Independence Day
Short description
Giant alien ships take up position over major cities around the world shortly before the Fourth of July. Governments and the public debate the visitors' intentions, but a signal picked up from the craft turns out to be a countdown to an attack. When the ships open fire, the destruction is enormous, and a small group of survivors becomes humanity's only hope of striking back.
Roland Emmerich directed and co-wrote the film with producer Dean Devlin, the same partnership behind Stargate. It was Emmerich's fourth film as director out of fifteen in chronological order, arriving between Stargate and Godzilla. Will Smith plays a Marine Corps captain, Bill Pullman the US president, and Jeff Goldblum a mathematician who works out what the aliens are planning. Mary McDonnell, Judd Hirsch and Robert Loggia are also in the cast.
The film had a budget of 75 million US dollars and went on to earn about 817 million dollars worldwide, a return that made it one of the biggest releases of its year. On IMDb it holds 7 out of 10 from roughly 644,000 votes, while on TMDB it has 6.9 out of 10 from around 10,700 votes, showing broad audience approval. A critics' rating of 7 out of 10 from 80 reviews places it close to the audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- The special version of the film has a runtime of 153 minutes.
- The idea for the plot of this film came to Roland Emmerich when he and Dean Devlin discussed the existence of extraterrestrial life in 1994 while working on the film 'Stargate'. A journalist then asked Emmerich why he had made such a film if he himself did not believe in the existence of alien life. Emmerich replied that he was still fascinated by the idea of aliens arriving on Earth, and then asked that journalist what he would feel if he woke up one morning and learned that giant (over 24 kilometers in size) alien ships were hovering over all the major cities of the planet. After that, Emmerich turned to Devlin and said that he seemed to have come up with an idea for their next film.
- The scene in which the character played by Adam Baldwin finishes off a wounded alien with a close-range shot to the head was not initially in the script. It was added at the last minute after audiences at previews began to complain that the film did not show enough of the aliens’ suffering.
- Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich had always intended to cast an African American actor as journalist Steven Hiller and really wanted to cast Will Smith, after seeing him in Fred Schepisi’s detective comedy 'Six Degrees of Separation' (1993). Until then, Smith was mainly known for his participation in comedy television series (in particular, the series 'The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air', which aired from 1990 to 1996). Emmerich later recounted that their decision was met with mixed reactions at the studio (there were attempts to dissuade them, and even some racist remarks were made), but they stood their ground. Starting with this role, Smith’s career took off dramatically, and he instantly became a major star.
- Based on the film, Fox Interactive created a computer game of the same name in 1997.
- According to screenwriter and producer Dean Devlin, the US Army initially agreed to help the filmmakers with permission to shoot on military bases, consultations for actors playing military personnel, and so on, but upon learning that the film would contain references to Area 51, they withdrew their permission.
- The film holds the record for the number of models created for it. Given the progress in computer technology achieved since the film's release, this record may well remain unbroken. The number of models that the props department built for the shoot more than doubled the number of models made for the film that held the previous record. Models of numerous buildings, city streets, historical buildings, and monuments were created, not to mention the spaceships shown in the films, including a nine-meter model of a destroyer and a three-meter model of an alien mothership.
- At the beginning of the film, a live broadcast from Novosibirsk (Russia) begins on television, followed by a map showing the cities of Moscow, Petrograd, and Novosyoyrsk (the creators meant Novosibirsk).
- The abbreviation “ID4,” which the film was originally named, was created after legal issues arose regarding the rights to the title “Independence Day.”
- Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich wrote the screenplay in 4 weeks. On Thursday, they sent the script for approval and began looking for actors, and by Monday, the pre-production process had begun.
- The film's artist, Patrick Tatopoulos, proposed two concepts for depicting the alien invaders to director Roland Emmerich. Emmerich liked them so much that he used both – one to show the aliens as such, and the other to show them in biomechanical suits.
- Over 70 news broadcasts were created for the film. Real news anchors read the text and appeared on screen, as the filmmakers believed that actors would not look authentic or convincing in this situation.
- The scene in which Will Smith's character drags an unconscious alien across the desert was filmed near the Great Salt Lake in Utah. The line “What’s that smell?” was not in the script. The Great Salt Lake is inhabited by tiny Artemia (planktonic organisms). As they die, they sink to the bottom of the lake (which is not very deep) where they decompose. When the wind picks up, it stirs the lake, and the smell of decaying Artemia spreads around. The actor was simply not warned about this.
Similar movies
Auditions in India
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