Line #72 Film/BattlefieldEarth


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/battlefield_earth_ver2.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:300:''[[{{Tagline}} On May 12, we fight back.]]'']]
3
4	->''"While you were still learning how to '''spell your name''', I was being trained '''to conquer galaxies!'''"''
5	-->-- '''Terl'''
6
7	The film version of Creator/LRonHubbard's ScienceFiction novel ''Literature/BattlefieldEarth'' was released on May 12, 2000, directed by Roger Christian and starring Creator/JohnTravolta as Psychlo leader Terl (he originally wanted to play the part of the book's hero, Jonnie "Goodboy" Tyler, but that role eventually went to Creator/BarryPepper because Travolta was too old by then).
8
9	The film covers the first third of the {{doorstopper}} book: the Psychlos come to Earth, [[EasilyConqueredWorld beat the humans in nine minutes]], and establish an outpost here. They are here for gold -- the rarest and most valuable substance in the universe, it seems. Jonnie leads a band of slaves to rise up against their masters.
10
11	Travolta, a self-proclaimed Hubbard fan (and Scientologist), wanted to do the film for a long time, but had trouble securing money for it because of studios' apprehension to bankroll the film due to its connections with the real-life Church of Scientology. After Creator/MetroGoldwynMayer and [[Creator/TwentiethCenturyStudios Twentieth Century Fox]] declined offers to distribute the film, it was eventually picked up by Creator/FranchisePictures, a company known for helping stars rescue their troubled pet projects, and he poured millions of dollars of his own money into the project and signed on as a co-producer, and the rest ... well, is history.
12
13	Travolta is [[http://www.movieinsider.com/m284/battlefield-earth-2/ still intent]] on having the second half of the book produced.
14	----
15	!!While you were still learning how to SPELL YOUR NAME, ''Battlefield Earth'' was being trained to provide these trope examples!
16	* AdaptationExplanationExtrication: In the novel, the Psychlos have the ability to regenerate limbs, hence Ker's non-reaction to Terl shooting his hand off. The film doesn't explain this, making Ker's reaction come off as bizarre (albeit quickly forgotten amidst all the film's ''other'' idiocies).
17	* AdaptationInducedPlotHole: While the original novel isn't exactly regarded as a masterpiece of plotting, the film still introduces various plot holes and problems of its own.
18	** Perhaps the most glaring is that, in the film, the Psychlos somehow missed the massive reserves of pure gold at Fort Knox altogether, whereas the novel specifically states that the Psychlos have looted the already-warehoused stores of the metal located across the world. In the novel, the humans instead find gold in an old armored truck.
19	** In the novel, Terl and most Psychlos have never personally encountered humans prior to the start of the story, which makes some of their prejudices and misconceptions around them a little more understandable.
20	** In the novel, the humans turn the Psychlos' own weaponry against them; they don't use [[RagnarokProofing 1,000-plus-year-old aircraft]]. Furthermore, whatever human weaponry they do find (like assault rifles, revolvers and bazookas) has to be cleaned and repaired to function, and a lot of dud ammo has to be weeded out.
21	* AdaptationalModesty: Most of the remaining Earth women in the book wore deerskins that exposed their breasts. Here, their skins cover their chests.
22	* AdaptationalNationality: Robert the Fox and his men are Scottish in the novel and American in the film.
23	* AdaptationNameChange:
24	** Zete, the high-ranking Psychlo who visits Earth early in the story, was called “Zzt” in the novel (though the novel's character was a mechanic and more of a rival to Terl). Presumably his name was changed to make it easier to pronounce.
25	** The Asian-like Chinkos were renamed "Clinkos" for [[YellowPeril obvious reasons]]. That didn't stop them from [[SpaceJews using the offensive Asian stereotype personality and voice]].
26	* AliensAreBastards: You can hardly sympathize with any of the Psychlos, except maybe Ker and the Bartender. In the book, it's explained that an implant in Psychlo brains has a side effect that causes them to [[EvilFeelsGood feel pleasure when they're being bastards.]] Ker was nicer than the others because he didn't get the implant due to falling between the cracks when he was young.
27	* AllHailTheGreatGodMickey
28	** Many of the cavemen Jonnie encounter mistook product mascots for humans petrified for "angering the gods".
29	** Carlo tells Johnnie about temples where people would drive chariots to [[UsefulNotes/McDonalds golden arches]] to magically receive food.
30	* AlmostOutOfOxygen: A pair of Psychlo guards decide to execute Jonnie by ripping off his breathing device and seeing how long it takes for him to suffocate. Jonnie manages to borrow another prisoner's oxygen, which the guards consider cheating, then finds his way to a vent that leads outside, where he can breathe.
31	* AlternateDVDCommentary: Courtesy of Podcast/RiffTrax.
32	* ArtisticLicenseChemistry: Gold is apparently the rarest and most valuable material in the universe. There are dozens of rarer elements, and even if you discount the ones that would be of no use to the Psychlos because they're either radioactive or exist only in microscopic quantities, there are several other metals, such as rhodium, platinum, and palladium which are more valuable than gold.
33	* ArtisticLicenseGunSafety: Terl intentionally hands a human prisoner a ready-to-fire weapon, to prove his point that the "man-animals" are too stupid to operate firearms, even though the human has already shot one person, according to his subordinates. The prisoner ends up using the weapon to kill Terl's lieutenant. Psychlos are shown not to store loaded weapons, so this is apparently another example of the Psychlos' bizarre arrogance vis-à-vis humans in believing that they're not sentient, despite all the technology that Terl acknowledges they had.
