A Small Talent For War - Plot

Plot

An emissary (John Glover) from an alien race arrives to claim to have genetically engineered Humanity. He directly challenges the United Nations to prove Humanity's worth, displeased over their "small talent for war". He then tells them that Mankind has failed to produce the potential that the aliens nurtured in them thousands of years ago, and as a result, all life on Earth will be destroyed in 24 hours. With the survival of Humanity at stake, the UN hurriedly establishes an accord for lasting global peace and presents it to the emissary.

However, the emissary was, in fact, seeking a greater talent for war, as the aliens routinely breed warriors to fight for them across the galaxy. Humanity's "small talent" for war (crude weapons, petty bickering over borders) is not significant enough to be of any use to them, and worst of all, the ultimate goal of Humanity is peace. As the ambassador calls down a fleet of spaceships to destroy the Earth, he praises the humans for their "delightful sense of the absurd", and his parting comment repeats the dying words attributed to several English-language actors: "Dying is easy, comedy is hard".

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