History Film / BattleLosAngeles

[[quoteright:301:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Battle_Los_Angeles_8973.jpg]]

Meteors rain into the ocean a couple of miles off of major coastal cities -- one being Los Angeles. Within minutes an alien army marches out of the surf. The suntanning populace on the beach is shredded as the aliens march into the city proper. With the arrival of their aircraft, the aliens quickly establish ground- and air-superiority.

-->''"There are massive casualties in New York, defensive lines are being setup in Boston, and at 13:15 Zulu Time we lost communications with San Francisco and San Diego, their status is unknown. What we do know is that we are the last offensive force on the west coast. We can'' '''not''' ''lose Los Angeles."'''

!!''Battle Los Angeles'' provides examples of the following tropes:

* HypercompentantSidekick: Lance Corporal Lee Imlay. Lt. Martinez even calls him out as the squad's best marksman when briefing Nantz before their deployment.

* InvadedStatesOfAmerica: American is one of 20 countries under attack by the aliens. At the start of the movie, New York City has fallen, Boston and Los Angeles are under siege, and San Francisco and San Diego are presumed lost as well.

* EveryonesDeadDave: The team finally reaches the Santa Monica FOB, and finds [[spoiler: nothing but wreckage and dead bodies.]]

** The aliens prove to be much better at this than humans; not only did they come down from the sky in large meteor-like landing craft, but they use very versatile 'Wedge Ship' UCAVs to quickly establish air superiority over LA. The wedges can even combine into a flying-saucer like floating siege platform that can rain incendiary munitions down like artillery.

* CaliforniaDoubling: Ironically, most of it was filmed in Louisiana. From the BonusMaterial segment called "Filming L.A. in LA":
-->"In the words of our production designer, 'A palm tree and a telephone pole go a long way.'"
** In the first neighborhood ambush, the camera wildly pans over the rooftops and for a few frames the spire of the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisiana_State_Capitol Louisiana State Capitol]] is visible in the background. It's art deco style is relatively consistent with several west LA buildings, though.

'''''Battle: Los Angeles''''' is a science fiction film directed by Jonathan Liebesman. It was released March 11, 2011.

* MoodDissonance: Leading up to the character squad's first encounter. There's smoke from weapons fire, abandoned cars, charred corpses, the sounds of distant explosions, not a living being in sight. The squad hears something, gets to cover with weapons trained on the direction the sound comes from, waiting for an alien to pop out of the smoke... and up runs someone's pet dog. Cue about half a minute of relieved comments, relaxing, joking about the dog's name (Glenn), soundtrack's calmed down, viewers think it'll be another five or ten minutes of walking to the fight, maybe with an animal sidekick... Explosions, shots raining down from multiple rooftops as well as the direction the dog ran in from, dramatic music and screaming both start up, and one of the Marines gets dragged off into the scenery.

* ShutUpHannibal: Nantz's speech to the rest of his squad at the ruined FOB base is basically telling all of his men (one of whom assumes that he deliberately did it to get a medal) to ''shut the fuck up.''

Not to be confused with the RageAgainstTheMachine album '''''The''' Battle '''of''' Los Angeles'', nor with the similarly-titled DirectToVideo ''[[TheMockbuster Battle of Los Angeles]]'' released the same year. However, both films are inspired by the real-life Battle of Los Angeles.

* [[ItsRainingMen It's Raining Aliens]]: The aliens and their equipment land just offshore after an atmospheric insertion in giant asteroid-like ships.

* GlassCannon[=/=]FragileSpeedster: The Drones are easily taken out, but the tie-in website states they can go Mach 7 -- far faster than human jets -- and they pack a punch. They can join up to form some sort of hovering weapons platform, which makes them a bit less vulnerable.

* BayonetYa: At one point, the protagonists fight the aliens hand-to-hand with bayonets mounted on their rifles. Which is to say they stab multiple bayonets into one alien, then fire full auto. Then kick it. [[TheresNoKillLikeOverKill Then shoot it some more.]]

* BookEnds: The overhead shot early in the movie overlooking Los Angeles [[spoiler: before LA gets pummeled to the ground]] is reshot in the end [[spoiler:when marine reinforcements fly in a battle-torn LA ready to retake the city.]]

