Independence Day (ID4)

Directed by	Roland Emmerich
Written by	Dean Devlin, Roland Emmerich
Starring	Jeff Goldblum, Bill Pullman, Will Smith, Vivica A. Fox, Judd Hirsch, Mary McDonnell, Randy Quaid
Produced by	Roland Emmerich
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date	July 2, 1996 (Canada) July 3, 1996 (USA)
Runtime	145 min. (theatrical) 153 min. (special edition)
Language	English
Budget	$75,000,000 (estimated)
IMDb page

Independence Day is an American action movie about an attempted alien takeover of the Earth. The movie features several scenes of major American landmarks being destroyed by the aliens, such as the U.S. Bank Tower in Los Angeles, California, the Empire State Building and the White House. The film's success was partially credited to an extensive marketing campaign which began with a dramatic commercial during Super Bowl XXX. This movie was scheduled for release on Wednesday, July 3, 1996, but due to high level of anticipation for the film, many theaters began showing it on the evening of July 2, the same day the action in the film begins. Download high resolution version (669x943, 97 KB)Independence Day movieposter File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Roland Emmerich (born November 10, 1955) is a filmmaker. ... Jeffrey Lynn Jeff Goldblum (born October 22, 1952) is a Jewish American film actor. ... Bill Pullman Bill Pullman (born December 17, 1953) is an American actor. ... Will Smith Willard Christopher Smith II (born September 25, 1968) is an African American actor and rapper. ... Vivica Anjanetta Fox (born July 30, 1964) is an American movie and television actress. ... Judd Hirsch (born March 15, 1935 in the The Bronx, New York) is an American actor best known for playing Alex Rieger on the television show Taxi. ... Mary McDonnell (born April 28, 1952 in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania) is an American actress. ... Randall Rudy Quaid (born October 1, 1950 in Houston, Texas), commonly known as Randy Quaid, is an actor and the elder brother of fellow actor Dennis Quaid. ... Fox Plaza, the company headquarters. ... July 2 is the 183rd day of the year (184th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 182 days remaining. ... 1996 is a leap year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty. ... July 3 is the 184th day of the year (185th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 181 days remaining. ... Look up Action in Wiktionary, the free dictionary Action can be used in different contexts: Action movie Action game Action Comics, an American comic book series featuring Superman Action, a British comics anthology of the 1970s In physics, the action is a crucial concept in Lagrangian mechanics In philosophy, action... Film refers to the celluloid media on which movies are printed Film is a term that encompasses motion pictures as individual projects, as well as the field in general. ... Extraterrestrial life is life that may exist and originate outside our planet Earth. ... Alien invasion is a science fiction theme in which extraterrestrial life attacks Earth with the intent to conquer it. ... Earth, also known as the Earth, Terra, and (mostly in the 19th century) Tellus, is the third planet outward from the Sun. ... U.S. Bank Tower in Downtown Los Angeles is the tallest North American building west of Chicago. ... This article is about the largest city in California. ... State nickname: The Golden State Other U.S. States Capital Sacramento Largest city Los Angeles Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) Official languages English Area 410,000 km² (3rd)  - Land 404,298 km²  - Water 20,047 km² (4. ... The Empire State Building Entrance lobby The Empire State Building, a 102-story contemporary Art Deco style building in New York City, was designed by Shreve, Lamb and Harmon Associates and built in 1931. ... The southern side of the White House The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the President of the United States. ... Date January 28, 1996 Stadium Sun Devil Stadium City Tempe, Arizona Attendance 76,347 MVP Larry Brown, Cornerback National Anthem Vanessa Williams Coin Toss Joe Montana representing previous Super Bowl MVPs Halftime Show Diana Ross U.S. TV Network NBC Announcers Dick Enberg, Phil Simms, and Paul Maguire Nielsen Ratings... Wednesday is the day of the week between Tuesday and Thursday. ... July 3 is the 184th day of the year (185th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 181 days remaining. ... 1996 is a leap year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty. ... July 2 is the 183rd day of the year (184th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 182 days remaining. ...

