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EspañolINDEPENDENCE DAY (FILM)
(Redirected from Independence Day (movie))
'''Independence Day''' (also known as its promotional abbreviation '''ID4''') is an Academy Award winning science fiction film directed by Roland Emmerich. The film's main plot is about an attempted alien invasion of Earth, and features several scenes of major landmarks being destroyed by the aliens, such as the White House, the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty, and the U.S. Bank Tower (then known as the First Interstate World Center) in Los Angeles.
The film's success was partially credited to an extensive marketing campaign which began in the United States with a dramatic commercial during Super Bowl XXX. The movie was scheduled for release on July 3, 1996, but due to the high level of anticipation for the film, many theaters began showing it on the evening of July 2, 1996, the same day the action in the film begins. The movie's total worldwide gross was $816,969,268 - the 18th highest worldwide gross for a movie all-time.
It begins on the moon, at the Apollo 11 lunar landing site. Suddenly, rumbling causes Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin's footprints to disappear. A shadow is cast over the site, then the entire northern lunar hemisphere, as the camera pulls up and a gigantic spaceship comes into view, heading straight for Earth.
After brief troubles with satellite communications and television disruptions due to strange atmospheric conditions, the US Military learns that enormous objects first thought to be meteors are on a collision course with Earth. Finally, on July 2, the world stands in shock as an alien mothership, about one quarter the mass of the Moon and over 550 kilometers in diameter, enters orbit around Earth. The mothership deploys several dozen smaller ships, each itself with a diameter of over fifteen miles (24 km), that fly into Earth's atmosphere, causing strange atmospheric phenomenon and hover over many of the world's major cities. In the United States, the ships appear over Los Angeles, New York City, and Washington, D.C.. A TV shot also briefly shows ships over London, Berlin, Paris, Rome, Tokyo, and Moscow as well as the phenomena heading towards other major world cities such as Delhi, Beijing, and Bangkok a caption reading that the "Southern Hemisphere is unaffected".
David Levinson (Jeff Goldblum), a scientist turned cable-technician, finds a hidden message in the satellite transmissions and heads towards the White House with his father to save his estranged wife, but also to warn whomever might listen, including President Thomas J. Whitmore (Bill Pullman). It is then revealed that the aliens are coordinating an attack, and have only minutes before the countdown is over. Whitmore orders General William Grey (Robert Loggia) to have Atlantic Command evacuate as many people from American cities as they can. At this point, the alien's hostile intentions are revealed when they shoot down three helicopters attempting to establish communications.
Using advanced directed-energy weapons, the aliens destroy many major cities, along with millions of people, and annihilate virtually every famous landmark in the world. Whitmore, Levinson and his father, General Grey, and most of the President's staff barely escape the destruction of Washington, D.C. aboard Air Force One. The first wave of the American counterattack sees Captain Steven Hiller (Will Smith) leading his unit of fighter pilots from El Toro. Unfortunately, conventional missiles are useless against them, as both the city-destroyer ships and the individual alien fighters are protected by impenetrable shields. Decimated and ineffective, the humans break off their attack. Hiller's entire squadron is shot down and his friend/wingman Jimmy Wilder (Harry Connick, Jr.) is killed. The same happens with every counter-attack around the world, including those in New York and Washington. However, Hiller is chased by an alien fighter, whom he out-maneuvers in canyons leading across the desert. Eventually, he deploys a parachute back at the alien craft, and ejects from his own plane, after which both crash into the canyon wall. Hiller finds one of the alien invaders and renders it unconscious with a single punch. Sadly, El Toro is attacked by a large force of alien fighters and they succeed in destroying the airbase, killing most of the personnel still stationed there.
Hiller takes the captured alien to nearby Area 51, a rallying point for survivors. Both storylines in the movie thus converge, as Air Force One, carrying Whitmore and his remaining staff, as well as Levinson and his father, has landed. It is also learned that other major US cities - including Atlanta, GA, Chicago, IL, and Philadelphia, PA - and NORAD (along with most of the executive branch and the Joint Chiefs, who were sent there before the attacks for their safety) have been destroyed. The American military forces are moved from their bases; however the attacks have reduced their forces to 15%. They calculate that the aliens will destroy every major city in the world within 36 hours. It is discovered here that Area 51 has an alien craft and three alien bodies, presumably from the Roswell Incident back in 1947.