34	-->'''Terl''': Well, I'll be damned. [''Laughs'']
35	* ArtisticLicenseMilitary: The flight simulator and Harrier jump jets the humans find at Ft. Hood are marked as property of the United States Marine Corps. The real Ft. Hood is an ''Army'' base.
36	* ArtisticLicensePhysics:
37	** The planet Psychlo has an atmosphere that spontaneously ignites in the presence of radiation. This means radioactive decay does not naturally occur on the planet, meaning the planet violates the second law of thermodynamics and is effectively a perpetual motion machine.
38	*** On a related note, the Psychlos have eyes, which means Planet Psychlo must orbit a light-producing star. Stars emit radiation. ''Copious'' amounts of radiation.
39	*** Not to mention that a highly advanced, star-faring, and extremely warlike species supposedly got along without ever using radioactive materials.
40	*** The novel does suggest that the Psychlo home world exists in another universe altogether (Jonnie Goodboy concludes this when attempting to understand Psychlo math), [[AdaptationInducedPlotHole but this goes unsaid in the film]].
41	* AsYouKnow: Terl "graduated top of [his] class" at the Psychlos' mysterious AcademyOfEvil, which he reminds Zete of to protest the extension of his assignment to Earth.
42	* BadPeopleAbuseAnimals: Terl demonstrates his [[InformedAbility marksmanship "skills"]] on some random cattle to make a point to the humans he's trying to threaten.
43	* BarbarianLonghair: Humans and Psychlos alike sport long, flowing, ungroomed locks.
44	* BeardOfEvil: Some of the Psychlos, namely Terl and Zete.
45	* BigBrotherIsWatching: Hidden cameras are a thing with the Psychlos.
46	* BigDamnHeroes: The Harriers that saved Carlo from being killed by a Psychlo fighter.
47	* BigNo: Most of Jonnie's lines involve him [[LargeHam violently expressing his grief]] over a person, animal, or thing.
48	* BizarreAlienBiology: Psychlos have tall heads, like the [[Series/SaturdayNightLive Coneheads]] with dreadlocks, breathe air that is toxic to humans (and vice versa), and even the slightest amount of radiation is deadly to them. At least one female Psychlo has an OverlyLongTongue that would make a [[Series/{{Farscape}} Luxan]] proud, though this seems to be unusual for the race as both Terl and Ker regard it as a {{fetish}}. Additionally, Terl has [[ExtraDigits six fingers]], though the camera doesn't focus on any other Psychlo's hands to see if that's normal. (In the book, it's mentioned obliquely that Psychlos have six fingers on one hand and five on the other.) Also, loss of limbs seems to be a minor inconvenience.
49	* BloodlessCarnage: The film is free of gore, be it human or Psychlo. Rather jarring: a few Psychlos (e.g., [[spoiler:Ker]] and [[spoiler:Terl]]) lost at least one limb (not to mention [[spoiler:the decapitated head of the Bartender]]). The humans? None.
50	* BlownAcrossTheRoom: Carlo, the first time a Psychlo ray gun shoots him. Especially noteworthy since every other time a human gets hit, the shot merely knocks them back a bit or makes them fall over. A ray gun, used realistically, should [[ArtisticLicensePhysics cause no recoil at all]], compounding the silliness.
51	* BraidsBeadsAndBuckskins: Suspiciously clean buckskins (Travolta didn't want the movie to look too grimy), for the first act, anyway. The Psychlos, though [[CardCarryingVillain irredeemably evil]], are nice enough to give the man-animals jumpsuits after capture.
52	* BreakOutTheMuseumPiece: Apparently, fighter jets that have been in storage for the last thousand years are perfectly serviceable when needed, and [[GasolineLastsForever even the fuel still hasn't degraded]].
53	* BrokenRecord: With endless options for renewal! With endless options for renewal! With endless options for renewal! With endless options for renewal!
54	* BumblingSidekick: Ker is presented as this to Terl, though the latter doesn't evince that much more brainpower.
55	* CallAHumanAMeatbag: The Psychlos typically refer to humans as "man-animals."
56	* CallARabbitASmeerp:
57	** The Psychlos always refer to the substance they breathe as "breath gas," not "atmosphere" or "air," or the specific gas that they inhale.
58	** Terl at one point says that another guard must be "out of [his] skull-bone." Just saying "skull" doesn't sound alien enough, apparently.
59	* CallASmeerpARabbit:
60	** In one scene, Ker is seen placing a plate of sorts with a topographical map showing the location of some gold into a rack of other such plates (as he thinks Terl has left Earth for good by now and wants to 'find' the gold himself). When Terl comes in and confronts him about it, he inexplicably refers to the plate as a "photo," even though it's obviously a model or map and looks nothing like a photo.
61	** The Psychlos call their security cameras [[{{Technobabble}} "picto-cameras"]]. Not only is this a dumb name, other than being able to retract into the wall and hide, said cameras seem no more high-tech than modern-day security cameras, and indeed, have ''worse'' vision as they are all tilted at an angle and are in all green for no apparent reason.
62	* CardCarryingVillain: Virtually all the Psychlos except Ker, the bartender, and another low-ranking flunky or two.
63	* CatchPhrase: "Piece of cake!" by the humans, "Leverage!" by the Psychlos.
64	* ChekhovsClassroom: Subverted. Jonnie teaches his followers Euclidean geometry, claiming it will be very important. It never is (beyond what they would need for piloting anyway). Even better, he teaches some of his fellow prisoners geometry and others piloting.
65	* ChewingTheScenery[=/=]EvilIsHammy[=/=]WorldOfHam:
66	** All the villains.
