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Independence Day

year 1996decade 90sdirector Roland Emmerichgenre Science fictiongenre Action

145 minutes

Cast

Selected cast credits · Film reference

Will Smith Captain Steven Hiller
Bill Pullman President Thomas J. Whitmore
Jeff Goldblum David Levinson
Mary McDonnell First Lady Marilyn Whitmore
Judd Hirsch Julius Levinson
Margaret Colin Constance Spano
Randy Quaid Russell Casse
Robert Loggia General William Grey
James Rebhorn Albert Nimziki
Harvey Fierstein Marty Gilbert
Adam Baldwin Major Mitchell
Brent Spiner Dr. Brackish Okun
James Duval Miguel Casse
Vivica A. Fox Jasmine Dubrow
Harry Connick Jr. Captain Jimmy Wilder
Mae Whitman Patricia Whitmore
Leland Orser Techy / Med Asst #1
Dan Lauria Commanding Officer

Independence Day | The Rewatchables

host Bill Simmonshost Chris Ryanhost Shea Serranoproducer Craig Horlbeck format 25th anniversary
Explore episodeClose episode

Mount Rushmore of Movie Presidents

In the discussion (9)
Approx. transcript time · 00:19:25Read transcript
  • Movie presidents are raised as something held for Apex Mountain; it is unclear whether the Mount Rushmore allows TV or only movies.
  • If movies only, the four most important movie presidents are Michael Douglas in The American President, Kevin Klein in Dave and Pullman in Independence Day, with the fourth spot wide open; for this participant it is Jeff Bridges in The Contender, who seemed very presidential.
  • Others might put Morgan Freeman in Deep Impact in the fourth spot.
  • Asked for a fourth, a special dispensation for Jed Bartlet from The West Wing is requested. — Chris Ryan
  • TV presidents are ruled out for this list; Haysbert from 24 and Bartlet are said to have strong cases for a TV Rushmore.
  • Film portrayals of Kennedy are not worth including; fictional presidents work better.
  • A totally different four: the Independence Day president, Harrison Ford in Air Force One because a president who can fight is preferred, Jamie Fox in White House Down, and Morgan Freeman. — Shea Serrano
  • Kevin Klein in Dave redid a budget and healed America; since a movie president appears only when something bad is happening, the preference is for one who can handle himself.
  • White House Down, seen only once, is said to be better and sillier than remembered; Olympus Has Fallen is preferred by one participant.

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.

What’s Aged the Best?

Area 51 and UFOs; the alien drag; the sky-staring gag; the loaded cast; the 'better be good' official; 1990s effects; Nimziki; the first-to-know character; Goldblum-Smith improv; the title

In the discussion (11)
Approx. transcript time · 00:43:08Read transcript
  • Area 51 and the UFOs aged wonderfully, now that 60 Minutes is doing UFO pieces.
  • Will Smith dragging the concussed alien body is funny every time.
  • The staring-at-the-sky awe gag used in the Austin Powers movies is clearly ripped off from this movie.
  • The loaded cast includes Goldblum, Hirsch, Loggia, Pullman, Rebhorn, Randy Quaid, Margaret Colin, Vivica Fox, Harry Connick and Adam Baldwin along with Will Smith.
  • Margaret Colin's career did not happen the way it should have; she was on Chicago Hope, which lost the medical-drama race to ER, and she is good here and in Unfaithful.
  • The film perfected the aggrieved official who says "this better be good" after being woken up, such as a submarine captain whose job is to solve crises.
  • 1990s special effects are listed again.
  • Nimziki is a needed subtle villain for most of the movie, second-guessing Pullman and pushing to nuke Houston, compared to working in fantasy.
  • The character who recognizes the danger before everyone else and has to explain it is a favorite trope; Paul Giamatti in San Andreas is the one time the explanation felt right. — Shea Serrano
  • Goldblum and Smith are clearly improvising for the second half, which makes the heady spaceship-and-virus plot work.
  • A great title for a movie released on Independence Day.

