Independence Day: Difference between revisions

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'''''Independence Day''''' is a 1996 movie by [[Roland Emmerich]], known in its promotional material as '''''ID4'''''. At its core it is a straightforward [[Alien Invasion]] movie with a lot of elements taken from well known sources like ''[[The War of the Worlds]]''. The archetypical [[Summer Blockbuster]] with a large cast of familiar character types, [[Stuff Blowing Up]], fighter jets dogfighting alien craft, [[Rousing Speech|Rousing Speeches]], [[Area 51]] and is otherwise fairly by-the-book storywise.

President Whitmore (Bill Pullman) is the recently elected U.S. President when a ''massive'' (one-fourth the size of the moon) spaceship enters the orbit of Earth. Sending out smaller (city-size) ships that scatter across the globe to all the major cities, it doesn't take long before they begin firing their [[Wave Motion Gun|Wave Motion Guns]] to wipe out entire cities at a time.

Humans fight back, with U. S. Marine pilot Steven Hiller ([[Will Smith]]) and computer programmer David Levinson (uh... [[Jeff Goldblum]]) pulling together a [[Plan]] to save the human race.

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* [[Absent-Minded Professor]]: Dr. Brackish Okun, head of the alien lab at Area 51.

* [[Achilles Heel]]: {{spoiler|The open bay of an alien saucer's main cannon. Or to be more exact, the volatile plasma within the bay.}}

* [[Achilles' Heel]]: {{spoiler|The open bay of an alien saucer's main cannon. Or to be more exact, the volatile plasma within the bay.}}

* [[Aerial Canyon Chase]]: Steven pulls this against a minor fleet of aliens.

* [[Air Force One]]: The President's F/A-18 fighter is designated "Eagle One", but technically [[Did Not Do the Research|any USAF airplane that is carying the POTUS is automatically designated "Air Force One"]]. Even if the President himself is piloting it and dogfighting aliens. If, however, it was a Marine jet, then technically it should have been "Marine One". Then again, [[Screw the Rules, I Make Them|Whitmore is the President...]].<br />Also, [[Air Force One]] becomes the de facto capital of the United States for a portion of the movie, as the President oversees the first counterstrike operation from aboard the plane. After that, Area 51 apparently becomes the de facto capital.

* [[The Alcoholic]]: Russell

* [[Alien Abduction]]: Russell... or so he claims. The viewer is left to their own devices about whether or not this was entirely a delusion brought on by alcoholism, war trauma, or just being nuts. The novelisation has him see the alien downed by [[Will Smith|Captain Hiller]], and think that's it's not the same as the ones who abducted him. Then he starts to wonder whether other aliens are visiting Earth, or if it even really happened. The same novelization strongly implies that it ''did'' happen: inside their bio-suits, the invading aliens look exactly like the ones in Russel's memories.

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{{quote|'''President Whitmore:''' I saw its thoughts. I saw what they're planning to do. [[Horde of Alien Locusts|They're like locusts.]] They're moving from planet to planet... their whole civilization. [[Planet Looters|After they've consumed every natural resource]] they move on. And we're next. [[Nuclear Option|Nuke 'em]]. Let's nuke the bastards.}}

* [[America Saves the Day]]: And ''how.'' The entire plan to save the world was conceived by the American characters at Area 51, then broadcast via Morse code to the rest of the world. It's a [[Justified Trope]], though, considering Area 51 is portrayed in the film as harboring a recovered scout craft used by the very alien race invading -- implying that the U.S. has had decades to study them for forty years prior. Without that ace up its sleeve, the United States was as helpless as everyone else.<br />The producers of a British radio [[Spin-Off]] were even given strict instructions ''not to portray the British as in any way contributing to America's victory'', likely as a pre-emptive move due to fears that perceived British distaste for the US military and distaste for this trope in general would lead the producers to attempt to downplay the US role in the victory strategy. Amusingly, the British radio version hangs a lampshade on this by having one of the characters remark, "What do you want to bet the Americans take all the credit for this?"<br />The movie itself features a British commander making a similar [[Take That]]: "It's about bloody time!" His tone of voice has all the [[Subtext]] of "Those bloody Yanks are [[Late to the Party]] ''again!''" Most [[Snark Bait|snarkers]] [[Alternative Character Interpretation|instead interpret]] the line as playing the trope straight, though.

* [[Anal Probing]]: Russell attests to having been abducted by aliens. Those who don't believe him crack jokes and ask if he was ever sexually abused on the flying saucer, suggesting this trope.

* [[Apocalypse How]]: The aliens plan to strip Earth of resources until it counts as a Class 4 Apocalypse.

