The Reel Rejects - INDEPENDENCE DAY (1996) MOVIE REVIEW!! FIRST TIME WATCHING!!

Episode Date: June 30, 2024

WELCOME TO EARTH!! Independence Day Full Movie Reaction Watch Along: https://www.patreon.com/thereelrejects It's Sci-Fi Sunday & with the 4th of July in just a couple of days, Tara Erickson & Aaron Alexander are BACK to give their First Time Reaction, Commentary, Analysis, Breakdown, & Spoiler Review for the iconic Blockbuster directed by Roland Emmerich (The Patriot, White House Down) and starring Will Smith, Bill Pullman as the President of the United States, Jeff Goldblum, Judd Hirsch, Randy Quaid, Vivica A. Fox, Robert Loggia, James Rebhorn, Adam Baldwin, & MORE! Tara & Aaron REACT to all the Best Scenes & Most Iconic Moments including The President's Speech, Blowing Up the White House, Russell Becomes a Hero, Nuke 'Em, Time's Up, Close Encounter, the Alien Mothership, & Beyond! Follow Tara Erickson: Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@TaraErickson Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/taraerickson/ Twitter:  https://twitter.com/thetaraerickson Follow Aaron On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/therealaaronalexander/?hl=en Support The Channel By Getting Some REEL REJECTS Apparel! https://www.rejectnationshop.com/ Music Used In Manscaped Ad:  Hat the Jazz by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ POWERED BY @GFUEL Visit https://gfuel.ly/3wD5Ygo and use code REJECTNATION for 20% off select tubs!! Head Editor: https://www.instagram.com/praperhq/?hl=en Co-Editor: Greg Alba Co-Editor: John Humphrey Music In Video: Airport Lounge - Disco Ultralounge by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Ask Us A QUESTION On CAMEO: https://www.cameo.com/thereelrejects Follow TheReelRejects On FACEBOOK, TWITTER, & INSTAGRAM:  FB:  https://www.facebook.com/TheReelRejects/ INSTAGRAM:  https://www.instagram.com/reelrejects/ TWITTER:  https://twitter.com/thereelrejects Follow GREG ON INSTAGRAM & TWITTER: INSTAGRAM:  https://www.instagram.com/thegregalba/ TWITTER:  https://twitter.com/thegregalba Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Wow, okay, that's why we just got done watching Independence Day. So if you're listening to us on Apple or Spotify, give us a five-star rating. You know, don't forget your Reject Nation shop gear. We love you. Support us. Go and get your gear. on there um yeah you know the she jacks we got our new little gear out um wow okay i'll just say it real quick wild to me that i saw this movie when i was a child and i

remembered nothing because i love this movie i like i can't it's crazy to me that i don't remember the aliens that we saw and how funny it was that we blow up these like alien Chips Wild. What a fantastic movie. To me, this was a blast to watch. It had heart. It had emotion. It had adventure. A great script. And also when the comedy was thrown in there, as you said, as we said, it all had to do with character. It wasn't because they needed a joke in there to like bring brevity. It all felt natural and exciting. And God, the soundtrack, I frankly. I fucking love this movie. Go. Oh, man. A1, this movie was great. Yeah, I am so both baffled and happy that, one, this movie's great.

Two, that I haven't seen it prior to today. And three, that I get to watch it with you, because this was amazing. Get to watch with Terry, get to watch with you guys, and I absolutely loved it. Yeah, just echoing the sentiments that Tara said over here, Jeff Goldblum was great, Will Smith was great, Bill Pullman was great, everybody in this cast was so fantastic, and it's funny watching this after watching other sci-fi movies or movies like War of the Worlds, because I feel like this one just had so much heart infused and had such a big cast, yet nobody felt like they got shortchanged. Everybody got their time to shine, even if it wasn't the most screen time. and it was very, very, very well-paced over the course of two and a half hours because it did not feel like it.

