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| “ | 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. (Ker laughs) While you were still learning how to SPELL YOUR NAME, I was being trained to conquer galaxies! | „ |
| ~ Terl's most memorable quote. |
| “ | Exterminate all man-animals at will, and happy hunting! | „ |
| ~ Terl announcing the beginning of the human hunt. |
Terl is a major antagonist in the 1982 science-fiction novel Battlefield Earth: A Saga of the Year 3000 by the controversial author and Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard and the main antagonist of its infamous 2000 film adaptation Battlefield Earth.
In the film, he was portrayed by John Travolta, who also portrayed Billy Nolan in the 1976 film Carrie, Vincent Vega in Pulp Fiction, Vic Deakins in Broken Arrow, Castor Troy in Face/Off, Gabriel Shear in Swordfish, Howard Saint in The Punisher, Emil Kovač in Killing Season, and Ryder in The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3.
Biography[]
Battlefield Earth: A Saga of the Year 3000[]
Chapter 1[]
On a brief excursion to the ruins of Denver, Colorado, Terl who is the Psychlo Chief of Mine Site Security, encounters and captures Jonnie. Terl immediately forces him to learn the Psychlo language, often abusing him whenever he makes a mistake during his "lessons". Terl then learns that his superiors have extended his tour of duty on Earth. Maddened by the prospect of being stuck on a "primitive" planet in an insignificant galaxy, Terl begins to scheme to take a lode of gold in the Rockies for himself and escape Earth. Uranium deposits surround the land where the Psychlos are based, making mining by Psychlos impossible, forcing Terl to resort to using humans as forced labor.
Terl orders a fellow Psychlo comrade named Ker to train Jonnie in the use of Psychlo machinery. Ker, who is different in height and stature compared to other Psychlos is often ridiculed by Terl, he trains Jonnie as ordered but he and Jonnie would bond and become friends. Soon after, Terl and Jonnie travel to Scotland where Jonnie recruits eighty-three Scottish people to assist with the mining. Using Terl's inability to understand English or any human language as a weapon, Jonnie plots with the Scotsmen to take back the Earth.
Months later, Jonnie and the Scottish rebels disrupt the semi-annual teleportation of personnel and other goods to Psychlo, using Psychlo technology against the Psychlos, the humans regain control of the planet, imprisoning Terl in a mining shaft as a result.
Chapter 2[]
A year after humans gained control of the planet, other alien races arrive and orbit the Earth. During the scuffle between the humans and the other alien races, Terl manages to escape but is killed during the crossfire. Not longer after, the planet of Psychlo would be destroyed, and as a result, the Psychlos are doomed to be extinct.
Battlefield Earth[]
In the year 3000, Earth has been ruled for one thousand years by the Psychlos, a brutal race of giant humanoid aliens from their home planet Psychlo. The remnants of humanity are either enslaved by the Psychlos and used for manual labor or survive in primitive tribes living in remote areas outside Psychlo control. Jonnie Goodboy Tyler, a member of one such tribe, leaves his home in the Rocky Mountains on a journey of exploration. He joins forces with Carlo, a hunter, but both men are captured by a Psychlo raiding party and transported to a slave camp at the Psychlos' main base on Earth, a giant dome built over the ruins of Denver, Colorado.
Terl, the Psychlo security chief on Earth, has been condemned by his superiors to remain indefinitely at his post on Earth as punishment for an unclear incident involving "the Senator's daughter". Aided by his deputy, Ker, Terl devises a plan to buy his way off the planet by making a fortune using human slaves to mine gold in radioactive areas. Psychlos are unable to visit such areas due to the explosive interaction of the gas that they breathe with radionuclide particles. Terl selects Jonnie as his "foreman" for the project and gives him a Psychlo education using a rapid-learning machine. Terl gives Jonnie a party of slaves and a Psychlo flying shuttle and orders him to go out and find gold.
After learning the Psychlos' language, history, and myriad other educational forms from the rapid learning machine, Jonnie plots a human uprising against the Psychlos. He obtains gold from Fort Knox to satisfy Terl's demands, instead of mining gold as ordered. Jonnie and his followers find an abandoned underground US military base with working aircraft, weapons, fuel, and nuclear weapons. They use the base's flight simulators to train themselves in aerial combat.
After a week of training, the rebels launch a mass uprising against the Psychlos using Harrier jump-jets and other weapons. Carlo sacrifices himself to destroy the dome over Denver, and the Psychlos inside suffocate in Earth's atmosphere, which they are unable to breathe. Jonnie captures a Psychlo teleportation device and uses it to teleport an atomic bomb to the Psychlo home world. The ensuing detonation causes the entire Psychlo atmosphere to explode, wiping out the planet. Ker and Terl survive on Earth but face different fates: Ker sides with the victorious humans, while Terl is imprisoned as a hostage within a vault in Fort Knox. The film ends with the humans in control of Earth but facing an uncertain future.
Later appearances[]
- Terl made a non-speaking cameo appearance in the 2004 Daffy Duck short "Attack of the Drones" in the council scene.
