Juan Rico

Juan Rico
Starship Troopers character
Created by	Robert A. Heinlein
Portrayed by	Casper Van Dien
Information
Gender	Male
Occupation	Soldier
Nationality	Filipino

Juan "Johnnie" or "Johnny" Rico is the protagonist of Robert A. Heinlein's 1959 science-fiction novel Starship Troopers. He also appears in the films Starship Troopers (1997) and Starship Troopers 3: Marauder (2008), and in the television series Roughnecks: Starship Troopers Chronicles.

Biography

In Heinlein's Starship Troopers, Rico is the son of a wealthy Filipino family who joins the Terran Mobile Infantry almost on impulse and over his parents' objections. He is sent to Camp Arthur Currie on the Canadian prairie for basic training and graduates as one of 187 remaining recruits, from an original class of over 2000 enlistees. He is assigned as a private in "Willie's Wildcats" (Company K, Third Regiment, First Mobile Infantry Division), aboard the transport Valley Forge. His first exposure to battle comes during the disastrous "Operation Bughouse", where 80% of the Wildcats are killed, most of them during the collision of the Valley Forge with another ship during the combat drop. He is subsequently transferred to "Rasczak's Roughnecks" aboard the corvette transport Rodger Young, where he is promoted to corporal and survives several successful battles. He later enters Officer Candidate School (OCS) at the encouragement of his friend Ace, eventually being commissioned as a second lieutenant after successfully commanding a platoon as a temporary third lieutenant in "Operation Royalty". At the end of the novel Rico is commanding his own platoon ("Rico's Roughnecks") back on the Rodger Young, with his father, Emilio Rico, as his platoon sergeant.

Adaptations

In the films Starship Troopers (1997) and Starship Troopers 3: Marauder (2008), "John" Rico is played by Casper Van Dien and is a native of Buenos Aires, Argentina rather than the Philippines. In Starship Troopers 3, which takes place eleven years after the first film, Rico is a colonel and no longer commands the Roughnecks but rather a military post on the frontier planet Roku San. At the end of the film, Rico is offered a promotion to general and command of the Marauder Program by the new Sky Marshal, Admiral Enolo Phid. In the Starship Troopers computer game (2005), which takes place eight years after the first film, Rico is a general.

External links

• Juan Rico at the Internet Movie Database