‘Starship Troopers’ Cast Nukes The Main Stage On The Final Day Of C2E2 2025 With ‘The Only Good Bug Is a Dead Bug: A Starship Troopers Reunion’ Panel
A low hum of tired voices droned through the large auditorium located in the upper level of the luxurious labyrinth called McCormick Place in Chicago as the annual C2E2 convention drew to a close on Sunday afternoon.
It was like a nest of doomed insects on the final days of autumn that were meandering around their cramped quarters in a dissociative fugue state, while slowly suffocating on the stagnant air that was filled with the sweetly sour smells of hangover, days-old sweat on fabric, the ubiquitous scent of deep regret that comes from highly irresponsible spending, and the acrid stench emitting from the smoking nerves of introverts who’ve gone light years beyond their social limits.
Their chittering grew louder when the brains of the operation took to the stage for one final decree before abandoning the hive to the cold, and lonesome fate that awaited all of them.
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If the only good bug is a dead bug, then the only good ape is one that doesn’t want to live forever. The crowd came back to life for one last “Hoorah!” when the Roughnecks (plus one Fleet Officer) marched onto the Main Stage to help close out C2E2 2025 with “The Only Good Bug Is a Dead Bug: A Starship Troopers Reunion.”
Paul Verhoeven’s Sci-Fi/Action war satire about a futuristic dystopian society that takes its warmongering to extraterrestrial levels has been a favorite among the likes of film scholars, clueless meatheads, stoners, and emotionally-overwrought intellectuals with delusions of moral superiority. It is also turning 28 years old this November, and that crackling you just heard was the sound of both your boomer knees reacting to this grim reminder.
Panel host Austin Romero (aka WWE’s Mike Rome) alleviated the burn by welcoming Casper Van Dien (aka Johnny Rico), Dina Meyer (Dizzy Flores), Denise Richards (Carmen Ibanez), Jake Busey (Ace Levy), and the varying ways time has treated their once youthful faces. But the great-grand prize would go to the 75-year-old Michael Ironside (aka Lieutenant Jean Rasczak).
The legend of cinematic villainy (Scanners, Total Recall, the voice of Darkseid in Superman: The Animated Series) stomped onto the stage like someone who has had their fill of endless walking over the past few days, and his mood reflected this. When the crowd slammed him with the loudest pop of anyone on the panel, he responded in true heel fashion with the flick of a hand beneath his chin, and that rude gesture only made them cheer louder.
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Joining them was Busey’s adorable Great Dane, Kali, who soaked up all the attention, and pets from costars she could get while they discussed their bipedal affairs. Unknown to many fans, Starship Troopers is based on the far more serious 1959 novel by immortal Sci-scribe, Robert A. Heinlein (Stranger in a Strange Land, The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, Double Star), and both Ironside and Van Dien mentioned having read it before Paul Verhoeven had even thought about making it into a film.
“Look, I read the book. My grandfather was part of a group called the ‘100 and 5’, or ‘100 and 15’, I can’t remember,” the erudite Ironside admitted (and it’s 5). “They were all Sci-Fi writers, and stuff like that back in the 1940s, 30s. Science Fiction wasn’t thought of as a legitimate form of literature. So, they formed this thing called ‘The Sci-Fi Club’, and they would exchange short stories with each other. So, you would have people like A.E. van Vogt who wrote the Slan series, if anybody has ever read those. They were big influence on David Cronenberg.”
“Actually,” he continued. “I read Dune from a shoebox. He [Frank Herbert] sent it to my grandfather, a first draft of it. It was actually on mimeograph, you know…you guys are too young to know what a [F-ing] mimeograph is.”
“I read the book when I was 12,” followed Van Dien “And it was also required reading for the Marine Corps at the time. When I read the script, I went ‘Oh, my God! How did I understand this satire when I was 12? Then I went back, and re-read the book, and I went, ‘Oh, because it’s not there!’ So, it’s all Paul and Ed [Neumeier].”
For some fans, one of the most popular moments involves a group shower at the beginning of the movie, and we all know why, but most don’t know that it was a double whammy of awkward while filming that scene. The first came when Dina Meyer tested the eccentric Dutch filmmaker when he was teasing the American actors for their reluctance to get nekkid in such mixed company.
“Well,” she recalls telling him. “If it’s not such a big deal, why don’t you take your clothes off. He looks over at [cinematographer] Jost Vacano, and Jost goes ‘Hmm..okay.’, and the two of them dropped their pants.”
“He just shrugged his shoulders,” interjected Busey, one of the shower buddies. “Briefly,” Meyer quickly added. “They didn’t film it.”
Starship Troopers went over many people’s heads when it first came out in 1997 (There’s that crackling sound again!) with many critics who were obviously struck oblivious to its satirical theme, and decrying the film as “pro-fascism”, while making it clear that they more than likely had the same silly impression after walking out of the visionary director’s 1987 crown jewel of graphic cultural mockery, RoboCop.
There are those who still consider it pro-fascism, while most see the for the humorous, and violent caricature it’s intended to be. “I remember us watching it for the first time,” Denise Richards stated SIMPly. “And all of us looked at each other. We were all like, ‘We didn’t know this was a [F-ing] comedy.’”
“Doogie Hauser sticks his hand up the bug’s ass,” Ironside said, declaring it to be both. “Turns to everybody, and says, ‘It’s in pain. It’s frightened,’ and everybody cheers.”
With director Neill Blomkamp (District 9, Elysium, Chappie) set to reboot the film, everyone was dying to know what the actors thought of them joining the long list of people who get to see something special that they all contributed to get grinded into a fine paste of processed marketable mulch that’s most likely going to bomb harder than the original, and its terrible sequels.
“My guess is that, because they said they’re going to follow the book as closely as possible,” Ironside speculated. To which Meyer replied, “Then I’m out, because Dizzy was a man in the book”. At least we’ll always have Verhoeven’s version.
As soon as your done checking out the full panel on Popverse, go watch the ’97 movie over on Prime.
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