Battle Los Angeles: The Peak of Gaming

Battle: Los Angeles is a 2011 Game developed by Treyarch disguised as a movie. It was about aliens attacking LA and some Marines try to survive.
When it launched players reported the camera being too shaky, and the plot a little thin. I remember loving it. I have not watched it in ten years until now.
Twitter: / althistoryhub
Patreon: / alternatehistoryhub
Special Thanks to Knowing Better: / knowingbetter
Chapters:
00:00 Intro
01:04 Battle LA: A Film
02:24 The Actual Film
07:30 Cannon-Fodder Alien
09:56 Tirade About Halo 1
10:50 Alien Design
12:00 A Movie For the Military
13:00 Knowing Better
14:43 Conclusion

[@KnowingBetter]

I guess I never realized that this style of movie just sort of ended when we left Iraq... interesting. 🤔

[@SeanA099]

Oh hey, KB! Good to see you here

[@TheWulf899]

Something I failed to realise too. What post-iraq alien movies *have* come out since then? What's different in the style and presentation? (I don't thing Independence Day 2 counts, but aside from that one I dunno which ones have come out recently)

[@92HazelMocha]

@@TheWulf899 idk about alien movies as a whole, but war movies since we left Iraq seem to be about how complex war actually is and the toll it takes. If Iraq was a complicated conflict, Afghanistan was a Christopher Nolan film.

[@Solomonster07]

Always love it when two people I'm already subscribed to collab!

[@QuintusAntonious]

@@92HazelMocha There are still alien movies since then, but the aliens tend to be more esoteric and the messages tend to be more about the dangers of technology rather than the dangers of the "foreigner". It kind of makes sense since we are now more concerned about things like Amazon spying on us, or China developing some kind of hostile totalitarian AI rather than strange looking creatures with guns blowing up our cities.

[@BigBeakEntertainment]

I can't think of anything more embarrassing than being an alien shock trooper, traveling thousands of light years to another world, plummeting through the atmosphere, surviving crashing into the ocean, fighting your way through the city, only to get T-boned by a Humvee.

[@markeschen6272]

Now we understand why the ANZACs got so mad about Gallipoli

[@FairyRat]

That's how soldiers in Stellaris feel. Travel all the way across the galaxy and get shot by a random pirate corvette along the way because the main fleet is busy doing nothing in the neighboring solar system.

[@ThisNewHandleSystemSucks]

@@FairyRat That's XCOM baby! Wait wrong game..

[@blablablabla4899]

@@FairyRat lmaooooo

[@CocoHutzpah]

Welcome to the Imperial Guard, son

[@shanedangelo7212]

As a marine, I can tell the movie is just one big marine recruiting commercial.

[@cossacktwofive4974]

Like Top Gun for the Navy in the 80s?

[@JACCO20082012]

When the DOD let's you borrow its shit, you bet your ass they want a commercial

[@skinWalkman]

The most unrealistic parts in this movie are as follows: the radios never drop crypto, the saws never jam, night vision that actually works, the ability to hop in an LAV and immediately know how to drive it, and lastly the peltor comm system properly working and not hotmiking everything.

[@JawsFan27]

@@skinWalkman lol at the radios never dropping crypto. I think the ones they used were PRC-148s and those things drop crypto like it's going out of style.

[@ianhedeman5684]

And boy did it work on me!

[@unifieddynasty]

Halo has one of the best compromises -- where the humans can hold their own against the Covenant planetside, but in space the humans are hopelessly outclassed. It made the Covenant feel like an existential threat while at the same time giving hope that perhaps humanity could beat back the aliens one alien at a time.

[@nyalan8385]

And it also makes complete sense in lore. None of the races in the covenant were really that technologically advanced when they joined. In fact the covenant got its technological prowess when the San’Shyuum started using foreigner technology in a war against the Sangheili, who really only made it to interplanetary travel, not interstellar. Most of the covenants military victories before the human covenant war were entirely space based, with little ground combat actually occurring, and the primary use of infantry being ship boarding, which worked well for the Sangheili since they still had a very archaic view of martial combat. Meanwhile the humans only ever fought with eachother and almost all of their conflicts were territory based, so the humans had become terrestrial infantry specialists so to say, which is also evident by how bad their space combat doctrines were, coupled with their technological disadvantage

[@OmegaZyion]

@@nyalan8385 The dogmatic religion of the Covenant also played a part in setting up ground conflicts. The Covenant glassed almost every colonized world they came across just like what you would expect from a superior technological force. The only exception to that were worlds where there was Forerunner technology. They viewed the Forerunners as gods, and every one of their constructions were seen as holy ground for their religion. And interestingly enough, this is also the reason why you don't see much innovation from the Covenant in either the games or books. Their technology was based on Forerunner tech, and altering it in any way was seen as sacrilege. So while humanity was initially behind in tech at the beginning of the war, they were able to adapt and innovate on the technology they took from the Covenant. Allot of thought was put into the lore of Halo to make it a believable universe that gave the player a fighting chance against a superior technological force.

[@Hevvvyyy]

Time to play the halo reach campaign again for the thousandth time, thx

[@SIGNOR-G]

​@@Hevvvyyygive em hell soldier.

[@urbantactical9216]

Until the planet gets glassed

[@hueykratos]

In the movie actually, the aliens were defeated and chased out of their home system by another force (aliens). So for the veteran, they are not evil, they are just desperate after facing a defeat back at home and being forced to run. That's why they looked so run down and disorganized because most of their troops had already been defeated and they were running on scraps. So a victim turned enemy

[@big-bonkin-head1034]

Tbh, one reporter reported that they took regular Human civilians out of their house , put them in perfect order and shot them right in the heads. So yeah they’re pretty evil still. But tbh, their situation and stakes were so high that communicating and setting up diplomacy was not an option and would have made the process of gathering resources slower

[@lordmontymord8701]

That wasn't in the movie. Maybe one of the producers, the director or the writer(s) tried to explain it away like this, but that doesn't count. And they didn't look that disorganized to me - attacking worldwide instead of focussing on certain areas and defending them with everything you got would be more likely the strategy of an army that believes in it's own superiority, instead of a group of defeated soldiers, who lack the resources for a huge fight.

[@big-bonkin-head1034]

@@lordmontymord8701 The thing is, the aliens were disorganized, their Air Force missed their course so they had to fight with no air support for a while. And they do lack support for a long drawn out war, with only 27 million soldiers, they wouldn’t handle the might of a planet forces ready to fight back. They’re more akin to rapid dominance, meaning they are not adept to a long drawn out war, cuz once the Humans retaliate, it’s a losing war. All the Humans have to do is prevent them from moving further inland and they will lose the war of attrition

[@lordmontymord8701]

@@big-bonkin-head1034 Again, where is all of that coming from? Its not in the movie, so it doesn't matter. Its nice if the writers had a backstory that explained the strategy of the aliens, but it was obviously not important enough to put it into the movie or they would have done it.

[@big-bonkin-head1034]

@@lordmontymord8701 It was a war movie.. from the perspective of a marine squad… Most folks, like you, didn’t know it was suppose to be a war movie

[@History_Coffee]

Fun fact: the US Army and Marines have a gentleman's agreement that the marines will always handle aliens and the Army will always handle monsters.

[@atlas-3541]

Interesting

[@emperornero1932]

Air force handle zombies because they're just gonna use bombers to nuke us all

[@History_Coffee]

@@emperornero1932 the airforce handles my balls

[@whyareyoulikethat7863]

@@History_Coffee That's the Navys job.

[@justinoates8130]

@@emperornero1932 in the World War Z book they try this with fuel air bombs in Yonkers, NY. It does NOT go how the military thought it would

[@confusedcabal342]

Won’t lie, I love how the aliens are designed in this film. The “land sharks” are a mix of stupid, brilliant, and practical. They’re a species so desperate to survive that they graft guns to their limbs and stretch their bodies over exoskeletons in what I imagine would be an unbelievably painful process. Point is: I just think they’re neat.

[@idgafbatches]

Yeah that's about where I'm at with this movie. That and it being relatively unique compared to all the other action movies from those times

[@NathanS__]

That's assuming they're like us with citizen-soldiers and not slave-soldiers clearing the way for colonization.

