Episode 6, Season 4: Independence Day

In this episode of Better Remembered, Scott shares the heartwarming story of his daughter’s first on-stage performance, where she drummed in front of a live audience with all the confidence in the world. We then dive into a kaiju showdown, comparing Godzilla Minus One to Godzilla X Kong—which one is truly worth your time?

Next up, John tests our knowledge with some fun Will Smith trivia before we take a nostalgic trip back to July 2nd, 1996, to relive the explosive action and unforgettable moments of Independence Day.

Join us for a mix of personal stories, monster movie mayhem, and a celebration of one of the most iconic blockbusters of the '90s. Is Independence Day better remembered? Tune in to find out!

Transcript

On this episode of Better Remember, we are going to watch the 1996 Summer Action Blockbuster
Independence Day.
The aliens are coming and their goal is to invade and destroy Earth.
Fighting Superior Technology, mankind's best weapon is the will to survive.
Alright, so this past weekend, I got to do something that I thought was pretty cool.
Saturday at 1 o'clock in the afternoon, at the bar of the bowling alley, I went and grabbed
a beer and listened to my daughter and her band play a set.
So she did this rock band school, it's organized by the music school, where they give drum
lessons, guitar lessons, bass lessons, like all instruments, right?
And then they get these kids and they put them together like hey you want to be in a band.
So she was the drummer and they grabbed a bassist and a guitarist and they had a sax
trombone and a trumpet.
Wow.
They practiced for, I don't know, like 12, 16 weeks, still once a week for a little over
an hour.
If you work out a set of like five songs or so, then they go perform for all the parents,
basically.
It was just kind of cool and anybody else who just there wants to hear, because it's,
yeah, again, it's in the bowling alley and they had them like up on stage with monitors
and amps and like it was the whole set up.
And I just thought that was so cool.
So they played like, they did a food fighter song, they did a Pearl Jam song, Chicago and
Smash Mouth and I think it was like a fifth one.
I don't remember now what it was.
And my daughter was like kicking herself at Wilmo, oh, I messed this one up, I messed
something up, I'm like, I don't think you understand.
Most of us do not know the drum parts to these songs nearly to the point where we could
tell you if you got any of it.
Right.
Like yes, it went boom and it went chicken, it sounded good and in time.
She could really seem to care less.
I'm just like, so beside myself, because I just think that's the coolest thing.
And she's like, yeah, whatever, just kids.
I would have loved to have that experience as a kid.
One funny thing about it too is one of their guitarists wasn't there at call.
So it was 12.30.
They were supposed to be there.
One o'clock was curtain, right, 12.45 comes no guitarist, 12.55 comes and they're
like, hey, is anybody seen Jabidaya or whatever's name is and no, no, no, one o'clock, one
o'clock, one o'clock, okay, we got to go on without a guitarist, somebody called him.
He was in bed.
He didn't know the performance was today.
The whole rest of the bands on stage.
Oh, man.
It was the show.
Of course.
Who filled in?
They had a second guitarist who was actually one of the teachers there.
So he actually covered the solo parts really anyways.
I think their guitarist is more rhythm.
But it was a little hollow like they probably should have been a second guitar part going
at times.
Still sound good.
That's so awesome.
There's no way that anybody could hear the mistakes that she thinks that she's hearing,
but what a cool experience, but it does take guts to go up there.
I got to give him credit.
Yeah.
And that's the thing is anytime you see anybody up there and anybody wants to be critical.
Like my first thing is like, you can be critical, but are you willing to go do that?
Everybody wants to crap on people doing karaoke, but will you go sing?
I mean, I won't, but I also don't crap on people.
Like in the difference between crapping on people and just being like, they're not a very
good singer.
A lot of time they know they're not a very good singer.
They're having fun.
So also this weekend, I watched two Godzilla movies.
It's a topic we've never covered and that's kind of a fun one I thought.
So I think they're both, they're just fun movies unless you really take your monster
movies seriously.
Okay.
If you were that person, you probably didn't enjoy these movies.
The two movies I watched were Godzilla minus one and Godzilla x Kong the New Empire.
I don't know if it's supposed to be worse, but it is an X or whatever.
Right.
So we'll talk about Godzilla minus one first.
It's by Toho Studios, which is the Japanese company who made the original Godzilla movies
and almost all the Godzilla movies up to this point.
Okay.
So Mothra and Mecha Godzilla and anything else you saw, like Robert Suits as a kid, that was
Toho.
All right.
They invented the Godzilla franchise.
They didn't invent this genre of monster movies, obviously, but they're the guys who came
up with the whole Godzilla thing.
It's about Japanese fighter pilot from World War II who can bring himself to be a Kamikaze
basically.
Okay.
And he's landed on this island, saying there was something wrong with his plane.
That's why he couldn't go on this attack run.
And while he's on the island, it gets attacked by Godzilla and it just haunts him.
And eventually he goes back home, the war is over, but then Godzilla goes to Japan.
So it's really focused on him and then this relationship that he develops with this woman
and the child she's caring for.
So very human-centric story with lots of Godzilla.
Kind of true to the Japanese roots.
Yep.
Yep.
I did watch the English dubbed version, which was a good dubbing.
They do have the Japanese with subtitles if you're a purest.
I am not.
But is that part of being a purest?
You know some people.
I think we're in the, whatever the opposite of purest, sorry, I think we might be in
that category.
So it was, it was a good movie.
If you can just accept that you're watching a monster movie, not take things too seriously,
it's a good movie.
That was Saturday night.
Sunday I watched Godzilla Kong New Empire.
And that's this Warner Brothers franchise they booted, so Warner Brothers really wanted
some kind of franchise.
