My Thoughts on "Independence Day" (1996)
Hello boys, I'm back! Yes, I'm finally getting around to reviewing Independence Day (1996). I put the 1996 there because apparently, there's more than one movie called Independence Day. Figure that 🤷♂️. I figured that I would do this movie, not because the Fourth of July 🇺🇸 was coming, and it's the 250th anniversary of the United States 🇺🇸, but it is also the 30th anniversary of this movie. And also the 10th anniversary of the second movie, Independence Day: Resurgence, which was intentionally released on the 20th anniversary of the first movie, and takes place 20 years after the first movie in real time. Meaning that the first movie takes place in 1996, and the sequel takes place in 2016. An opportunity like this won't come again unless I wait until the 40th anniversary in 2036, but I'm not willing to do that. So, I'm doing it now, against perhaps my better judgment.
I do have a Cowboy Bebop (1998) review that I'm supposed to be starting, and I will. I've got three more episodes of the series left to go, and then I can finally start writing and fulfill the commitment I made all the way back in my Riddick (2013) review. Interestingly, even though this movie was released in 1996, and 1996 was the 220th anniversary of the United States 🇺🇸, no mention of it is made in the actual film. Which is weird because you'd think they would given how patriotic this movie strives to be, but the only thing they mention is all the Fourth of July 🇺🇸 celebrations that end up getting canceled because of the alien invasion 👽. Maybe Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin didn't know that the movie would be released in 1996, or even that 1996 was the 220th anniversary of the United States 🇺🇸, but still, they probably should've known that since they both in this country, and they had already been living here for quite awhile.
Or Roland Emmerich has since he's an immigrant from Germany 🇩🇪, Dean Devlin is a full-on native-born American citizen 🇺🇸, he was born in the United States 🇺🇸 and has lived here nearly his whole life. Maybe they didn't make as big of a deal of the 220th anniversary back then as they are now about the 250th anniversary. But, I imagine they would've considering this is the United States 🇺🇸, and 220 years in a huge milestone for any country to reach. Most countries, most governments, don't last that long. We have one of the longest standing government in the world, and we have one of the longest-lasting democracies in the world. Despite certain people within our government right now's best efforts to try to end our democracy. Most other democracies in the world are pretty young by comparison to the United States 🇺🇸, and a lot of them are not as lot resilient and long-lasting as the United States 🇺🇸.
Some I think can get there, like Taiwan 🇹🇼. Taiwan 🇹🇼 has a pretty strong democracy, stronger than ours in some ways, and if they can keep it up and if nothing happens to that country in the future (near or distant), they too can reach a milestone. For them it would be 100 years, which they have not reached yet, depending on whether you go by 1945 or 1949 as the year in which in the modern Taiwanese state 🇹🇼 was founded. Which is really just a continuation of the Republic of China 🇹🇼 government that was first established on the mainland in 1912. If you were to go by that, then yes, the country already did reach its 100th anniversary. But most Taiwanese 🇹🇼 probably don't count, and only count the time that either ROC rule 🇹🇼 was first established (which was in 1945) or when the ROC 🇹🇼 retreated to the island after losing the civil war (which was in 1949). Since a lot of Taiwanese people 🇹🇼 don't consider themselves "Chinese."
They only consider themselves Taiwanese 🇹🇼. Over time, since Taiwan 🇹🇼 fully democratized, a distinct and separate Taiwanese identity 🇹🇼 has been formed and embraced by the majority of Taiwanese people 🇹🇼, especially the younger generations. Not only do they not consider themselves Chinese, but they have no desire to be apart of China 🇨🇳. Despite the Chinese government 🇨🇳's desire to incorporate Taiwan 🇹🇼 and all its own island territories like the Kinmen Islands, Penghu Islands, Matsu Islands, Wuqiu Islands, Partas Island, and Nasha Islands. South Korea 🇰🇷 I also think has a chance. Their democracy is strong, and withstood an attempted self-coup attempt in 2024, so I'm sure they'll make it to 100 years.
Ukraine 🇺🇦 too, even though they're a flawed democracy, and they're currently fighting a war for their survival and their continued existence as an independent state (which thankfully, they're starting to win now), but I'm sure they'll work out their kinks, and will become a robust democracy. I believe in Ukraine 🇺🇦. And there are other democracies in Europe too, and I hope they do well too, and reach milestones too. Canada 🇨🇦's also a democracy, and I hope they last long too, and reach their own milestone as well. Speaking of things of that are young and old, did you know that Roland Emmerich is 70 years old now 🤯? I can't believe it, he was 41 years old when he made this movie, and he was 37 when he made Universal Soldier (1992), which was his true breakout movie as a Hollywood director, after making movies in his native Germany 🇩🇪. I don't know why, but I always picture him as being a young director, and I guess he was young when by director standards when he made this. I guess, what I'm trying to say is that I thought Emmerich was a Gen Xer, but no, he's a Baby Boomer. A younger Baby Boomer perhaps, but still a Baby Boomer. But, he still looks pretty good for his age, the guy ♂︎ clearly takes good care of himself.
Now I know it's not Fourth of July 🇺🇸 anymore, I'm writing this day after, but this is the only day I could make time to actually write the review. To be fair, I did actually watch the movie yesterday, on the Fourth of July 🇺🇸, I'm just writing the review the day after. Plus, if Sky City Casino Hotel 🎰🏨 can host their firework show 🎆🎇, which they call "Sky Works 🎆🎇" in keeping with their sky theme, today, on Sunday July 5, 2026, the day after the Fourth of July 🇺🇸, then I don't see why I can't write this the day after the Fourth of July 🇺🇸. I would also like to say a few things before I truly get started with this review. First off, I watched the longer Special Edition of this movie, which increases the runtime by 9 minutes. The theatrical version runs at 145 minutes, or 2 hours and 25 minutes, and the Special Edition runs at 154 minutes, or 2 hours and 34 minutes. A perfect inverse of the runtime of the theatrical version. From 145 minutes to 154 minutes. It's almost as if they switched the numbers around to create a new runtime and called it a day. This is a pretty long movie either way, but the Special Edition is even longer. So keep that in mind because I will mention things that are only in the Special Edition and not in the theatrical version.
Second off, I will be referring to the aliens 👽 in the movie as the Harvesters, which is the name they're given in the sequel. The aliens 👽 are not named at all in this movie, and are just referred to as the "aliens 👽" if they're being referred to as "them" or "they." The word "alien 👽" is not actually uttered that much in reference to these aliens 👽, like the human characters aren't constantly saying, "the aliens 👽 this" or "the aliens 👽 that." I really don't know why that it is. Could it be because of Roland Emmerich's lack of belief in aliens 👽? I don't see why it would be? I don't why not believing in aliens 👽 would lead you to writing the script (or co-writing the script since Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin wrote the script together, this is their movie through and through) in a way that the aliens 👽 are never referred to as "the aliens 👽" in the film all that much. I never noticed that until now. But, I will be referred to them as the Harvesters for the remainder of this review. I know a lot of people don't like to acknowledge the sequel's existence, and reject anything from that film, but I'm not one to pretend a sequel, or a prequel, or whatever doesn't exist just because I don't like it. Plus, I think Harvesters is a good name for them since they're described in this movie as being like locusts, going from planet-to-planet, consuming every natural resource and then moving on. With that out of the way, let's get started.
