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: Amongst the essential parts of a nuclear weapon's detonation mechanism is a radioactive isotope of tritium, which has a half life of just 12 1/2 years. The tritium in every nuke on earth has to be replaced every ten years or so. This is by no means unusual; there are other perishable parts including detonators made of conventional explosives which would be completely inert after a thousand years. After lying dormant with no maintenance at all for that amount of time the nuclear weapons the 'Man-animals' find would be big shiny paperweights and not much else.

More mistakes in Battlefield Earth

Chrissy: What if he's not dead?
Parson Staffer: Hope is an admirable quality, but foolish isn't.

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.