Independence Day

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?

SAZOO1975

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

Stephen Edmonds 1

Answer: There were counter attacks in Washington and New York along with the L.A. squadron. Only the L.A. scene was shown because Will Smith is a main character. The guy with the headset on in the command center that was coordinating the attack alongside the general and the president mentioned that the Washington, and New York squadrons were locked on as well as with L.A. As you could imagine their efforts were futile, along with the one shown with Will Smith, and were only worth mentioning. Also when they reached Area 51, the General told the secretary of defense that they should have told them about this place before they launched an attack that cost them the lives of hundreds of American pilots. The L.A. battle seemed to only show maybe 4 or 5 dozen aircraft, not hundreds.

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.

Phixius

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.

Krista

Question: Whereabouts is the Stargate film poster in this film? Apparently it's on the side of a bus, but I'm not sure where.

Answer: It's actually not in the film, the shot was edited out. In that shot the poster was on a billboard which a bus went through.

Question: When they board Air Force One, Bill Pullman tells the pilot that they are ready to take off. He then says something to a female flight attendant, she nods and then walks away. Could someone who has subtitles please tell me what he says to her?

Answer: "Could you please get a blanket for my daughter?"

iceverything776

Question: When firing a missile, why do the pilots always precede it with the word Fox (e.g 'Fox 1.')? Also, what significance does the phrase 'pile the road' mean?

Answer: "Fox One" represents the launch of a semi-active, radar-guided air-to-air missile, "Fox Two" stands for the launch of an heat-seeking air-to-air missile, "Fox Three" is the launch of an active, radar-guided air-to-air missile and "Fox Four" is the firing of air-to-air guns. Source http://www.jimclonts.com/gloss.htm. The President says "Plough the road", meaning he wants a path cleared for Randy Quaid's plane.

Phil Watts

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 seems to be doing an impersonation of Jesse Jackson.

swamphawk

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.

raywest

Question: At the beginning, when the mothership is first photographed with the infrared and the sheet is laid out on the table, there are four distinct objects that can be seen. The mothership, the moon, and two other objects. One is smaller and to the right of the moon, and there is a kind of swirl directly below both the moon and mothership. Any ideas on what these two other objects could be?

Answer: Have a closer look at the two infrared photos of the Mothership (at 00:04:25 and 00:13:40). It's not "four distinct objects" that we see, it's actually only one image of the massive Mothership. The round bit is not the "moon" it's part of the dome portion of the Mothership. The "kind of swirl" directly below is one of appendages (it has 2) that hang underneath the irregular dome. Compare those infrared photos to the images of the actual Mothership (at 02:02:40 and 02:03:10). At the Pentagon's Space Command, the first infrared photo is only the Mothership (00:04:25). At the White House, the second infrared photo shows the Mothership and numerous Destroyer ships (00:13:40). I can't upload a screenshot here, but here's the link to a screenshot showing the infrared photo and the actual Mothership: https://i.imgur.com/W6wRv8G.jpg.

Super Grover

Answer: It might be an impaired image of the radar, which would indicate why an incomplete image is the only one available. It might not show the full image due to radar interference, much like the television signals are affected due to the satellites being used by the Aliens.

Question: This film is also known as ID4. What's the relevance in this (or am I missing something big)?

Phil Watts

Chosen answer: ID stands for Independence Day and in the US, Independence Day is on July 4th.

shortdanzr

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?

ModestFilmCollector

Chosen 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.

Gary O'Reilly

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?

SAZOO1975

Chosen 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.

Zwn Annwn

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.

Grumpy Scot

Question: Is it ever stated or hinted at which branch of the military Russell Casse flew for in Vietnam?

Answer: It is never stated or hinted.

BaconIsMyBFF

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?

Socks1000

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

Grumpy Scot

Factual error: There is a shot of the Imperial Valley at night with the edges of the Los Angeles destroyer spinning over the mountains. The center of the destroyer is hovering over downtown LA. Imperial Valley is over 200 miles away from downtown LA, and the destroyer is no more than 20 miles in diameter. There would be no way the edges of the destroyer would extend far enough to be seen from Imperial Valley as shown unless it was over 100 miles in radius. The ship does not even hover over Steven Hiller's house which is in LA, it can nearly be seen whole from there. The destroyer would be obscured by the mountains and from 200 miles it would appear much smaller.

More mistakes in Independence Day

President Thomas Whitmore: I don't understand, where does all this come from? How do you get funding for something like this?
Julius Levinson: You don't actually think they spend $20,000 on a hammer, $30,000 on a toilet seat do you?

More quotes from Independence Day

Trivia: In Area 51 there is a large screen displaying the results of the nuclear strikes against the alien ships. Look under the screen and there is some text in green. Pause it to read the following: "The purpose of these green lines is to lead you to believe that these words mean something", and "And can I see with eye serene the very pulse of the machine Wordsworth".

More trivia for Independence Day

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