Independence Day
Tags: mystery, stupid, cult, humor, action, tragedy, suspenseful

Plot synopsis:
On July 2, a giant alien mothership, over 340 miles in diameter (550 km) enters orbit around Earth and deploys several dozen saucer-shaped "destroyer" spacecraft, each 15 miles (24 km) in width. The destroyers take positions over many of Earth's major cities, including New York, Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles. David Levinson (Jeff Goldblum), an MIT-graduate working for a cable company in New York City, discovers hidden satellite transmissions which he believes is a timer counting down to a coordinated attack by the aliens. With the help of his ex-wife Constance Spano (Margaret Colin), a White House staffer, David and his father Julius (Judd Hirsch) gain entrance into the Oval Office to warn President Thomas J. Whitmore (Bill Pullman) of the impending attack. The President immediately orders large-scale evacuations of the targeted U.S. cities, but the aliens attack with advanced directed energy weapons before the evacuations could be completed. The President, his young daughter, portions of his staff, Constance and the Levinsons narrowly escape aboard Air Force One as a destroyer lays waste to Washington D.C.On July 3, the United States conducts a coordinated counterattack; the movie follows the Black Knights, a squadron of Marine Corps F/A-18 Hornets from El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, as they participate in an assault on the destroyer that has devastated the city of Los Angeles. Their weapons fail to penetrate the craft's force field, and it responds by releasing scores of smaller "attacker" ships which are similarly shielded and armed with high-energy torpedoes. One-sided dogfights ensue. Captain Steven Hiller (Will Smith) manages to evade the guns of the attacker ships and lures a single attacker to the Grand Canyon. There, as his jet is about out of fuel and the attacker is about to overtake him, he deploys the landing chute for his jet and it drapes across the alien craft, temporarily disorienting the pilot. Captain Hiller then ejects from his jet. The alien crashes into the top of the canyon wall and lands in the desert. Captain Hiller parachutes to a landing close by and angrily marches over to find and confront whatever life form is in the alien craft. The door to the alien fighter craft pops open and a very bizarre looking creature with tentacles appears. Captain Hiller delivers a right cross and knocks the creature out, saying "Welcome to Earth!!" He sits down and smokes a victory cigar.As Hiller is using his parachute to drag the body of the alien across the desert, he is picked up by Russell Casse (Randy Quaid), a crop-duster pilot who is traveling across the desert with his kids and a group of refugees in a convoy of RVs. From there they take the captured alien to Area 51, commanded by Major Mitchell (Adam Baldwin). Area 51 also happens to be where the President and his remaining staff have landed. Area 51 conceals a top secret facility housing a repaired attacker ship and three dead alien bodies. Attempts have been underway since the late 1960s to repair the attacker ship. Upon arrival of the alien Mother Ship, the controls for the attacker have become activated.When lead scientist Dr. Brackish Okun (Brent Spiner) removes an outer "bio-mechanical" suit from the alien, the living being inside is revealed. The creature regains consciousness and kills Dr. Okun and the examining crew, and because it has no vocal cords, it makes use of Dr. Okun's voice to communicate with President Whitmore, who is outside the glass windows of the operating room. Its first words are "Release me." President Whitmore poses a question to the alien, asking if the people of Earth & their invaders can live in peace. The creature says "No." When the President asks the creature what it wants them to do, it responds, "Die." It then uses its telepathic powers to immobilize the President and fling him to the ground. The military personnel then shoot the alien through the glass, with Major Mitchell stepping through the broken glass and delivering a final head shot.During the instant that President Whitmore was immobilized, he was able to read the thoughts of the alien and learned of their plan: they attack planets, use up the resources, kill the life forms, then move on. President Whitmore now issues very clear orders to "nuke the bastards."B-2 Spirit bombers are deployed, with the first destroyer targeted one that is hovering over a deserted Houston, TX. The weapon explodes, but proves ineffective at penetrating the craft's force field and destroys the city instead; as a result, the President orders the remaining bombers called back.President Whitmore and his daughter are reunited with the First Lady, Marilyn Whitmore (Mary McDonnell) at Area 51. Mrs. Whitmore had been on a working trip to Los Angeles and got caught up in the destroyer attack there. Captain Hiller's exotic dancer girlfriend, Jasmine (Vivica A. Fox), rescues the First Lady when she comes across the wreckage of the helicopter the First Lady had been attempting to escape in. Captain Hiller later locates Jasmin, her son Dillon, and the First Lady camped out in the remains of El Toro MCAS and flew them in a helicopter to Area 51. A doctor tells the President that his wife has uncontrollable internal bleeding. When the President goes in to see her, he says, "The doctors say you're gonna be just fine." She smiles and responds softly, "Liar." She dies not long after that.On July 4, President Whitmore's nerves are understandably frayed, so when Secretary of Defense Nimzicki (James Rebhorn) criticizes his decisions and actions, President Whitmore fires him on the spot.David Levinson suggests a plan that involves using the newly operable attacker to gain access to the interior of the alien mothership in space in order to introduce a computer virus that will disable the protective shields around the destroyers and attackers. Once the computer virus takes effect, nuclear weapons would be used to destroy the mothership. Hiller volunteers to be pilot the attacker, with Levinson accompanying him to upload the virus.With satellite communications knocked out, the Americans must use Morse code to coordinate an attack with the remaining forces around the world, timed to occur when the invaders' shields are set to fail. With their military pilots at a low number to pilot all available aircraft, the battle requires several volunteers, including President Whitmore and Russell, who both have previous combat flight experience.Hiller and Levinson successfully reach the mothership and implant the virus. President Whitmore leads the American jet fighters against the alien destroyer approaching Area 51. Although the aliens now lack shields, the fighters' supply of missiles are quickly exhausted against the colossal craft and its large complement of assault ships. The underside of the alien craft opens up as its directed energy weapon prepares to fire on the base.The President fires a missile at the cannon but it connects and explodes with a protective hatch. Just as the squadron is informed that all their missiles have been fired, Russell Casse radios in saying he has one final rocket. As he launches it, his firing mechanism jams; he decides to pilot his aircraft into the alien weapon in a kamikaze attack. The explosion causes a chain reaction which annihilates the ship. 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 soon after the duo escape. Hiller and Levinson are caught up in the aftereffects of the mothership's explosion, but are able to return to earth unharmed, crash-landing the alien fighter in the desert close to Area 51. The film ends as the everyone watches debris from the mothership enter the atmosphere like shooting stars.

Review: Independence Day is the sort of film that's best appreciated on a big screen, preferably a massive great plasma television that is so huge you had to cut the roof off your house and get airlifted in by helicopters just to get it in the living room.
That's right folks, it's an Americans Save The World movie, complete with a snapshot of British officers drinking tea in the desert and waiting for those silly yanks to get a bally move on and show us what to do.Needless to say, this is blockbuster entertainment through and through.
I don't usually comment on this, I don't like to portray a movie as being good or bad just on my opinion, as everyone has their own tastes and needs when it comes to cinema.
This film is just damn good fun to watch...the explosions, the suspense, the cheesy one-liners...its not trying to tell you that aliens are coming to blow the s**t of of us...its entertainment.
Will Smith got "jiggy with it" as a hotshot F/A-18 pilot in the movie; Randy Quaid (the older brother of Dennis Quaid) proved to be the comic relief; Bill Pullman's character transformed from a President with the problem of a nation into a reborn veteran; and Jeff Goldblum became more brilliant than ever!
The American President is not just the only world leader fighting for a free world, he even moonlights as a fighter pilot attacking the aliens.However, its still a damn entertaining film.
The rest of the ensemble cast includes small but meaty roles for Judd Hirsch, Randy Quaid and Vivica Fox. Harry Connick Jr. has a small part but blows it completely.The things that make ID4 watching is that something is always going on.
Lobotomy Day. Here's the plot of this story: Aliens in (what else?) flying saucers come to earth to take no prisoners and to destroy our major cities in seconds.
Even the dog didn't die!Now, here comes three Americans to the rescue: a moronic wisecracker, a drunkard, a U.S. President who looks like a used-car salesman that just turned 30, and, of course, a brilliant scientist who nobody knows is brilliant!In a few hours, the scientist has it all figured out: create a computer virus and put it into the mainframe in the mother ship!
