Soldier (1998)
Soldier plot
The following content describes the plot for the movie.
In the near future, as part of a new military training program (“Project Adam”), a group of infants are selected at birth and raised as soldiers. Undergoing extreme mental and physical training, they become virtual sociopaths, extremely disciplined, but with no understanding of anything except military routine and war. The soldiers are conditioned to never speak unless spoken to, completely ignore physical pain, and to address whomever they are speaking to, women included, as “sir”.
At age 49, Todd (Kurt Russell) is a hardened veteran of many battles, but his unit is about to be replaced. Colonel Mekum (Jason Isaacs) introduces a new group of genetically-engineered soldiers, designed with superior physical attributes and a complete lack of emotion, except aggression.
Todd’s unit’s commander, Captain Church (Gary Busey) insists on testing the “new” soldiers’ abilities against his own. But Todd, the unit’s best soldier, is no match for Caine 607 (Jason Scott Lee). In the final trial, a fight between Caine and three “old” soldiers, two of Todd’s comrades are killed, though Todd manages to gouge out one of Caine’s eyes before he is defeated. Todd seemingly dies when he falls from a great height; but the body of a dead soldier cushions his fall, and he is simply knocked unconscious. Mekum orders their bodies dumped like garbage, and the remaining “old” soldiers are demoted to menial support roles. Meanwhile Caine gets an artificial blue eye to replace the brown eye he lost.
Todd and his dead comrades are dumped on the surface of Arcadia 234, a waste disposal planet with dangerously high winds. Though badly injured, Todd limps toward a colony of humans who crash-landed there twelve years earlier, and have managed to survive and build a society from the planet’s mountains of trash.
Though they try to make him welcome, Todd has difficulty adapting to the community due to his extreme conditioning and their extreme pacifism. Todd’s training, and subsequently stunted social skills, make it difficult for him to answer in anything more than curt replies. Many of the settlers are afraid of him, but he is accepted and sheltered by Mace (Sean Pertwee) and his wife Sandra (Connie Nielsen). Todd develops a silent rapport with their mute son, Nathan, who had been traumatized by a snakebite earlier in his life. In a later conflict with a coiled snake, Todd teaches Nathan how to face it down and strike back to protect himself. However, his parents misinterpret the lesson, unsure of how to deal with Todd.
Todd soon begins to experience flashbacks from his time as a soldier and mistakes one of the pacifist colonists (Michael Chiklis) for an enemy, nearly killing him. The pacifists decide that Todd is too dangerous to live among them, so they give him supplies and democratically vote him out of the colony. Outside the colony, he sheds tears, but appears confused, implying that this is the first time in his life that he has ever cried.
A short time later, Mace and Sandra are almost bitten by another snake while sleeping, but are saved by Nathan, who used Todd’s technique. Mace then realizes that Todd taught their son how to protect his parents from the snakes. He also realizes that Todd has an important role to play in their community, and decides to search for the soldier on his own and bring him back. The colonists object, saying that they had voted him out democratically, but he answers them with “We voted wrong.”
The new genetically engineered soldiers arrive on the garbage planet for a training exercise. Since the world is listed as uninhabited, Colonel Mekum decides that the pacifists’ presence is unlawful and, for practice, orders his troops to slaughter them. Frightened children hide underground and hope not to be seen. Mace is spotted by the troops and killed just after he finds Todd. Though outmanned and outgunned, Todd’s years of battle experience and superior knowledge of the planet allow him to return to the colony and kill the advance squad attacking the pacifists.
Nervous that an unknown enemy force may be confronting them, Colonel Mekum orders the soldiers to withdraw and return with heavy artillery. Using guerilla tactics, Todd outmaneuvers and defeats all of the remaining soldiers, including Caine 607, who is defeated in hand-to-hand combat.
Panicking, Mekum orders the transport ship’s crew, composed of Todd’s old squad, to set up and activate a portable nuclear device powerful enough to destroy the planet, then orders the ship to lift off, leaving the squad behind. When Captain Church objects, Mekum shoots him. Before they can take off as planned, Todd appears, and his old comrades recognize him as the ranking officer due to their conditioning and silently side with him over the army that has discarded them. Todd and his comrades take over the ship, leaving Mekum and his aides on the planet, then evacuate the remaining colonists just before the bomb detonates. Mekum wets his pants as he realizes he is helpless.
Todd orders the ship to set course for the Trinity Moons, the colonists’ original destination, then picks up Nathan and points to their new destination, while looking out upon the galaxy.
Source: Wikipedia
Our verdict: Aggressive action packed sci-fi but has its heart felt moments
Related items: – Soldier on DVD and Blu-ray available to order/pre-order from AMAZON.