Independence Day
Independence Day mistake picture

Visible crew/equipment: When Russell lands his crop-dusting plane and Miguel rides up alongside on his motorbike. The equipment used to help stop the motorbike, at the right position for the close-up, is visible on the ground - but it's gone in the wideshot. (Only visible on fullscreen DVD.)

Super Grover

Independence Day mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When the B2 releases the nuke it banks away to the left, however the next radar shot shows it flying away to the right.

Independence Day mistake picture

Continuity mistake: After David looks in the fridge for ice, Connie appears at the doorway, and when he makes a toast to the end of the world, the bottle to his right turns between shots, note the label. (01:33:10)

Super Grover

Independence Day mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When David and Julius are playing chess at the park in Brooklyn, the slow decomposing styrofoam coffee cup, David's beeper, radio, removed chess pieces (not in play), etc., change position between shots, particularly in relation to the chess board.

Super Grover

Independence Day mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When Julius and David pull up beside the White House gate, David places the device on the Plymouth's hood to triangulate Connie's position inside. The device's position on the car's hood differs between the close-up and wideshot - note the car door.

Super Grover

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.

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Trivia: When Steven and David are being chased out of the alien mothership, David says "Must go faster, must go faster." This is a line Jeff Goldblum said in the film Jurassic Park (1993), when he was riding in the back of a jeep, getting chased by the T-Rex. That line from Jurassic Park was loved so much by ID4 filmmakers, they looped it into the dialogue. Jeff never actually spoke that line when ID4 was being filmed.

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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?

Socks1000

Answer: Remember that the aliens had to interface with our satellite computer code first...David simply "reverse engineered" the code to create the virus. When it was uploaded, they didn't have enough time to combat it.

Answer: It was also a bit of a tribute to "War of the Worlds", in which the alien invaders with much more advanced technology ultimately succumbed to ordinary terrestrial pathogens in the original novel by H. G. Wells as well as its many screen adaptations.

zendaddy621

Chosen 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.

GalahadFairlight

Answer: I was wondering the same thing. Since the Harvesters had our satellites meant they could eavesdrop on every single conversation. David and other people in the facility probably put up a firewall on the computers and cameras, so that the aliens couldn't see or hear what they were planning on doing.

Answer: Maybe there were no viruses in the planet where these aliens came from so they didn't have any countermeasures against them.

Answer: They could defend against it, hence why they bring the nuke. The virus drops the shields, and the nuke destroys The Mother Ship. David even says that the shields will be down for a few minutes.

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