I was locked in the entire time. All of the music hit the right beats from the dread that we experienced to the moments of triumph, to the moments of sadness. This movie literally hit the entirety of the emotional spectrum and it did it flawlessly

without skipping a beat. And this movie just knows how to be the ultimate culmination of the human experience I feel. And God, this is such this is why I love movies, man. This movie right here is why I love movies.

I'm with you. Because this is what I would want to show people. I'm baffled for that nobody ever showed me this movie in the course of my 29 years of life because this movie just it just gets me inspired both as someone who enjoys watching them and someone who wants to make

them myself one day and just watching this unfold. And the fact that it's holds up even though this was made in the 90s is just so telling to the fact that this was such an incredibly well-crafted story and well-directed movie and it just is able to have all of those things work so well in tandem with one another and I'm just I'm blown away yeah I am too and I think what they did a really good job of is in those emotional moments when we see will Smith, you know, get married to her after they like rediscover him. And then we see that connection with Jeff Goldblum and his ex-wife and they come together. But we also have that connection

with him and his dad. There's these little stolen moments where it's not as though we had to add, it didn't feel like we had to add it in so that to make sure that we know that like they care about somebody. It was just thrown in there from the top, slightly sprinkled in throughout. We didn't need to see that Will Smith was planning on marrying that girl. We didn't. The guy said, I thought you were going to break up with her. Don't you remember when it showed the ring? You're like, what?

And we didn't even think about that when they go and get remarried. We just knew the story just was able to, again, just show us versus telling us, like, all this exposition and making it go like, oh, I love him so much. And like, blah, blah, blah. It was just slightly thrown in there in a great script. The way that they said words was like when she's talking to the first lady, the first ladies, did you like him? You know, is that his dad? And she's like, no, but I thought, I was hoping he'd be the man for the job. That was it.

Nothing more. Great script writing. We didn't need any more than that. And then right back to adventure. And that shows us just like where their relationship is. And I just, I love Jeff Goldblum and his dad. Like the way they set it up in the beginning. Sprinkle it in him and checkmate.

Great callback at the end. Checkmate. when they're when they're in the ship together and i just everything about this script to me i love that the director was also a co-writer and that is why i think this movie is phenomenal i think that matters i think i missed there was some uh hulu or whatever watching it on pops up with all the recommendation so it covered who produces but i'll look it up on i mdb i wouldn't be surprised it would also be him or a friend where they're making executive decisions to go I don't want to do what all these, if they have dumb ideas.

The script was a great script with great ideas. It all made sense. I freaking loved it. Yeah. Yeah. Not only was it a great script from a story perspective, but even from a character perspective, this movie somehow balanced so many characters with such a large cast and made all of the essential players have an arc and have.

And there's so many. And there's so many, which is wild. from the president and his moral qualms about doing what's morally right to him being that leader through and through from start to finish from wanting to stay into the White House to having hesitations about dropping the nuke to flying the plane and leading the charge himself will smith's top to bottom having his goals of wanting to go to NASA who wanting to marry his woman but also being that person who is fearless they established that from the jump he is fearless

He is confident. He is about business. And I really enjoyed that. Jeff Goldblum being this guy who is both incredibly smart, but also very passionate, both for what he does and for the woman that he loves. And I think all of that coming together in such a beautiful way. And the thing that makes this movie stand above other movies of the genre is its heart. The fact that it is able to be rooted in character first. and the fact that it is rooted in character

and it has such a way of not only showing these characters and even distribution, but allowing them to really breathe that really gets us invested in the stakes of what's happening because it makes us want to watch them succeed. I agree.

Yeah. Absolutely. It was incredible. Like I'm really, really impressed by this movie. And it's not just like this fun, turn your brain off action movie. No.

