10 Deleted Sci-Fi Movie Scenes You Need To See
9. Independence Day - How The Virus Actually Works
Roland Emmerich’s 1996 sci-fi action blockbuster is noteworthy for a handful of achievements, chief among them the director’s ability to bring Jeff Goldblum and Will Smith together onscreen—that, and spectacularly blowing up the White House in a sequence which still impresses decades later and beats the hell out of anything on offer in 2016’s belated and dull-as-dishwater sequel.
However, the film is also the frequent recipient of some light ribbing for its, er, questionable technical details. The flick climaxes with Goldblum’s dorky data scientist and Smith’s gung ho pilot teaming up to deliver a killer computer virus into the heart of the evil alien’s mothership, but it never explains just how their alien tech happened to be compatible with the nineties computer system that said virus was written on.
However, some snarky critics owe Emmerich an apology, as there’s an understandably deleted scene, most likely cut for being boring, which illuminates how the scientists managed to make the virus alien-tech compatible. Turns out our own tech has been reverse-engineered from some crash-landed alien crafts years ago—so the simplest solution is often right, who knew?