The Dumbest Sci-Fi Movie Ever Remains An Accidental Camp Classic

The bad movie canon has a few undisputed classics, the universally panned “so bad they’re good” titles that fill out midnight screenings and keep internet riffers busy for generations. Competition for the all-time worst film is tough, and there are great arguments for many of the classics, like Reefer Madness, Manos: The Hands of Fate, and Mac and Me. But a clear frontrunner is the iconic atrocity that is Battlefield Earth. Twenty-five years after its release, it’s only grown in stature as one of the most abysmal yet entertaining films ever made. It was meant to be the next Star Wars. What we got was a bomb for the ages.

Battlefield Earth: A Saga of the Year 3000 was the first and likely last big-screen adaptation of a novel by L. Ron Hubbard, the wildly prolific sci-fi author best known as the founder of Scientology. The controversial church is infamous for its recruitment of celebrities like Travolta and Tom Cruise, and its aggressively polished PR campaigns have inspired pushback from governments around the world.

Hubbard's novels weren't actively used as recruitment tools, but Scientology is reported to have spent a lot of money on bulk-buying copies to push them onto bestseller lists. Battlefield Earth, a 1000-page doorstopper, had been criticized for its Scientology-related themes; the big baddies, for instance, are called Psychlos, a probable reference to the organization's anti-psychiatry agenda. All of this made the prospect of a Battlefield Earth movie somewhat toxic to Hollywood, especially since a faithful imagining of the novel would be extremely expensive and high-concept, extending into dystopian space opera well beyond even Star Wars’ reach.

The film became a passion project for John Travolta, who was still riding the wave of his Pulp Fiction-fuelled comeback. He even asked Quentin Tarantino to helm the project, but the job ultimately went to Roger Christian, a set decorator and second-unit director on Star Wars. Because no major studio wanted to make a Scientology movie, it was picked up by the independent production company Franchise Pictures, while Scientology spokespeople talked frequently about how this was just a movie and had nothing to do with their controversial organization. Few people believed them, but a big sci-fi movie about humans defeating a colonizing alien force could still be fun, right?

In fairness, it is extremely fun, just not in the way Travolta was hoping. Reviews were scathing, and box office interest was practically non-existent. As Roger Ebert put it, "Battlefield Earth is like taking a bus trip with someone who has needed a bath for a long time. It's not merely bad; it's unpleasant in a hostile way." Only five months into 2000, The New York Times declared it "may well turn out to be the worst movie of this century." It swept the Razzies and the Stinkers Bad Movie Awards, and plans for a sequel were shelved.

On a basic technical level, Battlefield Earth is a ceaseless nightmare, with endless Dutch angles and Star Wars-esque wipes that play like self-parody, and special effects that seem a decade out of date. The Psychlos’ design is halfway between the Predator and a ‘90s rave attendee, and all of their actors are forced to stomp around in platforms to appear taller than humans. Poor Forest Whitaker looks lost.

Hubbard was as famously sloppy as he was prolific, and all of Battlefield Earth’s many plot holes and inconsistencies can be blamed on its source material. The only way the plot moves forward is by the villains being so staggeringly incompetent that they give the humans everything they need to defeat them, and most of the story literally makes zero sense.

Every actor looks embarrassed to be there except for Travolta. To his credit, he is not phoning it in as Terl, the cackling villain who delivers every line like a Shakespearean actor three days into a bender. He believes he's giving an Oscar-winning performance, and his sheer commitment helps elevate the film to camp glory. Just when things start to get tedious, Travolta starts bellowing.

Some historically bad movies are reclaimed as misunderstood (Ishtar) or even ahead of their time (Showgirls). That won’t happen to Battlefield Earth. It is somehow even worse than its reputation suggests, and it only looks more ridiculous as time passes and Scientology’s reputation is left in tatters. Its entertainment value is still high, though, because you just don’t see mad vanity projects like this anymore. Battlefield Earth is a movie that truly believes in its own greatness, and that combination of ego and ineptitude makes for a hugely watchable midnight riff. One doubts that’s what Hubbard’s devotees would have wanted, but that just makes it funnier to the rest of us.