Independence Day (1996 film)

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

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

Considered a significant turning point in the history of the Hollywood blockbuster, ''Independence Day'' was at the forefront of the large-scale disaster film and sci-fi resurgence of the mid-late 1990s. It was released worldwide on July 3, 1996, but began showing on July 2 (the same day the film's story begins) in original release as a result of a high level of anticipation among moviegoers. The film received mixed reviews, with praise for the performances, musical score and visual effects but criticism for its characters. It grossed over $817.4 million worldwide, becoming the highest-grossing film of 1996 and the second-highest-grossing film ever at the time, behind ''Jurassic Park'' (1993). The film won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Sound.

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

Plot

On July 2, 1996, an enormous extraterrestrial mothership enters Earth's orbit and deploys multiple saucers, each wide, over major cities worldwide, including New York City, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C..

U.S. Marine Captain Steven Hiller and his unit, the Black Knights fighter squadron out of MCAS El Toro, are called-back from fourth of July liberty to defend Los Angeles; his girlfriend, Jasmine Dubrow, decides to flee the city with her son, Dylan. In New York City, David Levinson, an MIT-trained satellite technician, decodes a signal embedded within global satellite transmissions, realizing it is the aliens' countdown for a coordinated attack. With help from his ex-wife, White House Communications Director Constance Spano, David and his father Julius reach the Oval Office and alert President Thomas Whitmore.

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

On July 3, counterattacks against the invaders are thwarted by the alien warships' force fields. Each saucer launches a swarm of shielded fighters which decimate the human fighter squadrons and military bases. Captain Hiller's entire squadron is wiped-out, including his best friend and wingman Jimmy. Hiller lures an enemy fighter into the Grand Canyon before ejecting from his plane, bringing down the alien fighter using his parachute and causing the fighter to crash in the Mojave Desert. He subdues the downed alien and flags down a convoy of refugees, transporting the alien to Area 51, where Whitmore's group has landed.

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

Whitmore reluctantly authorizes a trial nuclear attack against a saucer above Houston, but the ship survives. Jasmine and Dylan commandeer a highway maintenance truck and rescue a handful of survivors, including a critically injured First Lady Marilyn Whitmore. Though they are found by Hiller and taken to Area 51, Marilyn dies shortly after being reunited with her family.

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

Hiller marries Jasmine with David and Constance in attendance before Hiller and David leave on the mission. Entering the mothership, they upload the virus and deploy a nuclear missile, destroying it and the aliens' reinforcements. With the aliens' shields deactivated, Whitmore's squadron combat the enemy fighters, but exhaust their ammunition before they can destroy the saucer. As the saucer prepares to fire on the base, Russell's last missile is unable to fire; he sacrifices himself by crashing into the saucer's weapon, destroying the warship. Military forces worldwide are notified of the alien ships' critical weakness and destroy the others. As humanity rejoices, Hiller and Levinson reunite with their families.

Cast

* Will Smith as Captain Steven Hiller, a Marine F/A-18 pilot with the Black Knight squadron at MCAS El Toro and aspiring astronaut. The role was originally offered to Ethan Hawke but he turned it down as he thought the script was terrible. Devlin and Emmerich had always envisioned an African-American for the role, and specifically wanted Smith after seeing his performance in ''Six Degrees of Separation''.
* Bill Pullman as President Thomas J. Whitmore, a former fighter pilot and Gulf War veteran. To prepare for the role, Pullman read Bob Woodward's ''The Commanders'' and watched the documentary film ''The War Room''.
* Jeff Goldblum as David Levinson, an MIT-educated satellite engineer and technological expert.
* Mary McDonnell as First Lady Marilyn Whitmore, the wife of Thomas Whitmore.
* Judd Hirsch as Julius Levinson, David Levinson's father. The character was based on one of Dean Devlin's uncles.DVD commentary
* Robert Loggia as General William Grey, USMC, the Commandant of the United States Marine Corps. Loggia modeled the character after World War II generals, particularly George S. Patton.
* Randy Quaid as Russell Casse, an eccentric, alcoholic former fighter pilot and Vietnam War veteran. He insists that he was abducted by the aliens during work on aerial application ten years prior to the film's events, shortly after completing his military service.
* Margaret Colin as Constance Spano, Whitmore's White House Communications Director and David Levinson's ex-wife.
* Vivica A. Fox as Jasmine Dubrow, Steven Hiller's girlfriend and mother of Dylan Dubrow.
* James Rebhorn as Albert Nimzicki, the Secretary of Defense and, as former CIA Director, is a member of a governmental faction who are aware of the aliens' existence due to the ship recovered at Roswell. Not well-liked, lying, arrogant, selfish, and crooked, Nimzicki embodies the stereotypical corrupt politician, and his ambition is to be elected as president himself and often at odds with idealists such as Whitmore and Grey. Rebhorn described the character as being much like Oliver North. The character's eventual firing lampoons Joe Nimziki, MGM's head of advertising, who made life unpleasant for Devlin and Emmerich when studio executives forced recuts of ''Stargate''.
* Harvey Fierstein as Marty Gilbert, David Levinson's coworker at Compact Cable Television Company.
* Adam Baldwin as Major Mitchell, USAF, Area 51's commanding officer and thus a member of a governmental faction who are aware of the aliens' existence. During the interstellar war, he becomes a trusted ally to Thomas Whitmore's party.
* Brent Spiner as Dr. Brackish Okun, the unkempt and highly excitable scientist in charge of research at Area 51. The character's appearance and verbal style are based upon those of visual effects supervisor Jeffrey A. Okun, with whom Emmerich had worked on ''Stargate''.
* James Duval as Miguel Casse, the oldest son of Russell Casse.
* Bill Smitrovich as Lt. Colonel Watson, the commanding officer of the Black Knights.
* Harry Connick Jr. as Marine Captain Jimmy Wilder, fellow fighter pilot and friend of Steven. Connick took over the role from Matthew Perry who was originally cast in the role.
* Mae Whitman as Patricia Whitmore, the daughter of President Thomas J. Whitmore and First Lady Marilyn Whitmore.
''digitallyobsessed.com''. Retrieved July 8, 2008.
* Ross Bagley as Dylan Dubrow, Jasmine Dubrow's son and Steven Hiller's stepson.
* Lisa Jakub as Alicia Casse, the daughter of Russell Casse.
* Giuseppe Andrews as Troy Casse, the son of Russell Casse.
* Gary Hecker as alien vocal effects.
* Frank Welker as special vocal effects.