-->"In the words of our production designer, 'A palm tree and a telephone pole go a long way'"

* CurbStompBattle: The initial alien attack only becomes a curb stomp once the [[AttackDrone Attack Drones]] show up and steal air superiority from the humans. [[spoiler: At the end of the movie, after Nantz's team takes out the drone control center, the Battle in Los Angeles turns in humanity's favor]]. It's also implied that LA is one of the few areas on the planet that humanity is actually holding out against the invaders, as the aliens are shown to have taken control of several other cities around the globe, including ''Paris'', which is a couple of hundred kilometers inland from the coastline.

* GovernmentConspiracy: Hinted at. The tie-in website and trailers indicate that the government has ''some'' prior knowledge dating all the way back from UsefulNotes/WorldWarTwo (though far too little) about the aliens. [[spoiler:Tech Sergeant Santos' original mission to find an enemy C&C asset and knowledge of the alien drones is another indicator.]]
* HeartInTheWrongPlace: [[ZigZaggingTrope ZigZagged]] when the Marines stab a captured alien in an attempt to find out what their [[AttackItsWeakPoint weak point]] is. It has a [[BizarreAlienBiology vital organ]] that looks like some sort of water sac in the upper left of its chest. Exactly the same place as where a human's heart isn't.

** Notably, the alien soldiers also act like, well, soldiers, and use tactics as well, such as [[HandSignals hand signals]]. The aliens also appear to take out all human anti-aircraft weapons, since none of the ones firing at the beginning of the invasion are firing on the drones.

* ImprovisedWeapon: Lacking in any real anti-air capability, Nantz has to take out an alien drone by [[spoiler:luring it to a gas station by a walkie-talkie and blowing it up, taking the drone with it.]]

* TheLoad: The civilians that the Marines are sent in to evacuate. Unlike most examples, they generally avoid getting in the way, and the two adults try to help as best they can. One of them is a veterinarian and helps dissect the wounded alien in the police station, and the other helps in combat by dragging the wounded to safety, at one point [[spoiler:picking up a dropped assault rifle and shooting one of the aliens.]]

* NotQuiteDead: [[PlayingWithATrope Played with]], then aggressively [[DefiedTrope defied.]] Lenihan puts half a magazine into an alien, causing it to fall into a pool and out of sight. He doesn't drop his guard, and fires at a slight movement in the water. The rest of the team arrives and the alien springs back up, taking a barrage of bullets for its efforts. Without missing a beat, Nantz orders a [[TheresNoKillLikeOverkill grenade dropped in the pool.]]
* ObligatoryWarCrimeScene: The sequence where Nantz [[spoiler:stabs, cuts, and tears at a still-living alien to figure out where to hit it to kill it.]] Unlike most such scenes, there's no accompanying moral commentary on the action; the viewer is left to decide themselves between whether or not Nantz's are cruel or justified. It's an interesting case, given that [[spoiler:Nantz actually is trying to kill the alien efficiently without torturing him first; it just takes him a while to figure out how to do that, exactly.]]

* RecycledInSpace: It's ''Film/BlackHawkDown''... with ALIENS!

* SergeantRock: Staff Sergeant Michael Nantz

* WalkingTank: The aliens have a 7-foot tall walking gun that fires missiles, piloted by one alien behind it.[[MacrossMissileMassacre A lot of missiles.]] In clusters. Things explode. A lot.

* YanksWithTanks: It's a war movie taking place in Los Angeles. You didn't think it'd star BritsWithBattleships, did you?
** Literally, when the Marines run into a friendly tank platoon. [[spoiler: The platoon accompanying it gets massacred, and the Abrams is disabled soon afterwards.]]
** They're trying to avert it by stretching the title to "World Invasion: Battle Los Angeles" for the international market.
** Also notable for featuring every branch of the US Armed Forces; even the UsefulNotes/CoastGuard makes an appearance, however briefly.

* AliensAreBastards: The aliens open fire on everything -- civilian or otherwise -- and are speculated to be here to [[PlanetLooters steal our water]].

-->''"There are massive casualties in New York, defensive lines are being setup in Boston, and at 13:15 Zulu Time we lost communications with San Francisco and San Diego, their status is unknown. What we do know is that we are the last offensive force on the west coast, we can'' not ''lose Los Angeles."'''

-->''"There are massive casualties in New York, defensive lines are being setup in Boston, and at 13:15 Zulu Time we lost communications with San Francisco and San Diego, their status is unknown. What we do know is that we are the last offensive force on the west coast, we can 'not' lose Los Angeles."'''

** Also notable for featuring every branch of the US Armed Forces; even the CoastGuard makes an appearance, however briefly.

