Independence Day (1996)

As an eight-to-nine-year-old kid, I found the advertisements for this to be absolutely terrifying. Seriously, those images of the gigantic, city-wide spaceships hovering in the sky, right above the buildings, with everyone looking up in awe and terror, was really overwhelming to my young mind, never mind all of the clips of buildings getting blown up. It was an image that stuck with me throughout the entire summer, both because of those commercials and also because I can remember going into a Wal-Mart while my parents and I were on our annual vacation to Destin, Florida, and they had a big, inflatable mock-up of one of those spaceships hanging from the ceiling in one spot. Even when I saw more detailed commercials, including those that actually showed the aliens, that was the biggest impression it left on me. And I knew it wasn't just me. Like Jurassic Park, I knew that Independence Day was a big deal, as everyone was talking about it, including within my own age group, and there was also a lot of merchandising, along with the just constant advertising, which continued long after its release date. But there's one major difference here: I never saw Independence Day in the theater, nor did I ever own or rent it on VHS. There's no particular reason, other than perhaps because my parents may have thought it would've been too intense for me, and also because it didn't have the same natural appeal to me as Jurassic Park (i.e., the dinosaurs). I do remember seeing the last bit of it on cable one day, when I was visiting one of my cousins at his house, but that was where it stood for a long time. At one point, I would've said the reason why I never saw it, even as I got older, was because of the bad taste that both Godzilla '98 and Roland Emmerich's attitude about Godzilla in general left in my mouth, but I don't think that was the case, either. I think it was mostly due to how, when I entered high school and got the internet, I came to realize that Independence Day was considered a prime example of cinematic junk-food, made by a pair of guys who specialized in it. Thus, I felt less inclined to finally sit down and watch it, and, in fact, it wasn't until late 2009, when I found the DVD cheap at a Wal-Mart, that I figured, "Why not", and picked it up. I've only watched it a handful of times since then, and I've had mostly mixed feelings about it, but now, I have formed a concrete opinion of it.

Like Space Jam, it's best to view Independence Day as the major product of its time that it is. If you can do that, what you're left with is a movie that, if nothing else, accomplishes what it sets out to do, which is to be a big, expensive, summertime popcorn movie, with no higher purpose than to entertain. Even though the characters themselves are underwritten archetypes, all of the actors do their job and do it well; the pacing proves to be quite consistent for a movie this long, with no real parts where it drags; the three-act structure is very nicely defined; the buildup to the major attack that ends the first act is well done and effectively tense; the action and destruction scenes are still awe-inspiring, as are most of the visual effects work and creature effects; the music score is excellent; and the climax is quite thrilling and satisfying. It does still suffer from some ham-fisted attempts to come off as heartfelt and even inspirational, some poor attempts at humor, cheesy 90's Hollywood moments, blue screen work that hasn't aged well, and the leaps in logic in the story, particularly in how they manage to defeat the aliens, but on the whole, when it comes to big, loud, "shut your brain off" entertainment, you could do a lot worse

July 2nd. The S.E.T.I. Institute in New Mexico picks up a pulsing signal from outer space, and discover it's coming from the direction of the moon. At the Pentagon's Space Command, General William Grey of the Marine Corps is informed that the signal's source is an enormous object, with a width of 550 km and a mass 1/4 that of the moon. And right after he wakes up in the White House and prepares to begin his day, President Thomas Whitmore is informed of the situation. Meanwhile, in New York, David Levinson, a technician who works for a cable company, looks into a number of complaints from customers about their cable not working correctly, and discovers a signal embedded within the satellite transmissions. The object, a gigantic spaceship, then deploys dozens of other ships, each of them nearly 15 miles wide, and sends them straight towards the planet. President Whitmore is informed of this in his office, as well as that the ships will soon enter the atmosphere. Across the globe, various countries report the terrifying phenomena of masses of glowing clouds slowly moving through the sky, while an American AWAC runs into and is destroyed by the same thing along the Pacific Coastline. That one heads towards Los Angeles, while two more are spotted over the Atlantic, heading for New York and Washington, D.C. A nationwide emergency is issued, as the ships reach and hover above the major cities, with similar scenarios unfolding in the capitals of various other countries. In New York, David, who found that the signal in the satellite feed is slowly cycling down, realizes it's a countdown to a coordinated attack. As Whitmore gives a national address, asking for everyone to remain calm, David attempts to contact and warn Constance Spano, the White House Communications Director, but as she's also his ex-wife, she doesn't listen. With less than six hours left, he gets his father, Julius, to drive him to Washington, while in Los Angeles, Marine Captain Steven Hiller and his unit, the Black Knights, are called back from leave for the Fourth of July. Reaching the White House, David and Julius meet with Connie, who then arranges for David to talk with Whitmore, despite their not having the best relationship. David explains the situation, just as an attempt is made to contact the aliens. With less than thirty minutes left, Whitmore orders Washington, New York, and Los Angeles evacuated, while he and his staff flee the White House. But the countdown soon ends and the aliens commence their attack, wiping out numerous major cities, which is just the first step in their campaign to conquer the Earth.

At the time of Independence Day, Roland Emmerich had been making movies for a little over ten years, although he'd only recently managed to break into the American market. Upon coming to Hollywood, he, as well as his writing and producing partner, Dean Devlin, whom he'd met while making 1990's Moon 44, immediately hit the big time with Universal Soldier. They then followed that up with Stargate, which was also pretty successful, and ended up launching a fairly big franchise. However, as quickly became a pattern with their movies, Stargate didn't get the best critical notices. According to Emmerich and Devlin, it was while they were on a promotional tour in Europe that the idea for Independence Day came about. Emmerich was asked why he made such a movie if he doesn't personally believe in aliens (kind of a dumb question, if you ask me; by that logic, every director who's ever made any sort of fantastical movie has to actually believe in the subject matter) and he answered that he was fascinated with the idea of them visiting the Earth. He then asked the reporter how they would feel if they woke up one morning to find gigantic spaceships hovering over the world's largest cities, and is said to have then turned to Devlin and commented, "I think I have an idea for our next film." The two of them wrote the screenplay together, just as they'd done on Stargate, and decided to go with the idea of a big-scale, coordinated invasion because they both found it silly for an advanced alien race that had come to conquer the Earth to then try to hide themselves. They finished the script at the beginning of 1995, it got bought and greenlit by 20th Century Fox just a day after they sent it out, and pre-production began just three days after that, in February. 

Independence Day would be Emmerich and Devlin's biggest production yet, and one of the largest of all time, at the time, with a $75 million budget, shooting done on both sides of the country, and a record 3,000 visual effects shots. While, again, the movie would get mostly mixed reviews when it was released, it would prove to be a monster hit, earning over $817 million worldwide, and not only became the highest grossing movie of that year, but the second highest grossing movie ever at the time, behind Jurassic Park. However, I think it also proved to be something of a double-edged sword. It gave Emmerich and Devlin the title of "the masters of disaster," but while they would go on to have other successes, they wouldn't come close to recapturing the enormous one they had here, nor would they pull off the same sort of concept and scenario as well. They tried immediately afterward with Godzilla but, while that movie was commercially successful, it wasn't the giant hit everyone expected. And then, in 2000, they did something different with The Patriot, which not only under-performed but got a lot of flack for its historical inaccuracy and whitewashing of certain historical figures (although, ironically, it got the best overall reviews out of any of Emmerich's films). Emmerich and Devlin would go their separate ways afterward, though they would eventually re-team for Independence Day: Resurgence, the definition of a sequel that was made long after everyone stopped caring. But that's a story for another day (perhaps next Fourth of July?).

Though it's ostensibly a big budget, modern version of classic alien invasion movies from the 50's, like The War of the Worlds and Earth vs. The Flying Saucers, Independence Day is also very much akin to the disaster flicks of the 70's, with its story's enormous scope, the massive ensemble cast, filled with a number of big name actors, and how it concerns various groups of people who are brought together because of the incredible situation they find themselves caught up in. There's also that familiar

theme of the perseverance of the human spirit, and everybody putting aside whatever differences they may have in order to work together and survive. But, while you can pinpoint the main characters in many of those movies (Charlton Heston in Earthquake, Paul Newman in The Towering Inferno, etc.), there's really no one protagonist here, regardless of how the actors are billed or how big their roles in the story are. Each of the main cast proves significant in their own way, so you may be a little surprised with the order in which I'm going to discuss them.

Case in point, despite being second and third-billed, I would say there are two characters in particular who come the closest to being the protagonists. The first is Bill Pullman as President Whitmore, who, shortly after he wakes up on the morning of July 2nd, finds himself faced with an unimaginable situation. In fact, you find out that he's lately been criticized for the way he handles things, with the consensus being that he's too young and naive to really do the job. But, as the situation unfolds across the day, he handles it in a very level-headed manner. Rather than immediately strike at the enormous object they detect near the moon, Whitmore opts to wait until they know what they're dealing with; however, just to be safe, he does suggest they move the alert status to DEFCON 3. As the situation becomes more urgent, with the huge Destroyer spaceships deploying from the mothership, entering Earth's atmosphere, and approaching the world's major cities, with three heading towards the United States, Whitmore, having seen what's happened in other countries on the news, as well as heard the destruction of an AWAC off the Pacific Coastline, decides not to retreat to a secure location, as everyone advises. Instead, not wanting a public hysteria to break out like it has elsewhere, he orders the vice president, his cabinet, and the joint chiefs of staff taken somewhere secure, while he remains at the White House. He then has the Emergency Broadcast System initiated, which advises people to simply stay in their homes. Once the ships arrive and hover above New York, Los Angeles, and the White House, Whitmore makes a national address to try to assuage everyone's fears. Again, he advises everyone to stay calm and remain in their homes, unaware of the coordinated attack that's about to happen. He doesn't learn about that until David and Julius Levinson show up at the White House, when the countdown has almost reached zero. While Whitmore is initially reluctant to listen, given how David, in his paranoia, punched him in the past, when Constance Spano urges David to come out and explain what he's discovered, Whitmore realizes just how severe the situation actually is. He orders the cities evacuated, as well as a trio of helicopters tasked with establishing communication with the ship above Washington to be recalled (though, it's too late for either), and he and everyone else get out of the White House as quickly as they can. Whitmore, his daughter Patricia, David, Julius, and some others just barely manage to flee on Air Force One as the White House, and Washington, is destroyed.

The next day, Whitmore not only feels guilty over the thousands of people who died, but is also informed that there's no news about his wife, who was in Los Angeles. Later, Albert Nimziki, the Secretary of Defense, tells him that he and the joint chiefs are considering launching a nuclear strike against the aliens. Whitmore is enraged and disgusted at this, exclaiming, "You're saying, at this point, we should sacrifice more innocent, American civilians, is that right?!" Then, he's told that NORAD has been

destroyed, along with the vice president and the joint chiefs. And, as if that weren't enough, he learns that Nimziki was aware that the aliens have visited Earth before, and that a ship and three alien bodies have been held at Area 51 since the Roswell incident. Upon being taken and seeing the massive facility, Whitmore, naturally, is not happy that he was never told about it. Still, he learns a great deal about the aliens and, most significantly, communicates with one of them before it's killed. Despite his pleas, he learns

that they have no intention of being peaceful. And after it attacks him on a psychic level, he says he was able to see how these aliens go from planet to planet, taking over and using up all the resources they can find. With that, he orders them nuked, only for that not to work, either, and to only succeed in destroying Houston. On top of that, his wife is found and brought to the base, only for Whitmore to be told she's mortally wounded and there's nothing that can be done to save her. He's able to see her before she dies, and later has to break it to Patricia that, "Mommy's

sleeping." Come July 4th, with all hope seeming lost, Whitmore is willing to go along with David's plan to infect the mothership with a computer virus, leaving the Destroyers vulnerable to attack. After they coordinate with the remaining armed forces around the world to do the same, Whitmore, being a former fighter pilot and a veteran of the Gulf War, leads a squadron to destroy one ship that's heading towards Area 51.

