Soldier (1998 American film)

Soldier
Soldier
Directed by	Paul W. S. Anderson
Written by	David Peoples
Produced by	Jeremy Bolt; Susan Ekins; Fred Fontana; R.J. Louis; James G. Robinson; Jerry Weintraub
Starring	Kurt Russell; Jason Scott Lee; Jason Isaacs; Connie Nielsen; Sean Pertwee
Music by	Joel McNeely
Distributed by	Warner Brothers
Release dates	October 23, 1998 (USA)
Running time	99 min.
Language	English
Budget	$75,000,000

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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 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, Soldier is considered the "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.

Plot summary

Template:Spoiler The film begins in the year 1996 (year zero). A group of infants are chosen by a commander to be raised as soldiers. One of the infants chosen is Todd.

As he grows, he undergoes extreme mental and physical training to prepare for his career as a soldier. This includes phrase repition conditioning, running, weapons training, wrestling, among other things. As time goes on, and he endures his training, Todd appears to be one of the best in his group.

The film then jumps to 2036 (year forty). Todd is now forty years old, and is shown to be a veteran of many battles. Eventually, a commander announces that he intends to replace Todd and the others with a new group of soldiers. This new group of soldiers (who are most likely replicants) have been genetically engineered from DNA profiles. This commander demands that Todd and the other; those trained from birth, are obsolete compared to those gentically engineered. These new soldiers are superior in strength and ability.

Refusing this idea, Todd's own commander suggests that his group are not obsolete, yet are the best. He and the other commander begin several tests designed to determine the better soldiers. In the process of these tests, the two groups of soldiers compete, and end up fighting each other. However, Todd's group are no match for the new group. Severall of Todd's group are killed as a result of this. Todd himself is knocked unconcious, and is believed dead. The genetically engineered soldiers are shown to be superior to Todd's group. This leads to an order that all soldiers of Todd's class be dumped on a waste disposal planet known as Arcadia. However, the older soldiers that remained were remanded to medial support roles and furthermore stripped of their title "Soldier".

The bodies of Todd and the other dead soldiers are taken abord a waste ship, and transported to Arcadia. However, when the ship approaches Arcadia, Todd wakes up, lying amongst the trash and his dead comrades. He realizes where he is at just as the bottom doors of the ship are opened a few feet above the surface. Todd, along with his dead comrade's bodies, are dumped onto the planet among various waste.

Todd begins walking along the surface when he finds himself in the midst of a large duststorm. After riding it out, he explores his surroundings. Eventually, he runs across a group of fellow humans, who had left Earth twelve years earlier (2024) and had crashed and been stranded on Arcadia. They live as a closely-knit community among the trash heaps of the planet.

After initial apprehension from some of the settlers, Todd is accepted into their community. He begins a new life with them, although it is difficult because of his mental conditioning. He is welcomed into the community, although he never adjusts. He continues to exhibit a stern, tough behavior, despite the attempt by the community to adjust him to their lifestyle. Thinking a man is an enemy after a war flashback, Todd grabs the man and nearly kills him. It is eventtually decided that Todd be exiled from the group. The villagers provide him with supplies for survival and send him on his way, with Mace wishing him luck. Todd settles in an old drainpipe among the garbage heaps of the planet. It is there where his emotions finally overcome him, and he cries due to his failure to adapt to the human society.

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

Reception

Like its sister film Blade Runner, Soldier was a box office flop. Shot with a rather high budget of $75 milion, 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.

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 beginng 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.
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.

Trivia

Todd's service record, as displayed on a computer screen, includes the following references:
- 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.
Among the garbage on the planet:
- The USS Franklin Delano Roosevelt
- The F-117X Remora from Executive Decision (1996)
- A spinner from Blade Runner (1982)
- 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.
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.
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 Metropolitan.
One of the sound bites when Cane is pounding the residence is music from Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song."

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 (III)' (qv), co-producer 'Jeremy Bold' (qv) and actor 'Jason Isaacs' (qv) (Dolby Digital 2.0)