* [[Arbitrary Skepticism]]

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* [[Bittersweet Ending]]: {{spoiler|The aliens are defeated, but humanity faces an uncertain future.}}

* [[Black and White Morality]]: The Earthlings defend their home planet against the evil, heartless galactic locusts from the outer space.

* [[Black Best Friend]]: A rare inversion. One of the main heroes is black and his white best friend is the wise-cracking comic relief. He fulfills almost every trope related to the black best friend, right down to being the [[Black Dude Dies First|first named character to die.]]

* [[Black Dude Dies First]]: The first guy to be killed is still a black guy, albeit an unnamed one.

* [[Bond One-Liner]]: [[Will Smith]] does this over and over in this movie, to good effect.

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* [[Hoist by His Own Petard]]

** First, the aliens' signal, that they used to synchronize their attack on the planet provided humans with a way to interface and access their systems (it's stated in the expanded edition that the same frequency is used for their communications) using a ''Mac'' of all things.

** Second, the "[[Wave Motion Gun|Hammer]]". This is a nice one: If you look a at the L.A. destruction scene, you'll see that the beam turns into a chain-reaction/explosion the moment it hits solid matter, and just keeps going until there's no significant obstacle left. Therefore, the denser the target, the worse the explosion (like the Mothership from ''[[Command ~~and~~ Conquer]] 3'', which was inspired by this movie), making it perfect for leveling cities. When {{spoiler|Russell}} crashed his plane into the generator, he did it at the very moment the beam started, and at the very "tip" of the gun, therefore setting off the chain reaction ''inside'' the alien's ship (which is likely to be just as densely packed as a city, if not more so).

** Second, the "[[Wave Motion Gun|Hammer]]". This is a nice one: If you look a at the L.A. destruction scene, you'll see that the beam turns into a chain-reaction/explosion the moment it hits solid matter, and just keeps going until there's no significant obstacle left. Therefore, the denser the target, the worse the explosion (like the Mothership from ''[[Command & Conquer]] 3'', which was inspired by this movie), making it perfect for leveling cities. When {{spoiler|Russell}} crashed his plane into the generator, he did it at the very moment the beam started, and at the very "tip" of the gun, therefore setting off the chain reaction ''inside'' the alien's ship (which is likely to be just as densely packed as a city, if not more so).

* [[Horde of Alien Locusts]]: They're even directly compared to locusts.

* [[Horror Doesn't Settle for Simple Tuesday]]

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* [[Rousing Speech]]: "We will not go quietly into the night. We will not vanish, without a fight. We're going to live on. We're going to survive. Today... we celebrate... our [[Title Drop|Independence Day!]]"

* [[Rule of Cool]]

* [[Rule of Perception]]: Steven and later Jasmine walk out onto their front lawn with a view over Los Angeles and don't notice the alien ship hovering silently over the city until the camera shows it.

* [[Scenery Gorn]]: This film revels in the wholesale destruction of the populated centres of the world. (Emmerich returned to make similarly spectacular carnage in ''[[The Day After Tomorrow]]'' and ''[[Film/Twenty Twelve|Twenty Twelve]]''.) Love of this trope must be the reason that a movie which features the destruction of the White House is shown on American television every year on the Fourth of July.

* [[Screw the Rules, I Make Them]]: President Whitmore, finally fed up with Secretary of Defense Nimzicki tells him he's fired, to which Nimzicki grumbles "He ''can't'' do that," to which the President's assistant notes that he just did anyway.<br />In fact, the President can fire any member of his cabinet at any time, no reason even needed. It's not even a screw the rules, as the rules say the President can. In fact, when Congress passed a law in 1867 ([[wikipedia:Tenure of Office Act (1867)|Tenure of Office Act]]) prohibiting the President from removing certain office-holders without the approval of the Senate, the Supreme Court later stated it would be unconstitutional to restrict the right of the President to fire them.

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* [[We Come in Peace, Shoot to Kill]]: Completely averted. The aliens make no attempt to hide their intentions, likely because they see us as little more than pond scum.

* [[We Have Been Researching Phlebotinum for Years]]: When they visit [[Area 51]], it turns out [[The Government]] knew about the aliens all along.

* [[Wiper Start]]: A jet fighter version -- as [[Vietnam War]]-era pilot (gone to seed) Russell Casse tries to ready his F/A-18, he almost fires a missile.

{{quote|'''Russell Casse:''' [[Airplane!|I picked a hell of a day to quit drinking.]]}}

** Becomes a bit of a [[Funny Aneurysm]] when you realize {{spoiler|that was probably the missile that failed to fire, meaning he had to die instead of just firing it and going home to his kids}}.