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BATTLEFIELD EARTH

TITLE:	"Battlefield Earth"	AUTHOR:	****
GENRE:	Science Fiction	CIRCA:	The Future
LOCATION:	Denver	PAGES:	103
SUB TO:	****	SUB BY:	****
READER:	SC	DATE:	Feb 28, 1999

LOGLINE: stone-age youth leads his rag-tag tribe of humans to victory over aliens that have enslaved the Earth.

COMMENT SUMMARY: "Battlefield Earth" is based on the pseudo-classic science fiction novel of the same name by L. Ron Hubbard, founder of the Church of Scientology. In screenplay format, the story appears to be a low-brow synthesis of Planet of the Apes, Mad Max, The Fifth Element, and many other science fiction tales. The "Psychlos" are a strange blend of Star Trek's Ferengis, Alien's aliens, and Predator's Predator. It's hard to know whether we're supposed to take them seriously or not.

The plot offers an emotional but familiar retelling of the lowly-humans beat the superior-but-arrogant aliens theme. Certainly I'm proud of my species, but I do find it a bit farfetched to believe that stone age humans can best the overlords of the entire galaxy. In fact, "Battlefield Earth" carries Independence Day jingoism to an entirely new dimension. The script's biggest sin, however, is its failure to update itself to our modern era. Despite the author's heavy borrowing, the script remains trapped in a 1950's mentality. Today, in 1999, this script reads like self-parody.

	Excellent	Good	Fair	Poor
Story:				X
Characters:			X	X
Dialogue:			X	X
Structure:			X
Setting:		X	X

BUDGET: High

RECOMMENDATION: Pass

SYNOPSIS: In a barren, mountainous region, the PARSON STAFFER preaches to his rag-tag tribe of stone age people, telling them of the day that monsters descended from the sky and killed all men but for a very few. As survivors, the Parson says, we must dedicate our lives to pleasing the gods, so they may return and drive away the monsters.

JONNIE, 19, doesn't believe in monsters. A hard-edged warrior-youth, he decides to leave the tribe to look for monsters--and more food. He also leaves behind young CHRISSY, his girlfriend. As Jonnie leaves the valley of his tribe, he sees stars for the first time, and later, he finds a field full of antelope. He also finds the ruins of a modern-day town. Jonnie investigates, and meets CARLO and ROCK. They befriend each other.

As the trio forages, they are suddenly attacked by a PSYCHLO, a nightmarish alien being with glowing eyes and razor sharp talons. The Psychlo kills Rock with a blast gun. Jonnie and Carlo attempt to escape, but are captured and placed in a cargo hold with other humans, including young twins MICKEY and SAMMY.

The humans are taken to Denver, which is now covered beneath a gigantic dome. Inside, the atmosphere is poisonous, so all the humans are given breath-tubes. Jonnie attempts to escape by stealing a blast gun. He kills one Psychlo, but is quickly captured by TERL, the Psychlo chief of security. Terl is stunned to learn that Jonnie fired a blast gun. Apparently Psychlos view humans as little more than mindless animals.

Terl maintains security by spying on his own people. In addition, he blackmails the local Psychlo BARTENDER to get information. Denver is a giant mining camp now, where human slaves mine ore which is teleported back to the Psychlo home world. Terl and his assistant KER go to the teleporter platform to greet DISTRICT MANAGER ZETE, who has arrived to inspect the Denver operation. The District Manager is also greeted by the PLANETSHIP and the ASSISTANT PLANETSHIP.

Terl is hoping to be transferred off Earth, which he despises. Instead, the District Manager tells Terl that headquarters has decided to keep him on Earth for fifty more cycles. Terl is far from pleased. Later, Terl discovers that his assistant, Ker, has a secret: Ker has discovered a new gold deposit, planning to claim it as his own. There's a problem, however. The area is radioactive, so no Psychlos can go there. But Terl has a plan: send humans to mine the area. The problem is, humans are not allowed to operate machinery--how could they, after all, if they're only mindless animals?

But Terl recalls seeing Jonnie operate the blast gun. Maybe these humans can be trained, he thinks. To advance his plan, he warns that Planetship that the Psychlo workers are plotting a mutiny. Frightened, the Planetship authorizes Terl to conduct a "training exercise" with the humans to increase profits and thus avert the worker mutiny.

Terl puts Jonnie into a Psychlo learning machine, which teaches him how to speak the Psychlo language and operate their machinery in only minutes. Jonnie, however, pretends to learn very slowly, so that in reality he can learn as much as possible about his enemies. Terl is pleased. To warn Jonnie against treachery, however, Terl shows him a library full of human books. Everything you humans knew is here, says Terl, and you can look at all of it, because none of it will help you. Jonnie makes good use of the opportunity.

