Independence Day (1996)
- Many of the practical effects used in the climax were achieved without any CGI.
- During the filming of Independence Day, Will Smith improvised one of the most famous lines in the movie.
- The incredible score for Independence Day was composed in just a few weeks after the original composer dropped out.
Independence Day is a 1996 American science fiction disaster film directed by Roland Emmerich. The film depicts an alien invasion of Earth on a massive scale, as enormous spacecraft position themselves over the world's major cities and unleash devastating attacks that destroy landmarks including the White House, the Empire State Building, and the U.S. Bank Tower in Los Angeles.
Will Smith stars as Captain Steven Hiller, a Marine fighter pilot, Jeff Goldblum as David Levinson, a cable technician who discovers the aliens' attack signal, and Bill Pullman as President Thomas Whitmore, who ultimately leads the counterattack. Independence Day was the quintessential 1990s blockbuster β big, loud, patriotic, and unapologetically entertaining. The White House explosion became the decade's most iconic visual effects shot, and Will Smith's cocky, charismatic performance β including the line "Welcome to Earth" as he punches an alien β cemented his status as Hollywood's biggest movie star.
The film earned $817 million worldwide, making it the highest-grossing film of 1996 and the second highest-grossing film of all time at that point. Roland Emmerich essentially invented the modern disaster film formula β multiple parallel storylines converging toward a globally coordinated climax β that would influence blockbuster filmmaking for decades.
