Starship Troopers (1997)

Would you like to know more? This week, the dads enlist with Starship Troopers, Paul Verhoeven’s 1997 satirical sci-fi epic that dares to ask: what if fascism looked hot and the future was full of bugs? Rico, Dizzy, Carmen, and the gang may be beautiful, but their war is brutal — and the propaganda machine is always watching.

Steve and Nic go all in on what makes this movie so special. From the absurdly good creature effects to the razor-sharp satire hiding behind every “Service guarantees citizenship” speech, it’s a film that knows exactly what it’s doing — even if you didn’t the first time you watched it. They talk horny high school drama, military fashion choices, Neil Patrick Harris in psychic Nazi drag, and why this movie hits different as an adult.

There’s real admiration here for Verhoeven’s chaos: how he weaponizes tone, aesthetics, and cast-of-the-week TV energy to deliver something way smarter than it first appears.

Is it a masterpiece? A mess? A misunderstood classic? This episode makes the case: it’s all of the above — and it rules.