The Joey Pants “That Guy” Award

In the discussion (4)
Approx. transcript time · 00:47:44Read transcript
  • The Rebhorn That Guy case is brought forward: a 1990s run from My Cousin Vinny and Basic Instinct through Scent of a Woman, Carlito's Way, The Game, the Seinfeld finale and The Talented Mr. Ripley, later Homeland; he is now simply James Rebhorn, and the award could be named for him.
  • Rebhorn is ruled ineligible as too much in the movie.
  • Dan Loria, the dad from The Wonder Years, is floated as a good pick.
  • Leland Orser, briefly in the surgery room and also in a famous Se7en scene, is offered and accepted. — Chris Ryan

What’s Aged the Worst?

Bad rip-offs; Randy Quaid's real-life weirdness; the sequel without Will Smith; Super Bowl blockbuster ads; the Miguel character; the Quaid kids subplot

In the discussion (8)
Approx. transcript time · 00:50:42Read transcript
  • Bad Independence Day rip-offs such as Volcano, and its influence on culture has probably not been positive; care is urged because Shea likes these movies, down to Lake Placid and Anaconda.
  • A run of blow-up movies followed, including Godzilla.
  • Randy Quaid got super weird in real life, making it hard to watch him now.
  • Independence Day 2 without Will Smith has no acceptable explanation; they recast Pullman's daughter instead of using the original actress and should have waited Smith out after his $50 million ask and conflicts with Suicide Squad and After Earth.
  • The sequel is compared to a Duncan-era Spurs sequel without Duncan.
  • The movie is blamed for the trend of Super Bowl blockbuster ads, starting with a $1.3 million spot in Super Bowl 30, part of a $30 million campaign with product placement, toys, an Apple deal, strong trailers and an early limited release.
  • Miguel, played by James Duval, is a bad Keanu Reeves rip-off; the Randy Quaid kid material, such as the car-sick scene and the disappearing daughter, would be cut, keeping only the scene where he is mocked.
  • Better Miguels exist, including in Kobra Kai.

Casting What-Ifs

Kevin Spacey as the president; Ally Walker for Margaret Colin's role; Jada Pinkett for Vivica Fox's role; Matthew Perry as Jimmy Wilder

In the discussion (7)
Approx. transcript time · 00:56:39Read transcript
  • Kevin Spacey was supposed to be the president, but Fox refused because he was not a big enough star; the part was written for a Bill Pullman type.
  • Relief is expressed that Spacey is not the president in this movie.
  • Ally Walker was supposed to play Margaret Colin's character; Colin jokingly told a casting assistant she was 22, it was written down, and she nearly lost the part.
  • Jada Pinkett was supposed to have the Vivica Fox role but had a Nutty Professor conflict, and ended up with Will Smith anyway.
  • Matthew Perry was reportedly offered Captain Jimmy Wilder and pulled out, though this could not be confirmed; a Chandler version is imagined.
  • The end-of-the-world song was originally supposed to be Tears for Fears' Everybody Wants to Rule the World.
  • There were fewer casting what-ifs than expected because they knew who they wanted.

Recasting Couch

Christopher Lloyd, Dennis Hopper or Al Pacino as the Area 51 doctor; Demi Moore or Sharon Stone for Mary McDonnell's role; Martin Lawrence for Connick

In the discussion (6)
Approx. transcript time · 01:02:22Read transcript
  • Option two: the wacky Area 51 doctor should be a real famous person, such as Christopher Lloyd as a Doc Brown wink or Dennis Hopper.
  • Pacino is suggested for two scenes at $10 million, with an impression.
  • Option one: never having been a Mary McDonnell person (after an Amy Adams comparison), Demi Moore is wanted for four scenes, and her death would be more shocking.
  • A defense: McDonnell is good in John Sails movies.
  • For a three-day role, go big; Sharon Stone is suggested and would have been an unexpected death.
  • Returning to recasting, Connick could be swapped for Martin Lawrence if the seat just needs a funny guy.

