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Quotes

Constance: Haven't you ever wanted to be part of something special?

David Levinson: I was part of something special.

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Mistakes

After General Grey shows the nuclear missile and launch mechanism to Steven and David, when Connie asks, "Why you?", in the next shot just as a woman in a white lab coat passes David, his yellow actor's mark is visible on the floor at his feet. (Only visible on fullscreen DVD.) See more...

Trivia

A promotional piece that aired in Spain for this film set off a "War of the Worlds" type of wide spread panic. The promo featured a popular Spanish news anchor and the piece ran as if there really WAS an alien attack to occur on July 4. People believed the broadcast and panicked until officials spread the word that this was only a promo for a US movie. Confirmed on DVD commentary. See more...

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Independence Day (1996) - 106 corrections

Directed by Roland Emmerich, starring Bill Pullman, Brent Spiner, Harry Connick Jr., Jeff Goldblum, Judd Hirsch, Mary McDonnell, Randy Quaid, Vivica A. Fox, Will Smith (add more)

Genres: Action, Adventure, Sci-fi, Thriller

Comments made in brackets are corrections from other visitors. To submit your own corrections for mistakes, just click "edit" under an entry, then choose "correct entry". You can also submit corrections for corrections, if you think a mistake has been unfairly removed.

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During the first counter-strike following the aliens attack, F-14 Tomcats are shown on the tarmac at MCAS El Toro. The Marine Corps does not and has never operated F-14s, they are Navy aircraft. [The Marine Corps is overseen by the Department of the Navy (and most certainly have operated F-14s). Perhaps they were simply stored there for repairs or moved for the attack.]
Edit Corrected by LorgSkyegon Time
There are some serious inaccuracies concerning the presence of the alien craft. The mother ship, with a mass one quarter that of the moon, passes very close to the moon and then settles in orbit around the earth. The gravitational pull from such a large object would cause a substantial disruption of the moon's surface and its orbit, and then of the earth's surface. These effects are not even mentioned. When the mother ship explodes in earth orbit the effect of such a large nuclear explosion so close to the earth would be so destructive that it does not even bear thinking, not to mention the billions of tons of debris it would leave behind, much of which would be pulled down to the earth's surface. Again, nobody seems too worried about this even though such an event would probably destroy all life on earth anyway. [The key words are that the effects aren't mentioned. They may have discussed them at some point, but they were probably more concerned by the first contact with a massive alien spaceship. As for the debris, I guess they figured that a chance at survival (with killing the aliens) was better than no chance (with the aliens exterminating human life).]
Edit Corrected by LorgSkyegon
In the opening scene the alien mother ship is seen passing over the moon. Judging by the movement of the shadow it is travelling fairly slowly, of the order of 3000 to 4000 miles per hour. At this speed it would take the best part of 4 days to reach the earth, not a matter of hours. [We obviously have NO idea how these ships operate, who is to say that they slowed down, then sped back up knowing their mass might affect the Moon?]
Edit Corrected by Kimberly Mason
When it comes to saluting in the armed forces, the subordinate always puts up his or her salute first and then the superior officer puts up his salute. Only after the superior officer has put his salute down is the subordinate permitted to put down his salute. Never will a superior officer salute somebody of a lesser rank first. This occurs several times in the movie but the most obvious one was in the very last scene after the whole entourage jeeps out into the desert to meet David and Captain Hiller. General Grey (a 4 star general) salutes Captain Hiller (an officer of much less rank) first and then is in turn saluted back by Captain Hiller. [While true 99% of the time, Hiller and Levinson just literally saved the Earth. Grey salutes Hiller first as a sign of respect and a way of saying "well done and thank you". Wounded soldiers are often saluted by superiors in much the same way for instance.]
Edit Corrected by Grumpy Scot
When First Lady Marilyn Whitmore is dying the lame reasoning give is "she's bleeding internally, there's nothing we can do". Modern surgery and angiography can manage just about any and all "internal bleeding". This was a weak way to write her out of the remainder of the movie. ["Lame" or "weak" doesn't make it a mistake. The entire planet had been assaulted by alien forces, resulting in apocalyptic casualties and damage. By the time she was being treated, almost 24 hours had passed since sustaining the injuries. Not to mention that the necessary specialists to treat her may have died in the attacks or were otherwise unavailable.]
Edit Corrected by JC Fernandez
