By Chris Snellgrove | Published
As a society, we have only been able to agree on a few things over the years. One of them is that summer blockbusters will have plot holes and other surprising inconsistencies. That's just the price of the game, really: if a movie's main selling point is cool explosions and cheesy one-liners, we can forgive it for having a plot twist. That doesn't stop us from laughing at the bad writing, of course. Case in point? Independence Day fans have spent decades imagining a plot about Jeff Goldblum's tech geek hacking advanced alien technology using a mid-'90s Apple PowerBook.
The idea is incredibly absurd on its face. Like, aliens have technology advanced enough to help them conquer the stars and travel faster than light throughout the galaxy. How did the IT expert beat the internet's newbies? However, as it turns out, this plot point is not as silly as everyone thinks. That's because one of the deleted scenes in the Independence Day revealed something important: that is, all of Earth's modern technology was taken from outer space taken back in the '90s!
WelcomeToEarth.exe
In Independence Dayall the major powers of the world are attacked by foreign invaders who do not hesitate to blow up power centers like the White House. In the film's climactic final battle, America helps lead a two-pronged attack against these foreign enemies. Jeff Goldblum's ingenious technology removes a virus from his trusty Apple PowerBook. When Will Smith's hit driver gets them close enough, they upload the virus to the unknown mother's app. This lowers the shields on the ships attacking Earth, allowing humanity to fight back and eventually take back their world from these evil space invaders.
Even in the '90s, the idea of beating a computer virus against another seemed ridiculous. The technology of these two races must be very different, and the technology of the aliens is probably more advanced than ours. However, a deleted scene from the 20th Anniversary DVD of Independence Day revealed that all of Earth's modern computer technology was taken from an alien spacecraft that crashed in Roswell and was studied at Area 51. In this space, it is where we discovered silicon-based microchips and binary programming language. Therefore, Goldblum's computer virus is more believable because it uses (more or less) the same technology and programs as the aliens.
Hack the World
Obviously, this plot point is still a little iffy. Having the same technology is one thing, but aliens have to be very advanced to make this happen. Like, this is the equivalent of taking down the most advanced computer security systems in the world using just your Atari 2600. However, the deleted scene still adds welcome context, and it's like I said earlier: blockbusters won't always make a lot of sense. Also, “the internet came from aliens” is still more believable than that Transformers: Dark Side of the Moonwho claimed that Buzz Aldrin secretly went to the moon to test a robotic UFO.
Either way, now you have it Independence Day trivia is as bright and shiny as any firework. The next time you show the family this movie and your child points out how dumb the line is, you can just tell them about the deleted scene. Will this make your child happy? Well: he'll just roll his eyes and look down at his phone, but there's really nothing we can do about that. PowerBooks may be able to hack alien motherships, but there is no power on Earth or space can help you hack the surly young mind!