[@g00n71]

Oh yea I wish we could see more of there vehicles and weapons

[@justintimeboi31]

Also, these aliens are actually aquatic so they had to augment their bodies in order to fight on land.

[@triplehelix3207]

The Land Sharks are one of my favorite alien designs ever

[@HuffinStufff]

I cried during this film. My dad was talking about how he wanted to see this movie. He was dead not to long after. So I watched it for him and it just still hits me right in the feels.

[@vaggos2003]

May your father rest in peace.

[@HuffinStufff]

@@vaggos2003 thanks you. I appreciate that.

[@purest_evil]

Rest in peace to your dad, I feel that

[@aaronrodden8121]

May your Father RIP! I don't really have a dad, so for what it's worth, I'd give a lot to just have ONE day of what your dad gave to you! You're father's not here but he is somewhere and I believe you will reunite! GOD Bless and prayers of comfort!

[@ROBOHOLIC1]

Sounds like it would have been a good time for you both. RIP

[@JamesHock]

The "Developed by Infinity Ward" credits was a hilarious touch

[@hoosierhell7456]

Battle: LA actually had some shockingly in depth lore for the aliens.

[@teslashark]

Imagine a sequel where Humans ally with one of the alien home factions...

[@AlbertWillHelmWestings2618]

@@teslashark oh god that would be insane

[@TheDanrox110]

I remember being in middle school and reading the top secret documents on the movies website. I loved it

[@AlbertWillHelmWestings2618]

@@TheDanrox110 is there still a place i can find this info?

[@Oropher420]

No elaboration on the aliens?

[@markskinner7420]

My head cannon was " lost and resource starved alien colonization fleet has to cobble together an army with whatever they have on hand and launch a half assed invasion to try and save themselves."

[@nicolasjamo]

That does make more sense, I was thinking along the lines of this being the losing side of a civil war or rebellion that want to hole up in a resource rich planet in the middle of nowhere.

[@copitopicaporte5068]

@@nicolasjamo thats actually the lore, they were losing a war with a different species in their home planet and fled to earth

[@markskinner7420]

@@nicolasjamo I like this. Earth as Hoth!

[@Rock-xn3sp]

@@copitopicaporte5068 Damn, now I want to know what species they were losing against. If only this movie got a sequel where THAT species invaded Earth and were even more dangerous than the previous invasion.

[@nicolasjamo]

@@Rock-xn3sp Or alternatively, this other species would be going to Earth as a policing action to apprehend the Land Sharks, which would probably end up just as well as you would think *cough*Afghanistan for 20 years*cough*.

[@Volvith]

This movie was the Battleship 2012 of the infantry corps. It's ironically some of the most realistic ET invasion scenario tactics and overall strategy put to film, and it mimics quite closely to how we'd actually operate in this exact scenario. The communication, formations, positioning, it all matches real world standards. You don't have to like this movie, hell, you can even hate it if you want to. But respect where respect is due, it knew what it wanted to be, and it was exactly that, _perfectly._ And much like Battleship, i love this movie.

[@crypticbait]

Drifting a WW2 era ship was insane 💀💀

[@nerfnerd36]

​@@crypticbaitand tactical

[@aristosachaion_]

Battleship was _not_ handled with the same finesse this movie was

[@ARStudios2000]

Honestly thats what I liked about that about this film too.

[@VELOC113]

​@@aristosachaion_I have to agree. I watch battleship in theaters and it was a snore, but I have only seen clips of this movie and small review and I'm actually interested in watching because it's got a sense of not being to silly. Like the walking dog with launchers on it is just the space version of the mule with a 106mm recoilless rifle on it from vietnam.

[@TheRogueCommand]

I remember walking out of the theater and the first thing my buddy said was "We just watched a two hour version of those marine recruitment commercials." I completely agree, and it was still a fun time.

[@MrBerg4ever]

I actually like the idea of an alien species being just maybe 50-100 years more advanced than us and struggling to conquer our forces. Although the aliens in Battle LA could travel through space their method looked crude and it looked like a one way option.

[@SeaGLGaming]

I really liked the Landsharks, and the lore is surprisingly deep. They're aquatic based hence their nickname and reliance on water for fuel to power their exoskeletons, drones, and vehicles. To be able to fight on land, they needed exoskeletons that they stretched their bodies over. It's also why their weapons are surgically attached. Since they're not used to fighting on land, they still majorly rely on drone technology for ground combat, and why they were basically being held off until their drones and vehicles were fueled up. They're also one of two dominant species on their planet, and they were at war and losing badly and being kicked off hence their hurried and rushed invasion of earth as a last opportunity for survival.

[@MrBerg4ever]

@@SeaGLGaming yeah, it looked like a really good attempt to establish a universe for a movie franchise. It makes me wonder if the design artist's for the movie got better jobs for more popular movies or studios in the future.

[@lamelama22]

You might be interested in Harry Turtledove's Worldwar book series, as that's the general premise. Basically an alien colonization fleet shows up right at the height of WWII after a long slow cryosleep trip with tech slightly beyond our current tech, like they use jets in atmosphere and have nukes, expecting to find pre-industrial level humans, as their last probe was hundreds of years earlier and no race they've encountered has progressed that fast... They are kinda iffy on invading b/c of that but do so anyways, and so humanity has to unite to fight back despite everyone hating each other.

[@khanman9146]

@@lamelama22 That sounds very interesting, I might check that out

[@corylee5328]

Read “world war in the balance” by Harry turtle dove. It’s exactly that

[@abysswatcher9172]

The lore for the aliens is suprisingly indepth and well thought out. They're originally an aquatic species so that's why their bodies were modified and why they don't seem too experienced in land combat, and also why the few land vehicles that we did see were very improvised looking. All their drones and vehicles run on water so that's why they use mostly infantry and why they're invading for water. They were in a losing war against another species on their original water planet so they're not exactly at their best or super well prepared to invade.

[@MrJWrizzle]

Where is all this information? Just background information you can find about it on the internet? I don’t remember any of this from the movie

[@abysswatcher9172]

@@MrJWrizzle Yeah this is all from the internet. A shame it was never explained onscreen.

[@JustARandomTrain]

I mean I'd be okay with them living in the ocean if they didn't attack, but they did so that was pretty rude of them

[@alcalanjuan]

Aren't they actually a third world country in terms of galactic technology amd standards

[@illitero]

@@alcalanjuan Like, from an actual third world? lololol but for real: the U.S. is a third-world country in infrastructure and population health, so the term doesn't mean much haha

[@RushianBear]

I remember watching this movie with my dad for the first time. The week before he and I watched the movie "Skyline," another alien invasion movie. Neither of us enjoyed that one very much, but when we finished this movie my dad looked at me and said, "That's how you do an alien invasion movie!" And I couldn't have agreed with him more.

[@miming3679]

I really liked skyline only because of 2 scenes. The kickass nuke drone scene and a random dude with a. 50 cal vs giant alien gorilla

[@lordmontymord8701]

@@miming3679 The nuke scene was good - but having the alien ship repair itself like that was nothing was a pretty bad payoff. Even the Borg would call that unrealistic. When the ship was going down i thought another one would appear instead, showing that the military simply wouldn't be able to do much if they had to sacrifice so many fighters/drones for just one ship ... But at least we got Beyond Skyline thanks to that trainwreck: The second one fully embraced the stupidity and was ten times better thanks to that choice. And they didn't need to fill the runtime with human drama around characters that need to die ...

[@thatoneguy8146]

When it comes to the aliens I like to think of it as there first ever planet invasion like how the humans are in Avatar. That would explain there tactics and weapons because they only just unlocked space travel

[@nyalan8385]

Yeah, a really good explanation is that they could be from the closest star system just 4 light years away, and this is just a forward wave to wipe out humanity who are the only intelligent life in this solar system, as a precaution for when more aliens come to this solar system. Because honestly any resource that can be found on earth is WAY more abundant in the rest of the system, so this could be a preemptive strike to eliminate any future competition. Hell, the group that invaded could even be a radical group of extremists who chose war rather than negotiations with us. We aren’t politically united as a species, why would they be?

