Independence Day (1996)

The aliens are coming and their goal is to invade and destroy Earth. Fighting superior technology, mankind's best weapon is the will to survive.

Director:

Roland Emmerich

Writers:

Dean Devlin, Roland Emmerich

Stars:

Will Smith, Bill Pullman, Jeff Goldblum

Won 1 Oscar. Another 34 wins & 34 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Will Smith	...	Capt. Steven Hiller
Bill Pullman	...	President Thomas J. Whitmore
Jeff Goldblum	...	David Levinson
Mary McDonnell	...	Marilyn Whitmore
Judd Hirsch	...	Julius Levinson
Robert Loggia	...	General William Grey
Randy Quaid	...	Russell Casse
Margaret Colin	...	Constance Spano
James Rebhorn	...	Albert Nimziki
Harvey Fierstein	...	Marty Gilbert
Adam Baldwin	...	Major Mitchell
Brent Spiner	...	Dr. Brakish Okun
James Duval	...	Miguel
Vivica A. Fox	...	Jasmine Dubrow
Lisa Jakub	...	Alicia

Storyline

On July 2nd, communications systems worldwide are sent into chaos by a strange atmospheric interference. It is soon learned by the military that a number of enormous objects are on a collision course with Earth. At first thought to be meteors, they are later revealed to be gigantic spacecraft, piloted by a mysterious alien species. After attempts to communicate with the aliens go nowhere, David Levinson, an ex-scientist turned cable technician, discovers that the aliens are going to attack major points around the globe in less than a day. On July 3rd, the aliens all but obliterate New York, Los Angeles and Washington, as well as Paris, London, Houston and Moscow. The survivors set out in convoys towards Area 51, a strange government testing ground where it is rumored the military has a captured alien spacecraft of their own. The survivors devise a plan to fight back against the enslaving aliens, and July 4th becomes the day humanity will fight for its freedom. July 4th is their ...

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Plot Keywords:

saving the world mission | alien technology | alien invasion | alien contact | 1990s | 

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Taglines:

The question of whether or not we are alone in the universe has been answered.

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Sci-Fi

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for sci-fi destruction and violence

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook The War of 1996

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

3 July 1996 (USA)

Also Known As:

ID4

Filming Locations:

Santa Clarita, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$75,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$50,228,264, 7 July 1996, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$306,169,268, 31 December 1997

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$817,400,891, 31 December 1997

Company Credits

Production Co:

Twentieth Century Fox,Centropolis Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

145 min 154 min (extended cut)

Sound Mix:

DTS 70 mm (70 mm print) DTS (35 mm prints) Dolby Digital (35 mm prints) SDDS (35 mm prints)

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.39 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Most of the cast and crew, including Will Smith, were unpleasantly surprised to suffer severe sunburn on their legs during the filming in Utah of the Grand Canyon duel/crash scenes.

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Goofs

When David is walking around the office with Marty right before the President makes a speech about the alien invasion you can see a vending machine selling Arrowhead bottled water. That product is not available in New York, where the scene takes place. It is, however, available in Southern California, where the film was shot.

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Quotes

[first lines]
SETI Chief: [answering telephone] If this isn't an insanely beautiful woman, I'm hangin' up.
SETI technician: Sir, I - I- I think you should listen to this.

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Crazy Credits

"Animal action was monitored by the American Humane Association. No animals or aliens were harmed in the making of this film."

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Connections

Featured in Bad Movie Beatdown: 2012: Part 2 (2011)

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Soundtracks

It's the End of the World As We Know It
Written by Bill Berry (as William Berry), Peter Buck, Mike Mills, and Michael Stipe
Performed by R.E.M.
Courtesy of IRS Records

User Reviews

Suspenseful Feel Good Fun!

I am just shocked at all the negative reviews by pseudo-intellectuals saying the film was heavily flawed, incomprehensible, devoid of any merit, and "lame", to quote a few. What were they expecting? A remake of 2001: A Space Odyssey. Sure, I am not going to pretend the film does not has many glaring weaknesses. The plot is hardly original; its execution is even less inspiring. Roland Emmerich goes out of his way to use every cliche in the book, over-sentimentality, weak, flat characterizations, incredible jumps in logic and reasoning made on the viewer, and the use of special effects to overcome these shortcomings. But what some of the reviewers seemed to have missed, and its there as substantiated by the huge popularity of the film, is heart. The film has a lot of heart. It makes you feel good after watching it. And although that quality does not make it a great film, it certainly makes it a good film in my book. The film is vastly entertaining, very suspenseful, a delight for the eyes with dazzling special effects, and even has some dialogue that does just rise above its hackneyed origins. The acting is adequate all around with no one pulling off a great performance, but a few doing marvelous jobs with what they have to work with. Judd Hirsch easily out acts his fellow colleagues as a Jewish father with a gift for common sense and lack of tact. Jeff Goldblum also gives a pretty good performance as his son. Yeah, Will Smith is just Will Smith..lots of one liners and little meat so to speak. But he is bearable. Watch for Brent Spiner in an outrageous role as a hippie scientist. His performance is a real hoot! If you are looking for philosophical science fiction, this is not it. See Starship Troopers(a great film). This is just good old Americans against the universe stuff, lots of action but little substance. But whatever it may have as its faults, it is a fun, happy, sad, charming, engrossing film to watch...time and time again.