Kurt Russell’s cult favoriteSoldierwas a bomb back in 1998, and also acted as a remake of a beloved Western. There aren’t that manyKurt Russell Westerns, but it’s a real case of quality over quantity.Tombstonehas become a beloved classic, whileRussell’sBone TomahawkandThe Hateful Eightare two of the best Westerns of the 2010s.
When Russell frontedSoldier, he was winding down as an action star, having previously appeared in films such asStargateandEscape from L.A. ThisPaul W.S. Anderson directedsci-fi adventure cast Russell as a futuristic soldier left for dead on a distant planet, and learning how to live among regular people for the first time.
Despite the futuristic weaponry and spaceships on display, the old-fashioned themes and dusty desert setting make it clearSoldieris a Western at its core. Much was made of the fact that Russell was paid $15 million, despite having only about 100 words of dialogue, but he certainly put in the work in terms of the action sequences.
Sadly, the movie was a total bomb and has been largely forgotten.Soldierhas found a cult following in the years since, however, especially for those who’ve seen the parallels between it and 1953’sShane.
Soldier Is A Stealth Remake Of Classic Western Shane
Soldier has a happier ending though
It’s not uncommon for filmmakers to essentially remake their favorite Westerns by dressing them up in another genre.John Wayne’sThe Searchershas been remade countless times, fromStar WarstoBone Tomahawk.SoldierusedShaneas its framework, which both involve mysterious men of violence being forced to pick up their guns again.
BothShaneandSoldiersee their leads settling down with a surrogate family, with a young boy who looks up to them.The movies also climax with the protagonists forced to do what they do best, thoughSoldierhas a significantly bigger body countin this area.
Shanefamously ends on a sad note where the wounded gunslinger (played by Alan Ladd) rides off while young Joey (Brandon deWilde) cries for him to “Come back!“Soldierhas the more upbeat finale of the two, where the settlers leave the planet right before the military nukes it, while Russell’s Todd leaves with his new clan.
Soldierscreenwriter David Webb Peoples also wroteBlade Runner,Leviathanand Clint Eastwood’sUnforgiven.
Needless to say,Shaneis the better movie, butSoldieris still much better than it’s given credit. Russell’s near-mute performance is very effective, the production design is great and Todd’s story is oddly affecting. Anderson also knows how to handle a punchy setpiece too.
Soldier Was Such A Flop, Kurt Russell Offered To Give His Salary Back
Warner Bros refused Russell’s offer
Speaking withEmpirein 2003 while promoting his cop movieDark Blue, Russell reflected onSoldier’sfailure.The movie grossed only $14.5 million on an estimated budget of $60 million(viaBox Office Mojo). The sci-fi actioner did so poorly that it even bypassed cinemas and went straight to video in the UK.
… Kurt Russell was prepared to take a certain amount of responsibility for Soldier’s performance and offered to return his salary to Warner Bros.
Being the leading man, Russell was prepared to take a certain amount of responsibility forSoldier’sfinancial performance and offered to return his salary to Warner Bros.The studio passed on Russell’s offerand went on to work with the actor again on3000 Miles to GracelandandPoseidon.
It’s practically unheard of for a movie star to offer to give back their paydays when a film fails, with this gesture being a sign of how seriously Russell takes the work. On the commentary forBig Trouble in Little China, Russell also reflected to John Carpenter thatSoldierwas tough to make and he broke his ankle filming it.
When Carpenter asked how he got through the pain of making it,Russell quipped, “Well I wasn’t gonna lose that paycheck, so I just kept going!“Despite the movie’s underperformance, Russell still professed to likingSoldierin later interviews.
Many Other Movies Have Reworked Shane’s Story
From Pale Rider to Logan
Soldierdefinitely isn’t the only movie to dust offShane’sstructure and rework it. Probablythe most famousShaneremake isPale Rider,a Clint Eastwood Western from 1985. This sees his mysterious (and possibly supernatural) Preacher helping a family fight off a vicious businessman.
From the basic concept to an ending where a young girl is shouting after the departing Preacher to “Come back!,“Pale Ridermakes no secret of itsShanehomages. Thankfully, the Western itself is a gem, and is notable for being Eastwood’s only Western of the 1980s.