[@kw9849]

I always figured that part of the reason they had so much trouble was the fact all their equipment was designed for use in a totally different environment to fight an opponent that wasn't at all like Humanity. Imagine getting air dropped onto Fiji with snowmobiles and cold weather gear, and when you get there you're fighting a bunch of 6ft tall birds armed with microwave weaponry.

[@ElZilchoYo]

There's no real reason for the humans in Avatar to not firebomb the planet and mine the fireproof resources either, other than that the movie needs to happen

[@tytoalbasoren9457]

The lore is that the Battle of LA (which actually happened irl in 1942) was the same alien sent to scout earth before returning back to bring the fleet. Basically, in their minds was that the humans still had shitty WW2 era weaponry and would think it'd be an easy scoop so they just brought the stuff that they think would be enough. The only problem was the humans advanced in tech quicker than they expected. Oh also, one of their main reasons to attack was the fact that they themselves are at a losing war with some kind of overwhelming force and was forced to leave their home system. Their sole reason of invading earth was because they incredibly low on resources. They were so desperate that diplomacy wasn't a choice anymore which would make gathering of resources very slow. This is also why most of their stuff look so rundown and looked like they're being held by paper mache and hopes and dreams which if you pay attention closely had a lot of rusting on them.

[@Aplesedjr]

@@ElZilchoYoand the whole “first discovered world with alien life on it, including a sapient species that is similar to humans”. But it’s not like that would be hugely important to human society or anything.

[@firelordmarklin6166]

Fun fact: Apparently Aaron Eckhart has stated that this was his favorite role he ever played and that he would be completely on board for a sequel. He was so enthusiastic for this film that he insisted on staying on even after he broke his arm. Talk about passion lol!

[@ancientflames]

Fun movie

[@shala_shashka]

I really wish they would remake/reboot this but with better writers and a great CG studio. Would be a killer film, especially if they get the Marines to advise them on the tactics again. But oh well :(

[@ramO-jp8tp]

who doesn’t want to play a grunt!

[@combatwombat2134]

​@@shala_shashka I didn't even think the CG was that bad... Especially when the drone breaks off the ring and tries to find them and flies over the car and it like rocks the car and smashes the window - thought that was neat they got the CGI over that.

[@shala_shashka]

@@combatwombat2134 I didn’t mean that in the sense that it was bad but imagine if they had a studio like WETA… Jesus that would be amazing. The realism of the aliens would make the stakes seem a LOT more present, if that makes sense. Also yeah, that scene and the highway scene were pretty damn good though.

[@MrBone-qv5tz]

It’s my personal opinion that Spielberg’s tripods were the most terrifying depiction of alien invaders in fiction. The absolute dread a Marine must’ve felt hearing a tripod’s foghorn coming towards them, and all that could be done to stall the inevitable is to pound its impenetrable shields with everything in their arsenal, hoping for an instant death with vaporization instead of being collected for torturous blood-harvesting…

[@Taterisstig]

To be completely honest, I feel like if we ever get “advanced” enough to invade other worlds we would be like the land sharks haha

[@lucamagnani5243]

Nah they wouldnt hesitate to greet other species with a nuke

[@Yeeter000]

"Marine English is different than normal English" *Screaming in crayons intensifies*

[@levig6375]

Semper kill rah

[@jacobscott1433]

@@levig6375 this comment literally comes up with an automatic "translate to English" button hfs.

[@gunnerchaney]

Weak sauce comment

[@levig6375]

Ultimate boot bullshit

[@Orapac-ln5jd]

@@levig6375 Sorry I can't hear you over the sound of Crayola wrappers being ripped off.

[@warlordofbritannia]

Ah yes, the Modern Warfare era, with such films as Transformers, Pacific Rim, Clash of the Titans, Battleship, 2012, Cowboys and Aliens, and, of course, the two Ghost Rider films starring Nick Cage Edit: Why is everyone thinking this is a critical post? I love the Ghost Rider films in particular lol

[@ashlindemeritte7593]

Before SBMM and you could actually enjoy FPS.

[@decimation9780]

Pacific Rim was great, and Ghost Rider is actually pretty good.

[@Rock-xn3sp]

Not to mention the original Iron Man movie, basically a Modern Warfare era superhero movie that kickstarted the MCU. It was definitely a product of this time, and stands out even more compared to the squeaky clean Disney MCU products that were practically made from a conveyor belt.

[@pmpowalisz]

2012 was different from all those other movies, mainly because it wasn’t a action movie.

[@ssfbob456]

The Ghost Rider films are high art and you won't convince me otherwise.

[@CruelestChris]

One thing I really liked about this film is the sense that the aliens have their own way of fighting wars and it's not our way. I particularly liked the scene on the freeway where it's clear they have no idea what the tank is or what they're supposed to do about it, because the tank is an _alien weapon_ to them as much as theirs are to us. I don't think you see that often enough,

[@jmdibonaventuro]

On the topic of Alien Weaponry around 8:20, it does make sense for an interstellar army up to use primarily light infantry and light motorized doctrine. The worlds that their empire spans are probably unique and have diverse geography and climates, and transporting things in space is a game of mass. Therefore, it makes sense for the aliens to use lighter, more strategically mobile, and more infantry-based units. It’s the same sort of thing you see on our planet with Rapid Deployment Forces like the 11th, 101st, 82nd, and 173rd Airborne of the U.S Army. We could just be seeing the alien vanguard, or their whole army could be structured like this due to its strategic mobility benefits. It’s not really elaborated on.

[@deviljinmishima]

i think itd make even more sense if they just bombed everything from their highly advanced ships

[@69Kazeshini]

​@@deviljinmishimain the lore, the landsharks attacking were part of a losing faction on their home planet. They made a desperate decision to grab whatever equipment they can and leave to invade earth. This was a scuffed invasion, their ships are falling apart and their equipment are also failing and lack maintenence (the walking rocket launcher lacks armor). Plus they are going with intel from 1942, since they sent a scout ship to earth around 1942 and they assumed humanity is still around 1942 tech.

[@buragi5441]

Since they were specifically after water, orbital bombardment is out of question, since said water would get evaporated alongside everything else.@@deviljinmishima

[@BayaRae]

Edge of Tomorrow is, objectively, the best alien invasion movie.

[@Gackt4awesome]

I liked it better when it was called “All you need is Kill”

[@TaaKissa]

@@Gackt4awesome You mean Live, die, repeat?

[@StellarGryphon]

One of my favorite movies!

[@MrSimmons8492]

Mars Attacks is miles better

[@Ryio5]

@@TaaKissa All You Need is Kill is the original title used for the novel and the manga adaptation.

[@purplehaze2358]

“The most advanced weapon the land sharks bring to the battlefield is what I can only describe as that Boston Dynamics robot with 4 RPGs strapped to the top” To be entirely fair, that description is actually kind of terrifying. A lot more so than what’s actually seen in the film.

[@barrag3463]

I mean, the Romanians made a "tri-RPG" called the AGI 3x40, which used incendiary warheads for use against infantry, and something carrying four of those around on a presumably stable platform would not just be pretty bad to face, but also not very far out of the realm of possibility.

[@justiron2999]

Big boom just works for any species.

[@AC-iz7eh]

The aliens had a pretty capable air force too

[@rhysalabaster643]

I’m

[@bzipoli]

i don't think you're actually following military drone tech development. a spot with guns on top would be counterproductive and way less lethal than whats actually being done rn

[@angryzombie8088]

Very true indeed, it was a war movie with alien as opponent. And that is why I absolutely love it, humans actually have a fighting chance instead of being steamrolled right from the start. I daresay its the most realistic depiction of what the response gonna be to a sudden alien invasion, its chaotic. My only regret with the movie is that it DOESNT HAVE A SEQUEL.

