Independence Day (1996) | Sci-Fi Saturdays

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Good thing the aliens didn’t show up on Memorial Day.

Independence Day is a classic reinvigoration of the epic disaster film, but with a science-fiction bent. It featured many prominent actors, skyrocketing the careers of some of the younger actors afterwards. It also launched a revised interest in sci-fi disaster films for the 90s and beyond. This is our Independence Day!

First Impressions

The trailer shows scientists finally getting proof that there is extraterrestrial life. As the world, and specifically America is processing that, a group of alien ships enter the Earth’s atmosphere and begin blowing up the White House, the Capitol and buildings in New York as people run and flee. A variety of characters are shown dealing with this invasion, including Will Smith as an Air Force Captain. Independence Day is The War of The Worlds reimagined for the end of the 20th Century!

Presented below is the trailer for the film.

The Fiction of The Film

On July 2nd, SETI in New Mexico picks up a signal near Earth’s moon and relays the information to Space Command at the Pentagon. General Grey (Robert Loggia) informs the Secretary of Defense (James Rebhorn) who informs President Whitmore (Bill Pullman). He has been busy with normal Presidential issues, like arguing with his Communications Director Constance Spano (Margaret Colin) about his portrayal as soft by the media, and dealing with his wife Marilyn (Mary McDonnel) and daughter Patricia (Mae Whitman). Alien ships, 15 miles across, begin appearing around the globe over major cities. In New York City, David Levinson (Jeff Goldblum), an MIT graduate working as a satellite technician at a Cable Broadcast Channel, decodes a countdown in the static created by the ships.

In Imperial Valley, CA, Russell Casse (Randy Quaid), a drunken crop dusting pilot, claims to have been abducted by aliens years ago, much to the dismay of his children Miguel (James Duval), Alicia (Lisa Jakub), & Troy (Giuseppe Andrews). In Los Angeles, Captain Steve Hiller (Will Smith) is called back to active duty at El Toro AFB, leaving his girlfriend Jasmine (Vivica A Fox) and her son (Ross Bagley). He assures her that they didn’t come “90 billion light years to start a fight.” The President, consulting with his best and brightest, attempts to make contact, but the “Welcome Wagon” is destroyed. David, along with his father Julius (Judd Hirsch) make their way to Washington DC to warn the President via David’s ex-wife Constance.

The warning comes too late, and only a few people manage to evacuate as the ships destroy the major cities on Earth, including Los Angeles, New York and DC. The next day, the world is in ruins. The survivors try to hold themselves together, including a critically wounded First Lady, who is found by Jasmine. A group of fighter jets from El Toro attack the Los Angeles ship, but the alien force fields deflect the missiles, and they lose many of their numbers. Captain Hiller crashes in the desert after taking out one of the smaller fighter crafts, and manages to capture the unconscious alien. He hitches a ride with Russell and family, who are now part of a large RV convoy driving across the desert.

Hiller directs them to a military base he saw as he was crashing, which happens to be Area 51. The President, already having been made aware of the secret alien research project, is getting a tour of the facility from Dr. Okun (Brent Spiner), when Hiller arrives with the alien. David predicts only 36 hours until worldwide destruction, so President Whitmore asks the alien for a peaceful end to hostilities. The creature uses ESP to attack the President and let them know that there will be no peace, just before Major Mitchell (Adam Baldwin) and others, shoot it dead. The President makes the difficult decision to use nuclear weapons on the alien ships, but they too are blocked by the force fields. Steve is reunited with Jasmine who has returned with the First Lady, but Marilyn soon dies of her injuries leaving her husband grieving.

Early in the morning on July 4th, David gets the idea to use a computer virus to disable the alien force fields. They have been studying the captive alien fighter at Area 51 and think they can use it to deliver the payload to the Mother Ship, which will in turn distribute it to the various ships around the world. Steve and David volunteer to pilot the craft. Meanwhile, using morse code to communicate with various military groups around the world, the President organizes every available pilot for a coordinated attack on the alien ships. Russell volunteers to fly with the President, who is ready to literally fight for his country.

