishments can be seen on a computer screen. The screen reads that he was involved in the Battle of Tannhauser Gate. After Todd arrives at the settlement on Arcadia, a woman looks at Todd's arm, which reads, among other things, "Tannhauser Gate." When the woman reveals this to her husband, he replies "Tannhauser Gate was a battle."
- Reportedly, the original plan was to actually show the Battle of Tannhauser Gate in the film, but this idea was scrapped during production.[3][4][citation needed]
- The Shoulder of Orion, another location mentioned by Roy Batty in Blade Runner, is also listed on the computer screen at the beginning of the film as a battle Todd had participated in.
- A vehicle from Blade Runner (known as a "spinner") can be viewed in one scene in the village on Arcadia, while the villagers are celebrating what is apparently Christmas.([2])
- The film also obliquely references various elements of works by Philip K. Dick, who had written the novel on which Blade Runner is based. However, Dick was not involved in Soldier's creation, having died in 1982.
- Director Paul W. S. Anderson states in the DVD commentary for the film that, in addition to the film being set in the same fictional universe as Blade Runner, Blade Runner was one of his primary influences when making the film and the themes and overall tone were meant to be similar.
[edit] To other films
In addition to the two battles from Blade Runner, Todd's service record—as displayed on a computer screen—includes the following references, almost all of which were movies Russell starred in and named for the character he played in each film:
- Receipt of the:
- "Plissken Medal" — Escape from New York (1981), Escape from L.A. (1996)
- "O'Neil Ring Award" — Stargate (1994)
- "Cash Medal of Honor" — Tango and Cash (1989)
- "MacReady Cross" — The Thing (1982)
- "Capt Ron Trophy" — Captain Ron (1992)
- "McCaffrey Fire Award" — Backdraft (1991)
- "Dexter Riley Award" — The Strongest Man in the World (1975), Now You See Him, Now You Don't (1972), The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes (1969)
- Citations for the Nibian Moons Campaign, the Antares Maelstrom War and the War Of Perdition's Flames, locations referred to in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982).
- A list of Todd's weapon training history. It indicates that he has been trained on the "M41A Pulse Rifle" and "USMC Smartgun," which were weapons seen in the film Aliens. The list also indicates that Todd is capable of using the "Illudium PU36 ESM," otherwise known as the "Illudium PU36 Explosive Space Modulator." This is the same weapon Marvin the Martian is always threatening to use on Earth in the Bugs Bunny cartoons. The list also indicates that Todd is capable of using the "DOOM MKIV BFG," a reference to the computer game Doom and its signature weapon, the BFG9000.
In addition to the Spinner from Blade Runner, the garbage on the planet includes:
- The USS Franklin D. Roosevelt
- The F-117X Remora from Executive Decision (1996)
- A piece of the Lewis & Clark from Event Horizon (1997)
- The Liberty Bell is among the garbage in the ship that slides towards Todd when he gets dumped on the planet.
[edit] DVD release
Soldier was released on DVD on March 2, 1999. It was released as a double-sided disc, which included the widescreen version on one side, with fullscreen on the other. The film's audio was mixed in Dolby 5.1 surround sound for the DVD, and included on the disc was a film commentary.
- Features
- Available Subtitles: English, French
- Available Audio Tracks: English (Dolby Digital 5.1), French (Dolby Digital 5.1)
- Commentary by: director Paul Anderson, co-producer Jeremy Bold and actor Jason Isaacs (Dolby Digital 2.0)
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- Soldier at the Internet Movie Database
- Soldier at Rotten Tomatoes
- WB-Soldier.com - The film's official site
- October 2, 1997 draft of the screenplay
- Special effects sequences for the film
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