67	** Half the good guys as well. The other half [[DullSurprise just kind of stare blankly]].
68	* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: Again, the Psychlos. ''Especially'' Terl. It borders on StupidEvil at points, as they are willing to backstab each other even when it's not in their interest.
69	* ColorWash: Scenes that take place in the dome are tinted blue. The rest of Earth is more [[RealIsBrown yellowish-brown]]. The Psychlo planet itself is purple. In-universe, Psychlo security footage is all in green for no discernible reason. Perhaps they use old Apple [=IIe=] monitors.
70	* DeadpanSnarker: Terl towards his subordinates.
71	* DecapitationPresentation: Terl to Ker: "It [Ker's informant] could even be ... OUR FRIENDLY BARTENDER!"
72	* DiscretionShot: At one point, a human gets his head exploded by a prison collar. The scene cuts away from the explosion itself to show other characters' [[DullSurprise reactions]] to it.
73	* DomedHometown: The Psychlo outpost is one of these, because of the whole "exploding breath gas" thing. In a shocking subversion, it's more of a pyramid, but the characters refer to it as a dome regardless.
74	* DoWrongRight: When Terl catches Ker trying to pretend he wasn't hiding a report detailing the location of a newly exposed gold deposit, he criticizes Ker not for betraying him, but for not being competent enough to check what he was betraying him ''for''. As Terl already knows, the gold deposit can't be mined because the entire area is radioactive, so Ker betrayed him over a worthless photo.
75	* DullSurprise: Many characters, but special mention goes to [[spoiler:Terl's]] reaction to ''losing his right arm''. Also earlier, [[spoiler:Ker]] when losing his left hand.
76	* DumbassHasAPoint
77	** Terl lets go of his IdiotBall long enough to correctly state that you should never store loaded weapons.
78	** He's also immediately suspicious when Johnnie gives him gold bars, not the ore he was expecting. Though he quickly picks the IdiotBall back up when he fails to notice the stamps those gold bars would certainly have.
79	* DutchAngle: This is ''Dutch Angle: TheMovie''. It notoriously used them to the point of excess. (A shot from the film provides the page image.) As Creator/RogerEbert noted in his [[http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/battlefield-earth-2000 review]]:
80	-->"The director, Roger Christian, has learned from better films that directors sometimes tilt their cameras, but he has not learned why."
81	** It's even used ''in-universe''. When Terl looks at some security camera footage, that too is tilted.
82	* EarthShatteringKaboom: A nuke sent to Psychlo causes a reaction with its atmosphere and blows up the planet ... except this time [[spoiler:Psychlo is reduced to a cloud of noxious gas]].
83	* EasilyConqueredWorld: The Psychlo invasion force wipes out every Terran military in ''nine minutes'', apparently by teleporting millions of nerve gas drones all across Earth. And ''then'', to show the trope goes both ways, a ''much'' smaller ''army of cavemen'' using ''thousand-year-old Harriers'' beats their small force of armed cargo haulers.
84	* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: Hardly any of the Psychlos actually have names, and even in the credits are generally only referred to by their titles. One of them is even known as Bartender.
85	* EvilLaugh: There's enough "normal" Evil Laughter and fake, mocking laughter to fill a half-hour sitcom, not to mention Creator/ForestWhitaker's hearty chortles and some disturbingly fey laughter by Travolta. The Psychlos are a merry bunch (it makes one either wonder what gas they breathe, or think that's why their air is so volatile).
86	** WebVideo/ChrisStuckmann says this should be called "Evil Laughter: The Movie", as the Psychlos seem to do nothing else.
87	* EvilOldFolks: The Planetship is clearly a very elderly Psychlo.
88	* ExactWords:
89	** Zete promises Terl that his assignment to Earth won't be extended "for another five cycles" as expected. Instead, it will be extended "...for another FIFTY cycles. With '''''endless options''' for '''renewal'''''!"
90	** Terl promises Jonnie he won't kill a prisoner destined to have his head blown off ... only to give Ker the trigger to the explosive device and have ''him'' do it. As he puts it, "I only said ''I'' wouldn't kill him."
91	* ExplosiveStupidity: Subverted; while [[spoiler:Terl]] has an explosive collar strapped to his arm when he triggers the detonator that he believes will kill Jonnie's love interest, he ''doesn't'' die from it.
92	* {{Expy}}: The Psychlos basically look like [[Franchise/StarTrek Klingons]], except they are nine feet tall, [[invoked]][[FashionVictimVillain have even less of a fashion sense]], and lack any factors that make them scary or badass (or, indeed, especially interesting in any way). Only they're also slimy corporate businessmen, so imagine the Klingons if they had the personalities and culture of the Ferengi, and the juxtaposition is just as weird and jarring as that sounds.
93	* FailedASpotCheck: The Psychlos ''love'' gold. They came to Earth looking for it, and spent a millennium on the planet doing so, mining it, and shipping it off. And yet in that millennium, they somehow failed to find Fort Knox, which is crammed with the stuff.
94	** Made worse by the fact that the Psychlos ''didn't'' overlook Fort Knox in the book.
95	** Also, the humans fool the Psychlos into thinking they are working by giving them the gold from Ft. Knox and pretending they mined it themselves and smelted it into bricks as a courtesy. Unless Terl left them the equipment to do this, which would be weird, he just accepts that explanation on its face and orders production doubled.
96	* FastKillingRadiation: Exaggerated and combined with ArtisticLicensePhysics with the Psychlos. They explode when exposed to the slightest bit of radiation. Humans, however, are able to survive in irradiated areas and form villages in such places.
