Aliens invade the Earth in enormous ships, destroying the world’s large cities. Their technology makes them invulnerable to human weapons. It is up to a young U.S. president (Bill Pullman), a nerdy computer genius pining for his ex-wife (Jeff Goldblum), a brave fighter pilot (Will Smith), and a drunken trailer park resident who thinks he was abducted by aliens in the past (Randy Quaid), to find a way to defeat the extraterrestrials.
It was (and still is) fashionable for critics to pan Independence Day. No one listened, and it became one of the biggest blockbusters in cinema history. This time, I’m on the side of everyone else. Taking its plot from a combination of War of the Worlds and Earth vs the Flying Saucers, and its character arcs from 1970s disaster films, Independence Day swipes everything that’s fun in those other films and wraps it together with spectacular effects.
The characters are a mix of races and religions, professions, and sexual orientations. Everyone is just a step from a cliché, and no one is complex or deep, but they all have enough detail to fulfill their part of the story. By the end, I don’t know these people well, but I know everything I want to know. And I like them enough to cheer them on. These are people representing the best in humanity, while swimming in quirky imperfections. They also have a tendency to utter either humorous or inspirational dialog. Will Smith has many of the funniest lines as the wise-cracking but tough pilot. He would reuse the basics of this character again and again in his later films, running it into the ground, but here it is new and entertaining.
This is a movie where everyone except the shady ex-CIA chief has liberal leanings, caring about people and the planet and not caring that the TV station boss is homosexual or that the pilot’s girl is a stripper. But at the same time, the military is an honorable organization filled with dedicated and fair-minded people. It is a very patriotic film, but not a mindless, “don’t burn the flag” patriotism that tramples on freedom. This is patriotism as a love of country that inspires men to fight and sacrifice to protect the lives and freedoms of the people of the United States and the world. Sign me up.
Then there are the explosions. Independence Day is the king of destruction movies. Earth vs the Flying Saucers is a pathetic piece of filmmaking, except for its famous, climatic battle where both the Washington Monument and the Capital Dome are damaged by saucers. Independence Day ratchets that through the ceiling, frying the White House, Capital, and Empire State Building, to name only a few. I read one review where the author was appalled that people cheered as those icons were blown away. Strange man. Of course people cheered. It is one of the joys of movies—the old have your cake and eat it routine. We want to see them ruined, but we don’t want them actually harmed. God, I love movies.
So, does the story make sense? No. Not a bit. Almost everything about it is silly. But it is not any more nonsensical than War of the Worlds or Star Wars. I suppose there are people out there who say that Star Wars sucks because the workings of the Death Star, with its vulnerable duct, are ridiculous. If you are one of those people, then you won’t like Independence Day. I agree it would be better if a few moments would pass without something mind-numbingly stupid happening, but you are never given time to dwell on the ludicrous nature of the story. And Independence Day admits to its foolishness by taking the implausible virus ending to War of the Worlds (the aliens never checked the air for microbes?) and re-treading it with a nod and a wink for the ’90s.
Likable Characters with emotional arcs, humorous dialog, a fast-paced story, spectacular effects including awe-inspiring spacecraft and monumental explosions, humanity displayed as flawed, but with the potential to be something great, and a theme of hope—what more do you want? Sense? Well, for a few hours, you can do without sense.