[@AC-iz7eh]

I loved this movies as well. But honestly though I think a sequel would be hard to sell. It would mostly be a rehash of the first movie even if we take the fight to the perspective of other countries

[@sebastiannavarro9686]

​@@AC-iz7ehI mean, you could change some settings, like being civilians the protagonist of the film trying to flee the heavy combat and chaos of the initial hours of the invasion and don't have any meaningful way to really defend themselves, or maybe a "horror" movie in which X person is doing his normal life in a semi/complete rural place and start to being chased by one or a squad of aliens and doing more stuff until a end which connect that history to the main universe

[@shockwave6213]

The Land Sharks are actually some of the most practically efficient aliens I've ever seen in a movie. They fight like Humans because Humans are just so damn good at warfare. And all the experts agree that for the foreseeable future, kinetic projectile weapons are here to stay because energy based weapons are incredibly inefficient. The Land Sharks only seem to be 100-200 years more advanced because their method of planetary landing seems to be an atmospheric re-entry pod but will no doubt require the construction of a launch facility and vehicle to get their forces back in space.

[@Nepomniachtchi_Austin]

Fun fact: The Marines operate very similarly to what you see in the movie, and probably would be a realistic response to how we'd respond to an alien invasion on US soil lol. The reason why is they had a Lt. Colonel help the producers with the movie, and a lot of the extras are real Marines. As a result, also very cool, Marines at Camp Pendleton actually got a sneak preview of the movie before its release. Maybe that's why I liked and still like the movie. It's so easy to get the military and it's operations very wrong in movies, and when it's done right it shows.

[@efxnews4776]

The problem is, that if aliens ever decide to invade Earth, we would be screwed... Our only hope of survival would be dig deep and pray that the aliens never find our hole. One side note, Avatar is one of the few movies where the humans are actually the baddies,and aliens are good, but the movie fail horribly by the same mistake, play easy on the aliens. It got obvious that humans in the movie are stupid, because it didn't use the full potential of mankind future tech. Hell, in Avatar you don't even need nukes we could simply engineer a virus and released on the aliens and this is also why the aliens in BATTLE OF LA is stupid.

[@npc6817]

@@efxnews4776 that depends on the aliens really, he made it sound like having interstellar travel technology implies overwhelming military power but really the two things aren't really connected. look at our actual space tech, the apollo mission vehicles are the most advanced transport space crafts we ever made, and they basically run on a TI-84's worth of computing power. if for some reason tomorrow jeff bezos revealed an interstellar engine and the space force found oil in proxima centauri we wouldn't wait centuries to develop ""space age"" superweapons, we'd just give the troops some oxygen, adapt some abrhams and f-35's to work with alien atmosphere and leave, maybe bringing a couple nukes for good measure. in this situation, any civilization more advanced than civil war times should have a fighting chance to at least fight back the first wave and prepare a strategy for future attacks, so why shouldn't we?

[@efxnews4776]

@@npc6817 do we really need to play attrition war with aliens? I don't think so... But even so,, our tech would be superior to any aliens that doesn't have space faring capabilities simply because we would have more access to orbit. Nukes are a major advantage in this scenario since you can launch them from orbit, hell, you can simply drop a big rock and that would have the same effect....

[@npc6817]

@@efxnews4776 fair, my scenario didn't include orbital strikes... shit we might actually need a spaceforce

[@Nepomniachtchi_Austin]

What the fuck are you guys talking about lol

[@Goblinsharkhundredsofthem]

An interesting theory I heard behind reasons for the aliens being so weak/military incompetence is because the aliens that invaded aren't actually soldiers, the theory state cheap mercenaries hired by a weak faction of a stronger civilization with no understanding of complex military function.

[@friedrichwulfgang3655]

Much like the Ceph in the Crysis franchise essentially being gardeners and not soldiers. Just spring cleaning the family home, not liking what they find behind the fridge.

[@HeadlessZombY]

i believe in the LORE or whatever, they're actually on the run from something, like they lost a war and are still being followed, so the aliens are just using what they have.

[@versamax6307]

I've heard that the aliens were weak because they were fleeing from another war and trying to find a place to flee to

[@Lijearion]

@@versamax6307 now i just feel a bit of pity for the aliens. no place to go so they were desperate to carve out their own territory on earth. Would've been better if they had tried to negotiate peacefully first seeing as the were vastly outnumbered and logistically isolated but the movie would never have allowed for it.

[@RidgeR5]

@@versamax6307 that sounds more like the backstory for District 9. Those aliens showed up and just parked. When humans got into their ship, the aliens were barely alive, essentially refugees.

[@rocketpunchgo1]

I was in the Army (sure, not Marines) when this came out and saw it with several of my battle buddies. Still one of my most favorite movies of all time.

[@The-Master-Shake]

My grandfather somewhat liked this movie, he was a huge fan of the halo books and anything syfi, so this movie holds a special spot in my heart because he died a couple months after the movie released. He was air cav during Vietnam and it upsets me that it wasn’t the war that finally got him it was some stupid heart condition from smoking cigarettes that finally did the job.. Rip Sgt James Baker, you were one hellava trooper

[@Excalibur01]

I didn't realize California Love was over used SO many times

[@hydrogendiamond5830]

I remember it most in Dick Figures. Cody brought back a lot of memories.

[@griz312]

As a native of California, I seriously hate this song lol

[@sv32099]

I did, probably because I live California. But honestly it gets maddening after a while. There's a California Playlist of songs to play for LA establishing shots

[@smatchimo645]

that gimmick was already played out by the time the 90s even ended lol

[@chinhphan4787]

Yeah, nobody loves CA.

[@CombatMedic00]

Battle L.A. felt like a feature length Marine Corps recruiting commercial. The Marines did a lot of fighting in Helmand province in 2009-2010 so this movie coming out in 2011 feels like the Marine Corps needed a morale boost for ordinary citizens and maybe wanted to entice some people to sign up. Fast roping, rappelling, driving LAVs, using a SOFLAM, firing rockets, and let's not forget that transition to the pistol at the end. 9mm ball proved really effective against advanced aliens 👽

[@darren763]

This would explain why I, and all of the Marines I know, loved it, but everyone else thought it was garbage.

[@butHomeisNowhere___]

And, intellectually, it was perfect for a Marine demographic 😂😉

[@LonelyKnightess]

@@darren763 Ayo brother as a Marine weeb this shit was like crack.

[@coffeebean_tamer]

​@@butHomeisNowhere___hooooraaah 😂

[@TrepidDestiny]

It essentially is. Any Hollywood movie that wants to use real military props contracts through the department of defense, and the DOD gets to control the narrative of how the service members are depicted.

[@criteriaz5063]

I’m not gonna lie, this is one of the most memorable alien movies I remember watching when I was younger. It’s probably one of my favourites too.

[@mambi74]

Same. I re-watched it not too long ago and I still really like it. One thing that people never mention is that, I felt, they really developed an actual personality for each of the guys in the squad - so you get to see them as actual individuals and are emotionally invested in them. The guy who lost his brother and has a grudge against the Sgt (that was really well played, IMO), the LT proving his braveness when it counts, etc. Nobody is a superhero and their teamwork/sacrifice was notable.

[@Laesis]

I must admit, it's incredibly ironic they decided to make an Iraq style war movie where the alien bad guys invade the US for its resources...

[@MrTJPAS]

New challenge for Cody: Find a way to incorporate that Deadliest Warrior IRA vs Taliban clip into every video put out on this channel. So far, he's 2 for 2

[@Hoffmatic]

Not a challenge. We demand it

[@spinyslasher6586]

You just awoke memories in me. That whole episode was a huge load of bullcrap. No wonder the IRA is pretty much gone nowadays while the Taliban is thriving.

[@WTFisTingispingis]

That'll be funny forever.

[@masstv9052]

is this channel the same guy as alternate history hub? Tyler, from knowledge hubs, brother? h sounds familiar

[@MrTJPAS]

@@masstv9052 This channel is Cody. Tyler from Knowledge Hub has a channel called Whimsu

[@ChessedGamon]

this channel is somehow addressing all of the most obscure and buried memories that inexplicably stuck with me i'm convinced this is just a silent hill-esque mental construct i've built

[@BloodRider1914]

Love your channel

[@ChessedGamon]

@@BloodRider1914 Hey! Thanks a ton man!

[@davidb8656]

I was in the marines when this movie came out and I loved it mainly because of how much they got right when it came to the actual marines. In so many movies you can tell that they just threw ‘military looking’ stuff together to look cool, but at least in this movie you can tell they at least did their research.