They saw Marvel making all of this money and they're like, how do I get in on that?
So they thought they were lunch.
This DC universe franchise of comic books and then they just made like bomb after bomb.
Right.
Then they licensed Godzilla from Toho and they made the first Godzilla movie in the
Warner Brothers franchise and that started Brian Cranston.
I watched that, I don't know, months ago, some of a few years back.
Yeah.
At 2016 I think, but it was, you know, it was okay.
Obviously made by Warner Brothers, so it had a much higher budget, right?
They could put money into it.
Right.
And then they made a King Kong movie, then they made another Godzilla movie, and then
like Godzilla first, Kong movie, and then this one, so there's like the fifth in this
franchise.
Oh, gotcha.
All right, gotcha.
And basically there's like a new enemy and we've got to get Godzilla and Kong to team
up, but they don't get along.
Naturally.
And it's just so over the top, but again, like you just suspend all belief, right?
It's just like, just just have fun with this and it's, it's, you know, it's fun.
The CGI is very, very good.
But here's where we get in, since I've made this point, I think two shows ago.
To those studios to theirs on a budget, somewhere from 10 to 15 million dollars, Warner Brothers
to theirs on a budget of 135 to 150 million times the amount, 10 times the amount.
If you were to ask me is Godzilla versus Kong, 10 times the movie that Godzilla minus one
is, hands down.
No, it's not.
You mean, marketability or watchability?
It's not 10 times watchability.
It's not 10 times.
Marketability, it's not 10 times quality, it's better quality, but it's not 10 times
better.
And I think the studios just got to learn that you don't need to spend that much money
to make a good, fun, exciting movie.
Stop dumping and throwing away all your money on these massive blockbuster budget films
that then have to go and earn 300 million at the box office just to break even, because
they don't include the marketing in that number.
I mean, there's no big high paid actors in this movie.
So we're talking about primarily just paying these special effects artists and render farms
and CGI artists.
Again, fun movie, just you could slash that easily down to 45 million.
That would be three times the budget of Godzilla minus one, which was a thought you know, was
fine.
They didn't do nearly as much close up work on Godzilla and what have you, but if that
one had looked three times better, I would have been like, blow my mind.
So I would recommend watching either one, just if you're going to pick between the two of
them, watch Godzilla minus one.
All right.
So our movie today, stars Will Smith, and as I understand it, you might have a little
trivia.
All right.
So that's first of all, one of my biggest problems this week trying to figure out is it
okay to like Will Smith in light of everything.
So that that's kind of been going on in my mind.
But today's trivia is a little bit different, right?
So you talked about monsters and there's some great monster movies out there.
But I think that Independence Day kind of holds its own among alien movies as well.
There's quite a few alien movies out there, right?
Today's trivia is famous alien movies, but told from the perspective of the aliens themselves.
All right.
Can you guess the movie based on the alien's description?
Are you ready for this?
I think so.
All right.
Number one, our species, the xenomorphs, take pride in our ability and resilience, however
we found it quite surprising when a human named Ellen Ripley managed to outwit our formidable
warrior in the Nostromo spacecraft.
That was alien, right?
1979.
And that's alien with no S in it.
Right.
All right.
Very good.
I think that was a tricky one there.
Number two, one of our botanists has an unexpected adventure on Earth.
We're touched to learn that he formed deep friendship with a young human.
Botanist, was that ET?
It was ET.
Did you ever hear the hypothesis that ET was more vegetable than animal, like essentially like a potato?
No, when somebody said I like that's kind of weird, but then I thought about it.
And it's like, that's not that far-fetched.
And he looks like a potato.
Correct.
Number three, our attempts to colonize Earth faced unexpected resistance from human ingenuity
and determination, despite our advanced technology, the human's resourcefulness and unity
led to a surprising and decisive victory for them.
Sounds like everyone.
Yeah.
There wasn't really a giveaway clue, except maybe colonize, which I'm trying to think of
when a movie where the aliens tried to colonize Earth, I got nothing.
Yeah.
This is kind of a curveball, too.
This is today's hit, 1996 Independence Day.
Was that what they're trying to do?
Was colonizing it?
That's that is the from their perspective.
In fact, in one scene, you know, you can kind of see the spaceships, but like it's see,
it looked like almost like you could see additional, like, I don't know if it was troops
or...
Oh, yeah.
It was a theme for whatever.
That was like an invasion force.
Well, I mean, yeah, I guess they probably weren't colonizing to keep us alive and slave
as they were colonizing to reap the, maybe colonize is probably, yeah.
There were more about just totally harvesting the Earth and moving on.
Yeah.
All right.
We're going to skip that one.
Number four, our hunting expedition on Earth took an interesting turn when we encountered
a highly skilled human combatant.
His ability to outsmart and challenge our best warrior was both impressive and humbling.
Predator.
Predator, 1987.
At number five, as inhabitants of an intergalactic community, we appreciate the efforts of this
agency in maintaining peace and order on Earth, met in black as the goodwin, 1997.
All right.
Number six.
All right.
I'm going to give you a little detail on this one.
As the Mondo Shaoans, we are the ancient protectors of the universe's ultimate weapon against
evil.
Oh, it's the one we watched.
Fifth element.
It is the fifth element.
There's not too many more details that gives that one way.
Also in 1997, alien invasion and the final one.
Our advanced species has long prepared to colonize Earth, utilizing our formidable tripods
to assert dominance or the world's 2005.
All right.
I remember that movie in just how much I can't remember the girl's name, the young actress,
but every scene she was just screaming.
Yes.
That was her job.
Just scream and every scene.
You can imagine how the audition went for that.
All right.
Let's jump back to July 2nd, 1996.
