Now that summer is over, I wanted to go back and revisit one of my absolute favorite summer blockbusters, and really the movie that I always go to when I think of what is the ultimate summer blockbuster! I am talking about Independence Day. 90’s movies really hold a special place in my heart, partly due to that was the time that I grew up and started going to the movies and discovering the wonderful world of the silver screen. But also going to the movies during the summer months was something I always looked forward to, that and being out of school. Let’s dig into this shall we?
Independence Day was released on July 3, 1996. I really did not know whole lot about this when it was released. My birthday was a few days after the release, which was when I saw it. For my birthday that year my dad took me out kayaking on a nearby lake and told me we’re going to see this movie called Independence Day later that day. I was a little excited for it, but was worried it was going to be kind of boring, as what happened sometimes when my dad chose the movie.
I went to my local theater and bought a Coke and Buncha Crunch, well, it was my birthday so my dad bought me the Coke and Buncha Crunch, plus I was 9 and not making a living wage yet, you know, I’m 34 now and still not making a living wage, but I’m getting off topic here. I knew going into this movie it was a disaster movie, and seeing the opening shot of Neil Armstrong’s foot prints disappear from the moon’s surface as something menacing approached then cut to Earth with REM’s “It’s the End of the World” playing, it definitely hit the cheese meter, but in a wonderful way.
Let’s talk about the story. Like multiple films that came out around this time; a threat from space is coming to earth and it is up to us to save our planet. Armageddon, Deep Impact, Mars Attacks, and Space Jam are all classic examples. So the story is not completely original, but this movie still succeeds. The dialogue along with the characters are what I was drawn to, and how in the world can we defeat these aliens? Plus it delivers one of the absolute greatest speeches in cinematic history by America’s president Bill Pullman aka President Thomas J. Whitmore! How can anyone not feel empowered after, “…we will not go quietly into the night! We will not vanish without a fight! We’re going to live on, we’re going to survive! Today we celebrate our Independence Day!”
What this movie does so well is bring this approaching dread, fear, unknown, and to some people out there, excitement. There is a welcome party for these ships, people are excited for what this means. But most of the world is fearful of this looming craft that is hovering above them. And then what I love is this signal that was discovered by Jeff Goldblum’s character, David Levinson, and it becomes this ticking time clock of what is going to happen. And then, “checkmate,” the shuttle doors open up and obliterate all in its path. This is act 1, and the aliens have already taken out a huge chunk of humanity. How can this get any worse? Or better yet, how can the stakes get any higher?
Act II has one of my favorite action sequences. With the adrenaline pumping and knowing how easily they can take out mass life on this planet, it is exciting to see the humans fight back! But of course the aliens have little space ship fighters of their own. Great, planet annihilators and fighter ships, but it shows that these aliens are ready to come in and will fight anyway they can so they can succeed in their mission. Will Smith’s character, Steven Hiller, leads a few of the aliens away from the battle into a canyon chase. One that reminds me a lot of the asteroid chase in The Empire Strikes Back and even the first episode of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier now reminds me of the chase here. The chase ends with Hiller outsmarting an alien and causing it to crash and the scene ends with the best face punch line ever, “welcome to earth.”
Act III then brings a giant ship on its way to kill the characters we have followed, along with their fighter space crafts, while introducing the mother ship out in space. The scale of that ship is huge by the way! It looks like the size of a planet in and of itself, and all these aliens are ready to take earth as their own. The final battle is non stop and balances the multiple story arch’s so well. How it ends, well I’m not going to tell you, just watch it now.
What we do need to discuss though is the best bromance in cinematic history: Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum. These two together are absolute gold! The way they bounce back and forth between one another. The pure joy in Will Smith as he is flying the space craft and seeing all she can do and pushing her speed, as poor Jeff Goldblum is suffering from motion sickness, I need more of that!
That is what really sells this movie, the characters and how real this situation feels. This movie feels like if it were to happen today, this is how we would try to take them down, this is how we would react to this. Most would be terrified, but we all know there are people that would throw a party on top of a roof to welcome the aliens.
Let’s talk about the effects from the film. I love the balance of practical effect and C.G.I. and miniatures. The way they shot the destruction scenes very interesting, because they built all the fireball footage on miniature street blocks and filmed those shots vertically, since fire always shoots up, this gave such an amazing fireball shooting side effect. And the models of of actual buildings and even the white house blowing up, shot at 300 frames per second, added so much and was really revolutionary for special effects, for a lot of what I had seen up to this point in my life.
I know not everyone sees this as a perfect movie, and it is not, but what this movie is and what it is trying to do works so well and for myself it is one of the best! This has been quite a fond movie from others I have talked to, but sadly I have seen a bit of that love fade after its sequel from 2016, Independence Day: Resurgence. Which maybe I’ll talk about that one another day… yikes.
I truly find little fault in this one, so I will give it a 5 outta 5. What is your favorite summer blockbuster and are you a fan of Independence Day? Let’s discuss!
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