Staying within Whitmore's inner-circle, one character whom I feel doesn't get the attention he deserves is Robert Loggia as General William Grey, who basically acts at the President's second-in-command throughout the movie. I really like this guy because, one, it's nice to see Loggia playing a good guy, which was a rarity, and two, he has a real air of authority and respect about him. I also like how he's supportive of Whitmore and willing to stand by him no matter what, like when he refuses to flee to somewhere safe early on, and is just as shocked as him about the secret of Area 51. He becomes angry and critical of Albert Nimziki for this long before Whitmore, telling him, "You should've told us about this when they first arrived. You should've warned us before we launched a counter attack that cost us the lives of hundreds of American pilots!" Then, he informs Whitmore that, "NATO and western Allied installations were the first to be taken out. Then we were hit. They knew exactly where and how to hit us," and glances at Nimziki when he says the latter, reinforcing the notion that they could've been prepared had they known. Also, unlike Nimziki, who's completely dismissive of David's plan to infect the mothership with a computer virus, Grey is willing to consider it. And you can tell that he's absolutely satisfied when Whitmore fires Nimziki, then goes to find some pilots for the mission. Speaking of which, while he clearly doesn't like the idea of Whitmore taking part in the final battle, Grey doesn't question his decision and supports him from Area 51's command center during it.

The closest the movie gets to a human antagonist is Secretary of Defense Albert Nimziki (James Rebhorn). From the start, during the first meeting between officials in the Oval Office, Nimziki is all for using extreme measures to deal with the situation. He talks about using ICBMs to destroy the object they detect in space, only for General Grey to tell him that would send debris hurtling towards Earth, and when Whitmore says they may have to go to DEFCON 3, Nimziki tells Grey to contact NORAD and have them do so, even though, as Grey tells him, that's not exactly what Whitmore said. Following the destruction of the cities and the disastrous counterattack against the aliens, Nimziki says that he and the joint chiefs of staff feel they should nuke them. When Whitmore vehemently argues against it, he retorts, "If we don't strike soon, there may not be much of an America left to defend," and doubles down on his position when they learn that NORAD has been taken out. He also has the gall to say, "A delay now would be more costly than when you waited to evacuate the cities," as if Whitmore didn't feel bad enough about that. It's also in this scene that Nimziki reveals the existence of recovered alien technology at Area 51, something he's known about for a long time, having once been head of the CIA. When Whitmore asks why he was never told about it, Nimziki said it was for "plausible deniability" on his part, and when Grey admonishes him for how unprepared and uninformed they were against the aliens because he never told them, he makes the excuse, "There's no way that we could have known that our fighters would've been that ineffective against their attackers." Where Nimziki really starts to become loathsome is when Whitmore reluctantly agrees to a nuclear strike, only for it to prove completely ineffective. Despite how it only succeeded in destroying the city of Houston, Nimziki insists they continue with the other planned bombings, much to Whitmore's anger. Worst of all, when Whitmore decides to go with David's plan with the computer virus, Nimziki, who's been completely dismissive of it, accuses Whitmore of making a "fatal mistake" because he's upset over his wife's recent death. That proves to be the last straw, as Whitmore tells him, "The only mistake I ever made was to appoint a sniveling little weasel like you Secretary of Defense," and fires him on the spot.

Constance "Connie" Spano (Margaret Colin), President Whitmore's Communications Director, initially advises him on how best to handle the criticism he's receiving in the press, telling him that they're mocking his age, adding, "Age was never an issue when you stuck to your guns. You were thought of as young, idealistic. Now, the message has gotten lost. It's just too much politics. Too much compromise." When the crisis begins developing, Connie has to try to keep a lid on what's going on until they're ready to say, but she tells Whitmore that they're going to have to do so soon, due to the press' speculations. Thus, she later takes part in a press conference to try to assuage the public's growing fear over the situation. Her biggest role in the story, though, comes from her being the ex-wife of David Levinson, with their marriage having fallen apart when Connie left him for her current position. Between that and how he assaulted Whitmore because he thought they were having an affair, she's not keen on listening to him when he calls her up and tries to warn her that the aliens are about to a launch a widespread, coordinated attack. But, when David and his dad, Julius, make it to the White House, David is able to make Connie listen to him and, with her urging, she gets Whitmore to listen to him as well. Following the evacuation of the White House amid the attack, Connie and David slowly but surely reconcile, despite his lingering resentment over her leaving him, and she also has to defend Whitmore's actions, such as the decision to nuke the aliens, to him. Naturally, they reconcile, and Connie worries for David's life when he joins Steven Hiller on the mission to fly up to and infect the mothership.

First Lady Marilyn Whitmore (Mary McDonnell) happens to be in Los Angeles on the day the aliens arrive, planning to attend a special luncheon and defend her husband against the constantly critical press. Though most of their interactions consist of phone conversations, you can tell that they have a very nice, loving, and close relationship, with Marilyn being able to detect when her husband is being coy and hiding the truth, playfully calling him a liar each time. When the Destroyers position themselves over the major cities, Whitmore asks her to leave L.A. immediately, but Marilyn refuses, saying, "You're staying there to keep people calm. It's the right thing to do. I'm not going to let them criticize you for it." She tells him that she'll leave as soon as her interviews are over, and he arranges for a helicopter to take her to Nellis Air Force Base. However, her helicopter gets caught up in the destruction of Los Angeles and, the next day, the wreckage is found by Jasmine Dubrow, Captain Steven Hiller's girlfriend. Marilyn turns out to be the sole survivor, and Jasmine, who, along with her son, have commandeered a fire truck, takes her with them and some other survivors. After they reach El Toro Air Station, only to find it's been wiped out, Jasmine and Marilyn have a heart-to-heart talk around a campfire, where Jasmine reveals that she does know who she is. Thanks to Steven, who commandeers a helicopter from Area 51, the group is rescued and taken there. But just when Marilyn is reunited with her family, one of the doctors tells Whitmore that she's been bleeding internally all this time and there's nothing they can do. This leads to a really poignant version of the couple's dynamic, where Whitmore tries to lie and tell her that she's going to be just fine, but Marilyn tearfully says she knows he's lying. And that's the last time you see her.

The lovely and talented Mae Whitman has an early role here as the Whitmores' little daughter, Patricia, or as they often call her, "Munchkin." She doesn't really have much to do, except sit around and look cute, but unlike most child actors, she's not annoying in the slightest. There's also a really poignant moment with her when, after Marilyn has been brought to Area 51, she's ran into her room and hugged her mother, just as Whitmore is told she's going to die. After shooing Patricia out to talk with his wife, Whitmore later walks out when she's passed away, and heads towards and sits down next to his daughter, who's sitting nearby. It's obvious, however, that she knows what's happened before he can talk, as she asks him, "Is Mommy sleeping, now?", and all he can answer is, "Yeah. Mommy's sleeping." The two of them then embrace, in a genuinely heart-tugging moment. Also, I can't help but smile at the very end, when, after the aliens have been defeated, Patricia says, "Happy Fourth of July, Daddy."

Going back to what I said earlier, the other character who can be considered something of a protagonist is Jeff Goldblum's David Levinson. It might sound cliche to describe him as a variant of Dr. Ian Malcolm, but the truth is that he is very similar: intelligent but also quite cynical, as well as neurotic about certain things. One of them is preserving the environment, which is also somewhat akin to Malcolm's intentions, but in David's case, it involves him being a stickler for putting recyclable objects in recycle bins. The main difference is that, despite having an MIT education and being quite an expert on technology, he works as as a satellite engineer at a New York cable company. When he comes in to work and is told there are problems going on with the satellite transmission, he spends much of the day looking into it and discovers the signal that's causing the disruption. At first, he doesn't realize how significant it is, as it's slowly cycling itself down. Moreover, he's been so focused on this problem that he doesn't realize there's an alien invasion going on until he wanders into the middle of his company's headquarters as everyone is watching the Emergency Broadcast System press conference, and even then, it takes someone else pointing it out to him before he actually sees what's going on. And when the one Destroyer arrives in New York and hovers about the city, David realizes the aliens' connection to the signal and soon deduces that it's a countdown. Being adept at chess, he explains the strategy: "First, you strategically position your pieces, then when the timing's right, you... strike... They've positioned themselves all over the world, using this one signal to synchronize their efforts, and, in approximately six hours, the signal's gonna disappear and the countdown will be over." When asked what that means, he ominously answers, "Checkmate." He then tries to call his ex-wife, Constance Spano, at the White House and warn her, but she dismisses his claims as his typical paranoia. With no other recourse, he gets his dad, Julius, to drive them to Washington (David doesn't have a license, so he rides a bicycle everywhere). When they get there, David uses his expertise to pinpoint exactly where Connie is in the White House and gets her to let the two of them in.

David is mostly interested in getting Connie out of there as quickly as possible, figuring President Whitmore won't be willing to listen to him, seeing as how David slugged him the first time they met, thinking Connie was having an affair, and they then got into a full-on brawl. And, sure enough, when Connie brings Whitmore in to see him, he's initially not having it, while David is willing to just leave with her and Julius. But, with Connie's insistence, David tells Whitmore what's going on and shows him that 

there's less than thirty minutes left in the countdown. As a result, they and some members of Whitmore's inner-circle and staff manage to escape on Air Force One just in the nick of time. Because of how he figured out the meaning of their signal, when they arrive at Area 51, Whitmore has David work with the scientists to see what they can learn about the aliens' technology. Though, ironically, it's Julius who gives David the idea to give the mothership a computer virus, which would proceed to disable the Destroyers and make them vulnerable to attack. It's a mission that

David and Captain Steven Hiller embark upon, using the recovered alien fighter to reach the mothership. The whole time, David is a nervous wreck, due to his tendency to get airsick and Steven's expected bravado and confidence while flying the fighter.

As expected, Goldblum provides a lot of the comic relief, with his usual quirks as well as the different things they give him to play with, like the back and forth David has with his father, as well as with Steven during the climax; his getting airsick, both when they're onboard Air Force One and while he and Steven are flying the alien fighter; and the rocky relationship he has with his ex-wife, especially during the first half. The latter, plus his lingering resentment towards Whitmore, is also where they try to get some

drama out of his character, as he still wears his wedding ring, even though he and Connie have been separated for three years, and is obsessed with getting her out of the White House before the aliens attack. Following Whitmore's decision to nuke the ships, David and Connie have a talk about their splitting up, which he blames on her caring more about her career than them. They have a rather vague and cliched talk about it: "It was the biggest opportunity of my life. I 

wanted my life to make a difference. I wanted my life to lead to something." "Yep. And, um, hmm, I wasn't, um,  ambitious enough for ya?" "David, you could've done anything that you wanted. Research, development..." "Oh, honey, I was happy where I was." "Haven't you ever wanted to be a part of something special?" To that, David angrily slams down the liquor bottle he's been drinking from and says, "I was part of somethin' special." Connie tries to make things better by telling David that she never stopped loving him, to which he says, "But what 

wasn't enough, was it?" And yet, despite this, by the time the climax rolls around, and Steven and Jasmine have tied the knot, David and Connie, after everything they've been through, manage to reconcile, which is also cliched and eye-rolling.

