Independence Day

Name: Independence Day
Genre: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Released: July 3, 1996
Duration: 145 min
Rating: 59
Cast: Bill Pullman, Jeff Goldblum, Mary McDonnell, Will Smith

1996

METASCORE

Mixed or average reviews based on 19 Critics

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USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 252 Ratings

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6.9

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6.9	Your Score
6.9	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 252 Ratings

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Independence Day

Movie Details & Credits

Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation | Release Date: July 3, 1996

Starring: Bill Pullman, Jeff Goldblum, Mary McDonnell, Will Smith

Summary: Mysterious and powerful aliens launch an all-out invasion against the human race. The spectacle begins when massive spaceships appear in Earth's skies. But wonder turns to terror as the ships blast destructive beams of fire down on cities all over the planet. Now the world's only hope lies with a determined band of survivors, uniting forMysterious and powerful aliens launch an all-out invasion against the human race. The spectacle begins when massive spaceships appear in Earth's skies. But wonder turns to terror as the ships blast destructive beams of fire down on cities all over the planet. Now the world's only hope lies with a determined band of survivors, uniting for one last strike against the invaders - before it's the end of all mankind. [20th Century Fox]… Expand

Director: Roland Emmerich

Genre(s): Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi, Thriller

Rating: PG-13

Runtime: 145 min

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Awards & Rankings

66	#66 Best Movie of 1996
5	#5 Most Discussed Movie of 1996
1	#1 Most Shared Movie of 1996

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Metascore

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Critic Reviews

100

San Francisco Chronicle - Mick LaSalle

The alien attack, taking place in several cities at once, is breathtaking...All the same, Independence Day is consistently funny. Read full review

Entertainment Weekly - Lisa Schwarzbaum

It's the first futuristic disaster movie that's as cute as a button. Which, when all the special effects blow over, is what we Americans like in a monster hit. Read full review

The New York Times - Elvis Mitchell

Two reasons it's impossible to resist "Independence Day": because of its pitch-perfect cartoonish dialogue ("Now you're never gonna get to fly the space shuttle if you marry a stripper!") and because the Captain, like Indiana Jones, is so unflappably tough. Read full review

Austin Chronicle - Marc Savlov

Once you get past the admittedly breathtaking shots of our national landmarks being turned into kindling, the rest of the film is a tired and empty two hours of feel-good patriotism and oddly cast characters. Read full review

Washington Post - Kevin McManus

Cruises to an upbeat ending but furnishes no more of the wicked thrills of the initial hour. Particularly disappointing is the human contrivance employed in the defeat of the vastly superior enemy. Read full review

Newsweek - David Ansen

The dialogue is tacky, the characters stock and the special effects no improvement on anything George Lucas did 20 years ago. Read full review

Washington Post - Rita Kempley

An overgrown hybrid of disaster epic, can-do combat adventure and '50s sci-fi movie, this craft has visited our world many times before. And while she's a beaut, the sticker on her titanium bumper reads: "Been There, Done That, Beam Me Up, Scotty." Read full review

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User Reviews

ricky1121

Oct 8, 2014

The effects are amazing and the film has an excellent cast. The movie is also very realistic. Roland Emmerich makes the best disaster films. I just wish we saw more aliens.

1 of 3 users found this helpful12

JamesH.

Dec 27, 2007

This movie has a permanent spot in my top-five movies list. Five-star special effects, great acting, good plot, and everyone gets a few great lines. The President's speech just before the final battle is unforgettable. Easily earns a place in any sci fi or action movie lover's This movie has a permanent spot in my top-five movies list. Five-star special effects, great acting, good plot, and everyone gets a few great lines. The President's speech just before the final battle is unforgettable. Easily earns a place in any sci fi or action movie lover's library. Highly recommended.… Expand

0 of 1 users found this helpful

Spangle

Apr 30, 2016

Typically a movie as dumb, poorly written, and poorly constructed, as Independence Day would draw my ire. However, even I cannot resist its charm. Will Smith, Jeff Goldblum, and Bill Pullman, star in this cheesy, over-the-top 90's action flick that is actually a masterful action film. ForTypically a movie as dumb, poorly written, and poorly constructed, as Independence Day would draw my ire. However, even I cannot resist its charm. Will Smith, Jeff Goldblum, and Bill Pullman, star in this cheesy, over-the-top 90's action flick that is actually a masterful action film. For all of the films obvious shortcomings across the board, it is an incredibly well made and well crafted action film that sets the stakes, sticks to its rules, and comes up with unique and compelling ways to overcome the problems it puts before its heroes. Additionally, the creature design here is very nice and well done. Though it is dated in some spots, the aliens still look pretty cool. Heck, there is even some solid horror-esque moments here reminiscent of Alien combined with great references to Close Encounters of the Third Kind, 2001: A Space Odyssey, ET, and a few more that I am blanking on. Above all, Independence Day is simply entertaining. While that is often not enough to get the job done for me, it is here. While it may be everything I typically hate in a film, Independence Day stands as the exception and is a truly fun, lively, and bombastic experience.… Expand

1 of 1 users found this helpful10

Jacob

Feb 25, 2014

I may be biased as I love the style of filmmaking from the 90s but I really enjoyed this film. I will admit that it has problems like a somewhat cheesy tone but I like the characters and the story flows nicely. Plus, the flying sequences are cool. The effects were probably groundbreakingI may be biased as I love the style of filmmaking from the 90s but I really enjoyed this film. I will admit that it has problems like a somewhat cheesy tone but I like the characters and the story flows nicely. Plus, the flying sequences are cool. The effects were probably groundbreaking back then and still hold up today, and the film looks great visually. Definitely check this one out if you haven’t seen it already. If this film was a summer blockbuster then awesome because this would have been a great theater going experience.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

MovieMasterEddy

Apr 3, 2016

"Independence Day" is the biggest B movie ever made, the mother of all doomsday dramas. This airborne leviathan features a bunch of agreeably cardboard characters saving the human race from mass extermination in a way that proves as unavoidably entertaining as it is hopelessly cornball."Independence Day" is the biggest B movie ever made, the mother of all doomsday dramas. This airborne leviathan features a bunch of agreeably cardboard characters saving the human race from mass extermination in a way that proves as unavoidably entertaining as it is hopelessly cornball.

