Independence Day (1996) - 28 questions

Question: When Hiller is leading his squadron for the first air battle against the aliens Jimmy makes a short speech as the "Reverand" - putting on an accent - and talking about how he's sure they'll be successful. Can someone tell me is doing an impersonation of a real life person or is it something unique to the movie and his fellow pilots?

Answer: He's doing a "real-life" impersonation, but not of any particular person. He's impersonating a stereotype more than an individual.

Question: My mistake was corrected by "BocaDavie", but I would appreciate it if someone can clarify the correction on the following points:
1. The alienship is standing still over Area 51. How can it drift several miles away when it's going down?
2. Assuming that the main weapon is in the middle of the alienship, located over Area 51 and the ship is 15 miles in diameter you have about 7.5 miles to each side. Again: how far can the ship drift away?
3. Even if the alienship is half a mile above Area 51 (in the movie seems to be less), when it's going down it should maximally crash at the front of the mountains, but not in the middle of it. Please try to think of an airplane, or better a helicopter, when it's standing still in the air. The downcurve would never reach this far.
I hope I explained my points and they are valid, so a possible recorrection may follow for my mistake to be put back to the mistakes page. Thank you.

Answer: Your mistake was corrected because you assume the alien ship would crash vertically (straight down) after the attack. Just because it's severely damaged, doesn't mean that the ship didn't still have some of its capabilities (propulsion, navigation). The ship may have attempted to go back into orbit or even *land*. Going to your helicopter example... wouldn't the pilot of a damaged or otherwise malfunctioning helicopter try to land the craft safely? Or the ship's propulsion systems were damaged and the aliens had no control of the craft. We simply don't know. Because of all the unknowns, there are too many other equally likely possibilities for the scenario to qualify your entry as a mistake.

Question: After the B-2 bomber launches the nuclear missile towards the city destroyer, the B-2 is shown to be retreating, yet the nuclear missile is in fact travelling even faster than the B-2. My question is, was the B-2 destroyed when the nuclear missile struck the ship? Did it get out of there in time?

Answer: Cruise missiles fired from a B-2 have a 100 mile range, so it would have escaped.

Question: It's been shown in the film the the aliens are technologically more advanced than us. Then, how come, with all their technology, they were unable to defend themselves from something as simple as a computer virus?

Answer: Its supposed to be an exercise in demonstrating how the aliens underestimated their opponent, but in reality it's merely a convenient plot device.

Question: How did the virus that was uploaded into the mother ship affect all the other ships millions of miles down on earth? also, David said that the virus would last a matter of minutes, yet we see it last considerably longer that a matter of minutes. How can this be?

Answer: The ships are in constant communication, exchanging data, power and so forth, so the virus simply filtered its way along the alien communications network. As for "a matter of minutes", (a) David is estimating and (b) define "a matter of minutes"? Two? Five? Ten? Twenty? No clear figure is given at any point, and the finale sequence of the film takes relatively little time. His statement doesn't seem unreasonable.

Question: What was the motivation behind the alien's genocidal nature and attack on earth?

Answer: They intend to plunder Earth's resources. That's easier to do if they eliminate the population first.

Question: Was Russell Casse really abducted by the aliens at some point in his life?

Answer: There's never any confirmation one way or another in the film. It's established that alien craft have been in the vicinity of Earth since the late forties, presumably scout ships investigating resources, likely level of opposition and so forth, which would quite likely have included a few abductions to establish human physical capabilities. Best we can really say is that it's possible that he was.

Question: It's stated in the film that the aliens want to consume Earth's resources. Wouldn't that be a bit difficult considering they've destroyed nearly all the Earth's cities?

Answer: Depends what they mean by resources. There's plenty of metal, minerals and biological matter that can be harvested from the planet. I doubt the aliens planned on occupying our high-rise office blocks; whether it's a pile of rubble or a pristine building, the same amount of material is there waiting to be collected.

Question: Surely a mothership as huge as the one depicted in the movie would have some sort of gravitational effect on Earth?

Answer: While that is a possibility, the fact that they don't mention it should not necessarily be interpreted to mean that there wasn't one. They had bigger things to talk about at the time. Of course the power of the effect would also depend on the distance from the earth as gravity is defined as proportional to the product of the masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between the centers of their masses.

