The last half of the Nineties was full of high budget science fiction action movies like Independence Day, Men in Black, Starship Troopers, The Matrix, and several more remarkable hits. Celebrity action heroes like Sylvester Stallone and Bruce Willis filled up theatres with their entries to the genre year after year. Amidst them all came a quiet little epic starring Kurt Russell called Soldier. Despite bombing terribly at the box office and receiving negative reviews, the themes and conflicts of the film are deeper than most appreciate. If it had been released ten or fifteen years later, moviegoers would have recognized the relevancy of its core message. Soldier, unfortunately, fell between the cracks of the genre. Viewing it today, it is a highly underrated film.
On paper, Soldier does not look so shiny. It holds a splat score of 13% on Rotten Tomatoes, and it grossed $14 million on a budget of $60 million. That is no insignificant loss. It was director Paul W.S. Anderson’s third major film, after 1995’s hit Mortal Kombat, and 1997’s poorly received Event Horizon. After Soldier, Anderson would dive headfirst into his wife Milla Jovovich’s franchise Resident Evil (the sixth and final one came out in 2016), and other low performers such as Aliens vs Predator and Death Race. Fans and critics alike are not too happy with the couple’s new release Monster Hunter either.
Leading man Kurt Russell stars in Soldier as Sgt. Todd 3465, an orphan raised by an experimental military division to be a ruthless super-soldier. Forty years of war later, the program is threatened and replaced by a new division that grows genetically modified soldiers and trains them with enhancement drugs. The two programs duel, figuratively, and Sgt. Todd is tossed aside like trash, literally. He then finds his own identity and moral conscience among a marooned society on the garbage planet of Arcadia. Todd’s nemesis Caine and his modified troops attack the community, only to be outfoxed by Todd.
From 1995 to 1999, American cinema was flooded with action sci-fi movies of all sorts, from high concepts like Keanu Reeves’ Johnny Mnemonic (1995) or The Fifth Element (1997) to game-changers like The Matrix and Star Wars: The Phantom Menace (both in 1999). The range saw young stars like Will Smith and Casper Van Dien rise to celebrity, with releases like Independence Day (1996), Men in Black (1997) and Starship Troopers (1997), and celebrities like Sylvester Stallone, Sigourney Weaver, and Matthew Broderick take hard hits with bombs Judge Dredd (1995), Alien Resurrection (1997) and Godzilla (1998). Kurt Russell’s foray into the genre came from 1994’s Stargate, and 1996’s Escape From L.A, both receiving mixed reviews. Though Stargate was a financial success, Escape from L.A. was a terrible bomb. Soldier came to theatres in 1998, smashed right in the middle of all that green alien blood.
The concept of super-soldiers fighting in future wars is not new, nor is having an emotionally stunted grunt grow into a conscientious citizen of a community, but the competition between two types of super-soldiers was original and intriguing. Unlike the majority of sci-fi of the time (see above) the action is character-based rather than spectacle.
Sgt. Todd represents homegrown effort and authenticity, versus Caine (played by Mulan‘s Jason Scott Lee) who represents GMO’s and chemical fabrication. Todd was taken as a young child and raised by hand to be the soldier he was. His training took time and effort, his experiences came from lessons learned in the field of war. He is a medal carrying veteran. Caine was grown in a test tube, given enhancement drugs and serums, and psychologically altered to obey and to kill without hesitation. His crop is physically superior to Todd’s, but they lack any field experience or the ability to adapt to new or changing circumstances, especially the guerilla war waged against them on Arcadia. Todd is a warrior, whereas Caine is a tool. Todd is grown naturally, in “soil and sunlight,” against Caine who is a genetically engineered product. Had Soldier been released in the 2000s, it would have struck a chord with audiences of the time. GMO was a political hot topic during the first decade or so of the twenty-first century. This movie slides right into that debate, albeit using military science as the veil for the argument.
Soldier is also a conflict of conditioning versus community. Todd is raised to be detached from society and see the world as enemy or ally. Kurt Russell plays the restraint very well, only speaking 104 words total even though he is in 85% of the movie. On Arcadia, his experiences with the family teach him to see and appreciate people and to defend them even if it means disobeying orders. His victory over Caine and the super soldiers at the end comes not just from his skills as a veteran, but from his conviction that defending innocent lives is more important than following the marching orders of a faceless military command.
This is an additionally cool sidenote about Soldier: it takes place in the same universe as Blade Runner. A vehicle from Blade Runner, the hovercraft known as a spinner, can be seen among wreckage on Arcadia. Sgt. Todd’s battle record shows that he fought on the Shoulder of Orion and the Tannhauser Gate, which means Sgt. Todd could have fought against, or with, Roy Batty (the main replicant from Blade Runner, played by Rutger Hauer). The film’s writer, David Peoples, co-wrote 1982’s Blade Runner and considers Soldier a “spin-off sidequel spiritual successor.”
If the audience wants the best stunts or the highest budget action, Soldier may not be the viewing experience for them. There is a slew of other movies that can satisfy that urge. Yet the message of homegrown over laboratory fabrication should still resonate with modern viewers today.
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