History Awesome / IndependenceDay

* A major shout-out to the Royal Air Force, the Armée de l'air, the Luftwaffe, the Israeli Defense Forces, the JASDF, the VVS, the [=KLu=], the RSAF, the People's Liberarion Army Air Force, the [=FiAF=], the Royal Canadian Air Force, and every other air force who managed to hold their ground against the attackers and take down the City Destroyers.

** It's even better if you know that the entire speech was a temporary placeholder, but Emmerich and Devlin forgot to work on it until Pullman was rehearsing on set. But he was so bombastic that the extras and even the crew were cheering along to it, and he ad-libbed the now-iconic final line.

** Even more awesome is that in one of the novels set during the events of the film, the Saudis, Israelis, the British, the Iraqis and the Iranians all banded together to save the city of '''Mecca''', the literal ''birthplace of the Prophet Muhammad and Islam'' from becoming their next target. The aliens didn't just start a war with the Earth and it's people, they unintentionally set off a '''Holy War''' with Islam that would lead to the invaders being easily defeated.

** Even more awesome is that in one of the novels set during the events of the film, the Saudis, Israelis, the British, the Iraqis and the Iranians all banded together to save the '''Mecca''' landmark, the literal ''birthplace of the Prophet Muhammad and Islam'' from MonumentalDamage. The aliens didn't just start a war with the Earth and it's people, they unintentionally set off a '''Holy War''' with Islam that led to their defeat.

** The legacy of President Whitmore, his RousingSpeech and his badassery as a fighter pilot is not only recognized InUniverse in the sequel, it has also pervaded to pop culture, where Whitmore is regarded as, well, possibly the most badass fictional US President ever. Even in 2021, approaching the 4th of July, Budweiser made a commercial ad with Creator/BillPullman doing a massive ShoutOut to his character and his speech. [[https://youtu.be/5cpWEX9A7y0 As seen here]].

** And the whole escape sequence afterwards. Hiller desperately barrerolls his way out of the mothership, evading the alien attackers' FrickinLaserBeams all the while engaging in witty banter with David, all culminating with them escaping the closing door — and the mothership's doom — by the skin of their teeth. Much like the AerialCanyonChase, it serves to establish Hiller as one hell of a badass pilot.

-->'''President Whitmore:''' Perhaps it's fate that today is the Fourth of July, and you will once again be fighting for our freedom. Not from tyranny, oppression, or persecution...but from annihilation. We're fighting for our right to live - to exist. And should we win the day, the Fourth of July will no longer be known as an American holiday, but as the day when the world declared in one voice: ''[[BadassBoast We will not go quietly into the night! We will not vanish without a fight!]]'' We're going to live on! We're going to survive! Today we celebrate our [[TitleDrop Independence Day]]!

** That ''entire'' scene is a Crowning Moment of Awesome; Whitmore is the first to launch a missile once the virus is planted , and when his missile impacts against the shield, the entire attack is called off and despair fills the control room. All of the planes break off and retreat, but Whitmore instead accelerates towards the City Destroyer and launches another missile. The entire control room watches as the missile soars towards the saucer, passes the point where the shields should have stopped it...and impacts against the hull. What moments ago was sheer hopelessness is replaced with sheer jubilation and Whitmore's plane is rejoined by his squadron, who then proceed to absolutely ''unload'' on the City Destroyer with multiple missiles.

--> "Now that's what I call a close encounter."

* Creator/WillSmith taking an alien ship down using his jet's parachute, which leads to him opening the ship and punching the alien in the face. "Welcome to Earth!"