During an encounter with the surviving alien, who escapes attempted surgery and captures the lead researcher Dr. Brackish Okun (Brent Spiner), Whitmore questions the alien, who is now speaking through Dr. Okun. Whitmore asks for a peace or truce, which the alien replies "Peace...? No peace..." When asked by Whitmore what it wanted the humans to do, the alien replies, "Die." The alien uses a psychic attack against Whitmore, and in an attempt to free the President, military personnel on hand shoots through the glass separating them, killing the alien. The President then reports that he was able to see the alien's thoughts and now knew what exactly they were doing. Their entire species goes from planet to planet, annihilates all other life there, and uses the planet's own natural resources for themselves and then move on when the resources have been exhausted, and Earth is next. Knowing now there is no chance for a peaceful solution, the President decides to "nuke the bastards".
After the encounter with the alien, Whitmore orders a nuclear attack using B-2 stealth bombers on a city-destroyer ship over Houston (which had been vacated at this point). However, the attack fails to damage the ship at all, its shield protecting it from destruction. Shortly thereafter, in a semi-drunken rage and partly spurred on by his father who tells him he might "catch a cold" sitting on the floor, Levinson devises a plan to introduce a computer virus into the mothership. At the same time, they would plant a nuclear device on board the mothership in hopes of destroying it. Although they would probably have a window of mere minutes, it seems to be their last hope. Hiller volunteers to fly the alien fighter which has now powered up due to the presence of the mothership. Levinson accompanies him in case anything might go wrong with the upload of his virus.
The Americans signal to their counterparts around the world about their plan and the pending counterattack via morse code. Anyone with flying experience is recruited into the final makeshift attack squad. Even President Whitmore himself, a veteran fighter pilot of the Persian Gulf War, joins in and leads the human resistance.
The movie climaxes on July 4, with a speech from President Whitmore about Independence Day being for everyone on Earth, "should they win the day." While aboard the mothership inside the captured alien fighter, Hiller and Levinson discover that the aliens are assembling an army of thousands or millions for their ground invasion.
After learning that the virus has been planted by Levinson, Whitmore launches a missile, which only hits their shields. When it seems that all hope is lost, Whitmore decides to fire again, and this time the missile hits the ship, the result of a delayed reaction to the virus. All fighters engage the ship, with the initial volley doing considerable damage to the ship. The alien fighters attack, and an all-out melee ensues.
While the fighters continue to launch missiles onto the ship, they are only doing only moderate damage to the huge city-size destroyers. Their primary cannon is being prepped to fire, so Whitmore, flanked by two fighters, makes a break for the weapon. He fires his last missile, but it fails to hit its target, and both of his wingmen are destroyed. Eventually, all the American fighters have shot their missiles. Russell Casse (Randy Quaid), an American volunteer who is a crop duster, Vietnam pilot veteran and alien abductee, appears, armed with the one remaining missile. As he attempts to fire it, it jams on the launch rail. Russell realizes what he must do and pilots his F/A-18C in a kamikaze attack on the alien ship's primary weapon as it is about to fire, causing a chain reaction that destroys the vessel. Task forces around the world use the same weak point to destroy the rest of the alien ships while the nuclear missile detonates and destroys the alien mother ship, ultimately saving Earth and several surviving major cities. Hiller and Levinson both survive the destruction of the ship. The film ends with the main characters watching as debris from the mothership re-enters the atmosphere like shooting stars.
★ 'Bill Pullman' as 'President Thomas J. Whitmore': the President of the United States throughout the movie, Whitmore is a former fighter pilot who served in the Persian Gulf War. Although his approval rating has fallen recently, he wins back the public thanks to his leadership of the resistance against the alien invaders. His political affiliation is Republican.
★ 'Will Smith' as 'Captain Steven "Steve" Hiller, USMC' – A U.S. Marine Corps F/A-18C pilot from VMFA-314, Hiller is the only person able to bring an extraterrestrial aircraft down in the failed first wave of the human counterattack (albeit by tricking it into crashing into a wall). Hiller's ambition is to join NASA, and his dream to fly into space comes true when he flies the captured alien spaceship from Area 51 up to destroy the mothership.
★ 'Jeff Goldblum' as 'David Levinson': an employee of New York-based Compact Cable, Levinson is an MIT-educated chess enthusiast who discovers the aliens' plans to attack after stumbling upon their hidden satellite signal, and later suggests the idea of infecting the mothership with a computer virus in order to deactivate the shields protecting the alien craft.
★ 'Judd Hirsch' as 'Julius Levinson': David's widowed father, a sarcastic Jewish immigrant who accompanies his son.