Judd Hirsch plays David's father, Julius, as an archetype, coming off as argumentative and also very Jewish, such as in his voice, some of the terms he uses, etc. And yet, Hirsch manages to come off as endearing rather than annoying, playing Julius as someone who, while he loves his son, wishes he would move on from Connie, and is also disappointed that he went to MIT, yet now works for a cable company. He underestimates his intelligence, though, as the whole time they're driving to Washington, he's skeptical of David's claims, saying, "What, you think they don't know what you know? They know. Believe me, they know. She works for the President. They know everything... You're gonna educate them, huh? Yeah, so, tell me something: if you're so smart, how come you spend eight years at MIT to become a cable repairman?... All I'm saying is they got people who handle these things, David. They want HBO, they'll call you." But, after David has been proven right and they've managed to escape before Washington was destroyed, Julius comes to his defense when he's arguing with General Grey and Albert Nimziki, telling them, "You'd all be dead now if it wasn't for my David! None of you did anything to prevent this!" And earlier, when Connie thanks him and David for saving her (David is elsewhere at the time, suffering from airsickness), Julius smiles and tells her, "All he could think of was getting to you. There's still love there, I think." Julius also tends to end up being right about something important, as well as give inspiration when he doesn't intend to. When General Grey insists they were unprepared for the alien attack, he brings up the Roswell incident and Area 51, which prompts Nimziki to finally admit that both are real. And when July 4th arrives and everything looks hopeless after the nukes failed to destroy the spaceships, Julius finds David in a drunken, hysterical, and nihilistic state in the hangar where the salvaged alien fighter is stored. He stops the crash-out his son is having, telling him, "Everybody loses faith at some point in their life... Even myself. I haven't spoken to God since your mother died. You see, sometimes, we have to remember what we still have." He then helps David get off the floor, saying he's going to catch a cold, which gives him the inspiration to cripple the mothership with a computer virus. Though puzzled when David suddenly calls him a genius, Julius, upon learning of his plan, tells him that he's proud of him before he and Steven Hiller depart in the alien fighter.

Like his son, Julius is also a funny character from the get-go. When he and David are introduced playing chess in the park, he gets impatient with how David takes his time deciding his next move, commenting, "My social security will expire, you'll still be sittin' there." And when David, ever the environmentalist, randomly asks Julius if he knows how long the Styrofoam cup he's drinking out of will take to decompose, he retorts, "If you don't move soon, I'm gonna start to decompose." When the spaceships 

have arrived and New York is in a panic, with looting happening everywhere, David arrives at Julius' apartment to find him brandishing a shotgun, calling the looters "vultures." During the drive to Washington, David gets frustrated with Julius' refusal to go faster than necessary, and when they arrive at the White House and Connie leads them down to the Oval Office, Julius, awestruck at being there, says, "If I knew I was gonna meet the president, I would've worn a tie. I mean, look at me. I look like a 

schlemiel." He's then shocked when he learns about the fight David had with Whitmore, asking, "You punched the President?!", and then, in the next scene, asks David to search Whitmore's desk for, "Those pens that they give away." When David first gets airsick, Julius remarks, "It's Air Force One, for cryin' out loud. Still, he gets sick." He goes on to brag about how it doesn't affect him, and his gesturing ends up causing David to have run off and throw up. When they arrive at Area 51, and Whitmore asks where they get funding for such a place, Julius comments, "You 

don't actually think they spend $20,000 on a hammer, $30,000 on a toilet seat, do you?" Whitmore, General Grey, and Albert Nimziki all turn around and stare at him, while he gestures like, "You know it's true." During the climactic battle, Julius is having some kids pray with him, when Nimziki shows up and joins them. He admits that he isn't Jewish and Julius just says, "Nobody's perfect." And at the end, when the aliens have been defeated and David and Steven have returned, Julius, noting how David is smoking a cigar, thanks to Steven, turns a comment he made at the beginning about his own cigar-smoking back on him, asking, "Oh, so this is healthy?"

Speaking of comic relief, Harvey Fierstein is here at the beginning as Marty Gilbert, one of David's coworkers at the cable company. When David comes in very nonchalantly, Marty becomes frustrated with him, mainly because he doesn't listen to much of what he says, and is more focused on putting discarded cans in the recycle bin where they belong. To that, Marty growls, "So sue me. David, we gotta problem!", and when David then asks if he switched transponders, he retorts, "Oh, please. You think I'd be this panicked if it was somethin' simple?!" When the truth of what's going on is revealed, Marty and everyone else are out in the control room, watching the announcement on TV, and he gets frustrated when David comes out and proves completely oblivious to it. Though just about everybody else in the building takes shelter when one of the spaceships arrives and hovers above New York, Marty is later seen in the control room, talking with his mother on the phone, trying to calm her down. David has him tell her to get out of town, and after Marty, in turn, tells his mother to go to her sister's home, he asks, "David, why did I just send my mother to Atlanta?" That's when David explains to him about the coordinated strike he knows is going to happen in just a few hours and Marty, now really panicked, exclaims, "Oh, my God, I gotta call my brother. I better call my housekeeper. I gotta call my lawyer." To the latter, though, he retracts, "Nah, forget my lawyer." Unfortunately, while Marty does try to do as David says and flee New York, he gets caught up in traffic gridlock and dies when the city is blown away.

Yeah, despite being the top-billed star and often the face of the movie's advertising, Will Smith's Captain Steven Hiller isn't first seen until nearly 21 minutes in, and while he does have some scenes afterward, he doesn't really get into the action until after the first act, when much of human civilization has been wiped out. It actually kind of fits with where he was in his career at the time, as, while he'd been in the first Bad Boys and had, of course, starred in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, which ended its run a few months before Independence Day was released, he wasn't yet a megastar. That actually wouldn't happen until after this, especially when he was in Men in Black the following year. Regardless, Smith does exactly what you expect as Steven, which is be charismatic, confident, and a bit cocky, but always likable. I do like how, because he's on leave for the Fourth of July and is sleeping in, he's completely unaware of what's going on until he wakes up, walks outside to get the paper, then slowly realizes that everyone in the neighborhood is evacuating, and looks to see the giant spaceship hovering above Los Angeles. When his Black Knight squadron's leave is cancelled, he immediately hops to it and prepares to head back to the base at El Toro, despite his girlfriend, Jasmine's, protests and fear for his safety. Being somewhat optimistic about the aliens' intentions, saying, "I really don't think they flew 90 billion light years to come down here and start a fight. Get all rowdy," he assures her that he's simply going to the base and see what the situation is. He then suggests that she and her young son, Dylan, stay at the base with him that night. That ends up not happening, though, given how the aliens obliterate Los Angeles, and the next day, he leads the Black Knights in the first retaliation against them. This proves disastrous, as, save for Steven, the squadron is wiped out and the base destroyed. He, however, manages to use his flying skills to outmaneuver and down one of the alien fighters, and actually knocks out the alien pilot and drags its body, wrapped up in his parachute, across the Mojave Desert. Fortunately for him, he's picked up by a convoy of refugees and leads them to Area 51, giving the scientists a valuable specimen to study.

As much as he may have turned people against him later in his life for various reasons, there's no denying that, from virtually the beginning, Will Smith had this ability to come off as effortlessly cool and charming. When Jasmine asks if it would be okay for her and Dylan to join him at the base, Steven remarks, "Well, I mean, uh, will have to let all my other girlfriends know that they can't come over, you know. I got to postpone a little freaky weekend." Jasmine retorts, "You are not as charming as you think you are, sir,"

and he confidently says, "Yes, I am." She talks about his ears, calling them, "Dumbo ears," and he, in turn, goes, "Look at you with them chicken legs. Bawk." Naturally, this extends to his bravado as the leader of his squadron, as he tells his commanding officer that he's, "Just a little anxious to get up there and whoop E.T.'s ass, that's all," and, during the aerial dogfight with the alien fighters, he yells, "Oh, no, you did not shoot that green shit at me!" While being chased by one in particular, he trash-talks it, yelling, "Come on

and get me! Come and get me! What are you shootin' at?! Where you at, baby?!... You can't hit nothin'!" And, as utterly 90's and cheesy as it is, the way he goes right up to the fighter after it's crashed, opens the hatch, and, when the alien lunges up at him, he punches it and declares, "Welcome to Earth!", does make me smile. Smith also proves to be quite adept at comedy, like when he's dragging the alien and complaining, "You know, this was supposed to be my weekend off. But, no. You got me out here, draggin' your heavy ass through the burnin' desert, with your

dreadlocks stickin' out the back of my parachute. You gotta come down here with an attitude, actin' all big and bad..." Then he stops and yells, "And what the hell is that smell?!", before proceeding to kick the alien repeatedly while yelling in frustration, then exclaiming, "I could've been at a barbecue!" (According to Roland Emmerich, a lot of that was improvisation on Smith's part.) And during the climax, where Steven and David pilot the alien craft aboard the mothership to infect it with the virus and blow it up with a nuclear warhead, Smith and Jeff Goldblum prove to have really good chemistry and play off each other nicely.

As far as any notable character qualities, like just about every other main character, they do give Steven a few, such as his camaraderie with his squadron and his horror at seeing them die, specifically his good friend, Captain Jimmy Wilder. A big thing among them is how they always have a cigar when they've completed a mission, and Steven not only has one himself after he's downed the alien fighter but carries on the tradition when it's up to him and David during the third act. The two of them even light up when it

initially seems like they're going to have sacrifice themselves, and when they do succeed and get back to Earth, they're having a triumphant smoke as they away from the crash-landed fighter. There's also the moment where, upon making it to Area 51, Steven learns that El Toro has been wiped out, and realizes that everyone he knew is gone, including possibly Jasmine and Dylan. Unable to cope with not knowing for sure, he commandeers a helicopter and uses it to search the ruins of Los Angeles and the base, which is where he finds not only the two of them, but also the 

First Lady. Long before this, when he first arrived at the El Toro base, Steven revealed he was planning on popping the question to Jasmine, and so, before he and David take off on the mission to cripple the mothership, they tie the knot. And because he has a desire to be an astronaut but has been continuously rejected by NASA, this incentivizes him to volunteer to be the one to fly the alien fighter up to the mothership. It's not much in the long run, and Steven still comes off as a pretty thin character overall, with little to him other than his charisma and confidence, but Smith is able to work with it well enough.

Harry Connick Jr. makes the most of his limited screentime as Captain Jimmy Wilder of the Black Knights, who goes under the code-name of "Raven." Basically, he's just being his usual, affable self, often joking around with and teasing Steven, such as when Steven is too nervous to read the letter he got from NASA and has Jimmy do it, with Jimmy playfully calling him a wuss. When it turns out that he's been rejected, he sympathizes with him, but then tells him, "You know what you need to do? You need to, like, kiss some serious booty to get ahead in this world, man! That's what I'm tryin' to tell you. See, I like the one knee approach..." He proceeds to get down on one knee behind Steven and explain, "Because it puts the booty, like, right in front of the..." That's when Steven drops the box containing the wedding ring he intends to use to propose to Jasmine, and Jimmy says the one thing that makes him come off as a bit dickish: "Man, you know I really like Jasmine. You know that, right? But you never gonna get to fly a space shuttle if you marry a stripper." I don't see what that has to do with anything, and it comes off as rather misogynistic, to say the least. (It seems like Steven may have initially though that as well, as he's said to have considered calling things off, but it's never confirmed if that was this motivation.)

