Independence Day Scenes 51-55 Summary

Scene 51

  • Steve and Jasmine are getting dressed up for something. It seems they're getting married.
  • Connie and David serve as witnesses, and Connie notices that David still wears his wedding ring.
  • They hold hands. Looks like these two lovebirds are headed for a happy ending as well.

Scene 52

  • Okay, okay, enough lovey dovey stuff—time to focus back on the whole alien invasion thing.
  • The President heads outside the base as the pilots are preparing for the attack. He gives probably the most famous speech of the movie.
  • Then, he gets suited up to join the other pilots—since he was a pilot before he became President and all, he wants to play too.

Scene 53

  • Inside the base, Steve and David say their goodbyes and prepare to leave.
  • Everyone gets in his or her planes/ships, including Russ. His kids are clearly pretty proud of him.
  • Steve and David take off and enter space, heading toward the mother ship.
  • They lose piloting control pretty quickly as they enter the mother ship's atmosphere. David was expecting this, but it's a little alarming. How can they fly away if they can't, you know, fly?
  • Connie waits in the control room below, worrying about everyone's safety.
  • Now, it looks like alien ships are headed directly toward Area 51. Hurry up, Steve and David.

Scene 54

  • Back in space, Steve and David are entering the mother ship. Once docked, David starts uploading the virus into the spaceship's system.
  • Back on earth, thinking that the shields are now disabled, the fighter pilots fire on a spaceship…but nothing happens at first. Yikes. Let's hope there's some kind of time lag going on here.
  • The President says he's going to take another shot, even though General Grey wants him to come back. He fires the missile and we wait…and wait…and it hits. Success.
  • Uh oh: now little alien ships come out to battle the pilots.
  • David finishes up and says it's time for Steve to get them out of there, but they're stuck. Meanwhile, the aliens attack Area 51.
  • The aliens override the controls on Steve and David's craft and start opening the shades so they can see who's operating it. Steve and David hide below the dash.
  • Meanwhile, the attack against the alien ship near Area 51 continues. It's not working fast enough, and the ship settles directly over Area 51 and starts opening up in order to fire its big weapon. That can't be good.
  • But wait—is that a bird? A plane? Superman? Actually, no: it's a plane, and Russell Casse is the pilot.
  • We'd kind of lost track of him, we have to admit, but it looks like he's about to save the day.
  • Yes, seriously: everyone else is out of ammo or shot down, so poor Russell, who's been a joke for most of the film, is their only "shot" at actually taking the ship down.
  • The Prez and the others realize this, so they get busy giving Russ some cover so he can do his thing with the missile.
  • Uh oh, one problem: Russ's missile jams as he tries to fire it. Guess this isn't going to be his big heroic redemption moment after all.
  • Not so fast. Russ has some hard feelings against these aliens, and he's not going to be denied payback.
  • After a quick glance at a photo of his kids, and a quick request over the radio to give them his love, he's ready for the ultimate sacrifice.
  • What does that mean? Well, he's still got a missile—he just can't release it. His solution: drive the entire plane directly up into the ship.
  • That's just what he does, and it does the trick: the alien ship is destroyed.
  • The folks below rejoice. Well, except for Miguel, who just heard his dad die over the radio. He sure is proud of his pops, though.
  • Now that the earthlings know how to destroy the ships, they spread the word around the world. Using Morse code, of course.

Scene 55

  • Back in space, Steve and David are talking about everything being over, and at first they sound defeated (also, there are some new little ships outside theirs).
  • They start smoking their cigars. Uh oh, we know what that means—that's only for when the mission is over.
  • But they haven't gotten out of there. The mission isn't over yet, guys. The mission is over when you're out of there. Why aren't you getting out of there?
  • Then our guys emerge from hiding and reveal themselves to the alien. What in the world are they thinking?
  • Then they deploy the bomb to fully disable the mother ship, and escape.
  • The mother ship explodes.
  • Around the world, people celebrate.
  • The President returns to the ground first, and then Steve and David.
  • Jasmine and Connie run to meet them, and David and the President make up.