Small Soldiers

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Small Soldiers

Promotional poster for US release of Small Soldiers
Directed by Joe Dante
Produced by Michael Finnell
Colin Wilson
Written by Gavin Scott
Adam Rifkin
Starring Gregory Smith
Kirsten Dunst
Jay Mohr
Phil Hartman
Kevin Dunn
David Cross
Ann Magnuson
Dick Miller
Wendy Schaal
Robert Picardo
Jacob Smith
Denis Leary
Tommy Lee Jones
Music by Jerry Goldsmith
Distributed by - USA -
DreamWorks
- Internationally -
Universal Pictures
Release date(s) July 10, 1998 (USA & Canada)
Running time 110 min
Country United States
Language English
Budget $40,000,000
Gross revenue $71,743,823

Small Soldiers is a 1998 action/science fiction film featuring Gregory Smith and Kirsten Dunst and a voice cast of Tommy Lee Jones and Frank Langella. The film was directed by Joe Dante.

Contents

[edit] Plot summary

 The plot summary in this article is too long or detailed compared to the rest of the content. Please edit the article to focus on discussing the work rather than merely reiterating the plot. (December 2007)

Toy company Heartland Playsystems is acquired by the multinational conglomerate GloboTech Industries, which is expanding from manufacturing high-quality military hardware. GloboTech CEO Gil Mars (Denis Leary) pays a visit to Heartland to meet with Larry Benson (Jay Mohr) and Irwin Wayfair (David Cross) concerning their newest projects, which involve the creation of intelligent, interactive toys.

Irwin offers the Gorgonites, peaceful creatures whose mission is to gather information about Earth, prompting children to learn with them, whereas Larry presents the Commando Elite, a special task force of action figures. Despite Irwin's objections, Mars chooses the ugly-looking Gorgonites as the Commando Elite's enemies and imposes a three-month deadline, which Irwin protests as 'impossible' due to the rigorous testing and design period required.

Through Larry's inexperience with the GloboTech database, he commits a critical mistake: rather than standard toy-related computer chips, the action figures are fitted with surplus X-1000 "intelligence" chips designed for use by the military.

Three months later, schoolboy Alan Abernathy (Gregory Smith) and his parents Stuart (Kevin Dunn) and Irene (Ann Magnuson) have moved to Cleveland, Ohio, hoping for a fresh start after Alan's expulsion from two schools for playing practical jokes. His father Stuart owns an unpopular traditional toy store that does not sell electronic toys or violent action figures. Stuart goes on a business trip, leaving Alan in charge of the store, hoping that Alan will prove worthy of his trust. During his absence, Alan sees a box containing Commando Elite and Gorgonite toys bound for another larger toy store, and convinces the delivery truck driver Joe (Dick Miller) to leave him a complete set of each to sell, so as to make the shop wealthier and more sophisticated. Joe initially resists, but relents after Alan pleads with him. When released from their boxes, the toys become animated and begin to wage war against each other. Alan's neighbor and romantic interest Christy Fimple (Kirsten Dunst) visits the store with her younger brother Timmy (Jacob Smith) who stumbles across the feuding toys in the back room, and is shot by Elite Commander Chip Hazard. Because the toys' weapons are merely imitations, he is not hurt and pleads his sister to buy one of them. Alan and Christy later lock up the store and part ways, while the Gorgonite leader called Archer (voiced by Frank Langella) hides in Alan's backpack.

During the night, Chip Hazard (voiced by Tommy Lee Jones) activates the others of the Commando Elite consisting of Link Static (voiced by Bruce Dern), Brick Bazooka (voiced by George Kennedy), Nick Nitro (voiced by Clint Walker), Kip Killigan (voiced by Ernest Borgnine), and Butch Meathook (voiced by Jim Brown). Chip issues functional weapons, and orders all Gorgonites in the store to be destroyed. During the ensuing melee, the Commandos and Gorgonites make a mess. The Gorgonites, who are programmed to lose any battle with the Elite, hide in a garbage dumpster behind the store.

At Alan's house, Alan discovers Archer in his backpack; but the Gorgonite refuses to respond in any 'intelligent' manner. Eventually, Alan realizes that the X-1000 is, in fact an 'intelligent' computer chip that is capable of learning, reasoning, and adapting, and has turned the former 'toys' into artificial intelligence.

The next day, at Archer's direction, Alan finds the remains of one destroyed Gorgonite Troglokhan, but no sign of the Commando Elite or the remaining Gorgonites. Alan manages to repair most of the damage done to the store by their fight and calls the company to complain about the Commandos' actions, but receives an apathetic response and is transferred to a voice-mail machine, where he leaves an angry message but is unable to record his telephone number.

