10 Movie Conspiracy Theories You Won't Believe Exist

There’s a shocking secret behind the Will Smith conceived sci-fi flop After Earth and it isn’t just that a bit of good old nepotism helped Smith’s son Jaden, who can’t act his way out of a paper bag, land himself a starring role. Far more than a failed attempt at fully thrusting young Jaden into the spotlight, the M. Night Shyamalan directed sh*tshow is really a piece of Scientology propaganda.

Although Will Smith has never officially admitted to being a follower of the Church of Scientology he was introduced to the doctrine by his close friend, no other than L. Ron Hubbard nut Tom Cruise, in the early noughties. Since then, Smith has donated money to Scientology related groups and causes several times and has stated he finds some of the religion’s beliefs “brilliant and revolutionary”. Smith could be downplaying his affection for Scientology though because according to not only the tinfoil hat brigade, but ex-members of the religion too, the film is chock-full of pro-Hubbard messages.

Amongst the many Scientology-esque elements in After Earth is its focus on the overcoming of fear. The movie’s boogeymen, alien race S’krell, deploy predatory beasts that hunt by sensing fear and throughout the film, Jaden’s character Kitai must overcome his fear to achieve his goals but is luckily guided by his father (played by Will) – not too dissimilar to Scientology’s thoughts on negative emotions and the process of ‘auditing’ to overcome them. Furthermore, After Earth’s climax features an erupting volcano and everybody knows that Scientology loves volcanoes – not only does a volcano feature on the cover of L. Rob Hubbard’s seminal book Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health, Scientology god Xenu also atomically bombed volcanoes when he visited Earth some 75 million years ago.

Naturally, the Church of Scientology were quick to dispel these theories as they do with basically anything that paints them in a less than positive light. It wasn’t needed though because thankfully, much like John Travolta’s fellow pro-Scientology flop Battlefield Earth, After Earth was so awful that nobody really paid it any mind.