It's interesting that it's the 30th anniversary of this movie because it really doesn't feel like it. It doesn't feel like a huge event or milestone even though it totally is. I wish they had done a new Blu-Ray or 4K release of the movie 💿 to commemorate, perhaps have had a new documentary with new interviews with the surviving cast and crew (because unfortunately some of the people involved in this movie have passed away in the years since it came out 😔), just like they do with Jaws whenever it reaches a new milestone and has a new anniversary. They always put out a new release for the movie when its anniversary comes up. They recently pulled out all the stops for its 50 anniversary, with the whole Jaws @ 50 campaign. They not only did a new documentary for the movie featuring entirely new interviews with the surviving cast and crew who were available or hadn't been canceled (like a certain Richard Dreyfuss 😬), a new Blu-Ray/4K release 💿, but they also re-released it in theaters. Even Top Gun recently got a theatrical re-release for its 40th anniversary, and may have gotten a new 4K release 💿. They haven't done anything like that for Independence Day (1996).
Apparently, there was going to be a theatrical re-release back in 2013, during the 3D craze, but that was canceled for some reason. 2016 would've been the perfect time to do a theatrical re-release since that was the 20th anniversary and the second one was coming out. Would've been the perfect excuse to re-release to get people caught up. Just like they did with Avatar (2009) when Avatar: The Way of Water 💦 came out. But no dice 🎲. All we have is the 20th anniversary edition Blu-Ray release 💿, which was released around the same time the second movie was coming out. It would've been cool at least if they made a new documentary about the making of the movie and commemorating its 30 anniversary, with all of the surviving cast and crew reflecting on their experiences working on the film, talking retrospectively about the film 30 years later. Again, just like had been done with Jaws during its 50th anniversary. Maybe because it’s not prestigious enough. Jaws is considered “high art” and considered a “masterpiece,” even though it’s also considered the first true blockbuster. While Independence Day (1996) is just considered a dumb popcorn flick 🍿 even after all these years.
It got pretty terrible reviews from critics at the time of its release, while retrospective reviews of the movie tend to be a lot more positive, there’s still this sense critics just see it as nothing more than a cheesy corny movie. I don’t know why, because in my mind, this movie is a masterpiece. It is the quintessential summer blockbuster ☀️, the quintessential July 4th release. It has everything you would want in a blockbuster. Action, comedy, drama, lot of explosions 💥 and destruction, sad moments 😢 as well as funny moments 😄, and just a generally optimistic and uplifting feeling. It’s a movie that makes you feel good while watching, even though it involves the world being destroyed. I’ll take more about this later when I actually start talking about the movie itself. I loved it as a kid, and I still love it now. It combined two of my biggest loves as a kid, aliens 👽 and fighter jets.
It would've been cool if they got Will Smith to finally talk about this movie in so long, since he wasn't in the making of documentary on the 20th anniversary edition Blu-Ray 💿, basically that documentary was mostly made in part to promote the second movie, and only features people who were in the second movie or worked on the second movie. Will Smith wasn't included because he wasn't in the second movie. He did Suicide Squad (2016) instead, after he apparently read the script for Independence Day: Resurgence, and apparently didn't like it. So they killed off his character in-between movies. They said he died during a test flight of the new aircraft they built using the Harvester technology. Which, I kind of don't think they should've done because now it means they can't ever make a third one with Will Smith in it unless they ignore Resurgence entirely, and just acknowledge the first one. You know, a "selective sequel" as a Patrick Willems would say.
Which I'm sure a lot of people would be on board with. A lot of people did not like the sequel, including myself. I saw the second one in theaters, and I remember being very disappointed by it. I've only ever seen it that one time, so when I do eventually get around to reviewing it, it will be the first time I’ve seen it since 2016. I have technically reviewed Resurgence before, back on DeviantART, but that was back in 2016 after I saw the movie in theaters, it’s been a long time. I think I’d rather do a new updated review of that movie instead of reposting that old one. I only repost reviews from 5 years ago, from 2021 onwards. Nothing older than that. My opinions might also change, depending on what I think of the movie watching again 10 years later. There were things I liked about the movie, it wasn’t completely negative. But will that be enough to have a complete 180 about this movie? I don’t know. I’ll just have to wait and find out.
Will Smith’s career has been kind of circling down the drain in recent years. It isn’t what it used to be prior to the Slap 👋. He could’ve easily have recovered from the Slap 👋, and it looked like he was, but he’s made other career choices that have prevented him from making a full comeback, a full recovery. Whether it’s disastrous return to music, releasing a terrible new rap single or doing terrible freestyle in a YouTube video. Both of which were mocked relentlessly on the Internet 🛜. Or whether it’s his use of AI, mainly in concert videos, or associating himself with a bad video game, Undawn, which he lent his voice and likeness to. Might've done the motion capture himself. Just like Bruce Willis did his own motion capture for Apocalypse (1998). Not only that but a lot of film projects he’s been involved in recently have fallen through. Like, he was working on a new movie with his old collaborator, Michael Bay, the guy ♂︎ who arguably made him a movie star. It’s really a toss-up between him and Roland Emmerich on which director and which movie (Bad Boys (1995) or Independence Day (1996)) can be credited with making Will Smith a movie star on the level of Arnold Schwarzenegger or Sylvester Stallone. But, that project fell through due to “creative differences,” which is a euphemism for “we’d rather not say the true reason for our falling out because it’s too personal and would make one of us, or both of us look bad.”
He brought a lot of this on himself. He has no one to blame for why his career falling apart but himself, except maybe his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith and maybe his PR team. But even still, even if his wife did open their relationship and started having sex with other guys ♂︎ on the side behind his back, and only told him about him on national TV, he could've chose not to slap Chris Rock 👋 after he made that joke about Jada's baldness 👩🏽🦲 as way to show off and prove himself to her or whatever his motive for slapping Chris Rock 👋 was. And as for his other career choices, he could've said "no." Simple as that. Maybe one day, his career will turn around, and he will have the comeback he desires. He'll probably go back to the well again, and return to another one of his old franchises that made him famous in the first place. If it's not Independence Day, then it'll probably be Men in Black.
People would love to see Will Smith in another Men in Black movie, especially after the last one that didn't have him or Tommy Lee Jones in it, Men in Black: International, didn't exactly work out. But, a new Independence Day movie with Will Smith in it that ignores Resurgence could potentially happen since the franchise is now fully owned by Disney thanks to the Fox acquisition/merger, and now they have full creative control, and not Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin. So, they can pretty much do whatever they want. If they wanted to make another Independence Day movie that completely ignores Resurgence and brings Steven Hiller back, they totally could. It's not like Emmerich and Devlin have any say in the matter, even though they're the creators of the entire franchise. I mean, when they bought Star Wars and all of Lucasfilm, they completely cut George Lucas out of the loop entirely, even though he initially wanted to be apart of the process of making the sequel trilogy. He even wrote some outlines which they immediately threw out.
Amazon did the same when they bought James Bond from EON Productions. The Broccolis are no longer involved creatively. Although, in their case, they were pretty willing to give up creative control to Amazon, and really didn't want to have a say in the future of the franchise behind what done with previous 25 films. They were pretty burnt out creatively after No Time to Die , and didn't have the creative juices to keep the series going for another decade or so. They didn't believe that the franchise would have a future if they maintained sole control. So, they sold it to Amazon, believing that under them, the franchise would have a future. Even if it's a flawed future, if they stumble a bit, but it will have a future. They felt that it would better in their hands 🤲 than in theirs.
They weren't like George Lucas, where he still very much wanted to be involved, even though the powers that be at Disney didn't want him to. And then of course, Disney completely shut down Blue Sky Studios after acquiring the rights to the Ice Age 🧊 franchise through the Fox Merger, even though they were the ones who created the Ice Age 🧊 franchise, and made all 5 movies up until this new upcoming sixth one, Ice Age: Boiling Point 🧊🥵, which is being made entirely by Disney. Whenever a franchise falls under new corporate ownership, the new owners usually aren't exactly keen to have the previous owners involved in any capacity. Why would that be any different with Independence Day and Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin?
