Independence Day (Will Smith, Jeff Goldblum) Review | Action Movie Anatomy

Action Movie Anatomy hosts Ben Bateman and Andrew Ghai break down Independence Day with guest host Autumn Chiklis ndependence Day is a 1996 American science fiction disaster film co-written and directed by Roland Emmerich. The film stars Will Smith, Bill Pullman, Jeff Goldblum, Mary McDonnell, Judd Hirsch, Margaret Colin, Randy Quaid, Robert Loggia,James Rebhorn, Vivica A. Fox, and Harry Connick, Jr. The film focuses on a disparate group of people who converge in the Nevada desert in the aftermath of a destructive alien attack and, along with the rest of the human population, participate in a last-chance counterattack on July 4, the same date as the Independence Day holiday in the United States. The screenplay was written by Emmerich and producer Dean Devlin. While promoting Stargate in Europe, Emmerich came up with the idea for the film when fielding a question about his own belief in the existence of alien life. He and Devlin decided to incorporate a large-scale attack when noticing that aliens in most invasion films travel long distances in outer space only to remain hidden when reaching Earth. Principal photography for the film began in July 1995 in New York City, and the film was officially completed on June 20, 1996. The film was scheduled for release on July 3, 1996, but due to its high level of anticipation, many theaters began showing it on the evening of July 2, 1996, the same day the story of the film begins. The film’s combined domestic and international box office gross is $817,400,891, which, at the time, was the second-highest worldwide gross of all time. It is currently the47th highest-grossing film of all time and was at the forefront of the large-scale disaster film and science fiction resurgences of the mid-to-late-1990s. It received mixed to positive reviews upon release, with critics praising its visual effects, score, and acting, but criticizing its plot and character development. It won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, and was also nominated for Best Sound Mixing. A sequel, titled Independence Day: Resurgence, is scheduled to be released on June 24, 2016.