So how do humans save the day in “Independence Day,” you ask? It’s a fair question since clearly, the aliens have superior technology and weapons. Surprise — we use a virus! Not like the one that terrorized our planet in 2020, or even the germs that did the trick in the ’50s in “War of the Worlds.” No, we use a computer virus to completely cripple the way, way out-of-towners and their mighty space-faring armada. That’s right, some ’90s-era malware takes out a far more advanced enemy, one who apparently didn’t bother to invest in a simple virus protection plan that probably would have run them about $5 a month.
But that’s not even the worst part of this lunacy. How on Earth (or off it for that matter) is our fiendish computer program even compatible with the alien technology? Did they shop at the Apple store on Alpha Beta 7 when building their spaceship? We can’t even connect half our own devices if they’re two different brands! Try plugging in a USB cord without a USB-C adapter, see how that goes. How could we possibly hack an alien system that fast? We were barely even an e-mail savvy race in 1996. There are intricate and unique computer languages involved in coding. In what universe does any of this make sense?
That said, “Independence Day” is still a fun movie, as long as you take all the plot logic with a grain of salt — which was likely the intent. Still, why not just let Will Smith karate chop all the big mean space monsters? It would have made about as much sense.