![]() While it’s not exactly a shock that the armies of the Earth are losing, the limited focus keeps the movie’s momentum intact.US: Scientists at the UK’s Oxford University have reportedly sounded an alarm over plans by NASA to broadcast location data and other information into space, warning that the effort could have dangerous unintended consequences, including triggering an alien invasion.Īt issue is the planned “Beacon in the Galaxy” (BITG), a broadcast of data by a NASA-led team of researchers with the aim of greeting “extraterrestrial intelligences.” The US space agency wants to beam the signal from the SETI Institute’s Allen Telescope array in California and China’s Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST). Battle stays very close to Nantz and Martinez, only dropping hints at what’s happening outside. Scientists on TV speculate that they want to colonize Earth for our water.īut this movie isn’t concerned with what the aliens want it’s concerned with what they’re doing. Shrouded in a nearly impenetrable fog, the soldiers become easy pickings for the unnamed aliens, who don’t get a word in edgewise throughout the whole movie. Much of Battle shows the Marines getting their asses kicked, especially early on. Local airports are turned into Forward Operating Bases, and Martinez’s men are instructed to find a police station near the alien landing zone and get any civilians out before the military starts bombing the site into oblivion. ![]() The entire world is caught by surprise when aliens emerge out of the meteors and fire into crowds of people. Although these characters aren’t given much background, the actors have strong chemistry and their unit feels like it has genuine camaraderie.īattle is pure pulp, but Aaron Eckhart plays it straight and provides surprising gravitas. ![]() "Doc" Adukwu (Adetokumboh M'Cormack), and so on. Rounding out the group are several Marines who get quick character sketches: There’s the virgin, Shaun "Casper" Lenihan (Noel Fisher), the player, Lee "Cowboy" Imlay (Will Rothhaar), the immigrant, Navy Hospital Corpsman Jibril A. Considering how many people believe that Nantz got his men killed, that might be an advantage. While Martinez is smart, he doesn’t have Nantz’s experience. There’s also the matter of his last tour overseas, which many of his men didn’t come back from.Īs scientists worry about a cluster of meteors that suddenly appeared and are projected to fall all over the world, Nantz is assigned to the command of William Martinez (Ramón Rodriguez), a young lieutenant just out of school. Nantz is a Marine through and through, but after 20 years of service, he knows his time has passed him by. The panic was spoofed in Steven Speilberg’s 1941, while the idea of an alien invasion was taken very seriously in Jonathan Liebesman’s Battle: Los Angeles.īattle takes only the lightest of reference points from history, instead focusing on the life of Marine Corps Staff Sergeant Michael Nantz (Aaron Eckhart). In 1983, the Office of Air Force History identified meteorological balloons as the source of all the commotion.īut this historical footnote took an odd turn when pictures from the so-called Battle of Los Angeles eventually became “proof” of UFOs. Only after the shooting stopped did people realize they were firing at nothing. Although the attack only lasted around 20 minutes and didn’t injure anyone, the psychic damage it inflicted on the nation was grave.Ĭollective panic expressed itself a few days later when reports of an unidentified object in the skies above LA brought a massive response of anti-aircraft fire and searching spotlights. In late February 1942, a Japanese submarine actually did shell an oil field in Santa Barbara. The West Coast was understandably anxious as rumors of further Japanese attacks spread like wildfire. ![]() But New Yorkers were downright stoic compared to what would happen two months later in Los Angeles. ![]() New Yorkers thought they were next as two inaccurate air raid warnings signaled enemy planes en route. Within days of the surprise attack, Americans thought more attacks were coming from every direction. After Pearl Harbor, America entered a state of war and a state of panic. ![]()
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