Plot

In more modern times, after the rumored crash of an alien spacecraft recovered by "Area 51" in the '40s, the world is in shock on July 2, 1996 as an alien ship of mindboggling proportions enters the Earth's orbit and begins an invasion. With technology thousands of years more advanced than humanity's, they quickly destroy several of the world's major cities, killing millions. Not all die, however, and the survivors form a resistance. Conventional missiles and nuclear weapons are to no avail, as the alien ships are strongly shielded by impenetrable force fields. The movie climaxes on July 4 as the Earthlings use a computer virus to disrupt the shield, opening a window of opportunity to strike back. Satellite view of Area 51 from 1968. ... In general physics, a force field is a vector field representing the gradient of a potential. ... In computer security technology, a virus is a self-replicating program that spreads by inserting copies of itself into other executable code or documents (for a complete definition: see below). ...

Criticism

Whilst a commercial success, it was ridiculed by some critics for the plot (which involved causing the aliens' high-tech computers to malfunction by infecting them with a simple virus written on an Apple Macintosh (cf War of the Worlds,) predictable plot lines and poor acting. Many people outside the United States (and some within) also derided the film for what was viewed as calculated pandering to excessive American nationalistic sentiment, as the film was released in the United States over the Fourth of July weekend and was explicitly titled Independence Day. In computer security technology, a virus is a self-replicating program that spreads by inserting copies of itself into other executable code or documents (for a complete definition: see below). ... The box for Mac OS X v10. ... The War of the Worlds DVD The War of the Worlds (1953), was directed by Byron Haskin and produced by George Pál (the second of three H.G. Wells science fiction stories to be filmed by Pál), and starred Gene Barry, Les Tremayne and Ann Robinson. ... These fireworks over the Washington Monument are typical of Fourth of July celebrations In the United States, Independence Day, also called the Fourth of July, is a federal holiday celebrating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. ...

Advocates of the film point out that alien virus protection could have evolved to such a high level that archaic viruses might have passed under their notice due to a need to allocate processor power to more advanced scanning. It may also be that our modern computers may have been developed based on technology recovered from the Area 51 craft, thus making the two systems accidentally compatible. Opponents of the film counter with the argument that Apple computers are not even able to communicate with IBM computers from our own planet, which makes having an Apple computer to communicate with an alien computer even more unbelievable.

Facts and figures

• Released in 1996.
• 153 minutes long in Special Edition version. 145 minutes long in theatrical version
• Directed by: Roland Emmerich
• Written by: Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich
• Original music by: David Arnold
• Produced by: 20th Century Fox Centropolis Film Productions
• Distributed by: 20th Century Fox.
• Awards: Academy Award for Visual Effects 1996.

1996 is a leap year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty. ... Roland Emmerich (born November 10, 1955) is a filmmaker. ... Roland Emmerich (born November 10, 1955) is a filmmaker. ... David Arnold (born February 27, 1962 in Luton, England) is one of the most popular and successful young British composers. ... Fox Plaza, the company headquarters. ... Fox Plaza, the company headquarters. ... This is a list of films that have received an Oscar for best visual effects. ...

Cast

• Jeff Goldblum - David Levinson
• Bill Pullman - President Thomas J. Whitmore
• Will Smith - Captain Steven 'Eagle' Hiller
• Vivica A. Fox - Jasmine Dubrow
• Judd Hirsch - Julius Levinson
• Margaret Colin - Constance Sparo
• Mary McDonnell - First Lady Marilyn Whitmore
• Randy Quaid - Russell Casse
• Brent Spiner - Dr. Stanley Okun
• Robert Loggia - General William M. Grey
• Ross Bagley - Dylan Dubrow

