Homeys on Film presents: Independence Day for Second Responders!
Welcome to Homeys on Film, Second Responders Edition! A big tip of the hat to those volunteers who back up first responders in America’s disaster zones — the terrific folks from the Red Cross, the Salvation Army, and similar organizations.
Today’s movie being mined for homeland security lessons: Independence Day (1996). (For those of you who haven’t seen it and would like a full synopsis, visit this site.)
The movie begins with an enormous alien mothership ominously entering orbit around Earth. It deploys 36 smaller spacecraft that take positions over some of Earth’s major cities and military bases. David Levinson, an MIT-trained satellite technician, decodes a signal embedded in the global satellite transmissions that he determines is a timer counting down to a coordinated attack.
Homeland Security Lesson #1: Accurate information during a response may be hard to come by — you are also the eyes and ears of the response, so gathering and sharing accurate information from credible sources is essential to the success of any response effort.
President Thomas J. Whitmore then orders large-scale evacuations of New York City, Los Angeles, and Washington D.C., but it is too late; the timer reaches zero and the ships activate devastating directed-energy weapons, killing millions.
Homeland Security Lesson #2: As the Boy Scouts have long recommended, Be Prepared. You don’t when, where, why or how a shelter-in-place or evacuation order may come, so your best bet is to be prepared for any eventuality. Have a go-kit ready (see Ready.gov for what should be in a go-kit). Also stockpile easily portable food, water and other necessities to keep you and your family going for at least 72 hours.
Whitmore and a few others narrowly escape aboard Air Force One as the capital is destroyed, along with other major cities.
Homeland Security Lesson #3: In the wake of a disaster, you may face shocking situations. Take care of your own psychological needs and those of the people around you; perform psychological first aid (see the American Red Cross site for information on what this is and how to do it) as needed.
International leaders then begin ordering individual counterattacks. Their aviation forces attack destroyer ships positioned above the ruins of the cities but are wiped out. Captain Steven Hiller, a Marine Corps pilot, survives by luring his attacker to the enclosed spaces of the Grand Canyon and sacrificing his plane, forcing the alien to crash-land. He subdues the injured alien pilot and flags down a convoy of refugees, hitching a ride with former combat pilot Russell Casse. They transport the unconscious alien to nearby Area 51 where Whitmore’s group has landed.
Homeland Security Lesson #4: Observe, orient, decide and act — then repeat as many times as necessary. By doing this you will always stay on top of the response. You will be a thinking, effective responder who adapts to and overcomes the obstacles the response will inevitable throw at you.
An eccentric scientist named Brackish Okun examines the alien captured by Hiller. It regains consciousness and attacks. It telepathically invades Okun’s mind and uses his vocal cords to communicate with Whitmore before launching a psychic attack against him. Whitmore sees visions of the alien’s plans: their entire civilization travels from planet to planet, exterminating all indigenous life and harvesting the planet of all natural resources. After Secret Service agents and military personnel kill the alien, Whitmore reluctantly authorizes a nuclear attack; a B-2 Spirit fires a nuclear cruise missile at an alien destroyer positioned above Houston, but the ship remains intact.
Homeland Security Lesson #5: The first actions taken in a response may not be effective. You need to apply Lesson 4 over and over again to cope with and overcome whatever the response throws at you.
Levinson then demonstrates that the key to defeating the aliens lies in deactivating their force fields. He devises a way to do so by uploading a computer virus into the mothership. He proposes using the refurbished alien fighter to implement the plan, which Hiller volunteers to pilot. The two are able to implant the virus and deploy a nuclear weapon on board the mothership.
Homeland Security Lesson #6: Unorthodox solutions to problems will present themselves. Don’t reject them due to their being unorthodox. Sometime a little “crazy” is exactly what we need to succeed.
With the alien’s shields deactivated, the fighters are able to inflict damage, but their supply of missiles is quickly exhausted. As the alien ship prepares to fire on the base, the last missile, equipped on Casse’s plane, jams, and Casse decides to sacrifice his own life by flying his plane, kamikaze-style, into the directed-energy weapon port. This results in an explosion that destroys the ship. As humankind is rejoicing in victory, Hiller and Levinson return to Area 51 unharmed and reunite with their families.
Homeland Security Lesson #7: In the end, we will succeed. All we have to do is keep the faiths and keep applying the previous lessons — eventually, the response will end, and we will have addressed the needs of our fellow citizens as best we can. Nobody can do the impossible, but in each response situation, we keep improbably succeeding.
Keep the faith, Second Responders!!
Other articles you may enjoy:
Suicide Squad (2016) — Sexy Psychopaths, Lame Super-Villains, and a Homeland Security Cluster-Dud
