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The Antlions in Half-Life 2:

Antlion

bear a strong resemblance to the Starship Troopers Warrior Bug

Warrior Bug

Although these pictures don't convey the resemblance very well, especially when in swarms antlions are virtually indistinguishable from Warrior Bugs.

I'm aware I am not the first to notice that similarity, but I was unable to find any official sources that indicate an actual influence of the first Starship Troopers film when designing the Game.

Is there any source (e.g. interview, article, ...) that would support this theory?

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  • Hmm, I had thought Starship Troopers was newer than Half Life. I learned something new today.
    – Xantec
    Apr 30, 2012 at 19:14
  • @Xantec: A lot. I'm referring the Half-Life 2, which came out 2004, seven years after Starship Troopers.
    – bitmask
    Apr 30, 2012 at 20:55
  • Yea. Looked it up earlier, SST even came out a year before the original Half Life.
    – Xantec
    Apr 30, 2012 at 21:01
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    Evolutionary convergence. There are only so many way an ant-like creature can be designed :)
    – DVK-on-Ahch-To
    Mar 11, 2013 at 16:43

1 Answer 1

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I'd say no. Much more likely that the HL2 antlions are a reference to real life antlions. These animals are ridiculously cool.

antlion larva

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  • 1
    What exactly makes them "ridiculously cool"? And what is your speculation based on?
    – bitmask
    Apr 19, 2013 at 23:12
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    Both HL2 and real world Antlions use burrows to trap their prey. It's worth noting the depiction above is the larval form, the adult form looks more like a spindly dragon fly. I suspect both Starship Troopers and HL2 used Antlions as inspiration.
    – Schwern
    Dec 10, 2014 at 21:40

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