It's not just a blockbuster. It's a movie. I'll consider this to be a film. like genuinely. Me too. Absolutely. And it's a riot on top of that. With like the way that the script is written and the way that the, I mean, the budget,

I don't know what it would be, but I mean, of the way that they were able to portray pure chaos, if that were to happen in a real city and they showed it over and over, the crash that they showed, the explosion, it gives us this sense of adventure. And then you see like, you know, the Marines taking off and we get that. But then we're also met with these aliens. but you never at one point ever think like this looks weird or like with this you're just there yeah you're like this feels so real they did a really good job of setting us up conveying that story where you're like you would be at work and here to the news and the TV looks weird and

what's going on this feels weird and then like you see it out of the freaking window and you're like what is happening yeah and the action was also incredible like when we see the first act when we just know they i've never seen a movie do the hope is lost so early and so well yeah it's like we're only an hour in and like all the cities are being destroyed pandemonium everywhere just utter obliteration and loss i'm like i don't know how they're going to win this thing right and i know that there's a speech at the independence day but i'm like i can't i can't imagine what they're going to do and the fact that knowing that knowing that the good guys are going to win and still feeling like i don't know

man like the aliens like we kind of didn't know the odds are really stacked against us and I'm impressed just truly truly impressed the home button on the control so that goes away it's playing my hero Academian but we're not watching so I did want to say that role in emmerich I was right he did produce it along with the co-writer he directed it he co-wrote it and then he also was executive producer and that's how great movies get made because you as an EP can say, I don't like your, if you, if somebody was like, make this funnier, or like, make the aliens talk in English language or just something dumb that Inzek would say, who's not a filmmaker.

I'm so glad because then he can throw the gauntlet because he's the EP. I love that. So let's get into some trivia. According to producer, co-writer Dean Devlin, the U.S. military had agreed to support the film by allowing the crew to film at military bases, consulting the actors who have military roles. However, after learning of the Area 51 references in the script, they withdrew their support. What? Wow. That is wild. And it reminded me of the story I want to tell very quickly. Listen to me, guys. My grandpa, he was a nuclear physicist. In Nevada, I grew up in Vegas.

What? He was a head nuclear physicist. He would have to go around to all of the testing sites within like the, the, um, on the, the west coast, mostly it throughout Nevada and I think Arizona. Very smart guy. Now listen, they had a lot of testing sites in the desert in Nevada. He got skin cancer. Obviously, you're testing nuclear bombs. Um, so he died of skin cancer. And when he was dying, he said to my aunt, my aunt wouldn't lie about this. was a child. I do remember our family was there and he's like on the bed. I was not here for this conversation. But my aunt was like, listen, did you know that your grandpa was saying when he was dying because he was a nuclear physicist. So he would get top clearance, government clearance.

As he's dying and you guys, when you're dying of skin cancer back then, it's bad with radiation. you kind of just go, well, it's kind of, it's ending. He was like Area 51 is real. And he said it multiple times to my aunt and to my other aunt who's a doctor who was helping him just because he was dying at home, not in the hospital. And when my aunt told me that, this was only a couple years ago, you guys. She went, yeah, didn't you know that? Of course.

She's like, Daddy said that Area 51, as he was dying, he's like, is absolutely real. And I was like, what? Are you kidding? I was like, wait. So you're saying because he was a nuclear physicist, he had all of the highest clearances in the government. Meaning, for me, I'm like, that means he went. He is not a liar. He is dying.

Why would he lie about that? You're not going to lie. And also, nobody told anyone because they probably thought, well, maybe you're, people would think we're crazy. I don't know. But my aunt was like, oh, yeah, he just told me, and Debbie was there, and he very clearly was like, ah, and then reading that, I totally believe now that it freaking exists and that aliens are there.

I'm sorry, but I had, like, goosebumps when my aunt reminded me of that. He's got something stuck in his throat. He's got to cough it out. Take your mic away, and I will read another trivia while you cough it out. I'm good. You all right? Okay, good. The story shook me up.

This holds the record for the most miniature model work to appear in one film. Model Shop Supervisor Michael Joyce estimated that more miniatures were used for this film than in any other two films combined due to the advances in digital technology since this film's released. Most experts believe this record may stand forever. Wow. That's why it looks so good. That's why I kept saying it looks still practical and miniatures do look that way. And miniatures take a lot of work.

