Soldier | DVD | Standard Version

  An itinerant warrior in outer space is forced to become a hero when he must defend a band of settlers on a remote planet.

  Left for dead on a remote planet, a fallen hero has one last battle to fight as a Soldier. Kurt Russell stars as an elite warrior selected at birth for combat, stripped of his individuality and isolated from society. Todd (Russell)stoically adheres to one overriding principle--kill or be killed--until he is defeated in combat by Caine 607 (Jason Scott Lee), the best of the next generation of fighters. Severely wounded, Todd is jettisoned on a backwater planet, where the pacifist local people nurse Todd back to health and gradually awaken Todd's long-suppressed humanity. But when Caine 607 and his battalion attack, Todd rallies the gentle people who have helped him to defend themselves against the ruthless invaders.

Kurt Russell hits new heights in laconic action heroes with his portrayal of Sergeant Todd, born and bred to be a soldier in a futuristic army. Raised to kill mercilessly, living only for battle, he finds himself at the twilight of his career (and so-called life) when a regiment of genetically enhanced warriors threatens to make his brand of soldiering obsolete. Despite his extensive skills, he is no match for the best of breed of the new order, and he's left for dead on a planet that serves only as a junk heap. There he encounters a ragtag group of castaways, and in his own strange and silent way slowly begins to learn how to be less a killer and more a human. All is disrupted, though, when the genetic regiment arrives on the trash planet and decides to eradicate the local human "trespassers." Though Todd had been overmatched before, this time he has more than ever to fight for--a home, and friends. Soldier is one of those rare sci fi movies that relies more on plot and action than special effects (though the trash planet is effectively wrought). The pace of action in the last half of the film is relentless and exciting, and Russell's portrayal of the old warrior as he warms to human emotions relies more on expression than words--in fact, he barely utters more than a half-dozen lines.