Speaking of anniversaries, I recently acquired the King Kong (1976) 50th anniversary edition 4K/Blu-Ray 💿. The movie is on my list, so I will review it at some point in the future. I have seen the movie before, but I've never seen it in full. I've only seen the part at the end where Kong gets shot to death by the helicopters on the top of the World Trade Center, and it's way bloodier and violent 🩸 than the scene in the original 1933 movie where Kong is shot to death by the biplanes at the top of the Empire State Building. Even the scene in the 2005 movie where Kong goes against the biplanes on top of the Empire State Building and ultimately gets shot to death by them isn't as bloody 🩸 as the helicopter scene in the 1976 movie. It truly is the most gruesome Kong death scene, the most gruesome version of Kong's last stand of any of the Kong movies that have been made. Certainly the most gruesome of three Kong movies are called King Kong.
But, I haven't seen the rest of the movie, say for a few clips here and there, like of the scene where Kong escapes. So when i do eventually review it, it'll be the first time I've seen the other 99% of this movie. The only downside I can see with 4K/Blu-Ray release 💿 is that there are no special features. There's no making of documentaries, new or archival. There are no audio commentaries, no storyboard or poster compilations. There aren't even any trailers. The only thing it seems to include extended TV version of the movie. Unless there are a lot more special features included on the 4K and Blu-Ray discs 💿, and they just didn't list them. I don't know why they wouldn't, special features appeal to collectors, and it's mostly collectors who are going to buy this. So, if you want to talk about a "don't give shit" anniversary release, there you go. But at least, King Kong (1976), as mixed reviews as it got and as divisive as it has been over the years, still got something. Independence Day (1996) got nothing for its 30th anniversary, it's much more beloved and remembered better than that movie is.
Regardless of the lack of a 30th anniversary 4K/Blu-Ray 💿, or a new making of documentary with new interviews (featuring Will Smith this time), or a theatrical re-release, it's still remarkable that 30 years have past since the release of this movie, and it's 30 years old. It's crazy to think that I myself will be 30 years in a couple of years. And it still holds up after all these years. I didn't experience this movie when it first came out, and it was still a new movie. I wasn't even born yet when this movie came out. I was born in 1998, the same year that Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin's next movie after this, Godzilla was released. I watched it later on when it was out on DVD 📀. We had the collector's edition or special edition, or whatever it was called, and it had the Special Edition version of the movie, which, from what I understand, is not available on streaming currently, and that was the version that I saw, and have mostly been watching all these years. I did see the theatrical version of course, especially on TV when the movie would play on TV since that was always the version they would play because it's shorter than the Special Edition by 9 minutes. Although it seems like there was more footage included in the Special Edition on the Blu-Ray 💿 than there was on DVD 📀. Because I remember rewatching the Special Edition after I bought the 20th anniversary edition Blu-Ray 💿. So this movie's theatrical release, and everything surrounding it, was before my time.
But the hype for this movie was real. It's kind of hard to imagine now that an original movie not based on any sort of preexisting IP would have this much hype and marketing around it, but this movie did. There were toys for Independence Day (1996), an entire toyline was created to help promote the movie, and there was even a video game created for the movie, although it came out the following year, in 1997, after the hype had kind of gone down. The game in question was released on PC as well as on the PS1 and Sega Saturn, and from what it seems, it was a combat flight simulator, where you presumably play as one of the fighter jets fighting against the Harvester attack ships, their smaller fighter ships. I'll have to look up the game on YouTube and see if there's a longplay of it to see what the game is like actually like. To see if it's like Ace Combat, or Air Combat, as the first game was called here in the United States 🇺🇸, or if it's like something else. Perhaps like After Burner? The game got mixed-to-negative reviews, which isn't surprising for a movie tie-in game, especially movie tie-in back then during the fifth generation era of gaming. But who knows? Maybe I'll disagree with the reviews based on what I see in the longplay. Because like it or not, Independence Day was already a franchise before Resurgence ever came out.
This movie did make history and was a trendsetter in one sense: it was the first movie to advertise during the Super Bowl. No movie had a trailer during the Super Bowl before Independence Day (1996), it was the first. It was of course, mainly just the iconic shot of the White House getting blown up 💥, which was more than enough to entice audiences in 1996. It may not seem like anything special now, we see famous landmarks get destroyed in movies all that time, but back then, that specific shot of the White House getting blown up 💥 blew people's minds 🤯. The shot people remembered the most from the movie, and for many years, this movie was mostly known as "the one where the White House gets blown up 💥." And that specific shot was used on a lot of the promotional material associated with this movie, as well as on the DVD covers 📀 of some of the DVD releases 📀 of this movie that didn't just use the orange poster as their cover, as well as on the VHS release 📼.
Because putting a trailer for a movie during the Super Bowl hadn't been done before, they were taking a huge risk by doing it, and it paid off tremendously. The movie became highest grossing movie of 1996, bringing in $817.4 million 💵 worldwide against a budget of $75 million 💵, which was huge back then 🤑. A movie grossing $817.4 million 💵 in 1996 is insane. And it just goes to show just how good the marketing was, and how good the word of mouth was. People flocked to this movie in droves. Nearly every showing was a packed theater, especially during opening weekend. I bet the opening weekend for this movie was insane. Not even the mixed-to-negative reviews from critics were enough to stop this movie's enormous success. As I said before, I didn't experience any of this myself since I wasn't born yet. I wasn't even conceived yet. But everything I've heard about this movie's theatrical run and the marketing blitz prior to its release indicates that it was a huge hit, and that audiences loved it, even if critics did not. The box office numbers speak for themselves, the audience reaction speaks for itself. There's a reason why this movie is still beloved 30 years later, and why it's often regarded a classic, and as Roland Emmerich's best.
Steven Spielberg felt as if Roland Emmerich surpassed him. One of the reasons why he was so apprehensive about using aliens 👽 in the then still in-development fourth Indiana Jones movie, besides feeling as if he had been there and done that with Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T. The Extra Terrestrial, was the enormous success of Independence Day (1996). Spielberg felt that Emmerich surpassed him by making a big budget alien invasion movie 👽 with giant spaceships blowing up major cities 💥, destroying famous landmarks, having huge aerial battle involving hundreds of fighter jets and smaller alien spaceships, and a mothership that was far bigger than the one in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. He as there was no way he could top that, or compete, and he congratulated Emmerich on his success. He would then advise Emmerich against doing Godzilla (1998), which Emmerich did not listen to obviously. For better or for worse, depending on what you think of that movie. Something that I will mention in my re-review of Godzilla (1998) when I eventually do it. I'll mention the tidbit about Spielberg not want to do aliens 👽 in Indiana Jones 4 because he had done two alien movies 👽 already and because of Independence Day (1996) in the Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull review when I eventually do that.
I do think Spielberg was onto something, even if he did end up making three more alien movies 👽 later on in his career, negating of course Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, which contrary to popular belief, doesn't feature aliens 👽 at all. It features interdimensional beings. That was the compromise that Steven Spielberg and George Lucas made with each other about that movie. Lucas wanted to do aliens 👽, Spielberg didn't want to, so they settled on making interdimensional beings instead. Even if that was lost on most people, and they just assumed that it was aliens 👽 anyway. He made A.I. Artificial Intelligence, which features aliens 👽 prominently despite the movie mostly being about robotics and AI as the title would suggest. He made War of the Worlds (2005), which was an alien invasion movie 👽 and people consider as an example of a "post-9/11 movie," while this one, Independence Day (1996) is considered an example of a "pre-9/11 movie."
