MovieChat Forums > Starship Troopers (1997) Discussion > Why not just nuke the planet?

Why not just nuke the planet?



I cant see why they needed to land and to take the bugs on in combat when they could of just nuked the planet or at the very least dropped bombs from the ships.
Maybe this was explained but i cant remember a logical reason for it.

reply

That is how a planet would be attacked initially. Another possibility would be to send large asteroids t to bombard the planet (cheaper than bombs). However, this is a movie and that doesn't look as cool or create as much drama.

reply

That is how a planet would be attacked initially. Another possibility would be to send large asteroids t to bombard the planet (cheaper than bombs). However, this is a movie and that doesn't look as cool or create as much drama.

reply

I know you have to make a movie and cant go straight to nuking a planet and finish he film in 5 minutes but that's not my point.
The whole premise of a bug planet that needs to be wiped out by sending in armed ground troops would of been more plausible if they had come up with a reason as not to just blow it up, sending troops onto a planet just to fight mono-o-buggo makes no sense at all.

reply

One argument could be that their nests were underground.

reply

Don't worry about it, Gbu, the entire MOVIE has stupid logic: Why have tactical nukes that can be launched like rockets, if the standard weapon for each infantry soldier is basically a machine gun with BULLETS? AGAINST GIANT BUGS? I saw a recent YouTube video that explained the fallacy perfectly, and that the Mobile Infantry is basically cannon fodder and expendable in high numbers (after all, they have the entire human species to draw upon). If only I could remember what it was.

reply

In the book, the Earth is extremely overpopulated and the government assigns lesser skilled people to extremely hazardous jobs as a deterrent to public service and to reduce the population. Service is voluntary so no one has to do the dangerous stuff but more people volunteer than are needed so the govt has an almost endless supply of troopers.

reply

[deleted]

Humans wanted to colonize those world's. The Earth's population is out of hand and there are a limited number of earthlike planets, unfortunately the bugs need those same planets. They are fighting over new lands. This is explained in the book but not well in the movie. There is a 3rd species, Skinnies, in the book also fighting humanity for colony world's.

reply

thats pretty neat I never read the book but loved the film

reply

"there are a limited number of earthlike planets"

Limited to what? Trillions?

You're going to have to elaborate on that because most people are aware of the numbers involved in the makeup of your typical galaxy and the number of galaxies that exist.

reply

We are talking about a fictional universe with FTL travel where it's possible to colonize other star systems. Three species are fighting over the same planets so we know the number of habitable planets is limited. We don't know how fast their ships go but we know that bugs can redirect asteroids in real time to hit Earth so they can't be very far away. Since we don't know their speed, I'll use Star Trek warp factors which is probably way faster but it's all I have.

b) Assuming their universe is the same as ours, to date only about 1.3% of all known extrasolar planets are in the goldilocks' zone where life 'might' be possible. The farthest is 25,000 light years away (200 years at warp 5). Only 2 or 3 are earthlike, and of those only 1 is thought to be habitable by humans if it has the right atmosphere and it is roughly 100 light years away (or 9 months at Warp 5). Capable of supporting life and capable of supporting human life are very different things. So 1:4000 might be habitable by humans. That's not very good odds and I suspect that is optimistic.

reply

Wow, good reply. Yeah, the distances involved, as IRL, would be the limiting factor.

reply

Thanks, it was fun.

reply

Because they were running a fascist government that depended on the strength of its military. Why use your technology to end the war in 5 minutes, when you can have a long drawn out war that shows off your military might, as well as distracts the citizens and civilians back home from the fact that you have taken away all of their rights.

reply

This is the correct answer. There's a popular theory that the bugs never even attacked Earth to begin with.

reply

The government was a capitalist democracy. Verhoeven discusses the accusations that it glorified fascism on the commentary, you might be interested.

reply

agreed the maintenance of "the constant enemy/other"

no one at home will really support you nuking them. but if theres casualties like in Buenos Aires all of a sudden the populace is riled up

reply

You can kill a lot of bugs that way, but they grow back just as fast. I think the plan is to kill all bugs on a planet so they don't grow back, at least not that fast (Bugs are still going to send spores into space and randomly land on planets).

reply

Because their real goal was to capture a Brain Bug and learn how its mind worked to control all the other bugs. The bugs inhabited other planets, by hurling their spore into space. Nuking one planet would not erase their menace. Learning how to control their network would.

reply

I thought that was only their mission after they had realised the intelligent life of the super bug brain after Doogie howser had worked on the idea and was not there original objective?

reply

You are correct. After the first battle on Planet P, he tells them that they are going back and there is a new objective. Capturing the Brain Bug.

reply

#1 as someone else said many of their nests were subterarian.

#2 while futuristic in some ways in many ways they weren't. they have some forms of interstellar travel yet us normal automatic rifles still?

#3 the initial attacks started because those mormons put a small colony on the planet. kind of hard to colonize a planet when you made it radioactive.

reply