[@MonsterTeegs]

This movie holds a special place in my heart. Not only was it the first Blu-ray I ever owned/watched, I bought it on sale from a blockbuster that was shutting down forever. Having been playing Battlefield 3 at the time, it was a nexus of many important things in my life. And yet the movie is really only like, decent I guess.

[@Holammer]

Speaking of War of the Worlds, there's a HILARIOUS unofficial sequel where humanity takes the fight to the Martians. It's called Edison's Conquest of Mars. Well worth looking into. The early bits when the big powers of the time fund the expedition is funny shit.

[@rommel4844]

I looked it up just to see and now I find my self on Amazon trying to buy it

[@Oldskoolguitar]

Oh Christ, what a name. Edison's Conquest of Mars sounds like an Alternative Band from 2013.

[@Holammer]

@@rommel4844 That'll be cool on the shelf, if you don't have any luck? Just listen to an audio book. There are plenty of narrations available on KZbin.

[@rommel4844]

@@Holammer yeah I take great pride in my collection of science fiction and historical books. If anything I am surprised by its high praise it seemed to have gotten. And it’s a lot older then what I expected it too be

[@louisduarte8763]

@@Oldskoolguitar Or a post-grunge or pop-punk band from the early 00's. There were a ton of them who came and went.

[@Fuckthis0341]

I’m also an infantry Marine from the 07-11 era. We love this movie for all the reasons you’ve articulated. It’s a respectful and realistic portrayal of normal Marine infantrymen in a science fiction movie with some writing problems.

[@Agret]

What are your thoughts on the movie Jarhead?

[@NicolasCaja]

"respectful and realistc" lol

[@DeathBlossom867]

Rah

[@DigiMaster236]

If it's realistic where's the part where the military guns down innocent civilians and invades countries that neither need nor want their help?

[@Reapor234]

I think what i love the most about this movie was that, while mind of cheesy and whatnot, the marines felt real. You could connect and empathize with them throughout the struggle. They acted and reacted very believably to everything. Several even got moments to shine iirc. It may also be bias because my cousin just got back from the marines about this time...

[@MythicTyrant]

Been a fan of Alternate History Hub for many years. Accidentally stumbling across this channel and finding out that Cody is ALSO a Halo fan amplified my respect for him 1000 fold. Keep up the awesome work, bro. Appreciate you 😊

[@polumathes9729]

Battle: Los Angeles was a movie that really could’ve been outstanding, but instead it was just a good action movie. Which makes it disappointing in a way, but it’s still a really good action movie.

[@agentscott96]

How though, it did what it needed

[@BostonMBrand]

I wouldn’t be surprised if a similar film would come out in another era or potentially a remake. Kind of reminds me of what they did with West World

[@polumathes9729]

@@agentscott96 exactly. It’s good. But it had the potential to be (imo) a sci-fi staple

[@imafatboy27]

I owned the game and it was so ass if I had someone in my basement I would force them to play it over and over

[@ssfbob456]

@@agentscott96 exactly, not every movie needs to have a deeper meaning, sometimes all you want is something stupid and fun.

[@standard-carrier-wo-chan]

I just especially like how that one civilian guy picked up the downed rifle and began blasting the shit out of a flanking alien. Civilians jumping to the rescue is just something you rarely ever see in a movie; usually they're the damsels in distress and they stay that way throughout the entire movie.

[@virus5600]

This actually reminds me of the part in MW3 where if you don't support the army at the AO on Washington, they get overrun by Russian and you can hear in the radio chatter that civilians are picking up arms while the effectiveness of the troop drops to a mere 5%. That shit was terrifying man…

[@JJAB91]

@@virus5600 Media in general tend to underestimate how many civilians would if the need arose take up arms and fight. A minority for sure but far more than media tends to portray. Just look at any war in real life. For Americans readying this its the reason why the U.S. used the nuclear bombs, its the reason why the U.S. bled so much in Vietnam, its a large part of the reason why the Ukraine is still holding out against Russia. You would know damn good and well if aliens invaded the U.S. like in this movie people would be shooting back, its America ffs, if we love anything its guns...well they'd be soothing back elsewhere, maybe not in California.

[@Seriona1]

Also, this is in the fucking United States. Any lack of militia is insanely unrealistic.

[@iCookCrystalMeth]

invasion is scary, man

[@Primus1243]

@@virus5600 That was cut in the final game. It's held as a 'deleted scene' and you can mostly hear it if you take out the audio files and listen to it for the radio chatter of the game. The real game stops at around 40 or 60%. I forget which.

[@paulnathanmullock6214]

I was in the DEP program when this film came out. This film was heavily discussed at our drill and for most of us made our choice to join the marines even more exciting. I always wanted a sequel or an actual video game (not some half assed story tie in) to continue the cliff hanger this film had

[@user-cw3wm9lx7w]

this would be so good, in a video game.

[@jeolban3287]

Battle LA is easily the best alien movie for me. The aliens actually felt like a threat and seeing them act like human soldiers was so refreshing.

[@StoneCoolds]

I like Arrival more as the best alien movie, but battle L.A. its cool, i just think that for an space fearing species, they are very primitive lol, in a real alien invasion humans will be exterminated before we even knew there was an alien invasion in progress 😆 🤣 , but thats a mistake all alien movies fall for

[@beanbean9364]

FR. The first real battle between the soldiers and aliens honestly took me off guard and well done to show intimidation.

[@jeolban3287]

@@beanbean9364 It was actually like a war movie, not just, "Here's soldiers dying left and right because funny lol haha" and "Here's one special person who will take out all those aliens in one move haha"

[@rommdan2716]

In a realistic alien invasion the aliens would win, lol

[@bicci6573]

@@StoneCoolds yea but also they are water based aliens or whatever so thats why they suck on land 🔥

[@tytoalbasoren9457]

This movie suprisingly has a lot of military advisors in it. That's why you don't get those flaming explosions everytime they throw a grenade (except that fact that no one yells "grenade!" when they actually thow one).

[@abyssaldision8272]

It’s not surprising when you read anything about propaganda. The department of defense is involved in almost all of these American military action movies. Chris Kyle American murderer, the hurt locker, careful hand washing off the collateral damage and destroyed lives let alone the brutal actual cost of lives. Don’t look up how carbon dioxide much the American military dumped into the atmosphere during the Iraq war either.

[@AnakinSkywakka]

^ There's always that one guy.

[@abyssaldision8272]

@@AnakinSkywakka there’s always willful ignorance that got us here :))

[@fatmooselips3110]

@@abyssaldision8272 dude why are you even here? Like seriously what is the point of your comment.

[@rogeliomora417]

@@fatmooselips3110 what? There’s really nothing wrong with what he said.

[@Valkinsenn]

2:42. You know, if they wanted to use a song with "California" in it that basically summed up the absolute shitstorm these marines were headed for, and is also more or less contextually relevant to SSgt. Nantz in the story, they could've just used "Check My Brain" by Alice in Chains. Would've made it a bit more interesting, in my opinion. Also, Black Gives Way to Blue, the album Check My Brain was featured on, was also released in 2009, so back in 2011, when Battle: Los Angeles premiered, it more or less still hot off the press.

[@cola98765]

I absolutely love Jeff Wayne's musical version of War of the Worlds, and just the fact how artillerymen say that while overpowered, they were not invincible, before that sea battle happened. And I love that it was kinda mentioned here.

[@Sketch1ish]

I saw Battle LA on one of my first weekend passes after basic training. It was me, 4-6 other army guys, and then every other seat in the theater was filled with new marines. Watching this movie with the marines cheering on their boys on screen, screaming at them when they aren't properly following their battle drills, and getting hyped during every battle was amazing and will always filter my memories of this movie in nostalgia.

[@Jay_76]

Cody, you call the aliens in Battle LA weak, yet in all the footage you show of them getting killed, it seems to take an entire magazine worth of rounds to drop them. That's pretty tough, in my opinion.

[@strikeforce1500]

@@DelPlays oh yeah, I really hated that. I hate when the enemies go from "pretty hard to kill" to "Difficult changed to:Recruit"

[@oompalumpus699]

@@DelPlays Someone changed the difficulty from gamer, to journalist.