They're pre-9/11 and post-9/11 movies in the sense that one was made before 9/11 and the other was made after, but what people mean is, one has the attitude of the pre-9/11 era, the optimistic, colorful, extravagant, fun, lighthearted, innocent, and somewhat naïve feel that the pre-9/11 era had for a lot of people, especially in the 1990s, and the other has the attitude of the post-9/11 era, the paranoid, dark, serious, and dreary feel that the post-9/11 era had, especially in the 2000s to early-to-mid 2010s. The post-9/11 era was defined by war, and the fear of the next terrorist attack, and the feeling that Americans 🇺🇸 had to sacrifice certain freedoms they had before to prevent the next attack. Mass surveillance had been normalized. Islam ☪️ and Islamic fundamentalist ☪️ were the enemies, and any brown person wearing a turban or wearing a thawb, or even just having a beard or an accent was immediately suspected of being a possible terrorist.
Even I, as an ignorant child who didn't know any better, made a joke once that if my mom ever married a Muslim man ☪️♂︎, and had a son with him, he would grew up to be a terrorist. I know, shameful I know, I'm not proud of it 😔. And ever since the Internet reviewer and video essayist 🛜, Lindsay Ellis made her analysis of both these films and they're each representative of their respective era, everyone who has talked about either film or both of them has made that same assessment. Well, I hate Lindsay Ellis, and I don't agree with her assessment of either film at all. I don't care that she kind of looks like mom, I hate more actually. But yes, War of the Worlds (2005) is a much darker take on the alien invasion concept 👽. It is also one of three different War of the Worlds film adaptations that came out that same year. It is also the biggest budget one and the only one theatrically release, as the other two were low budget and released straight-to-DVD 📀.
But, the Asylum War of the Worlds movie was the one that got a sequel, War of the Worlds 2: The Next Wave. It kind of had a similar concept as Independence Day: Resurgence, where it's the same aliens 👽 coming back for revenge. As well as the humans planning on launching a counterattack by leaving Earth 🌎 and going into space to take the fight to the aliens 👽. Only in the case of The Next Wave, it's them going to the aliens' homeworld 👽, Mars since the aliens 👽 are indeed Martians just like in the novel 📖 the first movie was based on. While in Resurgence, they don't explicitly say that they're heading to the Harvester homeworld, just they're heading off into space to take the fight to them. Which is what the planned third one would've been about. It would've been about the humans joining the other aliens 👽 in their galactic resistance against the Harvesters, and launching a counteroffensive to eliminate the threat once and for all. Also, it’s been noted that this movie took major inspiration from the 1953 adaptation of War of the Worlds. Though it is certainly not an adaptation of War of the Worlds, and I don’t see it as a ripoff or an unofficial remake as some (mainly Brandon Tenold) might do.
Then of course, more recently, Spielberg made Disclosure Day, which is about a guy ♂︎ teaming up with a weatherwoman ♀︎ to expose the truth about aliens 👽 that the government's trying to hide. Hence why the movie's called Disclosure Day. It's more a thriller, and it's Spielberg's attempted return to form making blockbusters, which is what he mainly did until moving to make more prestigious adult-orientated dramas in the 2000s and 2010s. And of course, returning to the subject that he is best known for: aliens 👽. After trying to escape or avoid aliens 👽 in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, he fully embraced them with Disclosure Day. For better or worse, depending on what you thought of that film. I didn't see the movie because I wasn't interested in it at all. I intentionally not-so intentionally avoided it and saw other movies instead like The Furious (2025) and The Mandalorian and Grogu. Both of which I've reviewed on this blog if you're interested. Click here and here to read.
I just couldn't support this movie because of my own beliefs and the beliefs that the movie is trying to reinforce or encourage. While I do believe in the possibility of life on other planets, and I don't think that we're alone in the universe, I don't believe in alien/UFO conspiracy theories 👽🛸. I don't believe aliens 👽 have ever visited the planet Earth 🌎. Not in the recent past or in the distant past. I don't believe in the ancient astronaut theory either. And I don't believe the government's hiding of proof of aliens 👽 on Earth 🌎. The government, nor the military, are that great at hiding things. If they really were trying to cover up the existence of aliens 👽, we would've found out by now. I used to believe in those things, especially as a kid, but I don't anymore as I've become a lot more scientifically, historically, and politically aware, and have a better understanding of how the world and the universe work.
While I don't agree with Double Toasted 🍞 on a lot of their opinions of newer movies, at least ones that I've seen or are interested in seeing, they did describe the movie as being a "faith-based movie for alien/UFO conspiracy theorists 👽🛸," and I totally agree that. I totally see that. Spielberg made Disclosure Day with the intention of expressing his own belief in alien/UFO conspiracy theories 👽🛸, and allowing other believers to indulge in it and feel validated for their beliefs, like they're in the right and everyone else (the non-believers) is in the wrong. And I also think he made the movie hoping that it would convince other people to believe in it too. I don't know what the box office for Disclosure Day was like, but given the lack of hype or enthusiasm for it on the Internet 🛜 and within the general public, and the mixed reviews from critics, I really don't think that it worked.
While this movie certainly incorporates alien/UFO conspiracy theories 👽🛸 into its plot, what with the inclusion of Area 51 and the Roswell crash, I don't have a problem with it here because it's clear that the movie isn't really taking any of it seriously, and isn't trying to push a particular belief or viewpoint on you, and just treats it like it's fiction. Like it's just apart of the lore and the worldbuilding of the world that the movie exists in. No different from the type of worldbuilding you'd see in a comic book movie, or a video game movie, or even a kaiju movie. Any kind of worldbuilding in a sci-fi world, or any other geek based property. This is probably due to the fact that at the time, Roland Emmerich didn't believe in aliens 👽. Probably still doesn't. He saw them as make believe, no different from any other fantasy creature like dragons 🐉, fairies 🧚♀️🧚♂️, unicorns 🦄, leprechauns, trolls 🧌, griffons, manticores, and mermaids 🧜♀️.
But, the fact that pretty much the entire second half of the movie is set on Area 51, did prevent the movie from having full US military cooperation 🇺🇸. The Pentagon is only willing to work with movie productions and provide hardware and personnel if they feel like the military's being portrayed in a fairly positive way, and it's on brand with the kind of message they want to tell. And while the military is portrayed pretty positively in the film, they're pretty much the heroes of the movie, and the movie overall has a very patriotic tone, the Pentagon was willing to grant full military cooperation because of the inclusion of Area 51 as a major setting and a major plot point. Before its existence was officially confirmed in 2008, the government and the military refused to acknowledge Area 51's existence. And they were not willing to work with any movie production that had anything to do with Area 51. So, this movie was not granted any access to military equipment or personnel, and probably didn't have any military advisors sent over from the Pentagon. Had Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin chosen not to include Area 51, they've gotten military access. Just like Michael Bay did on all of the Transformers movies he directed except for Age of Extinction.
The reason why he didn't get any military access on that film is that it involved China 🇨🇳. This was the mid-2010s, back when Hollywood was trying really hard to pander to China 🇨🇳 so they could gain access to that sweet, sweet China money 🇨🇳 🤑, so they had include China 🇨🇳 in the film somehow. The entire second half of Age of Extinction is set in China 🇨🇳, specifically Hong Kong 🇭🇰. Parts of the movie were even shot there. And the Chinese parts of the movie 🇨🇳 did sort of act as propaganda for the Chinese government 🇨🇳. The US military 🇺🇸 was not keen to have any involvement in that because China 🇨🇳 is a rival of the United States 🇺🇸, and is considered by the US military 🇺🇸 to be a near-peer adversary. They obviously don't support the government at all, and they don't support the military, the People's Liberation Army, but they also worried about security. They didn't want any secrets potentially getting out to the Chinese government and military 🇨🇳. I mean, look at how vigilant the Chinese government 🇨🇳 were about watching the production of Top Gun: Maverick as closely as they could, even though they were fooled into thinking Darkstar was a real stealth aircraft being developed by Lockheed Martin for the Air Force.
