The 1997 film started from a comedic war story by writer Edward Neumeier, who pitched it as a jingoistic film about soldiers fighting insects, and it was only attached to Robert Heinlein's 1959 novel once the studio bought the rights. Heinlein's book was controversial for praising military service and attacking liberal social programs, and the novel's central theme is that a person must be willing to die for others. Director Paul Verhoeven, who had lived under German occupation in the Netherlands during the Second World War, decided to use the plot to satirise the book, deconstructing totalitarianism, fascism and militarism. He wanted the audience to keep asking whether the characters were crazy. To make the film, the team cut the power armour, the Skinnies and the Bounce, a jet-assisted jumping technology, for cost and practical reasons. The result was a violent, deliberately ironic take on the novel's politics.

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.