You have to be really good at like getting that angle and how do we shoot it to make it look real. And I find that phenomenal that they're saying experts believe that this record may stand forever for the most miniatures in any film. That's wild. Okay. The scene in which Will Smith drags the unconscious alien

across the desert were filled on the salt flats near Great Salt, Great Salt Lake in Utah, Smith's Line, and what the hell is that smell? Was unscripted. That's why you love him. It's so good, man. It's so good, right? Great Salt Lake is home to tiny crustaceans called Brinship. When they die, the body sink to the bottom of the lake, decomposed when the wind kicks up.

The mud is disturbed, and the smell of millions of decaying brine shrimp can be very, very, very bad. Oh. Oh, my God. And apparently nobody warned Will. So he actually was complaining about a real smell. That's hilarious. That is a good one. Oh, my God.

This is a great, this is great trivia right here. Dean Devlin said that most of the dialogue in the scenes with Jeff Goldboom shared with Judd Hirsch and Will Smith, Judd Hirsch is the guy that I love, was take a guess. Improvice? Uh-huh. Wow. Isn't that amazing? Wait, was Judd Hurst the dad?

Yes. Okay. That's why I said the guy I love. The dad. It's not, okay, it was not Mel Gibson. Not Mel Gibson. No, no, no. You said another.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Okay. Let's go. I'll read a couple of spoilers. Let's see. Around 2 hour and five minutes, the visual effect of the giant alien ray gun exploding

is simply the same footage from the Empire State Building exploding turned upside down. What? That's the exact same foot and they just flipped it. Oh, my God. That's how smart. is that. That's brilliant. Good on you, editors. Okay, let's see if I can get

a good one with good. Roland Emmerich admitted that during the movie's premiere at the White House, he gave his seat next to President Bill Clinton to Bill Pullman, fearing Clinton's reaction to the on-screen destruction of the White House. He was legitimately scared. So we put Bill Pullman there. Oh, my God. Okay. Let's see.

I'll read one more. As the crew in audiences like the character of Dr. Oaken, so much Dean Devlin and Brent Spiner have gone on record to say that this character was only in a coma when he appeared to be dead. A brief shot of Mayor Mitchell saying Oaken is dead was shot but deleted. The idea of Oaken could be brought back in his sequel. Oh, this finally came to pass an Independence Day. Yeah, that isn't too much of a spoiler.

But also, as I was reading that, I don't remember Dr. Okun. So that's good for me. Was that the guy who got necked? Oh, the white-haired guy. Yeah. Okay, so maybe he makes a re-surgeon or whatever. And I just want to click on, because this is terrible of me, Bill Pullman's name, to be like, is he still alive? Or is I an insane person?

And I made up that he died during the pandemic, or was it another Bill person? He's still alive! Oh, my. My God, he's still alive. He's here! What? Bill died in the... Bill?

Is there another famous Bill something? I think the guy who died who was like... Paxton! Paxton! Was it Paxton? Died. Okay. Set 20...

2017 was not during the pandemic. No, no, no. What about the guy? I think the guy who was like, um, on boys on back, I think he died, but... He might have, yeah. Okay, I got some stuff confused there, guys. Bill Pullman did not die. That is absolutely my bad.

I got my bills mixed up. I get a lot of things mixed up. This is cooking and scrambled. Wow, we adored this movie. We want to share it with everyone. I agree that me and Aaron would be like, we're going to have a screening of Independence Day to show everybody who hasn't seen it

because we freaking love this movie. This movie's a blast. This movie's so good. Whoever doesn't like this movie, get out. Leave. leave immediately. This has this has so much fun jokes that work, the pacing,

the timing of it, it's exciting, it's funny, it's heartfelt, it's real, and it's like action and adventure, and then like when it slows down and you feel stuff, you actually feel something. I couldn't give it any more stars. I love this film

and I'm so happy that we got to watch it. 10 out of 10. You have, yes, any last words that you have for these people. This movie has everything. It's incredible. I agree. That's it. Like, share it, comment. Tell us what you think about it. We love you guys and we will see you on the next one. Bye.