It's funny because Resurgence would also pander to China 🇨🇳, though to much less greater success than Age of Extinction. Age of Extinction was a box office success, becoming the second Transformers film to make a billion dollars 💵 in a row, while Resurgence was a box office bomb 💣, which is why they didn't make that planned third movie. Or that planned second Stargate movie, which Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin said they would only make if Resurgence was successful. Which it wasn't. I still where exactly they sourced all the military equipment they used in the film, because there is a lot. There’s F/A-18 Hornets, F-14 Tomcats, F-16 Fighting Falcons, C-130 Hercules, where did they get all this stuff? Because when Francis Ford Coppola didn’t secure military cooperation for Apocalypse Now, he ended sourcing all the military equipment from the Filipino military 🇵🇭. An ally of the United States 🇺🇸. Then of course, the first Iron Eagle 🦅 movie (and pretty much all of the sequels also didn’t have US military cooperation 🇺🇸, and ended up having to source all of its equipment from the Israeli military 🇮🇱. All the F-16s used in that film were Israeli owned 🇮🇱, they were operated by the IDF 🇮🇱. One of the most controversial militaries in the world, to put it lightly. To say the IDF 🇮🇱 is controversial is a huge understatement. Understatement of the century. So where did Emmerich and Devlin get the equipment they used on Independence Day (1996)?
A couple of interesting facts about Area 51 that I would like to say here while I have the chance. Apparently, Area 51's official name is actually Homey Airport since it's mostly an air base where they test experimental or prototype aircraft undetected, and basically it has such an aviation focus, it's administered in Edwards Air Force Base, which is actually located in California rather than Nevada. So I guess it isn't like Nevada's Kirtland Air Force Base since Edwards Air Force isn't in Nevada, it's in California, and Kirtland Air Force Base is actually in New Mexico. Specifically in Albuquerque, the city where I grew up, and spent most of my childhood. There's another major Air Force base in New Mexico, Holloman Air Force Base, which is located in Alamogordo, a town that I spent some time living in and went to school there (middle school to be exact), right next to White Sands Missile Range and White Sands National Monument.
Fun fact, parts of the first two Michael Bay Transformers movies were shot at Holloman Air Force Base and at White Sands Missile Range, with the entire climatic battle scene in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen set in Egypt 🇪🇬 being shot there. There is an Air Force base in Nevada, Nellis Air Force Base. Why they're not the ones administering Area 51/Homey Airport, I have no idea. Maybe because Area 51/Homey Airport is not considered apart of Nevada, even though it's located there, so it's not under Nellis's jurisdiction. It's not under their command. Or maybe the military is so protective of Area 51/Homey Airport and the secrets that live within, they don't want anything to happen to it, that they'd rather it be administered by an Air Force base outside of Nevada than one within.
But, I can see why Spielberg felt surpassed by Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin and this film. In my mind, it is the quintessential alien invasion movie 👽. Whenever I think of alien invasion movies 👽, I always think of this movie, and I don't know how you can possibly do an alien invasion movie 👽 without just repeating what this movie did. I've been struggling to come up with my ideas for my own alien invasion story 👽, We Come in Peace that weren't just repeating what this movie did. And after all these years, no other alien invasion movie 👽 has managed to top this movie. It is still the best. So, I can't see why most people, including Spielberg, don't even bother touching it because they know they'll never come close. Not Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin themselves could top this movie when they made the sequel to it. In fact, none of their work after this has managed to top this movie or match in terms of quality. Including Devlin's so far only solo directorial effort, Geostorm, which I do plan on reviewing in the future. Some of the Emmerich's movies after this have been fun, but I wouldn't feel comfortable calling any of them masterpieces like I would this movie.
And of course, the risk of showing a trailer to the movie during the Super Bowl paying off handsomely led to many other blockbusters also putting trailers during the commercial breaks of the Super Bowl in the years that followed. If they could afford it since ad space during the Super Bowl is super expensive. That's why every Super Bowl commercial is a multimillion dollar production 💵. Only the companies and organizations willing to spend the big bucks are able to advertise during the Super Bowl, and that includes movie studios. Not every movie studio can or does advertise during the Super Bowl. But it is a pretty effective strategy, this movie definitely showed it, and it has paid off for many other blockbusters.
I mean, Lilo & Stitch (2025) was a huge hit (a bigger hit than honestly deserved to be 😒), making over a billion dollars 💵, surpassing the worldwide grosses of both this movie and the original animated Lilo & Stitch from 2002, and that movie advertised during the Super Bowl. And nearly all the Michael Bay Transformers movie, except for maybe the first one advertised during the Super Bowl, to great success. I don't know if Transformers: The Last Knight had a Super Bowl trailer, because that movie underperformed and made less than the two that came before it, Transformers: Dark of the Moon 🌑 and Transformers: Age of Extinction. The Last Knight didn't even make a billion dollars 💵, which is what Paramount was hoping after Age of Extinction, it only made $605.4 million 💵. Which is still a lot of money 💵 and would be a good box office take for a movie, but not The Last Knight. Not a movie that cost $217–260 million 💵 to make, plus marketing costs. If it did have a Super Bowl trailer, it would be an example of a movie that didn't do well despite advertising during the Super Bowl.
There was something that I noticed while rewatching this movie for this review. When the City Destroyers enter Earth 🌎's atmosphere, and start approaching all of the major cities, there's this part where the president, and all the other government and military characters in the film are in the White House, in the Oval House, watching a news report about one of the City Destroyers, still concealed by that fiery cloud, is hovering over Novosibirsk, which is Russian city 🇷🇺 located in the Novosibirsk Oblast in the Siberian part of Russia 🇷🇺. The Siberian Federal District as it's called. Well, during that news report, it said "Soviet Central News ☭." Why would it say that? The Soviet Union ☭ didn't exist in 1996. It officially dissolved at the end of 1991, on Christmas Day 🎄. The Russian SFSR ☭ was now the Russian Federation 🇷🇺 (as in-apt as that name would end up being). The red banner came down, the white, blue, and red tricolor was flying above Moscow once again after over 74 years. So, that news report shouldn't say "Soviet Central News ☭," it should say "Russian Central News 🇷🇺."
Unless this movie takes place in an alternate timeline where the Soviet Union ☭ didn't collapse in 1991, and still persisted right up until 1996 when the Harvesters arrived on the first week of July. Was this movie alternate history all along, and they just didn't tell us? Why didn't Cody from PointlessHub say anything about it considering that he also runs the AlternateHistoryHub, which is his main channel. PointlessHub is just his secondary channel. The map they show would lend credence to this idea since the map they show in the news report to show the City Destroyer's movements through Russia is of the Soviet Union ☭ rather than the Russian Federation 🇷🇺. And the when the news anchor says "Russian Republic," he could be referring to the Russian SFSR ☭, which was the largest and most powerful Soviet republic within the Soviet Union ☭. Moscow wasn't simply the capital of the Russian SFSR ☭, it was the capital of the entire USSR ☭. If that is the case, the movie certainly doesn't make a big deal out of it. It's treated so matter of fact, like this is just how the world is, this is the reality in which this movie takes place, and the movie acts like it's analogous to how our world is. Or was, at the time the movie was made and came out, which was the mid 1990s.
