30 Years Later, Independence Day Is Still The Blueprint Every Alien Invasion Blockbuster Copies

While there are plenty of movies about the Fourth of July in America, the best of them all has to be the one that was named after it, the Roland Emmerich film Independence Day. The movie was released 30 years ago, and it still stands tall as not only one of the best movies about America and what it stands for, but also the movie that created the template that every alien invasion movie since has tried to live up to.

Independence Day had a simple premise. Alien spaceships show up over the Earth, and by the time people realize they don't come in peace, it is too late. The saucers fire offensive blasts, destroying 36 human cities, including blowing up the White House, Los Angeles, New York City, Chicago, Jerusalem, and more. While the attack takes place all around the globe, destroying 108 cities overall, the movie focuses on the United States fighting back.

This leads to the ultimate attack on the aliens by the U.S. and its remaining forces, which takes place on the Fourth of July, explaining the movie's title. Independence Day is a Roland Emmerich disaster movie, but when it was released 30 years ago, it ended up also becoming one of the best holiday movies of all time, and one that remains rewatchable to this day.

Independence Day Came Out On That Holiday Weekend 30 Years Ago

Independence Day hit theaters 30 years ago, released on July 2, 1996, just in time for the actual holiday weekend that the movie was named after. However, like most movies named after holidays, the actual day was just used to tell another story, whether it was a serial killer in Halloween and Black Christmas or a romantic drama in Valentine's Day. For Independence Day, it's a sci-fi movie about an alien invasion.

However, while it used the holiday to tell the story, the actual holiday itself played into the movie's themes perfectly. The aliens attack Earth, and one of the locations they destroy is the White House. This leads the President of the United States (Bill Pullman), who is an actual war hero and an honorable man, to lead the people to fight back and eventually defeat the alien invasion.

The giant speech that President Whitmore gives is inspirational and rallies everyone to give all they have to fight insurmountable odds. This president doesn't run and hide or make excuses. He stands tall and sets an example to everyone around him, showing what it means to fight for the country and what it stands for. There are plenty of movies about Independence Day and what it means to America, but this one actually allowed its heart to live on its sleeve.

Independence Day Remains Roland Emmerich's Disaster Masterpiece

Roland Emmerich has become known for making disaster movies, but it wasn't always this way. After making smaller movies for well over a decade, he saw some success when he turned his attention to sci-fi films. His breakout hit was the 1992 sci-fi action film Universal Soldier, starring Dolph Lundgren and Jean-Claude Van Damme. He followed that up with one of his best movies, the sci-fi adventure movie Stargate. However, two years later, he directed his masterpiece.

In 1996, Emmerich made his first disaster movie with Independence Day, although it kept him solidly in the sci-fi genre. With a $75 million budget, the movie was a monster success and had a worldwide box office take of $817.4 million, with $306.1 million domestically, including its re-release in 2023. It gave Emmerich a chance to do more, but he faltered with his Godzilla movie in 1998 and paused on sci-fi for at least one movie when he made The Patriot in 2000.

After that, Emmerich started pumping out disaster movies. With giant budgets, he directed The Day After Tomorrow (2004), 2012 (2009), White House Down (2013), Independence Day: Resurgence (2016), and Moonfall (2022). Two of the movies followed natural disasters on a massive scale, one was an action movie following terrorists, and the other two were sci-fi disaster movies, including the sequel to Independence Day, which had a lower box office and lackluster reviews.

While Emmerich tried to replicate the success of Independence Day, he could never match its brilliance, heart, and spectacle. Even with great effects in movies like 2012, that film couldn't touch what Will Smith, Jeff Goldblum, and Bill Pullman pulled off in ID4, and that is why it remains the best movie Emmerich ever made, 30 years later.

Every Alien Invasion Movie Since Owes Independence Day

While it is a disaster movie, Independence Day is also a movie about alien invasions, and it might be one of the best in that genre. It is funny to consider that a second alien invasion movie came out the same year, with Tim Burton's Mars Attacks hitting theaters in December 1996. However, Mars Attacks was a comedy, and while they both had aliens attacking the United States, they couldn't be any more different.

That said, jumping ahead into the future, Emmerich helped create the style, themes, and beats that all alien invasion movies had attempted to replicate. However, most of these movies never held a candle to Independence Day. Battle: Los Angeles (2011) was inspired by ID4, as was Emmerich's later invasion movie Moonfall. Non-alien movies like Armageddon and Deep Impact also owed their existence to what Emmerich did with Independence Day. Even blockbusters like Transformers: Dark of the Moon copied some of its moments.

30 years ago, Roland Emmerich set out to make a giant action movie using a national holiday as its basis. What resulted was a movie that remains on many best-of lists for sci-fi movies, alien invasion movies, and disaster movies. Independence Day has stood the test of time, and Hollywood still hasn't released anything quite like it since.