Character Analysis
Russell makes his living as a crop duster, but since his real full-time job is as the town fool.
He spends a good portion of every day boozing, and he sometimes does things like dust the wrong field. As you might imagine, his kids find his behavior kind of embarrassing—especially when he graduates from day drinking and incompetence to illegal activity.
You see, when the aliens show up, Russell decides he has to warn people about them by dropping leaflets all over the place using his crop duster. He knows that the ET's are up to no good, he says, since they once kidnapped and experimented on him.
Unfortunately, no one believes him…and the cops don't take too kindly to the littering/anti-alien scare propaganda, so he gets arrested.
On a news report about his arrest, a reporter notes that:
REPORTER: […] some people attribute his eccentric behavior to post-traumatic stress syndrome from his service as a pilot in Vietnam.
The movie never really goes into a lot of detail about Russell's war service, but you get the sense that he's definitely been through a lot—whether that "a lot" was military service, or actual alien kidnapping. Or both.
Russell gets a chance at redemption when the military is short on pilots to fly the big final offensive on the alien ships. Of course, there's no chance in Hades he'd ever get a chance to do something like that normally, particularly after this little speech demonstrating his reasons for his, er, enthusiasm for the mission:
RUSSELL: Oh, and on a personal note, sir, I'd just like to add that ever since I was kidnapped by aliens ten years ago, I've been dying for some payback, and I just want you to know that I won't let you down.
This yields a healthy dose of side-eye from mission organizers…but beggars can't be choosers—they need pilots—so Russell's in on the mission.
And Russell wasn't lying: he doesn't let them down. When the President and his fellow pilots have run out of ammo against their alien target and it looks like they're going to have to turn back, Russell's there to come to the rescue:
RUSSELL: Sorry I'm late, Mr. President! I kinda got hung up back there!
THE PRESIDENT: Pilot, you armed?
RUSSELL: Armed and ready, sir! I'm packin'! […] It's me! Russell Casse, sir. I told you I wouldn't let you down! Just keep those guys off me for a few more seconds, will ya?
Unfortunately, Russell's missile jams as he's trying to release it, so we think we're back to square one again. But not to worry—after a whole film of being kind of unreliable and flaky, Russell is ready to take the reins and make sure the aliens get what's coming to them—regardless of the cost.
After taking a quick glance at his kids' photo, Russ sends out a quick message to them over the radio:
RUSSELL: Do me a favor. Tell my children I love them very much.
Miguel is listening to the mission over the radio, and he freaks out when he hears his dad say this. What in the world is he doing now?
Well, when Russ said he was ready for payback, he wasn't kidding—he is not going to be denied today:
RUSSELL: All right, you alien assholes! In the words of my generation, up yours!
With that, he drives his plane straight up toward the open weapons compartment in the alien ship. Back at mission control, Miguel waits, horrified.
Then, the aliens start to draw Russell's plane toward them—you see, they don't seem to know about his little explosive package on board. Despite the fact that he's about to die, Russell manages one last bit of humor as the plane is about to connect with the alien ship:
RUSSELL: Hello, boys! I'm baaack!
Okay, yes, it's super sad that Russell doesn't survive…but at least his son, Miguel, is finally able to feel something other than irritation or shame with respect to his father's reputation. Now that his dad has saved the world, he's pretty proud.