system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
[Independence day] Was Russel casse actually abducted by Aliens? Or was he just a nut?
gpt
The novelisation might be informative. When Russell first sees one of the city destroyers, he is convinced that the same aliens that abducted him are in there, and the novelisation describes Russell's experience in substantial detail. 

However, there is also a scene that isn't in the movie: when Steven Hiller comes across the convoy of trailers and recreational vehicles, he shows several people the alien he was dragging in his parachute, and Russell was horrified because the alien was totally different to what he remembered. He suddenly finds himself questioning whether his abduction actually happened at all.