6 Hours from Central Park to the White House
https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/comments/c96sis/independence_day_6_hours_from_central_park_to_the/
Jeff Goldblum's character, David, finds a sort of countdown in the alien signal. He first mentions the signal dissipating in about 7 hours. When the aliens finally arrive over NYC, he goes to the roof of his building to take a look when he realizes what the signal means. It's shown that his building is right next to Central Park, on the south side. He then tells his boss, Mark, that the signal expires in 6 hours. He bikes to his father's place, but the location isn't exactly listed. Then his father and him travel to DC to tell the President that they're all fucked. Then they fly to Andrews and take off in Air Force One right as time expires and the alien attack commences.share
Here's the problem. You can't realistically travel from Central Park all the way to the White House and to Andrews in 6 hours. Google says the travel time on I-95 from NYC to DC is under 4 hours, but as someone who has traveled from DC to NYC and back, it's impossible. 6 hours at the least. 8 hours is realistic. More in a panic when you have the entire population of NYC trying to get out of the city at the same time. You've got the bike time from David's office to his dad's place. The drive to DC with his dad driving like an old man who doesn't realize he needs to be in a hurry. The time it takes for David's ex to let him into the White House, not exactly something that is quick and easy. The talk with the President, and the flight to Andrews. No way any of happens in 6 hours. Even David's boss was still stuck in traffic trying to get out of NY as the attack commences.
David is the key to the humans winning, but he can't realistically get to DC fast enough. So the President and David's Ex doesn't survive. They don't go to Area 51 and learn about the alien craft vulnerability. They don't launch into outer space to destroy the mothership.
It's such a simple detail that could have easily been changed by one line. 8-10 hours. The aliens attacked when it was dark, it wouldn't have been hard.