Soldier

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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 a futuristic soldier named Todd 3465. The film also featured Jason Scott Lee, Jason Isaacs, Connie Nielsen, and Sean Pertwee.

It was written by David Peoples, who also was involved in rewriting the script for Blade Runner; so by his own admission, it could be considered a sidequel to Blade Runner. It 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. For example, a vehicle from Blade Runner, known as a "spinner," can be viewed in one scene. However, Dick was not involved in the film's creation, nor was it directly based on any of his works.

Contents 1 Cast 2 Trivia 3 DVD release 3.1 DVD features 4 External links

[edit] 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

[edit] Trivia

• Kurt broke his left ankle and the top of his right foot during this movie, but pushed himself to complete it.
• Writer David Peoples has claimed that this movie is a sequel of sorts to Blade Runner, which he also wrote. He claims that the soldiers of this movie are examples of the engineered life forms seen in Blade Runner; vehicles seen in Blade Runner are also seen in this movie. In addition, a list of Kurt Russel's weapon training history indicates that he has been trained on the M41A Pulse Rifle and USMC Smartgun, weapons seen in the movie Aliens - which could indicate that that franchise also exists within the same universe.
• Although he is onscreen for the bulk of the movie, Kurt Russell's character speaks only 104 words.
• 'Russell, Kurt' sustained a broken ankle during the first week of filming, and got a week off. When he came back, all of the scenes where he was laying down were filmed. They followed that with the sitting-down scenes, then the standing-still scenes. Finally, the action scenes were shot. The last scene filmed was the "running" scene between Todd and Cain 607 near the beginning of the movie.
• Shorter people (4' tall) were used in the scenes with the large military vehicles to make the machines look larger.
• Among the garbage on the planet is the USS Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the F-117X Remora from Executive Decision (1996), a spinner from Blade Runner (1982), and a piece of the Lewis & Clark from Event Horizon (1997).
• Todd's service record, displayed on a computer screen, includes the following:
  • The battles of Tannhauser Gate and Shoulder of Orion (references to Blade Runner (1982))
  • Receipt of the "Plissken Medal" (reference to Escape from New York (1981) and its sequel Escape from L.A.). **Receipt of the "O'Neil Ring Award" (reference to Stargate (1994))
  • Receipt of the "Cash Medal of Honor" (reference to Tango and Cash (1989))
  • Receipt of the "Maccready Cross" (reference to The Thing (1982))
  • Receipt of the "Capt Ron Trophy" (reference to Captain Ron (1992))
  • Receipt of the "McCaffrey Fire Award" (reference to Backdraft (1991))
  • Receipt of the "Dexter Riley Award" (reference to 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).
• Todd's weapons training record lists the "USMC Smartgun" and "M41A pulse rifle" (references to Aliens (1986)) and the "DOOM MKIV BFG," a reference to the computer game Doom.
• Writer David Peoples has said that Soldier is a "side-quel" to Blade Runner (which he also wrote) because it takes place in the same universe and in fact the vehicles used by the Blade Runners, spinners, are also used in Soldier.
• Todd, the main character of this movie, 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. The film contained no such scene, nor could it plausibly have done so except perhaps as a flashback. It was probably 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 Metropolitain.
• Among the garbage in the ship that slides towards Todd when he gets dumped on the planet is the Liberty Bell
• The films's original title was "The Base".
• While listing the weapons Todd is trained on, you can see that he 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 his Bugs Bunny cartoons.
• 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.
• One of the sound bites when Cane is pounding the residence is music from Led Zepplin's "Immigrant Song".

[edit] 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 thre DVD, and included on the disc was a film commentary.

[edit] DVD 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)

[edit] External links

• IMDB site
• WB-Soldier.com - The film's official site
• BRmovie.com - A fan website of the Blade Runner universe