Archer tries to talk to Alan, but the furious Alan tells Archer to 'shut up and stop talking'. Archer obeys and remains silent until later in the night.

Alan and Archer head home on Alan's bike, but are closely followed by the Commando Elite. Brick Bazooka is sent to assassinate Archer, and is caught in the bike's wheel and has his legs and hips torn off by the spokes. After reparing Brick, Chip notes Alan's House and orders the Commando Elite to move in. During the night, the Commandos enter the house, capture Archer, and interrogate him in the kitchen over the garbage disposal. Alan awakens, saves Archer, drives off the Commando Elite, and jams Commando Nick Nitro into the garbage disposal, destroying him from the knees down. Nick escapes out the window while Alan is caught by his parents, to whom he is forced to confess his illegal acquisition of the toys.

The parent-to-son discussion becomes a heated argument when Alan asserts that the toys were responsible for his father's crafting tools missing, leading his parents to suspect he might be using drugs and regressing to his mischievous lifestyle. Alan, furious at Archer for not supporting him, demands why he did not speak up to prove to his parents that the toys are alive, to which Archer responds by repeating Alan's earlier command to 'shut up'. Alan worries that he will suffer losses of others' trust if the Gorgonites have been destroyed, whereupon Archer replies that the Gorgonites must be alive, because the Commandos are still seeking them.

The Commandos regroup in the Fimples' garage next-door, where Chip Hazard delivers a stirring, noticeably incoherent speech to his followers. Nick crawls his way into the garage and dies in Chip's arms. He then announces that Alan, for rescuing Archer, must be eliminated. The Commandos begin to convert all the sharp tools, electronics, and other hardware into makeshift vehicles and miniature weapons of mass destruction.

Alan returns to the toy store in the morning and retrieves Gorgonites Ocula (vocal effects done by Jim Cummings), Punch-It (voiced by Harry Shearer), Scratch-It (voiced by Christopher Guest), Insaniac (voiced by Michael McKean), Slamfist (also voiced by Christopher Guest), and finds Troglokhan, who has been repaired by the Gorgonites as Freakenstein (also voiced by Michael McKean) from parts of Alan's dad's radio. They thereafter use his computer to seek out their imagined homeland of Gorgon.

That night, the Commando Elite tap the phone lines and discover Alan and Christy's relationship. They enter Christy's room while she is away and find her collectible Gwendy dolls. Chip retrieves Nick Nitro's body and tear open his head to find his X-1000 chip. They create a Frankenstein-esque laboratory in her room to raise the Gwendy dolls, using Nick's chip as their mindset. With the "reinforcements" lying in ambush, they drug Christy's parents Marion (Wendy Schaal) and Phil (Phil Hartman), tie up her brother, and scare off her visiting sweetheart Brad (Jonathan Buck), then force Christy to a hostage video demanding the surrender of the Gorgonites. Alan and Archer trick the Commandos by putting an old radio into a cardboard box, playing a tape of supposed Gorgonites debating the merits of an idea. They rescue Christy after defeating the Gwendy dolls (voiced by Sarah Michelle Gellar and Christina Ricci) animated by the Elite in battle.

The Commandos blast their way out of the garage on their vehicles and pursue Christy, Alan, and Archer, who escape on Christy's motor scooter. In the chase, all the Elite crash into a pond and are destroyed. Chip, however, survives the crash with part of his face melted and floats downstream to a local toy store. Chip then hijacks a shipment of new Commando Elite figures by forcing the driver to Alan's house.

As the parents meet and begin arguing about what has happened, Larry and Irwin of the toy company arrive in response to Alan's earlier phone call. They have learned about the dangers of the X-1000 chip (and a possible weakness) from its designer, and are trying to circumvent any lawsuits.

Returning to the Abernathy home, Chip Hazard activates dozens of Commandos and declares war on the Gorgonites and their human allies, whom they attack by cutting off the electricity supply and then shooting nails, flaming tennis balls, and firework-like rockets at the house. The humans are frantic and scared until Irwin and Larry recall that an electro-magnetic pulse might deactivate the X-1000 chip: desperate to find an available source thereof, Mr. Fimple suggests connecting a power-transformer in parallel, resulting in an explosion. Alan sends Christy, Larry, and Irwin to Fimple's house to turn on every single piece of Mr. Fimple's massive assembly of electronic components, so that the power will be flowing to overload the transformer. He then prepares to go out into the 'warzone' to complete this task himself, only to be stopped by his father, who wishes to protect him. Alan disobeys his father and goes to activate the E.M.P. Nearby, the Gorgonites override their program and decide to take a stand, then set out to do so.