Before firing the nuke in the mother-ship Will and Jeff light their cigars, but when they are walking in the desert after returning to earth the cigars look like they only just have been lit, even though over 20 min have past. The control-center hasn't heard for them in 20 min and there wives and the president have to drive all the way out to them to greet them before we see the cigars again. [Cigars don't have the chemicals that cigarettes have in them to keep them constantly alight. Invariably a cigar will go out and will need to be relit, so its perfectly reasonable that they are the same cigars.]
Edit Corrected by GalahadFairlight
The humans are out of missiles in the final battle, except for Russell Casse, who flies right up into the alien main weapon, destroying the ship. A number of problems here. First off, a central control center operator reports all the missiles have been fired, indicating they are monitoring all F/A-18s. But somehow Russell's missile escaped their notice. Then no one in the control room seems to know where Russell came from, which they should know since they were monitoring all the F/A-18 pilots. Actually these mistakes stem from the original ending, which involved Russell arriving to the battle in his biplane with a missile strapped to it, ready for a suicide mission, because he was too drunk to be given an F/A-18. He then flew the biplane into the alien ship because he obviously couldn't fire the missile. According to Director's commentary, at the film's test screening the audience response to the biplane suicide ending was poor, indicating to the filmmakers that it was too cheesy. They decided to rewrite the end, so that Russell would make the choice to give up his life at the very last moment. They then filmed Russell in an F/A-18 cockpit, but chose not to film the control center scenes again, meaning they don't fit with what's seen onscreen. [While the story about the revised ending is true, that does not make it a mistake. We see a shot where Russell's plane is hit by an alien fighter and it fades to white, indicating an explosion. The idea is that Russell's plane was hit but not destoyed causing damage that included his weapons firing system and the equipment transmitting his position to the command centre. They act surprised when he rides in to save the day because they didn't realise he was still alive and more importantly carrying missiles.]
Edit
The alien saucer that arrives over Los Angeles is said to be approaching from the Pacific Ocean, yet it is specifically shown approaching from Imperial Valley, which is to the east/southeast of Los Angeles. [Not true, Constance says, "One is heading for Los Angeles, the other two are on our eastern seaboard heading toward New York, and Washington D.C." No direction of travel is given.]
Edit
In the movie's final showdown, Russell flies his airplane directly in the green light. At this point, the alien ship is located directly over Area 51. So when it's going down, the whole area should be covered under millions of tons of "alien steel," since the spaceship is 13 or 15 miles in diameter. But some shots later you see the spaceship a few miles away in the mountains and a jeep driven by people who should be buried under ground. [The ship drifted several miles before crashing; they apparently lost control of navigation before losing altitude control.]
Edit Corrected by BocaDavie
The aircraft that deploys the nuclear missile at the saucer over Houston is a B-2 Spirit, a slow moving stealth bomber. It would have made more sense for the human command to deploy nuclear munitions using a more maneuverable fighter/bomber that stands a better chance of escaping the blast and any subsequent alien fighters that would be dispatched. [This supposes too many things, notably that the military was intact and had every aircraft at its disposal. We see the aliens struck the base at El Toro. Since we don't know what other bases, installations and aircraft may have been destroyed after the initial attack, we can't know what aircraft were at their disposal. Not to mention that the humans could have been hoping stealth would be an advantage over maneuverability.]
Edit Corrected by JC Fernandez
The humans are shown attacking the alien destroyers with AMRAAM air-to air missiles, which are shown both times to do virtually no damage to it. AMRAAMs are designed for fast moving air-to air targets, like the alien fighters. Yet, the humans do not see a need to fit their fighters with more powerful weapons, such as bunker busters, cluster bombs, nuclear bunker busters or tactical nukes, that would easily cripple or outright destroy the alien saucer. Instead, they resort to firing countless AMRAAMs at a 15-mile wide destroyer, which amount to pinpricks and cause needless deaths. [The AMRAAMs do not do "virtually no damage". They do absolutely no damage. The humans don't upgrade their munitions because there's no point to it.]
Edit Corrected by Phixius