Followed by Twilight Zone and Star Trek tying for second and third place.While there's no accounting for taste in art, I can make reasoned arguments for my choices.The people here on IMDb who hate this movie and provide negative comments probably have their reasons too, but mostly they say stupid things.
The plot is so much like War of the Worlds, with more sky battles and aliens, that you may feel that it is just another remake under the same title.But Roland Emmerich (the director) deserves to be called the undisputed king of action movies - he beautifully directs his films, and the special effects and sound in his films are truly stunning.
This was his biggest success, and deservedly so - though The Day after Tomorrow was just as spiffing.The script ain't strong and the plot ain't great, but this is an action-epic film, and on that scale, Independence Day delivers.
).  Man, what a puke !The fun thing about it, was that this movie gave a bigger contribute to create a bad image of America abroad than the whole RAMBO series put together instead !And talk about predictiblity !
It's so stupid, illogical, mediocre, poor, senseless, that it makes a simple cartoon the best thing to see as substitute.I saw it to make a favor to my friend, ever regret to make this mistake, so great that today I must yet regret it....I only remember that people in the cinema after 10 minutes of this movie laughed because of the high stupidity of it.This movie is only a scam against public which circumvents by the ignorance besides taking advantage of naive people...The power of marketing...
The "but the special effects were excellent" crowd loved this one, as did the "I don't like to think during a movie...
That world contains a lot more of countries, it might be fun for an american to see all their most important buildings blown up, and to see their president saving all the helpless rest of mankind, but for people not living there, it's a little (well, VERY) boring...
Even as a young adult, I found this to bee too stupid to be entertaining.Of course, I don't live in Hollywood - wait, I did then...for a few months.However, this movie is so full of American propaganda that it hurt my head to watch it.From beginning to end and everywhere in between, this movie was just a nasty mess.Apart from all the flaws that you read on every other post, this made the USA look so bad in the eyes of other nations that instead of promoting the country to something of a hero, it made the US look like a total mess of self serving, egoistic, glory hungry retards.Why had the President and the US Armed Forces not try to contact any other nation's leaders in trying to overcome the aliens?
I think it's a tragedy!Silly American propaganda (we are the best, we can even beat aliens, our president can fly without a plane or with it, yeehaw, lol...as good old JMac would say 'you can not be serious'.but, hey it's all about the money I guess.
I remember seeing the ads for this movie before it was released, and even a well-polished advertising campaign could not hide the schlockiness of it all.The dialogue is completely forgettable, the plot is thin and obvious, and even if you can suspend your beliefs and assume that an Apple laptop computer can do all of the stunts that Jeff Goldblum's character's computer can do and that a crop duster suffering from chronic post-traumatic stress disorder (Randy Quaid) can learn how to fly late 20th century state-of-the-art military planes basically by instinct, there is one final piece of posturing that is too much to take.
Oh, yeah, I almost forgot about that incident back in 2003...oops...my bad.The reason I am even giving this film 4/10 is for one, the special effects are impressive in a movie that has precious little else going for it.
I'm just glad that Will Smith got to showcase what he is really capable of the following year when he starred in a quality film about alien life on earth, "Men in Black"..
This movie is filled with blatant, in- your-face flaws, inconsistencies and laughably unrealistic scenes and eventsAnyone who has ever passed pre-school intro science, or has even the slightest knowledge of physics, computers or military tactics will immediately recognize the holes peppered throughout this sadly impossible script and story.It's too bad America is so pathetically educated that people actually bought into this trash.
Without going on a tirade about "alien paranoia"- that is, the belief that extra terrestrial life forms are always hostile and want to steal our planet- I'll just say this: to say that the "Melissa" or the "I Love You" virus would be effective against their technology would be like saying that a couple of guys armed with pea shooters could take out an entire Panzer tank division.Don't waste your time with this.
Watch an intelligent sci-fi movie, like "2001: A Space Odyssey", or "Contact." Films like that make you think; ID4 makes you want to sink back in the lazyboy, crack open another beer, and say "Hot dang, we kicked some alien a**!".
I had completely forgotten about the AWFUL mess known as Independence Day until I saw Men In Black II and I remembered that Will Smith also starred in this film.