X-Mensequel spinoffLogannot only borrows plot beats fromShane, the movie itself is namedropped multiple timesthroughout. It happens to be Professor X’s (Patrick Stewart) favorite film, while Dafne Keen’s Laura quotes “There are no more guns in the valley” from it after burying Logan (Hugh Jackman).
Even the likes of Patrick Swayze’s post-apocalyptic adventureSteel Dawn, Ryan Gosling’sDriveorRambo: Last Bloodnod to the classic Western. Of course, the movie’s simple setup allows other filmmakers to bring their own take to it, and there will no doubt be other riffs onShanein the future.
Soldier Is Also A Blade Runner Spinoff
Don’t bother looking for a Harrison Ford cameo
In a 1998 edition ofCinescape,Anderson describedSoldieras a “sidequel” toBlade Runner, and that he considers the two to exist in the same universe. It should be pointed out that while they don’t share any characters or plotlines, there is a decent amount ofBlade RunnerDNA contained inSoldier.
Todd’s combat record refer to the Tannhäuser Gate and Shoulders of Orion battles, which were mentioned in Batty’s (Rutger Hauer) iconic “tear in rain” monologue.A Spinner fromBlade Runnercan be seen amongst the wreckageon the planet Todd is stranded on.
Soldiercould have made its Blade Runner ties more obvious, like making Jason Scott Lee’s genetically engineered villain an actual replicant.
The two movies also concern themselves with what it means to be human.Blade Runner’sreplicants feel like the most alive characters in the movie’s bleak vision of the future, while Todd has to process being treated like a person and not a mindless killing machinefor the first time.
Soldiercould have made itsBlade Runnerties more obvious, like making Jason Scott Lee’s genetically engineered villain an actual replicant. It should be noted (via Danny Stewart’sSoldier: From Script to Screen) thatscreenwriter David Peoples didn’t originally conceive ofSoldieras aBlade Runnerspinoffand this was a call Anderson made.
Regardless, its ties to Ridley Scott’s sci-fi masterpiece have seen it become accepted as aBlade Runneroffshoot. Needless to say,Soldierdidn’t get a shoutout in Denis Villeneuve’sBlade Runner 2049.
Source:Box Office Mojo, Empire, Big Trouble in Little China DVD audio commentary, Cinescape, Soldier: From Script to Screen
Soldier
Cast
Soldier is a 1998 science fiction action film directed by Paul W.S. Anderson. It stars Kurt Russell as Todd 3465, a genetically-engineered soldier trained from birth. After being defeated by a new breed of warriors, Todd finds himself discarded on a distant planet where he must confront his past and protect a new community from existential threats. The film explores themes of obsolescence, resilience, and redemption.
Blade Runner
The original Blade Runner is a sci-fi neo-noir film set in 2019 in a dystopian cyber-punk society. Harrison Ford stars as Rick Deckard as a Blade Runner for the LAPD, tasked with hunting rogue replicants, genetically engineered humans designed to tackle tasks that human beings cannot. When four replicants go rogue and begin killing humans, Deckard is forced out of retirement to hunt them down and stop them - but the truth isn’t as simple as it seems. Deckard will have to reckon with the philosophical dilemma of what makes someone human.
TheBlade Runnerfranchise is a cyberpunk science fiction series originating from the 1968 novelDo Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?by Philip K. Dick. The franchise began with the 1982 filmBlade Runner, directed by Ridley Scott, which, although initially underappreciated, has since become a seminal work in science fiction cinema. The franchise explores complex themes of humanity, identity, and artificial intelligence, set in a dystopian future where bioengineered beings known as replicants are hunted by special agents called Blade Runners. The franchise has expanded to include a sequel film, several short films, an anime series, upcoming TV series, video games, and comics, all of which continue to explore the rich and complex world ofBlade Runner.
Shane
Shane is a classic Western directed by George Stevens. Released in 1953, the film stars Alan Ladd as a mysterious drifter who becomes embroiled in a conflict between homesteaders and a ruthless cattle baron. Jean Arthur and Van Heflin co-star as a frontier couple who find themselves drawn into the escalating tensions. Shane examines themes of heroism and sacrifice set against the backdrop of the American frontier.
