5. Saving The World With An Apple Macintosh PowerBook 5300 - Independence Day
I genuinely like Independence Day for its first two-thirds, but when a films title implies triumph and victory, the interest is in how we win, not if we win. That really undercuts the entertainment value when the how is staggeringly stupid. In the early going of their blockbuster alien invasion, Emmerich and company go to extraordinary lengths to show us just how screwed Earth really is; the alien ships are massive, city-size monstrosities that would make the V reptiles mess their rubber jumpsuits, their shields are impenetrable and their fleets devastating, and on top of all that they hit us without warning and have already disabled the capacity of our military installations. Problem is they arent even looking to enslave us; rather they just want to annihilate us and take our planet because they already ruined theirs. This is do or die for them, and they are playing for keeps. Too bad then, that they get their extraterrestrial behinds handed to them by a computer nerd working for a cable company and his trusty MacBook, which uploads a virus into the commanding mother ship that lowers their shields. The reasoning and logic behind how the Mac virus works is absurd at best, but watching Goldblums wacky hand gestures while hes explaining lulls you into a hypnotic trance and you just go with it. Besides, back in 1996 I just assumed it was a universal truth that anytime you got a Mac near any other working computer, it caused things to crap up instantly. What really strains the films extremely pliable credibility is that the finale ignores the massive destructive capabilities of the aliens established in the lengthy opening. Theres no suggestion we would have fared significantly better had the shields been down to start with, but now a conscript air force, some of whom havent been in a cockpit in years, are taking out advanced alien aircraft they have never engaged before. Whats more, they do it in a matter of
minutes. Dont get me started on the original ending that sees Randy Quaid flying his own crop-dusting plane into battle to deliver the final payload.