Hollywood is all about making money at the end of the day, so it makes very little sense that Starship Troopers: Traitor of Mars would mark the fifth installment in a long-running sci-fi saga that was still going strong a full quarter of a century after the opening chapter bombed at the box office.
Of course, Paul Verhoeven’s satirical gem has become an indisputable cult classic after being misleadingly marketed and left to wither on the vine during its initial release, but that doesn’t mean we can wrap our heads around the fact it ended up giving rise to an entire multimedia universe.
Live-action sequels Hero of the Federation and Marauder didn’t sniff the inside of a theater, but animated follow-ups Invasion and Traitor of Mars nonetheless emerged from the woodwork, with Casper Van Dien and Dina Meyers once again returning as Johnny Rico and Dizzy Flores, and there’s no way they thought they’d be playing these roles for 25 years.
The bland narrative finds Rico demoted and sent off to a remote satellite station to train up a band of new recruits, before his old insectoid enemies once again make their mandibled presence felt. From there, no surprises will be found, but that hasn’t prevented Traitor of Mars from making a splash on-demand.
Per FlixPatrol, the fifth chapter in the never-ending Starship Troopers series has hit the jackpot on the iTunes rankings, proving there’s still some gas left in the old girl yet so long after initially landing with a hefty thud.