* {{Jerkass:}} Pretty much every Marine that insults Nantz for his NeverLiveItDown moment in Iraq. They seem to assume that he ''willingly'' got his whole squad killed.

* GovernmentConspiracy: Hinted at. The tie-in website and trailers indicate that the government has ''some'' prior knowledge dating all the way back from WorldWarTwo (though far too little) about the aliens. [[spoiler:Tech Sergeant Santos' original mission to find an enemy C&C asset and knowledge of the alien drones is another indicator.]]

''Battle: Los Angeles'' is a science fiction film directed by Jonathan Liebesman. It was released March 11, 2011.

Meteors rain into the ocean a couple of miles off of major coastal cities - one being Los Angeles. Within minutes an alien army marches out of the surf. The suntanning populace on the beach is shredded as the aliens march into the city proper. With the arrival of their aircraft, the aliens quickly establish ground- and air-superiority.

Not to be confused with the RageAgainstTheMachine album '''''The''' Battle '''of''' Los Angeles,'' nor with the similarly-titled [[DirectToVideo direct-to-video]] ''[[TheMockbuster Battle of Los Angeles]]'' released the same year. However, both films are inspired by the real-life Battle of Los Angeles.

!!''Battle Los Angeles'' provides examples of:

* AlienInvasion: Of the "All-Out Attack" variety. All major cities near a coast are being attacked.
** A scientist seen on TV during the movie surmises that the aliens are there to colonize Earth, which explains them shooting anything that moves instead of just concentrating on military targets like they would if they had any other plans.

* ArmorIsUseless: The aliens' weapons consistently go through Marine body armor like it's not even there, being advanced alien technology. Their portable incendiary rocket-grenade launchers also appear to go through the armor on a M1 Abrams tank without much trouble.
** However, there are occasions where a marine's armor/helmet protects them from a glancing blow that might otherwise have been lethal.

* AttackItsWeakPoint: The aliens only vulnerable point is some sort of water sac to the left of where the heart would be on a human. They can shrug off most anything else, headshots included. Grenades do the trick in a pinch.

* BackedByThePentagon
* BadassBystander: Mr. Rincon, who grabs a rifle and kills an ambushing alien without hesitation [[spoiler: and gets mortally wounded in the process]].
* BayonetYa: At one point, the protagonists fight the aliens hand to hand with bayonets mounted on their rifles. Which is to say they stab multiple bayonets into one alien, then fire full auto. Then kick it. [[TheresNoKillLikeOverKill Then shoot it some more.]]
* BiggerStick: The aliens' main advantage. Their UCAV can go mach six, which completely destroys any air superiority the Americans had, and can serve as extremely deadly bombing platforms that, when linked up, can take a lot of damage. It takes a barrage of fire to kill alien infantry (though, much like human infantry, they do have a weak spot - and even that is guarded), while they have guns that easily shred through body armor ''and'' cause a great deal of internal damage, as well as mobile turets and hover tanks.
* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: Sure, the tide seems to be turning against the aliens, but millions of people -- if not more -- are still dead worldwide, and numerous cities have been completely destroyed. And the Los Angeles command ship may have been destroyed, but there's one in every major coastal city and there's no word on the two attacking the East Coast, or the rest of the world. The humans have won the battle, not the war. Not to mention that the aliens will defend their centers even more viciously.]]

* BookEnds: The overhead shot early in the movie overlooking Los Angeles [[spoiler: before LA gets pummeled to the ground]] is reshot in the end [[spoiler: when marine reinforcements fly in a battle-torn LA ready to retake the city.]]
* BossBattle: [[spoiler: The final battle of the film with the command center is similar, with [[OneWingedAngel the boss having to be badly wounded before unleashing its final form]] while sacrificing [[{{Mooks}} drones]] so that the Boss won't get hit.]]

* CatScare: The first firefight begins with a dog walking by.

* DeathBySex: {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d as one of the Marines is stated to be a virgin. After he survives a firefight his squadmates remark:
--> "I told you, until we get him some tail, he ain't never gonna die!"
** [[spoiler:And then averted; he dies on the evac helo.]]

* DuelingMovies: With ''Film/{{Skyline}}''. There was a lawsuit over it and everything, primarily due to the same [[{{Hydraulx}} special effects guys]] doing work on ''Skyline'' while this movie was in post-production.

