Independence Day (1996 film)

On July 2, 1996, an extraterrestrial mother ship enters Earth's orbit outside the Moon and deploys its flying saucers, each in diameter, over major cities worldwide. U.S. Marine Captain Steven Hiller and his unit, the Black Knights fighter squadron stationed out of MCAS El Toro, are called back from Independence Day leave; his girlfriend, Jasmine Dubrow, decides to flee Los Angeles with her son, Dylan. Retired combat pilot Russell Casse, now an alcoholic single father and crop duster, sees this as vindication of the alien abduction he has been claiming for 10 years. In New York City, technician David Levinson decodes a signal embedded within global satellite transmissions, realizing that it is the aliens' countdown for a coordinated attack. Aided by his ex-wife, White House Communications Director Constance Spano, David and his father Julius reach the Oval Office in Washington, D.C. and alert President Thomas Whitmore. Whitmore orders evacuations of Los Angeles, New York City, and the District of Columbia, but it is too late. Each saucer fires a beam, incinerating every targeted city, killing millions. Whitmore, the Levinsons, and a few others barely escape aboard Air Force One while Jasmine, Dylan, and their dog Boomer take shelter in a tunnel's inspection alcove and escape the destruction of Los Angeles. On July 3, Earth's military retaliations against the invaders are thwarted by the alien warships' force fields. Each saucer launches shielded fighters, devastating the human fighter squadrons and military bases, including Steven's. Steven lures an enemy fighter into the Grand Canyon before ejecting from his plane, blinding the fighter using his parachute and causing the alien to crash in the Mojave Desert. He subdues the downed alien and flags down a convoy of refugees, transporting the alien to Area 51, where Whitmore's plane has landed. U.S. Defense Secretary Albert Nimziki reveals that a government faction has been involved in a UFO conspiracy since 1947, when one of the invaders' fighters crashed near Roswell, New Mexico. Area 51 houses the refurbished ship and three alien corpses from the crash. Dr. Brackish Okun, the chief scientist, examines the alien captured by Steven, which awakens, telepathically invades Okun's mind, and psychically attacks Whitmore before the alien is killed by Secret Service agents and military personnel. Whitmore learns the invaders' plan from the psychic attack; they intend to annihilate Earth's inhabitants and harvest its natural resources, as they have done to other civilizations. Whitmore reluctantly authorizes a trial nuclear attack against a saucer above an evacuated Houston, but the saucer's force field protects it from damage, while Houston is destroyed by the blast. All subsequent nuclear attacks are aborted. Jasmine and Dylan commandeer a highway maintenance truck and rescue several survivors, including the badly injured First Lady, Marilyn Whitmore. Steven rescues them and takes them to Area 51, where Marilyn succumbs to her injuries after reuniting with her family. On July 4, inspired by Julius, David plans to write a computer virus on his laptop and upload it into the mothership's operating system to disable the aliens' shield. Steven volunteers to pilot the alien ship armed with a tactical nuclear weapon to destroy the mothership. The U.S. military contacts the remaining forces and airborne squadrons through Morse code to organize a united counterattack. Lacking pilots, Whitmore and General William Grey enlist volunteers with flight experience, including Russell Casse from the refugee camp at Area 51, to fly the remaining jets. Steven marries Jasmine, with David and Constance present, during which the divorced pair reconciles before leaving on the mission. Entering the alien mother ship, they upload the virus and launch the nuclear missile, destroying it and the alien invasion force before narrowly escaping. With the shields down, Whitmore's squadron engages a saucer targeting the Area 51 base. They exhaust their ammunition, and as the saucer readies to fire, Russell sacrifices himself by crashing into its primary weapon, destroying the saucer. Grey orders notifications to resistance groups worldwide about the saucers' critical weakness, leading to their destruction. As humanity celebrates its victory against the aliens, Steven and David are rescued after surviving the crash, and are reunited with their families. ==Cast==