Question: On IMDb, the cast list includes Kimberly Beck, from Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter as playing the character listed as 'housewife'. Where exactly can I find her character in the movie?

Answer: Most of the civilians from outside have been brought into the safety of the underground Area 51 facility. Just as the alien destroyer settles over Area 51, at timecode 02:10:10, when Connie, Major Mitchell and some others are the last to run in, they are joined by a blonde woman and her daughter, who scream, and they are the last ones to make it to the elevator. That woman is, I believe, Kimberly Beck.

Question: What's with the President when he meets Dr. Okun, he acts like the doctor smells a lot or something?

Answer: What President Whitmore is reacting to is Dr. Okun's rather eccentric look, to put it mildly - his long hair, out-of-style pants and eyeglasses, etc... Even Dr. Okun comments that they don't get out much.

Question: When Julius and David are in the White House on their way to meet the President, Julius is mentioning he should have worn a tie. He then said he looks like a "schlemiel". What did he mean by this? What is a schlemiel?

Answer: Essentially a shlemiel is a clumsy bungler or an inept person according to the Yiddish on-line dictionary. It's saying since he is not wearing a tie, he looks inept or dopey in that situation.

Question: What are the physical dimensions, if any, of all the enemy ship types? Is there any biological information like height, weight of the enemy beings? I am looking at using this enemy in a fanfic of another show.

Answer: Try http://www.merzo.net/ This site is devoted to size comparisons of ships and aliens from different shows and movies.

Question: This question was asked and answered but the answer was unsatisfactory so I am asking the question again. It was asked if it was common for the President and General Grey not to know about area 51 and the answer was given that because of plausible deniability, the President would not need to know about area 51 until the aliens arrive. This answers the question for in the movie but what about in real life? Wouldn't the 2 most powerful people in charge of the military (The President and The General) in real life be made aware of area 51? I can understand if the president is not made aware but I find it hard to believe the General wouldn't know about it.

Answer: General Grey is listed as being Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, which does not make him the second-in-command of the military - that position rests with the Secretary of Defense, who, as we see in the film, does know about Area 51. Grey, as Whitmore's primary advisor on all matters (not to be confused with the President's Security Advisor, who, in all likelihood, would be aware of the installation's existence as it would fall directly under his area of concern), would need to be covered by plausible deniability just as much as his boss would. As such, Grey holds what is very much a need-to-know position - with regard to Area 51, he doesn't need to know.

Question: Since I have never been in the military this is confusing. Does it make any sense that The President, a former fighter pilot, as well as General Grey would not know about Area 51? I find it hard to believe that Captain Steven Hillard would know about Area 51 but the 2 most powerful men in the U.S. would not.

Answer: Just like it said in the film. "Plausible deniability". And until the aliens invaded, the President really had no need to know about it.

Question: At the beginning of the movie at S.E.T.I. ,while the Asian guy is hitting the golf ball, what is the name of the song playing and who is the band?

Answer: "It's the End of the World As We Know It" by R.E.M.

Question: Why was Will Smith's El Toro Marine unit the only U.S. force engaging the Aliens?

Answer: Most likely because the military "deciders" didn't know what to expect from the aliens and the ship Will Smith's unit attacked was in the least populated area, thus minimizing any potential civilian casualties. They were testing the waters, so to speak, before committing too many resources on a tactic that may prove futile.

Question: What's the building the UFO nuts are on top of; it looks very familiar to a building in Grand Theft Auto San Andreas.

Answer: Now it's the US Bank tower, the tallest structure in downtown Los Angeles, although at the time of filming I believe it belonged to IBM.

Question: In the special edition there's a lot of mentioning of Randy Quaid's younger son being ill and having to take his medication. It's implied that the mother died of the same illness. What is he ill with?

Answer: The reference to the boy's adrenal cortex, and the few symptoms that appear, sound like Addison's Disease.

Question: What does the phrase "not until the fat lady sings" mean?

Answer: It's an opera reference. The common phrase is, "It's not over until the fat lady sings." Many operatic sopranos (female lead performers with high-toned singing voices) are of large girth. In an opera, the soprano usually sings a dramatic aria just before the big finale. Basically it means that unless every option has run out, there's still hope of succeeding.