Half-Assed Internet Research

Stargate origin; military withdrawal; model effects; Oscar-nominee game; Clinton screening; VHS campaign; improvisation; Loggia's Airplane mix-up

In the discussion (9)
Approx. transcript time · 01:05:24Read transcript
  • The idea came while Emmerich promoted Stargate: asked about aliens, he imagined waking to a 15-mile-wide spaceship and told Devlin it was their next movie.
  • The U.S. military was originally involved and bowed out, apparently over Area 51.
  • There were 3,000-plus effects shots, with models such as a 10-by-5-foot White House blown up; the White House interior set was reused from The American President and Nixon.
  • In a game naming the six Oscar nominees in the cast, Will Smith and Pullman are named first. — Shea Serrano
  • Goldblum and then Judd Hirsch are named, winning the game; Loggia, Mary McDonnell and Randy Quaid are the others. — Chris Ryan
  • A White House screening for Bill Clinton, who loved it, and an oral-history anecdote about Vivica Fox meeting him.
  • A six-week, $30 million VHS campaign made it the best-selling live-action video ever.
  • Most scenes with Goldblum and Judd Hirsch or Will Smith were improvised, and 70 mock news broadcasts were made.
  • Robert Loggia was told to watch Airplane instead of Airport, thought they were secretly making a spoof and refused to leave his trailer.

Apex Mountain

Harry Connick Jr.; Bill Pullman; alien-invasion movies; concussed aliens; computer viruses

In the discussion (12)
Approx. transcript time · 01:08:42Read transcript
  • Will Smith: no, it is Men in Black, three for three, though this or Bad Boys is also floated.
  • His peak was not longer because he kept chasing the biggest box office instead of weaving in something different, not only because of Wild Wild West.
  • He passed on Denzel-type roles such as Man on Fire and Django.
  • Will Smith in Man on Fire would be welcome but could not be better than Denzel. — Shea Serrano
  • Harry Connick Jr.: with Goodacre, his music, the When Harry Met Sally soundtrack and a 1993 Christmas album, by Independence Day it is really happening.
  • Bill Pullman: yes, has to be.
  • Long dumbfounded action-movie stares peak with Jurassic Park rather than this, with Close Encounters also mentioned.
  • Vivica A. Fox gets a yes, countered by Set It Off where she is the star.
  • Alien-invasion movies: this over War of the Worlds, whose ship sound is better but whose baseball throw ruined it.
  • Concussed aliens: definitely, though CTE knowledge would put the aliens in protocol now.
  • The film is argued to be the apex of the presidency, before Lewinsky, with Dave in 1993 and The West Wing coming; Whitmore is put up with Obama, Kennedy and Lincoln, with nuking his own city a con and speaking and flying the pros.
  • Computer viruses are a last apex: early in the computer-virus era, the plot point worked.

The Vincent Chase Award: Are We Sure This Character Is Actually Good at Their Job?

President Whitmore

In the discussion (3)
Approx. transcript time · 01:13:58Read transcript
  • The case against him: no evacuation order for hours with giant ships over the biggest cities, nuking his own city, then flying off to fight with nobody to run the country.
  • The counter: if it fails nothing matters, and anyone who saw the ships and did not leave is on their own.
  • Not sure he was a great president; the evacuation could have been much sooner.

Probably Unanswerable Questions

What America looks like afterward; should Margaret Colin's character end up with Pullman; did the movie invent computer viruses; did Randy Quaid become his character

In the discussion (6)
Approx. transcript time · 01:15:12Read transcript
  • The big unanswerable question: what is left to be president of afterward, and how fast can America be propped up again.
  • With three major cities lost, Dallas or Chicago might become the alpha city, Chicago might be upset it got no ship, and the Dallas Cowboys come out unscathed.
  • Should Margaret Colin's character have ended up with Pullman rather than Goldblum and his weird dad?
  • Did this movie invent computer viruses? Probably not; popularized them, maybe.
  • Did Randy Quaid become the character in real life, with method acting making something snap? The performance is floated as the trigger.
  • No other unanswerable questions are offered.

Picking Nits

The strip joint staying open; happy reactions to the invasion; Manhattan-to-Washington travel time

In the discussion (6)
Approx. transcript time · 01:16:21Read transcript
  • The strip joint stays open during the invasion; it is assumed everything would close and most people would want to be with family.
  • Everyone reacting happily to the alien arrival is explained by that pop-culture take-me-to-your-leader moment.
  • No nits at all: everything lined up perfectly, which is agreed as pretty solid. — Shea Serrano
  • It all made sense, except Judd Hirsch and Goldblum getting from Manhattan into the White House within six hours despite apocalyptic I-95 traffic. — Chris Ryan
  • An alternate script where they die on the highway is joked about.
  • The last-second squeeze out of the mothership was an early example of the move, the same as the Bad Boys ending.