Wait a minute.
Wait a minute.
Doc.
Are you telling me that you built a time machine?
What about the Gloria?
How tough times she is.
They're traveling through time.
Music.
We have the macarena.
Do you remember the name of the band?
Because this charted to number one in the states.
And I don't even know are there any English words in macarena?
Okay.
Macarena.
I don't know.
I can't think of the name of the band now.
Low still Rio.
Okay.
All we also had.
I love you so much.
Slash 8.
Nobody by Monica.
Twisted by Keith Sweat.
And come on ride that train by Quad City DJs.
The most enduring of all of those songs.
Three of those were definitely songs I danced to in high school.
It was Slim Pickens in 1997 and 1998.
You wanted to dance with the girl?
That's what you danced to.
Yes, sir.
At the movies you had this.
That seems to be like my new tagline when we were talking about movies.
We've been watching a lot of summer blockbusters I guess.
It was Independence Day.
$817 million.
July 5th was phenomenon.
It did $152 million.
Normally that's a pretty respectable number.
But if you were to try and stack it up against Independence Day.
It was just Independence Day.
And this is like the era of the summer blockbuster too.
It's like this was the movie everybody had to talk about it.
This was still when you could show up at work or school or whatever on that Monday.
And that's when it gets discussed because it wasn't blown up.
No spoilers.
No social.
You know, that was the chance to talk about it.
Yeah, and there's some good marketing obviously involved with this.
The movies were released on July 2nd.
In the first day of the movie is July 6th.
Good stuff.
They clearly timed this release.
Just how they wanted it.
All right.
In the news we had Hurricane Bertha.
Makes landfall in North Carolina as a category two storm causing $270 million of damage in the United States.
That was on July 12th.
July 17th pairs to Roombaung TWA flight 800 explodes.
Fought to coast of Long Island, New York killing all 230 on board.
I don't remember.
Anything about this like zero.
I mean, I have a very real collection of, but I thought the crash was a lot longer ago than that.
July 19th and 96 Summer Olympics in Atlanta begin.
And then July 27th, the Centennial Olympic Park bombing at the Summer Olympics kills two in injures 111.
Yes.
That's not the story.
I mean, obviously that's the story, but there's a piece of that that even like the main whole Wikipedia article skims over.
Yeah.
Do you remember what that is?
I remember, I really remember clearly how big a deal it was out of the Olympics in Atlanta.
Was this the year that it was Dave and Dave and Dave where those guys doing the Decathlon maybe?
I think it was Dave and Dave too.
And then one of them didn't even qualify.
And like, I think it was Pepsi had put in insane amounts of advertising and marketing.
And did we're going to do this whole thing?
And then one of them doesn't even make it.
I don't think that's what you're getting at though.
So there was this bombing.
It was a pipe bomb in a bag.
I think it was actually three pipe bombs.
It was like trap null exploded killed two injured 111.
There's a security guard who found the bag and reported it.
It started the evacuation process saving way more people.
His name was Richard Jewel.
The media found out his name was Richard Jewel.
Found out he was a security guard.
Talked to an old boss about a former employer who gave him some quotes.
And next thing you know, he's like the primary suspect.
And they're dragging his name through the mud.
And they're like people are going to his house furious and like threatening him.
It is family.
And like the media's camped outside on his lawn.
He didn't do anything.
He's the hero of this story years later.
And he's like, first he gets, you know, acquitted.
Because he's actually the hero, not the villain in the story.
Then he goes on to sue all these media coming.
So now trying to be like, we were just doing our job or we're reporting the news.
No, no, no, you were totally out of line.
You just saw a name, made a story and ran with it.
Right.
And he, I believe he did win some of those cases.
But he didn't get nearly the compensation he deserved.
Yeah, it should become safe for years of income.
And then he just had a tragic story after that.
He like died at the age of 44 for medical complications and stuff.
Probably cause all the stress from being falsely accused.
The one upside is there's several TV shows and stuff that have gone on since then.
And they've kind of right at the wrong.
Like they'll make Richard Julie their fictional character or part of the character of the story.
And he'll be the hero of this story, not the villain.
It's true, right?
Because that was really quite only, you know, only two deaths.
It could have been far, far, far worse.
Oh, yeah.
It's because they were evacuating it that the injury numbers were as low.
Cause they were actually getting everybody out of the area.
Cause they didn't know, obviously they don't know what's in the bag.
They just knew it was bad news.
Needless to say, it was kind of like the boss of marathon,
bombers who just like we got a pressure cooker and nails.
Yeah.
It's all you need if you want to create an explosive, you can create an explosive.
All right.
Are we ready to do this?
All right.
Let's see if we can...
...for ourselves from the aliens and Independence Day.
July 2nd.
On Earth's moon, we hear the address that Neil Armstrong gave the landing site of Apollo 11.
The footprints left behind begin to vibrate and dissolve as his shadow falls across the surface of the moon.
A giant ship moves over the moon and heads towards Earth's orbit.
The military reports that the mothership has a diameter of over 550 kilometers in a math roughly one quarter of the moon's weight.
It releases several smaller but immense ships that each measure 24 kilometers in diameter.
Somehow, we miss an object a quarter of the size of the moon traveling until Earth until it erupts.
Right.
We can watch Pluto from however far Pluto is away, which has got to be around that size.
And he can't come in from behind the moon.
Obviously, right?
Like, I get to see something coming in from behind the Sun.
Like, if it really was fast, you can kind of zoom out there.
But it definitely can't come in from behind the moon.
Observers at the city site in New Mexico have discovered a signal coming from the mothership.
David Levittson, played by Jeff Goldblum, works in a TV media as a technical systems engineer.
