Battlefield Earth (2000)

It's the year 3000 A.D.; the Earth is lost to the alien race of Psychlos. Humanity is enslaved by these gold-thirsty tyrants, whom are unaware that their 'man-animals' are about to ignite the rebellion of a lifetime.

Director:

Roger Christian

Writers:

Corey Mandell (screenplay), J.D. Shapiro (screenplay)

Stars:

John Travolta, Forest Whitaker, Barry Pepper

Bottom Rated Movies #16 | 19 wins & 3 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
John Travolta	...	Terl
Barry Pepper	...	Jonnie Goodboy Tyler
Forest Whitaker	...	Ker
Kim Coates	...	Carlo
Sabine Karsenti	...	Chrissy
Michael Byrne	...	Parson Staffer
Christian Tessier	...	Mickey
Sylvain Landry	...	Sammy
Richard Tyson	...	Robert the Fox
Christopher Freeman	...	Processing Clerk
John Topor	...	Processing Clerk / One-Eyed Guard / Teleportation Supervisor
Shaun Austin-Olsen	...	Planetship
Tim Post	...	Assistant Planetship / Psychlo Guard
Earl Pastko	...	Bartender
Michel Perron	...	Rock

Storyline

In the year 3000, humanity is no match for the Psychlos, a greedy, manipulative race on a quest for ultimate profit. Led by the seductive and powerful Terl, the Psychlos are stripping Earth of its resources, using the broken remnants of humanity as slaves. What is left of the human race has reverted to a primitive state, believing the invaders to be demons and technology to be evil. After humanity has all but given up any hope of freeing themselves from alien oppression, a young man named Tyler decides to leave his desolate home high in the Rocky Mountains to discover the truth, whereupon he is captured and enslaved. It is then that he decides to fight back, leading his fellow man in one final struggle for freedom.

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Plot Keywords:

bad acting | male alien | little boy blue | year 3000 | 3000s | 

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Taglines:

Prepare For Battle

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Sci-Fi

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for intense sci-fi action

Details

Official Sites:

Author Services Author Services (DVD news)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

12 May 2000 (USA)

Also Known As:

Battlefield Earth

Filming Locations:

Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Québec, Canada

Box Office

Budget:

$73,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$11,548,898, 14 May 2000, Wide Release

Gross USA:

$21,471,685, 16 July 2000

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$8,253,978

Company Credits

Production Co:

Warner Bros., Morgan Creek Entertainment, Franchise Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

118 min 119 min (video)

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

There are similarities between what happens to Terl in L. Ron Hubbard's "Battlefield Earth" and the imprisonment of Xenu that members of Hubbard's religion "Scientology" are taught about when they reach the level "OT III".

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Goofs

Terl tells Johnny that soldiers with their technology only lasted nine minutes against the Psychlos, yet untrained cavemen were able to defeat them using the same technology (which had been sitting unmaintained for 1000 years).

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Quotes

[looking at an overhead photo of a convertible car, with a man driving and a dog in the back seat]
Zete: What is this species?
Terl: Well, according to the Clinko historians, the species is called "dog."
Zete: Dog?
Terl: Yes.
Zete: Obviously the superior race, having the man-animal chauffeur it around.

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Alternate Versions

The U.S. television version contains many of the scenes cut for the video, but with some other scenes obviously edited for content.

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Connections

Referenced in I Hate Everything: the Search for the Worst: Troll 2 (2014)

User Reviews

The Critics Are Right

What a bad film this is. I thought the critics were exaggerating when they said how bad it was but they weren`t BATTLEFIELD EARTH is one of the worst films released by a major Hollywood studio. It`s badly directed , badly cast ( Barry Pepper as Jonnie makes for one of the least impressive screen hero`s ever seen . Maybe Travolta should have stuck to his guns and played Jonnie . He perhaps would have been slightly too old for the part but at least he does have some charisma unlike Pepper) and has one of the worst scripts ever written. An alien race called Psychlos , sounds just like psychos , I bet they `re really evil and cruel . Oh they are evil and cruel just like psychos . Why do they think rats are the favourite food of humans when it`s the only thing they`ve seen humans eat ? And why do they think " Rat brains " is an insult to humans ? especially when they consider the " man animals " to be a primitive species . And am I alone in finding the term " Man animals " irritating ? Surely it should be " Manimals " ? A far sharper and clever expression . But sharp and clever is no way to describe this script . Cities stand almost intact after a thousand years since the collapse of human civilisation ! Not only that but so do large amounts of firearms , ammo and Harrier jump jets , and a flight simulator for the jump jets where the humans learn to fly within a week , and no doubt they`ll learn what petrol is and learn to put it in the jets in order to fly them . Does this sound very likely to you ? Let me put it this way: Go into a time machine and go back to the biblical times , capture a few dozen people , bring them back to the present and get them to become fighter pilots within the week. Do you think they`d be any good flying planes and shooting down enemy forces ? Me neither . Do you think they could overthrow a superior civilisation ? Me neither ? Do you think anyone involved with this film deserves to work again ? Me neither