# ID4, Randy Quaid and alien abduction **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 29, 2018, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id4-randy-quaid-and-alien-abduction/825269 "2018-11-29T14:31:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2018, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id4-randy-quaid-and-alien-abduction/825269/21 "2018-11-30T02:07:34Z")
Either this is an uncomplicated blockbuster where audiences stand up to cheer while pumping their fists as the man who heroically sacrifices himself declares he’s getting payback, or a pathetic dupe killed himself because he’s delusional and people watching the movie should probably wince and feel sorry for him right then. I’m pretty sure it’s the first. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2018, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id4-randy-quaid-and-alien-abduction/825269/22 "2018-11-30T02:12:15Z")
Of course, in the movie, the Area 51 guys do, in fact, end up having basically that conversation with the President. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2018, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id4-randy-quaid-and-alien-abduction/825269/23 "2018-11-30T04:15:57Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > Either this is an uncomplicated blockbuster where audiences stand up to cheer while pumping their fists as the man who heroically sacrifices himself declares he’s getting payback, or a pathetic dupe killed himself because he’s delusional and people watching the movie should probably wince and feel sorry for him right then. It can be both things! The strongest argument for Quaid being delusional is that, if those aliens had really kidnapped him… why the hell didn’t they kill him? They’re genocidal monsters who are going to exterminate all life on Earth. Even assuming their “study” doesn’t involve cutting him into little bits, why would they put him back when they’re done? Throw him out an airlock and go home. ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2018, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id4-randy-quaid-and-alien-abduction/825269/24 "2018-11-30T04:38:05Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Of course, in the movie, the Area 51 guys do, in fact, end up having basically that conversation with the President. Yes, but they had that conversation after 50 years of _not_ having that conversation, because the aliens never came back. It’s a bit different if they’re coming back often enough to kidnap people. > [@Miller](#): > > The strongest argument for Quaid being delusional is that, if those aliens had really kidnapped him… why the hell didn’t they kill him? They’re genocidal monsters who are going to exterminate all life on Earth. And even more to the point, why would they bother kidnapping _anyone?_ If you’re planning on just blowing up everything, what’s the point in grabbing people for study beforehand? Did they need to test us to see if humans were vulnerable to nukes? ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2018, 8:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id4-randy-quaid-and-alien-abduction/825269/25 "2018-11-30T08:51:25Z")
> [@Horatius](#): > > Also, the guys at Area 51 also made it clear that the ship they were studying “came alive” when the aliens arrived, as it required beamed power from the mothership to work. What was powering it when it _first_ got here in the 40s, in that case? I never read the ship coming alive as it getting beamed power, just that it’s systems were reactivated. ---
**Author:** ![DooWahDiddy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9bcb4/32.png) [@DooWahDiddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DooWahDiddy)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2018, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id4-randy-quaid-and-alien-abduction/825269/26 "2018-11-30T19:15:36Z")
> [@Horatius](#): > > And even more to the point, why would they bother kidnapping _anyone?_ If you’re planning on just blowing up everything, what’s the point in grabbing people for study beforehand? Did they need to test us to see if humans were vulnerable to nukes? I mean, maybe? We don’t learn until halfway through the movie that the aliens are “just as vulnerable as we are”. Doesn’t it follow that the aliens would need to find out if we were just as vulnerable as them? ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2018, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id4-randy-quaid-and-alien-abduction/825269/27 "2018-11-30T19:23:21Z")
I doubt it. As mentioned, the Harvester’s approach to problem solving the human equation is to just apply brute force explosions. There’s no subtlety there at all. Hell, the main weapon is also a mining device - according to the wiki - so it accomplishes two goals. First, dead humans. Second, deep drilling commenced. It wouldn’t surprise me if, when they’re done, the Harvesters just leave behind a small asteroid field of chunks of rock with everything else having being taken for other uses. Heeeeyyyy…you don’t think that space between Mars and Jupiter… ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2018, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id4-randy-quaid-and-alien-abduction/825269/28 "2018-12-01T00:55:33Z")
