Independence Day The Rewatchables
Independence Day poster
Independence Day

Most Rewatchable Scene

The president's speech; Will Smith's dogfight and desert drag

In the discussion (18)
Approx. transcript time · 00:29:25Read transcript
  • There was only one rewatchable scene in the first 45 minutes because of character development; the reply jokes that the movie was 30 minutes too short and Will's morning routine should have run 40 minutes.
  • The spaceship arriving is listed first, with a complaint that people are never scared enough of a giant ship over their city.
  • Goldblum explaining to the president that the aliens are using the satellites to coordinate is listed next.
  • The welcome wagon being demolished follows; a question is raised about how few Black characters are in the movie, and nobody questions the orders they are given.
  • "Times up": everything starts blowing up, yet Vivica Fox's dog Boomer is sure to survive.
  • The aborted Air Force attack: Will Smith is on fire, Harry Connick Jr. dies, the parachute move, and the "Welcome to Earth" punch; whether aliens can be concussed gets the ruling yes, if Will Smith punches you.
  • Every best scene leans toward Will Smith; seen at 15 or 16 it was the coolest thing ever, a fighter pilot talking trash to the aliens with two one-liners.
  • Dragging the alien across the desert is where Will Smith becomes Will Smith, capped by the "what the hell is that smell" rant.
  • Trae Young is the current NBA star who could pull off the sequence; definitely not Ben Simmons.
  • The Area 51 descent into a secret facility, Adam Baldwin, and opening the alien's head with a slightly Total Recall second alien that is not friendly and the bulletproof-glass moment are listed.
  • The speech is a vote for most rewatchable, quoted through "We will not go quietly into the night" and "Today, we celebrate our Independence Day."
  • The speech had not received final edits and ran longer when filmed, per the account from Pullman; much of the first take is in the movie, and the onlookers' reactions were genuine awe.
  • The only change from the rough draft, per Devlin, was adding "today we celebrate our Independence Day" because the studio was starting to change the title to Doomsday; title plus release date in the movie is called a trifecta.
  • Three more: Will taking off backward with Goldblum and the "oops" exchange, the comeback landing, and the walk back with cigars as the women run to them, with Goldblum tall enough to match Smith; Top Gun did that return best.
  • A side Mount Rushmore of good guys returning to be greeted lands on Armageddon, Independence Day and Top Gun; Captain Phillips is floated for a fourth and rejected.
  • The pick is the Will Smith sequence, the air fight and desert drag, best watched as a stitched-together YouTube clip; the speech needs its lead-up like the Knives Out reveal, and the first destruction of the White House, Capitol, Empire State Building and Statue of Liberty felt real at 15 or 16. — Shea Serrano
  • Recognizing the L.A. tunnel where Vivica, Boomer and Dylan hide, the rewatchable scene is still the speech, set up by the president deciding he will fly too; it makes one want to go pick up litter.
  • Emmerich's signature is showing a thing and then exploding it, as in Godzilla, The Day After Tomorrow and 2012; a joke imagines him wanting to blow up the Phoenix arena during the Clipper-Sun series.