# Independence Day \[Spoilers\]
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/independence-day-spoilers/966590
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Tags:** movies
**Created:** [June 21, 2022, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/independence-day-spoilers/966590 "2022-06-21T22:42:15Z")
**Posts on this page:** 19
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)
#### Post date: [June 21, 2022, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/independence-day-spoilers/966590/1 "2022-06-21T22:42:15Z")
Not spoiling because it is an older film. Deal with it.
I tpisses me off, there are freaking ALIENS overhead. No shit for real aliens. Right overhead. Surrounding the earth.
SO the gnarly dude who has been claiming for like 25 years that aliens beamed him up is still getting the side eye and joked about …
Dudes, there are freaking ALIENS overhead - I think you MIGHT believe him now.
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### Author:  [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)
#### Post date: [June 21, 2022, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/independence-day-spoilers/966590/2 "2022-06-21T22:48:58Z")
I get annoyed that there are GIANT ALIEN SHIPS overhead and news has time to do a story about the drunk guy claiming he had been abducted, complete with an onsite interview.
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### Author:  [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)
#### Post date: [June 21, 2022, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/independence-day-spoilers/966590/3 "2022-06-21T23:05:19Z")
I’ve always maintained Randy wasn’t actually abducted. That he actually was nuts.
Just because the pope and radio exist doesn’t mean he’s using radio waves to control my mind.
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### Author:  [@SuntanLotion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuntanLotion)
#### Post date: [June 21, 2022, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/independence-day-spoilers/966590/4 "2022-06-21T23:06:48Z")
Thats what he wants you to think…
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### Author:  [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)
#### Post date: [June 21, 2022, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/independence-day-spoilers/966590/5 "2022-06-21T23:06:51Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#):
>
> Just because the pope and radio exist doesn’t mean he’s using radio waves to control my mind. -
How do you know?
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### Author:  [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)
#### Post date: [June 21, 2022, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/independence-day-spoilers/966590/6 "2022-06-21T23:13:57Z")
> [@running\_coach](#):
>
> How do you know?
He’d tell me. We’re buds. We zoom watched Get Back together.
I got the impression the only time the aliens had been here before was with the scout ship that was being studied at area 51. That was “Roswell” wasn’t it? Been a while since I’ve watched it.
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### Author:  [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)
#### Post date: [June 21, 2022, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/independence-day-spoilers/966590/7 "2022-06-21T23:51:28Z")
> [@aruvqan](#):
>
> Dudes, there are freaking ALIENS overhead - I think you MIGHT believe him now.
This guy?:
[ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzEds7mysMs&t=11m10s)
I’m not sure I’d believe him if he declared that water was wet.
Stranger
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### Author:  [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2022, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/independence-day-spoilers/966590/8 "2022-06-22T02:34:42Z")
Apparently the novelization actually expands on this. Randy Quaid’s character actually takes a good look at the alien that Will Smith knocked out and brought onto his camper. He’s shocked to see the alien looks NOTHING like the little gray aliens that abducted him all those years ago and has a minor moment of complete self-doubt over whether or not he had hallucinated the whole thing while drunk.
Of course, this doesn’t really solve the debate either way as Quaid sees the aliens exo-skeleton and not the little one inside, so no real confirmation either way as whether or not he was abducted or not.
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### Author:  [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2022, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/independence-day-spoilers/966590/9 "2022-06-22T06:23:38Z")
> [@AlsoNamedBort](#):
>
> I get annoyed that there are GIANT ALIEN SHIPS overhead and news has time to do a story about the drunk guy claiming he had been abducted, complete with an onsite interview.
And again, that points out that obviously the news wsa making a joke out of someone who claims to have been abducted by aliens WHEN THERE ARE FREAKING ALIENS OVERHEAD. Sheesh =)
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#):
>
> I got the impression the only time the aliens had been here before was with the scout ship that was being studied at area 51. That was “Roswell” wasn’t it? Been a while since I’ve watched it.
Maybe, though it could simply be the only time _we_ knew about it because they crashed. Who is to say they were not flitting around, and that specific ship was the only one we found out about.
> [@Asuka](#):
>
> Apparently the novelization actually expands on this. Randy Quaid’s character actually takes a good look at the alien that Will Smith knocked out and brought onto his camper. He’s shocked to see the alien looks NOTHING like the little gray aliens that abducted him all those years ago and has a minor moment of complete self-doubt over whether or not he had hallucinated the whole thing while drunk.
>
> Of course, this doesn’t really solve the debate either way as Quaid sees the aliens exo-skeleton and not the little one inside, so no real confirmation either way as whether or not he was abducted or not.
