Independence Day (1996)

Independence Day (also promoted as ID4) is a 1996 American science fiction action film directed by Roland Emmerich and written by Emmerich and Dean Devlin. It stars an ensemble cast that consists of Will Smith, Bill Pullman, Jeff Goldblum, Mary McDonnell, Judd Hirsch, Margaret Colin, Randy Quaid, Robert Loggia, James Rebhorn, and Harvey Fierstein. The film focuses on disparate groups of people who converge in the Nevada desert in the aftermath of a worldwide attack by a powerful extraterrestrial race. With the other people of the world, they launch a counterattack on July 4—Independence Day in the United States.

While promoting Stargate in Europe, Emmerich conceived the film while answering a question about his belief in the existence of alien life. Devlin and Emmerich decided to incorporate a large-scale attack having noticed that aliens in most invasion films travel long distances in outer space only to remain hidden when reaching Earth. Shooting began on July 28, 1995, in New York City, and the film was completed on October 8, 1995.

Considered a significant turning point in the history of the Hollywood blockbuster, Independence Day was at the forefront of the large-scale disaster film and sci-fi resurgence of the mid-late 1990s. It was released worldwide on July 3, 1996, but began showing on July 2 (the same day the film's story begins) in original release as a result of a high level of anticipation among moviegoers. The film received mixed reviews, with praise for the performances, musical score and visual effects, but criticism for its characters. It grossed over $817.4 million worldwide, becoming the highest-grossing film of 1996 and the second-highest-grossing film ever at the time, behind Jurassic Park. The film won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Sound, losing the latter to The English Patient.

The sequel, Independence Day: Resurgence, was released 20 years later on June 24, 2016, as part of a planned series of films.

Storyline[]

On July 2, 1996, an extraterrestrial mothership enters Earth's orbit and deploys saucers (each fifteen miles in diameter) over major cities worldwide, including New York City, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C..

U.S. Marine Captain Steven Hiller and his unit, the Black Knights fighter squadron out of MCAS El Toro, are called back from fourth of July leave to defend Los Angeles; his girlfriend, Jasmine Dubrow, decides to flee the city with her son, Dylan. Retired combat pilot Russell Casse, now an alcoholic single stepfather and crop duster, sees this as vindication of the alien abduction he has been claiming for years. In New York City, technician David Levinson decodes a signal embedded within global satellite transmissions, realizing it is the aliens' countdown for a coordinated attack. With help from his ex-wife, White House Communications Director Constance Spano, David and his father Julius reach the Oval Office and alert President Thomas Whitmore.

Whitmore orders evacuations of the targeted cities in the U.S., but it is too late. Each saucer fires a beam, incinerating every targeted city, killing millions. Whitmore, the Levinsons, and a few others escape aboard Air Force One while Jasmine, Dylan, and their dog Boomer take shelter in a tunnel's inspection alcove, emerging once the destruction is over.

On July 3, counterattacks against the invaders are thwarted by the alien warships' force fields. Each saucer launches a swarm of shielded fighters which decimate the human fighter squadrons and military bases, including Captain Hiller's. Hiller 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 group in Air Force One has landed.

Defense Secretary Albert Nimzicki reveals that a government faction has been involved in a UFO conspiracy since 1947 when one of the invaders' fighters crashed in Roswell. Area 51 houses the now-refurbished ship and three alien corpses recovered from the crash. As chief scientist Dr. Brackish Okun examines the alien captured by Steven, it awakens, telepathically invades Okun's mind and launches a psychic attack against Whitmore before being killed by Secret Service agents and military personnel. Whitmore reveals what he learned when they linked: the invaders' plan to annihilate Earth's inhabitants and harvest its natural resources, as they have already done to other planets.

Whitmore reluctantly authorizes a trial nuclear attack against a saucer above Houston, but the ship is unharmed (with the city destroyed from the blast), and all subsequent nuclear attacks are aborted. Jasmine and Dylan commandeer a highway maintenance truck and rescue a handful of survivors, including the critically injured First Lady Marilyn Whitmore. Though Hiller rescues them and takes them to Area 51, Marilyn's injuries are too severe, and she dies after reuniting with her family.

On July 4, taking inspiration from his father, David writes a computer virus from his laptop to disrupt the aliens' shields' operating system, and devises a plan to upload it into the mothership from the refurbished alien fighter, which Hiller volunteers to pilot. The U.S. military contacts surviving airborne squadrons around the world through Morse code to organize a united counter-offensive. Lacking pilots, Whitmore and General William Grey enlist volunteers with flight experience, including Russell Casse, from the refugee camp at the base to fly the remaining jets at Area 51; Whitmore leads an attack on a saucer bearing down on the base, overseen by Grey.

Hiller marries Jasmine with David and Constance in attendance before leaving on the mission. Entering the mothership, they upload the virus and deploy a nuclear missile, destroying it and the aliens' invasion forces. With the shields deactivated, Whitmore's squadron engages the fighters, but exhausts the ammunition before managing to destroy the saucer. As the saucer prepares to fire on the base, Russell sacrifices himself by crashing into the saucer's primary weapon before it fires, destroying the warship. Resistance groups worldwide are notified of the spaceships' critical weakness and proceed to destroy the others. As humanity rejoices, Hiller and Levinson reunite with their families.

Independence Day (1996)

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