★ 'Margaret Colin' as 'Constance Spano': White House Communications Director and David's ex-wife. She divorced David because of his lack of ambition, but they reconcile at the end after his plan saves the planet.
★ 'Mary McDonnell' as 'First Lady Marilyn Whitmore': President Whitmore's wife who is fatally injured while fleeing the destruction of Los Angeles. On her deathbed, she apologizes to Whitmore for not coming home when he asked her to.
★ 'Harvey Fierstein' as 'Marty Gilbert': David's flamboyant employer at Compact Cable. He was killed when his car was thrown into another by the force of an explosion destroying New York.
★ 'Mae Whitman' as 'Patricia Whitmore': President Whitmore's young daughter.
★ 'Vivica A. Fox' as 'Jasmine Dubrow-Hiller': an exotic dancer, Steve's girlfriend and eventually his wife; the two marry shortly before he goes to destroy the mothership. After finding several survivors in the ruins of Los Angeles (including First Lady Whitmore), she take refuge at the ruins of El Toro and is eventually found by Steve.
★ 'Ross Bagley' as 'Dylan Dubrow': Jasmine's young son and eventually Steve's stepson.
★ 'Randy Quaid' as 'Russell Casse': Vietnam War veteran pilot and crop duster who claims to have been formerly abducted by aliens. He was ridiculed because of this. His eldest son does not think he is a good father. It is suggested that he is an alcoholic, by the fact that he is drinking from a flask after spraying the wrong field at the start of the film.
★ 'Robert Loggia' as 'General William Grey, USMC': chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Whitmore's closest ally; he was Whitmore's commanding officer during the Gulf War. Highest-ranking surviving military commander after the aliens destroy NORAD, where the other Joint Chiefs had been moved for safety.
★ 'James Rebhorn' as 'Albert Nimziki': formerly a CIA officer and the current Secretary of Defense. He was fired near the end of the movie when President Whitmore had had enough with him. Nimziki is later seen during the war scenes when he stuck around at Area 51, praying with Julius.
★ 'Adam Baldwin' as 'Major Mitchell, USAF': Chief of Security at Area 51.
★ 'Brent Spiner' as 'Dr. Brackish Okun': Chief scientist at Area 51. He has not been let out of the complex for years. Okun was killed by the surviving alien he was operating on.
★ 'Gary A. Hecker' and 'Frank Welker' as 'Aliens': these consumer aliens are the primary villains of the movie. They are described as being "like locusts"; their civilization settles a planet, stays there until it's consumed all the local resources, then moves on to the next one. They are able to communicate telepathically and wear biomechanical suits to locomote. They do not wish to have a peaceful co-existence with mankind.
Author Stephen Molstad wrote a tie-in novel to help promote the film shortly before its release in the summer of 1996. The novel goes into further detail on the characters, situations, and overall concept that many later felt the film lacked.
Following the success of the film, a prequel novel entitled '' was written by Molstad in February 1998. The novel is set in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and details the early career of Dr. Brackish Okun. The novel goes into much detail on the aliens' technology and goes into even further detail of the crash at Roswell, New Mexico. Okun discovers that a second craft crashed in a part of Mexico nicknamed the "Silent Zone." Future Secretary of Defense Albert Nimziki has a small role in the novel as the director of the CIA. The novel ends with Nimziki shredding a report by Okun on the possibility of aliens one day visiting Earth.
Molstad wrote a third novel, '' in July 1999. The novel is both a midquel and sequel to the film. Set in Saudi Arabia on July 3, Captain Reg Cummins of the RAF and many of his fellow pilots lead a successful attack on one of the many "city destroyers." The novel mainly deals with Cummins and his pilots fighting a ground war with aliens that survived the destruction of their ship, whom the characters infiltrated earlier in the novel to dispose of any survivors. The novel also goes into detail of the aliens' psychic abilities, their use of ground vehicles, their hand-held weapons, and also contains a subplot of a blooming relationship between Cummins and the Saudi king's daughter. Cummins and Colonel Thompson are the only characters from the film to be featured in this novel (they being the two British pilots briefly seen receiving the Morse code message); however, President Whitmore is mentioned.
Right after the success of ''Independence Day'', it was considered that these novels should be made into movies, but the idea was scrapped.
