Independence Day (1996 film)

F/A-18 Hornets of VMFA-314, "Black Knights"

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."[6][15][16]

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 …[o]r they arrive in little spores and inject themselves into the back of someone's head."[17] Emmerich agreed by asking Devlin if arriving from across the galaxy, "would you hide on a farm or would you make a big entrance?"[17] The two wrote the script during a month-long vacation in Mexico,[15] and just one day after they sent it out for consideration, 20th Century Fox chairman Peter Chernin greenlit the screenplay.[10] Pre-production began just three days later in February 1995.[6][15] 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.[6]

A then-record 3,000-plus special effects shots would ultimately be required for the film.[16] 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.[6] 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.[18] The crew also built miniatures for several of the spaceships featured in the film, including a 30-foot (9.1 m) destroyer model[19] and a version of the mother ship spanning 12 feet (3.7 m).[20] 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.[21] A model of the White House was also created, covering 10 feet (3.0 m) by 5 feet (1.5 m), and was used in forced-perspective shots before being destroyed in a similar fashion for its destruction scene.[22] The detonation took a week to plan[10] and required 40 explosive charges.[22]

A World War II training aircraft with a camera mounted on its front navigated through the walls of the Little Colorado River canyon, and the footage was used as pilot point-of-view shots.[23]

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".[24] These creatures wear "bio-mechanical" suits that are based on another design Tatopoulos pitched to Emmerich. These suits were 8 feet (2.4 m) 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".[25]

Principal photography began in July 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.[25] The main crew also filmed in nearby Cliffside Park, New Jersey before moving to the former Kaiser Steel mill in Fontana, California to film the post-attack Los Angeles sequences.[26] The production then moved to Wendover, Utah, and West Wendover, Nevada,[27] where the deserts doubled for Imperial Valley, and the Wendover Airport doubled for the El Toro and Area 51 exteriors.[28] It was here where Pullman filmed his pre-battle speech. Immediately before filming the scene, Devlin and Pullman decided to add "Today, we celebrate our Independence Day!" to the end of the speech. At the time, the production was nicknamed "ID4" because Warner Bros. owned the rights to the title because of a film from 1983 which is also called Independence Day. Devlin had hoped that if Fox executives noticed the addition in dailies, the impact of the new dialogue would help them to win the rights to the title.[6] Pullman had stated in a 2020 interview that Fox had otherwise been aiming to use Doomsday for the film's release to match with other disaster films of the time, and Devlin and Emmerich had hoped the impact of this speech scene would help win Fox over to the Independence Day name.[29] The right to use the title was eventually won two weeks later.[10]

The production team moved to the Bonneville Salt Flats to film three scenes, then returned to California to film in various places around Los Angeles, including Hughes Aircraft where sets for the cable company and Area 51 interiors were constructed at a former aircraft plant. Sets for the latter included corridors containing windows that were covered with blue material. The filmmakers originally intended to use the chroma key technique to make it appear as if an activity was happening on the other side of the glass, but the composited images were not added to the final print because production designers decided the blue panels gave the sets a "clinical look".[30] The attacker hangar set contained an attacker mockup 65 feet (20 m) wide[18] that took four months to build.[10] The White House interior sets used had already been built for The American President and had previously been used for Nixon.[22] Principal photography completed on November 3, 1995.[10]

The film initially depicted Russell Casse being rejected as a volunteer for the July 4 aerial counteroffensive because of his alcoholism. He then uses a stolen missile tied to his red biplane to carry out his suicide mission. According to Dean Devlin, test audiences responded well to the scene's irony and comedic value.[6] However, the scene was re-shot to include Russell's acceptance as a volunteer, his crash course on flying modern fighter aircraft, and him flying an F/A-18 instead of the biplane. Devlin preferred the alteration because the viewer now witnesses Russell ultimately making the decision to sacrifice his life,[6] and seeing the biplane keeping pace and flying amongst F/A-18s was "just not believable".[31] The film was officially completed on June 20, 1996.[10]

The Grammy Award-winning[32] score for the film was composed by David Arnold and recorded with an orchestra of 90, a choir of 46, "and every last ounce of stereotypical Americana he could muster for the occasion".[33] The film's producer Dean Devlin commented that "you can leave it up to a Brit to write some of the most rousing and patriotic music in the history of American cinema."[33] The soundtrack has received two official CD releases. RCA released a 50-minute album at the time of the film's release, then in 2010, La-La Land Records released a limited-edition, two-disc CD set that comprised the complete score plus 12 alternate cues.[34] The premiere of Independence Day live[35] took place at the Royal Albert Hall in September 2016, with the film's score performed live for a screening of the film.[36] This celebrated the twentieth anniversary of the film's release, and the event also featured a pre-film talk by David Arnold.

Time capsule in Rachel, Nevada.