But, other than that, Jimmy is a cool guy. As the Black Knights are getting their briefing about the upcoming retaliation against the aliens the next day, Jimmy asks Steven if he's scared, and when Steven says no and asks if he is, Jimmy answers, "No," then puts his head on Steven's shoulder and says, "Hold me," in a fay voice. Then, when the briefing is dismissed, Jimmy declares, "Let's kick the tires and light the fires, big daddy!" And as they head to their jets, Jimmy and Steven have a nice back and forth:

"Let's bring it home. Bring that bad boy home, Captain!" "You loose?" "Yes, sir!" "Got your victory dance?" Jimmy pulls out a cigar and declares, "Oh, I got it right here, yeah!" Steven then reminds him that they don't, "Light up until the fat lady sings," and Jimmy says, "I'm all ears, brother!" And as they climb into their respective cockpits, he tells Steven, "You the man!" What's really nice is, when they fly over the ruins of Los Angeles, and Steven laments having let Jasmine, Jimmy assures him that she probably evacuated. He goes on to do a Jesse Jackson

impression and says, "Or, as the good Reverend would say, 'Why we are on this particular mission, we'll never know. But I do know, here today, that the Black Knights will emerge victorious once again.'" Little does Jimmy know how wrong he is, as he and Steven quickly end up the only two left following the attack, and he doesn't last too much longer, as he gets killed while trying to lead one of the two fighters chasing them away from Steven.

Despite not having that much screentime in the long run, Vivica A. Fox, believe it or not, is given more to do than simply stand around and look pretty as Jasmine Dubrow. As I alluded to up above, she and Will Smith do have good chemistry, given Steven and Jasmine's back and forth when he's called back to the base at El Toro, and she's also convincing in coming off concerned about what he's getting himself into. Jasmine is also a working mother, and even though she works as a stripper, or "exotic dancer," as she puts it, she's not ashamed of it, even though others look down upon it. When talking with First Lady Marilyn Whitmore about it, the latter becomes uncomfortable when Jasmine reveals that's what she does and says, "Sorry," only for Jasmine to say, "Don't be. I'm not. It's good money. Besides, my baby's worth it." I really like that because, as I've said before, I always appreciate a woman who knows who attractive she is, is confident about it, and, if need be, makes use of it without any shame. Jasmine also gets to be a hero a couple of times, with how she gets Dylan and their dog, Boomer, to safety when Los Angeles is getting blown away, and the next day, she commandeers a fire truck and drives through the city, picking up any survivors, including Marilyn, on her way back to El Toro. Like with Steven, there's some drama in that, when she finds the base has been wiped out, she fears that he died, and is relieved when he later shows up to rescue them. And then, during the third act, she has to face the possibility that he may not return from the mission to cripple the mothership, so they tie the knot while they still have a chance. Finally, while she doesn't get the same amount as Smith, Fox does have some nice lines, such as when, after revealing that she knows who Marilyn is, comments, "I didn't wanna say nothin'... I voted for the other guy." And when Steven arrives in the helicopter, she says, "You're late," and he replies, "Well, you know how I like to make an entrance." This exchange is partially repeated when the two of them marry during the third act, albeit in a more poignant manner.

After playing Will's youngest cousin, Nicky, on the last couple of seasons of The Fresh Prince, here Ross Bagley plays his potential stepson, Dylan. Since he's up long before Steven and Jasmine, he knows about what's going on hours before they do. He even tries to wake them up when the one spaceship arrives in Los Angeles, but they don't pay him any mind, given how early it is. When they do get up, Dylan comes in from outside, telling Steven that he was, "Shooting the aliens." Naturally, he assumes he's just playing around, only for both him and Jasmine to walk out there and see the enormous ship hovering above the city, which Dylan then mimes shooting at. Dylan doesn't have much else notable to do other than just be a cute kid, with an adorable line or moment here and there. One comes during the third act, when Steven and Jasmine are preparing to get married. There's a moment where Jasmine, after getting into a borrowed dress, asks Dylan, "How do I look?", he just makes a "so-so" gesture with his hand and she sarcastically says, "Oh, thank you. You're a lot of help," before hugging him. He also gives Steven a hug before he and David head off, and, when Area 51 is in danger of being destroyed, he's seen sitting by Patricia Whitmore, asking her if she's scared, to which she nods.

I have a feeling that I'm supposed to feel bad for Tiffani (Kiersten Warren), this friend and coworker of Jasmine's who, despite her pleading, goes to the roof of the U.S. Bank Tower building (now known as the Library Tower), joining a group of idiotic UFO enthusiasts who want to welcome the aliens, and gets blown up with them. However, I can't bring myself to do that because of what an empty-headed idiot they portray her as (seriously, just look at her facial expression). She not only thinks what's going on is cool when she sees news coverage of it, but dismisses her friend's worries and goes there anyway, with a sign she made that reads, "WELCOME. MAKE YOURSELF AT HOME." And when the ship's underside begins to open, rather than being scared, Tiffani comments, "So pretty." Okay, yeah, I also do really like that blue-green light that's associated with the aliens, but anybody with a brain would know the sight of that thing opening up like that is ominous, to say the least.

Let's face it, Randy Quaid is probably the most perfectly cast actor here, playing an alcoholic crop-duster who's not only a Vietnam vet but claims to have been abducted by aliens ten years before the movie's events. Whether or not he actually was abducted, and by the very same aliens, is never given a clear answer, but one thing's for sure: Quaid's character of Russell Casse is a laughingstock in Imperial Valley, California, and an embarrassment to his children, especially his oldest son, Miguel. At the start of the movie, he ends up dusting the wrong field, and is later mocked in a small diner by some of the locals, with one of them asking if the aliens performed any sexual experiments on him. Though you would think the arrival of the spaceships would provide Russell some vindication, his claims of abduction are still taken as the ravings of a PSTD-riddled war veteran, especially when he makes a spectacle of himself by dropping leaflets from his airplane onto city hall and then, on the news, raves about being experimented on and how the aliens have been planning this invasion for years. He's taken to the jailhouse for this but is quickly let out because, as he says, the authorities have bigger things to worry about. He turns out to be right in his claims that everybody needs to get as far away from the spaceships as possible, and though he's shocked when he hears about what happened to the cities, he also reiterates that he's been trying to warn people about this for ten years. He and his kids join a huge convoy of other survivors who, while driving through the Mojave Desert, pick up Steven Hiller and the alien pilot he's captured, and take them to Area 51. His major part in the story comes during the third act, when he joins President Whitmore's fighter squadron in attacking one of the spaceships as it approaches Area 51. He not only sobers up enough to safely fly but ends up making a major sacrifice when the other fighter jets have either been destroyed or are out of missiles, and the ship is about to fire its powerful laser down at the base. With his lone missile unable to fire, and as he looks at a picture of his children in his cockpit, he crashes his jet right into the ship's underside and into its main weapon. Before he hits, he yells, "Alright, you alien assholes! In the words of my generation: Up... yours!... Hello, boys! I'm back!"

Though none of Russell's children get much focus, the oldest, Miguel (James Duval), is the most noteworthy in how much his dad's drunken antics embarrass him. In their first scene, the man whose field Russell is supposed to be dusting shows up at their camper, angry and threatening to get someone else to do it if Russell doesn't get his shit together, and Miguel rides after his dad, trying to flag him down to land. When he does, Miguel angrily tells him that he dusted the wrong field, before heading off on 

his motor-scooter. He's so ashamed that, when he sees Russell going crazy on the news and hears that he's been locked up, Miguel decides that he and his siblings are leaving, without him. It's only because they let Russell out that he's even able to join up with his family. At the end of the movie, while down in the Area 51 command center, Miguel overhears his father's sacrifice, and when told that he should be proud of him, he says that he is. As for the other kids, Miguel's sister, Alicia (Lisa Jakub, another alumnus from Mrs. Doubtfire, along with Harvey Fierstein), gets the least amount of focus, save for how she's a little boy crazy, and is almost talked into losing her virginity before the aliens destroy the Earth. And a young, and very innocent, Giuseppe Andrews plays the younger son, Troy, who originally had a subplot of being chronically ill, due to a malfunctioning adrenal cortex. These moments are retained in the extended version, but in the theatrical one, the only remainder of this is a moment at the start of the second act where he asks his dad to pull over so he can go out and puke.

Brent Spiner, best known as Data from the Star Trek franchise, has a small but memorable role here as Dr. Okun, who's been in charge of research on the salvaged alien fighter craft for fifteen years. With a messy head of long, stringy hair, he also proves to be more than a tad stir crazy, seeing as how, according to him, "They don't let us out much." He's more than happy to meet President Whitmore and show him around the base, taking him to the hangar where the salvaged fighter is stored and the lab where some dead alien specimens are kept. He's so enthralled by his research, and the possibilities that have arisen from this invasion, that he's a little insensitive to the fact that thousands of people have already been killed, with Whitmore putting him in his place. Regardless, Okun tells the President that, while the aliens' technology is formidable, they themselves are quite fragile, and Whitmore, in turn, tells David to work with the scientists and find a way to defeat the aliens. When Steven brings in a live specimen, Okun is ecstatic and intent upon examining it, but ends up getting attacked by it when it awakens, with the alien using its telepathic abilities to invade his mind and use it briefly to communicate with the others. After the alien is killed, Okun is left in a catatonic state and not seen again, though he would awaken from his coma twenty years in Independence Day: Resurgence.

Rounding out the cast is Adam Baldwin as Major Mitchell of the USAF, the commanding officer at Area 51. Even though, like Albert Nimziki, he was part of the government faction that knew of the previous alien visitation to Earth but kept it secret from the President, he becomes extremely loyal to Whitmore as the fight against the aliens grows more urgent. And Erick Avari, an actor whom I recognize from Stephen Sommers' The Mummy, and who had also been in Stargate, appears at the very beginning 

as the chief of S.E.T.I., whose reaction to a phone call early in the morning is, "If this isn't an insanely beautiful woman, I'm hangin' up," before proceeding to bang his head on an overhead cot and then trip around on some displaced golf-balls in the actual control room.

Despite whatever faults he may have as a storyteller, I feel that Roland Emmerich is definitely an expert when it comes to the technical and visual side of filmmaking, and Independence Day is a prime example of that. The movie is very well made, with a polished, glossy look, and every penny of its huge budget is up there on the screen. Speaking of which, Emmerich also proves himself to be quite adept at handling and coordinating something this big, a skill that would suit him well for many years. He gives the 

movie an epic scope, with many big, wide shots that nicely establish the numerous settings and locations, and also do an excellent job of getting across the scale of the situation as it develops. Those iconic shots of the giant Destroyers coming in and hovering above the various cities, with their gigantic shadows covering them, still look amazing to this day, and I also like those shots that are far away from the center of a city, such as when David and Julius drive to Washington, and yet, the ships are so massive that you can still see one's underside at the top of a 

screen. The destruction scenes are also top notch, leaving no question as to the aliens' destructive power, as do the aftermath, and you completely buy that they could wipe out mankind and conquer the entire planet in just a few days. By extension, not only are the aerial dogfights between the military and alien fighters fast-paced and exciting, but they're shot and edited in a manner where you can always tell what's going on. You also often get shots from the pilots' POVs, in both those sequences and other

scenes, like Russell Casse's introduction when he's dusting the wrong crops and when the alien fighter chases Steven through the canyon. And finally, Emmerich does come up with some moments and images that you do remember, even if some may now come across as cliche and overly "Hollywood," like when Steven and Jasmine are backlit by the helicopter's lights when they're reunited near the end of the second act, President Whitmore gives his inspirational speech before the climax, and, of course, that shot of the White House blowing up (which is iconic, let's face it).