97	* FatAndSkinny: Rock and Carlo, the first allies Jonnie makes from outside his tribe, are these respectively.
98	* FauxActionGirl: Chrissy. Jonnie says she can handle herself better than most men, but she barely has any screen time since she's a TokenRomance, and for most of it she has an explosive collar strapped around her neck and Terl holds her hostage.
99	* FauxAffablyEvil: This seems to be a personality trait of a few Psychlos, especially Terl.
100	* TheFilmOfTheBook: It's an adaptation of L. Ron Hubbard's novel ''Battlefield Earth''.
101	* FutureImperfect:
102	** Fast food and automobiles are the stuff of legends, and mannequins are purportedly people punished for offending the gods.
103	** The Psychlos are shown at one point examining old Earth photos of people driving with their dogs, leading them to believe that [[MistookTheDominantLifeform the dogs were the superior species]] since they had the humans chauffeuring them around. They also note that dogs, while much more cooperative than "man-animals", which the Psychlos interpret to mean higher intelligence (after all, dogs recognize who their betters are), proved almost useless for manual labor (further proof that dogs were the masters of "man-animals", who did all the physical work).
104	** Even with his newfound intelligence, Jonnie assumes a map of the UsefulNotes/UnitedStates which has red lines depicting state borders is entirely literal and someone must have painted these giant lines on the ground. That they aren't there now just means they must have faded over time.
105	* GangstaStyle: Because Psychlos are so much bigger than humans, a two-handed sideways grip seems to be the only way the humans can aim and fire the aliens' weapons.
106	* GasolineLastsForever: Somehow, the fighter jets are still able to take off after a thousand years. Granted, jet fuel has a longer shelf life than gasoline, but even then it's only good for a few decades at most.
107	* GoryDiscretionShot: The movie botches even this simple trope -- the cow-shooting scene doesn't show us Terl turning live cattle into raining beef chunks, but it's shot so poorly (and the actors' responses so [[DullSurprise utterly bland]]) that it's hard to tell what's even ''happening''. Not only that, but the one cow we do see get shot uses BloodlessCarnage at the same time, making the attempt at hiding the 'violence' come across as redundant.
108	* GreaterScopeVillain: The ominous "Home Office", Terl's employer, and presumably the ruling entity of all Psychlos, has kept him on Earth to touch off the main plot of the film.
109	* HeelFaceTurn: [[spoiler:Apparently Ker got tired of being surrounded by his LargeHam IdiotBall-carrying species ('''especially''' Terl) and joined up with the humans at the end.]]
110	* HeroicSacrifice: When [[spoiler:Carlo]] blows up his own ship to destroy the "dome," and when [[spoiler:Mickey]] detonates the nuclear bomb.
111	* HilarityEnsues:
112	** "You are out of your skull-bone if you think I'm going to write on the report 'shot by man-animal' as the cause of death unless I see it!"
113	** "Piece o' cake, piece o' cake, piece o' cake, piece o' cake!"
114	* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Sort of. Though he doesn't actually die, Terl [[spoiler:''[[ExplosiveStupidity blows off his own arm]]'' with the exploding collar he used on Jonnie's girlfriend. And in the end he's put in a cage in Fort Knox, surrounded by gold. It's ironic, y'see, because he put Jonnie in a cage and started the whole scheme to get gold.]]
115	* HumansAreMorons:
116	** Terl and his fellow Psychlos believe that the [[HorribleJudgeOfCharacter humans are too stupid to do anything on their own]], so they give them some 'assistance' in the form of Psychlo knowledge beams.
117	** More exasperating, the Psychlos know full well that ''Homo sapiens sapiens'' had created healthy industrial societies, yet they still assume they're too dumb to walk and chew gum at the same time.
118	** It wasn't until Terl used the machine to impart Psychlo knowledge to Jonnie that he even knew what a ''triangle'' was.
119	* HypocriticalHumor: Jonnie delivers a RousingSpeech about how "We have enough problems without killing each other over food!" ... having just beaten the crap out of another human prisoner (granted, he was a prison bully and started the fight) over food.
120	* IdiosyncraticWipes: Now, center wipes are not very idiosyncratic as far as scene transitions go ... but '''every. Single. Transition''' is a center wipe. '''All of them''', even the transition to the credits.
121	* IdiotBall:
122	** Terl teaches the humans how to operate their aircraft, weaponry, and speak the Psychlo language. He seems to be the only Psychlo who realizes the humans have intelligence and are capable of performing complex tasks, but doesn't consider the possibility that they could use this against him.
123	** When Terl is inspecting the results of Jonnie's "mining," he asks for understandable reasons why Jonnie is presenting him with smelted gold bars, rather than the ore he was expecting. Jonnie, who hadn't spotted that flaw in his plan, explains lamely, "I assumed, sir, that a Psychlo of your refinement wouldn't settle for anything as coarse as raw ore." Terl accepts the [[BlatantLies flimsy excuse]] without question, even though he knows Jonnie was never provided with the training or the equipment to do this. Even if one were generous enough to assume he knows Jonnie is lying through his teeth, it doesn't change the fact that he lets Jonnie get away with it rather than demand his actual source or take precautions against Jonnie's blatant duplicity.
124	* ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy: The only marksmanship any Psychlo exhibits is when Terl shoots up a herd of stationary cattle. The fact their guns are [[GangstaStyle held upside down]], making them nearly impossible to aim, probably contributes to this.
125	* IncrediblyObviousBug: So obvious even ''cavemen'' can spot them.