Or maybe, the filmmakers just made a mistake and accidentally said "Soviet Central News ☭" and used the Soviet map ☭ when they meant to say "Russian Central News 🇷🇺" and use the Russian map 🇷🇺. That's the more likely explanation. And the news anchor saying "Russian Republic 🇷🇺" instead of Russian Federation 🇷🇺 was also probably a discrepancy. Although, there was a government within Russia 🇷🇺 that was called the Russian Republic 🇷🇺. It was the first government that was created after the February Revolution, which brought down the Russian Empire 🇷🇺 and ended the Russian monarchy 🇷🇺, and then it was toppled 8 months later during the October Revolution when the communists ☭ led by Vladimir Lenin took over.
Though, I doubt the filmmakers were trying to imply that this was set in an alternate timeline where the October Revolution never took place, and the Russian Republic 🇷🇺 hadn't been toppled and had remained the Russian government 🇷🇺 in place after the February Revolution. Because a world where that was the case would be very different from the world we live in today, and indeed different from the world that people lived in 1996. There would've been no Russian Civil War 🇷🇺, and probably no Cold War either since Russia 🇷🇺 would've never gone communist ☭, and there wouldn't have been much of a reason for them to be as much as hostile towards Russia as they were when it had become the Soviet Union ☭. Their biggest problem with the Soviets ☭ wasn't so much that they were authoritarian, or that they were imperialist, or colonialist, but that they were communist ☭.
The monarchies of Europe especially feared communism ☭ because of what it meant for their own power. It meant that they could lose it. And even republics that were capitalist like the US 🇺🇸 feared communism ☭ because they saw it as a threat to the system that made them so profitable, that made them the richest nation on Earth 🌎🤑, and all the people who benefited from capitalism the most didn't want to risk losing all of their money 💵 and status if communism ☭ were fully implemented. Of course, we know what happened when a lot of these communist governments ☭ were formed, these countries suffered greatly under the weight of authoritarian/totalitarian governments and bad policies that only made the people's lives world rather than better, and only the people at the top of the system truly benefited. If they benefited at all. But, in a world where the Soviet Union ☭ never existed, and the Russian Republic 🇷🇺 remained, opposition to communism ☭ would be purely theoretical and academic. There would be no real world examples of communism ☭ or socialism ☭ being implemented and it leading to ruin. They might've remained nominal allies, as they had been prior to World War I.
A world where the Russian Republic 🇷🇺 remained, and the Russian Civil War 🇷🇺 and the Cold War didn't happen would be unrecognizable from today. Or even how the world was in 1996. One way they've could've resolved this discrepancy is if in the sequel, they explained while the Soviet Union ☭ did survive past 1991, it ceased to exist in 1996 after the Harvesters invaded. Like maybe the Soviet Union ☭ was already struggling and barely hanging out, and the Harvester invasion brought it over the edge, and it couldn't cope. Leading to a new Russian government 🇷🇺 being established. Either the Russian Federation 🇷🇺 like in our world, or an entirely made up Russian government 🇷🇺. While the Soviet republics ☭ gained full independence. Bringing the world closer in line with our world, only still alternate since it's post-alien invasion 👽, and the humans incorporated all of the Harvester technology left behind into their own and became way more advanced as a result. Like, humanity technologically advanced hundreds of years thanks to the Harvester technology left behind. Meaning that July 4, 1996 truly was Independence Day for the rest of the world.
I actually have a funny story related to this. When I was still on Twitter 🐦 (this was long before Elon Musk took over), someone from India 🇮🇳 posted something celebrating Indian Independence Day 🇮🇳, but I didn’t know it was for Indian Independence Day 🇮🇳, I thought for American Independence Day 🇺🇸. So, I posted a comment on that tweet saying something like, “Independence Day is on July 4th, it already passed” and then someone replied to me saying something like, “It’s India 🇮🇳’s Independence Day, not America 🇺🇸’s. There are other countries besides the US 🇺🇸 you know.” To be fair, the original tweet didn’t say “Indian Independence Day 🇮🇳,” it didn’t specify which country, it just said “Independence Day.” So, you kind of forgive me for assuming the tweet was about the Fourth of July 🇺🇸 because it was only Independence Day that I knew about. And if you didn’t want people to think that it was the Fourth of July 🇺🇸, then specify which country you’re talking about when you say “Independence Day.” So now, India 🇮🇳’s one of the first countries I think of when I think of countries with Independence Days besides us.
This movie has gotten a lot of criticism over the years for being too Americentric 🇺🇸, and for being too “patriotic” or even too “jingoistic,” and for not doing enough to show the international response to the alien invasion 👽. Much less so nowadays, but. I do remember that criticism being drawn at this movie in the mid-to-late 2000s and early-to-mid 2010s. Right up until the second movie came out, which sought to be much more global than this movie was. . I mean, the movie’s literally named after an American holiday 🇺🇸, the American holiday 🇺🇸, Independence Day AKA the Fourth of July 🇺🇸, and it’s set around and on the Fourth of July 🇺🇸, of course it was going to take place mainly in America 🇺🇸 and mainly focus on America 🇺🇸’s response. That’s like if there was a movie based around Chinese New Year 🧧, and being surprised that it takes place in China 🇨🇳 and mainly focuses on China 🇨🇳. Same thing with any other holiday that’s specific to one country or one culture like Canada Day 🇨🇦, Yom Kippur, Hanukkah 🕎, Eid al-Fitr, Eid al-Adha, German Unity Day 🇩🇪, or the various Liberation Days around the globe 🌎🌍🌏, or the various Independence Days around the globe 🌎🌏🌍 besides the one for the US 🇺🇸 like India 🇮🇳’s Independence Day or Ukraine 🇺🇦’s Independence Day.
And I don’t think the movie is as overly patriotic or jingoistic as some critics make it out to be. Sure, it is patriotic, but not it doesn’t go over board with it to where it’s obnoxious or feels like it’s trying to pander to a certain demographic or . It’s a movie set in and around the Fourth of July 🇺🇸, of course it’s going to be patriotic, it has to be if it’s going to true to the spirit of the holiday, which is to celebrate America 🇺🇸 and its independence from Britain 🇬🇧. It’s also kind of sort celebrating the signing of the Declaration of Independence, which is seen as the true beginning of the United States 🇺🇸. Though that’s somewhat in dispute. But whatever, it’s America 🇺🇸’s birthday 🎂🥳. Plus, it is sort of inclusive to every other country since the Fourth of July 🇺🇸 stops being a purely American holiday 🇺🇸 and becomes an international holiday because of humanity’s collective efforts to fight back against the aliens 👽.
While we're at it, another thing that often gets criticized or mocked about this movie, even today, is the president, Thomas Whitmore joining the fight at the end. Is it unrealistic? Sure, maybe. But is it cool? Absolutely. President Whitmore was a true Commander-in-Chief. He actually led his troops into battle, probably the only sitting US president 🇺🇸 to ever truly do so. That's what makes him such a good leader. He didn't just give an inspiring speech, he actually fought himself. Any soldier, marine, or fighter pilot would appreciate a president leading them into battle and fighting alongside them, risking their own life, even if that would likely never happen in real life. But this movie allows one to indulge in the fantasy of a warrior president. I mean, if people were willing to accept the president almost singlehandedly saving Air Force One from terrorists that hijacked it in Air Force One, I don't see why they wouldn't be able to accept this. Besides, it's an alien invasion 👽. Almost all of the major cities of the world have been destroyed, society has completely broken down, and in some cases, governments and militaries have completely broken down. The world is ending. People who complain about this act like these are normal times, when these are very much not normal times. So, who's to say the President of the United States 🇺🇸 wouldn't get in a jet and join the fight him or herself? It's not like it comes out of nowhere either.