Sometimes, Emmerich's direction does get a tad heavy-handed, like the dramatic cuts to white,  sometimes several in a row, during the first act, which are used to establish certain locations, like S.E.T.I., the White House, and New York (the establishing images of the latter are a close-up of the face of the Statue of Liberty, followed by the book she's holding in her hand, and then the city skyline), and the use of slow-mo in a couple of action scenes. But, overall, as I said up above, I do kind of like his style. That also applies to the movie's look, which I've always found 

to be very appealing, with the bright sunshine throughout the story, the nice-looking sunrises and sunsets you get for just about each day, the low, bluish lighting that gives off the feeling of dusk on a summer's day near the end of July 2nd, and the mostly clear nights. I especially like the color palette, mainly because it has a lot of blue in it, with the blue-green glow associated with the aliens and the clinical blue color to some of the interiors of the base at Area 51, like in the command center. Again, it's just a very good-looking movie all-around.

I also feel that, for a movie this long (144 minutes for the theatrical version, and 153 for the extended edition), Independence Day is paced very well and never feels like it drags (unlike Godzilla '98, which I feel really suffers following Godzilla's arrival in New York and his first skirmish with the military). Moreover, the three acts are perfectly defined, set on one of the three days from July 2nd to the 4th, and each of the sections of the story that take place on them is carried out really well. I think the first act is 

the most effective, with Emmerich doing a good job with a slow but steady build-up that takes place over nearly an hour, establishing all of the characters and how they get caught up in the situation as it unfolds, the dawning realization that the aliens are not only hostile but preparing for a coordinated attack across the world, and the race against the clock to evacuate the White House, until finally, it all culminates in the huge swath of destruction that follows. The second act, on July 3rd, is where the movie could've easily 

dragged, as it mainly consists of surveying the aftermath, the characters having to deal with the magnitude of these losses, especially the personal ones, and the revelation of Area 51 and info on both the aliens' biology and what their plans are, but Emmerich keeps things moving, and manages to provide us with the first major battle scene near the act's beginning. And finally, the third act involves humanity's last stand, with the various nations coordinating to attack the Destroyers once Steven 

and David manage to upload the virus onto the mothership. This is the most predictable section, as even when several unexpected incidents seem to doom everyone, you know everything's going to work out fine in the end. But, like everything else, it's still pulled off well and makes for a very crowd-pleasing finale.

The movie's impressive scale includes numerous settings in not only the United States, but across the world. Following the opening in outer space, near the moon, the first thing you see on Earth is the Very Large Array in the Plains of San Augustin, New Mexico, and in rapid succession, you see Washington D.C., New York, Imperial Valley in Southern California, and Los Angeles, as well as the nearby community of El Toro (now Lake Forest). As the ships enter Earth's atmosphere, you see other countries, such as Northern Iraq and, on the TV,

Russia, along with others like Finland and Egypt as the movie progresses. A lot of this cinematography, or, at the very least, plates for the visual effects, was actually done at these locations, including the shots of the Great Pyramids of Giza and Mount Kilimanjaro that you see at the end, and the same goes for much of the work in New York, Washington, and Los Angeles, particularly the street scenes in all three cities, as well as the live-action sections of the destruction done there. Speaking of which, the ruins of Los Angeles 

that Jasmine and Dylan make their way through on July 3rd were created at an abandoned steel mill in Fontana, and threy look especially impressive. The scenes in Imperial Valley and the Mojave Desert, however, were shot in a variety of different states, like Arizona, Nevada, and Utah, and in specific areas such as the Bonneville Salt Flats and the Wendover Airport, the latter of which was used for the exteriors of both the base at El Toro and Area 51. And the canyon that Steven flies through while trying to evade the one alien fighter (I think, in the movie's context, it's meant to be the Grand Canyon but I'm not sure) was the Little Colorado River Canyon.

The movie's production values are also apparent in the high quality sets, which include a number of control rooms and command centers, such as for S.E.T.I. at the very beginning, Space Command at the Pentagon, and the interiors of the USS Georgia in the Persian Gulf, the latter of which utilized sets previously built for Down Periscope and Crimson Tide. The most notable sets during the first act, the interiors of the White House, were also recycled, having been originally built for The American President, and had been also used for Nixon in the 

meantime. They're really nice and well done, especially the Oval Office itself, and they capture both the air of dignity and class you'd expect from the White House. The same goes for the sets meant to be the interiors of Air Force One, which include another control room, where President Whitmore is able to monitor the attack on the one ship by the Black Knights when they launch from El Toro. Speaking of which, you see both the locker and rec room there, along with the small briefing room where the 

squadron is told of their mission. And while you wouldn't expect the sets for the interior of a cable company to be important in a movie like this, it's true in the case of the one where David works, as it's where he discovers the signal within the satellite transmissions that turns out to be a countdown.

According to Dean Devlin, the U.S. military was originally going to support the movie in any way possible, until they saw that Area 51 was going to play a major part in the story and promptly withdrew. Whether or not that's true (if it is, I'm sure tying in the Roswell incident as well didn't help matters either), Area 51 is definitely the movie's most memorable setting. When Air Force One first arrives there, it looks just like a normal military base, with a large hangar that the plane is taxied into. But then, Major 

Mitchell takes everyone down 24 floors underground, to the main research facility. The door there leads down into a big, white, sterile clean room, with a walkway through the center of the floor, and numerous scientists in white bio-hazard suits working at various workstations on either side. Dr. Okun then takes them to this large hangar where the alien fighter recovered from Roswell is stored, which is definitely an impressive set in and of itself, especially the big alien fighter in the center (that thing was an impressive 65 feet wide). It looks even better when 

the lights are dimmed, giving the set a nice blue color. Next on the tour is the room where several alien specimens are housed, which Okun calls a vault, as well as "the freakshow." Found behind this really cool-looking, circular door, which does look like the opening to a bank vault, it houses a podium that Okun uses to open up a spot containing three dead aliens, each housed in a large tube. On the other side of the lab is a large examination/surgery room, where Okun and several scientists attempt to 

examine the living alien that Steven brings in, only for it to awaken and attack them. Similarly, there's an infirmary where Marilyn is brought after she's rescued, and we have yet another big control room, where both the attempted nuclear strike on the aliens and the final battle are monitored and coordinated. And finally, there's a small rec room sort of space with a fridge, couch, water cooler, and the like, where David and Connie have their talk about the fate of their marriage.

Independence Day is, in many ways, an unofficial remake of The War of the Worlds, about a decade before the official Steven Spielberg version. This is not only true because of the basic plot of a powerful alien race attacking mankind in order to take over the planet, with coordinated attacks like the three in the United States happening in all the major countries, but also in certain specifics. I'll get into this more in a little bit but, like the Martians there, these aliens, in and of themselves, are rather weak and fragile, but they make up for it with their advanced and very

destructive technology. Just like in the 1953 film of The War of the Worlds, when all else fails, a nuclear bomb is launched against the aliens, but it has no effect on them whatsoever, and after that is the darkest hour, when it seems like mankind may be wiped out. Speaking of which, just like there, it's estimated that the aliens will be able to conquer the Earth within less than a week (in this case, 36 hours following the initial, coordinated attack). And finally, while it's man-made in this case, the aliens are ultimately stopped by a type of virus (technically, it was bacteria in the 1953 movie, but you get what I mean).

Even though Independence Day wasn't something I saw in the theater or even on VHS when I was a kid, I've had a Trendmasters action figure of an alien pilot since I was really young. It was a Christmas present from my grandmother, who got my cousins one each and decided she didn't want me to feel left out. Since I hadn't seen the movie, I always assumed this figure was of the main alien, the one in charge, but, as it turns out, it's actually of the living one that Steven brings to Area 51. Either way, it's a really cool design and concept, created by Patrick Tatopoulos, and I 

especially like how virtually all of the creature effects are done practically. It turns out that the aliens are, as I said, actually very small and fragile, and wear these large, bio-mechanical suits in order to make themselves more formidable. The suits have an insect, exoskeleton quality to them, stand about nine feet tall, have long, thin arms, long, bony fingers, and a bunch of flailing tentacles on the back, making for quite a cool creature. You don't get that good of a look at the suit in action when it awakens and attacks everyone 

in the examination room, due to the quick editing, flashing lights, and the steam that fills it, but before it awakens, you get a nicely gross, slimy, autopsy-like procedure, akin to similar scenes in John Carpenter's The Thing (albeit not that gruesome or gory). This is the only one of the aliens you actually see up until the climax, when Steven and David fly the fighter aboard the mothership. On the way in, they fly over a big invasion force wearing those suits, and then, there's the one alien in the control center that they dock in front of, which seems to be a bit larger and somewhat different-looking than the others.

According to Dr. Okun, the aliens are very similar to humans in regards to certain things, such as breathing oxygen, and heat and cold tolerances, which he guesses is why they're interested in Earth. They don't have vocal cords, but are able to communicate with each other through a telepathic link, and can also use this ability to enter humans' minds, as the one captured specimen does when it gets a hold of Okun and uses him to literally speak to President Whitmore. And while the sudden, massive, and unprovoked attack was already a pretty big hint, this particular

alien proves that its species are nothing but a bunch of thugs. Whitmore asks if it's possible for there to be peace between them and mankind, and it flat out says, "No peace." And when asked what they expect the humans to do, it snarls, "Die." It then proceeds to psychically attack Whitmore, before Major Mitchell, General Grey, and the others shoot it to death, and afterward, Whitmore says he was able to see the aliens' whole invasion plan. This particular race has wiped out many other civilizations throughout the universe in order to plunder their planets' resources, and once they have, they simply move on to the next world in their sights.

Again, like the invading Martians in The War of the Worlds, these aliens' true power comes from their technology, which is formidable, to say the least. Their mothership, hovering near Earth's moon, is enormous, almost like a mini-moon in and of itself. Rather than the mostly flat, saucer shape of the aliens' other ships, its top half has a dome shape, with two, huge pillars for legs underneath, kind of making it look like a giant, deformed mushroom. The design of the hull has a distinctive, ridged pattern that's carried over to the aliens' other crafts, and when Steven and

David fly the alien fighter up to it, the mothership brings them in via a tractor beam, through an opening in its enormous side. They head down a gigantic corridor, shaped like an upside down triangle, with several pathways crisscrossing back and forth at the end, and all lit by the eerie blue-green glow associated with the aliens. They're then pulled into the bowels of the ship, which has various tower-like structures hanging down from up top, as well as another, upside down triangle-shaped structure,

hanging above a platform that's filled with an invasion force of aliens in their bio-mechanical suits. And within the structure hanging above the platform is basically what amounts to their version of a hangar, with Steven and David's ship brought in and clutched by a large arm to keep them in place.

As the main part of their attack on Earth, the aliens deploy 34 enormous flying saucers, or "City Destroyers," each of them fifteen miles in diameter and under the control of the mothership. They each enter Earth's atmosphere, hover towards and then float above a major city, all while using Earth's own satellites to transmit the signal where they all attack at the same time. Their main weapon is a huge, powerful laser beam that they fire from their undersides, which has the destructive capability to completely wipe out 

an entire city and much of the surrounding area. They're also capable of firing smaller laser blasts from their front end, which they do to destroy the helicopter sent to meet them. And they're each protected by a very strong force-field generated by the mothership, which is only crippled when Steven and David manage to upload the virus. The same goes for their small fighter-ships, which are extremely fast and agile, able to fly circles around Steven's Black Knights squadron and down them with their own 

lasers. They also have their own unique design pattern, as they're somewhat circular, but with notable angles on their sides; long, raised structures on top, next to the hatch that leads down into the cockpit; and their fronts are shaped in a way where they look like mandibles, with ridges on the inside that look like teeth from some angles. Because of their connection to the mothership, the fighter in Area 51, after being inactive for decades, responds to the others when the invasion begins.