While the film was still in post-production, Fox began a massive marketing campaign to help promote the film, beginning with the airing of a dramatic commercial during Super Bowl XXX, for which it paid $1.3 million.[37] The film's subsequent success at the box office resulted in the trend of using Super Bowl air time to kick off the advertising campaign for potential blockbusters.[38][39]

Fox's Licensing and Merchandising division also entered into co-promotional deals with Apple Inc. The co-marketing project was dubbed "The Power to Save the World" campaign, in which the company used footage of David using his PowerBook laptop in their print and television advertisements.[40] Trendmasters entered a merchandising deal with the film's producers to create a line of tie-in toys.[41] In exchange for product placement, Fox also entered into co-promotional deals with Molson Coors Brewing Company and Coca-Cola.[42]

The film was marketed with several taglines, including: "We've always believed we weren't alone. On July 4, we'll wish we were", "Earth. Take a good look. It could be your last", and "Don't make plans for August". The weekend before the film's release, the Fox Network aired a half-hour special on the film, the first third of which was a spoof news report on the events that happen in the film. Roger Ebert attributed most of the film's early success to its teaser trailers and marketing campaigns, acknowledging them as "truly brilliant".[43]

The shot of the White House's destruction was the focus of the film's marketing campaign. A fleeing helicopter was added to the shot in the final print.

The film had its official premiere held at Los Angeles' now-defunct Mann Plaza Theater on June 25, 1996.[44] It was then screened privately at the White House for President Bill Clinton and his family[45] before receiving a nationwide release in the United States on July 2, 1996, a day earlier than its previously scheduled opening.[46] The theatrical release of this film introduces a new Lucasfilm Ltd. THX CGI trailer featuring the new character mascot Tex, who was created by John Lasseter of Pixar Animation Studios and Industrial Light & Magic. The trailer can be seen on older home video prints of early Pixar films, such as Toy Story, A Bug's Life, Toy Story 2, Finding Nemo, and Cars.

After a six-week, $30 million marketing campaign, Independence Day was released on VHS on November 22, 1996.[47] A LaserDisc release came out at roughly the same time, which included audio commentary, theatrical trailers, deleted scenes, and a bundled soundtrack CD.[48] The film sold 22 million copies in North America becoming the best selling live-action video.[49]

It became available on DVD on June 27, 2000, and has since been re-released, in several different versions of this format, with varying supplemental material, including one instance where it was packaged with a lenticular cover.[50] A special edition of the film was included on the DVD as well, which features nine minutes of additional footage not seen in the original theatrical release.[51] Independence Day became available on Blu-ray in the United Kingdom on December 24, 2007,[52] and in North America on March 11, 2008[53] and in Australia on March 5, 2008.[54] The initial single-disc releases only feature the theatrical cut and a few extras, as per the single-disc DVDs. For its 2016 twentieth anniversary, the film was re-released on two-disc Blu-ray and DVD, 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray, and Digital HD.[55][56] The 20th-anniversary editions feature both the theatrical and extended versions, all the extras of the previous 2-disc DVDs and more.[57]

In Lebanon, certain Jewish- and Israel-related content in the film was censored. One cut scene involved Judd Hirsch's character donning a kippah, and leading soldiers and White House officials in a Jewish prayer. Other removed footage showed Israeli and Arab troops working together in preparation for countering the alien invasion. The Lebanese Shi'a Islamist militant group Hezbollah called for Muslims to boycott the film, describing it as "propaganda for the so-called genius of the Jews and their concern for humanity." In response, Jewish actor Jeff Goldblum said: "I think Hezbollah has missed the point. The film is not about American Jews saving the world; it's about teamwork among people of different religions and nationalities to defeat a common enemy."[58][59]

The film had both its twentieth anniversary and premiere at a special live-orchestral screening performance at the Royal Albert Hall on September 22, 2016. The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by the original orchestrator Nicholas Dodd, performed the score live[60] during the film, and the film's composer, David Arnold, was a presenter at the event.

One of the film's creatures on the cover of the July 1, 1996 issue of Time.

Independence Day was the highest-grossing film of 1996, beating Twister, Mission Impossible and The Hunchback of Notre Dame.[2] In the United States, it earned $104.3 million in its opening week,[61] including $96.1 million during its five-day holiday opening, and $50.2 million during its opening weekend.[62] All three figures broke records set by Jurassic Park three years earlier.[61] That film's sequel, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, claimed all three records when it was released the following year. Independence Day stayed in the number-one spot for three consecutive weeks and grossed $306,169,268 in North America[2] and $511,231,623 in other territories during its theatrical run.[2] The combined worldwide total of $817,400,891 came second only to the worldwide earnings of Jurassic Park as the highest of all time.[63] Box Office Mojo estimates that the film sold over 69.26 million tickets in the US.[64] The film currently is the 72nd-highest-worldwide-grossing film of all time. Hoping to capitalize on the film's success, several studios released large-scale disaster films,[65] and the already rising interest in science fiction-related media was further increased by the film's popularity.[45]

A month after the film's release, jewelry designers and marketing consultants reported an increased interest in dolphin-themed jewelry, as the character Jasmine (Vivica A. Fox) wears dolphin earrings, and is presented with a wedding ring featuring a gold dolphin.[66]

Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator, reports that 67% of 75 surveyed critics gave the film a positive review; the average rating is 6.53/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "The plot is thin and so is character development, but as a thrilling, spectacle-filled summer movie, Independence Day delivers."[67] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 59 out of 100 based on 19 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[68] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.[69]

Critics wrote that the film has "cardboard" and "stereotypical" characters,[3][46][70][71][72] and weak dialogue.[65][72][73][74] However, the shot of the White House's destruction has been declared a milestone in visual effects and one of the most memorable scenes of the 1990s.[75][76] In a 2010 poll, readers of Entertainment Weekly rated it the second-greatest summer film of the previous 20 years, ranking only behind Jurassic Park.[77]

Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle gave the film his highest rating, declaring it the "apotheosis" of Star Wars.[46] Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly gave it a B+ for living up to its massive hype, adding "charm is the foremost of this epic's contemporary characteristics. The script is witty, knowing, cool."[71] Eight years later, Entertainment Weekly would rate the film as one of the best disaster films of all time.[65] Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times felt that the film did an "excellent job conveying the boggling immensity of [the] extraterrestrial vehicles […] and panic in the streets" and the scenes of the alien attack were "disturbing, unsettling and completely convincing".[3]

However, the film's nationalistic overtones were widely criticized by reviewers outside the U.S. Movie Review UK described the film as "a mish-mash of elements from a wide variety of alien invasion movies and gung-ho American jingoism."[78] The speech during which Whitmore states that victory in the coming war would see the entire world henceforth describe July 4 as its Independence Day, was described in a BBC review as "the most jaw-droppingly pompous soliloquy ever delivered in a mainstream Hollywood movie."[79] In 2003, readers of Empire, voted the scene that contained this speech as the "Cheesiest Movie Moment of All-Time".[80] Conversely, Empire critic Kim Newman gave the film a five-star rating in the magazine's original review of the film.[68]

Several critics expressed disappointment with the quality of the film's special effects. Newsweek's David Ansen claimed the special effects were of no better caliber than those seen nineteen years earlier in Star Wars.[72] Todd McCarthy of Variety felt the production's budget-conscious approach resulted in "cheesy" shots that lacked in quality relative to the effects present in films directed by James Cameron and Steven Spielberg.[44] In his review, Roger Ebert took note of a lack of imagination in the spaceship and creature designs.[81] Gene Siskel expressed the same sentiments in his At the Movies review of the film.[43]

American Film Institute lists

• AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills – Nominated[82]
• AFI's 10 Top 10 – Nominated Science Fiction Film[83]

Disaster elements portrayed in Independence Day represented a significant turning point for Hollywood blockbuster films. With advancements in CGI special effects, events depicting mass destruction became commonplace in films that soon followed, such as Armageddon (1998) and Deep Impact (1998). The trend continued throughout the 2000s and 2010s, evident in films such as Emmerich's The Day After Tomorrow (2004), as well as Transformers (2007) and The Avengers (2012).[88]

Author Stephen Molstad wrote a tie-in novel to help promote the film shortly before its release. The novel goes into further detail on the characters, situations, and overall concepts not explored in the film. The novel presents the film's finale as originally scripted, with the character played by Randy Quaid stealing a missile and roping it to his cropduster biplane.

Following the film's success, a prequel novel entitled Independence Day: Silent Zone was written by Molstad in February 1998.[89] The novel is set in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and details the early career of Dr. Brackish Okun.[90]

Molstad wrote a third novel, Independence Day: War in the Desert in July 1999. Set in Saudi Arabia on July 3, it centers around Captain Cummins and Colonel Thompson, the two Royal Air Force officers seen receiving the Morse code message in the film (Americanised ranks corrected to Squadron Leader and Group Captain respectively in the Omnibus reissue). A Marvel comic book was also written based on the first two novelizations.

On August 4, 1996, BBC Radio 1 broadcast the one-hour play Independence Day UK, written, produced, and directed by Dirk Maggs, a spin-off depicting the alien invasion from a British perspective.[91] None of the original cast was present. Dean Devlin gave Maggs permission to produce an original version, on the condition that he did not reveal certain details of the movie's plot, and that the British were not depicted as saving the day.[91] Independence Day UK was set up to be similar to the 1938 radio broadcast of The War of the Worlds—the first 20 minutes were live.[91]

In 1996 a "behind-the-scenes" multimedia CD-ROM titled Inside Independence Day was released for Microsoft Windows and Macintosh; it includes storyboards for the film, sketches, movie clips, and a preview of the Independence Day video game.[92]

An Independence Day video game was released in February 1997 for the PlayStation, Sega Saturn, and PC, each version receiving mostly tepid reviews.[93] The multi-view shooter game contains various missions to perform, with the ultimate goal of destroying the aliens' primary weapon. A wireless mobile version was released in 2005. A video game entitled ID4 Online was released in 2000.

Trendmasters released a toy line for the film in 1996.[94] Each action figure, vehicle or playset came with a ​3 ¹⁄₂ inch floppy disk that contained an interactive computer game.[95]