Rumor: Will Smith Signs On for Independence Day Sequels

[notyouraveragejoe]

A sequel? Eh I don't know. I mean maybe if it was the same time period but another place dealing with it that could be okay. But a sequel with one of the same actors. Hmmm I'll have to follow this.

 

[Tiamat666]

I can live with the rest of your points, but I have a serious bone to pick with anyone that proclaims point 4:

I'm a programmer, so I know how difficult something like that is;
But it's like people just forget half the plot!

They've had an alien spaceship for 50 years! Does nobody stop and think for a moment that they may actually know how the computer system on that ship works?

Can I write a virus without knowing how a specific computer's architecture functions?
No.

Can I write a virus, then upload it using a different type of computer?
Sure I can!

If you know how the computer system at the other end works, you can create a virus for it, and connect to a network...

Honestly, people who claim this is so incredibly unbelievable can't follow basic plot details, and clearly over-estimate their own knowledge of computing.

Does this make it a likely solution to a problem?
No.

But it's hardly the pants-on-head retarded plotline people seem to think it is.

I'm a programmer as well. In fact, I do have a masters degree in computer science. And that scene in ID is utter bullcrap, even if they had a spaceship for 50 years. Let me give you an anology:

Imagine an american aircraft carrier fleet goes back in time to 1916 and participates in World War I against the German Empire. Somehow an F-14 was downed by biplanes with twin mounted machine guns (The Red Baron, perhaps) and is captured by the Germans. So, the Germans sit Manfred von Richthofen in the F-14, equip him with a sophisticated electrical device designed to take down the american fleet, pat him on the back and send him off.
Manfred takes off in his F-14 (his l33t flying skillz enable him to fly an F-14 out of the blue), finds the aircraft carrier somewhere in the ocean, lands on it without problems or interference (americans are too stupid to keep track of the aircraft they lost or to try and communicate with him) and uses the early 20th century electrical device to hack into the aircraft carriers computers and take the systems down of the entire fleet, rendering them defenseless.
While the clueless americans are busy being stupid, Manfred also projects an image of a laughing skull onto the aircraft carrier deck, using the carriers spotlight and approach landing lights to further mock them.
Oh yeah, then he fires a rocket into the tower and takes off again before he is caught up in the blast of the exploding aircraft carrier.
German Empire wins!

Would make a great movie, don't you think?

I don't think this story gets any better if you assume the Germans had captured another time-travelling F-14 50 years earlier. Especially if you take into consideration that the difference between 1916 and an 1980's type aircraft carrier are mere decades, while the difference between us and an space-faring civilization building huge spaceships must be in the hundreds or thousands of years.

Actually, the story in ID is even more ridiculous than mine, because in ID the German Empire is not fighting against just one, but against 10 aircraft carrier fleets, and the only thing the Germans disable is their communications and radar, which of course renders all of them fleets completely defenseless and vulnerable to Fokker Dr.I bombing runs.

I'm sorry. Independence Day is a ridiculous, trashy action flic dripping with american patriotism, nothing else. But I guess there's demand for that.

 

[CrystalShadow]

I can live with the rest of your points, but I have a serious bone to pick with anyone that proclaims point 4:

I'm a programmer, so I know how difficult something like that is;
But it's like people just forget half the plot!

They've had an alien spaceship for 50 years! Does nobody stop and think for a moment that they may actually know how the computer system on that ship works?

Can I write a virus without knowing how a specific computer's architecture functions?
No.

Can I write a virus, then upload it using a different type of computer?
Sure I can!

If you know how the computer system at the other end works, you can create a virus for it, and connect to a network...

Honestly, people who claim this is so incredibly unbelievable can't follow basic plot details, and clearly over-estimate their own knowledge of computing.

Does this make it a likely solution to a problem?
No.

But it's hardly the pants-on-head retarded plotline people seem to think it is.

I'm a programmer as well. In fact, I do have a masters degree in computer science. And that scene in ID is utter bullcrap, even if they had a spaceship for 50 years. Let me give you an anology:

Imagine an american aircraft carrier fleet goes back in time to 1916 and participates in World War I against the German Empire. Somehow an F-14 was downed by biplanes with twin mounted machine guns (The Red Baron, perhaps) and is captured by the Germans. So, the Germans sit Manfred von Richthofen in the F-14, equip him with a sophisticated electrical device designed to take down the american fleet, pat him on the back and send him off.
Manfred takes off in his F-14 (his l33t flying skillz enable him to fly an F-14 out of the blue), finds the aircraft carrier somewhere in the ocean, lands on it without problems or interference (americans are too stupid to keep track of the aircraft they lost or to try and communicate with him) and uses the early 20th century electrical device to hack into the aircraft carriers computers and take the systems down of the entire fleet, rendering them defenseless.
While the clueless americans are busy being stupid, Manfred also projects an image of a laughing skull onto the aircraft carrier deck, using the carriers spotlight and approach landing lights to further mock them.
Oh yeah, then he fires a rocket into the tower and takes off again before he is caught up in the blast of the exploding aircraft carrier.
German Empire wins!

Would make a great movie, don't you think?

I don't think this story gets any better if you assume the Germans had captured another time-travelling F-14 50 years earlier. Especially if you take into consideration that the difference between 1916 and an 1980's type aircraft carrier are mere decades, while the difference between us and an space-faring civilization building huge spaceships must be in the hundreds or thousands of years.

Actually, the story in ID is even more ridiculous than mine, because in ID the German Empire is not fighting against just one, but against 10 aircraft carrier fleets, and the only thing the Germans disable is their communications and radar, which of course renders all of them fleets completely defenseless and vulnerable to Fokker Dr.I bombing runs.

I'm sorry. Independence Day is a ridiculous, trashy action flic dripping with american patriotism, nothing else. But I guess there's demand for that.

You're right, but I still don't agree.
No, wait... Sorry. I'm confusing things.

My dispute is mainly the virus upload itself. But you're right. The effects of the virus are rediculous.
Energy shielding or not, the explosion of an air to air missile, or a fighter aircraft shouldn't be able to take out a 10 mile spaceship.
You can argue about the specifics, like 'feedback' through the main weapon, but yeah...

I still don't agree that you wouldn't be able to manage to create a functioning virus, but yeah...

 

[Xander_VJ]

"Independence Day" was fun to watch, but for that you have to let go ALL your intellectual standards for 2 hours and a half. And by that I mean you need to not care that the film makers are making fun of your intelligence, just not taking it personally and laugh back at the film makers.

Roland Emmerich is an odd mix. As a director, he is REALLY good. He knows exactly how to use his camera and get good shots and well filmed scenes. But on the other hand, he has one of the worst tastes for stories and scripts EVER. I think only Michael Bay and George Lucas surpass him in horrible script decisions (in well-known mainstream directors, at least).

ID4 (did it really had that acronym?) had a stupid plot, and it was highly criticized in the rest of the world for its ludicrous patriotism.

You honestly believe Bill Pullman's speech was great? Tell that to any human being not born and raised in the US and they will probably either laugh at you (for good reason) or punch you in the face (for bad reason, but still for a reason).

I'm not saying that you can't be patriotic. That's fine, there's nothing wrong with it... if you do it in healthy measure. And that's the problem. Too many times American patriotism in films is WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY over the top. And ID4 is one of the biggest examples, whether you like it or not.

I'm not anti-American (my mother is from there), but seriously, folks. This kind of crap in movies is quite a big part of the reason why the United States of America is so much disliked in the rest of the world in the first place.

Seriously, right now that's the last thing you or anyone else need right now.

 

[PureChaos]

a PAIR of sequels? we don't need one let alone 2. the film was great, leave it at that