As a visual effects tour-de-force, Independence Day really holds up, and a reason for that is because a lot of it was done without the use of CGI. In fact, I've read it had more miniatures than any movie up to that point, including those for aircraft (both human and alien), city streets, landmarks, and buildings. Much of the movie's iconic destruction sequences were created in this manner, using miniature buildings and actual pyrotechnics, as well as clever camerawork to create the visual of the walls of flames engulfing city streets, and forced perspective in some shots. All of that stuff

still looks great, as do the aforementioned images of the giant spaceships hovering above the cities, done with an enormous model of the ship; the miniature sets for the interiors of the mothership; and the big, epic aerial battles between the humans and the aliens, which were a mixture of those and digital effects. And even when CGI is clearly used, like for the aliens' shields and lasers, as well as digital versions of the ships and parts of the destruction sequence, it holds up as well. The only example of dated effects work here is in some of the blue screen compositing shots, which are pretty obvious, but everything else makes up for it.

Way back when I reviewed Godzilla '98, I said that, while Roland Emmerich does deserve to be put in there with other "junkfood directors," like Stephen Sommers, Brett Ratner (I didn't mention him at the time but still), and especially Michael Bay, I find him to be among the more tolerable. Granted, I would say that Sommers is my personal favorite of that group, but given the choice, I would much rather watch this or any other Emmerich movie than suffer through something by Bay or Ratner (save for Red Dragon, which I liked well enough). Sticking with Bay, the

director whom Emmerich is probably most similar, as they both make big, popcorn spectacle movies, I find that Emmerich, despite both the amount and scale of the property damage and destruction you tend to get with him, isn't as gratuitous about it. In other words, he doesn't seem to be getting off on things blowing up or people being crushed, whereas Bay has such a fetish for explosions that he manages to sap them of their specialness in his movies. Also, Emmerich is not nearly as obnoxious and juvenile when it comes to comic relief and humor. Now, there are a number of 

times where the humor in his movies either doesn't land or is downright dumb ("That's a lot of fish," or those Siskel and Ebert caricatures in Godzilla, anyone?), and Independence Day is not immune to that. While I don't mind them, I could see some people getting annoyed by Randy Quaid's yelling and acting drunk (if he even was acting), or Harry Connick Jr.'s mugging. Also, that one guy on the news claiming that Russell was sexually abused by the aliens after he was abducted, that awkward 

moment where it looks like Jimmy is proposing to Steven, and those idiots who gather atop the rooftops in Los Angeles to welcome the aliens, with that one woman exclaiming, "Oh, God! I hope they bring back Elvis!", are all really stupid. And there some attempts at humor that are far too on the nose, like how, at the very beginning, in the establishing shot of S.E.T.I.'s command center, you can hear It's The End of the World as We Know It by R.E.M. on the radio, and how, when Russell's kids are introduced, Troy is 

trying to watch The Day The Earth Stood Still on the TV. But, that said, I would much rather take all of that, as well as Judd Hirsch playing up his Jewishness, than any of the junk that Bay tends to shove into his movies (crass sex and genitalia jokes, really bad racial stereotypes, and constant, unapologetic ogling of hot women, just to name a few). Plus, Will Smith's genuine penchant for humor, the nice back and forth that he and Jeff Goldblum have during the third act, and Goldblum's own typical, lovable quirkiness more than pick up the slack.

However, there's no denying that Emmerich's movies do tend to suffer from thin characterization, and that is certainly true here. While you have a lot of top notch actors who are able to make the best out of what they're given, their roles still don't have a lot to them, save for maybe one or two little nuggets to try to make them feel more three-dimensional: Steven's relationship with Jasmine and his desire to be an astronaut, David not being able to get over his divorce, the criticisms that Whitmore has been facing in the press concerning his performance as President,

Russell's drunkenness and claims of having been abducted, etc. In fact, if they weren't able to get the cast that they did, or said cast was unable to be as likable as they are, the movie could've ended up being unbearable to sit through. And there are plenty of leaps in logic, particularly in scientific accuracy and the like, to be found in the writing, the biggest of which is how the alien mothership is crippled by a computer virus. While it is an interesting way to defeat the aliens, rather than just having them get 

brought down by some top secret super-weapon, the idea that, one, a man-made computer virus would be compatible with alien technology, and two, the whole ship would be affected rather than just the one area where it was uploaded, is really hard to swallow.

For me, what falls flat the hardest is whenever the movie attempts to be poignant, heartfelt, or inspirational, as it often comes off as either schmaltzy or corny. You do have some instances that really work, like the moment between Whitmore and Patricia after Marilyn has died offscreen, or when Steven fears that Jasmine and Dylan may have died when Los Angeles was destroyed. I also like the tender moments between David and Julius, like when Julius stands up for his son on Air Force One and tells everyone that they should be appreciative to David

for saving them, and the exchange they have before David sets off on his mission with Steven, with Julius giving David some airsick bags and he, in turn, gives his dad a yamaka and a copy of the Hebrew Bible. But others, like that needless, melodramatic moment with Jasmine and Dylan's dog, Boomer, during the tunnel sequence, the scene where Steven and Jasmine are reunited, and David and Connie joining hands while acting as witnesses to Steven and Jasmine's impromptu wedding, with the two moments meant to parallel each other as the minister speaks, are so eye-rolling.

And I think now is as good a time as any to address the movie's most infamous scene: Whitmore's speech before the final battle. While many criticize it for its nationalistic overtones and American jingoism, I, again, find it to just be rather cheesy. You get why he does it, as he feels the pilots are nervous, and I do like the overall sentiment behind it, especially when he says, "'Mankind.' That word should have new meaning for all of us today. We can't be consumed by our petty differences anymore. We will be united in our common interests." But what he says afterward,

about how it's the Fourth of July, that the pilots will again be fighting for freedom, and, "Should we win the day, the Fourth of July will no longer be known as an American holiday, but as the day the world declared in one voice, 'We will not go quietly into the night! We will not vanish without a fight! We're going to live on! We're going to survive!'", is all complete and utter cornball. And the way everybody, like General Grey, looks up at him in awe and seems so inspired, just puts the bow on it. As for the

nationalistic criticisms leveled against Independence Day, while, again, it's not as bad as what Michael Bay puts in his movies, where he practically worships the various United States defense forces, it is here. For instance, you have the notion of America being the one to organize the worldwide, calculated counterstrike against the aliens, while all of the other countries were apparently incapable of coming up with a way to get around their defenses, and seemed to have just been sitting around, twiddling their 

thumbs, until America gave them the go-ahead. You also have shots of the fighter jets waiting to take off as the sun rises behind them, though, again, it's not as overdone as in Bay's movies. And finally, one of the very first things you see when the movie begins is a shot of the plaque left on the moon following the Apollo 11 landing, with a focus on its inscription: "Here men from the planet Earth first set foot upon the Moon July 1969, A. D. We came in peace for all mankind." I think this is mainly another not so subtle

attempt at irony, juxtaposing those words with the aliens' intentions, but it also immediately lets you know that, despite being made by a German, this movie's viewpoint is very much American, for better or worse.

Not only is the first act's build-up well done, as I said, but the movie immediately gets straight to the point. After opening on that plaque, you see dust floating down from above, as well as the soil around the astronauts' decades-old footprints beginning to vibrate. An enormous shadow slowly drifts across the lunar surface, and the camera pans up to reveal the Earth, when the alien mothership passes overhead, heading towards the planet. Those at S.E.T.I. pick up its signal and trace the source to the moon, and then,

at the Pentagon's Space Command center, General Grey learns what's happening, as well as how huge the "object" is and that it's slowing down, confirming that it's not a meteor. After President Whitmore learns of it, a shot in space shows one of Earth's satellites colliding with the mothership's side, exploding on impact. While David Levinson starts working on trying to find the source of everyone's cable issues, and following Russell Casse's introduction (his children are shown having problems with their TV

back at their camper), the mothership deploys its enormous "Destroyer" ships. Whitmore is told of this, as well as that they will be entering Earth's atmosphere within 25 minutes, and the movie cuts to Iraq, as a number of nomads in the desert are frightened by the sight of one of the ships entering the atmosphere, surrounded by clouds and flames. In the Persian Gulf, the submarine the USS Georgia experiences a radar blackout of over 13 km, but the infrared continues functioning and picks up the enormous craft. At the White House, Whitmore and

his staff learn of continuous sightings, and they turn on the television to see a distorted news report about panic in Russia over the "atmospheric phenomena," which is heading for Moscow. Grey then tells Whitmore of an AWAC off the West Coast that's about to make contact with an object spotted there. Cutting to the AWAC, which is given a direct line to the White House, they don't pick up anything on their radar, and the pilots are unable to see anything due to poor visibility up there. Then, just as the clouds clear, the pilots see a huge wall of flame coming right for

them. They try to pull up away from it, but the plane is immediately engulfed and destroyed. After contact with them is lost, Whitmore is informed that two more ships have been spotted in the Atlantic, with one heading to New York and the other to Washington, and will arrive in less than ten minutes.

Just as Russell is being made fun of by some locals for his supposed alien abduction, he and everyone else in Imperial Valley get the shock of their lives. First, the diner Russell is in begins shaking, and then, everyone sees the same terrifying sight that appeared in Iraq and Russia above their town. As the ship approaches Los Angeles, its shadow acts like a mini-eclipse that passes over the city. The same thing happens in Washington, with that ship's shadow passing over the Lincoln Memorial, then the

Washington Monument, and the Capitol Building, as it heads straight for the White House. And the same scenario also unfolds in New York, as the shadow passes over Manhattan, with numerous people down below, from those in their vehicles on the road to the homeless, looking up in awe. The Destroyer then emerges from the clouds and flames as it approaches the center of Manhattan, while David watches from the roof of the cable company's building; down below, those who aren't awed by this run off in a

panic. A number of vehicle collisions happen on the road, with a cop getting out of his car, causing a couple of taxis and other cars to rear-end each other, and as he walks across the road, looking up, his vehicle gets smashed by an armored car directly behind him. Panic fills the streets as the ship positions its center directly above the Empire State Building, while David hits upon the significance of the signal and heads back downstairs. In Washington, Whitmore, Constance Spano, and others gaze up at the ship that's now hovering directly above the White

House. Back in Los Angeles, Steven Hiller goes outside to get the newspaper, only to notice that, not only are his and Jasmine's neighbors across the street leaving, as he saw earlier, but so is everyone else. And that's when he looks straight ahead and sees the ship hovering above the city, as does Jasmine when she joins him out there. Meanwhile, David realizes that the aliens' signal is a countdown and warns Marty Gilbert of it, before attempting to call and warn Connie. When that doesn't work, he leaves the building and rides his bicycle through the chaos and 

looting going on in the streets, towards Julius' home. The two of them then begin the long drive to Washington and the White House, while in Imperial Valley, Russell and his kids leave after he manages to get out of the local jail following his stunt with the fliers.

As David and Julius arrive at the White House and David contacts Connie, the Pentagon prepares to make contact with the aliens using a skylift helicopter dubbed the "Welcome Wagon," equipped with large light panels in order to create a signal. The helicopter, along with a military escort, approach the ship, heading towards the wedge on its front. Meanwhile, David meets with Whitmore and shows him that there's less than thirty minutes left on the countdown to the aliens' attack. As the Welcome Wagon begins

attempting communication, Whitmore orders Grey to have Washington, Los Angeles, and New York evacuated, and also orders the Welcome Wagon recalled. But it's too late, as the aliens respond, with the ship's edge slowly opening, bathing the helicopter in its blue-green light. Then, suddenly, it fires a laser right at the helicopter, destroying it instantly, and quickly does the same to its two escorts. With that, the White House is promptly evacuated, with Whitmore, Patricia, Grey, Connie, Albert Nimziki,

David, and Julius fleeing on a chopper intended to transport them to Air Force One; as they take their seats onboard, David sees that there's only nine minutes left. In Los Angeles, First Lady Marilyn is evacuated as well, while Jasmine, Dylan, and Boomer find themselves stuck in traffic on the road, and Jasmine's dumb coworker, Tiffani, joins the other idiots atop the U.S. Bank Tower who intend to welcome the aliens. They also stupidly jeer at the LAPD chopper that hovers above them, telling them they need to leave immediately for their own safety.

