| | | "Blu-Ray Disc, Beyond High Definition."
Features: DVD, Widescreen, Aspect Ratio 2.35:1, English, French, Spanish, Subtitled, Dubbed
One of the biggest box office hits of all time delivers the ultimate encounter when mysterious and powerful aliens launch an all-out invasion against the human race. The spectacle begins when massive spaceships appear in Earth's skies. But wonder turns to terror as the ships blast destructive beams of fire down on cities all over the planet. Now the world's only hope lies with a determined band of survivors, uniting for one last strike against the invaders - before it's the end of all mankind.
"Like cotton candy its a high caloric treat thats always fun for the taste buds." Brandon Judell, Critics, Inc.
"The alien attack, taking place in several cities at once, is breathtaking..." Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle
"A rousing state-of-the-art cartoon capped by an aerial-combat climax..." Mike Clark, USA Today
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 | Audio: English DTS HD 5.1 Surround Sound | | Audio: French, Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound | | Dubbed: French, Spanish | | Interactive Menus | | Scene Selection | | Subtitles: English, French, Spanish |
| Technical Info
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Release Information
| | Studio: Foxvideo |
| Release Date: 3/11/2008 |
| Running Time: 147 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 1996 | | Catalog ID: 2244423 | | UPC: 00024543444237 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English | | Video: Color |
Aspect Ratio | | Widescreen 2.35:1 |
| Cast & Crew
| Awards |
Winner (1997) | | | MTV Award, Will Smith, Vivica A. Fox, Best Kiss | |
Nominee (1997) | | | MTV Award, Independence Day, Best Action Sequence | | | MTV Award, Vivica A. Fox, Best Breakthrough Performance | | | MTV Award, Will Smith, Best Male Performance | | | MTV Award, Independence Day, Best Movie | |
Winner (1997) | | | Oscar, Volker Engel, et. al., Best Effects, Visual Effects | |
Nominee (1997) | | | Oscar, Chris Carpenter, et. al., Best Sound | |
Winner (1997) | | | People's Choice, Independence Day, Favorite Dramatic Motion Picture |
| 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. |
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| | 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 Reel.com 9 of 10
In true summer-movie style, the plot is pretty preposterous - do you really think two earthlings could pilot an alien aircraft into space and upload a computer virus into the mother ship in 30 seconds? - but that doesn't matter. Independence Day succeeds as mainstream entertainment; a grand spectacle in the tradition of The Poseidon Adventure and The Towering Inferno, not to mention more recent entries like Armageddon...In fact, it was '70s disaster flicks like Poseidon and Inferno, not sci-fi epics like Star Wars and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, that inspired director Roland Emmerich and producer Dean Devlin (the team behind Stargate and Godzilla) when it came to making ID4. - Betsy Bozdech
ReelViews 6 of 10
From the beginning, there have been reasons to doubt Independence Day's creative foundation. After all, it comes from Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin, the team responsible for Stargate, one of the most disappointing and derivative science fiction films of the decade. Theirs is not a pedigree to inspire confidence, and, as it turns out, Independence Day is no better than Stargate...Independence Day isn't about logic and intelligence. It's about space battles, mass destruction, and a laughably "rousing" speech by the President. This is a spectacle, pure and simple. Unfortunately, because the film makers mistakenly tried to inject a load of weak dramatic elements, Independence Day turns out to be overlong, overblown, and overdone. For alien invasions this summer, give me The Arrival instead. - James Berardinelli
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