Roland Emmerich is a terrible director, (Stargate, Godzilla, and the goofy Mel Gibson film The Patriot amoung his credits) but none are as truly bad as Independence Day was.This film rips off those cheesy Ed Wood science fiction films so badly I had to leave the theater before it ended.
(Can you believe it won an oscar for special effects, even over the terrific work done by ILM on Twister!)The success of Independence Day is summed up by one word: HYPE, it was the hype, just as in the case of the similarly awful Titanic, that got people into theaters nothing more.
The film has the usual news on Earth, like all invasion flicks, having the news spread, starting from a small organization investigating extraterrestrial activity, then to the military, who then phone calls The White House, giving it full news to President Thomas Whitmore (Bill Pullman), who obviously remembers Michael Douglas' president performance in THE American PRESIDENT (but I didn't say lampoon), who stares in a moment of shock and disbelief.Before the sight of the alien spaceship hovering above the cities around the world, we first get a glimpse of the many characters in the film.
And we also get a suspenseful sequence of an alien in laboratory (Talk about a close encounter), INDEPENDENCE DAY doesn't fail when it comes to a good visual feast.
Admittedly, some of the effects are cheesy, seeing how much CGI has improved over the years, but they still provide an eye-filling experience.INDEPENDENCE DAY runs for a long 145 minutes, but director Roland Emmerich fills it with lots of fun and excitement, it just seems to pass by.
As for the special effects, they did look good when I first saw the movie, but they do not make up for the bad story line and bad acting.
Limited character development and an uncomplicated plot result in a one-shot movie.The best performances in Independence Day are the semi-comedic ones (note the actors mentioned above.
I told this to some of my American friends, but none of them believed me.Please inform this to everyone, let me save the honor of a good director with wonderful movies such as...such as.....??..never mind..
Unless you bring tissues don't waste your time, too many sensitive moments to ignore to see the actual premise of the movie, which was only about 45 minutes of this never-ending film..
Unfortunately even though I have read 100's of brilliant sci-fi novels that would make great films someone thought this would be a better choice, though it can't have originated from a book...not a novel at least...perhaps a comic.This is Hollywood moguls at their worst, a few "big names" with special effect overload to make up for any depth.Come on boys, there are plenty of great books just waiting to be turned into screenplays (there have been quite a few better attempts recently)...give us the public some credence of intelligence please!!!!!.
The americans in the movie act like they've never come near the word intelligence."Yeah, we have this really really really really awesome huge big spaceship.
There's no way you can watch this movie and not think that the special effects alone are worth it.
Soon they realize that it is originated from the Moon by a huge spacecraft that brings other ones that are positioned over the major cities on Earth including Washington, New York and Los Angeles and governments do not know the purpose of the alien force.The scientist David Levinson (Jeff Goldblum) discovers that the aliens are preparing the invasion of Earth, destroying the human species, and he succeeds in reporting to the president of the United States, President Thomas J.
With an inferior technology, Whitmore and General William Grey (Robert Loggia) decide to give a chance to Levinson's plan of downloading a virus in the computer of the alien spacecraft as the last chance of Earthlings to survive.In 1996, when I saw "Independence Day" in a movie theater on the release, I liked a lot this sci-fi adventure.
Yesterday I saw it again on DVD and I found it funny and entertaining, but not as good as when I saw it for the first time.The story of an alien invasion still has great special effects, but the conclusion is lame with the idea of the virus and the nationalist speech of President Whitmore.
What an excellent, different approach to the science fiction/apocalyptic thriller genre!Spectacular special effects highlight this interesting film (the first from director Roland Emmerich) about aliens who want to take over Earth by killing its human inhabitants -- which include Bill Pullman (the U.S. President), Mary McDonnell (the First Lady), Will Smith (a fighter pilot), Jeff Goldblum (a cable man who has a lot of smarts), and Judd Hirsch (his father).The movie is not only exciting and scary, but also touching and funny (Hirsch, Smith, and Randy Quaid provide the most effective sources of comedy relief).
