Hollywood’s fascination with war, extraterrestrial life, science fiction, and doomsday scenario is perhaps a little too worn for the wear by now. And Will Smith has been in every one of those genres, ready to pioneer the films to the forefront of their respective fields of art.

As definitive a marker as Smith has thus left behind in his versatile career as an actor, it becomes impossible to revisit one of the most spectacular of his films, Independence Day as it closes in on its 27th anniversary.

Will Smith’s Film Gets Ditched by US Military Due To Aliens

Directed by Roland Emmerich and starring such evergreen talents as Will Smith, Jeff Goldblum, and Bill Pullman in the lead, Independence Day explored what it meant to be faced with an extraterrestrial lifeform possessing higher intelligence, advanced weaponry, and an evolutionary ambition on a greater scale than that faced by mankind itself.
Independence Day – Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum

The film, when later proposed to the US military found unexpected support and allyship as they extended help to the crew by allowing them to film around military bases and let the actors who were playing military roles pick their brains about aspects of the job. However, soon after finding out about the Area 51 references in the film, any and all support was dropped by the military, leaving Roland Emmerich, Will Smith, and their team to trudge on with the masterpiece-in-the-making by themselves.

The Pop Culture Impact of Independence Day

When the producer/co-writer, Dean Devlin presented the script for the 1996 masterpiece, Independence Day, it was one of the potentially great movies of the decade, not only exceeding the sci-fi format of the era and attempting a saga told on a Spielbergian scale. When the film came out, it broke ground because of its exceptional storytelling and innovative take on the widely explored theme of alien life.
War of the Worlds (2005)
Soon after its premiere, Independence Day essentially established a new hierarchy in the genre. Science fiction films delving into the subject of aliens were never the same again. War of the Worlds came out a decent period later to establish Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruise at the top again, and despite the initial cacophony around the film, especially because of the volatile Cruise outbursts over the course of its promotional (re: Oprah and Matt Lauer interviews), Will Smith and Roland Emmerich’s crown remains intact to this day when it comes to the ‘96 classic.

Independence Day is currently available for streaming on Apple TV.