As well as his political views, Heinlein's ideas about a futuristic military as depicted in the novel were deeply influential among films, books, and television shows in later years. Roger Beaumont has suggested that "Starship Troopers" may some day be considered a manual for extraterrestrial warfare. Suvin refers to Juan Rico as the "archetypal Space Soldier". "Starship Troopers" included concepts in military engineering which have since been widely used in other fiction, and which have occasionally been paralleled by scientific research. The novel has been cited as the source of the idea of powered armor exoskeletons, which Heinlein describes in great detail. Such suits became a staple of military science fiction. Franchises that have employed this technology include "Halo", "Elysium", "District 9", "Iron Man", and "Edge of Tomorrow". During the shooting of the classic science fiction film "Aliens", director James Cameron required the actors playing space marines to read Starship Troopers to understand their part, and also cited it as an influence for the space drop, terms like "bug hunt", and the cargo-loader exoskeleton.