MovieChat Forums > Independence Day (1996) Discussion > Aliens have attacked the entire earth an...

Aliens have attacked the entire earth and...


• sure, I'll still go to work at my strip club job!

• sure, I'll casually joke around with my army buddy about totally unrelated matters!

• sure, instead of running news about the *beep* ALIENS ATTACKING EARTH, I'll run a piece about a local crazy guy getting arrested!

Jesus, what terrible writing.

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I don't know if you're high on meth or just plain stupid. But, the Aliens were not ATTACKING during the aforementioned scenes.

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bonsai-superstar, I'm with you on that. Attacking or not attacking the earth is irrelevant. If aliens suddenly showed up, we may as well consider that a predetermined day, week, month, and/or even year off from work. The reason is simple. The impact on humanity would be far greater than any previously experienced natural disaster in human history.

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I dunno... I still have bills. Most other people do, too. I would go to work unless the aliens came to see me personally. The story would be enthralling, though, and I'd be checking in on it constantly.

Like notice how nobody in the Strip Club is actually watching Jasmine, and instead are glued to the television. She was also "talked into working" when she'd just come to get her check before heading to El Toro.

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I sure wouldn't have been watching the TV with her there.

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I think money would become worthless as people would stop working. Aliens showing up one day will totally break our routine. I'm betting 40% of military, firefighters, and police will chicken out of working. Thered be unrest and chaos in the streets as people will think they can get away with anything. Crime would skyrocket

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So that's it! All those cops that shoot black people are aliens in disguise carrying out their evil schemes to destabilize Earth and make it easy to come in and mop up the rest.

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Well, no, if the aliens show up, peacefully or otherwise, the really essential workforce goes to work anyway. Police, fire, healthcare, ambulance, military, they don't get a day off! Hell, someone tried to overthrow the democratically elected government of my nation a couple of days ago, and I still went to my job, the pandemic doesn't take breaks for political crises.

Still, you'd think the strip clubs would close for a day or two under those circumstances, no point paying the staff when the public is getting free entertainment somewhere else.

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Yes...Biden should be in jail.

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Marines, not Army

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sure, I'll still go to work at my strip club job!


Jasmine went to work after they showed up, but before they attacked. She was likely trying to just continue on with life as normal. That, and she's a single mother with bills to pay, aliens or no aliens.

sure, I'll casually joke around with my army buddy about totally unrelated matters!


Assuming you mean the discussion in the locker room, that, too, happened before the actual attack, and was just Steven and Jimmy trying to maintain some degree of normalcy in the face of a history-changing event, the same way Jasmine was.

Assuming you mean during the briefing after the attack, it's common for people to crack jokes to combat anxiety, sadness and fear.

sure, instead of running news about the *beep* ALIENS ATTACKING EARTH, I'll run a piece about a local crazy guy getting arrested!


Again, the aliens had only arrived, not attacked yet, and, anyway, Russell's ravings were about the aliens, so that's what made it newsworthy.

I mean, really, how many times will you look under Jabba's manboobs?

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Them running the story about Russell getting arrested is simple media manipulation tactics. Run a piece that means nothing in order to distract from the real issues.

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And you do know that Jasmine specifically said her boss MADE her work, right? She just went to get her paycheck, but the boss forced her into it.

Pay attention before you go gripe, man...

For the joking with the Army buddy part...ever heard of using humor as a way to ease tension?

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This movie had a lot of bad writing, it gets a pass though because it has several iconic action sequences and special effects , but yeah this movie at its core is a bad movie

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No, the SEQUEL was bad, THIS is FUN. I remember being hyped when I saw scenes from it on the BBC's "Film" TV show back in early 1996.

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Never saw the sequel but I'll take your word that the original was better and there were a few good action sequences but I don't know, Will Smith being able to pilot the alien spacecraft through the atmosphere and into space because he observed their "maneuvering capabilities" for about 3 minutes while also trying not to get shot down is pretty silly.

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"Will Smith being able to pilot the alien spacecraft through the atmosphere and into space because he observed their "maneuvering capabilities" for about 3 minutes while also trying not to get shot down is pretty silly."
Hahaha, my dad would agree with you there, he thought exactly the same thing when that scene came on, how "no-one in this world was qualified to operate such a machine". Hell, it was that Secretary of Defence guy who said that, and my dad liked that character most as well, the man who is perceived of as a jerk by the rest of the characters but who is also the lone voice of reason to the viewer, or at least some viewers.

