“Perhaps it’s fate that today is the 4th of July…” So goes one of the most iconic Presidential speeches in cinema history, with Bill Pullman’s President Whitmore rallying the world’s fighting forces before strapping himself into a fighter jet and taking the fight directly to the alien menace.
I am, of course, talking about the 1996 smash-hit Independence Day, which is currently making a slow climb up the streaming charts. As of today, it has entered the top ten on HBO, Amazon Prime, Hulu, and iTunes and will presumably continue to climb as the day progresses.
We can totally understand why. After all, if you want a dose of feel-good patriotism, why not a movie in which America is unambiguously the good guy? Pullman’s battle-ready President is ridiculous but somehow faintly plausible, and it’s very fun that the unlikely combination of Jeff Goldblum’s brains and Will Smith’s piloting skills are the ultimate key to victory.
That said, we doubt that these nostalgic streaming audiences will return for the terrible 2016 sequel. Independence Day: Resurgence was a critical and box office failure, landing with a thud to a 29% Rotten Tomato rating. The franchise is now owned by Disney, though director Roland Emmerich hasn’t closed the door on a third movie, saying in 2020:
“Hollywood is like a strange, strange place these days, because I have a feeling Disney would maybe be interested in doing it. They like that kind of franchise movie.”
After Resurgence, we’re happy to let this franchise stay dormant. That said, we’re now in the mood for some alien-blastin’, city-smashin”’, “Welcome to Earth!” action, so we’ll join the crowd in revisiting Independence Day later.