> [@G0sp3l](#): > > Need to know applies, or should apply to even POTUS. For what it’s worth, [in the real world](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=608961) [need to know](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=621214) [does not apply to](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=699943) [the President of the United States](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=786067). ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2018, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id4-randy-quaid-and-alien-abduction/825269/29 "2018-12-01T01:23:10Z")
I thought they wanted to settle on Earth? “They breathe the same kind of air we do. That’s probably why they’re interested in the place.”. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2018, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id4-randy-quaid-and-alien-abduction/825269/30 "2018-12-01T01:36:56Z")
He’s Schrödinger’s Abductee. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2018, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id4-randy-quaid-and-alien-abduction/825269/31 "2018-12-01T02:04:03Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I thought they wanted to settle on Earth? “They breathe the same kind of air we do. That’s probably why they’re interested in the place.”. When President Bill Pullman gets a brief psychic link with the alien the Fresh Prince captured, he gets an insight into their MO: “I saw… its thoughts. I saw what they’re planning to do. They’re like locusts. They’re moving from planet to planet… their whole civilization. After they’ve consumed every natural resource they move on… and we’re next.” > [@Jonathan\_Chance](#): > > I doubt it. As mentioned, the Harvester’s approach to problem solving the human equation is to just apply brute force explosions. There’s no subtlety there at all. Hell, the main weapon is also a mining device - according to the wiki - so it accomplishes two goals. First, dead humans. Second, deep drilling commenced. True, but “capture and vivisect” is much easier to fanwank than “catch and release.” Maybe they captured some humans and study them to see if humans themselves are a valuable natural resource. Like, maybe if we taste like space chicken, they keep us around as livestock. Turns out we taste like soap, so they didn’t bother. ---
**Author:** ![ExTank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@ExTank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExTank)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2018, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id4-randy-quaid-and-alien-abduction/825269/32 "2018-12-01T03:08:53Z")
For the longest time, I’d taken it as a given (given the scenario presented in the movie) that Russell had been abducted and experiment on, and tossed back out when the aliens were done with him; it also dovetailed nicely with other “alien abductions/experimentations” that have been reported. IOW, Russell Casse, just like in our really real world, is not the only person to have ever reported being abducted by aliens and experimented on. **Miller** makes some valid “pragmatic villainy” points, though. Note to self: **Miller** is either prime candidate for Chief-of-staff, or prime target for elimination, if/when I go all Evil Overlord. 🙂 I still voted yes in the poll; it makes sense, given his recognition of the alien’s ships and how personal he takes it. And I also thought that everyone’s skepticism of his claims _after_ the aliens actually show up and begin wiping us out kind of…jarring. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2018, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id4-randy-quaid-and-alien-abduction/825269/33 "2018-12-01T03:20:27Z")
> [@Asuka](#): > > If you believe the novelization, Quaid has a line after seeing the dead alien that Will Smith brings in as “Those weren’t the aliens that abducted me.” > > However since he never saw the little alien inside the big alien you can argue that he’s just mistaken, leaving this still open-ended. It’s been a couple of decades (!) since I read it, but IIRC, it goes even further than that—knowing he’s going to finally get the chance to see one of his abductors with the tables turned, Quaid’s character starts muttering about how he knows what to expect, describing the aliens he remembered as the prototypical “Grays”…and then being shocked and taken aback when he sees the creature in the truck. This also, IIRC, leads to at least a germ of self-doubt beginning to form. The novel also features a few scenes that were either cut from the movie or re-filmed, including [part of the climax.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ls2CwZjQ9es) ---
**Author:** ![Declan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecae2f/32.png) [@Declan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Declan)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2018, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id4-randy-quaid-and-alien-abduction/825269/34 "2018-12-01T15:14:03Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > So what say you? Really abducted, or nutcase? Its complicated and I am not anyone that would have any business talking bout mental health in the medical sense. With that said, going by the movie he was a fighter pilot in the air force flying fast movers. At some point he would have been able to pass a flight physical and not be taken off flight duties. So we have a gap here between separation of service from the air force and what we see in the movie. He is able despite being a functional alcoholic to attain a civilian pilot’s license and fly a crop duster, not something I would expect that you should be able to do, but thats not the first time hollywood has taken liberties. So at the very least PTSD and alcoholic and is using the star gate aliens as a metaphor for his condition, as they were popular culture at that time, and more than one late night television show was talking bout it, as well as Richard Bell’s radio show. