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50 free Starship Troopers trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Would you like to know more? This Starship Troopers trivia quiz covers Paul Verhoeven's 1997 film from Buenos Aires to Planet P: Johnny Rico, Carmen Ibanez, Dizzy Flores and Carl Jenkins, Sergeant Zim, Lieutenant Rasczak and the Roughnecks, the disaster on Klendathu, the Tanker Bug, the Brain Bug and the FedNet propaganda that told everyone to do their part. There are questions on how it was made: the Bug Hunt at Outpost 7 script that turned into a Heinlein adaptation, the Wyoming badlands that played alien planets, the Riefenstahl-inspired casting, Phil Tippett's Oscar-nominated bugs, the $100 million budget and the reviews that called it fascist before the film was reclaimed as satire. A final section covers Robert Heinlein's 1959 novel, its Hugo Award, its powered armour and Filipino Rico, plus the sequels and the 1999 animated series. Easy questions first, then ones for citizens who have done their part. Every answer has been checked against the Wikipedia articles on the film, the novel, the sequels and the people involved, and each question shows its source once you have answered.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Who directed the 1997 film Starship Troopers?
Paul Verhoeven
The Dutch director of RoboCop and Total Recall had just made Showgirls, the worst-reviewed film of his career.
Q 02Who wrote the 1959 novel the film is based on?
Robert A. Heinlein
It won the 1960 Hugo Award and was the last of his juvenile novels after Scribner rejected it.
Q 03Which original cast member returned as Johnny Rico in the 2008 sequel Marauder?
Casper Van Dien
Mark Wahlberg and Matt Damon also auditioned; Van Dien did five auditions and eight months of training.
Q 04What is the name of the alien species humanity is fighting?
The Arachnids
The film calls them bugs; the novel's second alien race, the Skinnies, was cut as too confusing.
Q 05Which city is destroyed by an Arachnid asteroid, prompting Rico to re-enlist?
Buenos Aires
Rico's parents are among the millions killed; the film cast blond Argentinians as part of the joke.
Q 06What is the Arachnid home planet called?
Klendathu
The first invasion is a bloodbath because military intelligence underestimated the bugs.
Q 07What is the government of Earth called in the film?
The United Citizen Federation
Citizenship, including the vote and the right to have children, must be earned through federal service.
Q 08Which branch does Rico join to stay close to his girlfriend?
The Mobile Infantry
Carmen becomes a pilot in Fleet and Carl goes to Military Intelligence; Rico ends up carrying a rifle.
Q 09Who plays Carmen Ibanez?
Denise Richards
She did five auditions and refused a separate nude scene, though she joined the infantry cast's military training anyway.
Q 10Which Doogie Howser star plays the psychic Carl Jenkins?
Neil Patrick Harris
By the end he is a colonel in a very Gestapo-looking coat, sensing that the Brain Bug is afraid.
Q 11Who plays Dizzy Flores, who transfers to Rico's squad because she loves him?
Dina Meyer
Dizzy was a man in the novel; the film combined him with a female character Neumeier had written.
Q 12Who plays Sergeant Zim, the drill instructor?
Clancy Brown
Zim is the one who finally captures the Brain Bug at the end.
Q 13What was Lieutenant Rasczak's job before he led his elite unit?
Rico's high school teacher
Michael Ironside's one-armed Rasczak combines two characters from the novel, teacher Dubois and Lieutenant Rasczak.
Q 21Whose propaganda films did Verhoeven cite as the look he wanted for his blond, blue-eyed cast?
Leni Riefenstahl
He referenced Triumph of the Will and Olympia and looked to shows like 90210 and Melrose Place for photogenic unknowns.
Q 22Which Wyoming location stood in for the alien planets?
Hell's Half Acre
It sits outside Casper, was full of rattlesnakes, and the shoot began there in April 1996.
Q 23Roughly how much of the film's nine-figure budget went on visual effects?
Nearly half
Phil Tippett's studio hired nearly 100 extra staff to animate the bugs.
Q 14What is Rasczak's elite unit called?
The Roughnecks
The 1999 animated series was titled Roughnecks: Starship Troopers Chronicles.
Q 15What kind of giant bug does Rico kill on Tango Urilla to earn a promotion to corporal?
A Tanker Bug
He climbs on top and drops a grenade in; the planet's scenes were shot in the South Dakota Badlands.
Q 16What is the intelligent Arachnid that directs the others called?
The Brain Bug
It sucks out Zander's brain before Zim captures it; queen bugs were considered too expensive to film.
Q 17How does Sugar Watkins die?
He detonates a mini-nuke to cover the escape
Seth Gilliam plays him; the tunnels are where Carmen and Zander are captured.
Q 18What was the working title of Edward Neumeier's original script before it became a Heinlein adaptation?
Bug Hunt at Outpost 7
He picked insects as the enemy because his wife was afraid of them.
Q 19Which earlier Verhoeven film reunited its producer, writer and effects artist for Starship Troopers?
RoboCop
Jon Davison, Edward Neumeier and Phil Tippett had all worked on it in 1987.
Q 20How did Verhoeven get on with the Heinlein novel?
He found it dull and right-wing and never finished it
He had Neumeier summarise it, then set out to satirise its militarism, drawing on his childhood in occupied Holland.
Q 24Which studio partnered with TriStar to split the film's cost, taking foreign distribution?
Touchstone Pictures
TriStar had baulked at a $90 million budget after Waterworld's failure got executives fired.
Q 25Who composed the score over six months, building it around a theme for the troop transport?
Basil Poledouris
He also scored RoboCop and Conan the Barbarian.
Q 26For which Academy Award was Starship Troopers nominated?
Best Visual Effects
Phil Tippett, Scott E. Anderson, Alec Gillis and John Richardson were the nominees.
Q 27How much did the film gross worldwide?
$121 million
It opened well then fell away amid bad reviews and competition from Titanic, finishing 34th for 1997.
Q 28What did an editorial in The Washington Post accuse the film of being?
Pro-fascist, made by Nazis
The film has since been re-evaluated as a satire of exactly the thing critics thought it endorsed.
Q 29Which two slogans from the FedNet segments entered the cultural lexicon?
"I'm doing my part!" and "Would you like to know more?"
The newsreel format lets viewers click for more, an illusion of choice Verhoeven wanted them to question.
Q 30How many cast members took part in the co-ed shower scene?
About fifteen
Verhoeven reportedly stripped off himself to put the actors at ease.