Like the huge all-powerful alien spaceships so prominently featured in the movie, Twentieth Century Fox's Independence Day has crushed all-comers in the box-office wars this summer.
This is the second outing together for director Roland Emmerich and producer Dean Devlin, who share a writing credit for the film. The pair first worked together in this combination on 1994's sci-fi meets ancient Egypt hit Stargate, although Devlin had acted in Emmerich's earlier sci-fi movie, Moon 44 (1989).
But for all of Stargate's success, it is Independence Day that has made science-fiction a huge box-office draw once again. Drawing heavily on 70s disaster movies such as Earthquake and The Towering Inferno, id4 has proved a massive success for Fox. To date, the film has taken a massive US$267 million in the US alone, shattering box-office records in its wake. In the UK, it took a record-breaking US$10.5 million in its first weekend.
The story is very simple: evil aliens attack Earth. World leaders don't know how to defend the planet against such seemingly invincible opposition, but with everyone pulling together in a multiracial coalition, led by the US, good eventually triumphs over evil. Computer boffin Jeff Goldblum cracks a way of disarming their defence system, plucky young fighter pilot Will Smith leads the defence mission in a captured alien spaceship and drunken Vietnam veteran Randy Quaid redeems himself in an act of self-sacrifice by delivering the lethal blow to the heart of the alien mothership.
With no real recognised A-list stars, id4's success has been achieved on the back of the special effects and a shrewd marketing campaign. Although, as Devlin comments, 'The effects, models, CGI work and stunts would mean nothing if we didn't have likeable, believable characters and a strong and involving story.'
John Adair
Prod co: Twentieth Century Fox
Prod: Dean Devlin
Dir: Roland Emmerich
Scr: Dean Devlin, Roland Emmerich
Ph: Karl Walter Lindenlaub
Prod des: Oliver Scholl, Patrick Tatopoulos
Cost: Joseph Porro
Mus: David Arnold
Ed: David Brenner
Cast: Will Smith, Bill Pullman, Jeff Goldblum, Robert Loggia, Randy Quaid
Int sales: Twentieth Century Fox
Running time: 144 mins
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