History Film / BattlefieldEarth

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/TwentiethCenturyFox 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.

* DumbassHasAPoint: Terl lets go of his IdiotBall long enough to correctly state that you should never store loaded weapons.

The film version of Creator/LRonHubbard's ScienceFiction novel ''Literature/BattlefieldEarth'' was released on May 12th, 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).

The film covers the first third of the {{doorstopper}} book: the Psychlos come to Earth, [[EasilyConqueredWorld beat the humans in about ten 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.

** 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.

*** 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 the film can't be bothered to mention this]].

** Terl at one point says that someone must be out of their "skull-bone." Just saying "skull" doesn't sound alien enough, apparently.

** Even with his newfound intelligence, Jonnie assumes a map of the United States 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.

** More exasperating, the Psychlos know full well that ''Homo sapiens sapiens'' once had industrial societies in varying states of health, and yet they still assume they're too dumb to walk and chew gum at the same time.

* HypocriticalHumor: Jonnie delivers a RousingSpeech about how "We [humans] have enough problems without killing each other over food!"... having just beaten the crap out of a fellow prisoner (granted, he was a prison bully and started the fight) over food.
* 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.

** Terl teaches the humans how to work 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 this could be used against him.
** 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 to generously 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.

** In the book, Terl is put in protective custody as the [several including Ker] Psychlos are after his blood.

* MadeOfExplodium: Psycho breath gas explosively combusts when exposed to radiation. When the atmosphere on Planet Psychlo ignites thanks to a single nuclear bomb, the resulting explosion rips the ''entire planet'' apart -- crust, mantle, core and all.

* MarqueeAlterEgo: Jay of ''WebVideo/HalfInTheBag'' points out that John Travolta and Forrest Whitaker, the biggest movie stars in the cast, not coincidentally happen to be the Psychlos whose makeup covers up [[RubberForeheadAliens the least of their actual faces.]]

* OverlyLongTongue: Terl's girlfriend, Chirk (played by Kelly Preston, John Travolta's wife), has one.

* 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.
* VanityProject: [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battlefield_Earth_(film) To quote]] [[Website/{{Wikipedia}} The Other Wiki]]: "Travolta, a long-time Scientologist, had sought for many years to make [[TheFilmOfTheBook a film of the novel]] by Hubbard, the founder of Scientology. He was unable to obtain funding from any major studio due to concerns about the film's script, prospects, and connections with Scientology. The project was eventually taken on in 1998 by an independent production company, Franchise Pictures, which specialized in rescuing stars' stalled pet projects. Travolta signed on as a co-producer and contributed millions of dollars of his own money to the production, which commenced in 1999 and was largely funded by German film distribution company Intertainment AG."

* 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]].

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. He later poured millions of dollars of his own money into the project and signed on as a co-producer, and the rest ... well, is history.

After Creator/MetroGoldwynMayer and Creator/TwentiethCenturyFox 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.

The film covers the first third of the {{doorstopper}} book: the Psychlos come to Earth, [[EasilyConqueredWorld beat the humans in about 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. Travolta is [[http://www.movieinsider.com/m284/battlefield-earth-2/ still intent]] on having the second half of the book produced.

* OneNationUnderCopyright: For the Psycholos, state and corporation are one and the same.

[[caption-width-right:300:[[TagLine On May 12, we fight back.]]]]

The film version of Creator/LRonHubbard's ScienceFiction novel ''Literature/BattlefieldEarth'' was released in 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).