They kept saying that he was pilot during the Gulf War for a reason. They were setting up him putting on a flight suit and getting in the cockpit of a F/A-18 Hornet to join the aerial battle to protect Area 51 from City Destroyer heading right towards it. If the president were a ground troop, like a soldier or a marine, then he or she would've put on a uniform, put on a bulletproof vest, put their gear and ammo on, and grabbed a couple of guns, including a sidearm, and went on the front on with all the other troops. BTW, that famous speech, the thing people probably remember and like about this movie the most besides the White House getting blown up 💥, was a placeholder. It wasn't meant to be the final speech that was written, and they just used it anyway because they didn't have the time to write an actual speech, and yet it totally blew everyone away 🤯. goes to show Dean Devlin's skills as a writer, that a placeholder speech he wrote was good enough to be an actual speech that's actually inspiring and gets people fired up 🤩🫡 even to this day.
Another thing I've noticed recently about this movie, that I didn't notice or realize while rewatching the movie for this review but after I watched a clip from it on YouTube uploaded by the official TNT YouTube channel, both Steven Hiller and David Levinson are implied to have gay best friends ⚣. Now, Marty isn't exactly David's friend. He's just a co-worker basically, perhaps even his boss. But, he's the guy ♂︎ that he spends the most time with besides his father, Julius, and he's the guy ♂︎ he spends the most time prior to the destruction of all the major cities in the US 🇺🇸. Of course, it's not outright stated either Jimmy or Marty are gay ⚣. This was the mid 1990s after all, but they are very queer-coded 🏳️🌈. Marty especially talks and acts pretty effeminate throughout the entire first half of the movie whenever he's on screen, and Jimmy too is pretty flamboyant himself. Both of them do things in the movie that would strongly suggest that they are gay ⚣ and the movie wants us to think that they're gay ⚣.
They even straight up do a gay joke ⚣ with Steven and Jimmy, where he Jimmy is on his knees holding a wedding ring 💍 up to Steven, almost looking like he's proposing, and another Marine who stumbles upon them and sees them thinks that he's proposing. I didn't know or realize that Steven was a Marine until this most recent viewing. It was pretty cool that Marine pilots got the spotlight in this movie. People only think that the Navy and the Air Force has fighter pilots, but they don't, Marines also has some too. Although, the Marines usually operate outdated equipment compared to the other branches. Hand me downs from both the Air Force and the Navy, and even the Army too, since all of the attack helicopters the Marines use were Army helicopters. They were operated by the Army first, and then handed to the Marines after the Army got fancier and more advanced helicopters, with the AH-64 Apache. The Marine still use the AH-1 Cobra, or the AH-1 SuperCobra. They even still use the UH-1 Iroquois, better known as the Huey, while the Army has largely switched to the UH-60 Black Hawk, or the UH-1N Twin Huey, which is what the Marine version is called. Although both the Marines' fleet of SuperCobras and Twin Hueys have been replaced with AH-1Z Vipers and UH-1Y Venoms respectively. I do like the Marines stuck to naming their helicopters after snakes 🐍. That's pretty cool.
Maybe, I am reading too much into this, maybe I’m just seeing something that isn’t really there, but I just find it kind of funny that the two leads of the movie both possibly have gay best friends. And both of their gay best friends ⚣ die before the halfway point, or around the halfway point. Marty dies during the destruction of New York, during the Harvesters’ simultaneous attack on all the major cities they were currently hovering over, and then Jimmy dies during the Battle of Los Angeles, the first attempt at a counteroffensive by the humans, which ends in failure due to the Harvesters having shields on all their ships. They were both sacrificial lambs, as a lot of confirmed gay characters ⚣ or implied gay characters ⚣, or queer coded characters 🏳️🌈 in general tend to be. Especially back then.
If Jimmy and Marty are indeed supposed to be gay ⚣, and that’s what we’re supposed to think, I wouldn’t be surprised because Roland Emmerich is gay ⚣ himself. I don’t know if he had come out as gay ⚣ yet when he worked on this movie, and when it came out, or if he was still in the closet. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was because things weren’t exactly friendly for LGBTQ+ people 🏳️🌈 back then as it is now, although it’s still pretty hostile, especially for trans people 🏳️⚧️. It was not safe for anyone to come out as gay ⚣, lesbian ⚢, or bi, or whatever back then, not if you wanted to have a career, which Emmerich did. But obviously at some point he did come out, otherwise he wouldn’t know that he was gay ⚣ obviously. He even made a movie called Stonewall (2015), which was a historical movie about the Stonewall Riots 🔥, which is obviously deeply personal to him as a gay man ⚣.
I bet was pretty happy when gay marriage 🏳️🌈💍 was fully legalized, considering that he has a husband now, named Omar De Soto, who is younger than him. So even gay guys ⚣ will date and marry people who are younger than them. But, his husband is pretty handsome, I’ve seen a picture of him. He’s pretty good looking and I see why Emmerich wanted to marry him. If only I wrote this during Pride Month 🏳️🌈, but I guess you can still celebrate Pride Month 🏳️🌈 in the early days of July. Although July 7th is kind of pushing it 🤔. But, I already wrote a post for Pride Month 🏳️🌈, so I'm okay. You can go read it if you want. And if you're interested in the topic of queer coding 🏳️🌈, like if you read that and were like, "what's queer coding 🏳️🌈?" I wrote a post about that too. I didn't write it during Pride Month 🏳️🌈, but it's a good post for Pride Month 🏳️🌈. Check it out. It's older post technically, like I wrote it 2 years before it went up on the blog, so it has a foreword. So, just keep that in mind.
We don’t even meet our main hero, Steven Hiller until the 22 minute mark. It could be argued whether or not the movie even has a true main character or main hero, since it's an ensemble piece and it has so many characters, all of them from America 🇺🇸 but from different parts of the country, from different walks of life. But I would say that it does, and Steven Hiller is it. You'd be forgiven for thinking that David was the main character/hero in this instead of Steven given how long it takes for them to finally introduce us to him. We meet President Whitmore before we meet Steven. We even meet Russell Casse and his family before we meet Steven. Which, speaking of which, there is something I wanted to touch on about Russell Casse's family, specifically his daughter. His daughter is like really horny for some reason. That's her only character trait, her whole personality, she's horny and she wants to fuck. Every guy ♂︎ she sees or meets, she immediately wants to jump on his dick and fuck him. And in her final scene, which is only in the Special Edition, she’s with this guy ♂︎ who met in an earlier scene that’s also only in the Special Edition (this particular character is only in the Special Edition), and she tells him that she doesn’t die a virgin, which is something that another guy ♂︎ she was with told her, and she’s just repeating it because she doesn’t want to die a virgin.
She wants to have sex and lose her virginity to this guy ♂︎ she just met before she dies, which she’s fully convinced that she will since the Harvesters are attacking Area 51, and it’s uncertain whether the good guys can truly win or not. And her telling him that was a signal to him that she wants to have sex with him, and she wants to have sex right now in that moment. To the guy ♂︎’s credit, he politely turns her down by telling her that he’s a virgin, and they’ll both die virgins together. I mean, I know she’s a teenage girl ♀︎ and teenagers are horny because of puberty and all those raging hormones, but come on, they didn’t need to her that horny 🙄. It is refreshing those that it’s a girl ♂︎ that’s super horny and desperately wants to have sex, and not a boy ♂︎ who’s super horny and desperately wants to have sex like it is in other movies.
