The Film INDEPENDENCE DAY Contains A Dishonest Lie

But is it the filmmakers' fault?

The movie Independence Day lied to you. It lied to me. It lied to America.

But who lied? Was it the filmmakers? Or was it someone else?

Detective Ben is on the case.

Independence Day is a movie about aliens coming to earth and doing lots of bad things. It is not a documentary. Nevertheless, it did have product placement, and product placement is supposed to be honest.

Let me explain:

Jeff Goldblum’s character uses an Apple Powerbook 5300 throughout the film. It was prominent enough that Apple even aired commercials featuring clips from the movie.

With his mighty Powerbook 5300, Jeff Goldblum does lots of nonsense that Powerbooks could not do. (He uses it to upload a virus to the alien spaceship, for one thing.) But most of that can be chalked up to Jeff Goldblum’s character being a fictional genius. The software he writes on the computer is unrealistic; the alien spaceship he connects to is, uh, unrealistic, but none of that is the representation of the computer’s fault necessarily.

There is one part, however, that is just straight out a lie about this computer.

Jeff Goldblum and Judd Hirsch (his father) are racing to DC to warn the White House about this secret countdown clock Jeff Goldblum has discovered in the alien’s transmission. It suggests that the spaceships are going to attack when the clock reaches zero. “What are we going to do? Just ring the bell,” Judd Hirsch asks. Conveniently, Jeff Goldblum’s ex-wife is the White House chief of staff who lists her cell phone in the white pages “for emergencies.”

Jeff Goldblum opens his Powerbook 5300 and puts a little mini CD in the optical tray. Judd Hirsch says, “what the hell is that?” Jeff Goldblum says, “Pop, this is every phonebook in America.” We watch the screen load the mini CD and he pulls up the phonebook for DC.

OK, so not only does the Powerbook 5300 have this capability in the film, but Judd Hirsch draws attention to it.

This scene is a lie, and someone must be held accountable.