[@zombiediet]

Well they did find the spot on them that was a weak point, I think it's implied that's where they are taking rounds

[@Shinransa]

@@DelPlays The first alien they empty a clip into made them instinctively unload on it by jumping out of the water, they weren't accurate shots and eventually took it down. After that they don't kill another one until they wound one and dissect it. They passed the info of where you need to shoot, the weak spot is also not that small. The aliens still pose a threat after that, they seem to be as tough as if they were wearing heavy body armor instead of standard IBA plates.

[@elitemook4234]

The problem is that most aliens in fiction are literal wizards, specifically designed by author fiat to hand wave conventional weapons (and physics) for the sake of telling a very specific story. It's created a false expectation for what aliens should be like.

[@DeanOliver1964]

I'm 60 and this movie is one of my guilty pleasures. It's a blast to watch as long as I don't engage my brain during the movie.

[@godopeach90]

I never really thought critically about my love for this movie before now, despite seeing it multiple times. I was 21 and had just gotten home from a combat tour of Afghanistan when this movie released, so it was the perfect storm I guess. You hit on a STRONG point about the contrasting moral implications between fighting aliens and fighting human insurgents, and that was something I couldn't articulate at the time, but it made a huge difference in my wormy little brain; seeing an analog of myself on the screen fighting someone that was unequivocally "bad" was almost like a security blanket for me compared to the reality of military service in that era. It would take me years of therapy and soul searching to fully grasp the implications of what we did over there and to come to grips with it all. That said, this movie still has a tender place in my heart in spite of it more or less being mid-tier propaganda. Idk, thanks for making my brain tick a little today, your video was pretty cool.

[@QuintusAntonious]

This reminds me of the Harry Turtledove short story where aliens show up on Earth and everyone is scared, but then they start shooting at us with muskets and our soldiers take them out in seconds. The basic idea is that the secret of interstellar travel is so easy to figure out that every other civilization figured it out in their Medieval period and had no further reason to advance so this civilization that had muskets and canons was super powerful compared to the rest. Meanwhile, on Earth, we never discovered space travel so we kept advancing our military technology. The story ends with humans taking the technology and becoming the new interstellar power because of how advanced our tech is compared to the rest of the universe.

[@fallenoak4560]

The road least taken.

[@joshuajoaquin5099]

what is the name of the novel?

[@melvishabbo]

The road not taken

[@Josep_Hernandez_Lujan]

Reminds me of a book that's the opposite. Aliens invade medieval Europe and knights with swords fight them

[@zidanelionheart]

That is AMAZING

[@steveseiler478]

So my best friend was a marine, according to him, this is the top most realistic alien movie he's watched! He says "how the soldiers move, call stuff out, everything, is correct in how he did it"

[@BrutalSnuggles]

Bull. A Marine would never refer to other Marines as soldiers

[@dakotaadams189]

@@BrutalSnuggles There are Army infantry and Air Force JTAC too.

[@BrutalSnuggles]

@@dakotaadams189 regardless, there are tons of errors relative to real life military jargon. Most egregious is FOB, it's a word. Fob. Not f. o. b.

[@stevebutters306]

Your marine friend called other marines soldiers? Why do I doubt that...

[@SCHMALLZZZ]

Soldiers are in the Army. Marines are in the Marines. Both have infantry.

[@startingfromzero2173]

"they invaded us without warning for our resources" i wonder what that reminds me of...

[@NewKanyeFan]

I especially liked the last 20 seconds of this video where I realized it was not about Battle LA the game. And the 15 minutes of recycling various ways to say the aliens had to fight fair. If I wasn't already at work I'd be asking for compensation

[@DSHPerotecH]

In defense of this style of film, the Spec Ops squad fighting Scorpinok in the desert from the first Transformers holds up pretty well. Realistic depiction of AWACs and the score really help it feel like the soldiers used their skills and combined arms effectively to take down a vastly superior opponent. Plus, it's badass.

[@Shinransa]

The best part of the Bay Transformers movies are the military scenes even when they are completely bonkers it's just military porn... which indicates that these are bad Transformers movies but also that Bay should make more war movies, 13 Hours was amazing.

[@alecmeden9842]

Though they do get air support in like, 5 minutes though lol.

[@biggusdickus6537]

The only part that still sticks out is how the A-10s fly their gun run so low. Obviously it wouldn’t be cinematic enough for the warthogs hit skorpinox from their typical attack position hundreds of feet in the air, but it still felt cheesy how they did it BF4 style.

[@icannon6611]

@@biggusdickus6537 the real crime was the wrong sound effect.

[@miming3679]

I thought that scene was genius though. On one hand it's pure military porn. "Fuck you alien this is why you don't mess with America cause you'll get 2 a10s and an ac130 on your ass" This is coupled with the fact that's its accompanied by sick ass patriotic music and an eventual victory for humanity. But then you realize it took 2 A-10s and a gunship just to cut off its tail.

[@ProphetOfTruth_]

To add to the Halo bit, it’s important to note that we play as a Spartan, a super soldier far more skilled than the average marine and using the covenant shielding technology on their armor. Just a great combination of balancing gameplay while also having actual lore reasons why it works. The human military was being consistently wiped out until Spartans were developed to be able to actually fight back

[@nickcalderon2637]

Ironically, earlier today, the official Halo channel released a video that goes over a war story ABOUT how the UNSC got their hands on the Covenant Shielding.

[@ProphetOfTruth_]

@@nickcalderon2637 nice, gotta check that out. I read all the halo books that were out at the time when I was in high school (granted that’s over a decade ago at this point lol) and loved how brutal the authors made covenant weapons sound against non shielded regular unsc soldiers

[@nickcalderon2637]

@@ProphetOfTruth_ It’s UNSC Archives Unspoken, when you start looking for it.

[@Gameprojordan]

Yeah the only times regular humans actually successfully fended off the covenant before Spartans usually involved suicide tactics and mass loss of life. You could call it an official victory more than a decisive human victory

[@solthegamer3769]

Uh, Spartans were already developed before humans ever made contact with the Covenant

[@vashlash6870]

Three body problem series has to be the most interesting sci Fi and accurate sci-fi of how a war would actually work out against aliens. It still gives me chills to this day.

[@AC-iz7eh]

Absolute obliteration. Yeah the scene where the teardrop just rips the entire combined armada of humanity's space forces was shocking

[@ALDS-zk9ko]

That knowing better cameo was unexpected yet made me so happy. Love you both!

[@Wraithfighter]

I remember reading this sci-fi short story some time ago, “The Road Not Taken” by Cody’s old buddy Harry Turtledove, where the conceit was that aliens arrived to then-contemporary Earth... but aside from the stuff needed to travel the stars, all of their technology was basically early 1800s level tech. Muskets, telescopes, that sort of thing, and they invaded in force... and promptly got their asses kicked. The whole concept is that humanity just missed discovering the needed tech for space travel, and instead of going off on costly and slow expansionistic voyages of conquest, we stayed home and developed our other tech. A bit silly, but a useful story to point out that technological advancement in one area does not mean a similar level of advancement in all other areas...

[@shadewolf0075]

Just imagine everyone complaining that the concept insults their intelligence if it gets made into a film

[@renzmanzano4010]

Sounds like a generic HFY story

[@cossacktwofive4974]

If the alien invasion story was "straightforward" - i.e. aliens very advance, then Harry Turtledove's "Vilcabamba" is the story, at least the how the backstory goes. An alien race so advance that modern science could not explain how the alien technology works thus preventing humans to duplicate anything alien. In addition to that is humanity needs about 2 armored divisions just to take out one alien grunt, and the aliens and their vehicles are so durable that it makes atomic and thermonuclear weapons a complete joke when used against them. And in the end of the story, the aliens still won.

[@JACCO20082012]

I remember reading something in one of the Halo lore books that said the Covenant were surprised and appalled at the UNSC's use of nukes against them. They had nuclear technology and understanding of atoms, but it just never occurred to them to weaponize it. The point is, as you touched on, that the diversity we see in tactics and technology here on Earth would be magnified 10x over for another civilization that evolved on a different planet under different circumstances.