Just as Marilyn boards the chopper meant to take her to Nellis Air Force Base and they take off, the spaceship's underside begins to slowly open up. The same thing happens in the other cities, with most of the populace stopping to gawk. As the remainders of Whitmore's staff flee the White House, the President and those with him arrive at the base where Air Force One is and quickly board it. As they take their seats, David looks at the countdown just as it hits zero.

The Destroyers power up their ultimate weapons, and it's only then that Tiffani and those others realize they're dead meat. The one in Los Angeles fires, incinerating the U.S. Bank Tower within seconds, and then sending a massive wave of flames and destruction that engulfs the entire city, as the people futilely run for it. The same thing happens in New York, with the Empire State Building getting blown to bits, followed by the same kind of wave of destruction heading down the street, right towards

Marty, who was stuck in traffic while trying to flee Manhattan. Following that, we get the iconic image of the White House getting blown up, the explosion also engulfing the helicopter with the rest of Whitmore's staff. That's followed by more destruction, with the gridlock of cars on the street getting blown backwards and buildings getting absolutely obliterated, as a huge wide shot shows the scale of the devastation, with the Capitol Building becoming engulfed in the flames before it's blown apart by the shock-wave. Onboard

Air Force One, everyone braces themselves as the plane heads down the runway, with the wall of flames right behind them. They just barely manage to get into the air and up, out of the way, as the rest of Washington is destroyed. In Los Angeles, everyone stuck in the traffic snarl abandons their cars and runs for it. While they're stuck in a tunnel, Jasmine, at first puzzled when she sees everyone running past her, sees what's heading towards her, Dylan, and Boomer in the rear-view mirror. Quickly, she gets out of the car, grabs Dylan and Boomer out of the backseat, and

they run down the tunnel. However, when she looks back, she realizes they're not going to be able outrun the flame-wall, as cars and people behind them are blown up into the air and the flames barrel down the tunnel towards them. Then, she spots a maintenance door off to the side and kicks it open. She and Dylan just barely manages to get through the doorway before a motorcycle slams against the wall next to it. But Boomer is just sitting out there in the road, apparently oblivious to the fact that he's about to be fried, until Jasmine yells for him. He then comes

running, jumping across a car's trunk and springing through the doorway, joining them right before the car gets sent flying behind him. Jasmine holds onto both him and Dylan, as the tunnel shakes and the light above them explodes, bringing an awesome end to the first act.

The next day, while Jasmine, Dylan, and Boomer leave what's left of the tunnel and make their way through the ruins of Los Angeles, Steven and his Black Knight squadron take off from their base at El Toro to intercept the Destroyer still hovering near what's left of the city. After flying over the ruins and expressing shock over the scale of the devastation, the Knights come upon the ship. As Whitmore and his group monitor the situation from Air Force One, General Grey gives the okay for them to open fire. 

The Knights let loose a volley of missiles, only for them to explode harmlessly against the ship's invisible shield. They switch to Sidewinder missiles, but those are also unable to penetrate the shield. The Knights then have to make a steep climb to keep from crashing into the shield, but Knight 3 is unable to due to his controls failing and is promptly killed when he hits it. And then, as they continue climbing up alongside the shield, the ship deploys a huge squadron of its own fighters. The Knights attempt to mow

through them, but Knight 11 crashes into one, taking both of them out. Steven finds one fighter on his tail, and when Captain Jimmy Wilder attempts to help, he learns that the fighters are also shielded. The Knights begin dropping like flies and Whitmore, seeing that the situation is hopeless, orders for a retreat. Steven and Jimmy flee the battle site, flying in low among the ruins, but they each have a fighter right behind them. They're the only Knights who manage to escape, as the others are destroyed before they can get a chance, and a satellite is also taken out, making it

impossible for those onboard Air Force One to monitor what's going on. Steven and Jimmy fly into the desert, but are unable to shake their pursuers. Jimmy suddenly banks upwards at a dangerous speed, despite Steven warning him not to. The alien fighter chases after him, while Jimmy rips off his oxygen mask, shouting that he has no air. The fighter quickly runs him down and blows him out of the sky. 

Back at El Toro, Lieutenant Colonel Watson, the Knights' commanding officer, is told they have "incoming," and it's not the Knights. The platoon of alien fighters swoops down at the base, firing at the airfield with their lasers, as hundreds of fighter pilots run for cover. The base is completely decimated within seconds. Elsewhere, Steven is still trying to evade the one fighter on his tail. His flying skills prove to be quite a challenge even for the advanced craft, as he continuously dodges its laser blasts as

they fly through a canyon. Steven then sees that he's running out of fuel, and turns his jet on its side to fit through a tight space between two canyon walls. The fighter does the same and continues after him, blowing up much of their surroundings with its laser shots. The pursuit sends a large rock structure tumbling down in front of them, but they both manage to get around it. With his fuel tank now completely empty, Steven deploys his jet's rear parachute, which covers the fighter and obscures the pilot's vision. He then ejects, right before his jet 

slams into the canyon wall, and while the fighter goes straight through the explosion, it hits the edge of the canyon, loses control, hits the ground, and skids to a stop. Steven hits the ground hard from his parachute and, seeing the fighter sitting nearby, stomps toward it, doing a bunch of trash-talking. Opening the hatch, he's faced with the alien pilot, but his only reaction is to give it a satisfying punch and tell it, "Welcome to Earth." He then sits on the fighter's hull, lights one of his squadron's celebratory cigars, and says, "Now, that's what I call a close encounter."

Things slow down for a while, with Jasmine, Dylan, and Boomer commandeering a fire truck and driving through the city ruins, picking up survivors, including Marilyn, whom they find sitting right next to her crashed chopper (Boomer is the one who actually finds her). Steven, meanwhile, is picked up by the convoy of refugees while he's dragging the alien pilot through the desert and directs them to Area 51, which he saw earlier in his jet. And President Whitmore and everyone else on Air Force One arrive there, where

they're introduced to Dr. Okun and shown both the alien craft that was recovered from Roswell and some alien specimens. Shortly afterward, the refugees arrive, with Steven using the alien pilot as "clearance" so they can get through the gate. Right when he learns from General Grey that El Toro has been wiped out, Jasmine and the others arrive at what's left of the base, and decide they have no alternative but to camp for the night.

The next major scene is when Okun and his staff attempt to examine the alien. In their operating room, they work to remove its bio-mechanical suit, first by opening up the helmet, which opens on its own after being cut through, startling everyone. Okun then works to uncover the actual alien beneath the helmet's viscous interior, and just when he does, one of his assistants notes that the suit's arm is moving. The alien's eye opens and, focusing on Okun, attacks him telepathically, causing him to run about the room,

holding his head and slamming into equipment. Using its suit's hand, the alien removes a hose from its operating table, filling the room with thick steam, and then rises up in front of everyone. They try to run for it but find themselves trapped, unable to open the door, and the alien proceeds to wipe them out. Afterward, Whitmore, Grey, Nimziki, Major Mitchell, and several others enter the vault area outside the operating room. With the room completely filled with the thick gas, obscuring their vision, and with no 

sound whatsoever coming from within, they know that something is wrong. Suddenly, Okun slams against the glass, startling them, and says, "Release me." But just as Mitchell is about to open the door, Grey tells him not to, and he then notices the tentacle grasping Okun's neck. The alien drops down from the ceiling behind Okun, revealing that it's speaking through him. It again demands to be released, while Whitmore attempts to negotiate peace between the two species. However, the alien makes it clear that no peace is possible and proceeds to attack Whitmore in 

the same manner as Okun. As the President falls to the floor, acting like he's having a seizure, Grey asks Mitchell if the operating room's window is bullet-proof. He responds, "No, sir," in a tone that basically says, "Screw this!", and he, Grey, and the others open fire on the alien through the glass, sending it flying back onto the floor. Mitchell then rushes inside and sees to Okun, who's in a complete catatonic state. And as Whitmore, after recovering, explains to the others what the aliens want, Mitchell walks over to the one individual and finishes it off with several shots to the head. Whitmore then orders, "Nuke 'em. Nuke the bastards."

That night, a squadron of Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit stealth bombers approach a Destroyer hovering above Houston, preparing to hit it with a nuke; at the same time, down in the city itself, an armored military vehicle, dubbed "Neighborhood Watch," arrives on a freeway to monitor the operation's progress. The bombers soon have the ship in their sights and lock on with their laser targeting. Whitmore, monitoring the operation from the command center in Area 51, is then asked if he wishes to proceed and, after some

hesitation, gives the okay. The missile is deployed and, after several seconds, appears to hit its target dead on. They immediately lose visual from Neighborhood Watch, but Nimziki, nevertheless, is quick to jump to his feet and celebrate, declaring it a success. Whitmore asks for confirmation that the ship was destroyed and Neighborhood Watch, after bracing themselves against the explosion's shock-wave, has to reboot its monitoring system. When they finally do, they report the disconcerting news that the ship hasn't even been touched. Seeing that it was all

for nothing, Whitmore orders all the other bombings called off. Meanwhile, Steven, having commandeered a helicopter, arrives at what's left of El Toro and picks up Jasmine, Dylan, Marilyn, and the other survivors, and takes them back to Area 51.

The third act really gets going after David comes up with his plan of infecting the mothership with a computer virus. Everyone proceeds to coordinate a counter-offensive with military forces across the world, such as British troops in the Iraqi desert, the Russians, and the Japanese, via Morse Code. They also begin recruiting any available pilots, while Grey shows Steven and David the nuclear missile they plan to have them fire from a launcher installed beneath the alien fighter's right wing. He also tells them that, when they do fire it, they'll only have thirty seconds 

to get out before it blows. Following Steven and Jasmine's impromptu marriage, and Whitmore's speech to the pilots, the mission is ready to get underway. However, there are a couple of mishaps beforehand. First, when Russell settles into his fighter's cockpit, he accidentally hits the "missile launch" button. Fortunately, he quickly manages to deactivate it and says to himself, "I picked a hell of a day to quit drinkin'." And second, as Steven and David prepare to launch in the alien fighter, the thing 

goes in reverse and hits the back of the hangar. After an embarrassed, "Oops," and upon adjusting the instructions down in front of him, they manage to launch successfully, flying out of the hangar and up into the sky. Meanwhile, as the fighters on the ground prepare to take off, Grey tells Whitmore that the Destroyer they were targeting has changed course and is heading straight for the base, with arrival in just 26 minutes. Upon leaving Earth's atmosphere, Steven and David head towards the mothership, which begins drawing them in with its tractor beam.