He discovers a countdown being relayed across Earth satellites, realizing he must report the findings to the highest government authorities.
He has his father, Julius, drive him to Washington, D.C.
He hopes to have a White House connection.
He has, get him a meeting with the U.S. President, Tom Whitmore, played by Bill Pullman.
It's quite the leap here with Jeff Goldblum.
Thankfully, it's probably the only lethal make in this movie.
I've got to point out this.
So he discovers this signal hidden in the noise.
And it's getting shorter.
And he determines that since it's getting shorter, it's a countdown.
Then he decides that when the countdown hits zero, it's the end of the world.
There's no reason to believe that just something's counting down.
That means the world going to end when it hits zero.
But the movie needs that to happen.
And it does not know an intelligent way.
So it's just like, we just know that that's what's going to happen.
Because we saw the trailer.
I mean, this is a two and a half hour movie.
So if we really had to iron all of that out, we would be looking at Titanic proportions.
No, it's a two and a half hour movie.
There was definitely time to figure something out.
That's a good point.
There's a lot to wrap up in this movie as it goes through.
So we'll see if it gets there.
I don't know why it's referring to me as the connection.
Because clearly it's his ex wife or estranged wife, I guess.
Who works like it makes that very clear from the beginning.
I don't know why the synopsis try to make this big.
It's his connection.
Okay, so that's that's what's going on, right?
The military response is led by general William Gray,
the common of the United States Marine Corps.
Albert Nimzicki is the secretary of defense.
Nimzicki advises the president to attack the alien ships,
but Whitmore recommends going to defcon three status instead until he knows more.
As the saucers appear all over the world because of widespread panic,
forcing Whitmore to evacuate his vice president and his cabinet to a secure location.
But he stays in Washington to reassure the nation.
Does Nimzicki ever recommend anything other than attack?
I mean, that guy is the quintessential.
Does the secretary of defense ever recommend restraint?
Yeah, sir, they're on the border attack.
Sir, your macaroni and cheese is missing attack.
If we're not going to attack, we at least need to ship them several billion dollars more in weapons.
Whoever they are.
They, you know, again, a movie this long.
And some of these characters is like, you know, kind of very what you see is what you get.
They just kind of make a very short cut because there is a bunch of characters in this movie to cover.
And so there's a lot of shortcuts, including the good general there.
Is he a general?
Yeah.
General.
I do like the visual effects, even all these years later,
right, the giant saucers flying over the cities, blocking out the sun.
Everything gets like dark like it's night.
That was well done.
I thought, oh, that's what I remember loving.
And it kind of held up if you just wanted to have this, you know, understand where this movie's coming from.
You really got to take it that it's a movie that they let the president stay in Washington.
Because I mean, they would have evacuated him.
The second they thought there was a trouble.
There's no talking about it.
Or like there's anything he can do anyways, but there's nothing he can do.
Also, the Marines or whatever defense is that's their whole job is to move him when they're told to move him.
Yeah.
It's always a move.
Yeah.
The Secret Service would have put him in a book.
Not the Oval Office.
US Marine Captain Stephen Hillier played by Will Smith and his unit, the Black Knights,
F-18 fighter squadron out of MCASL Toro are called back from their July 4th leave to defend Los Angeles.
His girlfriend, Jasmine DeBurro, a Vivica A Fox, decides to flee the city with her son Dylan.
Hillier reports back to his unit to find that his application to NASA has been rejected.
Retired combat pilot Russell Casey played by Randy Quaid.
Now an alcoholic single father, a crop duster in Southern California sees this as a vindication of the alien abduction.
He has been claiming for 10 years.
Okay, lots unpack there.
We get Will Smith and his stripper girlfriend, Jasmine DeBurro, who has a son.
And he in the scene that is when he gets rejected from NASA also shows his best friend slash pilot,
the ring that he intends to marry or with.
Is there any connection between the fact that his girlfriend is a dancer and that he didn't get accepted to the NASA program?
Is that like, are they supposed to connect those ideas?
I don't think so, but there would definitely be a connection there.
It is funny and all the things we didn't spend time on fleshing out, the ring had a dolphin.
The dolphin didn't mean anything to the story, but the wedding ring had a dolphin because she likes dolphins.
So thanks for throwing in.
I completely revered detail.
Great choices, guys.
And then we had the whole Randy Quaid story.
And we haven't even talked about his three kids in the RV.
We just focused on Russell.
But Russell has three kids.
Two sons and a daughter, one of the sons is sick.
One of the daughters keeps like falling in these little teenage love-trist things as the movie goes.
And they're just out somewhere in the desert.
They're all stranded in one way or the other.
Constant Spano, the White House press secretary for David's former wife, gets David a private meeting with President Thomas J. Whitmore.
Of the countdown.
I guess this puts me back on the topic of the countdown.
David explains how the alien visitors have commandeered Earth satellite systems in our coordinating this immense saucers,
with what David thinks will be an initial attack.
David and Julius accompany the president's constants and Whitmore's closest staff on Air Force One.
So again, these aliens who manage to get all the way to the moon without us knowing,
and then hover their flank saucers over all the cities of Earth.
Now need our satellites to communicate to one another, because that's their way of communicating.
Well, and then...
Because if you're hovering over the Earth hundreds of miles up,
you probably have even line up sight.
If you're over, you know, London, in Paris, in New York, in Sydney,
and whatever your major cities in Africa are, because I'm woefully...
There's some big...
They're all... I don't know them.
I'll brush up on my aftertyography after this.
But you wouldn't think you would need satellites all of my point.
Well, I guess they're kind of in the atmosphere, right?
Like the idea is they're not... they're not 100 miles of...
Maybe they're like a mile up, right?