I don't know if I'm a typical American male, but I do like to just kick back and watch things go "BOOM" once in a while.However, if you wish to view a nice, high concept, artsy-fartsy, thought provoking, low budget, snooze-inducing talk-fest of a movie, feel free to watch some of that hokum coming out of France..
Independence Day has to be one of the best alien invasion movies released in the last quarter century.
Just saw Independence Day for the first time tonight, in 2009, 13 years after release, and I have to say it's THE worst movie ever, on so many levels it'd take an hour to touch on them all.
The lines, character development and plot details.All those old, poorly made sci-fi movies with those silly titles like "Face-Eating Tomato Girls From Mars" or whatever, are old classics, nostalgic of a more early time in movie-making or sci-fi ideas.But ID4 is a modern day effort, with hundreds of millions funding, big stars, special effects, and a studio of great writers to pick from.
Great cast with Pullman, Goldblum, Smith, Fox and Connick, Jr. One of the most entertaining and visualizing movies I have every seen.
I thought that this was the best part of the entire movie hands down,, I don't know how much was taken from fact or how much Hollywood did in embellishing the whole area 51 deal,, but it was neat to say the least,, here we find the aircraft from Rosewell New Mexico, and the Alien that came with it,, we have to learn about them if we are gonna fight them wouldn't you think, this is an excellent action adventure I thought was worth the perfect 10 rating that I gave it..
Much has been made of the flaws of this film: the cardboard cutout characters, the cheesy Hollywood storyline, the plot holes so big the alien mothership could fly through them.
Independence Day is an epic movie with a great story and characters who we can all relate too.
The special effects broke new ground on how an alien invasion could actually look like with 15 mile wide ships that cover entire cities.
I think this is a good line to begin with, because from a movie perspective I see it as a big old B film, hehe...
Independence Day is one of the weakest "science fiction" films of all time!.
Filled with horrendous special effects, terrible acting, over the top performances, and one of the most ridiculous endings of all time, I could simply not take this movie seriously one bit.
"Independence day" (ID4) is one of the most overrated films in movie history.
Here you have $100 Million plus and the best that can be produced is a braindead, stupidly simplistic, bigoted story of how wonderful the USA is and "What would the world do without us?", complete with visually impressive yet emotionally devoid special effects.Contrary to this film's premise, the rest of the world would not be sitting around twiddling their thumbs waiting for America to save the day.
And what's up with that "America is always the only Country that matters" thing?This movie deserves, IMHO, a 3 out of 10, and ONLY for the special FX, as the acting was very mediocre, too..
'Don't worry, the world is being attacked by (bad) aliens, but America (the good guys) will save the day'.
I am surprised at how many people disliked this film...giving all sorts of reasons..unrealistic, bad special effects and so on.i pity them...those people who cant watch a good movie ( and BTW..this is a good movie, despite nothing is really original, it is as another reviewer said "it has heart", beautiful words indeed), people who cant watch a movie and enjoy it, they have to criticize it from the height of their proclaimed intellectuality...this movie is all fiction so you cant judge its realism for God sake.i loved the characters, the soundtrack, everything...i felt totally motivated by the president's speech, i loved the one liners, i felt sorry for the people who died, and i was happy to see the aliens go down...i'm sad to see so many people watch a movie just to show how smart they are and bad mouth it..whatever.the people who liked this movie know what i'm talking about...as for the others...pathetic..
It may not have been as big as the hype but it was a very good movie.Firstly, I would like to give credit to the actors and actresses particularly Bill Pullman and Will Smith who were very convincing in their roles and had some great dialogue.The special effects in the movie were awesome particularly the scenes where the aliens start blowing up the city and the end battle between Earth and the aliens who are real mean looking creatures.That's all I can think of to say for this movie as I don't want to give away any plot details.
And the President's nauseating Independence Day speech was good for a laugh.Overall, this is a fun film that was the first to update the whole 'disaster' flick genre.
Independence Day is one of the worst movies ever made.
I think it says a lot about Independence Day when I state that it happens to be the 3rd best alien invasion flick of 1996 (the superior ones being Star Trek: First Contact and The Arrival).
This is just my style of reviews; I point out the good and the bad in every movie I see.So you want to hear what I liked about "Independence Day." Three words: it was fun.