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Written by: Dean Devlin & Roland Emmerich
Directed by: Roland Emmerich
Starring: Will Smith, Bill Pullman, Jeff Goldblum, Mary McDonnell, Judd Hirsch, Robert Loggia, Randy Quaid, Adam Baldwin, Brent SPiner, James Duval, Vivica A. Fox, Mae Whitman
Rated: PG-13
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Plot
The aliens are coming and their goal is to invade and destroy Earth. Fighting superior technology, mankind's best weapon is the will to survive.
Verdict
This was an alien invasion movie for a new generation, and it's so much fun. The aliens don't want to learn, meet, or forge peace. They're here for destruction. A lot of this movie is over the top because the premise is. It was the first movie to leverage CGI to show destruction on such a large scale. Humanity must fight the greatest battle in history to halt annihilation. Through various characters we get a broad view of the threat and response, and this even manages a few references as it touches on typical alien conspiracy theories.
Watch It.
Review
This movie combines end of the world disaster and alien invasion with special effects to match. It was the first big budget movie that depicted destruction on a massive scale thanks to CGI, setting a record when released for the most number of special effects. It was the second-highest-grossing film ever at the time, behind Jurassic Park. Emmerich would go on to direct a number of disaster movies like 2012, Independence Day: Resurgence, and Moonfall, but none came close to matching Independence Day.
Aliens have arrived. Playing in the background at a satellite research center that discovers something concerning, REM got a boost with "End of the World as We Know It."
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| Will Smith, Jeff Goldblum play Captain Steven Hiller, David Levinson |
We follow pilot Captain Hiller (Will Smith), President Whitmore (Bill Pullman), and engineer David Levinson (Jeff Goldblum) as they discover and respond to the threat of invasion. There's great tension as a cloud phenomenon occurs in every major city. It's soon revealed they're alien ships. It leads to widespread panic as some welcome the aliens and others flee the city. Then the ships attack.
The White House explosion was wild at the time. No one could believe how real it looked. There just hadn't been a movie that showed widespread destruction like this one, and it took aim at a building that's an American icon.
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| Will Smith, Bill Pullman play Captain Steven Hiller, President Thomas Whitmore |
Counter attacks are futile until David creates a computer virus to disrupt alien defenses. That's one of those things where it's best not to ask questions. From the physical interface to the coding, it's best to just accept it. He teams up with Hiller to fly a recovered alien ship into the heart of the mother ship.
Even watching this when I was young, I noticed how this movie purports that only America can solve the crisis. That's odd since this movie makes it clear it's a global threat. I wondered how other countries solved the issue. How could they possibly have a hero arc to rival how America brings down the ship with their last missile? Part of it is that there's only so much run time. Maybe the other countries are just better at aiming. This was American exceptionalism at the time which now looks a lot like jingoism though I don't think that was ever the intention.
This movie is going for the most dramatic nearly all the time which is why nearly everything comes down to the last second. The President leads a squadron to attack the ship, one of the last planes still in the air. This was a blockbuster in every sense. It was a big movie, concept, and full of stars. It even manages to bring in Area 51 and the famous alien conspiracy. What propelled this to success was how much fun it is. It didn't just promise a premise, it delivered a movie that looked the part. It was something we had never seen before.
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