* FaceFullOfAlienWingWong: While not a reproductive example, Elena Santos gets a faceful of alien guts - even in her mouth, causing the Marine riding shotgun to joke, [[ReallyGetsAround "You let him do you on a first date."]]
* FastRoping: Notably, two children have to do it in order to escape a slowly approaching walking tank destroying everything on a Highway overpass.

* FreezeFrameBonus: If one looks closely during the scene where Lenihan is shooting the alien emerging from the pool, one of his shots hits the alien's ArmCannon, causing it to spark and malfunction. When the alien emerges from the pool again, it appears to actually fire its gun right at Nantz, but the weapon misfires, throwing up a cloud of blink-and-you'll-miss-it sparks.

* GlassCannon[=/=]FragileSpeedster: The Drones are easily taken out, but the tie-in website states they can go Mach 7 - far faster than human jets - and they pack a punch. They can join up to form some sort of hovering weapons platform, which makes them a bit less vulnerable.

* GovernmentConspiracy: Hinted at. The tie-in website and trailers indicate that the government has ''some'' prior knowledge dating all the way back from WorldWarTwo (though far too little) about the aliens. [[spoiler: Tech Sergeant Santos' original mission to find an enemy C&C asset and knowledge of the alien drones is another indicator.]]

* HeroicSacrifice: After being wounded during the shootout on the freeway, [[spoiler: Lieutenant Martinez]] crawls into a bus and detonates a bag of C4, taking out a group of aliens and their WalkingTank in the process.

* HollywoodTactics: Averted. The Marines use real tactics. Notably, the alien soldiers also act like, well, soldiers, and use tactics as well, such as [[HandSignals hand signals]]. It's also subverted and invoked in the beginning - the aliens initially have no air support and the US military attempts to exploit this by arranging for a carpet bombing of the coastal neighborhoods of LA. This plan changes once the aliens get their drones in the air.
** The aliens also appear to take out all human anti-aircraft weapons, since none of the ones firing at the beginning of the invasion are firing on the drones.

** Zigzagged with the plan to bomb Santa Monica: while it's based on real-life emergency plans in case of a West Coast invasion of LA, modern air theory and experiences from World War 2, Vietnam and the first Gulf War have let to the conclusion that carpet bombing is inefficient and not cost-effective for the amount of effort and munitions expended (hence why the B-52, the USAF's premier carpet bombing platform, was rewired to carried precision guided munitions like the [=JDAM=]). On the other hand, the movie is ambiguous on ''what'' they're going to use; it could be a carpet-bombing or it could be simply very free use of regular munitions or even tactical nuclear strikes. All that's said is that the Air Force is going to bomb everything within Santa Monica to oblivion.

* ImprovisedWeapon: Lacking in any real anti-air capability, Nantz has to take out an alien drone by [[spoiler: luring it to a gas station by a walkie-talkie and blowing it up, taking the drone with it.]]
* InfantImmortality: Played straight - on-screen, at least.
* InscrutableAliens: The aliens don't make any attempt at contact before they crash in and start killing people. It's heavily implied they're doing this, because they just want to colonize Earth for themselves.

* JerkAss: Pretty much every Marine that insults Nantz for his NeverLiveItDown moment in Iraq. They seem to assume that he ''willingly'' got his whole squad killed.

* KillAllHumans: The aliens take no prisoners and leave no survivors, although killing all humans isn't an end unto itself - they are slaughtering us because we are keeping them from [[PlanetLooters grabbing some resources]].

* TheLoad: The civilians that the Marines are sent in to evacuate. Unlike most examples, they generally avoid getting in the way, and the two adults try to help as best they can. One of them is a veterinarian and helps dissect the wounded alien in the police station, and the other helps in combat by dragging the wounded to safety, at one point [[spoiler: picking up a dropped assault rifle and shooting one of the aliens.]]

* MoodDissonance: Leading up to the character squad's first encounter. There's smoke from weapons fire, abandoned cars, charred corpses, the sounds of distant explosions, not a living being in sight. The squad hears something, gets to cover with weapons trained on the direction the sound comes from, waiting for an alien to pop out of the smoke...And up runs someone's pet dog. Cue about half a minute of relieved comments, relaxing, joking about the dog's name (Glenn), soundtrack's calmed down, viewers think it'll be another five or ten minutes of walking to the fight, maybe with an animal sidekick... Explosions, shots raining down from multiple rooftops as well as the direction the dog ran in from, dramatic music and screaming both start up, and one of the Marines gets dragged off into the scenery.