Chip Hazard flies after Alan in a toy helicopter, but Freakenstein hijacks one of the vehicles and uses its weapons to shoot it down. Before it crashes into the Fimples' new satellite dish, Hazard ejects himself from it and attempts to knock Alan down. The situation changes when Archer confronts Hazard; after a brief fight, Hazard kicks Archer from the pole. In retaliation, Alan grabs Hazard and jams him between the transformers to activate the E.M.P., destroying the Commando Elite and their doll allies. The Gorgonites survive by hiding beneath a fallen satellite-signal receiver and are discovered later by Alan.

The next morning, Gil Mars arrives to bribe all witnesses to the crisis into silence. Larry is fearful to lose his job, but Mars proposes that they increase the price of the Commando Elite and sell them to the military of a South American nation. Alan and Christy kiss passionately. At the end of the film, the Gorgonites set out in search for their home, Gorgon, on Stuart's model ship in a river in Yosemite National Park.

[edit] Setting

The film's setting is Cleveland, Ohio. The movie is about action figures that begin a real war against each other, as a result of being inadvertently equipped with intelligent military computer chips.

[edit] Characters

[edit] Humans

  • Alan Abernathy - The 15-year-old protagonist of the movie has been expelled from two schools for playing pranks, though the rumors around his new school say ten. His parents moved to Cleveland, Ohio, hoping to start over. He befriends the Gorgonites and becomes their primary protector.
  • Christy Fimple - A girl whom Alan has a crush on and who happens to be his next-door neighbor. She was captured by the Commando Elite, but after Alan rescues her, she starts a relationship with him.
  • Stuart Abernathy - Alan's father, a short-tempered, stressed out individual, who owns an unpopular, traditional toy store that sells no electronic toys or violent action figures. It is strongly hinted that his father's anxiety are the fault of Alan's antics and expulsion.
  • Phil Fimple - Christy's father and the Abernathys' technophilic, somewhat annoying neighbor.
  • Timmy Fimple - Christy's younger brother.

[edit] The Commando Elite

Created by Larry Benson, the Commando Elite are the primary villains of the film. This team is the enemy of the Gorgonites and those who ally with them.

  • Chip Hazard - The leader of the Commando Elite. He is the arch enemy of Archer, who was equipped with a (nonfunctional) pistol and later uses a knife. He is killed when Alan forces him between the transformers, completing the circuit to destroy him.
  • Link Static - The communications expert, capable of tapping phone lines. Punctuates his sentences with static crackling.
  • Brick Bazooka - The artillerist. He was injured when pursuing Alan's bike, losing his legs and lower torso, and was later rebuilt.
  • Nick Nitro - The demolitions expert. He carries a lot of (toy) explosives, and can improvise demolition charges from household items such as spray cans. Nick attacked Alan when he was rescuing Archer, but ended up being thrust into the garbage disposal, losing his legs and becoming damaged beyond repair. He then crawled in the Fimple's garage and "died" in Chip's arms. His chip is then salvaged from his body and used to outfit the Gwendy dolls with X-1000 chips. Note: Nick died of losing his shins, though Brick Bazooka suffered far worse losing his entire lower body, though Brick got repairs, where as Nick crawled out a window to the neighbors' garage and crawled up the wall to the window sill only to fall to the ground again.
  • Kip Killigan - The cigar-chomping covert operations specialist. Notable about his gear are the oversized ninja stars on his vest.
  • Butch Meathook - The sniper, who is equipped with grenades.
  • Gwendy dolls - The Commando Elite's reinforcements. Nick Nitro's chip salvaged from his body and used to outfit the Gwendy dolls with X-1000 chips.

[edit] The Gorgonites

The Gorgonites are the heroes of the film. This team of creatures are programmed to search for the peaceful land of Gorgon. Led by Archer, the Gorgonites originally have only two options when dealing with the Commando Elite - hide or die - that are hardcoded into their original programming.

  • Archer - The leader of the Gorgonites. As his name suggests, Archer is armed with a crossbow attached to his left arm. Archer is the bravest of the Gorgonites and convinces the others to fight back.
  • Ocula - Archer's mode of transportation. A one-eyed insect-like creature who is very shy. It can only speak in screeches and whirring noises unlike the others, and does not seem adverse to put its only eye in jeopardy.
  • Punch-It & Scratch-It - They are constant companions. Punch-It resembles a humanoid brontotherium, while Scratch-It looks like an orange legless creature who resembles a frog and walks on her hands. She sits on Punch-It when traveling.
  • Insaniac - A hyperactive purple creature. Is mentally unbalanced. He spins about like the Tasmanian Devil from Looney Tunes and speaks very quickly. His weapon is a ball-and-chain mace.
  • Slamfist - A hunchback, he is Archer's best friend. His left hand is replaced by a large boulder-like fist. He is intellectually slow, but his fist is a powerful and useful weapon.
  • Freakenstein - Originally known as Troglokhan, Freakenstein is a Frankenstein's monster-like creature. He was disassembled by the Commandos when they wreaked havoc in Alan's dad's toy shop and rebuilt by the Gorgonites with Alan's dad's radio as part of the body.
  • Flachoo - A large red creature who was seen only as a regular (non electronic) action figure in the movie and was also released as part of the movie's toy line (in the real world). Flachoo is part of the "Belch Brigade" and his main battle action is a belching/farting sound effect.
  • Stench - This Gorgonite only appears in the video game version of Small Soldiers.
  • Nibble - A flying Gorgonite who is exclusive to the Small Soldiers video game.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Voice Actors