Many discerning viewers in the US also felt that the main plot was simply a cursory re-telling of the H. G. Wells novella ''The War of the Worlds'', after lacing it with contemporary social and environmental issues, and packaging it with "eye-popping" special effects. The primary plot twist between the two is that a man-made computer virus is substituted for a naturally-occurring disease as the driving factor in defeating the marauding aliens, promoting the concept that man has more direct control over the outcome of the desperate situation than in Wells' original story. However, the remainder of the plots are nearly identical: earthly military technology is largely ineffective in resisting the invading aliens; the aliens' primary purpose in invading Earth is to harvest resources from the planet (either humans as food in H. G. Wells' original story, or natural resources in this adaptation); and once the aliens are defeated, humanity becomes united through their struggle against a common foe. Even a minor plot point where a primary character is unexpectedly re-united with his wife (estranged in this adaptation, separated by the chaos created by the invading aliens in H. G. Wells' original) is captured by both stories.
The patriotic overtones of the film were widely criticized by foreign reviewers. ''Movie Review UK'' described the film as "A mish-mash of elements from a wide variety of alien invasion movies and gung-ho American jingoism".[1] Bill Pullman's pre-battle speech, in which he states that victory in the coming war would see the entire world henceforth describe July 4 as its "independence day", was described as the "the most jaw-droppingly pompous soliloquy ever delivered in a mainstream Hollywood movie" in a BBCi review.[2]
In August 1996, BBC Radio 1 broadcast the 1-hour play ''Independence Day UK'', produced by Dirk Maggs, a spin-off depicting the alien invasion from a British perspective.
★ The theatrical version of the movie was 2 hours, 25 minutes in length. A Special Edition, released on DVD, contains an additional nine minutes of footage. Much of the reincorporated material involves the Casse family. For example, it reveals that Troy is chronically ill (in the theatrical cut, he just throws up along the way) and receives treatment in the Area 51 infirmary upon arrival. Also, the Special Edition featured a DTS 5.1 track that was used in theaters. The DTS track is considered by many DVD critics and enthusiasts as far superior to the Dolby Digital 5.1 track, which was a reference track for LaserDisc.
★ The scene where an Israeli fighter jet is refuelled by Arabs was censored when the film was shown on Malaysian television.
★ On the Saturday following the September 11, 2001 attacks (September 15, 2001), the Fox television network had planned to air this film, but due to its content (because of the destruction of America's most important cities would likely be offensive to many in light of what happened as well as the World Trade Center itself, also showing the clip of it still standing after the alien attack) aired ''Mrs. Doubtfire'' instead.
★ Will Smith's line "I'm just anxious to go up there and whup E.T.'s ass, that's all" is a reference to the 1982 Steven Spielberg blockbuster ''.
★ Smith also says, "Now that's what I call a close encounter," which is a reference to Spielberg's ''Close Encounters of the Third Kind''.
★ The filmmakers paid homage to '' with the opening shot of the massive mothership coming overhead, similar to the Imperial Star Destroyer.
★ The half-sunken Statue of Liberty in the film is homage to ''Planet of the Apes''.
★ In the novelization of the by Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin, it is stated that Dr. D. Jackson has come to Area 51 to study hieroglyphs in the Alien craft, an obvious reference to Daniel Jackson from ''Stargate''.
★ The Katina level of the video game ''Star Fox 64'' is a homage to the climactic battle scene of the movie, featuring squadrons of friendly aircraft dog-fighting swarms of alien ships beneath a giant saucer-shaped mothership. The mothership also destroys the base by shooting a laser beam into it, like the movie, and is destroyed by blowing up the laser. Also, the start of the Bolse level features enemy aircraft that bear a resemblance to the fighters in ''Independence Day''; they are also protected by invincible shields, much like the movie. The character Slippy Toad spoofs Will Smith's character with the line, "Those ships are shielded, too!" Also the leader of the Katina Army shares his name with Robert Loggia's character, Bill Grey.
★ In the ''Invader Zim'' episode "Future Dib," Dib tries to upload a virus onto Zim's computer with the comment, "I hope the Irkens just happen to use the same operating system I have."
★ In the computer game ''Supreme Commander'', one of the super units, the Aeon CZAR, bears more than a passing resemblance to the alien destroyer depicted in ''Independence Day''.
★ The Infected Mushroom song "Release Me" begins with music accompanying the scene where the captured alien uses Dr. Okun as a mouthpiece to communicate with the President.
1. Independence Day review on www.u-net.com.
2. Independence Day review on www.bbc.co.uk/films
★ Independence Day on sciflicks.com
★
★ Link to Bill Pullman's Speech in Text and Audio (americanrhetoric.com)
'''Independence Day''' (also known as its promotional abbreviation '''ID4''') is an Academy Award winning science fiction film directed by Roland Emmerich. The film's main plot is about an attempted alien invasion of Earth, and features several scenes of major landmarks being destroyed by the aliens, such as the White House, the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty, and the U.S. Bank Tower (then known as the First Interstate World Center) in Los Angeles.
