Independence Day was the alien invasion movies to end them
all. It starts when a space craft a quarter of the size of the Moon shows up
and spews out smaller craft the size of cities. Communications around the globe
are disrupted.
We are introduced to the cast one by one. They include
President Thomas Whitmore, played by Bill Pullman, with an eerie resemblance to
the future President George W. Bush, right down to the contempt with which he
is treated by the media. Others include Marine Captain and aspiring astronaut
Steve Hiller, played by Will Smith, MIT grad and underachiever David Levinson,
played by Jeff Goldblum, and a somewhat demented crop duster pilot Russell
Casse, played by Randy Quaid, who claims to have been abducted by aliens at one
time. Stand out supporting performances include Judd Hirsch, as Levinson’s very
Jewish father, Vivica Fox as Hiller’s girlfriend, and Margaret Colin as Levinson’s
ex wife and Whitmore’s chief aid.
Levinson, who is oddly working for a cable network, finds
out the truth about the aliens’ intentions. He and his father desperately drive
to Washington to warn Levinson’s
ex wife and the President, which allows time for most of the cast to escape Washington
before the aliens strike.
The total destruction of New York,
Washington, and Los
Angeles is presented in loving detail, with an
expanding fireball from the alien primary weapon consuming buildings,
automobiles, and people with equal efficiency. A counter attack, led by Captain
Hiller, results in the obliteration of a Marine F 18 wing due to those pesky
force fields the aliens seem to have. Air Force One, containing the President,
some of his aids, Levinson, and his father make it to Area 51, the existence of
which the President was previously unaware. Hiller, the last survivor of his
squadron, makes it to the base with a captured alien and a horde of refugees.
An attempt to take out the alien ship over Houston
with a nuclear weapon fails. All seems to be lost.
Then, of course, Levinson, being the scientist character,
finds a way to get through the alien force fields. It involves a 1996 Apple
Powerbook that has a red eye on the screen and calls him “Dave.” Levinson and
Hiller fly a desperate mission to the alien mother ship while the President, a
former fighter pilot, leads the last remains of the nation’s air power against
the aliens. Russell Case, himself a former Vietnam
era pilot, managed to give the last full measure and, as usual, humanity is
triumphant. We see shots of alien ships brought down in Africa,
at the Great Pyramids of Giza, and at Sydney, Australia.
The movie stole shamelessly from just about every other SF
movie ever made. It even stole—and very well—from Shakespeare’s Henry V.
Pullman’s Independence Day speech is equal to anything spoke on St. Crispin’s
Day. And there’s the inspiring idea of pilots of all nations, Arabs and
Israelis, Russians and Chinese, led of course by America,
fighting an Agincourt in the sky in one last battle
against the alien fleet.