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Does the sequel address the fact that they nuked the city of Houston and now the entire state of Texas is now uninhabitable for thousands of years?

I liked Goldblum I liked Pullman, I tolerated Quaid but I thought Smith was one of the weaker characters. Also how did Pullman and Smith have air up in space? Why weren’t they floating? What fuel source got them out of the earths gravitational pull (it takes one giant rocket to get the astronauts out), how did they not die in the crash and how did they just happen to land right where they needed to by Area 51?

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No wonder you don't enjoy movies, you're vastly overthinking them. I just tend to go with the flow.

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Yeah only you are allowed to be critical. Shut up! All you do is complain about films.

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What films?

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Any star wars films, star trek films, batman begins etc. Yet you like this drivel? Kind of silly if you ask me.

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I enjoy plenty of movies, I even enjoy parts of Independence Day, but I can recognize that it's heavily flawed and it does have a few moments that border on absurdity.

The fact remains though that they nuked Houston and there is not going to be a whole lot of life there for a really long time.

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They thought nukes would destroy the city destroyers, but they didn't count on the shields being that effective. At least they evacuated the city first.

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1. Goldblum.
2. They probably have enough air inside the cabin, or even a life support system.
3. The fighters, as well as all other alien craft, have artificial gravity.
4. Alien fuel, AKA energy generated in mothership and beamed to every single individual craft.
5. They didn't crash. Also, artificial gravity, inertial dampeners.
6. They didn't crash. They probably tried to reach as close to the base as they could.

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The blast from the mothership reached them, they were definitely crashing. Also the fact that he was able to land the ship so close to Area 51 with almost nothing to go on is preposterous

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They got hit with the shockwave, doesn't mean they crashed. And, they are descending from the space with a fast alien fightercraft, a pilot can find his way to roughly make it where he wants to go.

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Lol he just fell in a random location on Earth, without any kind of radar or instruments he’s not going to know where the hell hes going. He’s lucky he didn’t land in the middle of the South Pacific

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Again, he didn't fall, he was on his way to Area 51 so he could pick where he was descending towards. He was almost there when they probably ran out of power, as the mothership was the one providing shield and power to all other alien craft. Haven't you been watching?

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There is no way he had plotted a course when he got zapped, he was just hauling ass out of there and wasn’t looking where he was going I promise you. As long as it was outside the mother ship that was fine with him. We clearly see the ship become disabled when the blast from the mother ship catches up with them. Do you know the first thing about space travel? Re entering earths atmosphere is beyond tricky even for astronauts who know exactly what they are doing (which Smith did not), you have to have your angle of entry down to a very narrow margin. When he entered the atmosphere he would have no frame of reference at all, he wouldn’t know where he was going and it is preposterous he just happened to land where he did. Also the earth would have rotated during the time he was in the mother ship meaning when he exits the earth is going to be in a different position and therefore he is not going to re enter the earth exactly where he left it. This is moonraker level of science , it’s absurd and it’s clear you don’t have the first clue what you’re talking about

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Well, he obviously did. I hope this does compute.

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That’s circular logic and a fallacy. Sorry kid , logic’s a bitch

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No it's not. Child, you are clueless.

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It absolutely is, learn how to debate honestly , little boy

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Go to your room kid, you're grounded.

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Learn how to debate honestly, little boy

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You don't deserve a debate whiny child, you need to be put in your place. Your parents may have failed you, but i will not, my little whiny toddler.

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is Japan uninhabitable?

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On the other hand, there was no one on Earth more qualified either.

They showed the spaceship as being easy to fly: pull the control yoke back for forward motion, push forward to go back, turn the wheel to turn the ship. Since an alien spacecraft would not depend on atmospheric interaction in order to fly, it would be easier to fly than an aircraft. Kind of point and shoot I guess, at least in the movie world.

You would think that craft built by aliens tens of thousands of years (at least) more advanced than humans would be controlled by the alien's thoughts than a control yoke, but that's for another discussion I suppose.

On such an otherwise silly but very fun movie, I can forgive these scenarios.


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Definitely a feel good movie. I'll always enjoy the Randy Quaid bonzai flight, and the image of the laughing skull & crossbones on the alien computer screen before firing the nuke.

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there are far worse things in this movie that what you mention

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Or better yet the media decides to report on a drunk redneck littering.

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