Time Is Running Out To Watch the Worst Sci-Fi Movie of All Time

Cinema history is full of masterpieces — and then there’s Battlefield Earth. Often cited as one of the worst movies ever made, the infamous 2000 sci‑fi epic is leaving Netflix at the end of February. If you’ve ever been morbidly curious about what a $73 million disaster looks like in slow motion (and at a permanent Dutch angle), your time is running out.

Based on the novel by L. Ron Hubbard, the film is set in the year 3000, when Earth has been conquered by an alien race known as the Psychlos. Humanity has been reduced to scattered survivors, including Jonnie Goodboy Tyler (Barry Pepper), who is enslaved by the gleefully villainous Terl, played by John Travolta.

Terl forces humans to mine gold — apparently the Psychlos’ most prized resource — before Jonnie launches a rebellion using the aliens’ own technology against them. On paper, it sounds like a fairly standard sci‑fi premise. In execution, it’s cinematic chaos. When Battlefield Earth premiered in May 2000, critics didn’t just dislike it — they annihilated it.

battlefield earth, john travolta, l. ron, barry pepper, netflix, psychlos, worst movie, sci-fi, 2000 film, $73 million