Sequel, Prequel, Limited Series, or All-Black Remake

Yes

In the discussion (7)
Approx. transcript time · 01:18:18Read transcript
  • All agree yes; it could be run back and Netflix should do it.
  • Will Smith should be given a boat full of money; the sequel without him made about $350 to $380 million and would have doubled with him.
  • One participant never bothered to watch Independence Day 2.
  • Not everything needs a sequel; this is a perfect standalone movie.
  • The sequel may have been made because someone thought the speech would make a cool trailer.
  • A sequel should be a rom-com love triangle with Pullman, Margaret Colin's character and Goldblum while rebuilding America, directed by Soderbergh and called Infrastructure Week.
  • The Netflix answer is restated as yes.

More from the conversation

A Ringer network plug mentions Chris Ryan on The Watch and Shea Serrano on No Skips, followed by a trailer-audio cold open for Independence Day.
Approx. transcript time · 00:01:14Read transcript
The episode is being posted on Independence Day; the film is framed as the day we also fought off the aliens.
Approx. transcript time · 00:02:00Read transcript
The film arrives as the summer blockbuster evolves from Speed and Jurassic Park into the 1996 run of Twister, Mission: Impossible and Independence Day, with a formula of human-interest stories, a big star, a loaded supporting cast and huge set pieces; it is said to have aged really well.
Approx. transcript time · 00:02:36Read transcript
Asked whether it is the model for recent Marvel movies, the answer points to the improvisatory Goldblum-Smith banter and planet-sized stakes carried into the Marvel era starting around 2008.
Approx. transcript time · 00:03:06Read transcript
The only thing missing is a second Will Smith, such as a twin-brother fighter pilot.
Approx. transcript time · 00:04:00Read transcript
Will Smith has a low usage rate but kills every time he is on screen; Bad Boys (1995), Independence Day (1996) and Men in Black (1997), plus Enemy of the State, are traced as the run that made him a supernova movie star.
Approx. transcript time · 00:04:32Read transcript
Will Smith is in the top five of stars worth seeing regardless of bad runs, with Denzel still ahead; the Aladdin genie was seen opening day, and the path from Fresh Prince to rap albums to Bad Boys is recalled.
Approx. transcript time · 00:06:02Read transcript
Remembered as a Will Smith movie, the rewatch shows he is not the main guy and does not appear for almost 30 minutes, yet he is the one the eye is drawn to.
Approx. transcript time · 00:06:28Read transcript
The Smith-Goldblum pairing is set up in two separate threads that converge; the film is a buddy-cop movie, war movie, sci-fi movie and disaster movie at once, with time spent on human relationships like Mary McDonnell, Judd Hirsch and Vivica A. Fox's stripper character.
Approx. transcript time · 00:07:07Read transcript
It was the second-highest-grossing movie ever at that point behind Jurassic Park; Roland Emmerich said in an oral history about the speech that it holds up because of simple human stories, and recalled Spielberg telling them they had changed something about summer movies while he was shooting The Lost World.
Approx. transcript time · 00:07:56Read transcript
This is the 25th anniversary of the movie and of a voila moment for the genre; many disaster imitators followed, including Emmerich's own, and Deep Impact is teased as a guilty favorite.
Approx. transcript time · 00:08:46Read transcript
Seeing the White House and the Empire State Building lasered was a never-seen-before destruction scale compared with earlier disaster movies like The Poseidon Adventure.
Approx. transcript time · 00:09:22Read transcript
A 20-year nostalgia cycle is traced: 1970s disaster and airport movies, Airplane's parody, 1980s confined hostage movies, Speed rip-offs like Under Siege, then Species and this film's alien turn; Jurassic Park's blockbuster-as-lifestyle model and Goldblum's near-identical character carry over.
Approx. transcript time · 00:10:01Read transcript
Audiences turned out to be fine watching millions die and nuclear weapons dropped by their own president; a first viewing at a matinee in Revere while bartending felt like a life experience.
Approx. transcript time · 00:10:35Read transcript
