INDEPENDENCE DAY... Ten years ago today, the sci-fi mega-blockbuster made its debut in advance screenings around the USA. Independence Day (a.k.a. ID4) would turn out to be the highest grossing movie of 1996 (making $306.2 million domestically), win the Oscar for Best Visual Effects the following year and encourage filmmaker Roland Emmerich to make less-memorable disaster movies such as Godzilla and The Day After Tomorrow years later. ID4 was my favorite flick of ’96—despite the numerous ridiculous and/or inaccurate plot elements, such as the fact an extraterrestrial species is capable of destroying our planet’s largest cities with a single laser beam coming from 15-mile-wide hovering spaceships, only to fall victim to a virus that was able to be uploaded to the 500-mile-wide mothership’s computer within seconds...and the fact F/A-18 Hornets were depicted as having drag chutes. Hornets don’t have drag chutes. The SR-71 Blackbird and space shuttles use one, but the F/A-18 doesn’t. That, and B-2 Stealth Bombers aren’t armed with AMRAAM missile launchers as Will Smith said. Anyways... David Arnold's patriotic music score for ID4 is totally awesome. I listen to it on my MP3 player now and then.
Here are some memorable publicity photos and screenshots from the alien invasion hit.
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