Battlefield Earth

Chosen answer: They teleported a gas drone into Earth's atmosphere. The drone flew around the entire world and dropped poison gas which killed Earth's population.

Grumpy Scot

Answer: I believe that send an entire fleet of their mini-ships to earth by teleporting them (catching them off guard) and after settling on earth in the aftermath built a teleported on earth to survey the planet of its resources (unfortunately they couldn't find the gold which extremely valuable to them which was in Fort Knox, vaults and the Federal Reserve) and find an intelligent species to enslave to mine it.

Question: Do the Psychlos have spacecraft or do they simply rely on their teleportation technology to get them from planet to planet?

Socks1000

Chosen answer: Yes, they have spacecraft. They can't teleport from planet to planet without and teleportation device being on the planet.

Phixius

Question: Why did the Psychlos subject Jonnie to that learning machine? Surely a race as intelligent as the Psychlos must have known that there would be unforeseen risks of subjecting a human to so much knowledge? Also, why not simply programme the learning machine to download a limited amount of information into his mind?

Jane'sBitch

Chosen answer: To see if the man-animals could be trained to perform tasks more complex than simple mining. The machine wasn't programmed to restrict the information it gave him because, smart as the Psychlos are, they're also very arrogant. It simply didn't occur to them that a species as inferior as humans could possibly become that intelligent.

Phixius

Chosen answer: Scout ships exploring the area detected the gold on the planet and sent a report back to the nearest base or to the Psychlos' homeworld.

Phixius

If they knew there was gold there, they would have been there centuries ago and been easier to take control.

Question: Is Jonnie correct in his assumption that there are other Psychlo colonies out there?

Socks1000

Chosen answer: Between the book and the hideous box office take, no he is not correct. In the book, Psychlo got turned into a sun and all the other colonies tried to teleport their ore shipments home and were wiped out by the resulting explosion.

Grumpy Scot

Answer: If there were other colonies out there, they wouldn't love as much as their home planet just like earth. Besides even if there was, they've been mostly defenseless without their fleet on the homeworld and will already be on the verge of extinction.

Question: How could one nuclear weapon destroy the Psychlos' home planet?

Socks1000

Chosen answer: It's actually very similar to what scientists of the time thought would happen on Earth if a nuclear bomb was ever detonated. They were convinced that the entire atmosphere, being made up of several combustible gasses, would erupt in flames killing everyone on the planet. On Psychlos, their atmosphere reacted with the radiation released by the bomb. It's the reason the Psychlos could not enter the irradiated areas of Earth where the last groups of free humans lived: their breathing apparatuses would explode.

Phixius

Question: Who's that weird little holographic alien Jonnie sees next to the learning machine?

Jane'sBitch

Chosen answer: It's a Chinko. A subject race of the Psychlos. They were scholars and historians until the Psychlos got tired of them and wiped them out.

Grumpy Scot

Chosen answer: It is residual radiation from atomic weapons used in an attempt to fight off the Psychlos.

Chosen answer: Huge robotic ships programmed to fly on a set course and drop poison gas.

Grumpy Scot

Factual error: The cavemen Harrier pilots are shown using the hover mode frequently. Harriers, even with drop tanks as depicted in the film, can hover for at most 5-10 minutes, as the thrust required to keep the aircraft in the air without any lift consumes massive amounts of fuel and overheats the engine, and real-life Harrier pilots are instructed never to hover for long periods of time, unless absolutely necessary. The amount of time the cavemen spent hovering (hiding out of sight in a parking garage, sneaking up on the Psychlo gunships, etc.) would have easily caused their fuel to run dry.

Razvaluha

More mistakes in Battlefield Earth

Ker: I don't know what you're so down about. You still get to be head of security, which, from what I can tell, is a pretty cushy job.
Terl: Well, I can assure you that I was not groomed since birth to have some cushy job that even a moron like you could perform. While you were still learning how to spell your name, I was being trained to conquer galaxies! To do anything less is a disgrace to my entire family line.

More quotes from Battlefield Earth

Trivia: John Travolta made the film with Franchise Pictures. A few years after the film, it was revealed in a court case that Franchise had fraudulently overstated the budget of Battlefield Earth by $21 million to scam investors. After losing the case, Franchise filed for bankruptcy, and Travolta fired his manager, who set up the deal with Franchise in the first place.

More trivia for Battlefield Earth

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