Working in a vein that is unabashedly hokey, contrived and ultra-patriotic, the “Stargate” team of director Roland Emmerich and co-writer/producer Dean Devlin clearly had great fun combining sure-fire elements from a bunch of mainstream genres in a way that is frankly intended to be overwhelming.

For the most part it is, at least in the sense that the sheer volume and variety of mass destruction, casualties, moments of dire jeopardy, opportunities for heroism and, above all, special effects, are almost certainly without precedent.

This is, in effect, the anti-“Close Encounters,” a throwback to ominous, paranoid thrillers such as “The War of the Worlds,””The Day the Earth Stood Still,””When Worlds Collide,””Invaders From Mars” and television’s “V,” a story in which the visitors from space have absolutely no interest in making nice with the earthlings and, in fact, have every intention of wiping them out so they can have Earth’s resources to themselves. Lay on top of that an Irwin Allen aesthetic sense and 10,000 special effects and you have a definition of high-concept.

The magnitude of the global threat is awesomely established in the teaser opening, which shows the black mother ship, itself a quarter the size of the moon, sailing through the lunar orbit on its way to its rendezvous with Earth. Shortly let loose are some 15-mile-wide saucers, which descend to hover directly over New York City, Washington and Los Angeles, along with other world capitals, causing no end of wonderment and panic.

In vintage disaster-pic fashion, a host of characters from all walks of life is sketched in. For starters, there is David (Jeff Goldblum), a New York computer genius whose ability to analyze the aliens’ communications code with his laptop could help expose their Achilles heel; Capt. Steven Hiller (Will Smith), a hot-dog fighter pilot from L.A. with an unfulfilled dream to be an astronaut; and U.S. President Thomas J. Whitmore (Bill Pullman), a rather green national leader widely regarded as a wimp despite his background as a combat pilot during the Gulf War.

Since David’s ex-wife, Constance (Margaret Colin), works for the president, David, along with his kvetchy father, Julius (Judd Hirsch), gains entree to the White House to announce his theory that a catastrophic countdown is under way. When some “Welcome Wagon” helicopters flashing “Close Encounters”-style lights are summarily blasted out of the sky by the aliens, it becomes clear that the visitors have come not for a picnic, but for a barbecue.

Although scenes of the lumbering warships parking themselves over the cities are eyefuls in themselves, the first real fireworks come 45 minutes in, as the spacecrafts open up their hulls to expose giant electromagnetic ray guns that simultaneously zap the soaring Library Tower in Los Angeles (where a bunch of SoCal nitwits are celebrating in welcome of the aliens), the Empire State Building and the White House. As Air Force One spectacularly manages to take off just inches ahead of onrushing flames, uncontrollable firestorms result in the destruction of all three cities and millions of casualties.

And that’s just act one. Air attacks on the alien ships reveal that they are surrounded by protective shields that ward off all weapons, but when hundreds of crustacean-like alien fighter ships zip out to engage the American planes, Hiller manages to make one crash and returns the gruesome-looking pilot to Area 51, a top-secret Nevada base where the president has taken refuge. There, 24 floors underground, the resident loony genius (Brent Spiner) reveals the existence of an alien spaceship captured long ago that just may be in working order, opening the door on a long-shot counterattack that plays out on the third day of the story, July 4.

Without giving the game away, it’s fair to say that everybody gets into the heroic final act: The president dons his flight suit once again, Hiller and David fly into outer space to take on the mother ship, and even an alky Vietnam vet (Randy Quaid) has his chance to go down in history.

This is hardly a movie for viewers interested in plausibility or intelligence in storytelling, but Emmerich throws spectacularly pulpy events at the audience at such a pace that carping about logic is moot. The never-ending special effects, while massively spectacular, are not always that special.

Pic delivers its scariest scene when it momentarily decides to become a monster movie during an alien autopsy, but violence is mostly general and directed at objects rather than people, thereby further increasing the potential kid audience.… Expand

0 of 1 users found this helpful01

EpicLadySponge

May 1, 2016

This is a disaster movie? I swear, it doesn't look like one. Probably because I am not looking at it correctly. I thought Independence Day was a cool disaster movie, but still joins the rest of the disaster movies out there.

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

JaredChristenson

Oct 2, 2007

The special effects aren't bad, character use magnificent, story pretty superb, acting okay, but it is absolutely cheesy every second. There is one really funny part and thats it, there are several smiles and giggles of entertainment, the action totally passes, the plot has so much and The special effects aren't bad, character use magnificent, story pretty superb, acting okay, but it is absolutely cheesy every second. There is one really funny part and thats it, there are several smiles and giggles of entertainment, the action totally passes, the plot has so much and flies. But the lamest part of it all is that the German Shepherd survives a jump into a truck with fire flaming 1 centimetere away from him. And the president's wife goes in a Helicopter and the Helicopter blows up in an instant noticable explosion, and the girl lives lying on the ground with just a bleed and dust particles on her face. when she should have a dissinagrated head and organs melted. That was the main road of the story which is lame, and it really drags on near the end. I just found it boring and unsuccesful, overall not worth it.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful

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