For the next few weeks, we will be counting down our 25 favorite blockbusters! Read all of the entries here.

**24. Independence Day (dir. Roland Emmerich, 1996)**

by A Freedman, Staff Writer

In the 1990’s, during the thriving economy of the Clinton presidency, many Americans were distracted enough to genuinely feel comfortable with a renewed patriotism. After the fall of the Soviet Union, America was the newly unchallenged number one global superpower, and our movies reflected that. In times of peace and prosperity, a young and paranoid country like ours still looks to find enemies elsewhere. At the Cineplex, the mid to late 90’s were dominated by fears of a super threat from space- planet ending comets in Armageddon and Deep Impact, and planet ending aliens in Starship Troopers and Independence Day. Released over the titular weekend holiday in the summer of 1996, it was a game-changing movie for Hollywood in so many ways.

I am almost 35, and I can’t tell you the level of anticipation I had during the early summer of 1996 for this movie to come out. The trailer made it seem, to my 9 year old self, like the movie to end all movies. While it isn’t hard to sell teenagers and children on a PG-13, air conditioned experienced at a summer disaster film, Independence Day had its secret weapon: Will Smith. At the time, Smith was largely known for capturing the hearts and laughs of audiences with The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air. As a co-lead in Michael Bay’s debut, Bad Boys, Smith’s exposure was limited to adults and the kids whose parents were cool enough to let them watch it. Independence Day had him filling the shoes that might have previously been filled by Tom Cruise, just old enough at this point to start taking on slightly more mature, world weary roles. While a beloved and familiar face at that point, Independence Day cemented his status as a leading man and a bankable A-list star, at a time when that was still essential to getting your movie made and seen.

Smith led the ensemble cast as Captain Steve Hiller, a fighter pilot modeled after Cruise’s Maverick, with a very Goose-like partner in Harry Connick Jr. He was joined by Bill Pullman, playing the president (a former fighter pilot himself) while doing his best Harrison Ford impression, and Jeff Goldblum as David Levinson, the super-nerd MIT genius who sees it all coming, and could very well be a relative of Dr. Ian Malcolm from Jurassic Park. At this point, one notices how Independence Day was created from the mixed up parts of other, better sci-fi blockbusters. Roland Emmerich had two solid entries under his belt by this point–Stargate and Universal Soldier–other movies that had no problem rearranging better movies for middling but memorable cash-ins. It rode on the wave of renewed interest in extra-terrestials, thanks to The X-Files. The musical score owes more than a little bit to John Williams and his work in Star Wars. Some of the film’s most memorable moments, like Hiller looking up over his newspaper to finally see the massive alien ship floating over Los Angeles, are taken straight from the Spielberg playbook–as are the many shots of people gazing up in awe at the sudden presence of the previously impossible.

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Joined by smaller performances from Randy Quaid, as a very Randy Quaid type pilot who swears he was abducted by aliens, Brent Spiner of Star Trek as an acid casualty scientist at Area 51, and a plethora of character actors like Robert Loggia, Judd Hirsch, Harvey Fierstein and James Rebhorn, it is the character work and cast that ended up makingIndependence Day an enduring home video watch for millennials.

Even without revisiting it, one can pretty easily remember the more quotable lines. “Checkmate.” “Hello boys! I’m back!” “ Welcome to Earth!” “Now that’s what I call a close encounter.” Is it great, or even particularly funny? Not really. In fact, I can recall even seeing it opening weekend at age 9, walking out of the theater and thinking to myself “the trailer made it seem like it was going to be a lot better.” However, these days it feels like a bit of a time capsule, a portal back to a pre-9/11 America, where you could easily get sucked into a substance-free blockbuster movie that doubled as a military recruitment ad, and not feel too weird about it. You can watch it enough times with a group of friends, and it starts to feel nostalgic in the same way a favorite sugary breakfast cereal is.

Roland Emmerich went on to blow up the White House a few more times. Will Smith became Mr. July at the movies. A weird sequel that nobody asked for came out almost 20 years later. For a time, Independence Day was the second-highest grossing movie of all time, almost topping Jurassic Park at the box office.