Like they're like two miles up, so they...
They're not... they're not in line of sight.
Still, the fact that they need...
And then, okay, so let's... let's make that leap.
Okay.
Then, you know, Jeff Goldbloom's character.
Like, how is this guy ahead of every...
Intelligence Agency, everybody else who's all geared up to identify these things?
How is he the sole person?
It's not like he... you know, he found like maybe a missing piece of the puzzle.
It's like nobody was even looking, and he's the only one that considered it.
John, I've already introduced ten characters at this point,
and I skipped the three crop dusters kid,
and you want to bring in intelligence episodes?
Yeah, don't think the script is full enough.
I'm not even done introducing characters.
And they really won't matter, although they kind of do,
but, you know, the movie is pretty good about coming back around to each one of them.
There's more going, just wait.
The saucers attack at the respective cities simultaneously
by discharging their primary weapon,
a blue-beamed cannon affixed to the bottom of each ship.
That sends a larger, more destructive blast into its target.
The weapon unleashes a cascading wall of fire that travels to the city,
destroying everything in its path.
The White House in DC, Empire State Building in Manhattan,
and the first interstate bank tower,
are all struck first, turning into columns of flame in DC,
Air Force 1 merrily escapes the inferno.
Thomas' wife, Bruce Lady Marilyn, played by Mary McDowell,
is in LA at the time of the attack,
and was injured in the blast when a helicopter crashes.
Marilyn is found and rescued by Jasmine,
who is trapped in the city with Dylan.
They are surviving by hiding in the maintenance room of a tunnel.
All right.
The explosions were also, I thought, really cool.
That had to be miniature work, but that was, like, really good miniature work.
It's still, yeah, it still looks pretty good.
I mean, it's evident that it's miniature work.
Dad, I think that's the, like, upside of not doing CGI,
especially early CGI, right?
I don't know if today's CGI will hold up,
but there was that time period, right,
when they would do CGI that doesn't hold up,
because there is no practical effect,
and now you're seeing, you're like, oh, at the time,
you're like, oh, this is incredible,
but now you've seen your own viruses, cheese.
But, like we said, with the Nakatomi Plaza,
when they blow that up, because it's a miniature in diehard,
how good it looks, right?
They took a little tiny helicopter,
with a little thing, they blew it up.
Yeah.
And they did, I think it's what they did here,
but it does, it looks really good.
All right, so they built,
all right, so Independence Day's White House Explosion Saat
used a 124-scale model.
Pretty small, I think, one-sixteenth,
but maybe one-sixteenth is what they used for vehicles.
For cars, right?
Yeah, that's what I'm thinking.
So, it's probably like 20, 30, 40 feet,
so then pretty big.
Still, I mean, it looked good.
I think that's the point.
So I'll look good.
I love that part.
So the exploding scene,
where Jasmine escaped into the tunnel
with her son and dog,
this is like all of my complaints, right?
When someone throws a grenade,
and there's a ball of fire,
and I have to explain that's not how grenades work.
This director didn't know how fire works.
So for our listing audience, see,
in order to have fire, you need oxygen.
And if there's a lot of fire,
it'll use up all the oxygen in the area.
Fire does not care if you went through a door.
It will take all the oxygen in the room
for that size, Blake,
as the fire goes sweeping past their door,
it would have sucked all the oxygen out of that room
and killed everyone inside
from the heat and lack of air instantly.
There would have had no air
and certainly died from the heat.
I mean, second, they would have lasted seconds and maybe, yeah.
But fortunately for them,
they closed the door and were in Hollywood,
so they're fine.
It is this last scene where we see the dog?
I don't remember seeing the dog after this.
All I know was that I think everybody can agree
we're happy the dog made it, right?
Nobody is not cheering at the dog made it, right?
Maybe the dog's at a peril at this point.
Maybe that was it for the dog.
I don't remember seeing it again.
Then make it onto the chuck.
I wonder if it would ever.
Maybe.
We also see Mayor McDonald here.
She's playing the first lady.
She's also the president from Battlestar Galact.
That's where I know her.
That's right.
She's a good president.
July 3rd.
Almost rid of this is Hitler's.
Hitler's squadron is called up
to join dozens of others
to launch a counterattack against a saucer over L.A.
They quickly find out that the invaders' vehicles
are protected by an advanced shielding technology
making their missiles useless.
The saucers launch smaller fighters of their own
with the same shield technology
that instantly outnumber and rapidly destroy
most of our human fleet.
Hitler's wingman, Jimmy Wilder,
played by Harry Connick Jr.,
is pursued and destroyed by one of the alien attackers.
Hitler leads his attacker into the system of canyons
and brings his ship down
when he launches his F-18s parachute
in its windscreen and forces
the plane to crash into a canyon wall.
The attacker crashes into the same cliff
and skids to a stop on the ground.
Undaunted,
Hitler marches to the alien craft
and opens a attach.
Hitler sees the crashed pilot
a bizarre bipedal being
and punches it, knocking it out.
And naturally, first of all,
the parachute is the technology
that takes out the spaceship
and then plush to the exoskeleton
is all it took to knock this thing out for a wet hours.
He was really sad
about his wingman dying
for like whole scene too.
That's a garg I led so quickly.
He moves on fast.
As Hitler is dragging the alien
across the desert,
he's picked up by Russell
and a fleet of mobile home owners
who take Hitler in the unconscious
alien to Area 51,
commanded by Major Michael Mitchell.
A few hours before the president
and his entourage arrived,
knew that comes in that norad was hit
in retaliatory strikes by the aliens.
Man, I struggle with this one.
Nimsiki advocates for a nuclear strike
on the alien ships.
Of course he does.