[@hibiskus828]

@@JACCO20082012 I understand the sentiment but honestly that's pretty contrived. How does it not occur to an intelligent civilization that a certain natural process which releases tremendous amounts of energy with very little reaction mass, could maybe be used to blow things up?

[@purplehaze2358]

In spite of the original _War Of The Worlds_ basing its aliens off the enemies of Britain at the time, it surprisingly enough has one of the more plausible intelligent alien designs in pop-culture to this day. Despite being a _product_ of its time (where it was legitimate scientific consensus that a humanoid form is required for intelligence), designing the alien threat to look somewhat cephalopod-esque is notably _ahead_ of its time.

[@kalo_vera]

Squids and Octopi are spooky man

[@thesteelsquid863]

​@@kalo_verafound lovecraft's alt account

[@belot217]

HG Wells' story about a moon civilization was even more innovative, inventing the cybernetic and insect hivemind genre of alien.

[@alanderek1231]

I also quite like it's interpretation of laser weapons I remember it being described less like a glowing bullet like we see in sci Fi today and more like a flashlight that vaporized everything its light touched

[@tournesol99]

​@@alanderek1231A laser is, after all, just a focused beam of light. It should behave identically to any other beam of light. An actual laser gun would be so intimidating. Mostly though we get just get endless copies of blasters from Star Wars.

[@grumpymonkeyenterprises6413]

Ending this video with the mw3 music is the cherry on top. Ur content has gotten so good in these recent years. U got talent.

[@thepapschmearmd]

Also a veteran who deployed and I loved this movie pretty much for exactly the reasons Knowing Better stated. Also loved to see that cameo.

[@tedy5676]

"the aliens are nerfed" Aliens: "i just came here to conquer planets and honestly youre making me feel so attacked right now"

[@dimitriwarchief301]

You literally come to invade us!!!!

[@big-bonkin-head1034]

Ngl I feel like Battle: LA was ahead of it’s time. I was 10-11 when it came out and it always kept with me. I’m starting to see a lot of praise and appreciation for it now. I love the realism of the movie. Marine humor, conventional warfare, desperation, bad circumstances, realistic aliens, realistic military tactics, just alot of realism and didn’t give into typical Hollywood explosions and plots

[@trevorking2820]

The Marine humor was extremely subdued.

[@zacrusk5274]

Seeing knowing better randomly pop in this video was a awesome surprise! Knowing better is the best YT channel ever!!!

[@SilverBullet096]

Well, the algorithm was 2 years too late showing this to me, but I'm super glad to have stumbled across your channel. I'll definitely be checking out your other videos!

[@Grandmaster_Vic]

I remembered going to the Theaters watching Battle LA with my friends. After watching the movie, it really made all of us wanted to go home and play Battlefield Bad Company 2 which is exactly what we did and had a very good time. Times were great back then

[@GreyshotProductions]

Really surprised you didn't talk about the Battle: LA game on Xbox Live Arcade. It was... interesting.

[@kyokyodisaster4842]

The....WHAT!?

[@anthonystrange4314]

im surprised people still remember the game my memories of it are like a fever dream lol

[@theicemanleaveth]

@@anthonystrange4314 I remember the controls being laughably bad. My friends and I tried it for like 5 minutes before giving up

[@blazefoster5845]

I remember getting that as a kid! It was my first digital game I bought and thought the fact it was digital was mind blowing! The game itself was super short demo and was alright. Plus, oddly enough, I remember there being billboards in the game to promote the Green Hornet reboot at the time. Thought that was oddly placed, but whatever lol

[@StonedWandererAZ]

Glad I'm not the only one that remembers it.

[@thetrickster240]

I love that you play MWII music in the background as we're going through this! Reliving the glory days 🫡

[@XDarkEcho]

I remember watching this movie when it came out, on base with a couple of my squad members from my Company. Ahh, that theater was packed, but it was hype as fuck in there, and it was just a fantastic experience while still serving at the time. I got to admit too, the attention to detail on how Marines act, and how our tactics were, etc felt real close to home, like they actually did their research.

[@4meSaints]

"Developed by Infinite Ward" Now I cannot unsee that modern warfare font

[@Shinransa]

There are details put into the aliens in this movie that make you think their invasion is a desperate attempt to survive. Their technology, while advanced, looks worn out and it being part of their body also makes it seem like they have to augment themselves to survive, it also looks like they weren't originally living on land and modified their bodies to walk. Their desperate Blitzkrieg looks as if they know that they won't last in a drawn out war on their enemies' home turf. Overall, this felt like a worn out and desperate alien race that launches a last ditch assault on Earth in the hopes of being able to get enough resources or go extinct in the process. These small intricate details along with the it being a war movie first and an alien invasion movie second are what makes this movie stand out to me. It holds a special place in my heart. Also you can replace the Marines by UNSC grunts and the Landsharks by Covenants and you've got a good Halo war movie.

[@crypticbait]

Contact Harvest needs a movie adaptation

[@juliobenavides241]

@@crypticbait thats true

[@geraldkenneth119]

If the theory that’s they’re aquatic is true they could’ve easily just taken up residence in the oceans, without displacing anyone. They really, really fucked up when they decided to attack instead of just landing in the oceans and staying there

[@combatwombat2134]

​@@geraldkenneth119 I think people would get pissy pretty quickly, there's a news broadcast that says they're already seeing local water levels go down so I suspect they would get the depth charges out pretty quickly. 😂

[@davidlennyman444]

@@geraldkenneth119 I’m sure you could cram some environs message in there that the ayy lmaos couldn’t just live underwater cause of pollution or something

[@kittyvlekkie]

props to you for cooperating with knowing better

[@S-G-zm3uu]

Mad respect to knowing better for not only being a vet willing to appear in this video but also being an m240 gunner

[@purplebatdragon]

The "fair" designs for the aliens made me constantly think "man, this would be cool as a video game!" A week later, I saw the official Battle LA: the Game for $5 on the PlayStation Store with no advertising anywhere to be found. I was so confused. Was it SUPPOSED to be a game the whole time, and the movie was marketing?

[@coolgreenbug7551]

was the game any good?

[@justinf69420]

@@coolgreenbug7551 it was alright yanno

[@palarious]

@@coolgreenbug7551 I REALLY wanted the game to be good but it was just.... kinda barebones.

[@rickdavis32]

@@palarious It was not very finished, or polished or finished, it crashed after you beat the third level. It played like 1999 call of duty attempting to be heard of war. It played and looked bad then again it wasn't finished at all.

[@palarious]

@@rickdavis32 It was bleh enough that I didn't finish it and I really wanted to like it.

[@sableliger327]

I’m amazed that they didn’t expand on sequels (BATTLE:NEW YORK, BATTLE: MOSCOW, BATTLE: LONDON) to show that the invasion was not just focused on the UnitedStates, but a global conflict. So much wasted potential.

[@J07911]

probably due to the box office numbers

[@englandesclamado2398]

Battle Moscow will not work. Landsharks invade coastal cities. BATTLE: Vladivostok should be instead.

[@hollister2320]

They did have other theaters of war, or at least sequels in line until they were pulled

[@jonaswhitt4322]

I am pretty sure there were plans to set a sequel in Las Vegas or something, but yah the movie didn't do well enough for a sequel.

[@fresanegra77]

How Battle:Moscow would finish They all freeze to death and get kicked around by anti tank ammunition probably

[@BertzTriscut]

In a lot of ways, the alien technology actually makes more sense than in other movies because most of what you see (lasers, shields, etc) are entirely fictitious. Having an army that invested into ballistics and how to male them better makes a lot more sense than delving into weapons that just wouldn't work all that well as a primary weapon if it would even work at all.

[@Enyoiyourself]

We all have that movie where we are like "yeah is not that good, but I really like it".

[@JoeDirte157]

The thing that struck me about this when I saw it, if you look closely, on the firefight that takes place on the bridge..you can see an alien treating/evacuating a comrade….I was like…wtf…wow.

[@MaxterandKiwiKing]

I completely forgot about Max Keeble. Seeing that clip of the froggy sexual assault reactivated long buried neurons in my memories. Not sure how to feel about that.

