Fans of the original ‘Independence Day’ may have been surprised when they saw Brent Spiner’s Dr. Okun appear in the trailers for ‘Independence Day: Resurgence,’ as the last time we saw the man it looked like he had died. The doctor had been spearheading the government’s research into aliens in Area 51 when those same aliens appeared in 1996 and began blowing up cities, and he was ecstatic when Will Smith’s character, Steven Hiller, brought a live alien to his lab. Of course, the alien attacked the doctor and took over his mind, using him to communicate with the other people outside the laboratory, and the encounter ended with men having to shoot the alien before it hurt the president, all of which left Dr. Okun comatose on the floor.
According to the new featurette released, Dr. Okun did not actually die that day. Apparently he was just left in a vegetative state, a coma, for the past twenty years, leaving him prime to be woken up by contact with new alien minds as the aliens return in the new film. The featurette also goes into the genius of Dr. Okun, describing the man as “Einstein with a mood ring,” potentially setting up some brilliant theories or inventions Okun might bring out during the new film to aid in the defense of earth against the returning aliens. (one rumor has it that Okun created a laser capable of cutting through the alien ships, but we will have to wait for the actual movie to see if that is true or not).
Check out the featurette for yourself (link below), and then share your opinions on Dr. Okun and his place in the ‘Independence Day’ universe in the comments section.
Source: Cinemablend
Nick is a freelance writer based in Los Angeles, who belongs to the privileged few who enjoyed the ending to ‘Lost.’ For more of Nick’s thoughts and articles, follow him on Twitter.