126	* InformedAbility: Terl is supposedly one of the most intelligent and dangerous Psychlos out there. But what the movie ''shows'' us is a bumbler who makes some downright idiotic mistakes.
127	* InsaneTrollLogic: At the end of the movie, Jonnie keeps Terl alive so that if there are Psychlos living off their homeworld, and they come looking for revenge, humans can use Terl as [[IronicEcho leverage]] ... because the Psychlos would be really pissed at Terl for indirectly dooming the homeworld ... [[SarcasmMode so if they get him, they won't bother with the humans, who]] '''[[SarcasmMode directly]]''' [[SarcasmMode doomed their homeworld]]. Clearly, he DidntThinkThisThrough very well.
128	** This was almost certainly meant as a SequelHook; the adaptation stops a third of the way through the book.
129	** In the book, Terl is put in protective custody as the (several including Ker) Psychlos are after his blood.
130	* InUniverseFactoidFailure: The Psychlos seem to have this regarding humans and Earth in general, the biggest being ''not knowing Fort Knox has a lot of gold in it'' (averted in the novel) despite invading Earth with the express purpose of finding and getting gold. There are several other humdingers as well, such as how, when Terl and another Psychlo are looking at a picture of a human driving a car with a dog riding in the passenger seat, [[InsaneTrollLogic they assume the humans acted like chauffeurs to their dogs]], even after realizing how this "superior race" is incapable of doing most of the things their alleged servants can.
131	* ItWorksBetterWithBullets: Doubles as NotWithTheSafetyOnYouWont, since Terl says this to Jonnie and his friends aiming them at him.
132	-->'''Terl''': If ANY of you [[IJustShotMarvinInTheFace rat-brains knew ANYTHING about firearms]], you would know that you ''[[PunctuatedForEmphasis never. Store. Loaded. Weapons!]]''
133	** Of course, Terl correcting somebody else's gun safety is kind of ironic considering what [[Film/PulpFiction OTHER]] film Creator/JohnTravolta was in.
134	* JustPlaneWrong: Oh, so many examples.
135	** Nothing should be working after about a millennium; it takes years, not weeks, to learn to fly one; none of them has flight suits and yet they're all stunt dog-fighter material. And while they ''do'' mention that Harrier jets can hover, it depicts them being able to hover in wait indefinitely like a helicopter when in real life Harriers are only designed to hover briefly as doing it for too long can overheat and seriously stress the engine.
136	** Harriers are so unreliable it is almost ridiculous to suggest they can even be repaired.
137	*** Not to mention that Harriers are infamous for being extremely difficult to master compared to most jets, primarily due to their unique flight characteristics.
138	* KickTheDog: Terl shoots the legs off a herd of cattle just to show how evil he is.
139	* LanguageBarrier: Before Jonnie learns how to speak Psychlo, at least.
140	* LargeHam:
141	** Creator/JohnTravolta. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cThdJ0mYbo So very much. (Spoilers.)]]
142	** Creator/BarryPepper, who plays Jonnie, veers wildly between LargeHam and DullSurprise.
143	%%* LaughablyEvil: Terl.
144	* LegendFadesToMyth: The humans have forgotten that the Psychlos invaded and conquered Earth over a thousand years ago, instead believing that demons came down from the sky because the gods were angry.
145	* MadeOfExplodium: Psycho breath gas explosively combusts when exposed to radiation. When the atmosphere on Planet Psychlo ignites thanks to a single nuclear bomb -- one at least a thousand Earth years old, no less -- the resulting explosion rips the ''entire planet'' apart, crust, mantle, core and all.
146	* MadeOfPlasticine: The Psychlos seem to lose limbs a lot easier than one would expect. At one point, Ker is shot in the hand by Terl, and everything above his wrist just vanishes, while Terl later on would lose his own limb courtesy of a shaped charge from Johnny. Both times, the injuries are mighty clean, though Ker's hand could at least be handwaved as being "vaporized" by the blaster shot, a property that's demonstrated several times throughout the movie.
147	* MajorInjuryUnderreaction: Ker gets his hand shot off. The most reaction this gets out of him is mild confusion. In turn, Terl loses his entire arm and manages to be annoyed by it at worst. Maybe the Psychlo physiology dulls their pain or makes such an injury not a big deal, but the movie explains nothing.
148	* ManlyTears: Mickey, just before he [[spoiler:detonates the nuke]].
149	* MarqueeAlterEgo: Jay of ''WebVideo/HalfInTheBag'' points out that John Travolta and Forest Whitaker, the most famous actors in the cast, not coincidentally happen to be the Psychlos whose makeup covers up [[RubberForeheadAliens the least of their actual faces.]]
150	* MessianicArchetype: Jonnie starts to become a savior figure after the Psychlos capture him, and especially after they train him.
151	* MistookTheDominantLifeform: The Psychlos interpret surveillance photos of humans with dogs in car passenger seats as evidence that the dogs were "obviously the superior race, having the man-animals chauffeur them around." They also mention that the dogs were much more willing to cooperate with the alien masters than humans. Unfortunately, dogs proved ill-equipped for manual labor (which, again, demonstrated their superiority, not needing to work). They can fetch, though.
152	* MistreatmentInducedBetrayal: Ker joins the humans because of Terl's regular abuse and mistreatment (and because most of his race was exterminated when the planet Psychlo exploded).
153	* MonochromeCasting: Nearly all the humans we see are white. This even extends to the Psychlos themselves, with Forest Whitaker being the only black actor playing a Psychlo.
154	* {{Motifs}}: Nauseating camera angles, lurid blue or purple coloration, people dressed like cavemen hooting like howler monkeys.