It is a shame that the Harvesters speak entirely telepathically, they could’ve created a really cool alien language. I guess they could still have a written language, but what good is a written language if you can’t actually speak it. But, that scene where the captive Harvester speaks through Dr. Okun is pretty well done, and is a standout moment in the film. It was a good way of showing the Harvesters’ hostility towards humans, and how unwilling they are to negotiate or even consider the possibility of peace. They just want war. They want to eliminate the human race, and steal all of Earth 🌎’s natural resources to fuel their every growing civilization. They’re like locusts, as President Whitmore said, they destroy, consume, and then move on. Repeating the process on another planet. They are a plague upon the galaxy, and that scene does a good job at showing that. Even though it was a missed opportunity to create a cool and unique spoken language for the Harvesters by having them only speak telepathically. It’s one of the scenes I remember most about this film.
And their designs are pretty great too, Patrick Tatopoulos knocked it out of the park. They do look like our traditional concept of aliens 👽 when they’re not in their biomechanical suits, but not exactly. They look different enough to not just be your typical Grey aliens 👽. If they looked like stereotypical Greys 👽, this movie would not have worked as well. It would barely even be the same movie. This is another reason why I’m so disinterested in Disclosure Day because the aliens 👽 in that look like your typical Grey aliens 👽. No variation, no creativity whatsoever, just your typical Greys 👽 as we often imagine them. If only the other alien 👽 introduced in the second film, the good alien 👽 that tries to warn the humans about the Harvesters’ return, had as creative of a design as the Harvesters themselves instead of being a white sphere basically ⚪️.
One of the most mocked and scrutinized aspects of the film is the computer virus that David develops, the thing that actually allows the humans to defeat the Harvesters in the end. People always say when they talk about this movie, “Why didn’t the aliens 👽 install antivirus software?” Or “It’s so stupid that David was able to hack into the aliens’ computer system 👽 using 1990s computer technology, running on 1990s computer software.” Mac OS System 7 running on a PowerBook 1400 to be exact. I looked it up. I knew obviously that it was an Apple laptop because it had an Apple logo below the screen (the classic rainbow one to be exact), I just didn’t know what it was because I knew that Apple didn’t start releasing laptops under the name “MacBook 💻” until 2006 after they discontinued the iBook, which had become their main laptop, replacing the PowerBook. Or at least providing a cheaper alternative to the PowerBook, which was meant more for professionals. PowerBooks were back then, what MacBook Pros 💻 are nowadays. Whereas the iBook would be more equivalent to the new MacBook Neo, which is more colorful and meant for your average consumer than professionals like the MacBook Pro 💻 is. Seeing as David is a cable repairman 👨🔧 and is a computer wizard, it makes sense that he uses a PowerBook. So, the Harvesters were defeated by the power of Mac. It’s the best advertisement for Apple you could ask for in all honesty.
But on a more serious note, I really don’t think the computer virus solution really is as dumb as it’s often made out to be. They do provide a relatively believable explanation for it. Basically, in the film, the Harvesters used humanity’s own satellites 🛰️ to communicate with each other and coordinate their attack on all the major cities (at least in America 🇺🇸). That’s why there was satellite disruption 📡 and why all the TVs are staticy, snowy, and distorted in the first half of the movie. Because the Harvesters commandeered humanity’s satellites 🛰️ and are using them to communicate and coordinate their attack. That signal that David kept talking about in the first half of the movie was the Harvesters communicating with each other and coordinating their worldwide attack. Well, what David did was basically take that same signal, and use it against them, use their own signal against them. He basically planted the virus through that signal, which then sent it down to the other ships, and disabled all of their shields, allowing the humans to finally launch their counterattack, and defeat them.
As for why the Harvesters didn’t have any contingencies for this, why they didn’t have antivirus software installed in their system, it’s really quite simple. The Harvesters, in their hubris, didn’t think that the humans would be smart enough, or technologically advanced enough, to crack their code, to decipher their signal and use it against them. So, they didn’t even plan for it. They put no safeguards in place to protect the safety of the signal, and extension, their forces on the ground. Or in the air, since their invasion force was just restricted to those City Destroyers and the smaller fighter ships meant to protect them. Like fighter jets protect an aircraft carrier from enemy forces. And the City Destroyers are essentially aircraft carriers and battleships rolled into one. They had yet to launch a ground invasion, with boots on the ground. Or feet on the ground since the Harvesters don’t wear boots. They wear suits but not boots. They did not foresee a human being smart enough and clever enough to detect their signal and decipher it, and then using it to plant a virus to disable all of their shields and there compromise the safety of all of their forces on planet. The Harvesters weren’t simply undone by a virus, they were undone by their own hubris, and their underestimation of their enemy, the human race.
I mean, if people are willing to buy the Martians coming down to Earth 🌎, wearing no protection against the many pathogens 🦠 that exist on Earth, all of which they have no natural immunity to, in War of the Worlds, I don’t see why they can’t buy the Harvesters not anticipating the humans creating a computer virus and using it against their forces. Both are stories of alien races 👽 being so convinced of their own superiority, and of humanity’s inferiority, that they underestimate their enemy and end up paying the price for it. War of the Worlds was ultimately an allegory of empires and colonialism, and the hubris that a lot of these, mostly European, colonial empires had and the complacency, and how that ultimately led to their undoing. The original War of the Worlds novel 📖 was essentially the British Empire 🇬🇧 getting a taste of its own medicine, and then humanity as a whole getting saved by the most minuscule creatures, and the Martian invaders losing because of their own hubris and complacency. And seeing as Independence Day (1996) was heavily inspired by War of the Worlds, specifically the 1953 film adaptation, it has some of that in there still. Though the movie isn't as overtly political as War of the Worlds. If anything, the computer virus makes more logical sense. It makes more sense that you would be so arrogant and convinced on your own superiority, that you wouldn’t account for or prepare for cyber attacks from an enemy they consider inferior, than biological hazards ☣️.
One last thing I would like to mention before I finally wrap this review up is that Jasmine's son, Dylan is playing with Godzilla toys in this movie. He has a Godzilla figure and a King Ghidorah figure. The reason why that's significant, and why it's worth pointing out of course is that Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin would of course end up making a Godzilla movie after this, Godzilla (1998). So, without knowing it at all, they pretty much foreshadowed their own future. They unknowingly teased the next movie that they would make after this. It would've been a pretty fun Easter egg if it wasn't intentional, which it wasn't. But it is fun pointing out. Also, apparently all of the Jewish stuff ✡️ in the movie was censored and removed from Middle Eastern releases of the movie, particularly in Lebanon 🇱🇧.
So, if you lived in Lebanon 🇱🇧, you did not see the scene Julius is leading a bunch of kids as well as Albert Nimziki, the fired Secretary of Defense (who I always forget even is the Secretary of Defense whenever I watch this movie), in prayer inside the underground clean room in Area 51 while wearing a kippah, which is a traditional Jewish hat ✡️. It's an important symbol in Judaism ✡️. Hezbollah condemned the film for featuring Jewish characters ✡️ and having them play a role in saving the world against the alien threat 👽, and called for all Muslims ☪️ to boycott the film. Jeff Goldblum, who is Jewish ✡️ himself, actually responded to Hezbollah's condemnation of the film, by essentially saying that they missed the point, and the movie was not about Jews ✡️, specifically American Jews 🇺🇸✡️, saving the world, and it was about teamwork and people of different races, creeds, religions, and nationalities coming together to fight a common enemy. In this case, literal aliens 👽. Couldn't have said it better, Jeff, couldn't have said it better. Also, apparently, they used old age makeup on Judd Hirsch to make him look older as Julius. I don't know if that's true, but the review of the movie on JoBlo Horror Originals said that they used old age makeup on Judd Hirsch. If that's the case, then it's the best old age makeup I've ever seen. Totally beats the hell out of the old age makeup on Guy Pierce in Prometheus (2012). I can sort of believe it because I saw interviews with him that Entertainment Tonight conducted with him and the rest of the cast, and he does far younger in those interviews than he does in the actual film.
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