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"Some movies run off the rails. This one is like the train crash in The Fugitive. I watched it in mounting gloom, realizing I was witnessing something historic, a film that for decades to come will be the punch line of jokes about bad movies."
The film version of L. Ron Hubbard's Science Fiction novel Battlefield Earth was released in the U.S. in the year 2000, directed by Roger Christian and starring John Travolta as Psychlo leader Terl. Travolta had 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 Church of Scientology. He later poured most of his own money into the project and signed on as a co-producer, and the rest...well, is history.
Battlefield Earth's film adaptation probably isn't the worst film ever made, or maybe not even the worst science fiction film ever made. Many (not all) would even say that it was the Look Who's Talking films, and not Battlefield Earth, that were the true low point of John Travolta's career. However, if you were to come up with a graph of money spent on a film against general crappiness, Battlefield Earth would be a spike.
Seriously, don't watch it, ever, unless you're very drunk, very stoned, trying to prepare yourself to resist interrogation by Jack Bauer, have an intense, fanatical desire to prove the critics wrong, are an OT-8 Scientologist, or are using the film as a grueling endurance-based rite of passage. It's that bad... unmodified, that is. Download some Alternate DVD Commentary (hint: Rifftrax) and this turkey can actually be entertaining.
The Battlefield Earth film uses the following tropes:
- Above The Ruins: One of the final shots is of the humans digging their way out of the demolished Psychlo base right after dawn.
- Acceptable Targets: Lambasting the film is easy, as there are few people on the planet willing to defend it.
- Adaptation Decay: The plot, heroes, and villains got dumber in the film version—at least the Planet Looters in the book didn't somehow overlook Fort Knox. Fort 'Effing Knox.
- Big No: Most of Jonny's lines involve him violently expressing his grief over someone/something. Most people get away with one of these per movie.
- Bile Fascination: The movie is regularly in the top (bottom?) 10 of most filmgoers' "worst movies of all time" lists.
- Braids Beads And Buckskins: Suspiciously clean buckskins (Travolta didn't want the move to look too grimy), for the first act, anyway. The Psychlos, though irredeemably evil, are nice enough to give the man-animals jumpsuits after capture.
- Catch Phrase: "Piece of cake!", "Leverage!"
- In the director's commentary, Roger Christian explained that "piece of cake" has become a tribal saying the meaning of which has been lost to history. That's... nice.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: We're not talking about the Psychlos here. The film was developed by Franchise Entertainment, a company that helped stars finish their pet projects...and also liked to "overestimate" budgets for said films. Battlefield Earth was a 75 million dollar movie that actually cost 44 million dollars to make. Franchise went bankrupt after a fraud investigation, which came about due to the spectacular failures of films like Battlefield Earth.
- Covers Always Lie: Brilliantly subverted. Actual quotes from the back of the DVD case:
"...an explosive and highly-entertaining movie that will leave you exhausted!"
John Travolta stars "[i]n a role as you've never seen him"
- Did Not Do The Research: It's actually more difficult to find some place in the movie where they did the research.
- In the words of Jake Cremins of the Agony Booth
 : "This is like those old 'What's Wrong With This Picture?' puzzles where the cowboy is riding a giant fish, except that there's not supposed to be anything wrong with it. Also, it cost $73,000,000."
- Doing It For The Art: A big reason that trope isn't automatically a good thing.
- Domed Hometown: The Psychlo outpost is one of these, because of the whole "exploding breathe-gas" thing. In a shocking subversion, its more of a pyramid...which doesn't stop the characters from referring to it as a dome.
- Earth Shattering Kaboom: ...except this time Psychlo is reduced to, appropriately enough, a cloud of noxious gas.
- Evil Laugh: There's enough "normal" Evil Laughter and fake, mocking laughter to fill a half-hour sitcom, not to mention Forest Whitaker's hearty chortles and some disturbingly fey laughter by Travolta. The Psychlos are a merry bunch.
- Fetish Fuel: The lone Psychlo female that appears is noteworthy for her three-foot-long tongue. Though a bit of thought about the obvious drawbacks makes it more of a Fetish Retardant.
- Franchise Killer: Originally intended to be the first of two films.
- Heroic Sacrifice: When That Guy (not the troper) blows up his own ship to destroy the "dome," or when That Other Guy detonates the nuclear bomb. Their sacrifices would probably be more heroic if their characters, much less their names, were in any way memorable.
- Hoist By His Own Petard: Sort of. Though he doesn't actually die, Terl
gets his arm blown off blows off his own arm with the exploding collar he used on Jonny'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 Jonny in a cage and started the whole scheme to get gold...well, you get it.
- Ho Yay: One of Jonny's followers spends much of the movie looking soulfully at his leader. Jonny even cuts off a lock of his hair for him, and he wraps it around his fist as a sort of talisman. There's arguably more chemistry between the two than between Jonny and his designated love interest.
Bill Corbett: "What the hell are they doing to each other out of camera range?"
- Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: The only marksmanship any Psychlo has ever exhibited was when Terl shot up a herd of stationary cattle.
