Battlefield Earth

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Battlefield Earth

PG-13

Released May 12, 2000

1h 57m

Sci-Fi

Adventure

Action

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Popcornmeter

3%

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153 Reviews

13%

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50,000+ Ratings

In the year 3000, there are no countries, no cities... Earth is a wasteland. And man is an endangered species. As the leader of the evil Psychlos, Terl and his race have taken over the world's natural resources and disregarded everyone and everything else. It's up to Jonnie "Goodboy" Tyler, a brave human, to battle the Psychlos and restore normalcy to the world.

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Critics Consensus

Ugly, campy, and poorly acted, Battlefield Earth is a stunningly misguided, aggressively bad sci-fi folly.

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Alexander Walker

London Evening Standard

Appalling.

Jun 3, 2015

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Jeff Strickler

Minneapolis Star Tribune

Logic is in short supply. Burned-out cities have electricity, for example. My favorite: A hangar full of jets, buried under 1,000 years of dust, not only fire up instantly but still have full tanks of gas.

Apr 30, 2014

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Jay Boyar

Orlando Sentinel

Not awful, but pretty bad. A third-string Planet of the Apes meets Star Trek, Battlefield Earth is a largely uninspiring sci-fi adventure with a Swiss-cheese plot.

Apr 30, 2014

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Tony Black

Cultural Conversation

It remains, genuinely, the worst film produced this century, as of 2020, and it is hard to imagine anything taking its crown any time soon.

Rated: 1/5

Feb 15, 2021

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Brian Gill

Mad About Movies Podcast

Lives up to the hype. This is the worst movie ever made.

Rated: F

Sep 2, 2020

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Nick Rogers

Midwest Film Journal

Nothing so entertaining, albeit in none of the right ways, should scrape WOAT status. It's not even one of the 10 worst films from 2000, a distressingly dunderheaded year for movies in general after one of the best ever.

Rated: 1/5

Jun 24, 2020

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Hughe J

Battlefield Earth was released in 2000 and stars John Travolta, Barry Pepper, Forest Whitaker and is based on the best selling series of books written by L Ron Hubbard. A brief summary of the movie is that aliens invade and defeat humanity, most of the world's population is wiped out in the process, and the aliens then start stripping the Earth of her resources. Simple plot but we don't see the battle which may have helped with immersion. Instead we fast forward to present day with terrible SFX and costumes for the aliens, terrible acting by Travolta and Whitaker, terrible set pieces, terrible plot, terrible writing, but me laughing through it because it was so bad; I did like Barry Pepper though. This movie is so bad, so awful in every conceivable way, and cost so much money to make, that it's actually worth watching. It's the Sharknado of science fiction movies so if you watch it with that in mind you'll have fun.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

07/22/25

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Alex D.

The best worst movie of all time!

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

07/11/25

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George M

First, I hate the book this abominable tripe was based on. I HATE IT. Let's get that clear. Hubbard is a mostly crap writer with barely an original idea in his head, his stuff is The Asylum of writing. This movie - is even worse. No logic. Bad acting. Poor ideas, plot holes as deep as the marianas trench. If this movie were teamed up with say, the Creeping Terror, it could make grown people cry. It could make criminals confess. Don't believe any positive reviews of this. IT IS THAT BAD.

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

05/28/25

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Ian R

One of, if not the worst, movies of all time. Horrible acting with even worst script and plot. I don’t think I’ve seen a worst movie in years.

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

04/01/25

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Brad S. R

Unquestionably bad, but somehow no more so than films that made far more at the box office.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

03/15/25

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Linda H

I would give it 0 if I could. Terrible movie. Humans managing to fly jet planes just by playing with a simulator. Travolta looked ridiculous in his platform boots. Why wasn't the pesky human killed right off? I rented it as a video, big regret. Not worth a cent.

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

03/09/25

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Roger Christian

Director

John Travolta

Terl, Psychlo Chief of Security

Barry Pepper

Jonnie Goodboy Tyler

Forest Whitaker

Ker

Kim Coates

Carlo

Sabine Karsenti

Chrissy

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Battlefield Earth: Trailer 1

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Synopsis

In the year 3000, there are no countries, no cities... Earth is a wasteland. And man is an endangered species. As the leader of the evil Psychlos, Terl and his race have taken over the world's natural resources and disregarded everyone and everything else. It's up to Jonnie "Goodboy" Tyler, a brave human, to battle the Psychlos and restore normalcy to the world.

Director: Roger Christian
Producer: Jonathan D. Krane, Elie Samaha, John Travolta
Screenwriter: L. Ron Hubbard, Corey Mandell, J.D. Shapiro
Distributor: Warner Bros.
Production Co: Battlefield Productions LLC, JTP Films, Morgan Creek Productions, Franchise Pictures
Rating: PG-13 (Sci-Fi Violence)
Genre: Sci-Fi, Adventure, Action
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): May 12, 2000, Wide
Release Date (Streaming): May 2, 2017
Box Office (Gross USA): $21.5M
Runtime: 1h 57m
Sound Mix: SDDS, Dolby Digital, DTS, Surround, Dolby SR
Aspect Ratio: Scope (2.35:1)

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