True that - the exoskeleton is not really what the squishy inside looks like - just like our big white blobby suits don’t really look like us other than bipedal with a small roundish head. But then again, who is to say there is only one species of alien - those ships are freaking huge, there could be entire subspecies that are genetically designed to do specific jobs - a plumbing snake that is actually snakelike to fit into pipes springs to mind. Or that little grey could be the equivalent to a submarines machinists mate - there is a spot on a 637 Sturgeon class sub called the wine cellar that is small, and to work in it you need to be on the slender side and flexible so you fit into it and can still work. Someone like Tafflinger, who would best be described as one of those 6 foot plus beefy corn fed Nebraska boys really didn’t fit [by mrAru at 5’7 and not beefy fit just fine.
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### Author:  [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2022, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/independence-day-spoilers/966590/10 "2022-06-22T07:12:52Z")
Let’s see, at first the aliens didn’t do anything, so how much news is there? “Aliens still hovering over LA,‘’ or ''no news from above.” Sure, there’d be lots of opinions, but nobody knew anything. Remember that was pre-internet, so a local station airing 2 min of filler about a local character is believable, to me.
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### Author:  [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2022, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/independence-day-spoilers/966590/11 "2022-06-22T13:59:49Z")
How about Jeff Goldblum using a Macbook to inject a virus into the alien mothership computer? It’s hard enough getting software files to work between Macs and PCs.
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### Author:  [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2022, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/independence-day-spoilers/966590/12 "2022-06-22T14:14:19Z")
> [@solost](#):
>
> How about Jeff Goldblum using a Macbook to inject a virus into the alien mothership computer?
That’s because Mac OS is based off the alien tech in the scout ship.
You think they’ve just been staring at it for 50 years? 🙂
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2022, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/independence-day-spoilers/966590/13 "2022-06-22T14:21:04Z")
I’m thinking back to the 9/11 coverage. It was such big news that they couldn’t have anything ELSE on TV all day… but at the same time, there’s only so many times that you can replay the same 15-second clip of the airplanes hitting. So they went looking for filler, anything and everything that was somehow related to the event, but which would fill air time.
Yeah, I can see the news crews, in a situation like in the movie, interviewing the local nut who claims he was abducted. It’s vaguely relevant, it fills airtime, and it’s not just another shot of the hovering motherships.
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### Author:  [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2022, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/independence-day-spoilers/966590/14 "2022-06-22T17:09:29Z")
> [@solost](#):
>
> How about Jeff Goldblum using a Macbook to inject a virus into the alien mothership computer? It’s hard enough getting software files to work between Macs and PCs.
Or how about the dog outrunning the big ass fireball. I can roll with pretty much everything else going on, but the dog outrunning the fireball is the one thing that takes me out of the movie.
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### Author:  [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2022, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/independence-day-spoilers/966590/15 "2022-06-22T17:25:18Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#):
>
> I got the impression the only time the aliens had been here before was with the scout ship that was being studied at area 51. That was “Roswell” wasn’t it? Been a while since I’ve watched it.
I think that’s what the movie itself implied, but it’s plausible they sent other scout ships and abducted humans. What seems less plausible is that these particular aliens cared enough about their specimens to return them unharmed instead of just vivisecting them.
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### Author:  [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2022, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/independence-day-spoilers/966590/16 "2022-06-22T18:30:11Z")
> [@alphaboi867](#):
>
> What seems less plausible is that these particular aliens cared enough about their specimens to return them unharmed instead of just vivisecting them.
Most assuredly without anesthetic or the small solace of killing them first.
They also didn’t come all the way to steal cow intestines, either.
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### Author:  [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2022, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/independence-day-spoilers/966590/17 "2022-06-22T19:22:23Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#):
>
> > [@solost](#):
> >
> > How about Jeff Goldblum using a Macbook to inject a virus into the alien mothership computer?
>
> That’s because Mac OS is based off the alien tech in the scout ship.
>
> You think they’ve just been staring at it for 50 years? 🙂
Good thing Bill Gates wasn’t a Grey.
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### Author:  [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2022, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/independence-day-spoilers/966590/18 "2022-06-22T19:37:48Z")
Incidentally, about a month before Independence Day was released, another alien invasion movie called _[The Arrival](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Arrival_(1996_film))_ was released. It starred Charlie Sheen and was, I thought, pretty good. I recommend it, if you’re able to track it down.
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### Author:  [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2022, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/independence-day-spoilers/966590/19 "2022-06-22T20:37:23Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#):
>
> That’s because Mac OS is based off the alien tech in the scout ship.
>
> You think they’ve just been staring at it for 50 years? 🙂
You laugh, but when I worked for Intel there was a CEO of a Silicon Valley software company who claimed that advanced chip technology came from aliens.
Me and the gray in the next cubicle had a good chuckle over this.