155	* MundaneMadeAwesome: This film holds the dubious honor of providing audiences with [[OverlyNarrowSuperlative the most overly dramatic "cavemen being sprayed with hoses" scene in film history]]. It's exactly as stupid as it sounds.
156	* NeverSayDie: The Psychlos do like the word "Vaporize", though. [[NonIndicativeName Even though their guns don't actually vaporize anyone.]]
157	* NoodleIncident: Terl was stranded on Earth as punishment for "an incident involving the Senator's daughter" (usually interpreted as one or more unauthorized sexual encounters).
158	* OneNationUnderCopyright: For the Psychlos, state and corporation are one and the same.
159	* OnlyAFleshWound: Psychlos don't even take poorly to amputations. Terl gets one of his arms blown off and merely seems to find it annoying.
160	* OnlySaneMan: Ker amongst the Psychlos. He's often the only one to notice the instances of the other Psychlos picking up the IdiotBall and percieving the humans clearly being much smarter than others thought.
161	* OrphanedEtymology:
162	** The cavemen oddly use idioms one wouldn't think they would even know about, much less use every day. The biggest offender, "piece of cake," is used to mean the same thing it does today (something easy) even though none of the cavemen is seen eating cake at any point and it seems unlikely they would even know what it is. (It's little more believable that Jonnie's people would understand the meaning of their derogative for him, "greener" -- a reference to his belief that "the grass is greener on the other side", i.e., that things are better elsewhere.)
163	** A Psychlo tells Terl that he'll die and go to Hell, and it will be an improvement on Earth, even though there's no reason to assume the Psychlos' religion or religions (if they even have any, which we never seen any evidence of) would have a Hell.
164	** It's not that surprising that the Psychlos know (or at least, know of) Euclidean geometry. What is surprising is that they call it Euclidean geometry, which was named after Euclid of Alexandria.
165	** At one point Terl calls another Psychlo a "rat-brain." Even if he's seen rats from being on Earth, it's still kind of weird he would insult someone by comparing them to an Earth animal, rather than a Psychlo one.
166	* OverlyLongTongue: Terl's girlfriend, Chirk (played by Creator/KellyPreston, John Travolta's wife), has one.
167	* TheParalyzer: The Psychlos' handguns have a stun setting, which they use to capture Jonnie without killing him. A closeup of one of these guns later shows its owner switching the setting between stunning and lethal.
168	* ThePasswordIsAlwaysSwordfish: The passcode to Terl's vault is his ID number backwards.
169	* ThePlan: Terl's is to mine undiscovered gold on Earth in order to bribe his way back to the Psychlo home world.
170	* PlanetOfHats: The Psychlos are almost all violent, profiteering, scheming, and stupid, although [[InformedAbility they're supposedly highly intelligent]] and conquered the Earth in nine minutes. Then again, it is [[UnreliableNarrator Terl]] who tells this story.
171	%%* PlotHole:
172	* {{Polyamory}}: Ker says he's supporting five wives back on Psychlo ([[TheGhost none of whom is ever seen]]).
173	* PortalNetwork: Psychlos put teleporters on all the planets they control and colonize.
174	* {{Pun}}: The movie's TagLine is "''Prepare to go Psychlo''".
175	* PuppetKing: Terl uses knowledge of the Planetship's bookkeeping fraud to get him to sign off on blank work order forms that Terl can write whatever he wants on, making Terl the effective administrator of the entire planet. As Terl notes, the Planetship still gets to keep his job and salary, and it's better than being executed were Terl to report him.
176	* RagnarokProofing: The ruins of UsefulNotes/{{Denver}} look like they've only been abandoned for a year or so, with readable books instead of piles of dust. Then there's Fort Hood. Jets, nukes, stinger missiles, and flight simulators still work just as fine.
177	* RammingAlwaysWorks: In one of the film's 'highlights,' a caveman-pilot who runs out of missiles ejects from his plane just before ramming a Psychlo fighter with it, [[FailedASpotCheck completely overlooking the aircraft's 25-millimetre cannon.]]
178	* RealIsBrown: See ColorWash.
179	* ReassignmentBackfire: A rare villainous example: Terl has been ReassignedToAntarctica as petty revenge for getting involved with the daughter of a senator, which leads to [[spoiler:the destruction of the Psychlo race.]]
180	* ReCut: The version on VHS and DVD makes the following alterations:
181	** A scene of Terl invoking ExactWords on the bartender over a damaging incident not magically appearing in his file is removed.
182	** A scene where Terl throws Floyd (the guy who Jonnie fights over food and escapes with Carlo and Jonnie to the mountains) off a cliff to show Ker that humans can’t fly after the failed escape attempt is removed.
183	** A small scene during Terl and Jonnie’s trip to the library of Terl quipping that Jonnie will find plenty of recipes for raw rat is removed.
184	** When Robert the Fox and his men ambush Terl and Jonnie gets his gun, there’s an exchange removed where Terl quips how humanity is similar to the Psychlos.
185	** An opening crawl is added between the studio logos and the opening credits, stating information that is made obvious in the film.
186	** A scene between Parson Staffor and Chrissie at the beginning, discussing Jonnie’s status as a “greener,” is added.
187	** Two brief scenes are added as Jonnie, Carlo and Rock head through the city. One is where Rock tells Jonnie that a statue is actually a god who was turned to stone for falling in love with a mortal woman. The other is Jonnie walking into a (very obvious) window in the mall where the three make camp.
188	** A scene where Jonnie, Carlo and Mickey search for and discover the instructions for the nuclear warhead is added.