The film's success was partially credited to an extensive marketing campaign which began in the United States with a dramatic commercial during Super Bowl XXX. The movie was scheduled for release on July 3, 1996, but due to the high level of anticipation for the film, many theaters began showing it on the evening of July 2, 1996, the same day the action in the film begins. The movie's total worldwide gross was $816,969,268 - the 18th highest worldwide gross for a movie all-time.
| Contents |
| Plot |
| Cast |
| Novels |
| Criticism |
| Radio spin-off |
| DVD versions |
| Trivia |
| References to other films |
| References in culture |
| References |
| External links |
Plot
It begins on the moon, at the Apollo 11 lunar landing site. Suddenly, rumbling causes Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin's footprints to disappear. A shadow is cast over the site, then the entire northern lunar hemisphere, as the camera pulls up and a gigantic spaceship comes into view, heading straight for Earth.
After brief troubles with satellite communications and television disruptions due to strange atmospheric conditions, the US Military learns that enormous objects first thought to be meteors are on a collision course with Earth. Finally, on July 2, the world stands in shock as an alien mothership, about one quarter the mass of the Moon and over 550 kilometers in diameter, enters orbit around Earth. The mothership deploys several dozen smaller ships, each itself with a diameter of over fifteen miles (24 km), that fly into Earth's atmosphere, causing strange atmospheric phenomenon and hover over many of the world's major cities. In the United States, the ships appear over Los Angeles, New York City, and Washington, D.C.. A TV shot also briefly shows ships over London, Berlin, Paris, Rome, Tokyo, and Moscow as well as the phenomena heading towards other major world cities such as Delhi, Beijing, and Bangkok a caption reading that the "Southern Hemisphere is unaffected".
David Levinson (Jeff Goldblum), a scientist turned cable-technician, finds a hidden message in the satellite transmissions and heads towards the White House with his father to save his estranged wife, but also to warn whomever might listen, including President Thomas J. Whitmore (Bill Pullman). It is then revealed that the aliens are coordinating an attack, and have only minutes before the countdown is over. Whitmore orders General William Grey (Robert Loggia) to have Atlantic Command evacuate as many people from American cities as they can. At this point, the alien's hostile intentions are revealed when they shoot down three helicopters attempting to establish communications.
Using advanced directed-energy weapons, the aliens destroy many major cities, along with millions of people, and annihilate virtually every famous landmark in the world. Whitmore, Levinson and his father, General Grey, and most of the President's staff barely escape the destruction of Washington, D.C. aboard Air Force One. The first wave of the American counterattack sees Captain Steven Hiller (Will Smith) leading his unit of fighter pilots from El Toro. Unfortunately, conventional missiles are useless against them, as both the city-destroyer ships and the individual alien fighters are protected by impenetrable shields. Decimated and ineffective, the humans break off their attack. Hiller's entire squadron is shot down and his friend/wingman Jimmy Wilder (Harry Connick, Jr.) is killed. The same happens with every counter-attack around the world, including those in New York and Washington. However, Hiller is chased by an alien fighter, whom he out-maneuvers in canyons leading across the desert. Eventually, he deploys a parachute back at the alien craft, and ejects from his own plane, after which both crash into the canyon wall. Hiller finds one of the alien invaders and renders it unconscious with a single punch. Sadly, El Toro is attacked by a large force of alien fighters and they succeed in destroying the airbase, killing most of the personnel still stationed there.
Hiller takes the captured alien to nearby Area 51, a rallying point for survivors. Both storylines in the movie thus converge, as Air Force One, carrying Whitmore and his remaining staff, as well as Levinson and his father, has landed. It is also learned that other major US cities - including Atlanta, GA, Chicago, IL, and Philadelphia, PA - and NORAD (along with most of the executive branch and the Joint Chiefs, who were sent there before the attacks for their safety) have been destroyed. The American military forces are moved from their bases; however the attacks have reduced their forces to 15%. They calculate that the aliens will destroy every major city in the world within 36 hours. It is discovered here that Area 51 has an alien craft and three alien bodies, presumably from the Roswell Incident back in 1947.
