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I'm searching for a movie where humans fight some aliens. Those aliens have a very scary shape (like monsters, bugs, ants, or something similar).

At some point during the movie it is revealed that this scary shape is actually an illusion made by the government to manipulate the humans into fighting with fewer moral inhibitions.

The release year of the movie is roughly between 1995 and 2010. I watched it in German, but I think it was originally English.

I remember the movie to be quite violent with lots of mass fighting scenes soldiers against aliens.

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    Welcome to the site. Please take a look at the check lists in this thread, and see if you can think of any more details about the film which you can edit into your question. It would be particularly helpful to know in roughly which year you watched this film, and when you think it was made.
    – LogicDictates
    Commented Jun 23, 2021 at 13:31
  • Not what you asked about, but the title reminded me of the Wizard of Oz.
    – einpoklum
    Commented Jun 24, 2021 at 21:40

3 Answers 3

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Could it be the episode 'Men Against Fire' of the anthology series 'Black Mirror'?

From Wikipedia:

"Stripe" Koinange (Malachi Kirby) and "Hunter" Raiman (Madeline Brewer) are squadmates in a military that hunts roaches: pale, snarling, humanoid monsters with sharp teeth. Each soldier has a neural implant called MASS that provides data via augmented reality.

Arquette reveals that MASS alters soldiers' senses so they can kill without hesitation or remorse

The episode was originally broadcast in 2016 so later than you estimate but seems to fit your description.

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    I immediately thought of this as well
    – Benny Bottema
    Commented Jun 24, 2021 at 5:39
  • I love how we always assume it's some obscure hard-to-find show. I'm sure other people thought "Black Mirror did it, but it's recent and well known. If they saw it there they'd know they saw it there, so it can't be the answer".
    – Owen Reynolds
    Commented Jun 24, 2021 at 17:40
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    @OwenReynolds And some people, especially new users, tend to just accept the first semi-plausible answer that comes in and never look back to see if a better one comes along. The Outer Limits isn't necessarily less well-known than Black Mirror, it's just that it fits the given time period better.
    – Darrel Hoffman
    Commented Jun 24, 2021 at 18:12
  • I watched trailers and pictures of all the answers... and I fear I have confused something in my memory.. I guess i mixed the Black MIrror Episode with a bit of Starship Troopers in my mind. So, this was the most correct answers. But thanks a lot everyone, I'm deeply impressed about the work you do here!
    – David
    Commented Jun 26, 2021 at 5:30
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There is an episode of the 1995 The Outer Limits series, "Hearts and Minds" (season 4, episode 3) where the soldiers have drug implants that make their (human) enemies look like aliens, and the other side is doing the same.

From the plot summary on Wikipedia:

All soldiers of the team have drug injectors to protect them against an "alien virus". After a drug injector malfunction, the soldiers slowly realize that the drug is actually designed to cause hallucinations of disgusting looking aliens. The "aliens" are actually humans as well, but from another federation. The team tries to make contact with the "alien team" to explain the situation and ask for peace. But their drug injectors work properly and they kill everyone from the team, believing that they are the aliens. The final scene shows the soldiers dead on the floor.

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    To add to this: a lot of the hour-long episode was one soldier trying to convince the others to shut-off their "anti-virus" drug injector because it was a lie. There were lots of little action/suspense scenes, but the whole thing was a mere 5 soldiers going through some sort of industrial plant, shooting "aliens".
    – Owen Reynolds
    Commented Jun 23, 2021 at 22:08
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    I feel like this is probably the correct answer, as the Black Mirror episode is much too recent.
    – Darrel Hoffman
    Commented Jun 24, 2021 at 13:49
  • @DarrelHoffman The OP didn't say, and they might be wrong, but it's possible they looked at "Black Mirror Episodes", slapped their head, and realized "oh, yeah, I was watching that series".
    – Owen Reynolds
    Commented Jun 24, 2021 at 17:42
  • @OwenReynolds - actually, this is what i thought 8-)
    – David
    Commented Jun 26, 2021 at 5:31
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Sounds a bit like the 5th wave but it came out on 2016

"While out on a kill mission, Ringer removes her military implant, causing her to register as an Other-possessed human on the squad's scopes. The squad deduces the plan to have them kill real unpossessed humans, making them the 5th Wave. "

enter image description here

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    This is what I first thought of, but there are no real big battle scenes between soldiers and aliens.
    – Jack B Nimble
    Commented Jun 23, 2021 at 15:02

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