During the nuclear attack on the saucer, the B-2 Spirit bombers are not shown with fighter escorts. Since what they are attacking isn't human, and would most likely detect them regardless of the B-2's stealth ability and send fighters after them, the bombers would be destroyed. Given the nature of the mission and the need for it to succeed, one would think slow moving nuclear bombers warrant escorts. [From the aliens' point of view, they are fully aware that their shields can withstand any weaponry and therefore would not be concerned with whatever aircraft is approaching it or whatever weaponry it has on board. Therefore would not need to protect itself from a distant aircraft. From the human point of view, they believe that the aliens would not be aware of the significance of the 'nukes' and believe the 'stealth' features of their bomber would give them protection. Why make their position known with escort fighters?]
Edit Corrected by XIII Time
The whole premise of the ending was based around giving the mothership a virus to take out the shields. However, given that the "electrics" had only very recently come on in the Area 51 spacecraft, there would have been no time for anybody to have reverse engineered the computer system and alien programming language, let alone for David to come in at the last minute, manage to guess off the top of his head what part of the mothership's system controlled all the shields, find a vulnerability in their code that could be exploited to switch them off, and then create the virus to do so. [This is based entirely on an opinion, which are not valid grounds for a mistake. David is portrayed in the film as an off-the-scale genius, who's already deciphered the alien countdown code using nothing more than his own laptop and the interference in the satellite system. Area 51 is populated by the top scientific minds available, all of whom would be focused completely on the systems in question. It is simply your opinion that this would be impossible and that doesn't count.]
Edit Corrected by Tailkinker
In the scene where Jasmine retreats from the attack in the maintenance room, she backs into a concrete wall. However, the whole "wall" shakes as she backs into it. [It is quite feasible that the wall "shakes" due to the tunnel being destroyed by the blast, hence the light in the maintenance room blows out a moment later.]
Edit Corrected by XIII Time
Why do cars lift off from the ground and fly when hit by the blast wave from the UFO? That power would come from above (or directly horizontal). In order to fly, the force would have to come from below the cars. [When the blast hits, the shockwave hits the ground and spreads horizontally, thus the cars being lifted off the ground. The shockwave would be like an ocean wave, and while appearing to be horizontal, it actually has a lot of upward currents, which could easily cause a car to flip.]
Edit
In the opening scene, the alien craft slowly flies over the Apollo 11 placard on the moon, and there are footprints in the soil. The spacecraft causes vibrations that disturbs the soil around the placard and the footprints. There is no sound in space (or on the moon), and the moon's atmosphere is almost a vacuum, so the soil should not have been disturbed in such an extreme manner. This is deliberately done for the dramatic effect. [The propulsion field that the ship uses is what's disturbing the soil.]
Edit Corrected by Tailkinker
As LA is destroyed, you see Jasmine sitting in her car. As she turns around in her seat to see the fire ball coming at her, you see the entrance to the tunnel is an arch. As she runs through the tunnel, the ground is level. But the morning after, she has to climb up to get back out of the tunnel entrance, which is now a complete circle. It looks as if she's coming out of a large drain pipe. [The tunnel Jasmine and all the others are in has a four car lane width. The hole she and Dylan walk through is hardly wider than the width of a single car. Just look at its Octagonal nut-like edge that is seen in the wideshot, when Jasmine emerges - that hole is not supposed to be the tunnel's exit or entrance! Actually, it IS a large concrete drainage pipe from the tunnel's storm water run-off control system, which was dislodged during the massive devastation.]
Edit Corrected by lmao Time
When David is outside of the White House and he calls Conny, she walks over to the window with her phone by her right ear, then she swaps it to her left when she's looking out the window, but in a shot of her looking out the window, it is back by her right ear. [No, it is not. After David calls Connie and she switches the phone to her left hand, before she pulls the curtain back, in the next interior shot, facing David and Julius outside, it is Connie's right hand that we see holding the curtain. Then it cuts to a close-up of Connie, who is STILL holding the phone in her left hand, just before her arm drops down as her mouth drops open in shock.]
Edit Corrected by lmao Time
In the clip where we see Air Force One about to take off, the UFO is moving. But all the ships were placed in attack position - this one directly above the White House, so it shouldn't move. [The alien ships repeatedly shown rotating in virtually every shot of them -- even while they're firing. This is just another instance.]
Edit Corrected by JC Fernandez
When the UFOs arrive to Washington DC, we see sunlight on Lincoln's statue in Lincoln Memorial - which is then blocked by the UFO. But Lincoln is so deep inside the memorial that sunlight never hits it. [This is not true the memorial faces east and the sun does shine on it in the morning.]
Edit Corrected by Bowling255

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