Terl (Battlefield Earth)

Terl is the main antagonist of the 2000 seven-time-Razzie-award-winning sci-fi action adventure movie Battlefield Earth based on the first half of the 1982 science-fiction novel Battlefield Earth: A Saga of the Year 3000 by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard.

He was portrayed by John Travolta, who also portrays Billy Nolan in the 1976 film Carrie, Anthony "Tony" Manero in Saturday Night Fever, Danny Zuko in Grease and Vincent in Pulp Fiction.

This article will only focused on the movie version of Terl and not the book version.

Why He's Terl-ble

 * 1) The problem with him is that Terl (the movie version, not the one from the book) is like a generic "alien invader" who tries too much to be like other villains such as Darth Vader, the Klingons, Thanos, and more.
 * 2) John Travolta does a terrible job playing as him and he tends to over-act.
 * 3) He's an idiot, as he literally train their enemy in weaponry and how to fly their ships and don't expect them to fight back.
 * 4) His major plot hole where he is informed by his district manager that he has to stay on Earth for a long time after having an illicit relationship with the Senator's daughter is laughable.
 * 5) He is meant to be taken seriously as a “main” villain but feels rather hilarious with laughably bad dialogue like one infamous example is his "Do you want lunch?" line.
 * 6) His alien and costume design depicted in the film feels poorly made in early 2000’s standards and really laughable where he has long, messy hair with dreadlocks that looks similar to a metal rock band, while having big boots that look like it came from a rejected costume design for a planned live action Mega Man film (that officially has been in development for years from FOX to Netflix).
 * 7) He has little to no character development other than being a laughing tyrant.
 * 8) While Jonnie, the protagonist is the focus of the film, Terl himself gets a lot of focus than him (only he just goes into meetings with his race).
 * 9) Like other movie villains, he is quite forgettable.
 * 10) He treats his race very poorly and has a rivalry with them.
 * 11) He permanently killed both Franchise Pictures in 2007 (which ended up cancelling their sequel in 2004) and the Battlefield Earth franchise.

The Only 3 Redeeming Qualities

 * 1) He can be hilarious at times, as said in WHS#5.
 * 2) He was a much better villain in the novel of the same name.
 * 3) He at least got his defeat just like the novel in the end of the film.

Trivia

 * John Travolta was originally going to play Jonnie Goodboy Tyler, but since he was too old to star as the protagonist, he was cast as the film's antagonist.