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** Whitmore addressees the army officer who announces the approach of the City Destroyers as a "commander." That is not an army rank and the officer is actually a colonel.

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** Whitmore addressees the army Army officer who announces the approach of the City Destroyers as a "commander." That is not an army rank and the officer "commander". "Commander" is actually a colonel.''Navy'' rank (it's the rank just below "captain", and just above "lieutenant" and "lieutenant commander"), and the officer's rank insignia indicates that he's actually a ''colonel''.



** The correct name of Area 51 is Groom Lake, which is what military personnel refer to it as. "Area 51" was assigned to it in CIA classified documents.

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** The correct Area 51 should be referred to as "Groom Lake", "Homey Airport", or "Dreamland"; "Homey Airport" is the facility's official name, "Groom Lake" is the name of Area 51 a nearby salt flat that serves as its most clearly identifiable geographic landmark, and "Dreamland" is Groom Lake, which is what military personnel refer to it as. its official aviation callsign. "Area 51" was assigned to it in just a codename used by the CIA in a handful of classified documents.documents, which eventually caught on with the general public after it was leaked. Nearly all military personnel call it "Groom Lake".
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Crosswicking new trope.

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* FirstPersonDyingPerspective: David's friend, Marty, meets his end when another car launched into the air crushes his own, after one of the alien ships fires its superweapon for the first time in New York City. His last glimpse is of said car hurtling towards him.
-->'''Marty:''' Ohhhh crap...
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Oops


* ActionBomb: Upon realizing that the missiles of his airship are stuck and thus cannot be shot at thealien saucer's WaveMotionGun, Russel Casse performs a HeroicSacrifice by piloting straight at it to prevent the next city destruction. His last words are "Hello boys! I'm baaaaaaack!"

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* ActionBomb: Upon realizing that the missiles of his airship are stuck and thus cannot be shot at thealien the alien saucer's WaveMotionGun, Russel Casse performs a HeroicSacrifice by piloting straight at it to prevent the next city destruction. His last words are "Hello boys! I'm baaaaaaack!"
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Bringing back these examples, after consulting about them in this forum thread as well as this ATT query

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* PatrioticFervor: The President gives a RousingSpeech about July 4 being Independence Day for the entire world, after [[AmericaSavesTheDay America Saved the Day]].


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* QuizzicalTilt: One of the alien invaders tilts their head upon seeing Steven Hiller and David Levinson in one of their ships.
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** Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 314 (nicknamed "[[RedBaron The Black Knights]]") is depicted as being stationed at Marine Corps Air Station El Toro. While this was once accurate, it was already outdated at the time of the film's release: the squadron was transferred to Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in 1994.

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As this entry notes: the film acknowledges that stealing a helicopter should be grounds for court martial, and it provides a plausible excuse for why Steve isn't punished for it. If a fact is acknowledged and dealt with, it's not Artistic License.


** The fighter that Whitmore flies during the final battle should have had the call sign "Air Force One," as it refers not just to the Boeing VC-25 that serves as the President's official transport but any US Air Force plane that the President happens to be on. Of course, using his squadron's call sign symbolically indicates that he is putting himself in the line of fire with all the other volunteers.
** Steve steals a helicopter to go look for survivors in LA, particularly his girlfriend. By any and all accounts would be a court martial offense, but given the AlienInvasion going on and finding the President's wife in the process [[HeroInsurance no mention is made of the infraction]]. It's acknowledged when he takes the helicopter, an opposing soldier pulls his gun on him, but when Steve sincerely questions his commitment, the soldier acquiesced.

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** The fighter that Whitmore flies during the final battle should have had the call sign callsign "Air Force One," as it refers not One". The name "Air Force One" doesn't just refer to the Boeing VC-25 that serves as the President's official transport but transport; it's the default callsign used for any US Air Force plane that the President happens to be on. Of course, using his squadron's call sign symbolically indicates that he is putting himself in the line of fire with all the other volunteers.
** Steve steals a helicopter to go look for survivors in LA, particularly his girlfriend. By any and all accounts would be a court martial offense, but given the AlienInvasion going on and finding the President's wife in the process [[HeroInsurance no mention is made of the infraction]]. It's acknowledged when he takes the helicopter, an opposing soldier pulls his gun on him, but when Steve sincerely questions his commitment, the soldier acquiesced.
volunteers.

