10 Things You Didn’t Know About Starship Troopers 3: Marauder

A lackluster attempt at a direct-to-video sequel was made in 2004 that many of us have tried to forget. Starship Troopers was such a fantastic and unique movie on so many levels that a sequel with no returning characters and barely a hint of what made the original great stood no chance at being successful. That’s a good thing, however, since just four years later we finally got to see the return of the legendary Johnny Rico! Now join me as I attempt to deliver 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Starship Troopers 3: Marauder.

1- Getting ready: First time director Ed Neumeier brought the cast and crew down to South Africa for filming. Neumeier has a number of writing credits to his name including the previous two Starship Troopers films and about 20 RoboCop projects. You can be sure that he has a way with sci-fi and satire.

2- The rifles: The rifles they use in the film may look familiar as they tried to use the design shown at the very end of Starship Troopers throughout the film. They used South African copies of the AK-47 which had been dressed up to look futuristic but they added a serious amount of weight to the things and the actors really started to feel it walking through the desert.

3- A short shoot: The film was lucky to get so many talented Shakespearean actors to fill the roles along with the returning Casper Van Dien. CVD was able to slip back into his role from 11 years earlier with ease and the men and women brought over from the stage all appeared to really bring on the cheese and tounge-in-cheek necessary for the material. The shoot was only 30 days so anything that could help them cut down on reshoots was a big help.

4- A full burn: When the base is attacked early in the film by bugs, a stuntman is seen catching on fire for what feels like a long time. It just so happens that it was a long time because the stuntman suffered some pretty serious burns on his neck and face.

5- New bugs: Despite the awesomeness of the original Starship Troopers, it was crucial that Neumeier bring enough back from the first one while also bringing some new things with it. They came up with the bombardier bugs and the scorpion bugs to add that flavor to the film. One problem with the bombardier bugs is that the actors on set kept throwing them at each other like hand grenades between takes.

6- The Scorpions: The scorpion bug was designed to be a type of artillery for the bugs. The first film saw the forts used by the humans being above ground but we see how that didn’t work at all. This film had more trench-like bases surrounded by electrified fences. The scorpion bug is how the bugs were able break through those new barriers.

7- The effects: Most of the effects shots are a combination of CGI and practical. Parts of some of them are practical and were used heavily on screen.

8- The brain game: The Brain bug was supposed to be the same one from the original.

9- Lovecraft: Behemecoatal (the giant bug god) was very much a Lovecraftian type of bug. Cosmic, massive, organic. It was made and had somehwere near 60 moving parts and took multiple people to operate.

10- SMACK: Casper Van Dien’s first day on set happened to be during a scene where actor Cokey Falkow gets slapped across the face by Jolene Blalock. He allegedly coached Jolene into slapping Falkow dozens of times in order to get the scene right. I say “allegedly” because both Neumeier and Blalock remember it vividly but CVD does not.