The President gives a rousing speech and begins the offensive. David and Steve are guided into the Mother Ship, and using a 1995-era Apple Powerbook 5300, upload a computer virus, disabling the shields on the various ships around the globe. They drop a nuke inside the ship and escape before it explodes. Above Area 51 the shields go down, but the missiles are not enough. Russell, who wants payback for the alien abduction he experienced, sacrifices himself by flying his plane into the weapons aperture starting a chain reaction that destroys the entire ship. The information is quickly transmitted to other squadrons as alien ships are brought down around the globe. All the surviving characters regroup at Area 51, watching the 4th of July fireworks mixed with smoldering alien wreckage. Happy Independence Day!

“Welcome to Earth!” – Captain Steve Hiller

History in the Making

Independence Day was not the first film from writer Dean Devlin and director Roland Emmerich, but it was the film that put them on the map for most people. This was the fourth collaboration between two and the third film of theirs featured on Sci-Fi Saturdays. The previous films, Moon 44, Universal Soldier, and Stargate, each got better than the ones before them, progressing the scope, action, and characters in their films. Independence Day was the biggest of all. Marketed as ID4, this film was a return to the classic disaster epics from the 70s including Airport, Earthquake, The Towering Inferno, and The Poseidon Adventure. While these older films took inspiration from real-life disasters like the crash of the Hindenburg or the Titanic, the new wave of films mixed science-fiction with disaster plots, sometimes throwing in natural disasters instead of aliens.

The film marked the biggest success for the duo, even with future films, many of which fell into the same classification. They created an American release of Godzilla, plus other disaster films The Day After Tomorrow, 2012, and the recent so-bad-it’s-good, Moonfall. No other film of theirs has captured the box-office receipts or the imagination of the movie-going public. Perhaps releasing a film that celebrates freedom and the American Independence Day on the July 4th weekend was a sure fire success? It featured enough actors that almost any movie goer could enjoy at least part of the film with someone they recognized or were a fan of. Jeff Goldblum, who was hot off the hit film (a disaster epic of sorts itself) Jurassic Park. Brent Spiner in one of his few roles not as Lt. Commander Data in Star Trek. And of course Will Smith. ID4 solidified the film career of Smith after his excellent turn in Six Degrees of Separation and his action-hit (full of Bay-hem) Bad Boys. His future in sci-fi action films would continue with the Men in Black trilogy, I, Robot, After Earth, and Gemini Man. Independence Day also holds the record for the most miniatures built for any one Hollywood film. As the film sat on the cusp of the physical and digital ages, it featured work from both types of visual effects, but used as many practical effects as it could, holding a record that may live forever.

Genre-fication

It’s hard to say if Independence Day really breaks any new ground. It’s more like a film that brings back elements from older films, modernizing them and repackaging them for present day audiences. So, it’s not like Star Wars in that aspect, since what George Lucas did was assemble elements from disparate genres together to make his space opera. Independence Day is a sci-fi take on the disaster genre from twenty years previous. This modern alien invasion film opens very much like the television mini-series from the previous decade, V: The Miniseries. The look of the giant, saucer-like ships over major cities, and the interplay between various types of characters create a similar vibe. That’s where the similarities stop, however. In V, the Visitors attempt to take over the world through deceit, ingratiating themselves into our society, as humanity welcomes its oppressors with open arms. Independence Day reimagines itself as a modern take on classic alien invasion sci-fi films like Earth vs The Flying Saucers, The Day the Earth Stood Still (referenced directly on an on-screen TV in David’s office), and of course, The War of the Worlds.

The parallels to the classic 1953 adaptation of the HG Wells story are relatively obvious. In that film, the Martians invasion, limited in scope if only due to budget constraints, is happening all over the world, but only seen in part in the Los Angeles area. As things get more dire with the attacking aliens the fighting suddenly halts as the Martians begin falling dead–defeated by the common cold. Independence Day tells the same tale, except with an expanded scope, a cast of much larger size, and a computer virus instead of a physical one.

The film also set the stage for other disaster films to come. Two months prior to the release of Independence Day, the Jan de Bont thriller Twister was released (these types of movies always come in pairs, you know). The following year saw the release of two more natural disaster films, Dante’s Peak and Volcano, and 1998 saw the death-from-above thrillers Deep Impact and Armageddon. It’s almost as if the film taught filmmakers and audience how to make and enjoy disaster films again. As mentioned above, Emmerich and Devlin would go on to make more sci-fi disaster films, which would co-mingle with titles like Titanic, Skyscraper, San Andreas, Geostorm, and of course Sharknado!