[edit] Soundtrack

[edit] Tribute

  • This was Phil Hartman's final live action film performance. The film was posthumously released less than two months after his murder.
    • The film included a short single blooper of Phil after the credits, followed by the words "For Phil".
    • Due to the gruesome nature of Hartman's death, several scenes of toys aiming their guns at his character were cut from the release. A scene in which he said, "I think I'm having an aneurysm" was also cut.

[edit] References to Gremlins

 Lists of miscellaneous information should be avoided. Please relocate any relevant information into appropriate sections or articles. (May 2008)
  • In the scene when Ocula's eye is peering out, there is a torn picture of Gizmo the Mogwai.
  • Irwin's password is "Gizmo", the name of the Mogwai from the films.
  • Irwin Wayfair refers to Larry Benson as Gizmo when they are in the Abernathy household.
  • When Alan digs through the dumpster to look for the Gorgonites, a toy "Gizmo" can be seen in the garbage.

[edit] References to pop culture

 This section does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2008)
Lists of miscellaneous information should be avoided. Please relocate any relevant information into appropriate sections or articles. (May 2008)
  • At one point, Chip Hazard addresses his men and readies them for the battle against the Gorgonites. It is extremely similar to the speech in Patton wherein General George S. Patton gives a speech urging his men to fight the Germans. The music is identical and, like Patton, Hazard speaks in front of a Jigsaw-puzzle American flag. Hazard's speech combines the Patton speech with other military or patriotic phrases in such a way as to appear nonsensical and thus further their characteristic of being militaristic and even jingoistic caricatures of military institutions, as seen below:
“ Soldiers, no poor sap ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by being all that he can be. Damn the torpedoes, or give me death! Eternal vigilance is the price of duty. And, to the victors go the spoils. So remember: you are the best of the best of the few and the proud. So ask not what your country can do for you, only regret that you have but one life to live! The war against the Gorgonites will be won! Commando Elite, let the first shot be fired! Search out the Gorgonites and frag 'em all! ”
  • The voices of the Commando Elite, except for Major Chip Hazard and Link Static, are provided by the actors of The Dirty Dozen.
  • The voices of the Gorgonites, except for Archer and Ocula, are played by the actors of This Is Spinal Tap.
  • During the battle, when Slamfist is swinging on the bell, he is chanting "Sanctuary! Sanctuary!" as a parody of "The Hunchback of Notre Dame".
  • During the finale, there is a direct reference to Apocalypse Now, with Chip Hazard flying into the house on a toy helicopter, whilst the Ride of the Valkyries plays. Hazard also says "I love the smell of polyurethane in the morning".
  • The film is one of the few films to feature music by Led Zeppelin ("Communication Breakdown"), a band who are known to rarely license their music for use in films. The scene in which the song is used takes place in a bedroom covered by Led Zeppelin posters.
  • When the Commando Elite are charging through the break in the fence. they are chanting "I don't know what I've been told, but Gorgonite blood runs mighty cold". This is a reference to Full Metal Jacket, wherein the troops are chanting "I don't know what I've been told, but Eskimo pussy is mighty cold".
  • A Powerman 5000 poster can be seen above the stair in Alan's bedroom.
  • When Alan is trying to escape in order to blow the transformer, he is shot at with a nailgun by Butch Meathook and Kip Killigan with Nick Nitro exclaiming at the sametime "Hey kid. Don't you like nine inch nails?".
  • Commando Butch Meathook says "All quiet on the Western Frontyard", which parodies the title of the war movie All Quiet on the Western Front.
  • After Larry discovers the site of the X-1000 on the internet, he says "Hello, Mr. Chips": a reference to Goodbye, Mr. Chips.
  • Before Nick dies, he says "It's only a flesh wound sir", a reference to the Black Knight character of Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
  • During the scene when Alan rescues Christy from the Gwendy dolls, Christy grabs a baton and proceeds to viciously destroy the remaining Gwendys. One of the dolls shouts, "It's a baton death march!

[edit] External links


Preceded by
The Truman Show		 Box office number-one films of 1998 (UK)
October 25, 1998		 Succeeded by
The Exorcist
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_Soldiers"
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