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2018, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id4-randy-quaid-and-alien-abduction/825269/35 "2018-12-01T18:34:19Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > I’m pretty sure Dennis Quaid’s character wasn’t abducted. Randy Quaid’s character, however, was. Sure, that’s what they want you to think. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2018, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id4-randy-quaid-and-alien-abduction/825269/36 "2018-12-01T18:39:28Z")
> [@Horatius](#): > > And even more to the point, why would they bother kidnapping _anyone?_ If you’re planning on just blowing up everything, what’s the point in grabbing people for study beforehand? Did they need to test us to see if humans were vulnerable to nukes? It would go bad for them if they openly attacked us and then found out we had some power like mind control or telekinesis or splorging. So they would secretly abduct a few individuals and test to make sure we weren’t a threat. If the tests had shown we were dangerous, they’d have skipped Earth and move on to the next solar system. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2018, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id4-randy-quaid-and-alien-abduction/825269/37 "2018-12-02T00:00:49Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > It would go bad for them if they openly attacked us and then found out we had some power like mind control or telekinesis or splorging. So they would secretly abduct a few individuals and test to make sure we weren’t a threat. If the tests had shown we were dangerous, they’d have skipped Earth and move on to the next solar system. Sure, completely plausible, totally with you there. But follow that to the logical end: So we’re this society of ravagers who plan to nuke the entire planet to strip all its resources, annihilating all life (including the human race) on planet earth, but real quick let’s check if the humans have any X-Men down there who might kick the shit out of us. Nope, no Avengers, no Typhoid Mary, no worries. Now that we’ve completed our human testing, let’s carefully reinsert our test subjects back into their natural habitat without even a single scratch. Be sure there is no evidence whatsoever we abducted them, because… Yeah, not feeling it. More like dump a pile of 2,000 mutilated bodies on the moon and call it a day. They are planning to nuke the entire planet. Why spare your medical research test subjects? Do we as humans even spare our own medical research test subjects? And surely to them we’re not even lovable, cuddly test subjects like monkeys or dogs; we’re more like mosquitos to them. How would we treat mosquitos who survived our medical research? ---
**Author:** ![Tzigone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Tzigone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tzigone)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2018, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id4-randy-quaid-and-alien-abduction/825269/38 "2018-12-02T00:06:14Z")
I don’t think he was ever abducted (movie version only). No other species were mentioned as coming to this planet, and his abduction was contrary to their MO. I think PTSD and mental issues precipitating his alcoholism. But if was abducted, it was by another group. ---
**Author:** ![Bruce\_Wayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bruce\_Wayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bruce_Wayne)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2018, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id4-randy-quaid-and-alien-abduction/825269/39 "2018-12-02T03:21:18Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > When President Bill Pullman gets a brief psychic link with the alien the Fresh Prince captured, he gets an insight into their MO: > > “I saw… its thoughts. I saw what they’re planning to do. They’re like locusts. They’re moving from planet to planet… their whole civilization. After they’ve consumed every natural resource they move on… and we’re next.” This may not count as canon but there was a book sequel written that I read a long time ago which described the hulls of their ships being a technologically modified shell of a large sea creature of a previously conquered planet. The bio part of their biomechanical suit was previously a tree dwelling species. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2018, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id4-randy-quaid-and-alien-abduction/825269/40 "2018-12-03T15:49:02Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Sure, that’s what they want you to think. Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if it turned out Randy Quaid was abducted by aliens and subjected to experiments. Not his character. The actor himself. The dude is crazier than his character was. But Dennis is still cool. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id4-randy-quaid-and-alien-abduction/825269.md?page=1)