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the reason you didn't find these tropes here is because they are sitting perfectly fine on the characters sheet. removing them here. moving Mobile Suit Human and Technologically Advanced Foe to the characters sheet.


* MightyGlacier: The City Destroyers. These massive ships are fifteen miles wide and appear to move slowly to their next target (one takes 12 hours to move from New York to Philadelphia). They seem to lack any weapons, short of their primary cannon which is capable of wiping out an entire city. Even when the humans manage to find a way to bring down their shields, the ship's size and armor easily soaks up their missiles until they find another weak spot.



* MobileSuitHuman: A rare serious example. [[spoiler:The roughly human-sized alien invaders turn out to be [[BioArmor biomechanical suits]]; the real deal are child-sized. They are implied to be physically weaker, but [[TheGreys by no means disarmingly cute]].]] In the {{novelization}}, it is explained that they're not ''just'' [[spoiler:biomechanical suits]] -- they are literally [[spoiler:''another'' alien species that the BigBad conquerors had defeated, found to be useful, and ''[[BodyHorror turned into suits]]''. Or perhaps they somehow evolved some sort of symbiotic/parasitic relationship... psychic revelations like that tend to be unclear]].



* NotSoInvincibleAfterAll: The alien invaders' [[DeflectorShields shields]] give them an overwhelming advantage, as they take no losses until Captain Hiller tricks one of them into crashing into a cliff, disabling the craft. Later, David's virus is able to disable all of the alien ships' shields, putting the Earth's air forces on a much more even footing against the aliens.



* OrganicTechnology: The aliens have [[BioArmor biological]] PoweredArmor. The rest of their tech appears to be purely inorganic though. In the novelization, it's revealed during the psychic communication with the captured alien that the "biological powered armor" is in fact an entirely different species that the apparently parasitic BigBad aliens have harvested and [[MobileSuitHuman turned into armor/utility apparatus]] and also that the material from which the alien fighters is made seems to have been grown like a tree or something.



* PatrioticFervor: The president is a handsome young fighter pilot who helps save the world and gives a RousingSpeech about July 4 being Independence Day for the entire world, after [[AmericaSavesTheDay America Saved the Day]].



* PlugNPlayTechnology: David's Macintosh laptop is somehow able to directly interface with the alien mothership and upload the virus to their systems (complete with a [[ViewerFriendlyInterface helpful "Uploading Virus" indicator]]). It's possible that this framework was set up by David and the lab technicians at Area 51 in the interim between the former's idea and his reveal to Whitmore and the others, but this isn't explicitly stated. The novelization reveals that modern human computers are essentially reverse engineered from the captured ship.

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* PlugNPlayTechnology: David's Macintosh laptop is somehow able to directly interface with the alien mothership and upload the virus to their systems (complete with a [[ViewerFriendlyInterface helpful "Uploading Virus" indicator]]). It's possible that this framework was set up by David and the lab technicians at Area 51 in the interim between the former's idea and his reveal to Whitmore and the others, but this isn't explicitly stated. The novelization reveals that modern human computers are essentially reverse engineered reverse-engineered from the captured ship.



* QuizzicalTilt: One of the alien invaders tilts their head upon seeing Steven Hiller and David Levinson in one of their ships



* ScaryDogmaticAliens: The aliens operate as a HordeOfAlienLocusts, migrating from planet to planet, destroying the native population, and consuming all the resources before moving on, but when diplomacy is attempted with a captured alien, it's shown that they're intelligent enough to understand that other species perceive their genocidal ways as wrong. They just don't care.



