In Soldier [1998] one of the weapons Kurt Russel's character is listed as being proficient with is the "Illudium PU36 ESM" which refers to the Illudium PU36 Explosive Space Modulator from Looney Tunes Marvin the Martian
Soldier is the perfect example of an enjoyable B movie that ages well over time. I saw it in the theater when it came out in 1998, and unlike a lot of 90's trash action which has been forgotten, it has stuck with me 20 years later.
Kurt Russell was perfect as the steely-eyed perfectly polite soldier who doesn't speak until spoken to, calls everyone around him 'sir', and probably has less than 20 lines in the whole film, but you glean a lot from him non-verbally. You feel his pain at being replaced by a new generation of genetically engineered soldiers (while he was merely trained from childhood), and you can feel him growing closer to the colonists and forming a protective bond with them. His decision to defend them is an emotional one, not a following of orders - something the military couldn't breed out of him, and why his generation is 'imperfect'.
And he delivered some of the most badass lines in an action film before the climax:
(Colonists offer to help him fight the incoming soldiers)
'No sir.'
'Why not?'
'Because soldiers deserve soldiers, sir.'
'What are you going to do?'
'I'm going to kill them all, sir.'
In the end, he's against the 'new generation' of soldier (who bested him in a combat demonstration earlier which left him for dead), and knows he can't win physically. He wins by using the wisdom of experience against the better-but-inexperienced enemy, feinting a lunge for a weapon he knows he could never reach in time in order to goad his enemy into doing the same, and then using the environment around him as a weapon.
![image showing In Soldier [1998] one of the weapons Kurt Russel's character is listed as being proficient with is the "Illudium PU36 ESM" which refers to the Illudium PU36 Explosive Space Modulator from Looney Tunes Marvin the Martian](185967da-c293-596c-a204-929869fd7301_nj9pl8t.jpg)
Radidactyl on January 11st, 2018 at 21:07 UTC »
Does it say "DOOM MKIV BFG"? As in this bad boy?
SongAboutYourPost on January 11st, 2018 at 21:42 UTC »
Holy shit. It says the DOOM BFG and the Montgomery Ward T2000, referencing Terminator 2!
AnticitizenPrime on January 11st, 2018 at 23:11 UTC »
Soldier is the perfect example of an enjoyable B movie that ages well over time. I saw it in the theater when it came out in 1998, and unlike a lot of 90's trash action which has been forgotten, it has stuck with me 20 years later.
Kurt Russell was perfect as the steely-eyed perfectly polite soldier who doesn't speak until spoken to, calls everyone around him 'sir', and probably has less than 20 lines in the whole film, but you glean a lot from him non-verbally. You feel his pain at being replaced by a new generation of genetically engineered soldiers (while he was merely trained from childhood), and you can feel him growing closer to the colonists and forming a protective bond with them. His decision to defend them is an emotional one, not a following of orders - something the military couldn't breed out of him, and why his generation is 'imperfect'.
And he delivered some of the most badass lines in an action film before the climax:
(Colonists offer to help him fight the incoming soldiers)
'No sir.'
'Why not?'
'Because soldiers deserve soldiers, sir.'
'What are you going to do?'
'I'm going to kill them all, sir.'
In the end, he's against the 'new generation' of soldier (who bested him in a combat demonstration earlier which left him for dead), and knows he can't win physically. He wins by using the wisdom of experience against the better-but-inexperienced enemy, feinting a lunge for a weapon he knows he could never reach in time in order to goad his enemy into doing the same, and then using the environment around him as a weapon.
Scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyN49Pbkbkg
It's full of 90's style gratuitous action cheese, which is great fun if one embraces it.
Fun fuckin' movie.