Jeffrey Lynn Jeff Goldblum (born October 22, 1952) is a Jewish American film actor. ... Bill Pullman Bill Pullman (born December 17, 1953) is an American actor. ... Will Smith Willard Christopher Smith II (born September 25, 1968) is an African American actor and rapper. ... Vivica Anjanetta Fox (born July 30, 1964) is an American movie and television actress. ... Judd Hirsch (born March 15, 1935 in the The Bronx, New York) is an American actor best known for playing Alex Rieger on the television show Taxi. ... Margaret Colin is an actress born on May 26, 1957, the daughter of a police officer and a crop duster. ... Mary McDonnell (born April 28, 1952 in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania) is an American actress. ... Randall Rudy Quaid (born October 1, 1950 in Houston, Texas), commonly known as Randy Quaid, is an actor and the elder brother of fellow actor Dennis Quaid. ... Brent Spiner Brent Spiner as Data on Star Trek: The Next Generation Brent Jay Spiner is an American actor, best known for his portrayal of the android Lieutenant Commander Data in the television and movie series Star Trek: The Next Generation. ... Robert Loggia (born January 3, 1930 in New York City) is an American character actor. ... Ross Elliott Begley (born December 5, 1988) is an African-American actor. ...

Depicted locations

• Air Force One
• Area 51
• El Toro Marine Corps Air Station
• Los Angeles, California
• New York City, New York
• Houston, Texas
• Washington, D.C.

Air Force One is the air traffic control call sign of any U.S. Air Force aircraft carrying the President of the United States. ... Satellite view of Area 51 from 1968. ... Marine Corps Air Station El Toro was a military airport located near Irvine, California. ... The Downtown Los Angeles skyline. ... State nickname: The Golden State Other U.S. States Capital Sacramento Largest city Los Angeles Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) Official languages English Area 410,000 km² (3rd)  - Land 404,298 km²  - Water 20,047 km² (4. ... Midtown Manhattan, looking north from the Empire State Building, 2005 New York City (officially named the City of New York and abbreviated NYC) is the most populous city in the United States, and is at the center of international finance, politics, communications, music, fashion, and culture. ... State nickname: Empire State Other U.S. States Capital Albany Largest city New York Governor George Pataki Official languages None (English is de facto) Area 141,205 km² (27th)  - Land 122,409 km²  - Water 18,795 km² (13. ... Houston redirects here. ... State nickname: Lone Star State Other U.S. States Capital Austin Largest city Houston Governor Rick Perry Official languages None. ... Aerial photo (looking NW) of the Washington Monument and the White House in Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., officially the District of Columbia (also known as D.C.; Washington; the Nations Capital; the District; and, historically, the Federal City) is the capital city and administrative district of the...

Radio spin-off

In August 1996 BBC Radio 1 broadcast the 1-hour play Independence Day UK, produced by Dirk Maggs, a spin-off depicting the invasion from a British perspective. Note: as an adjective (stressed on the second syllable instead of the first), august means honorable. ... 1996 is a leap year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty. ... BBC Radio 1 is a British radio station, specialising in popular music aimed at a young audience (children, teenagers and young adults). ... Independence Day UK is a one-hour BBC Radio 1 science fiction special, first broadcast on August 4, 1996. ... Dirk Maggs is a radio director who works for BBC Radio 4. ... A spin-off (or spinoff) is a new organization or entity formed by a split from a larger one such as a new company formed from a university research group. ...

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations by or about:

Independence Day (movie)

• Independence Day on sciflicks.com
• Internet Movie Database entry

Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Wikiquote is a sister project of Wikipedia, using the same MediaWiki software. ...

Trivia

• In an alternate ending scene, Russell Casse (Randy Quaid) was originally denied service in the U.S.-led worldwide aerial counterattack force, so he flew on his unarmed biplane with a missile attached to it, knowing he was going to kill himself by destroying one of the alien space destroyers. The scene was dropped and later revised: in the new version of this scene, Casse joined the U.S.-led worldwide aerial counterattack force and flew an F-18 jet fighter plane instead of his biplane and later makes the decision to destroy the alien space destroyer on a suicide run after his firing mechanism jammed.