• Will Smith as Captain Steven Hiller, a Marine F/A-18 pilot squadron leader with the Black Knight squadron at Marine Corps Air Station El Toro and aspiring astronaut. The role was originally offered to Ethan Hawke, but he turned it down, as he thought the script was terrible. Devlin and Emmerich had always envisioned an African-American for the role, and specifically wanted Smith after seeing his performance in Six Degrees of Separation. • Bill Pullman as President Thomas J. Whitmore, a former fighter pilot and Gulf War veteran. To prepare for the role, Pullman read Bob Woodward's The Commanders and watched the documentary film The War Room. • Jeff Goldblum as David Levinson, an MIT-educated satellite engineer and technological expert. • Mary McDonnell as First Lady Marilyn Whitmore, wife of Thomas Whitmore. • Judd Hirsch as Julius Levinson, David Levinson's father. The character was based on one of Dean Devlin's uncles. • Robert Loggia as General William Grey, USMC, the Commandant of the United States Marine Corps. Loggia modeled the character after World War II generals, particularly George S. Patton. • Randy Quaid as Russell Casse, an eccentric, alcoholic former fighter pilot and Vietnam War veteran. He insists that he was abducted by the aliens while crop dusting ten years prior to the film's events, shortly after completing his military service. • Margaret Colin as Constance Spano, Whitmore's White House Communications Director and David Levinson's ex-wife. • Vivica A. Fox as Jasmine Dubrow, Steven Hiller's girlfriend and mother of Dylan Dubrow. • James Rebhorn as Albert Nimziki, the Secretary of Defense and, as former CIA Director, is a member of a governmental faction who are aware of the aliens' existence due to the ship recovered at Roswell. Not well-liked, lying, arrogant, selfish, crooked, and often at odds with idealists such as Whitmore and Grey, Nimziki embodies the stereotypical corrupt politician and his ambition is to be elected as president himself. Rebhorn described the character as being much like Oliver North. The character's eventual firing lampoons Joe Nimziki, MGM's head of advertising, who made life unpleasant for Devlin and Emmerich when studio executives forced recuts of Stargate. • Harvey Fierstein as Marty Gilbert, David Levinson's coworker at Compact Cable Television Company who is killed in the NYC attack. • Adam Baldwin as Major Mitchell, USAF, Area 51's commanding officer and thus a member of a governmental faction who are aware of the aliens' existence. During the interstellar war, he becomes a trusted ally to Thomas Whitmore's party. • Brent Spiner as Dr. Brackish Okun, the unkempt and highly excitable scientist in charge of research at Area 51. The character's appearance and verbal style are based upon those of visual effects supervisor Jeffrey A. Okun, with whom Emmerich had worked on Stargate. • James Duval as Miguel Casse, the oldest son of Russell Casse. • Bill Smitrovich as Lt. Colonel Watson, the commanding officer of the Black Knights. • Kiersten Warren as Tiffani, friend and co-worker of Jasmine who is killed in the LA attack. • Harry Connick Jr. as Marine Captain Jimmy Wilder, fellow fighter pilot and friend of Steven, killed in the Black Knight counterattack. Connick took over the role from Matthew Perry who was originally cast in the role. • Mae Whitman as Patricia Whitmore, the daughter of President Thomas J. Whitmore and First Lady Marilyn Whitmore. • Ross Bagley as Dylan Dubrow, Jasmine Dubrow's son and Steven Hiller's stepson. • Lisa Jakub as Alicia Casse, the daughter of Russell Casse. • Giuseppe Andrews as Troy Casse, the son of Russell Casse. • Special vocal effects by Frank Welker. • Alien vocal effects by Gary A. Hecker. ==Production==

Development The idea for the film came when Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin were in Europe promoting their film Stargate in 1994. A reporter asked Emmerich why he made a film with content like Stargate if he did not believe in aliens. Emmerich stated he was still fascinated by the idea of an alien arrival, and further explained his response by asking the reporter to imagine what it would be like to wake up one morning and to discover 15-mile-wide spaceships were hovering over the world's largest cities. Emmerich then turned to Devlin and said, "I think I have an idea for our next film." , "Black Knights" Emmerich and Devlin decided to expand on the idea by incorporating a large-scale attack, with Devlin saying he was bothered by the fact that "for the most part, in alien invasion movies, they come down to Earth and they're hidden in some back field …[o]r they arrive in little spores and inject themselves into the back of someone's head." Emmerich agreed by asking Devlin if arriving from across the galaxy, "would you hide on a farm or would you make a big entrance?" A then-record 3,000-plus special effects shots would ultimately be required for the film. The crew also built miniatures for several of the spaceships featured in the film, including a destroyer model and a version of the mother ship spanning . City streets were recreated, then tilted upright beneath a high-speed camera mounted on a scaffolding filming downwards. An explosion would be ignited below the model, and flames would rise towards the camera, engulfing the tilted model and creating the rolling "wall of destruction" look seen in the film. A model of the White House was also created, covering by , and was used in forced-perspective shots before being destroyed in a similar fashion for its destruction scene. The detonation took a week to plan The film's aliens were designed by production designer Patrick Tatopoulos. The actual aliens in the film are diminutive and based on a design Tatopoulos drew when tasked by Emmerich to create an alien that was "both familiar and completely original". These creatures wear "bio-mechanical" suits