* The canyon chase. After his entire squadron is slaughtered in a failed counter-attack, Captain Hiller, his plane depleted of weaponry, leads a pursuing alien attacker into a chase through the Grand Canyon, maneuvering an F/A-18 through ''extremely'' tight openings at high speed while the alien attacker continuously tries to hit him with its weapons, no doubt growing increasingly frustrated at being unable to hit Hiller's plane. The chase finally ends when Hiller, his plane rapidly running out of fuel, deploys his braking parachute and detaches it right into the face of the pursuing attacker. Using that to his advantage, Hiller ejects while his plane flies right into a canyon wall. The parachute finally flies off the attacker, which is then greeted with the explosion of the plane and the rapidly approaching canyon wall. The alien pilot is barely able to pull up and clips the canyon lip, losing control and crash-landing not too far away.

** That entire sequence where they launch their attack; the two decide they aren't getting out of this alive, and light up the cigars before setting off the virus and the nuke one after another, standing up to smile and wave at the aliens for good measure, all while three alien attackers hover behind them. The kicker is that the alien controller had no idea what was going on when it saw them. The confused and shocked reaction to the Jolly Roger virus appearing on the screens just sells the whole moment. Then the nuclear missile flies out of its launcher and streaks towards the alien controller's booth and even though it has no mouth, the controller does the closest thing to screaming "shit!" it can as a nuke flies right through it's workspace, and ''keeps going'', finally embedding itself further in the mothership.
-->'''Steve:''' Do you think they have any clue what's about to happen to 'em?
-->'''David:''' Oh, not a chance in Hell! Good night!

* Will Smith's character again, when he flashes the VSign, shouts "[[PreMortemOneLiner Peace!]]" and launches a ''tactical'' nuke into the alien mothership's hangar control room.

* The canyon chase. After his entire squadron is slaughtered in a failed counter-attack, Captain Hiller, his plane depleted of weaponry, leads a pursuing alien attacker into a chase through the Grand Canyon, maneuvering an F/A-18 through ''extremely'' tight openings at high speed while the alien attacker continuously tries to hit him with its weapons, no doubt growing increasingly frustrated at being unable to hit Hiller's plane. The chase finally ends when Hiller, his plane rapidly running out of fuel, deploys his braking parachute and detaches it right into the face of the pursuing attacker. Using that to his advantage, Hiller ejects while his plane flies right into a canyon wall. The parachute finally flies off the attacker, which is then greeted with the explosion of the plane and the rapidly approaching canyon wall. The alien pilot is barely able to pull up and clips the canyon lip, losing control crashlanding not too far away.

* Russell's crowning moment after realizing that his final missile has jammed, says good bye to his children before flying into the alien ship's primary weapon, gleefully screaming "Hello boys! I'm baaaaaaaaaaack!!" And the aliens promptly learn they fucked with the wrong race.

** The original script was even better, with Russell in his crop duster with a missile tied on. Note that this means he took off ''intending'' to sacrifice himself.

** He follows up this epic speech with [[OurPresidentsAreDifferent jumping into an F/A-18 to dogfight aliens]].

* In the special edition, Julius gets distracted when David shows him a database of phonebooks, when the police start directing traffic into the empty southbound lane. Fortunately, Julius is able to evade the desperate motorists and makes it safely into DC.

* Russell's crowning moment after realizing that his final missile has jammed, says good bye to his children before flying into the alien ship's primary weapon, [[GoOutWithASmile gleefully screaming]] "Hello boys! I'm baaaaaaaaaaack!!" And the aliens promptly learn they fucked with the wrong race.

*** Even more awesome if you imagine that it's [[Series/{{Chuck}} John Casey]] shooting the alien dead. Or [[{{Series/Firefly}} Jayne Cobb]]. Or [[Franchise/MassEffect Kal'Reegar]]. Let's just say that Adam Baldwin has been gloriously type-cast as a gun-toting badass.

--> '''General Grey:''' Get onto the wire with every squadron around the world, tell them how to bring those sons of ''bitches'' down

* Let's just face it, the whole movie was and still is a CrowningMomentofAwesome for Creator/RolandEmmerich, the actors, and the film itself. Not to mention nearly ''every'' TV channel airs it mostly every month. ''ESPECIALLY'' the Visual Effects, '''HOLY freakin' SHIT!'''