To gain additional leverage, Terl captures Chrissy, who has ventured out of the radioactive valley where her tribe lives to find Jonnie. Next, he gives Jonnie, Carlo, and Mickey an aircraft and mining equipment. Terl warns Jonnie he will kill Chrissy if the humans don't fill half the craft's cargo hold with gold in 14 days.

Jonnie and the others fly away, but they have no intention of mining for gold. Instead, Jonnie has a plan to take back Earth--and rid the galaxy of the Psychlo menace forever. They fly all over the United States, gathering supplies to help them fight the aliens. The even find a nuclear warhead. As for the gold, Jonnie breaks into Fort Knox and fills the aircraft's cargo hold.

Two weeks later, they report back to Terl. The security chief is thrilled to see his plan working. He gives them one more week to mine the remainder of the gold. Jonnie uses this last week to contact all the other human slaves in Denver. Everyone will play a role in the plan, which is to destroy the dome over the city, and then, while the Psychlos panic, teleport the nuclear warhead back to the Psychlo home world. Detonating the warhead there will cause the planet's entire atmosphere to explode.

There is a catch, however. If they don't get the timing exactly right, thousands of reinforcements will teleport over from the Psychlo home world to crush the insurrection. The plan begins. HEYWOOD pilots the aircraft, loaded with explosives, to the roof of the dome. As he begins placing the explosives, Jonnie leads the humans in an uprising at the mine.

Jonnie attempts to capture the teleport station, but he and Mickey are outnumbered by Psychlos. Meanwhile, Heywood is attacked by Psycho guards on the roof. The Psychlos begin disabling the explosive charges. Finally, Jonnie captures the teleport station and orders Heywood to blow the roof. Heywood detonates the charges; the roof remains intact. At the teleport station, Terl arrives and captures Jonnie.

Terl orders his guards to kill all of the humans in the mining camp. Jonnie is horrified. Heywood rams his aircraft into the dome. The dome is breached, and the Psychlos begins dying. Terl, however, is ready for this. He calmly puts on a breath tube. Next, Terl calls the home world and asks for reinforcements. Jonnie attacks Terl. He is hopelessly overmatched against the huge alien, but desperation drives him on. He manages to best the alien and teleport the nuclear warhead to the Psychlo home world just before the shock troops arrive. The war is over. Jonnie is reunited with Chrissy and the others in his tribe. He tells them that they will rebuild humanity. Finally, he keeps Terl as a prisoner, to help them get rid of any surviving Psychlos.

COMMENTS: Author L. Ron Hubbard occupies a rather dubious position in the annals of Science Fiction history. His novels were popular as pulp in their day, but now, as the millennium draws near, his work seems hopelessly outdated. This is the science fiction of ray guns, doomsday weapons, and evil but stupid aliens. Viewed today, "Battlefield Earth" is as much comedy as it is drama, despite its occasional flourishes.

As a member of the "lowly humans best superior aliens" genre, "Battlefield Earth" is probably the signature example of excess. These kinds of stories were common in L. Ron Hubbard's day, back when man was at the center of the Universe. The idea seems to be that any alien race, however technologically advanced, has no chance against old-fashioned human ingenuity and tenacity. Even today, we see this mentality occasionally popping up in our theaters—witness "Independence Day."

Ultimately, however, I think audiences expect more sophistication in their movies. They expect more to plot than just action, and more to character than just steely single-mindedness. The black and white, good vs. evil melodrama of the past rings false, becoming parody.

Also harming "Battlefield Earth's" credibility is its heavy handed borrowing of ideas from other science fiction films. By offering such recognizable elements from other films and TV shows, the script fails to establish its own individuality. It's not an homage when we find nearly every scene reminiscent of someone else's idea. Perhaps one might argue that L. Ron Hubbard's story is actually the original, with everyone else playing copycat. In any case, the effect is the same. We still find this screenplay derivative.

The problem is most evident in the script's visual storytelling. The plot is laden with excess, certainly, but there is an element of vitality to it. Visually, however, we keep seeing other movies: "Quest for Fire"—the stone age tribe of humans; "Alien vs. Predator"--the tall, taloned Psychlos; "Logan's Run"--the domed city of Denver; and many, many others. The script also recalls "The Fifth Element," and in this respect offers perhaps the only genuine potential.

"The Fifth Element" succeeded because of its unique visual style, its light-hearted plot, and its often comedic slant. "Battlefield Earth" would do well to emulate this approach, instead of trying to pose as serious science fiction. Its own science, of course, is laughable. In L. Ron Hubbard's day, there was a genuine fear that a Hydrogen Bomb, if detonated, would ignite the Hydrogen in the Earth's atmosphere, burning off all our air, killing all life on the planet.

For better or for worse, we know that this fear was unfounded. The destruction of the Psychlo home world is therefore completely unbelievable, a blatant contrivance of plot, just like the once-popular notion that stone-age humans could overthrow a space-faring race. "Battlefield Earth" is a story past its time.

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