that are based on another design Tatopoulos pitched to Emmerich. These suits were tall, equipped with 25 tentacles, and purposely designed to show it could not sustain a person inside, so it would not appear to be a "man in a suit". Christopher Weaver, founder of video game publisher Bethesda Softworks consulted with the movie's production team, Centropolis Films, and provided scientific collaboration. Filming Principal photography began on July 28, 1995, in New York City. A second unit gathered plate shots and establishing shots of Manhattan, Washington, D.C., an RV community in Flagstaff, Arizona, and the Very Large Array on the Plains of San Agustin, New Mexico. The production then moved to Wendover, Utah, and West Wendover, Nevada, where the deserts doubled for Imperial Valley, and the Wendover Airport doubled for the El Toro and Area 51 exteriors. It was here where Pullman filmed his pre-battle speech. Immediately before filming the scene, Devlin and Pullman decided to add "Today, we celebrate our Independence Day!" to the end of the speech. At the time, the production was nicknamed "ID4" because Warner Bros. owned the rights to the title because of a film from 1983 which is also called Independence Day. Devlin had hoped that if Fox executives noticed the addition in dailies, the impact of the new dialogue would help them to win the rights to the title. The right to use the title was eventually won two weeks later. The attacker hangar set contained an attacker mockup wide score for the film was composed by David Arnold and recorded with an orchestra of 90, a choir of 46, "and every last ounce of stereotypical Americana he could muster for the occasion". The film's producer Dean Devlin commented that "you can leave it up to a Brit to write some of the most rousing and patriotic music in the history of American cinema." The premiere of Independence Day live took place at the Royal Albert Hall in September 2016, with the film's score performed live for a screening of the film. This celebrated the twentieth anniversary of the film's release, and the event also featured a pre-film talk by David Arnold. ==Release==

Theatrical in Rachel, Nevada. While Independence Day was still in post-production, Fox began an expensive marketing campaign to help promote the film, beginning with the airing of a dramatic commercial during Super Bowl XXX, for which it paid $1.3 million. The film's subsequent success at the box office resulted in a trend of using Super Bowl air time to begin the advertising campaigns for potential blockbusters. Fox's Licensing and Merchandising division also entered into co-promotional deals with Apple Inc. The co-marketing project was dubbed "The Power to Save the World" campaign, in which the company used footage of David using his PowerBook 5300 laptop in their print and television advertisements. Trendmasters entered a merchandising deal with the film's producers to create a line of tie-in toys. In exchange for product placement, Fox also entered into co-promotional deals with Molson Coors Brewing Company and Coca-Cola. The film was marketed with several taglines, including: "We've always believed we weren't alone. On July 4, we'll wish we were", "Earth. Take a good look. It could be your last", and "Don't make plans for August". The weekend before the film's release, the Fox Network aired a half-hour special on the film, the first third of which was a spoof news report on the events that happen in the film. Roger Ebert attributed most of the film's early success to its teaser trailers and marketing campaigns, acknowledging them as "truly brilliant". The film had its official premiere held at Los Angeles' now-defunct Mann Plaza Theater on June 25, 1996. It was then screened privately at the White House for President Bill Clinton and his family before receiving a nationwide release in the United States on July 2, 1996, a day earlier than its previously scheduled opening. Censorship In Lebanon, certain Jewish- and Israel-related content in the film was censored. One cut scene involved Judd Hirsch's character donning a kippah, and leading soldiers and White House officials in a Jewish prayer. Other removed footage showed Israeli and Arab troops working together in preparation for countering the alien invasion. The Lebanese Shi'a Islamist militant group Hezbollah called for Muslims to boycott the film, describing it as "propaganda for the so-called genius of the Jews and their concern for humanity." In response, Jewish actor Jeff Goldblum said: "I think Hezbollah has missed the point. The film is not about American Jews saving the world; it's about teamwork among people of different religions and nationalities to defeat a common enemy." Home media After a six-week, $30 million marketing campaign, Independence Day was released on a THX certified VHS on November 22, 1996. A special edition of the film was included on the DVD as well, which features nine minutes of additional footage not seen in the original theatrical release. A single-disc DVD version of the film was released alongside Cast Away on May 21, 2002. Independence Day became available on Blu-ray in the United Kingdom on