Personality[]
Novel[]
Terl shares similarities between himself and his film counterpart such as his brutality, sadism and cruelty towards human beings as well as having a prestigious military rank and post on Earth. However, the novel version is shown to be smarter and more evil as he never had a comedic moment in contrast to film counterpart and is taken seriously throughout the entire novel and is more thorough and violent in his hunting and treatment of human beings, so much so that even Johnny was intimidated and had to submit and play dumb in his presence before planning his attack on the Psychlos. Terl's sadism takes center stage in the novel as he often abuses Jonnie and his own fellow Psychlo comrade Ker simply for laughs, as well as hunting down and murdering which ever human beings he feels are not of use.
Terl is also self-serving, greedy and traitorous, it is evident when he decided to scheme to take loads of gold with him and flee Earth, abandoning his post and his own species as a result.
Film[]
Terl is undoubtedly brutal, cruel and sadistic towards human beings, even referring to them as "man-animals" to further dehumanize them alongside his fellow Psychlos, he simply viewed the human race as slaves destined to work themselves to death by mining for The Psychlos. His sadism takes center stage as he shown laughing evilly whenever one of his human slaves are in pain or whether he is discussing plans with his comrades to further torment humans and destroy humankind completely once they are no longer of use. He is also rather brash, narcissistic and arrogant, often thinking that other Psychlos are lesser than him due to his rank and performance during his training, he behaves such a way especially to his friend Ker of whom he belittles on a daily basis. It is evident that after The High Council's refusal to transfer Terl, Ker attempts to comfort him at a bar by reminding him that his current post is a "cushy job" only for Terl to belittle him by telling him that even an idiot like him could perform his job and that he was made for more.
Despite his military rank and status, Terl can be somewhat dimwitted as his decisions ultimately led to the rebellion and victory of the human race as well as the destruction of his home planet, such as forcing Johnny to learn through The Learning Machine - giving him vast knowledge on Psychlo culture, engineering, technology and microbiology.
Quotes[]
| “ | Who is responsible for allowing this man-animal to run around unsupervised? (Psychlo: The man-animal shot the wrangler, sir.) I'm a little pressed for time, why don't you save the going-away jokes for later! (Psychlo: No joke, sir, I swear. The man-animal somehow got a hold of his gun.) Really? Show me. [Terl takes the gun and hands it to Jonnie] Reach for the gun. (Psychlo: But sir, I might get shot.) Sure, you might. And I might suddenly grew a third arm! (Psychlo: But sir, I swear it shot the wrangler!) Any report filed today still has my name on it and you are out of your skull bone if you think that I am going to write on the report "shot by man-animal" as the cause of the death unless I see it! | „ |
| ~ Terl |
| “ | (laughs) I do what I can. | „ |
| ~ Terl |
| “ | Agh! Crap-lousy ceiling! I thought I told you to get some man-animals to come up here and fix it. | „ |
| ~ Terl after bumping his head on the ceiling. |
| “ | DO YOU WANT LUNCH?!? | „ |
| ~ Terl while holding a rat in front of Jonnie. |
| “ | As long as you cling to the feeble hope that you could ever get the better of me, you'll be distracted from the more important things that have to be done. Which is exactly why I share the following with you. When we attacked your planet, all your soldiers, and all their advanced technology, could only put up a measly nine minute fight before they were exterminated. Which is why man, is an endangered species. Everything you humans knew, is here. And you can look at anything you want. Because there is NOTHING, that will help you. | „ |
| ~ Terl showing Johnny the ruins of a library. |
| “ | (repeated line) Rat brain! | „ |
| ~ Terl |
| “ | Why don't you vaporize me? (Jonnie Goodboy Tyler: Leverage. If there are other Psychlo colonies out there, they'll send out their gas drones and exterminate us. But if they learn that it was your greed... that destroyed their Home Planet... then all the credits in the universe... won't equal to the bounty that they put on your head.) | „ |
| ~ Terl |
| “ | You imbecile! What kind of game are you playing? | „ |
| ~ Terl after finding out that Ker is now on the human's side. |
| “ | (As Ker walks away chuckling at the fact that his friend-turned-enemy, Terl is locked up in prison) Ugh! | „ |
| ~ Terl's last words. |
Trivia[]
- In the film, Terl forcing Jonnie onto The Learning Machine is what aided the humans in defeating the Psychlos and destroying their planet which can be argued to be Terl's fault.
- In the novel however, Terl never hooked Jonnie onto The Learning Machine and instead, he secretly used it behind his back and faked being dumb around him in order to plan his rebellion without a hint of suspicion.
- There are similarities between what happens to Terl in L. Ron Hubbard's "Battlefield Earth" and the imprisonment of Xenu that members of Hubbard's religion "Scientology" are taught about when they reach the level "OT III".
- John Travolta was originally going to play Jonnie Goodboy Tyler, but years later he felt too old to star as the protagonist. Instead, he was cast as the film's antagonist, Terl.