Whitmore's squadron make their way to the Destroyer, and after confirming that they see it, Grey tells them not to attack until they can confirm the virus has been uploaded. At the same time, Connie tells Major Mitchell that all of the civilians outside the base are going to be sitting ducks if the ship reaches them. Up in space, Steven and David enter the mothership and head deep within it, reaching a sort of docking bay. They close the shutters on their craft's windows so the alien in the control room monitoring the bay can't see them, and once they're 

docked and linked with the ship's system, David begins uploading the virus. Monitoring this on Earth, Grey tells Whitmore's squadron, "The package is being delivered," and they prepare to attack. At Area 51, the civilians outside are quickly led into the base, while Steven and David finish uploading the virus. It instantly begins to work, as the computers and monitors in the control room shut off, as do those above the platform housing the invasion force. On Earth, Grey informs Whitmore that the virus has been delivered, and the President personally fires a missile 

at the Destroyer. However, the virus initially seems ineffective, as the missile hits the shield like before. Grey advises the squadron to disengage, but Whitmore decides to go for another shot. And this time, the missile hits the ship's hull, proving that the virus has begun to work. With that, the rest of the squadron begin firing at will, blasting the hull with more missiles. However, the ship unleashes its own squadron of fighters and it soon turns into another aerial dogfight. Russell, in particular, takes a lot of

joy in shooting down the fighters. Back on the mothership, Steven and Dave prepare to disengage and escape, but the mechanism gets stuck. On top of that, the alien in the control room notices how the one fighter is attempting to leave the docking bay and, using what equipment still works, opens its window shutters, forcing Steven and David to hide behind their seats. At the same time, the Destroyer and its fleet of fighters are rapidly approaching Area 51,

firing on the civilians that are still being led inside. Connie and Mitchell manage to get as many as they can through the main door and down into the depths of the base, which devolves into absolute chaos due to their panicking. 

Up above, the battle is continuing, and the squadron keeps scoring hits on the ship's hull, but they're running out of missiles and the ship is nowhere close to being taken down. Moreover, the Destroyer settles directly above the base and prepares to fire its ultimate weapon again. Whitmore orders his squadron to destroy it before it can fire and they fly beneath the ship's underside. However, the onslaught of fighters make this a truly difficult task, and the ship is only seconds away from firing. Whitmore attempts to destroy the weapon itself, but his missiles impact its 

side rather than scoring a direct hit. He's now out of missiles, and when Eagle Two tries to go in for a shot, he's immediately blown up. With seemingly no more missiles left, the situation seems hopeless, when Russell suddenly comes roaring in from nearby, saying, "Kinda got hung up back there!" He declares that he's armed, albeit with only one missile. With that, the other fighters are ordered to cover him as he goes in for the shot. Whitmore exclaims, "Let's plow the road!", as they use their fighters' Gatling guns against the alien ships. They draw them away and 

Russell heads for the laser weapon's center. But when he attempts to launch his missile, it malfunctions and won't fire. With no other recourse, he makes a decision, then looks at the picture of his kids that he brought with him and says, "Do me a favor. Tell my children I love them very much." He rips his oxygen mask off and aims his fighter right at the weapon. As it prepares to fire, he flies right up at it and hits it dead on, causing a massive explosion that rips up into the craft and tears it apart from the inside out. 

Everyone down below celebrates Russell's success and the destruction of the Destroyer, which slowly falls out of the sky and crashes down onto the ground. Whitmore tells Grey to relay the info about the ships' weak points to the military forces across the world.

Unable to disengage, and with their cover all but blown, as the ship is about to investigated, Steven and David figure, like Russell, they have no other choice than to sacrifice themselves. After lighting their cigars and taking a smoke, they activate the nuclear warhead and come out of hiding. They wave at the alien in the control booth (who looks very confused at the sight of them) and, after completely wiping out their system programming with their computer virus, fire the missile. It smashes through the control booth and blazes into the bowels of the mothership, taking

the alien with it, before wedging itself just beyond a wall it breaks through. The force from the impact also happens to jostle Steven and David's ship loose. Steven quickly takes control and flies back the way they came, but they have to contend with a group of fighters that chase after them. They blitz through the ship's center, dodging the fighters' laser blasts, and then head down a tunnel leading out of the ship, with the fighters sticking right on them. Up ahead, they see that the opening leading out is starting to close and David frantically tells Steven to speed up (this is the

second movie where Jeff Goldblum says, "Must go faster,"). They cut it close but manage to get out just in the nick of the time, whereas the alien fighters behind them crash into the panel when it shuts completely. As they head back to Earth, Steven declares, "Elvis has left the building!", and David goes, "Thank you very much," before patting Steven on the shoulder and saying, "I love you." Inside the mothership, the one alien regains consciousness and looks at the warhead just as the timer on it reaches

zero and it detonates. The entire ship is promptly destroyed in a massive, supernova-like explosion (not unlike the Death Star blowing up, I must say), but Steven and David find themselves unable to outrun the shock-wave full of debris that follows after them.

Back down on Earth, Whitmore and the survivors of his squadron return to Area 51 and reunite with everyone else in front of the wreckage of the Destroyer. Similar scenes occur across the world, as Destroyers are brought down near Mt. Kilimanjaro, the Great Pyramids, and in Sydney. Down within the base, Whitmore and his team return to thunderous applause. In the control room, Grey informs him of the aliens' defeat across the world, but when Whitmore asks about Steven and David, Grey admits that they lost contact with them twenty minutes

earlier. Connie and Jasmine overhear this nearby, but then, they pick up something on radar. Whitmore, Grey, Patricia, Connie, Jasmine, Dylan, and Julius drive out into the desert and come upon the sight of Steven and David triumphantly walking away from their crash-landed alien fighter. Their respective loved ones jump out of the truck and run to them, while Whitmore and Grey calmly walk up to them and congratulate them on a job well done. The movie ends with everyone looking at the nearby downed Destroyer, as the alien fighters start coming down above it.

I don't think I've ever heard anybody mention the score to Independence Day and that's a shame, because it's one of the movie's best aspects by far. It was the work of David Arnold, who'd previously worked with Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin on Stargate, and would go on to score Godzilla for them, as well as do the music for every Bond movie from Tomorrow Never Dies up to Quantum of Solace. His main theme for Independence Day is a truly rousing, heroic, and patriotic piece of music, the type that makes you  want to get up and cheer, especially when it plays during a triumphant scene for mankind, particularly during the climax. Arnold also proves adept at writing thrilling, exciting music for the action and battle sequences, and accentuates the build-up to the aliens' major attack on July 2nd with truly suspenseful scoring, as well as the overwhelming scale of the destruction they wrought. He even gets to do some freakish, horror-like music for the scene where the alien pilot awakens in the operating room and later speaks through Dr. Okun, and pull on your heartstrings for the emotional moments, like when you see the ruins of Los Angeles and when Marilyn Whitmore dies. But it's that truly awesome, patriotic main theme that's the score's most glorious aspect, and it really leaves you with a good feeling at the end, when the aliens have been vanquished and humanity saved. (Arnold actually won a much-deserved Grammy for his work here.)

When Independence Day was released to home video, it came in both the original theatrical version and an extended version, which is about nine minutes longer. The additional scenes in this version tend to range from completely inconsequential to helping to enrich the characters and the story just a bit more. The first addition is a bit that's tacked onto President Whitmore's talk with Constance Spano on the morning of the 2nd, where he says, "It's a fine line between standing behind a principle and hiding behind one. You can tolerate a little compromise if you are actually managing to get something

accomplished." Connie then tells him, "Well, The Orange County Dispatch has voted you one of the 10 sexiest men of the year," to which he says, "That's .. that's accomplishing something." Later, when he learns that the giant spaceships are entering the atmosphere, he confirms that they need to go to DEFCON 3, which really wasn't necessary to see. Also unnecessary is an additional scene between David and Marty in the former's office, where he tells Marty about the signal in the satellite transmission and hits him with some technobabble before confirming that he can find a way to get rid of it. 

Marty proceeds to kiss David right on the mouth, much to his confusion. Skipping ahead, another unnecessary addition is some added dialogue between Jasmine and Tiffani when she's trying to convince Tiffani not to join those UFO enthusiasts, reminding her that she was right about a disastrous trip to Las Vegas she went on. And right after that, their sleazy boss, Mario, tries to make Jasmine go back to dancing, threatening to fire her if she doesn't. To that, Jasmine decides to heck with her job and leaves with Dylan and Boomer. During David and Julius' drive to 

Washington, they nearly hit some cars that pop up in front of them, and while they're in the Oval Office, Julius goes on about the people who've been there, saying, "Politicians, actors... baseball players, singers, and now me." It's another unnecessary moment, but David has a nice comeback where he says, "Imagine that. Look, a poor immigrant like me. It's a dream!", embarrassing Julius. And at Area 51, there's an extra scene where Dr. Okun shows David the interior of the salvaged alien fighter and David is easily able to figure out how the equipment works.

After Jasmine, Dylan, and Boomer commandeer the fire truck, and right before they find Marilyn, there's a moment where they come upon a religious fanatic who's raving atop a dumping ground. Jasmine tries to get him to come with them, but he ignores them and continues spout his diatribes, so they drive off without him. Interesting but, again, doesn't add much that's significant. Jumping back earlier, there's an additional moment when David and Julius are driving to Washington where, as David tries to find Connie's phone number using his laptop, Julius suggests he put in his own surname. David insists that Connie didn't 

take his last name when they were married, but when he puts it in, it does pop up. While mostly meant as a bit of humor, as Julius then comments, "So what do I know, hmm?", there is some significance in that Connie not only took David's name but kept it even after the divorce. But the most significant new scenes involve Russell Casse and his children. When Russell shows up after being let out of jail, he and Miguel get into a heated argument, as Miguel says he and the others are leaving without him. When Russell says, "I'm still your father," Miguel growls, "No, you're not. You're just the man who married my mother. You're

nothin' to me." Russell then, very spitefully, brings up Troy and his illness, with Miguel exclaiming, "For once in your life why don't you thing about what's best for him? Just who in the hell has to beg for money to buy him medicine when you screw up, huh?! Who? Who?!" Overhearing this, Troy throws his medicine onto the ground, breaking the bottle, and says he's tired of it. Miguel asks him, "Do you know what this stuff costs? Do you want to get sick again? Do you?" This comes back around when Troy becomes ill the next day, and there's a new moment 

between him and Russell in the back of the camper, as Russell tells him, "You're just like your mother, you know that? She was stubborn too. Had to twist her arm to get her to take her medicine. You're gonna be alright." Then, when Miguel shows up and says he couldn't find any medicine, a young guy appears right outside and gives them some penicillin to keep Troy's fever down. While Alicia is grateful, Russell, after the two of them talk, says, "Tell that punk to shut the door. We're outta here. Go sniff around somewhere else!" (That boy is seen with Alicia down in the base 

during the final battle, and she, like the guy she was with earlier, suggests they lose their virginity since they may die soon. The guy, however, says, "If we do, we'll both die virgins. But at least we'll be together.") And when the refugees arrive at Area 51, Russell has to get rough in order to make a doctor see to Troy, as Okun and the others are more interested in the unconscious alien that Steven brought with him.

Independence Day simply is what it is: a big, sprawling, visual effects-laden spectacle that has no other agenda than to dazzle and entertain you. And, while it'll never be a movie that I absolutely love, I think it's a perfectly fine example of that type of movie, especially from this period. Yes, the characters can hardly be called well-rounded or the screenplay flawless, there are some effects that haven't aged well, a lot of the humor doesn't land, the nationalistic overtones can be off-putting, and the movie is so utterly 90's at points that it can feel like just one big cliche. But, I feel that it has a great cast of actors who all do the best they can with what they're given; there are some truly poignant moments in the story; the direction by Roland Emmerich makes this come off as a massive-scale epic; it's incredibly well-paced for such a long movie, with the first act's build-up to the big destruction sequence being pulled off especially skillfully; said destruction sequence, as well as the big action scenes sprinkled throughout the movie afterward, are still dazzling; the visual effects, much of which were achieved without CGI, hold up for the most part, and the same goes for the great practical creature effects; the music score is great; and, above all else, if you allow yourself to be swept up in it, it is a very fun flick. It may be junkfood entertainment, but, hey, a little junkfood here and there doesn't hurt.