* NotSoDifferent: Discussed in-universe when some Marines spot an alien commander spotting for two alien snipers on top of a roof. One surmises they may be just like them -- grunts with families and a home, told to fight with no real idea why they're fighting.

* NotSoStoic: Nantz's controlled demeanor cracks three times. The first is when he blows up the drone in the gas station, where his fingers tremble uncontrollably afterward. The second is when [[spoiler: Martinez is about to blow himself up]], where he flips out and starts screaming at him that he won't let more people die again like he did back in Iraq. The third time is when he confronts Lockett - who believes him to be uncaring about his men and unfit for duty - and explains to him that he memorized the names and numbers of every man who died under his command.

-->'''Michele:''' You should have someone look at that.
-->'''Nantz:''' I thought you were a doctor.
-->'''Michele:''' Animals and aliens only.

* ObligatoryWarCrimeScene: The sequence where Nantz [[spoiler: stabs, cuts, and tears at a still-living alien to figure out where to hit it to kill it.]] Unlike most such scenes, there's no accompanying moral commentary on the action; the viewer is left to decide themselves between whether or not Nantz's are cruel or justified.
** It's an interesting case, given that [[spoiler:Nantz actually is trying to kill the alien efficiently without torturing him first; it just takes him a while to figure out how to do that, exactly.]]

* PreAssKickingOneLiner: The above mentioned PrecisionFStrike is delivered just before the final assault [[spoiler: on the drone control center]].
* PreMortemOneLiner: Not quite one line, but [[spoiler: Martinez]]'s last bit of dialogue before his HeroicSacrifice still qualifies:
--> "This is [[spoiler: Second Lieutenant William Martinez]], Echo Company, 2nd Battalion 5th Marines. Ooh-Ra!"
* PreviewsPulse: Used in [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yt7ofokzn04 this trailer]].
* ProductPlacement: Being funded by Sony, the film features a number of Sony products, such as Marines using Sony laptops, and a billboard advertising ''VideoGame/{{Resistance}} 3''.

* RasputinianDeath: This happens twice; the first alien soldier to be successfully shot down rises back up a minute or two later, only to be shot down by the whole squad ''again'' and a grenade dumped on it just to be sure. The second time is when they're forcibly vivisecting a wounded alien to try to figure out what part of it they have to shoot to make sure it stays dead.
** The first instance is lampshaded by a delirious Lenihan.
--->''"It's not dead. They don't die. I've hit it a hundred times. They don't die!"''

* RecycledInSpace: It's ''BlackHawkDown''... with ALIENS!

** MauveShirt: Even a lot of the ''named'' Marines get killed.

* SequelHook: The humans may have won the battle in Los Angeles, but not the war. There are still at least 11 other cities getting attacked.
** The international release title was "World Invasion: Battle Los Angeles", one city down...
* SergeantRock: Staff Sergeant Michael Nantz.
* ShownTheirWork: The tactics used by both the Marines and the alien invaders are actually quite competent, and this shows. The invaders use realistic tactics like area-denial barrages with artillery, and set up a highly-effective ambush by herding the Marines into a boxed-in position between houses where they fire on the human troops from the rooftops, using hand-signals and suppressive fire.

* SomeoneToRememberHimBy: [[spoiler: Martinez's wife is shown to be pregnant at the beginning of the movie. He dies.]]
* StarfishAliens: The aliens have a very curious biology, with the majority of their vitals concentrated at an unusual part of their body (right of where their heart would be located) and make heavy use of cybernetics. The odd biology makes it difficult for the Marines to hurt them until they figure out where to shoot.
** If one looks closely at the wounded alien that is being "dissected" one can see that one of its legs is clearly damaged, and a long, rope-like tendril is extending from the creature's body. The same leg is missing the metallic/ceramic "skeleton" structures that the aliens' bio matter seems to be wrapped around, indicating that the aliens' limbs may be far longer than we're led to believe, and their bodies are held in a humanoid shape by all the machinery so they can effectively fight on land. "Doc" also digs around in the "head" area of the alien, and finds that there's nothing in there even vaguely resembling a brain; at one point Nantz even shoots the same alien in the "head" area and it has no visible effect on the creature.

* TrailersAlwaysSpoil: In the early parts of the movie, the military believes that the enemy is exclusively ground-based. However, anyone who saw the trailer before coming to see the movie (which is probably everyone), was already well-aware that this belief was going to change in short order. On the other hand, it probably wasn't a major twist as the alien aircraft were shown in the first few seconds of the movie.