- The fact their guns are held upside down so as to be impossible to aim probably contributes.
- Incredibly Lame Pun: The movie's tagline is "Prepare to go Psychlo", which confirms suspicions that it hates its audience.
- Incredibly Obvious Bug: So obvious even the cavemen can spot them.
- It Got Worse: The movie itself. Every time you sit and think, "There's no way this movie could get worse," it does.
- Just Plane Wrong: Oh, so many examples. Let's review:
- The Harrier jets are working 1000 years from now.
- So is the fuel.
- And the missiles.
- Clinically retarded cavemen are able to learn how to fly them in a week or two.
- Without flight suits.
- Despite pulling off stunt dogfighting ripped straight from Star Wars.
- Against alien aircraft that similar planes couldn't defeat 1000 years ago.
- And the cavemen forget about the cannons the planes have in addition to missiles...actually, that last one isn't that unbelievable.
- Large Ham: John Travolta. In a big way. (Spoilers)
Terl: While you were still learning how to spell your name, I...was being trained...to conquer galaxies!
- Money Dear Boy: Forest Whitaker.
- Motifs: Nauseating camera angles, lurid blue or purple coloration, people dressed like cavemen hooting like howler monkeys, and a blatant disregard for the audience.
- Narm: Oh, where to begin? That all the remnants of civilization are apparently all Scientologist? That the alien leader thinks the ideal food to humanity is raw rat meat? That gold is not only the most valuable material to this alien race militarily, but that their sweep of the planet somehow missed Fort flippin' Knox? Hell, let's just call the entire movie a Narm and be done with it.
- Offscreen Teleportation: About the only way nine-foot-tall aliens can sneak up on people.
- Only A Flesh Wound: Turns out that Psychlos can experience impromptu amputations without any bleeding, pain, or acting skill beyond a "duh..." expression.
- Pow Zap Wham Cam: Notoriously used to the point of excess. In the words of Roger Ebert: "The director, Roger Christian, has learned from better films that directors sometimes tilt their cameras, but he has not learned why."
- Ragnarok Proofing: To an even dumber extent than the book. The ruins of 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, which has working flight simulators that are actually bucking about and making noise when the cavemen come in. Then there are the working Harrier jets...the working
nuke BIG FIRE...the working Stinger missiles...and then your brain shuts down.
- Ramming Always Works: In one of the film's "highlights," a caveman-pilot who runs out of missiles ejects just before ramming a Psychlo fighter, completely overlooking the aircraft's 25mm cannon.
- Refuge In Cool: The only possible justification for the many flaws in the story.
- Rubber Forehead Aliens: Imagine The Coneheads with dreadlocks, furry hands, codpieces, and limb extensions.
- Sequel Hook: Terl is alive, and the human victors face an unknown future after winning a ruined planet. Fortunately, the movie's anti-performance means that there's no way there will be a sequel...right?
- Slow Motion: Roughly a fourth of the film consists of slow-mo shots of Psychlos lumbering around shooting at people, Jonny running away from Psychlos shooting at him (complete with Matrix-esque clouds of debris and shrapnel), or Jonny shouting...well, guess...after someone dies.
- So Bad Its Horrible: Roger Ebert describes the film "...like taking a bus trip with someone who has needed a bath for a long time... something historic, a film that for decades to come will be the punch line of jokes about bad movies."
- Space Opera: ...with terrible actors, cheap sets, and lousy music. Call it a "Space Flop-era".
- Training The Peaceful Villagers: In record time too, and from scratch. Luckily, they did have an Upgrade Artifact to instantly train everyone, and...oh yeah, they forgot they had it.
- Unfortunate Implications: Forest Whitaker's buffoonish, boot-licking interpretation of Ker. Hard to believe this is the same guy who did The Last King Of Scotland.
- Upgrade Artifact: Used so our hero can become an Instant Expert without going through a Training Montage. Famously not used to help the rest of humanity prepare for the revolution, despite the fact that having them do just that was a key plot point in the book.
- Villain Ball: Held by the Psychlos' leader, Terl. Teaching your slaves everything to know about your civilization in an instant can only end badly, especially if you're supposedly doing it to help conquer their planet. Introducing your pet human to inspiring documents from the American Revolution will only make things worse. Holding your pet human's girlfriend hostage just makes things personal. Abusing your henchman only serves to set up the Help Face Turn in the final act. And not launching an all-out crackdown when the man-animals rebel and attack with air support? You deserve to die. Terl's so stupid he doesn't even notice an exploding collar Jonny straps to his arm in a melee, and proceeds to amputate his own limb when he triumphantly hits the detonator. His (non)reaction shot is priceless. He appears to read the Bizarro Universe inversion of the Evil Overlord List, telling him exactly what to do wrong.
- Wall Banger: So, so many, from the villains to the heroes to the premise to the fact that the film even got greenlit.
- What An Idiot: Can be easily applied to Terl. And probably the rest of the characters. Then if one is feeling nasty, it may further be applied to the film's actors, crew, the book's author, and especially the religion the book's author founded.
The Rifftrax has examples of:
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