* TechnologicallyAdvancedFoe: The movie drives the point home early, as TheMothership is said to be [[PlanetSpaceship 1/4th the size of the moon]] and deploys individual craft to cities around the world that are still 15 miles across. In this case, though, it's said that human technological development is heavily based on the {{Area 51}} Roswell alien ship of the same design, so humans find ways to fight back in part because they had developed some familiarity with their technology.



* XenomorphXerox: The Harvesters have a biomechanical body with skeletal features and a head-shape resembling that of a Xenomorph Queen.
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they might just use alien technology.


* NoConservationOfEnergy: Between the mothership, the ship reactors, and many other things, don't think about where all the energy comes from or goes

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this he does it only once, this fits better under Narrating The Obvious


* CaptainObvious: During the escape from the mothership, David makes an astute observation that the alien fighters are chasing them.
-->'''David:''' They're chasing us!\\
'''Steve:''' [[LampshadeHanging Oh really,]] [[SarcasmMode you think?!]]



'''Capt. Steven Hiller:''' Oh, really, you think?

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'''Capt. Steven Hiller:''' Oh, really, '''Steve:''' [[LampshadeHanging Oh really,]] [[SarcasmMode you think?think?!]]
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Wrong film


* ShatteredWorld: In the beginning, the audience gets to see what appears to be a chunk of a destroyed planet, having its inhabitants wiped out by the Harvesters, just as the Harvester mothership is making her way towards Earth.

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Massive example crosswicking. Also removed an example that actually pertains Resurgence, as well as some natter along the way. Finally, thanks for the corrections, Lt Fedora!


* HollywoodHacking: With extra bonus points for [[PlugNPlayTechnology hacking into an alien computer]], and figuring out its display well enough to send [[HackedByAPirate a laughing skull and crossbones]] to the invaders. The {{novelization}} and {{deleted scene}}s imply that Apple computers (among other things) were [[ETGaveUsWiFi derived from alien technology]].

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* HollywoodHacking: With extra bonus points for [[PlugNPlayTechnology hacking into an alien computer]], and figuring out its display well enough to send [[HackedByAPirate a laughing skull and crossbones]] to the invaders. The {{novelization}} and {{deleted scene}}s deleted scenes imply that Apple computers (among other things) were [[ETGaveUsWiFi derived from alien technology]].



* MacrossMissileMassacre: Happens during the humans' first (and [[WorfBarrage horribly unsuccessful]]) attack on one of the alien craft; every missile fired by the numerous fighter jets hits the ship's shields, doing absolutely nothing.



* MakeItLookLikeAStruggle: Steve Hiller "borrows" a helicopter to find his girlfriend. One soldier catches him and draws his pistol, ordering Hiller out. Hiller just gives him a look and asks if he really wants to shoot him, which makes the soldier lower the gun. As he's taking off, Hiller goes, "Look, just tell 'em I hit you." The soldier is quite a bit bigger than Hiller's character, making his "you shittin' me?" look particularly amusing.



* MightyGlacier: The City Destroyers. These massive ships are fifteen miles wide and appear to move slowly to their next target (one takes 12 hours to move from New York to Philadelphia). They seem to lack any weapons, short of their primary cannon which is capable of wiping out an entire city. Even when the humans manage to find a way to bring down their shields, the ship's size and armor easily soaks up their missiles until they find another weak spot.



* MobileSuitHuman: A rare serious example. [[spoiler:The roughly human-sized alien invaders turn out to be [[BioArmor biomechanical suits]]; the real deal are child-sized. They are implied to be physically weaker, but [[TheGreys by no means disarmingly cute]].]] In the {{novelization}}, it is explained that they're not ''just'' [[spoiler:biomechanical suits]] -- they are literally [[spoiler:''another'' alien species that the BigBad conquerors had defeated, found to be useful, and ''[[BodyHorror turned into suits]]''. Or perhaps they somehow evolved some sort of symbiotic/parasitic relationship... psychic revelations like that tend to be unclear]].



