| | | Don't make plans for August.
It is an ordinary summer day. But then, without warning, something very extraordinary happens...massive spaceships appear over Earth's skies. Wonder quickly turns to terror as the ships blast destructive beams of fire down on cities all over the planet. And it is up to one man to save civilization.
"Full of noise and color and excitement." New York Post
"ID4 is undeniably fun." New York Magazine
"Be ready to be boggled by the blockbuster that beats all others by a light year!" The News Tribune
Editor's Note
With a $71 million budget and mind-blowing special effects, INDEPENDENCE DAY is a grand, high-tech throwback to such films of the 1950s as THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL and WAR OF THE WORLDS. Here, aliens, in numerous gargantuan spaceships, arrive without warning and hover over the world's most important cities, creating global panic. The nasty visitors use death rays to blow New York, Washington D.C, and Los Angeles to smithereens. A handful of plucky Americans, including the Clinton-esque President (Bill Pullman), a gung-ho fighter pilot (Will Smith) and a computer geek named David (Jeff Goldblum), attempt to devise a strategy against the invaders.On July 4th, their risky plan is put into effect, as dozens of fighter pilots (including the President) wage an assault on the spaceships. However, their success (and the fate of the world) depends on David, who is attempting to disarm the aliens's mothership.
Plot Summary
INDEPENDENCE DAY is a pyrotechnic, futuristic, disaster, action mondo-adventure about aliens attacking Earth and humans giving them the big boot. When mountain-sized flying saucers open fire on the world's cities, a ragtag band of colorful characters sets out to bring the alien critters to their pseudopodic knees. Borrowing liberally from science fiction classics like WAR OF THE WORLDS and THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL and a host of disaster movies from TOWERING INFERNO to METEOR, ID4 maintains a mindless mission to entertain with dazzling special effects and unabashed feel-good charm. Academy Award Nominations: Best Sound, Best Visual Effects. Academy Awards: Best Visual Effects.
| Features | Full Frame - 1.33 |
| Technical Info
|
Release Information
|  | Studio: Foxvideo |
| Release Date: 11/22/1996 |
| Running Time: 105 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 1996 | | Catalog ID: 0411830 | | UPC: 00086162411830 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English [CC], English | | Video: Color |
| Cast & Crew
| Awards |
Oscar (1997) |  | Volker Engel, et al., Winner, Best Visual Effects | | | Bob Beemer, et al., Nominee, Best Sound | |
British Academy Awards (1997) | | | Volker Engel, et al., Nominee, Best Achievement In Special Visual Effects | | | Bob Beemer, et al., Nominee, Best Sound | |
MTV Award (1997) | | Vivica A. Fox, Will Smith, Winner, Best Kiss | | | Vivica A. Fox, Nominee, Best Breakthrough Performance | | | Will Smith, Nominee, Best Male Performance |
| Memorable Quotes| "You know how I'm always trying to save the planet? Well, here's my chance." ---- David Levinson (JEFF GOLDBLUM) | | "What's the rush? You think we'll get to Washington, it won't be there?" ---- Julius Levinson (JUDD HIRSCH), to his son, David Levinson (JEFF GOLDBLUM), while the two frantically drive to the capital city. | | "Welcome to Earth." ---- Capt. Steven Hiller (Will Smith), after punching the daylights out of an alien who has crash--landed in Arizona. |
|
| | Professional Reviews | Rolling Stone
"...For fun, fright and thrills, there's not a wilder joy ride around..." 08/08/1996 p.68Sight and Sound
"...INDEPENDENCE DAY fulfills the promise of the movies: to deliver the audience out of the everyday and into the sensational..." 08/01/1996 p.53-4 USA Today
"...A rousing state-of-the-art cartoon capped by an aerial-combat climax..." 07/02/1996 p.1D Entertainment Weekly
"...Witty, of-the-moment fun." -- Rating: B 08/09/1996 p.44 Variety
"...A spectacularly scaled mix of '50s-style alien invader science fiction, '70s disaster epics and all-season gung-ho military actioners..." 07/01/1996 Rolling Stone Magazine 7 of 10
...ID4 delivers a full throttle blast. It gives you aliens to hiss at, humans to root for, and the kind of fireworks that get audiences cheering.
The New York Times 8 of 10
...Guess what: Independence Day lives up to expectations in a rush of gleeful, audience-friendly exhilaration... Two reasons it's impossible to resist Independence Day: because of its pitch-perfect cartoonish dialogue ("Now you're NEVER gonna get to fly the space shuttle if you marry a stripper!") and because the captain, like Indiana Jones, is so unflappably tough. - Janet Maslin
Time Magazine 7 of 10
...The film has a salutary scope and bustle and enough kick in the fireball special effects to make audiences cheer--sure, it's the end of the world, but you can still party like it's 1999... - Richard Corliss
|
| |
|
|
|
