Small Soldiers

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 Frank Langella Tommy Lee Jones Phil Hartman Denis Leary
Music by	Jerry Goldsmith
Studio	Amblin Entertainment
Distributed by	- USA - DreamWorks - International - Universal Studios
Release date(s)	July 10, 1998 (USA & Canada)
Running time	110 min
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$40,000,000
Box office	$71,743,823

Small Soldiers is a 1998 American action/science fiction film directed by Joe Dante starring Gregory Smith and Kirsten Dunst. The film revolves around two teenagers (played by Smith and Dunst), who get caught in the middle of a war between two factions of sentient action figures, the Gorgonites and the Commando Elite.

Critical reception of the film was mixed. Critics complimented the film's special effects, but criticized some of the darker aspects of the film, which had been marketed to a young audience.

Plot

After multinational conglomerate GloboTech Industries acquires the Heartland toy company, CEO Gil Mars (Denis Leary) tasks toymakers Larry Benson and Irwin Wayfair (Jay Mohr and David Cross) develop actual live-action toys capable of "playing back". Mars selects the military themed action figures the Commando Elite for the project, and educational toys the Gorgonites for their enemies. After Mars forgoes safety testing and sets a short production time, Benson chooses GloboTech's overly powerful intelligent AI munitions integrated circuit to power the toys.

Teenager Alan Abernathy signs off for a shipment of the toys at his family's toy store without his father's consent. He and a delivery truck driver named Joe investigate the toys, introducing the Gorgonites' leader Archer, and the Commando Elite's leader Chip Hazard. The daughter of Alan's next door neighbor daughter, Christy Fimple (Kirsten Dunst) buys Chip as a birthday present for her brother Timmy. After Archer sneaks to Alan's home in Alan's backpack, Alan realizes that the toy is a sentient being. The Commando Elite awaken and seeming destroy the Gorgonites in the toy store. Chip and his squad pursue Alan to his home and attempt to kill him and Archer. Alan is attacked by Commando Nick Nitro, whom he mortally wounds using a garbage disposal unit.

Alan and Archer find the rest of the Gorgonites in a dumpster outside of the toy store. At home, Alan learns the group seek their homeland Gorgon, which they mistake for Yosemite National Park. The Commando Elite, aware of Alan's interest in Christy upon intercepting a phone call occurring between them, invade the Fimples' house. They drug Christy's parents with sleeping pills, place Timmy in a closet, turn Christy's collection of Gwendy dolls into auxiliaries and finally capture Christy herself. They send a video message to Alan, telling him to surrender the Gorgonites or Christy will die. Alan and Archer distract the Commandos and sneak into the Fimple house to save Christy, who warms up to Alan for his courage. They are then pursued down the street by the Commando Elite in heavily armed kit-bash vehicles, but they are all destroyed during the chase - except Chip, who locates Joe's truck full of recalled Commando toys.

At Alan's house, Irwin and Larry seek out Alan after monitoring a phone call from him about the dangerous nature of the toys. Chip attacks the house with an army of Commandos, equipped with large numbers of improvised vehicles and weapons and a battle breaks out between the Commando Elite and the humans inside. During the battle, the humans realize they can fry the toys' chips with an EMP blast. Alan heads out to destroy a nearby powerline to overload it and create such a pulse; Christy, Irwin and Larry head to the Fimples' house to turn on all of the electronic items inside and wedge the power transformers open to reinforce the pulse. The normally peaceful Gorgonites then exit the house and fight back against the Commando Elite. Chip flies to the top of the powerline pole to stop Alan, where he briefly battles and defeats Archer. But just as Chip claims victory, Alan seizes Chip and jams him into the powerline, triggering an EMP blast which kills Chip along with all of the remaining Commando Elite and Gwendy toys.

The next day, while the police and firefighters are cleaning up, Gil arrives in his helicopter. He then bribes Joe, the Fimples, and the Abernathys into silence and then orders Larry and Irwin to prepare the Commando Elite for actual military commando missions in South America for their effectiveness. Alan discovers that the Gorgonites survived the EMP blast by hiding underneath the Fimples's large satellite dish and he accompanies them into Yosemite National Park where sends them out in a large toy boat from his father's store.

Cast

• Gregory Smith as Alan Abernathy
• Kirsten Dunst as Christy Fimple
• Frank Langella as the voice of Archer, the leader of the Gorgonites.
• Tommy Lee Jones as the voice of Chip Hazard, the leader of the Commando Elite.
• Phil Hartman as Phil Fimple, Christy's father. This role was Hartman's last role in a major motion picture before his death. The film is dedicated to his memory.^[1]
• Denis Leary as Gil Mars

Bruce Dern, along with George Kennedy, Ernest Borgnine, Jim Brown and Clint Walker from The Dirty Dozen provided voices for the rest of the Commando Elite. An uncredited Jim Cummings, along with Michael McKean, Harry Shearer and Christopher Guest from This is Spinal Tap provided voices for the remaining Gorgonites. Sarah Michelle Gellar and Christina Ricci provided the voices for the Gwendy dolls.

Merchandising

A soundtrack containing classic rock blended with hip hop was released on July 7, 1998 by DreamWorks Records. It peaked at 103 on the Billboard 200. The film score was composed and conducted by veteran composer Jerry Goldsmith. In addition, a video game based on the film was developed by DreamWorks Interactive and released by Electronic Arts on September 30, 1998.

Reception

Small Soldiers received mixed reviews. It currently holds a 50% of the top critics on Rotten Tomatoes.^[2]

References

1. ^ Philpot, Robert (1998-12-06). "1998's top closing moments". Fort Worth Star-Telegram: p. Arts 1. 
2. ^ http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/small_soldiers/#!reviews=top_critics

External links

• Small Soldiers at the Internet Movie Database
• Small Soldiers at AllRovi