Independence Day: Resurgence (2016)
- The original script for Independence Day: Resurgence was written over a decade before production finally began in 2016.
- Many of the practical effects used in the climax were achieved without any CGI.
- Roland Emmerich originally wanted a completely different ending for the film, but test audiences preferred the one we see today.
Independence Day: Resurgence is a 2016 American science fiction disaster film directed by Roland Emmerich, the long-awaited sequel to his 1996 blockbuster. Set 20 years after the original invasion, Earth has reverse-engineered alien technology to build advanced defenses, but a new, far larger alien mothership arrives seeking the energy source hidden beneath the planet. Without Will Smith, whose character was killed off-screen, the sequel relied on a next-generation cast including Liam Hemsworth, Jessie T.
Usher, and Maika Monroe alongside returning veterans Jeff Goldblum, Bill Pullman, and Vivica A. Fox. The film's massive $3,000-mile mothership and its gravity-manipulating arrival sequence demonstrated the expected Emmerich-scale destruction, but critics and audiences found the sequel lacked the original's novelty and character charm.
Independence Day: Resurgence earned $389 million worldwide on a $165 million budget.