During an encounter with the surviving alien, who escapes attempted surgery and captures the lead researcher Dr. Brackish Okun (Brent Spiner), Whitmore questions the alien, who is now speaking through Dr. Okun. Whitmore asks for a peace or truce, which the alien replies "Peace...? No peace..." When asked by Whitmore what it wanted the humans to do, the alien replies, "Die." The alien uses a psychic attack against Whitmore, and in an attempt to free the President, military personnel on hand shoots through the glass separating them, killing the alien. The President then reports that he was able to see the alien's thoughts and now knew what exactly they were doing. Their entire species goes from planet to planet, annihilates all other life there, and uses the planet's own natural resources for themselves and then move on when the resources have been exhausted, and Earth is next. Knowing now there is no chance for a peaceful solution, the President decides to "nuke the bastards".
After the encounter with the alien, Whitmore orders a nuclear attack using B-2 stealth bombers on a city-destroyer ship over Houston (which had been vacated at this point). However, the attack fails to damage the ship at all, its shield protecting it from destruction. Shortly thereafter, in a semi-drunken rage and partly spurred on by his father who tells him he might "catch a cold" sitting on the floor, Levinson devises a plan to introduce a computer virus into the mothership. At the same time, they would plant a nuclear device on board the mothership in hopes of destroying it. Although they would probably have a window of mere minutes, it seems to be their last hope. Hiller volunteers to fly the alien fighter which has now powered up due to the presence of the mothership. Levinson accompanies him in case anything might go wrong with the upload of his virus.
The alien fighter approaches the mothership.
The Americans signal to their counterparts around the world about their plan and the pending counterattack via morse code. Anyone with flying experience is recruited into the final makeshift attack squad. Even President Whitmore himself, a veteran fighter pilot of the Persian Gulf War, joins in and leads the human resistance.
The movie climaxes on July 4, with a speech from President Whitmore about Independence Day being for everyone on Earth, "should they win the day." While aboard the mothership inside the captured alien fighter, Hiller and Levinson discover that the aliens are assembling an army of thousands or millions for their ground invasion.
After learning that the virus has been planted by Levinson, Whitmore launches a missile, which only hits their shields. When it seems that all hope is lost, Whitmore decides to fire again, and this time the missile hits the ship, the result of a delayed reaction to the virus. All fighters engage the ship, with the initial volley doing considerable damage to the ship. The alien fighters attack, and an all-out melee ensues.
While the fighters continue to launch missiles onto the ship, they are only doing only moderate damage to the huge city-size destroyers. Their primary cannon is being prepped to fire, so Whitmore, flanked by two fighters, makes a break for the weapon. He fires his last missile, but it fails to hit its target, and both of his wingmen are destroyed. Eventually, all the American fighters have shot their missiles. Russell Casse (Randy Quaid), an American volunteer who is a crop duster, Vietnam pilot veteran and alien abductee, appears, armed with the one remaining missile. As he attempts to fire it, it jams on the launch rail. Russell realizes what he must do and pilots his F/A-18C in a kamikaze attack on the alien ship's primary weapon as it is about to fire, causing a chain reaction that destroys the vessel. Task forces around the world use the same weak point to destroy the rest of the alien ships while the nuclear missile detonates and destroys the alien mother ship, ultimately saving Earth and several surviving major cities. Hiller and Levinson both survive the destruction of the ship. The film ends with the main characters watching as debris from the mothership re-enters the atmosphere like shooting stars.
Cast
★ 'Bill Pullman' as 'President Thomas J. Whitmore': the President of the United States throughout the movie, Whitmore is a former fighter pilot who served in the Persian Gulf War. Although his approval rating has fallen recently, he wins back the public thanks to his leadership of the resistance against the alien invaders. His political affiliation is Republican.
★ 'Will Smith' as 'Captain Steven "Steve" Hiller, USMC' – A U.S. Marine Corps F/A-18C pilot from VMFA-314, Hiller is the only person able to bring an extraterrestrial aircraft down in the failed first wave of the human counterattack (albeit by tricking it into crashing into a wall). Hiller's ambition is to join NASA, and his dream to fly into space comes true when he flies the captured alien spaceship from Area 51 up to destroy the mothership.
★ 'Jeff Goldblum' as 'David Levinson': an employee of New York-based Compact Cable, Levinson is an MIT-educated chess enthusiast who discovers the aliens' plans to attack after stumbling upon their hidden satellite signal, and later suggests the idea of infecting the mothership with a computer virus in order to deactivate the shields protecting the alien craft.
★ 'Judd Hirsch' as 'Julius Levinson': David's widowed father, a sarcastic Jewish immigrant who accompanies his son.
