Revolt in the Stars

Plot

Set 75 million years before modern times, the story follows the evil galactic ruler Xenu, who massacres millions with help from Chu, Executive President of the Galactic Interplanetary Bank, and Chi, Galactic Minister of Police. Xenu's psychiatric advisers Stug and Sty assist in gathering unwanted beings from all planets under his control and transporting them to Earth.

The beings are stacked around volcanoes including Loa, Mount Vesuvius, Mount Shasta, Mount Fuji, and Mount Etna, then exterminated by detonating atomic bombs. This massacre is called Phase III. The loyal officer Mish survives, and other characters include Lady Min and the hero Rawl.

Connection to Scientology teachings

The screenplay dramatizes events Hubbard said occurred 75 million years ago, in which Xenu addressed overpopulation in his Galactic Confederacy by trapping beings, flying them to Earth (then called Teegeeack), and exterminating them with hydrogen bombs. Their spirits, called thetans, were trapped in frozen alcohol and glycol and implanted with imagery, later attaching to humans as body thetans. Scientology identifies this as Incident II. Believing in Xenu and body thetans is required to progress beyond OT III on the Bridge to Total Freedom.

Development

Hubbard wrote the 140-page screenplay in 1977 while living in seclusion in Sparks, Nevada with three members of the Commodore's Messenger Organization. He finished by December 1977 and began preparing for production. The screenplay was registered with the U.S. Copyright Office in November 1977 with his daughter as claimant, and as a novel in May 1978 with Hubbard as claimant. A former Scientologist said Hubbard intended public distribution to restimulate people inhabited by thetans.

Hubbard moved to La Quinta, California, producing training films on auditing. A 10-acre ranch in Indio and a 140-acre ranch called Silver were purchased; the tech films were made at Silver. By 1980 Hubbard planned to film Revolt in the Stars and publicize OT III theology. The screenplay circulated in Hollywood in 1978.

A production company called Brilliant Films announced plans in October 1979 to produce it independently. The New York Post reported a $49 million budget. Bent Corydon wrote that millions were raised from investors but questionable fundraising methods halted the project. Efforts to develop the film failed, and Hubbard focused on writing Man, the Endangered Species, later the novel Battlefield Earth, which was made into a 2000 film starring John Travolta that received hostile reviews and performed poorly.

Analysis

James R. Lewis, in The Encyclopedic Sourcebook of UFO Religions, cites Revolt in the Stars when comparing Hubbard's science fiction to Scientology, noting the relation between Hubbard's novels and Whole Track mythology is most evident in this unpublished work. New Religions: A Guide includes the screenplay in a subsection on non-apocalyptic ufology, recounting that Xenu carried thetans to Earth. The Washington Post reported the plot mirrors the sacred Scientology text OT III.

Former Scientologist Gerry Armstrong said the story is identical to Scientology space opera theology. Russell Miller described it as a dramatization of high-level Scientology training about Xenu's massacre 75 million years ago. Jim Emerson compared elements of the Xenu story and Revolt in the Stars to the 2005 War of the Worlds remake starring Tom Cruise. Christian Schlüter commented that the mythology was appropriate for cinema and fit Hollywood.