No I don’t think humor was the intended response.
They needed a big flashy ending, that also conveniently blew up all of the other ships at the same time. (another pet-peeve: kill the mothership and everything else magically dies too. And before anyone even brings it up, it was a weak ending in Avengers too.)
They had written themselves into a corner and had to come up with a magic bullet solution. All of which adds to the cringe-factor of that ending.
P.S. Watching the Alternate Ending EBK refers to, the accompanying commentary which is with it on the Blu-Ray explains in Test Screenings this was shown but the drama was lost and the filmmakers wanted Randy’s character to sober up and decide to die. In this first ending, he’s in his cropduster and it’s a suicide mission. The sound effects are incomplete and not all the special effects are finished. This was a Test Screening Ending and unfinished and after showing it they very late in the production shot new scenes of Randy learning to fly the jet and reshooting his ending.
The audience I was with laughed. Multiple audiences. My best friends laugh at it every time we watch it together. I sense with my friends and the people I’ve watched it with that the intention to entertain and amuse was felt by many people. Its absurdity is intended to be amusing. We all have our opinions.
I don’t agree. They were doing a straight rip-off of War of the Worlds where a virus comes out of nowhere to save the world. They just used the scariest virus of the day - a computer virus.
Edit to add - it wouldn’t surprise me if that wasn’t the spark for the whole movie, and everything else was written around it.
I’m willing to bet most of those people weren’t laughing with the movie. They were laughing at the movie. There is a difference.
Contrast that with the number of people cheering when Iron Man shoves a nuke through a collapsing wormhole. Yes, it’s ridiculous, but the emotional beat from the audience is completely different.
Munchie
All of it
Start to finish
Respectfully. That’s your interpretation. And presumably several people on this board. Each film are separate kinds of entertainment made in different times. You raise a great distinction. Laughing at or Laughing with? BECAUSE of Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum bantering and arguing together, each with their own punchlines and moments. The exchange due to the actors bringing it their all raises it to stakes the audience relates to. Depending on the audience. Some audiences cringe at superhero moments no different than this one. It rests on what we the audience think and how that translates case by case. Independence Day (1996) attitudinally is a tough sell. Armageddon (1998) likewise.
They appeal to a larger demographic and the instinct is to consider them shallow. In examining ID4 yearly since 1996, it is film convention, trends, tastes back then, present and rising stars, and disaster cinema reformatted for a new age. The inspiration is B Movies and spectacle raised to what mattered to 90s audiences. Which doesn’t appeal to everyone. The Alien Hack Scene? It emulates earlier and later scenes. The charisma of those onscreen and how they transcend contrivance and cliche is the essence of ID4 and that moment itself. You argue people laugh at it not with it. I contend it rests on each individual and you may be surprised what each person thinks. Anyway as ever thanks for a great conversation. Cheers.
Dude. It’s a forum for a comedy show. Not every statement everyone makes is serious. You don’t have to tell me every movie you liked Randy Quaid in.
Apologies. They were exceptions I thought of. And ones generally loved by those who would otherwise dismiss him.
I also took it as humor. Mostly. If I hadn’t, I probably would have stopped at one.
The “Multiple Miggs” scene in Silence of The Lambs. Saw that in the theater with my mom. 
Yes. I cringed because they went there. Then again, it fits the film. Who you see it with matters. BIG TIME. And THE UNEXPECTED with that? Brutal.
There’s this scene in the ultra-low budget movie Galaxy Invader in which a guy has a cigar in his mouth and a big line of drool drips off it. Ick.
I’ll tell you another moment that makes me cringe in movies; in the 2005 remake of King Kong, Peter Jackson added in a scene that Merian Cooper had struck out of the original film because when he played it for test audiences, it brought the interest in the giant ape to a screeching halt and turned the audience’s attention to… giant bugs.
The scene happens when the group is attempting to cross a ravine to escape from Kong and the other dangers on the island and multiple members of the group fall into the ravine, only to be swarmed by a multitude of giant bugs and leeches. Merian Cooper had excised the scene and the film was lost except for a few production stills, but his storyboards for it survived, so when Jackson was directing the remake he decided to add it back in, to my detriment when I went to go see it with my mother.
I clearly remember both of us literally covering our eyes in order not to throw up when the bugs and leeches started consuming the men alive; I dared a peek at one point only to see one of the men having his head slowly be enveloped by the maw of the giant leech from the top down while he was STILL ALIVE, and immediately slammed my eyes back shut while trying not to gag. Can’t get that image out of my head to this day.
On a different note: I realize this isn’t meant to be high cinema and the overall premise for the film is ridiculous, but there is one part of Roboshark that is both cringey and infuriating for me as a former member of the military. So the military is arriving to help fight off the menace of the titular Roboshark, and as they’re walking, marching, or jogging from place to place in formation… they’re constantly going “hut hut hut hut hut hut hut” with EVERY STEP. Cadence calling is reserved for formation runs, not when you’re actually planning to fight someone, and having everyone go “hut hut hut” with every step is just a recipe to announce to your enemy where you are. I found that part of the film utterly infuriating and every time the military was on screen I just cringed listening to them. Again… I get that it’s not supposed to be a realistic film; it’s called ROBOSHARK for God’s sake… but did they HAVE to make the military look so gosh darn STUPID? Ugh…
If you want to talk about cringe and Peter Jackson’s Kong movie… Kong ice skating in central park was what made me want to puke.
This is so weird. I was just reading about Peter Jackson’s King Kong a few hours ago (hopping from topic to topic on Wikipedia, beginning with the Vault of Horror) and thinking maybe I should see it. Sounds like I should continue to not watch it.
And I thought that part was perfectly charming!
@Chris_Combs I saw Jackson’s King Kong in the theater when it came out and, while a bit overdone, I enjoyed it greatly. As with anything, YMMV
King Kong is really not supposed to be a movie with charming moments.
If you’re going to watch a Kong movie, may I recommend the original? It holds up even nearly 100 years later (wow, it’s been that long…). However, I did like the Jackson version overall; it was just that one scene that gave me the ick, so to speak. By and large it’s a pretty faithful remake to the original, just with more fancy special effects is all. And re-adding that one scene back in, of course.