★ 'Margaret Colin' as 'Constance Spano': White House Communications Director and David's ex-wife. She divorced David because of his lack of ambition, but they reconcile at the end after his plan saves the planet.
★ 'Mary McDonnell' as 'First Lady Marilyn Whitmore': President Whitmore's wife who is fatally injured while fleeing the destruction of Los Angeles. On her deathbed, she apologizes to Whitmore for not coming home when he asked her to.
★ 'Harvey Fierstein' as 'Marty Gilbert': David's flamboyant employer at Compact Cable. He was killed when his car was thrown into another by the force of an explosion destroying New York.
★ 'Mae Whitman' as 'Patricia Whitmore': President Whitmore's young daughter.
★ 'Vivica A. Fox' as 'Jasmine Dubrow-Hiller': an exotic dancer, Steve's girlfriend and eventually his wife; the two marry shortly before he goes to destroy the mothership. After finding several survivors in the ruins of Los Angeles (including First Lady Whitmore), she take refuge at the ruins of El Toro and is eventually found by Steve.
★ 'Ross Bagley' as 'Dylan Dubrow': Jasmine's young son and eventually Steve's stepson.
★ 'Randy Quaid' as 'Russell Casse': Vietnam War veteran pilot and crop duster who claims to have been formerly abducted by aliens. He was ridiculed because of this. His eldest son does not think he is a good father. It is suggested that he is an alcoholic, by the fact that he is drinking from a flask after spraying the wrong field at the start of the film.
★ 'Robert Loggia' as 'General William Grey, USMC': chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Whitmore's closest ally; he was Whitmore's commanding officer during the Gulf War. Highest-ranking surviving military commander after the aliens destroy NORAD, where the other Joint Chiefs had been moved for safety.
★ 'James Rebhorn' as 'Albert Nimziki': formerly a CIA officer and the current Secretary of Defense. He was fired near the end of the movie when President Whitmore had had enough with him. Nimziki is later seen during the war scenes when he stuck around at Area 51, praying with Julius.
★ 'Adam Baldwin' as 'Major Mitchell, USAF': Chief of Security at Area 51.
★ 'Brent Spiner' as 'Dr. Brackish Okun': Chief scientist at Area 51. He has not been let out of the complex for years. Okun was killed by the surviving alien he was operating on.
★ 'Gary A. Hecker' and 'Frank Welker' as 'Aliens': these consumer aliens are the primary villains of the movie. They are described as being "like locusts"; their civilization settles a planet, stays there until it's consumed all the local resources, then moves on to the next one. They are able to communicate telepathically and wear biomechanical suits to locomote. They do not wish to have a peaceful co-existence with mankind.
Novels
Author Stephen Molstad wrote a tie-in novel to help promote the film shortly before its release in the summer of 1996. The novel goes into further detail on the characters, situations, and overall concept that many later felt the film lacked.
Following the success of the film, a prequel novel entitled '' was written by Molstad in February 1998. The novel is set in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and details the early career of Dr. Brackish Okun. The novel goes into much detail on the aliens' technology and goes into even further detail of the crash at Roswell, New Mexico. Okun discovers that a second craft crashed in a part of Mexico nicknamed the "Silent Zone." Future Secretary of Defense Albert Nimziki has a small role in the novel as the director of the CIA. The novel ends with Nimziki shredding a report by Okun on the possibility of aliens one day visiting Earth.
Molstad wrote a third novel, '' in July 1999. The novel is both a midquel and sequel to the film. Set in Saudi Arabia on July 3, Captain Reg Cummins of the RAF and many of his fellow pilots lead a successful attack on one of the many "city destroyers." The novel mainly deals with Cummins and his pilots fighting a ground war with aliens that survived the destruction of their ship, whom the characters infiltrated earlier in the novel to dispose of any survivors. The novel also goes into detail of the aliens' psychic abilities, their use of ground vehicles, their hand-held weapons, and also contains a subplot of a blooming relationship between Cummins and the Saudi king's daughter. Cummins and Colonel Thompson are the only characters from the film to be featured in this novel (they being the two British pilots briefly seen receiving the Morse code message); however, President Whitmore is mentioned.
Right after the success of ''Independence Day'', it was considered that these novels should be made into movies, but the idea was scrapped.