It was imitated repeatedly, with Deep Impact versus Armageddon, and superhero movies now routinely vaporize cities; the Matthew Broderick Godzilla from the same director felt like Independence Day's fault.
Approx. transcript time · 00:12:02Read transcript
The special effects feel rooted in the 1990s and tactile, preserving a wow factor since lost, as with Terminator 2; examples are Will Smith opening the ship hatch and punching a real alien and the practical New York car pileup behind the cop car with real crowds.
Approx. transcript time · 00:13:09Read transcript
Recent real-life UFO disclosures by the Navy and Air Force prompt a discussion of how everything is filmed in high quality except aliens, and the Southwest as a UFO hotspot.
Approx. transcript time · 00:14:25Read transcript
Resistance to believing in aliens is tied to pop culture rarely giving good alien experiences beyond E.T. and Close Encounters; Mac and Me and Starman are preferred to Arrival-type visits.
Approx. transcript time · 00:16:51Read transcript
The Area 51 sequence, 24 floors down with aliens in jars, felt close to real on this rewatch.
Approx. transcript time · 00:17:22Read transcript
If an alien showed up today there would be a few minutes of panic before it became a Twitter joke; James Harden gets photographed leaving a club at 3 a.m., but never an alien.
Approx. transcript time · 00:18:03Read transcript
The era insisted that aliens look as bizarre as possible, with tentacles and a lot of wet aliens and lube.
Approx. transcript time · 00:18:54Read transcript
Pullman's first 45 minutes are so understated it is unclear how he became president, but he rises in the second half, crushes the iconic speech and goes to fight.
Approx. transcript time · 00:22:10Read transcript
After this film Pullman seemed headed for Harrison Ford-style A-list stardom but instead had a journeyman character-actor career; his next films are listed (Lost Highway, The End of Violence, Merry Christmas George Bailey, Zero Effect, Lake Placid, Brokedown Palace), with Lake Placid loudly praised and a Costner late-80s run contrasted.
Approx. transcript time · 00:22:46Read transcript
Pullman is good at empty moments, small looks and delayed jokes, which is why he fits Lake Placid and seems a little wormy as president until he turns it on; Sleepless in Seattle and Malice illustrate his genial, same-guy persona, with a six-to-seven-year shelf-life theory.
Approx. transcript time · 00:24:05Read transcript
The speech never became a Jumbotron staple at NBA games because it is about human destruction, though it builds just as inspiringly to 'we will not go quietly into that night'; the Sixers might have used it during Ben Simmons' last two home games.
Approx. transcript time · 00:25:44Read transcript
Asked about writing on the speech in a book or for Grantland, the reply is unsure but says the speech is loved and gets exciting when Pullman starts yelling.
Approx. transcript time · 00:26:31Read transcript
Emmerich said Pullman planned a John Wayne figure, unsure at first and sure at the end; a behind-the-scenes figure (ASR 'Waldman') said Hollywood portrays the presidents it wishes it had, and liberal Hollywood saw Clinton as a compromiser.
Approx. transcript time · 00:27:22Read transcript
In 1996 people were disappointed in Clinton's first term, and that bled into the wish-fulfilment president; a 2020 version would have been interesting, and Randy Quaid is joked to be the Trump figure.
Approx. transcript time · 00:27:55Read transcript
The film won the Oscar for Best Visual Effects, was nominated for Best Sound, won a Grammy for its score, had a $75 million budget and made $817 million.
Approx. transcript time · 00:28:43Read transcript
Would Goldblum get a seat on Air Force One after delivering the information? Maybe the third helicopter, an Uber, or his Plymouth.
Approx. transcript time · 01:00:20Read transcript
The Rewatchables is joked to have become a juggernaut because the hosts wanted to do Al Pacino impressions; a 200th-episode re-reheat is coming, and the joke is it will be redone until Michael Mann joins.
Approx. transcript time · 01:03:23Read transcript
The podcast will not run out of movies; Man on Fire has not been done yet.
Approx. transcript time · 01:10:25Read transcript
Closing: Shea Serrano and Chris Ryan are thanked; the next giant disaster blockbuster is opened to Twitter, with 2012 and White House Down floated, and Olympus Has Fallen and a 24 White House attack compared.
Approx. transcript time · 01:22:43Read transcript