Independence Day (1996)

Editor's Note With a $71 million budget and mind-blowing special effects, INDEPENDENCE DAY is a grand, high-tech throwback to such films of the 1950s as THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL and WAR OF THE WORLDS. Here, aliens, in numerous gargantuan spaceships, arrive without warning and hover over the world's most important cities, creating global panic. The nasty visitors use death rays to blow New York, Washington D.C, and Los Angeles to smithereens. A handful of plucky Americans, including the Clinton-esque President (Bill Pullman), a gung-ho fighter pilot (Will Smith) and a computer geek named David (Jeff Goldblum), attempt to devise a strategy against the invaders. On July 4th, their risky plan is put into effect, as dozens of fighter pilots (including the President) wage an assault on the spaceships. However, their success (and the fate of the world) depends on David, who is attempting to disarm the aliens's mothership.

	Bill Pullman
	Vivica A. Fox
	Judd Hirsch
	Randy Quaid
	Robert Loggia
	Mary McDonnell
	Margaret Colin
	James Duval
	Harvey Fierstein
	Harry Connick Jr.
	Jeff Goldblum
	Will Smith
	James Rebhorn
	Joseph A. Porro - Costume Designer
	Karl Walter Lindenlaub - Director of Photography
	David Brenner - Editor
	Lincoln D. Hiatt - Producer
	David Arnold - Composer
	William Fay - Producer
	Peter Winther - Producer
	Roland Emmerich - Screenwriter
	Dean Devlin - Screenwriter
	Roland Emmerich - Producer
	Patrick Tatopoulos - Production Designer
	Ute Emmerich - Producer
	Oliver Scholl - Production Designer
	Dean Devlin - Producer
	Roland Emmerich - Director

INDEPENDENCE DAY is a pyrotechnic, futuristic, disaster, action mondo-adventure about aliens attacking Earth and humans giving them the big boot. When mountain-sized flying saucers open fire on the world's cities, a ragtag band of colorful characters sets out to bring the alien critters to their pseudopodic knees. Borrowing liberally from science fiction classics like WAR OF THE WORLDS and THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL and a host of disaster movies from TOWERING INFERNO to METEOR, ID4 maintains a mindless mission to entertain with dazzling special effects and unabashed feel-good charm. Academy Award Nominations: Best Sound, Best Visual Effects. Academy Awards: Best Visual Effects.

"You know how I'm always trying to save the planet? Well, here's my chance." ---- David Levinson (JEFF GOLDBLUM)

"What's the rush? You think we'll get to Washington, it won't be there?" ---- Julius Levinson (JUDD HIRSCH), to his son, David Levinson (JEFF GOLDBLUM), while the two frantically drive to the capital city.

"Welcome to Earth." ---- Capt. Steven Hiller (Will Smith), after punching the daylights out of an alien who has crash--landed in Arizona.

Rolling Stone
"...For fun, fright and thrills, there's not a wilder joy ride around..." 08/08/1996 p.68

Sight and Sound
"...INDEPENDENCE DAY fulfills the promise of the movies: to deliver the audience out of the everyday and into the sensational..." 08/01/1996 p.53-4

USA Today
"...A rousing state-of-the-art cartoon capped by an aerial-combat climax..." 07/02/1996 p.1D

Entertainment Weekly
"...Witty, of-the-moment fun." -- Rating: B 08/09/1996 p.44

Variety
"...A spectacularly scaled mix of '50s-style alien invader science fiction, '70s disaster epics and all-season gung-ho military actioners..." 07/01/1996