December 24, 2007, and in North America on March 11, 2008 and in Australia on March 5, 2008. The initial single-disc releases only feature the theatrical cut and a few extras, as per the single-disc DVDs. For its 2016 twentieth anniversary, the film was re-released on two-disc Blu-ray and DVD, 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray, and Digital HD. The 20th-anniversary editions feature both the theatrical and extended versions, all the extras of the previous 2-disc DVDs and more. Television broadcast Independence Day was originally scheduled to air on Fox on September 16, 2001, but was cancelled following the September 11 attacks. Fox replaced Independence Day with a repeat airing of ''There's Something About Mary''. Re-release A 3D re-release was cancelled in 2013. The film had both its twentieth anniversary and premiere at a special live-orchestral screening performance at the Royal Albert Hall on September 22, 2016. The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by the original orchestrator Nicholas Dodd, performed the score live during the film, and the film's composer, David Arnold, was a presenter at the event. ==Reception==

Box office ''. Independence Day was the highest-grossing film of 1996, surpassing both Twister and Mission: Impossible. During its second day of release, it earned $17.3 million, which made it the highest Thursday gross, holding this record for six years until it was taken by Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones in 2002. This was also the highest non-sequel Thursday gross, which would last until the opening of Transformers in 2007. Independence Day earned $104.3 million in its opening week, including $96.1 million during its five-day holiday opening, and $50.2 million during its opening weekend. The film stayed in the number-one spot for three consecutive weeks before being displaced by A Time to Kill. The combined total for the five-day Wednesday opening with ticket sales increased to $190 million, dethroning the $158.6 million record formerly held by Toy Story. In addition, the film had the second-highest opening weekend of any movie, behind Batman Forever. All three figures broke records set by Jurassic Park three years earlier, That same year, Men in Black surpassed Independence Day for highest July opening weekend and largest three-day Fourth of July opening weekend. Despite this, the film would continue to hold the record for having the highest five-day Fourth of July Wednesday opening until Men in Black II in 2002. Independence Day earned over $150 million in 12 days, becoming the quickest film to do so. In 21 days, it became the fastest film to approach the $200 million mark. The film would hold this record for three years until it was surpassed by Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace in 1999. By the end of July 1996, Independence Day had lost 38% of its audience, but it was able to top Ghostbusters, Aladdin, Mrs. Doubtfire and Ghost, becoming the fourteenth-highest domestic grossing film of all time. It reached $230 million within the first month of release, and on August 9, crossed the $250 million mark. Halfway through the month, it became the eighth-highest domestic grosser, beating Jaws. Independence Day grossed $306,169,268 in the United States and Canada and $511,231,623 in other territories during its theatrical run. For over 20 years, the film would hold the record for being the highest-grossing film starring Will Smith until 2019 when it was surpassed by the live-action version of Aladdin. The domestic record was beaten by Suicide Squad three years earlier in 2016. In the UK, the film grossed £7,005,905 in its opening weekend (including £939,022 from previews), surpassing Jurassic Parks record of £4.9 million. The film grossed a record $10.5 million in its opening weekend in Germany and also beat the opening record in France. Box Office Mojo estimates that the film sold over 69.26 million tickets in the US and Canada. Hoping to capitalize on the film's success, several studios released large-scale disaster films, Critical response Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 69% of 80 surveyed critics gave Independence Day a positive review; the average rating is 6.6/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "The plot is thin and so is character development, but as a thrilling, spectacle-filled summer movie, Independence Day delivers." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 59 out of 100 based on 19 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale. Critics wrote that the film has "cardboard" and "stereotypical" characters, and weak dialogue. However, the shot of the White House's destruction was declared a milestone in visual effects and one of the most memorable scenes of the 1990s. In a 2010 poll, readers of Entertainment Weekly rated it the second-greatest summer film of the previous 20 years, ranking only behind Jurassic Park. Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle gave the film his highest rating, declaring it the "apotheosis" of comic book space adventure movies. The speech during which Whitmore states that victory in the coming war would see the entire world henceforth describe July 4 as its Independence Day, was described in a BBC review as "the most jaw-droppingly pompous soliloquy ever delivered in a mainstream Hollywood movie." In 2003, readers of Empire voted that scene as the "Cheesiest Movie Moment of All-Time". Empire critic Kim Newman had given the film a five-star rating in the magazine's original review. Gene Siskel expressed the same sentiments in his At the Movies review.'' • AFI's 10 Top 10 – Nominated Science Fiction Film Accolades Legacy Disaster elements portrayed in Twister and Independence Day (both in 1996) represented a significant turning point for Hollywood blockbuster films. With advancements in CGI special effects, events depicting mass destruction became commonplace in films that soon followed, such as ''Dante's Peak and Volcano (both in 1997), as well as Deep Impact and Armageddon'' (both in 1998). The trend resumed from the mid-2000s to 2010s, evident in three of Emmerich's films titled The Day After Tomorrow (2004), 2012 (2009), and White House Down (2013), as well as other blockbusters like Transformers (2007) and The Avengers (2012). ==In other media==

Books Author Stephen Molstad wrote a tie-in novel to help promote the film shortly before its release. The novel goes into further detail on the characters, situations, and overall concepts not explored in the film. The novel presents the film's finale as originally scripted, with the character played by Randy Quaid stealing a missile and roping it to his cropduster biplane. Following the film's success, a prequel novel entitled Independence Day: Silent Zone 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. Molstad wrote a third novel, Independence Day: War in the Desert in July 1999. Set in Saudi Arabia on July 3, it centers around the two Royal Air Force officers seen receiving the Morse code message in the film. A Marvel comic book was also written based on the first two novelizations. Radio On August 4, 1996, BBC Radio 1 broadcast the one-hour play Independence Day UK, written, produced, and directed by Dirk Maggs, a spin-off depicting the alien invasion from a British perspective. None of the original cast was present. Dean Devlin gave Maggs permission to produce an original version, on the condition that he did not reveal certain details of the movie's plot, and that the British were not depicted as saving the day. Video games An Independence Day video game was released in February 1997 for the PlayStation, Sega Saturn, and PC, each version receiving mostly tepid reviews. The multi-view shooter game contains various missions to perform, with the ultimate goal of destroying the aliens' primary weapon. A pinball machine themed to the film was released by Sega in June 1996. Plus, a wireless mobile version was released in 2005. A video game titled ID4 Online (or Independence Day Online) was released by Mythic Entertainment. Toys Trendmasters released a toy line for the film in 1996. Each action figure, vehicle or playset came with a inch floppy disk that contained an interactive computer game. ==Franchise==

In June 2011, Devlin confirmed that he and Emmerich had written a treatment for two sequels to form a trilogy; both expressed the desire for Will Smith to return. In October 2011, however, discussions over Smith returning were halted, due to Fox's refusal to provide the $50 million salary demanded by Smith for the two sequels. Emmerich, however, made assurances that the films would be shot back-to-back, regardless of Smith's involvement. In March 2013, Emmerich stated that the titles of the new films would be ID: Forever – Part I and ID: Forever – Part II. In November 2014, the sequel was given the green light by 20th Century Fox, with a release date of June 24, 2016. This would be a stand-alone sequel, that would not split into two parts as originally planned, with filming beginning in May 2015 and casting being done after the studio locked down Emmerich as the director of the film. In December 2014, Devlin confirmed that Emmerich would indeed be directing the sequel. On June 22, 2015, Emmerich announced the official title, Independence Day: Resurgence. With respect to Smith's decision not to return to film a sequel, Emmerich told Screen Crush that: "In the very beginning, I wanted to work with him and he was excited to be in it but then after a while he was tired of sequels, and he did another science fiction film, which was his father-son story After Earth, so he opted out." Independence Day: Resurgence was released on June 24, 2016. The sequel, unlike the original, was both a critical and commercial failure, making further sequels unlikely. Furthermore, in March 2018, LRM Online reported that, after having met producer Dean Devlin at WonderCon and asking about the status of Independence Day 3, Devlin told them "I don't know. I don't know. Currently, I personally have no plans of doing another one." One year later, Emmerich stated that once The Walt Disney Company purchased Fox he thought the chances of a third movie were over, but still had hopes that the project could happen given Disney's preference for franchise films. ==See also==