189	*** The version on Blu-Ray, streaming services and TV airings are of the original theatrical cut.
190	* ReducedToRatburgers: Terl allows Jonnie, Carlo, and another captured man out in the wild to find out what they will consume as food, as he doesn't know what humans like to eat. The only edible animals they find are rats, so they eat them, but Terl believes it was their ''preferred'' meal. Apparently he never stopped to consider that these slaves were so starved, they were actually willing to eat ''anything'' at this point (it's specifically stated that they haven't eaten for three days). They didn't even bother cooking it first, [[IdiotBall causing Terl to assume they prefer it raw]].
191	* RepeatCut:
192	** When Terl's boss mentions that he plans to keep Terl on Earth instead of giving him a temporary reprieve, the movie plays back "''With endless options for renewal!''" three times for some reason.
193	** The same thing happens when a caveman tells Jonnie that the Psychlos can't be defeated.
194	* RubberForeheadAliens: Imagine the Coneheads with dreadlocks, furry hands, codpieces, limb extensions, and breathing tubes that look like long pieces of necklaced chains pierced on their nose.
195	* RuleOfCool
196	* SceneryPorn: There is a rather pretty overhead shot of the Rocky Mountains in the beginning.
197	* SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale: The Psychlos' entire reason for conquering Earth was to [[PlanetLooters mine all the gold from it.]] Despite having had Earth under their control for 1,000 years at the time the movie is set, they still haven't managed to mine all the gold, even though they are supposedly an interstellar empire that has similarly plundered countless other planets for their valuable metals.
198	* SequelHook: [[spoiler:Terl is captured, and the human victors face an unknown future after winning a [[CrapsackWorld ruined planet]].]] There is actually a whole other half of the book which would have formed the sequel...if one was made.
199	* ShoutOut:
200	** When Jonnie is first shot, he falls through several glass panes à la ''Film/BladeRunner'', [[SoftGlass taking no lasting damage]].
201	** Also, the first time we're presented with the Psychlo homeworld, the camera pans around a cityscape, also as in ''Blade Runner''[='=]s opening.
202	** Later at the ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy, Jonnie runs in slow motion through a bunch of pillars as they are shot, just like how Neo runs through the government lobby in ''Film/TheMatrix''.
203	** Two of the human slaves are named [[Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey “Heywood” and “Floyd.”]]
204	* SlowMotion: Roughly a fourth of the film consists of slow-mo shots of Psychlos lumbering around shooting at people, Jonnie running away from Psychlos shooting at him (complete with [[BulletTime Matrix-esque]] clouds of debris and shrapnel), or Jonnie mourning somebody's death.
205	* SmallUniverseAfterAll: The Psychlos generally think nothing of conquering entire galaxies. This is actually scaled down from the [[Literature/BattlefieldEarth source novel]], wherein they ruled [[MultiversalConqueror several universes]].
206	* SmugSnake: Terl, ''in spades''.
207	* TheSmurfettePrinciple: Chrissy is the only female with anything approaching an impact on the story, and she's notable only for her relationship with Jonnie. Chirk is even less consequential and, likewise, she's only there to have a relationship with Terl.
208	* SpaceOpera
209	* SparedByTheAdaptation: As the film only adapts the first half of the novel, Terl is still alive at the end. In the novel [[spoiler:he dies off-screen in a TeleporterAccident at around the 700-page mark.]]
210	* StupidGood: Jonnie "[[IronicName Goodboy]]" Tyler snatches a gun off of Terl late in the movie, but instead of shooting him, he decides to give it back respectfully.
211	* SuicidalOverconfidence: Terl recognizes that Jonnie is unusually competent for a man-animal, and reasons that he can use Jonnie to mine the gold in the radioactive area. However, he also recognizes that Jonnie has a strong rebellious streak, and thus needs to break that to ensure Jonnie's compliance. He does this by taking Jonnie to the Library of Congress and allowing him to read ''anything he wants'', boasting that humans at their height were powerless against the Psychlos and Jonnie shouldn't expect any better now. Jonnie uses this opportunity to learn everything he needs about where to find military equipment and pre-mined gold, then uses that against the Psychlos. He also reads a copy of the Constitution, making him even more rebellious.
212	* SwissCheeseSecurity: After Terl assigns the prisoners to mine gold, his only security measure is a robotic drone that flies over them once in a while and takes a still photograph. This despite the fact that he had previously sewn small cameras into Jonnie's clothing and that of his friends (that Jonnie admittedly found), so there should be nothing stopping him from hiding even more on the ship.
213	* TokenRomance: Jonnie's girlfriend, Chrissy, gets about four scenes in this film. All we know about her is that she left the village against her father's wishes.
214	* TooDumbToLive: The entire Psychlo race, but especially Terl. Terl's stupidity leads directly not only to his own downfall, but [[spoiler:the destruction of his homeworld and everyone who lived on it.]]
215	* TrainingThePeacefulVillagers:
216	** In record time, too, and from scratch. Luckily, they ''did'' have an UpgradeArtifact to train everyone instantly, and ... [[FridgeLogic oh, wait ... they forgot to use it]][[invoked]].
217	** This actually occurs twice: the second time was a rare example of the ''villains'' doing this ''[[TooDumbToLive to their own slaves]]''.
218	* TranslationConvention: While the Psychlos are in private, their language is translated into English, but when the humans are the focus, it's left untranslated. It gets a little weird once Jonnie learns the language and is speaking both in the same scene and 'translating.'
