Independence Day (film)
Independence Day (also known by its promotional abbreviation ID4) is an Academy Award winning science fiction film directed by Roland Emmerich. The film's plot is about an attempted alien invasion of Earth.
Filming locations
The film was shot in United
States, Kenya, Egypt, Iceland, Sweden and Australia.
United
States
Los Angeles, California
Fontana, California
Blue Ridge, Georgia
New York City, New York
Colorado Springs, Colorado
Dallas, Texas
Grants
Pass, Oregon
Utah
Michigan City, Indiana
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
New Mexico
Washington D.C.
West New York,
New Jersey
White Sands, New Mexico
Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania
Pyramids
of Giza, Egypt
Reykjavík, Iceland
Stockholm, Stockholms län,
Sweden
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
The film's success was partially credited to an extensive marketing campaign that began in the United States with a dramatic commercial during the Super Bowl XXX, for which Fox paid $1.3 million. The publicity stunt marks the first time a movie was advertised during a Super Bowl.
The movie was scheduled for release on July 3, 1996, but due to the
high level of anticipation for the film, many theaters began showing it on the
evening of July 2, 1996, the same day the action in the film begins. The movie's
total worldwide gross was $816,969,268 - the 18th highest worldwide gross for
a movie all-time,
Plot
When Earth comes under attack
from an advanced extraterrestrial species, the survivors must band together to
repel the invaders.
On July 2, an alien mothership enters orbit around Earth, deploying several dozen smaller spacecraft to hover over many of the world's major cities. Satellite transmissions from the craft are discovered, by scientist David Levinson (Jeff Goldblum), to be a timer which he believes is a countdown to a coordinated attack by the aliens. Having made his way to the White House with his father, he warns President Thomas J. Whitmore ( Bill Pullman) of the impending attack. After three US Air Force helicopters are shot down by an alien spacecraft while attempting to establish communications in Welcome Wagon formation, the president orders the evacuation of affected cities. Before the countdown reaches zero, he flees the White House aboard Air Force One with his staff and Levinson. At zero point, the hovering City-Destroyers open fire upon their targets with advanced directed-energy weapons, incinerating entire cities and killing millions.
The United States counterattack is coordinated from El Toro and sees the
alien spacecraft assaulted by Marine Corps fighter aircraft. The attacks are completely
useless, as both the larger craft and individual Starfighters launched from within
are protected by seemingly-impenetrable force fields. After leading his unit of
fighter pilots, the Black Knights, in an attack against the aliens, Captain Steven
Hiller (Will Smith) is involved in a dogfight with an alien fighter which sees
both crash in the desert. Having parachuted to safety, Hiller subdues and captures
the injured alien. As the El Toro airbase has since been destroyed, Hiller takes
the alien in the direction of the nearby Area 51 base, where the president and
his remaining staff have also landed. There, they discover a top secret facility
housing a captured alien fighter and three alien bodies recovered from Roswell
in 1947.
When lead scientist Dr. Brackish Okun (Spiner) examines the new alien specimen, it attempts escape and takes control of his mind. When questioned by President Whitmore, through a telepathic connection it reveals that its species travels from planet to planet, destroying all life and harvesting the planet's natural resources, before moving on to the next conquest. The alien attempts a psychic attack against Whitmore and is killed by military personnel. Whitmore orders a nuclear attack on the alien spacecraft which is hovering over a by-now-evacuated Houston, but as the craft is still protected by its force shield, the attack fails.
Levinson devises a plan to gain access to the interior of the alien mothership in space in order to introduce a computer virus and plant a nuclear device on board. This, it is hoped, will cause the shields of the Earth-based alien craft to fail long enough for the human resistance to eliminate them. Hiller volunteers to fly the captured alien fighter and Levinson accompanies him to upload the virus. With satellite communications knocked out, the Americans use morse code to coordinate an attack with the remaining air forces around the world, timed to occur when the invaders' shields are set to fail.
With the successful implantation of the virus, President Whitmore leads the US fighter jets against an alien spacecraft on approach to Area 51. The attack is initially unsuccessful and the fighters soon exhaust their supply of missiles, but do considerable damage. The underside of the alien craft opens up as its primary weapon of mass destruction is prepared to fire on the base. Russell Casse (Quaid) finds that he possesses the one remaining missile. The firing mechanism damaged, he pilots his jet into the opening in a kamikaze attack. The ensuing explosion causes a chain reaction which completely annihilates the city-destroyer. Human resistance forces around the world use the same weak point to destroy the remainder of the alien ships, while the nuclear device planted by Hiller and Levinson destroys the alien mothership, annihilating them entirely from existence. Hiller and Levinson escape unharmed, crash-landing their captured alien fighter in the desert close to Area 51. Alien city-destroyer ships crash near Sydney, Australia and Cairo, Egypt, among other places. The film ends as the main characters watch debris from the mothership enter the atmosphere like shooting stars.
Tagline:
We've always believed we weren't alone. Pretty soon, we'll wish we were.
Cast
Will Smith - Captain Steven Hiller
Bill Pullman - President Thomas J. Whitmore
Jeff Goldblum - David Levinson
Mary McDonnell - First Lady Marilyn Whitmore
Judd Hirsch - Julius Levinson
Robert Loggia - General William Grey
Randy Quaid - Russell Casse
Margaret Colin - Constance Spano
Vivica A. Fox - Jasmine Dubrow
James Rebhorn - Albert Nimzicki
Harvey Fierstein - Marty Gilbert
Adam Baldwin - Major Mitchell
Brent Spiner - Dr. Brackish Okun
James Duval - Miguel Casse
Lisa Jakub - Alicia Casse
Legacy
The Katina level of the video game Star Fox 64 is a homage to the climactic
battle scene of the movie, featuring squadrons of friendly aircraft dog-fighting
swarms of alien ships beneath a giant saucer-shaped mothership. The mothership
also destroys the base by shooting a laser beam into it, like the movie, and is
destroyed by blowing up the laser emitter.
In the computer game Supreme Commander,
one of the super units, the Aeon CZAR, bears resemblance to the alien destroyer
depicted in Independence Day and has a similar city destroying energy beam similar
to the movie.
The movie, Returner was influenced by Independence Day.
In
the game Metal Slug 2, the ending is a parody of Independence Day, including the
scene when Russel Casse crashes his plane against the alien spacecraft.
In
the PC game Duke Nukem 3D Atomic Edition, a secret level in the The Birth episode
shows a monitor displaying an image of a fast-food restaurant under a floating
saucer. The floating saucer has a blue beam going down from the very center down
to the restaurant, in an obvious reference to Independence Day.
In the multi-platform
video game Shadow the Hedgehog, one of the many routes contains a scene in which
Space Colony ARK fires its Eclipse Cannon at the game's version of the White House.
After it strikes the building, the explosion dstroys the rest of Central City
a 'la Independence Day.
In the strategy video game Command & Conquer 3:
Tiberium Wars, the Scrin mothership is similar to the UFO in the movie as it slowly
floats over to a building followed by a glowing charge and a powerful ray of destruction
that ripples from the point of contact and eliminates everything around it.
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