Criticism
Many discerning viewers in the US also felt that the main plot was simply a cursory re-telling of the H. G. Wells novella ''The War of the Worlds'', after lacing it with contemporary social and environmental issues, and packaging it with "eye-popping" special effects. The primary plot twist between the two is that a man-made computer virus is substituted for a naturally-occurring disease as the driving factor in defeating the marauding aliens, promoting the concept that man has more direct control over the outcome of the desperate situation than in Wells' original story. However, the remainder of the plots are nearly identical: earthly military technology is largely ineffective in resisting the invading aliens; the aliens' primary purpose in invading Earth is to harvest resources from the planet (either humans as food in H. G. Wells' original story, or natural resources in this adaptation); and once the aliens are defeated, humanity becomes united through their struggle against a common foe. Even a minor plot point where a primary character is unexpectedly re-united with his wife (estranged in this adaptation, separated by the chaos created by the invading aliens in H. G. Wells' original) is captured by both stories.
The patriotic overtones of the film were widely criticized by foreign reviewers. ''Movie Review UK'' described the film as "A mish-mash of elements from a wide variety of alien invasion movies and gung-ho American jingoism".[1] Bill Pullman's pre-battle speech, in which he states that victory in the coming war would see the entire world henceforth describe July 4 as its "independence day", was described as the "the most jaw-droppingly pompous soliloquy ever delivered in a mainstream Hollywood movie" in a BBCi review.[2]
Radio spin-off
In August 1996, BBC Radio 1 broadcast the 1-hour play ''Independence Day UK'', produced by Dirk Maggs, a spin-off depicting the alien invasion from a British perspective.
DVD versions
★ The theatrical version of the movie was 2 hours, 25 minutes in length. A Special Edition, released on DVD, contains an additional nine minutes of footage. Much of the reincorporated material involves the Casse family. For example, it reveals that Troy is chronically ill (in the theatrical cut, he just throws up along the way) and receives treatment in the Area 51 infirmary upon arrival. Also, the Special Edition featured a DTS 5.1 track that was used in theaters. The DTS track is considered by many DVD critics and enthusiasts as far superior to the Dolby Digital 5.1 track, which was a reference track for LaserDisc.
Trivia
★ The scene where an Israeli fighter jet is refuelled by Arabs was censored when the film was shown on Malaysian television.
★ On the Saturday following the September 11, 2001 attacks (September 15, 2001), the Fox television network had planned to air this film, but due to its content (because of the destruction of America's most important cities would likely be offensive to many in light of what happened as well as the World Trade Center itself, also showing the clip of it still standing after the alien attack) aired ''Mrs. Doubtfire'' instead.
References to other films
★ Will Smith's line "I'm just anxious to go up there and whup E.T.'s ass, that's all" is a reference to the 1982 Steven Spielberg blockbuster ''.
★ Smith also says, "Now that's what I call a close encounter," which is a reference to Spielberg's ''Close Encounters of the Third Kind''.
★ The filmmakers paid homage to '' with the opening shot of the massive mothership coming overhead, similar to the Imperial Star Destroyer.
★ The half-sunken Statue of Liberty in the film is homage to ''Planet of the Apes''.
★ In the novelization of the by Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin, it is stated that Dr. D. Jackson has come to Area 51 to study hieroglyphs in the Alien craft, an obvious reference to Daniel Jackson from ''Stargate''.
References in culture
★ The Katina level of the video game ''Star Fox 64'' is a homage to the climactic battle scene of the movie, featuring squadrons of friendly aircraft dog-fighting swarms of alien ships beneath a giant saucer-shaped mothership. The mothership also destroys the base by shooting a laser beam into it, like the movie, and is destroyed by blowing up the laser. Also, the start of the Bolse level features enemy aircraft that bear a resemblance to the fighters in ''Independence Day''; they are also protected by invincible shields, much like the movie. The character Slippy Toad spoofs Will Smith's character with the line, "Those ships are shielded, too!" Also the leader of the Katina Army shares his name with Robert Loggia's character, Bill Grey.
★ In the ''Invader Zim'' episode "Future Dib," Dib tries to upload a virus onto Zim's computer with the comment, "I hope the Irkens just happen to use the same operating system I have."
★ In the computer game ''Supreme Commander'', one of the super units, the Aeon CZAR, bears more than a passing resemblance to the alien destroyer depicted in ''Independence Day''.
★ The Infected Mushroom song "Release Me" begins with music accompanying the scene where the captured alien uses Dr. Okun as a mouthpiece to communicate with the President.
References
1. Independence Day review on www.u-net.com.
2. Independence Day review on www.bbc.co.uk/films
External links
★ Independence Day on sciflicks.com
★
★ Link to Bill Pullman's Speech in Text and Audio (americanrhetoric.com)
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