Nimsiki knew about the existence of Area 51
and admits that information
was hidden from the president.
So I guess that's where it takes
to find out that there's an Area 51.
You know what,
it's already cats out of the bag
we're getting invaded.
Right?
Because I love going into Area 51, right?
This is we've got the crazy scientist guy.
We've got the ship.
I remember seeing like the alien ship
like in our possession.
I always thought that was great.
And then it was like,
how much do they, you know,
how much could they get into it?
And then we kind of see the other bodies
they have as well.
Area 51 can steal the top secret facility
housing a repaired alien ship
and three dead alien bodies
from the 1940s
when the ship crash landed on Earth
like John just told us it did.
The temps have been underway
since the 1960s to repair the ship.
Upon arrival of the alien mothership
the systems on board
the alien ship have activated.
Dr. Okun,
played by Brent Spiner,
Star Trek's Mr. Data,
is the chief scientist at the facility.
Okun shows the group
the three bodies of the alien species
that have arrived
along with the attack ship.
Okun explains that the aliens
are similar to humans
in terms of physical tolerances
and weaknesses.
However, they are
plainly more technologically advanced.
Whitmore asked David to work with Okun
to try and figure out a way
to defeat the alien technology.
Right?
So, how's that for insulting?
I know you've been working on this forever,
but I think I worked at a TV station
and decoded a signal,
so I work with him.
He's bored his whole life,
right?
He sacrificed his whole life
to work on this project.
Think about it though.
It's 1996,
and he has a laptop
that's been running
like without being charged
for two days.
He knows something.
It's true.
Something the rest of us don't.
Fair.
The alien captured by Steven
is brought into a lab
where Okun and his team
begin to examine it,
coming away the exoskeleton armored suit.
It's suddenly awakens,
telepathically invades Okun's mind,
and launches a psychic attack
against Whitmore
before being killed
by secret service agents
and military personnel.
Whitmore reveals what he learned
when they were linked.
The invaders plan to annihilate
Earth's inhabitants
and harvest its natural resources.
Now, they've already done
to other planetary civilizations.
The military calculates the rate
at which the saucers are moving
will destroy every major city
on Earth in the next 36 hours.
The president decides
to launch a nuclear attack
using B-52.
No.
Sorry.
B-2.
Not World War II.
B-2 stealth bombers.
But the nuclear warheads
also fail
against the alien force field
over Houston,
destroying much of the city.
The B-2s
are the less optimal choice
for attack plan.
So I thought the scene
where they cut open
the exoskeleton
and all the gooey substance
in it.
That's cool.
Yeah, that didn't make it good.
That was good.
And then there's the spray
and he slams the site
to stuff against the glass.
Yeah, that's cool.
And then the whole thing, though,
like what he's getting
sonic-attacked
and they're like,
is that glass bullet proof?
No, Mr. Prith.
Or no, gentlemen.
Why not?
I mean, I'd be a little upset
that it wasn't.
You didn't.
You just put on regular
and glad, so.
Okay.
Now, they sent out that little
vehicle, the reconnaissance
field tool,
to watch the nuclear blast
and report from the ground.
Those are real vehicles.
I've seen one up close.
I've not been

outside it,
talking with the guys
who run the modern
version of those.
You go into it
and go into the explosion
of your own.
Yeah.
And this was modern
in 2003.
They probably have
better ones now.
But they're like
these radiobiological
chemical testing units
as all they are.
But that's what they're
for.
They do.
They have like
odd gun on them.
But they're completely
enclosed.
So they had aircon.
That's what we all
cared about.
Like, oh, you mean
you got air conditioning?
They're like, yeah,
it's got to be completely
sealed.
Because if we go
into a chemical attack
and we die,
we can't report back
what there was.
But it has all this
testing equipment.
I would be scared,
shitless to be
in any kind of blast
in one of those things.
Like, who built this?
Who forgot to
close the door?
Like,
so many things.
One thing has to go
wrong in everybody's
side dies.
There's a lot of
components.
And you've already dealt
with a plethora of suppliers
and manufacturers
that are military
preventers.
What just happens
like, yeah, we were
fine.
But then, you know,
the bridge behind us
collapsed and we were
trapped.
Because we couldn't
drive out.
You're in a blast zone
that is certainly
a possibility.
Yeah, there's
nobody coming in there
at that point.
Right, they probably
asked the people
who want to do that job
some questions.
And when they don't
bring up any of these
concerns, they get
selected.
Jasmine and Dylan
come and dear a
highway maintenance truck
and rescue a handful
of survivors, including
the critically
injured first lady.
I love that convenience.
Though, Hiller
rescues them in a
helicopter that he borrow
from the base and takes
them to Area 51.
Maryland's
injuries are too
severe.
And she dies
after reuniting
with her family.
I love this scene
where he's going
to the destroyed
air force base in the
stolen Helen
copter.
And does he search
for her for hours?
You know, does she
single him with
lights?
No, he just lays
right in front of
where she was going to
be anyways.
It's just like,
what a coincidence.
It feels like there's
a whole missing
progression there of
how they would find
each other.
David, distraught
over the use of the
necusar missiles
and its failures,
plans to use the
operable attack ship
to enter the interior
of the alien
mothership in space
and dock with it.
Gaining access
to its operating
system.
That was a mouthful.
Working all night
with the facilities
tech team, he produces
a computer virus
that he will upload
to disable the
protective shields around
the destroyers
and the attackers.
David says that by
infiltrating the
mothership, he will
disorient the saucers
and by a window
of a few minutes
during which a
counter-attack can be
launched against the
aliens.
Namzicki
is staunchly
opposed to the idea
of the virus
from his position.
