The Warlord: Battle for the Galaxy

The Warlord: Battle for the Galaxy
DVD under the title The Osiris Chronicles
Genre	Science fiction
Written by	Caleb Carr
Directed by	Joe Dante
Starring	John Corbett Carolyn McCormick John Pyper-Ferguson Elisabeth Harnois J. Madison Wright
Theme music composer	Karl Lundeberg
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
Production
Producer(s)	Dan Dugan Bill Millar Rene Garcia Thomas R. Polizzi
Cinematography	Jamie Anderson
Editor(s)	Marshall Harvey Michael Thau
Running time	97 minutes
Distributor	Paramount Television
Release
Original network	UPN
Original release	January 27, 1998 (1998-01-27)

The Warlord: Battle for the Galaxy (also known as The Osiris Chronicles) is a science fiction film which aired on January 27, 1998 on television. The film is written by screenwriter Caleb Carr, who wrote the novel The Alienist, and directed by Joe Dante. It was intended to be the pilot for a series called The Osiris Chronicles that never materialized. Similar concepts would later be used in Andromeda.

The story takes place several centuries in the future. Mankind has colonized the entire solar system and beyond, and hardships such as war, disease, hunger, and overpopulation have been eliminated. However, boredom spread rapidly throughout the galaxy and as a result, interstellar war broke out. The two opposing factions were the Galactic Republic and the Rebels. While the Rebels eventually defeated the Galactic Republic because of their far greater numbers, the former were no better off; the aftermath of that war was a new Dark Age. Houses, plantations, and, more importantly, most books were destroyed in the war, and knowledge of interstellar travel was mostly lost, available only to a privileged few. Mankind, in the film, had made much progress, only to be rewarded with "third world" living conditions, despite people still possessing very advanced computers.

The movie opens in the living room of a very luxurious house. A man named Heenoc Xian (John Pyper-Ferguson), is reading his book when his concentration suddenly drifts away and he reminisces about his life in chronological order, from being a pilot during his Academy years, to a freedom fighter, and to eventually, a warlord. He recalls the latter with irony as he narrates the tale of those particular events of his life. It begins on the planet Caliban 5, ruled by none other than Warlord Heenoc Xian. A young man named Justin Thorpe (John Corbett), a petty thief who carves out a living for himself by trading items he obtained through stealing and salvaging, comes home one night to his battered, run-down house as he is greeted by his kid sister, Nova (J. Madison Wright), a precocious pre-teen. Their parents are revealed to be dead, and they are all that remains of their family. Their lives have a routine and their evenings usually end with Nova teaching Thorpe to read a chapter of a book each night. The two siblings have learnt to make the most of the situation and are content. However, one day, Thorpe returns from his morning routine and discovers that Nova has disappeared. Knowing his sister would never run away from home, Thorpe comes to the conclusion that she had been kidnapped, but does not know who the kidnapper is and why she was taken.