Soldier (film)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You have new messages (last change).
For other uses, see Soldier (disambiguation).
Soldier

Soldier promotional poster
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, classified as a thriller, 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" to Blade Runner. 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.

Contents

[edit] Synopsis

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The film begins in the year 1996 (year zero). A group of infants are chosen by a commander 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 and ability, making the ones trained from birth obsolete.

Refusing this idea, Todd's own commander, Captain Church, suggests that his group are not obsolete, and are in fact the best. The two commanders run their respective units through several tests designed to determine the better soldiers. As part of the testing regimen, a handful of the "human" soldiers engage in brutal hand-to-hand combat with the new group. Todd's group is no match for the genetically-engineered soldiers; several members of his unit are killed. Todd badly damages Caine 607 (Lee), but 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 the dead bodies are transported via P376 disposal ship to Arcadia 234, a waste disposal planet, where they are to be dumped along with the trash. Todd wakes up on board, lying amongst trash and his dead comrades. He realizes where he is just as the bottom doors of the ship are opened a few feet above the surface, dumping him and the debris onto the planet. Recovering, Todd begins walking, eventually meeting a group of fellow humans who left Earth twelve years earlier in 2024 on a voyage to the Trinity Moons, only to crash-land on Arcadia 234. They live as a closely-knit community among the planet's trash heaps.

Overcoming the initial apprehension of some of the settlers, Todd wins acceptance into their community. He begins a new life with them, albeit with difficulty because of his combat-focused mental conditioning. He continues to exhibit a stern, tough behavior, despite the settlers' attempts to integrate him into their lifestyle. He is, however, able to make friends with a settler named Mace, and teaches Mace's son Nathan survival skills, such as the best way to kill a snake. During a flashback, Todd mistakes one of their number for an enemy, and nearly kills him. As a result, the settlers decide to send him into exile. They provide him with supplies and send him on his way, Mace wishing him luck as he leaves. Todd settles in an old rocket engine nozzle among the garbage heaps of the planet. It is there that his emotions finally overcome him, and he sheds a tear due to his failure to adapt to the colonist's society.

When the skills Mace's son learned from Todd save his parents from a snake, Mace decides to find Todd and return him to the community. Coincidentally, the new soldiers arrive on a training exercise and begin a ground battle against the colonists. Todd dons his war paint and weaponry. Though outmanned and outgunned, his years of battle experience let him outmaneuver the replicant army. A final personal combat with Caine 607 ends with a hint of a happy future for Todd. 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 new soldiers' planet killer weapon. After setting a course to the Trinity Moons, Todd embraces Nathan as his son and they look upon a galaxy as the film ends.

[edit] Cast

Actor/Actress Role(s)
Kurt Russell Todd
Jason Scott Lee Caine 607
Jason Isaacs Mekum
Connie Nielsen Sandra
Sean Pertwee Mace
Jared Thorne Nathan
Taylor Thorne Nathan
Mark Bringleson Rubrick
Gary Busey Church
K.K. Dodds Sloan
James Black Riley
Mark De Alessandro Goines
Vladimir Orlov Romero
Carsten Norgaard Green
Duffy Gaver Chelsey
Michael Chiklis Jimmy Pig

[edit] Reception

Like its sister film Blade Runner, Soldier was a box office flop. Shot with a rather high budget of $75 million, the film only took in $15 million worldwide. [1]

Critical reaction was harsh as well; the film's director, Paul Anderson, was heavily criticized for his work, and some considered writer David Peoples to not be up to his usual standards with the screenplay.

The main reason for its bad reception could be a general misunderstanding that labeled the movie an action movie, while it rather describes itself as a drama.

[edit] References to Blade Runner

Soldier is set within the same fictional universe as the 1982 cult science fiction film Blade Runner. Writer David Webb Peoples specifically wrote these references in his script for Soldier.

  • Tannhauser Gate, a location mentioned by Roy Batty in Blade Runner, 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.
  • 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])
  • David Peoples has also claimed that the soldiers of this film are examples of the engineered life forms (known as "replicants") seen in Blade Runner
  • The film also obliquely references various elements of works by Phillip K. Dick, who had written the novel on which Blade Runner is based. However, Dick was not involved in Soldier's creation.
  • 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] Trivia

  • 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:
    • The battles of Tannhauser Gate and Shoulder of Orion — Blade Runner (1982)
    • Receipt of the "Plissken Medal" — Escape from New York (1981), Escape from L.A. (1997)
    • Receipt of the "O'Neil Ring Award" — Stargate (1994)
    • Receipt of the "Cash Medal of Honor" — Tango and Cash (1989)
    • Receipt of the "Maccready Cross" — The Thing (1982)
    • Receipt of the "Capt Ron Trophy" — Captain Ron (1992)
    • Receipt of the "McCaffrey Fire Award" — Backdraft (1991)
    • Receipt of the "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 BFG 9000.
  • Among the garbage on the planet:
  • The film's original title was "The Base."
  • A false press statement was released, saying that Kurt Russell broke his ankle during a stunt, when in fact he tripped over an ornamental cabbage during a break. However, as Todd tries to outrun a billboard letter collapsing towards him, a closeup of the large object 'chasing' his feet shows that his right ankle was crushed (although this may have been a stuntman).
  • Shorter people (4' tall) were used in the scenes with the large military vehicles to make the machines look larger.
  • Todd, the main character of this film, is on screen over 85% of the time, but only speaks a total of 104 words.
  • The trailer featured a spectacular space battle involving 20-30 ships around a planet (possibly a glimpse of the Battle of Tannhauser Gate). The film contained no such scene, nor could it plausibly have done so except perhaps as a flashback. It was possibly a marketing ploy.
  • During the sequences where Caine 607 is driving the crawler, the control he uses to fire the weapons is a Saitek X36 PC joystick.
  • During the War Of Six Cities scene, the map hanging on the wall is the plan of the Moscow Metro.
  • One of the sound bites when Caine is pounding the residence is music from Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song."
  • David L. Snyder, who was the Production Designer for the film, was the Art Director for Blade Runner.

[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] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:


The Blade Runner series
Films Blade Runner | Soldier
Novels Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? | The Edge of Human | Replicant Night | Eye and Talon
Games and comics The Blade Runner Videogame | A Marvel Comics Super Special: Blade Runner
Characters Rick Deckard | Eldon Tyrell | Gaff | Rachael | Roy Batty | Leon Kowalski | Pris | Zhora | J.F. Sebastian
Locations Tyrell Corporation | Bradbury Building | Tannhauser Gate
Cast Harrison Ford | Rutger Hauer | Sean Young | Edward James Olmos | Daryl Hannah
Crew Ridley Scott | Hampton Fancher | Michael Deeley | David Peoples
Other topics Philip K. Dick | Vangelis | Soundtrack | Themes | Replicants | Voight-Kampff machine | Spinner
Related articles Postmodernism | Cyberpunk | Cult film
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../s/o/l/Soldier_%28film%29.html"
In other languages