Hilar
volunteers to be a
pilot of the ship,
with Levison accompanying
him to upload the
virus.
With satellite
communications knocked
out, the Americans
use Moore's code
to coordinate an attack
while the remaining
forces around the
world.
Time to occur,
but the invaders'
ships are set to fail.
Case volunteers
to pilot an
F-18 in the counter-
attack, despite his
shaky nature.
He's a drunk.
Whit Moore,
a former combat
pilot pilot himself,
lead a squadron
of the ship.
Whit Moore gives the
small squadron of
pilots.
They've scrapped
together a rousing
speech.
Sighting that is
July 4th, and that
the Earth is again
fighting for its
survival.
So David's sleeping
on the floor, his
father's like,
you don't catch a cold
and he's like,
the idea.
Like, that's the point
when we think of a
computer veteran.
Against the far,
far technologically
superior.
Though there is

for that.
I've seen this
happen in the real
world.
And what kind of

maybe we're going
to go over a
competent because you
progress, and you
actually re-expose
yourself to attacks
and problems.
You had solved
decades ago.
Because, no one
does that anymore.
You just stop
protecting against it.
And then someone
backdoors you with
like an old
root, kid from
1980.
And you're like,
you already have a
solution.
So it's not like it's
a rope, but you're
like, how do we
move, you know,
Microsoft to talk?
How do you upload a
virus to an
alien operating
system?
Okay.
I mean, until
just recently, you couldn't
charge an iPhone
with anything but a
lightning cable.
You're telling me they
docked that laptop
to an alien, right?
You try to make a
computer see a printer.
I'm with you there.
And did Jeff
go up in the
spaceship?
He did.
Because that's the
strategic move there.
Yeah.
Right.
And, of course, the
pilot knows how to fly
an alien spacecraft
because.
Well, he did apply
for NASA, so he has
some experience.
And of course, you've
let the president fly
an F18.
Because he knows how.
And the crop
duster he'll be fine
too.
Did they all fly F18?
F18s are just like
biplanes.
They're bringing
no steps.
They're practically
flight itself.
You got to imagine
it's a whole career
to learn how to fly
it.
And he talks about
how this is Earth's
Independence Day.
Like, we're not
independent from the
aliens.
A pretty sure we're
going to put Jack
and kill them all.
They're trying to
kill us all.
It's not like an
independence.
We're going to break
away.
They'll stay in England.
Well, we're very
motivated because we don't
really touch on this movie
of millions and millions
and millions of people
who have died
instantly.
We're kind of going
on.
Hiller and Levinson
successfully reached the
mothership and implant
the virus.
On the way, they see
preparations being made
for a grounded invasion.
President Whitmore
leads the American
fighter jets against the
alien destroyer that is
approaching Area 51.
David uploads the
virus as planned and
sees the result when
the screens of the
mothership begin to flicker.
However, the two are
soon discovered by the
dispatcher alien
in the men's ship.
And the two
humans are forced
to hide.
Although the aliens
now lack shields,
the F-18 supply
of missiles are quickly
exhausted against the
colossal craft in its
large complement of
assault ships.
The underside of the
alien craft opens up in
its directed energy
weapon prepares to fire
on Area 51 base.
After the president's
last missile launches
and fails to destroy
the saucer's cannon,
case rejoins the
remains of the
president's squadry,
possessing the last
remaining missile,
but his firing
mechanism jams
retries to launch.
Case decides to pilot
his aircraft into the
alien weapon in a
kamikaze attack.
He tells the officials
on the ground to relay
his goodbyes to his
children, and Jovley
flies his ship straight
into the cannon's
beam, colliding with the
cannon.
The explosion causes a
chain reaction that
annihilates the ship,
forcing into the
ground nearby.
And these nice clean
wrap-up of our,
you know, token drunk
eye?
They really were trying
to jam catchphrases
into this movie.
They were trying,
man.
It was bad.
So much cliché lines,
like they just at
certain points were
even really trying.
Human resistance forces
around the world used
the same weak point to
destroy the remaining
of the alien saucers,
while the nuclear
device planted by
Healer-Levinson destroyed
the alien mothership,
soon after the duo
escaped.
Healer-Levinson are
caught up in the
after-effects of the
mothership's explosion,
but are able to return
to Earth unharmed,
trash-landing the
alien fighter in the
desert close to
Area 51.
As they all watched the
remnants of the mothership
burnt up in the
atmosphere, Healer
tells Dylan that his
promised fireworks were
the holidays.
A couple of things.
They said,
you'll have a few minutes
to attack the alien ship.
And then they completely
forgot that they said
they'd only have a few
minutes because then they
will have a few minutes
to attack the alien
ships.
Remember that thing I
said 10 minutes ago?
Forget it.
But this this
ending scene to me is
just the most
regardless of these
seconds.
They went down in the
desert.
We've got to go find
them.
Who should go?
Well, I'm the general.
I need to go.
Well, that's my son.
I need to go.
Well, we just,
that's my husband.
I'll go.
Well, that's my
boy.
For an apple,
for an apple,
for an apple.
For an apple,
for an apple.
For an apple,
for an apple.

For an apple.
For an apple.
And then they got the

For an apple.
Well, that's my husband.
I'll go.
Well, that's my boy for
an apple.
For an apple.
For an apple.
For an apple.
For an apple.
But it's a picnic.
They could have just
found their remains
strewn across the desert
floor and played
pulpy pieces.
But they all
spy on with doing cheap

them.
That is not how you do
that.
What did you
think about this
way?
So, all right.
So, you're saying that
car was a realistic.
All right.
Well, that's a
curveball I didn't see.
Um, I get it.