Societal Commentary

While Independence Day is a thrilling and fun ride it’s also a film that reminds audiences about the cooperation needed in times of disaster. The film creates an element of hope and community with all of these disparate stories and characters coming together to help each other. David and his ex-wife reunite to help save the world, even though they have grown apart. Jasmine, the exotic dancer, finds and helps a random injured woman (who turns out to be the First Lady). Russell sacrifices his life to earn the respect of his kids, and get some payback against the aliens. These are all the basic tropes of these disaster films. The coming together of various types of people, some who clearly are not from the same social circles or countries even, and having them work together.

ID4 also continues some of the blatant messaging that has popped up in previous Emmerich films. The first is a no-smoking PSA given by David towards his father, who smokes giant cigars. Both Universal Soldier and Stargate have short moments similar to this. The film does turn this on its head for comedy during the final act, as David accepts a cigar from Steve, when they believe they’ll be killed while aboard the alien Mother Ship. The film also has a strong (yet blatant) environmental message, as David continually chastises people for not recycling their aluminum cans or other messages about saving the Earth. But one of the strongest messages about war, especially modern warfare, is the President’s decision to use nuclear weapons against the aliens. Nimzicki urges the use of nukes early on, even though Whitmore wants to limit civilian casualties. It ends up being a difficult and momentous moment for the President to make that decision. A lot more difficult at least than Nimzicki’s thought process.

And that brings discussion around to the other character type that appears in these films: the opportunist. There are usually a couple variations on that character. One can be the person that uses the disaster for personal gain. One might be a fear monger or even a nay-sayer, who dismisses the seriousness of the events. In Independence Day that character is Albert Nimzicki, the Secretary of Defense. He is a politician, continuing to play up the worst character traits of that stereotype. He is opportunistic and also scared by the threat the aliens provide, using his job and the President as an excuse to continue being a jerk. Eventually he is fired, which is as close to getting a comeuppance in this film. Usually these characters die a gruesome death as their own hubris, greed, or fear get the better of them.

The Science in The Fiction

If you can really get into this film, for example with a crowd of excited fans, you might not realize that Jeff Goldblum uses what was a top of the line Apple Laptop to connect to an alien network, and upload a computer virus. It’s really an exciting moment, but also one of those “what were they thinking” moments too. While Apple computers have always been the cool kid in the computer store, they’re not necessarily (and definitely not in 1996) known for their ability as serious computing laptops. This is all being said while typing on a Mac PowerBook, so please–I understand! I think the point of that moment, which is the goal of any of these types of action films, is to get the audience so engrossed with the story that this moment seems totally plausible, if not a little exciting. Please also disregard that the aliens would use any of the connection strings or protocols that were prominent in the mid-90s. Just assume that Jeff Goldblum is a master hacker!

Additionally, aliens are stupid. This is the message from several 90s films. Both Independence Day and The Phantom Menace have the exact same plot point for disabling the alien ships: knock out the communications hub and everything else connected to it falls dead. This is a reason not to wire your alien ships in series, but in parallel instead. These creatures came millions of light years, have powerful laser beams, giant ships, and can communicate telepathically, yet they can’t protect their network or create autonomous shield generators. Lucky for humans that aliens are dumb.

The Final Frontier

Twenty years after the film first debuted, a sequel called Independence Day: Resurgence was released. It had a number of returning characters, but not all were played by the original actors. The major returning actors were Jeff Goldblum, Bill Pullman, Judd Hirsch, Vivica Fox, Robert Loggia and Brent Spiner, with a number of new actors playing the adult version of some of the kids from the first film. While it was an anticipated sequel by fans of the original, and part of a planned series of ID4 films, it did underwhelmingly at the box office, and no further films have been produced since then.

While there were no other filmed sequels, Independence Day did spawn a series of five books, two comics series, over a dozen computer games, and even a pair of theme park rides in Malaysia. The love for the film comes in many ways, with some fans loving the campiness of the film, while others appreciate the action and heart. For many it’s become an annual tradition to watch it on the Fourth of July, as a celebratory film that’s just a lot of fun.

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