Battlefield Earth

Plot hole: The facilities at Ft. Hood have working electricity to power the simulators, projectors, etc. even though it's been 1000 years, with no logical reason for the Psychlos to have kept the facility maintained, and the fact that the Psychlos should by rights have leveled the place when they invaded 1000 years before. Even automatic backup generators would have no fuel after 1000 years dormancy except for a nuclear system, which would still have required regular maintenance over a 1000 year interval to maintain automatic functionality.

Plot hole: After 1000 years have passed (without any maintenance) the Harrier jets still function like new. Amazing.

Plot hole: The barbarians find a working 1000 year old flight simulator. Beside the fact that the machine should not be working to begin with after such time, they were lucky enough to find a working power source in the barren wasteland.

Plot hole: Jet fuel takes about 20 years to degrade if it is left in a fuel tank. The AV-8 Harriers left in Ft. Hood for 1000 years should not be able to fly, because they have no fuel in their tanks. It has all evaporated by then.

Razvaluha

Plot hole: Terl says that the army of humanity (presumably the U.S. Army) could only put up a nine minute fight against the Psychlos, and yet in the end of the film, a couple of outsiders, who taught themselves everything they know in just two weeks, can defeat their army. Why? The outsiders are outnumbered, they have had zero combat-experience, they use weapons that are over a thousand years old. That's just amazing.

Henkie36

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

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

More questions & answers from Battlefield Earth

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.