Well, one of the
cool scenes was like,
well, I guess
realistic scenes to me was
like the guy
the remaining
military guys
from like different
nations.
Like, I can see that
there would be that
collaboration when all
else is going to hell.
That the guys
with the actual training
and abilities.
That's all we got is
to, you know,
kind of made sense
too.
They were kind of like
indicating they just
put all those forces
on the ground, hopefully
where they wouldn't be
found, until they
figured out a strategy
that worked.
Like, they didn't
all just keep throwing
planes against those
shields and just
sacrificing their
planes for nothing.
They're like, we
need to figure out
something that works
and regroup.
So, this casts.
We have a lot of
characters in this
movie.
Most of the time it
comes back around, you
know, the president,
I think the news
article at the beginning
they said, you know, well
he's a wimp, right?
And so, he didn't
like hearing that.
At the end, he's
a F-18 fighter pilot
hero.
So, he has redemption
and, of course, case
gets to go back to the
aliens, you know, to settle
the score.
And so, we've got some
of that.
This movie, I don't
think it's too much
about that.
And I think that all
the shortcuts that were
taken on these

very important.
I think that all the
shortcuts that we're
taking on these
characters is
very important.
On these characters is
kind of appropriate.
We don't really need to
just have to figure it
all out.
And so, I think that this
movie gets a lot of
criticism because of not
only the cliché script
and writing, but the
cliché characters.
But what we're trying to
get to here is really
epic invasion,
cool sci-fi scenes, massive
scale representations
of explosions, cool concepts
of how we get invaded
and the inner
workings of a, you know,
of course, a ridiculous
notion, but every
notion is going to be
ridiculous of what
the inside of a
spaceship is.
And in 1996, we were
all really kind of
yearning for more.
I think there was just
such, obviously, there
about a sale.
There was such, such
an appetite for this
stuff.
There's a good reason
why I was so successful.
And I don't know.
I mean, we talked about
some other alien movies
and I don't know too
many other than the
other Will Smith
Alien movie that
really were better.
So that's what I
think about.
I think about Will Smith
when it was okay to
like Will Smith.
They add some, like,
humor injected early
on, right?
And this is kind of
before anybody really
knew Will Smith as, you
know, sci-fi action star.
I mean, I'm pretty sure
he was fresh press to us
at that time.
I don't know.
Right?
Bad boys is a
boost bad boy.
Bad boys.
I think bad boys
might come.
But still he was still
that wasn't much of a
stretchroom.
Yeah.
This was like he
where he really took
the leap in there.
So, you know, they kind
of injured.
I think that's part of, you
know, kind of introducing
him with that humor
early on.
They try to like humanize
him by him not getting
in a NASA, which, the truth
is, of course, this guy
is, you know, a superhero
in every way who can now
fly alien spaceships
at the end.
That's what I was
looking for.
That's what I like
about the movie.
That's why the movie is
good.
We could talk about all
the reasons why the movie
sucks.
I could tell you about him.
But I can tell you that
for this movie is what it
wants to be.
Right?
Like they didn't deviate
and they didn't try to go
ahead and make sense of
things when it was just
about making this kind of
rock star movie about alien
vision.
It is.
It's a graphic spectacle.
So, I like it.
Like we said, it has
great model work.
The buildings that they
explode, the ships they
fly in, the shots they
chose to take of those
things.
Right?
Like the camera work to
be like, we're going to be
looking up at these big
buildings and, or down at
them.
Like they made good choices
there.
The destroyed city.
It looks like a destroyed
city.
That aspect of the film was
very, very good.
It's not great writing.
For all of the reasons
we pointed out.
But really fun action
sequences.
If you want to see a good
version of this.
You need to go watch
Battle Los Angeles.
It has everything this
movie is missing.
It has good action sequences
with good scripts.
And more realism than I've
ever seen in a sci-fi or
even action movie.
I always point out.
It's about Marines fighting
aliens who have to go to
this police station and
rescue the people who have
been pinned down.
And as they're fighting the
aliens, they run out of
ammo.
Because that's what happens
when you're fighting.
You carry three magazines.
And you're pop, pop, pop,
I'm out.
And as you see them, they're
like, I'm out.
And then like somebody
else will toss them another
one.
I'm out.
You hear that a lot.
Because that's what really
happens.
It's not a video game.
You can't just run around and
pick up more ammo.
Now they obviously have to
for the purpose of the movie
get some more ammo,
or it's a very short
moving.
But like it's all of that
stuff.
It's all the stuff that this
one is missed.
But it's a different, you
know, right.
It was years later, different
stuff.
I'm just saying, like, if
you're like, oh, I really
like this concept.
But if you can't move past
the writing, go watch
Fatal Los Angeles.
It should be very
pleased about that.
Yeah.
But all in all, we're
talking about this movie.
I like it.
Get graphics, you know, the
model work, everything I
just said.
Good.
I'd still, though, go
because of the writing, I
would go three-star.
Bad writing.
I'm a bad writer.
I've been accused of
being a bad writer.
And just because this
movie has bad writing
does not make it a bad
movie, it is a four in my
book.
So we'll average it out
at a 3.5.
I was like, we will.
All right.
Well, then that is it for
this episode of our show.
Right.
Well, thanks for listening.
And let me try that again.
I don't know what my
problem is when I get
huge for something.
You get surprised every
week.
That's the end of the show.
I can just talk, guys.
You know, the end of the show
always comes at the end and
you're always surprised when
it comes at the end.
I'd say I start thinking about
the end before the end.
Sometimes, because I'm
like, all right, get it right
this time.
And that's our podcast.
I think you already said
that.
If you did it, that's our
podcast.
Thanks for listening.
And we will talk to you
soon.
Thank you.