219	** Even before that, kicking off the AlmostOutOfOxygen sequence noted above, the two guards involved talk to each other in Psychlo, then one clearly says, "Okay, he's down. Pull his breath mask off" in English.
220	* TranslationYes: Terl delivers a flowery and overdramatic threat to the humans he's sending to mine gold for him. Jonnie, knowing his audience has no frame of reference for Terl's boasts, accurately summarizes in six words: "Try to run, he'll kill us". Terl immediately {{Lampshade\|Hanging}}s the terse translation.
221	-->'''Terl:''' [''{{Beat}}''] That's it?\
222	[''Jonnie nods'']\
223	[''Terl shrugs'']
224	* UnnaturallyBlueLighting: Most scenes involving the Psychlos.
225	* UnusuallyUninterestingSight: Yes. In nearly a thousand years of occupying Earth, the gold-hungry Psychlos ''completely'' overlooked '''Fort Knox''' and its hoard of untouched gold stashed within.
226	* UpgradeArtifact: Used so our hero can become an InstantExpert without going through a TrainingMontage. Infamously ''not'' used to help the rest of humanity prepare for the revolution, even though having them do just that was a key plot point in the book.
227	* VanityProject: [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battlefield_Earth_(film) To quote]] [[Website/{{Wikipedia}} The Other Wiki]]: "Travolta, a Scientologist, began attempting to adapt ''Battlefield Earth'' in the mid-1990s. He was unable to obtain major studio funding because of concerns regarding the script and its connections to Scientology. In 1998, it was picked up by the independent production company Franchise Pictures, which specialized in rescuing stars' pet projects. Production began in 1999, largely funded by the German distribution company Intertainment AG. Travolta, as co-producer, also contributed millions of dollars; he envisioned ''Battlefield Earth'' as the first in a two-part adaptation of the book, as it only covers the first half of the novel's story."
228	* VerbalTic: Psychlos say "Crap" about every few sentences.
229	* VillainBall: Held by the Psychlos' leader, Terl. Teaching your slaves [[InstantExpert everything there is to know about your civilization in an instant]] can only end badly, ''especially'' if you're supposedly doing it to help [[TakeOverTheWorld conquer their planet]]. Introducing your pet human to inspiring documents from UsefulNotes/TheAmericanRevolution will only make things worse. Holding your pet human's girlfriend hostage just [[ItsPersonal makes things personal]]. Abusing your henchman only serves to set up the MistreatmentInducedBetrayal in the final act. And not launching an all-out crackdown when the man-animals rebel and attack with air support ... [[{{Understatement}} not a good idea]]. Terl doesn't even notice [[spoiler:an exploding collar Jonnie straps to his arm in a melee, and proceeds to amputate his own limb when he triumphantly hits the detonator.]] His ([[DullSurprise non]])reaction shot is priceless. He appears to read the BizarroUniverse inversion of the EvilOverlordList, telling him exactly what to do ''wrong''.
230	* VocalDissonance: One of the ''many'' poor decisions that makes Terl impossible to take seriously is the bizarrely unfitting voice Travolta uses for the character. You'd expect [[https://img.cinemablend.com/cb/9/d/1/1/0/3/9d1103fe7d4c4f30c5f8b2affb27184b89f50782a8fdf0e68b0d6d9657b82317.jpg this guy]] to have some variation of an mighty, [[EvilSoundsDeep villainous baritone]], but instead he speaks in a jarringly high-pitched, quasi-aristocratic voice that's [[WhatTheHellIsThatAccent probably supposed to be]] a variation on an alien EvilBrit.[[invoked]]
231	* VoodooShark: The explanation for why the Psychlos still haven't mined all the gold off the planet after 1,000 years is that the gas they breathe explodes on contact with radiation. The problem being that ''any planet orbiting a star'' will have radiation from said star fall on it, meaning their planet should have blown up shortly after being formed. There's also the question of why they can't just wear hazmat suits, or, better yet, use robots to do the mining (as we know they already have robots in the form of the "gas drones").
232	* WeWillUseManualLaborInTheFuture: After wiping out human civilization, the Psychlos use the survivors as slave labor. It strains credibility that Terl's superiors would dismiss his proposal to extend this arrangement to gold mining.
233	* WhatHappenedToTheMouse
234	** The nameless guy running around with Jonnie and Carlo in Aspen is never seen again after that scene. ([[invoked]]He died immediately afterwards in a DeletedScene where Ker, bizarrely, suggests that humans must be able to fly, and Terl proves that they can't by throwing him into a chasm.)
235	** The Planetship, Terl's direct superior, abruptly vanishes in the latter stages of the movie. This coincides with Terl gaining [[CatchPhrase leverage]] on him.
236	* WhatTheHellIsThatAccent: John Travolta seems to be going for a [[EvilBrit vaguely]] [[AliensOfLondon British]] accent for Terl, except for when [[OohMeAccentsSlipping he isn't.]] Made all the more confusing because all the other Psychlo actors just use their regular voices.
237	* WhileYouWereInDiapers: When Ker mocks Terl and says that he could have taken a much less stressful job, he says something to this effect: that he was trained to be a GalacticConqueror since birth.
238	* {{Wipe}}: Excessively used, second only to the overreliance on the DutchAngle. Probably in some misguided attempt to ape ''Franchise/StarWars''.
239	* WretchedHive: The Psychlos exude disdain for Earth, with Zete calling it "pathetic" and "one of the ugliest crap holes in the entire universe." [[NeverMyFault Their own narrow, selfish focus on mining out all its gold, everything else be damned, couldn't have helped it, though.]]

Context Film / BattlefieldEarth