Production

Development

The idea for the film came when Emmerich and Devlin were in Europe promoting their film ''Stargate''. A reporter asked Emmerich why he made a film with content like ''Stargate'' if he did not believe in aliens. Emmerich stated he was still fascinated by the idea of an alien arrival, and further explained his response by asking the reporter to imagine what it would be like to wake up one morning and to discover 15-mile-wide spaceships were hovering over the world's largest cities. Emmerich then turned to Devlin and said, "I think I have an idea for our next film."Aberly and Engel 1996, p. 8.The 1996 Summer Movie Preview: July
''Entertainment Weekly''. Retrieved July 8, 2008.

Emmerich and Devlin decided to expand on the idea by incorporating a large-scale attack, with Devlin saying he was bothered by the fact that "for the most part, in alien invasion movies, they come down to Earth and they're hidden in some back field … they arrive in little spores and inject themselves into the back of someone's head."Aberly and Engel 1996, p. 93. Emmerich agreed by asking Devlin if arriving from across the galaxy, "would you hide on a farm or would you make a big entrance?" The two wrote the script during a month-long vacation in Mexico, and just one day after they sent it out for consideration, 20th Century Fox chairman Peter Chernin greenlit the screenplay. Pre-production began just three days later in February 1995. The U.S. military originally intended to provide personnel, vehicles, and costumes for the film; however, they backed out when the producers refused to remove the script's Area 51 references.

A then-record 3,000-plus special effects shots would ultimately be required for the film. The shoot utilized on-set, in-camera special effects more often than computer-generated effects in an effort to save money and get more authentic pyrotechnic results. Many of these shots were accomplished at Hughes Aircraft in Culver City, California, where the film's art department, motion control photography teams, pyrotechnics team, and model shop were headquartered. The production's model-making department built more than twice as many miniatures for the production than had ever been built for any film before by creating miniatures for buildings, city streets, aircraft, landmarks, and monuments.Aberly and Engel 1996, p. 72. The crew also built miniatures for several of the spaceships featured in the film, including a destroyer model and a version of the mother ship spanning . City streets were recreated, then tilted upright beneath a high-speed camera mounted on a scaffolding filming downwards. An explosion would be ignited below the model, and flames would rise towards the camera, engulfing the tilted model and creating the rolling "wall of destruction" look seen in the film. A model of the White House was also created, covering by , and was used in forced-perspective shots before being destroyed in a similar fashion for its destruction scene.Aberly and Engel 1996, p. 82. The detonation took a week to plan and required 40 explosive charges.

The film's aliens were designed by production designer Patrick Tatopoulos. The actual aliens in the film are diminutive and based on a design Tatopoulos drew when tasked by Emmerich to create an alien that was "both familiar and completely original". These creatures wear "bio-mechanical" suits that are based on another design Tatopoulos pitched to Emmerich. These suits were tall, equipped with 25 tentacles, and purposely designed to show it could not sustain a person inside so it would not appear to be a "man in a suit".Aberly and Engel 1996, p. 91.

Christopher Weaver, founder of video game publisher Bethesda Softworks consulted with the movie's production team, Centropolis Films, and provided scientific collaboration. Dean Devlin used Weaver as the basis for the film character David Levinson.

Filming

Principal photography began on July 28, 1995, in New York City. A second unit gathered plate shots and establishing shots of Manhattan, Washington, D.C., an RV community in Flagstaff, Arizona, and the Very Large Array on the Plains of San Agustin, New Mexico. The main crew also filmed in nearby Cliffside Park, New Jersey

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