[@MrWolfman229]

Same.

[@blazefoster5845]

I remember being terrified of that movie as a kid. I could never quite put it but there was something about that movie as a whole that just made me super uncomfortable when I was 7

[@RudBooii]

Saw this movie in theater as I kid, and truly loved it, one of my favorite alien movie

[@RudBooii]

Damn I used to keep movie tickets and got this on me too 😅😂

[@mr.minnesotanice2626]

I like this video. I also like the knowing better cameo. I think you should make more videos they are very good.

[@ZackaryWilliams77]

How they described Battle Los Angeles as awar movie with aliens. Made me think about Half-Life 2. Sure the combine were technologicaly superior to humanity and took over the planet, but in the game you basically fight the 'landsharks' as the Combine Soldiers. Just humans slightly modified and have slightly better weapons. And I can see why a lot of people enjoy Half-Life 2 because the playing field is as even as you can get for an invading alien force.

[@Josep_Hernandez_Lujan]

G-Man though

[@martinzamboni9960]

Half life 2 is more realist tho. When the combine actually used their alien forces, earth fell in less than 7 hours. The human soldiers are just a militarized police force administered by a local native authority that has pledged loyalty to the empire in exchange of benefits. Just like british or spanish colonies in the XIX century worked

[@elitemook4234]

@@martinzamboni9960 yea, no. Look at the deep lore. The aliens didn't turn up and roll over humanity. Humanity was crippled by the negative space wedgie created at the end of the first game and surrended without really fighting. The point of the freeman is showing humanity that they can fight back.

[@notvonbayern9202]

“This is the Comic Sans of action movies”. Never have I realized just how common that damn font was. I can feel the late 2000s action movies and COD memories flooding my brain just thinking of it

[@ethribin4188]

I honestly like the idea that weapon tech today is close to the max that weapon tech can be. And the main tech advantage of aliens isnt greater firepower, but faster than light travel. And outside of that, they are at most close future tech weapon wise. It makes them feel more realistic and the story less fantastical.

[@epic-a]

I know this video is 2 years old now (since a few days ago) but I want to say that I appreciate you using the MW2 soundtrack in the background of this. Just makes me feel all giddy

[@CaptainZachAim7]

I definitely appreciated all of the gear, weapons, and vehicles used in this movie. The communication and chain of command is pretty spot on too. They definitely consulted with veterans for this movie. When I saw this movie it was kind of a breath of fresh air from the normal Hollywood BS; not to say that this movie didn’t have its fair share of BS as well…like the 249 running through every belt perfectly lol

[@willybobrob5504]

Should have had some jams lol. Imagine if they showed a runaway gun hahaha!! Break the belt or ride the lightning!!

[@clevermcgenericname891]

I guess this is the channel to talk about Command and Conquer: Generals? The lore is paper thin, but its pretty unique that a game would come out just a month before the invasion of Iraq in 2003, with the first mission for the US faction being a tank attack on Baghdad. and with another playable faction based on an enemy the US was already fighting, as the GLA were a stand in for Al-Qaeda...I remember overwhelming a US base with bomb trucks in 2004 and glancing at the TV to see a report of a suicide bomber attack on a checkpoint somewhere in Iraq. It was a bit of a head fuck, I doubt any game company would have the balls to do something like it again.

[@aymanayad7230]

funnily enough Generals is really popular here in iraq and in syria, every computer cafe has generals installed on every computer

[@ObiWahnKnobi]

When C&C: Generals was released the signs were already on the wall that a third Gulf-War was likely. But looking back, it wasn't unlikely that the US would get involved in the region when development started or shortly after.

[@Spongebrain97]

I still play that game. Too bad the sequel never came to be

[@kaplahworm]

@@aymanayad7230 Don't tell them about the training materials >.>

[@QuintusAntonious]

The GLA was basically a proto-ISIS.

[@migmit]

I haven't seen the movie, but I was a part of the team making the companion game for it. Actually, at the time it felt like there was a game and a companion movie to it. Anyway, I think I recognized some of the locations in this video - I've actually played through them while testing the game (in a super-cheater mode). I'm gonna relate to you one joke that was probably not very sensitive. Keep in mind that I was much younger. Anyway, noticing there was one black character among the marines, and one female character, who also doubled as a latino character, I asked my boss which one of the marines was gay. He didn't know but guessed that it was probably the player (it was a first-person shooter, and no, the POV character was not the one played by Eckhart in the movie).

[@adamfrazer5150]

14:05 really appreciate this segment, definitely opens the door on a different angle to look at this film from 👍

[@NathanS__]

I've always loved this movie and rewatched it fairly regularly. People always act like if aliens got here that they must be unfathomably more advanced than us but they could be at their very limits of ability. Like JC's Avatar, humanity wasn't ripping through portals to get to Pandora, we were using our most advanced technology and it still took 12 years round trip. And I like that it appears that these are a slave caste in their society. They're not citizen-soldiers, they're fodder used to clear out new territory. Air power alone doesn't win wars or occupy territory, we should all be aware of that by now.

[@bobuiux]

I was in OSUT training at Fort Benning when this film came out. We got out first pass to go off-post near the end of the cycle, so me and my friends all piled into the movie theatre so excited to catch a movie after months of isolation and training. It was amazing and I was so excited to watch it again once I got some freedom and assigned to a duty station. That opinion did not hold up on the second viewing. Not seeing movies or TV for months will make even objectively bad movies into masterpieces.

[@LionKimbro]

I have lit. never seen this movie, ever, and -- from what I see here, this movie looks absolutely 100% amazing. I am ALL IN on the shaky cam, the on-the-ground combat, the tactical nature of the battle, everything. I can't wait to watch this movie with a 13 year old kid. Call me a rube, but to this 45 year old who beat the original Wasteland and the original X-COM as a kid and teenager, this looks shockingly cool. I can't wait to watch this movie.

[@flamingotwist]

so this is actually quite interesting to think about. Aliens having interstellar travel technology, and also having the technology to completely overwhelm the military resistance of a planet are two different things. Theres lots of ways you can quite easily make it so that the aliens and humans are on fairly even footing, i'll chuck a few ideas here as examples: - The aliens may have evolved in a way where competition/war wasn't as rife as in our own civilization. If they have something like a hive mind, then it stands to reason that they probably wouldn't have spent thousands of years developing ways to kill each other like we have. They may arrive and find themselves overwhelmed on a battlefield. Conversely, our military technology is leagues ahead of civilian technology. - Alien technology may have developed in a different way. Maybe they found a way to make portals or something like that. It could mean that their weaponry is less advanced than other aspects of their technology. Perhaps their planet has a natural resource which makes interstellar travel far easier, but lacks resources that are efficient at making advanced weaponry - It may just be a fact that interstellar travel takes a great deal of resource. Aliens may not be able to transport their strongest ships, equipment, or numbers. With our own space trave, every kilogram counts. If aliens were to invade,, it may be that they have to invade with the lowest amount of resources possible to get the job done - If they are a hive mind and have little thought for their own self preservation, aliens could very well be easy to kill. A win for them could be done through sheer attrition Would be cool to see a film where these kind of ideas are explored. For now though its just in my Battle LA headcannon

[@lucianosilvestri4289]

Really, if passing from the military's perspective was a differentiator, I would have loved to have seen a movie like The Mist, Cloverfield or War of the Worlds from the military's perspective.

[@Killerduck0213]

Cloverfield is kind of a guilty pleasure of mine and mostly because the few brief sections where the military shows up are done pretty good imo. Probably not realistic but fun to watch.

[@fresanegra77]

Man, The Mist would work great that way to be honest

[@JillLulamoon]

I think Godzilla 2014 attempted to do this. I remember a lot of people whining about it, but I thought it was really cool to include scenes showing the armed forces reacting to a giant monster attack.

[@trainenthusiast5199]

Or the President's perspective, as I'm pretty sure we all want to see how someone with so much power and responsibilities reacts to something like this, like in Independence Day. (I know, ID4 is stupid to y'all)

[@aliahpersonous2893]

For Cloverfield I imagine they’d have to run away constantly either from Clover getting pissed off or from the parasites falling off her.