Independence Day (1996 film)

Independence Day (also promoted as ID4) is a 1996 American science fiction action film^[2][3] directed by Roland Emmerich and written by Emmerich and producer Dean Devlin. The film stars an ensemble cast of Will Smith, Bill Pullman, Jeff Goldblum, Mary McDonnell, Judd Hirsch, Margaret Colin, Randy Quaid, Robert Loggia, Vivica A. Fox, James Rebhorn, and Harvey Fierstein. The film follows disparate groups of people who converge in the Nevada desert in the aftermath of a worldwide attack by a powerful extraterrestrial race. With the other people of the world, they launch a counterattack on July 4—Independence Day in the United States.

Conceived by Emmerich while promoting Stargate (1994), the film aimed to depict a large-scale alien invasion, departing from typical portrayals of extraterrestrial visits. Filming began in July 1995 and was completed in October that same year.

Upon its release on July 3, 1996, Independence Day was considered a pivotal moment for the Hollywood blockbuster, leading the resurgence of disaster and science fiction films in the late 1990s. The film received generally positive reviews from critics, with praise for the cast performances, musical score, and visual effects, but criticism for its character development. It emerged as a major commercial success at the box-office, grossing over $817.4 million worldwide on a production budget of $75 million. It became the highest-grossing film of the year and the second-highest-grossing film ever at the time, behind Jurassic Park (1993). The film won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects and was nominated for Best Sound.^[4]

A sequel, Independence Day: Resurgence, was released 20 years later on June 24, 2016, and failed to obtain the critical and commercial success of the first film.