An op-ed piece referring to Obama as a Warrior led to a twitter thread about Presidents being Warriors. The obvious examples that came up were Harrison Ford's President on Air Force One and, the one I suggested, Bill Pullman as the President in Independence Day. Which led to a follower posting this clip:
Of course, the best part of Independence Day was not the movie or this scene but the Saturday Night Live sketch it inspired. The sketch has Bill Pullman's President from the movie running for re-election engaged in a debate with Bob Dole (played by Norm MacDonald if I remember correctly). Pullman is talking about post-alien attack jobs programs, mostly referring to clearing rubble from cities, and says "average American." Which lead to "Dole" jumping in with "The Average American is Dead!" Because, well, most cities were obliterated during the alien attack. I love this quote because so many movies end happily despite the destruction rained down during the movie. The follow up to Independence Day was the Day After Tomorrow where pretty much everyone above the Mason-Dixon line in the US and similarly across the globe is dead. But we are happy because Dennis Quaid saved his son (Jake Gyllenhaal) and, more importantly, Emmy Rossum, plus some other random New Yorkers. Even Wall-E has the same basic flaw--we destroyed the earth but some robots are in love! Yeah!
I am pointing all this out now as summer movie season is commencing. The Avengers undoubtedly will save the Earth from Loki's forces, but the collateral damage in NY is likely to be forgotten when the team hoists some mead at the end of the movie. Same with the rest. So, as you watch the endings, consider: is the Average American (or Earthling or Alien) dead?
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