* MonumentalDamage

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* MonumentalDamageMonumentalDamage:



* MonumentalDamageResistance: The Pyramids of Giza and the Sydney Opera House both survive, though the presence of Destroyers nearby indicates they ''were'' targets; but humanity shot down the Destroyers before that could happen.

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* MonumentalDamageResistance: MonumentalDamageResistance:
**
The Pyramids of Giza and the Sydney Opera House both survive, though the presence of Destroyers nearby indicates they ''were'' targets; but humanity shot down the Destroyers before that could happen.



[[folder: N - P]]
* NationsOfTheWorldMontage: We're treated to scenes of air forces in the Middle East, Russia, and Japan getting America's instructions for the counterattack.

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[[folder: N - P]]
Q]]
* NarratingTheObvious: An exchange like this takes place when Hiller and Levinson try to escape from the enemy mothership after setting up the bomb that is meant to destroy it. Some airships are pursuing them during the escape sequence:
-->'''David Levinson:''' They're chasing us!\\
'''Capt. Steven Hiller:''' Oh, really, you think?
* NationsOfTheWorldMontage: We're treated to scenes of air forces in the Middle East, Russia, and Japan getting America's instructions for the counterattack. counterattack.
* NauseaDissonance: David gets airsick on Air Force One, and an especially bad case is triggered when his father innocently babbles on about how unaffected he is.
--> '''Julius:''' "Look at me, like a rock." ''(gesturing)'' We could go backwards, we could go forwards, we could go side to side--"
--> '''David:''' ''(stops him, pulls a face, and hurries to the restroom)''
--> '''Julius:''' "...what'd I say?"
* NearVillainVictory: The final battle over Area 51. The alien saucer's primary DeathRay is already firing up when a HeroicSacrifice by a human pilot destroys the entire ship by ramming its weak point.



* NoConservationOfEnergy: Between the mothership, the ship reactors, and many other things, don't think about where all the energy comes from or goes



* NotSoInvincibleAfterAll: The alien invaders' [[DeflectorShields shields]] give them an overwhelming advantage, as they take no losses until Captain Hiller tricks one of them into crashing into a cliff, disabling the craft. Later, David's virus is able to disable all of the alien ships' shields, putting the Earth's air forces on a much more even footing against the aliens.



* OfficeGolf: A SETI staff member plays some when he's alerted to the approaching mothership.

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* OfficeGolf: A SETI staff member plays some when he's alerted to The man on duty at the S.E.T.I. Institute is playing golf. A red light starts blinking alerting him about the alien spacecraft approaching mothership.Earth. He excitedly calls his boss on the phone, and the boss rushes to the office where [[BrickJoke he trips over the golf balls]].
* OfficialPresidentialTransport:
** Air Force One plays a prominent role, helping evacuate several characters from Washington and serving as the command center for the first counterattack.
** The film also features an ''aversion'' near the end of the movie: one of the fighter jets in the assault on the alien ship, despite carrying the President of the United States (as the pilot, no less), has the callsign ''Eagle'' One rather than Air Force One.



* OhNoYouDidnt:
-->'''Captain Steve Hiller:''' Oh, you did NOT shoot that green shit at me!



* OminousFloatingSpaceship: The alien MotherShip in all its glory. You'd better believe it.

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* OminousFloatingSpaceship: The alien MotherShip in all its glory. You'd better believe it.Big enough to darken a city during day due to it covering the sky, and powerful enough to destroy entire cities.



* OrganicTechnology: The aliens have [[BioArmor biological]] PoweredArmor. The rest of their tech appears to be purely inorganic though. In the novelization, it's revealed during the psychic communication with the captured alien that the "biological powered armor" is in fact an entirely different species that the apparently parasitic BigBad aliens have harvested and [[MobileSuitHuman turned into armor/utility apparatus]] and also that the material from which the alien fighters is made seems to have been grown like a tree or something.



* OverTheTopSecret: The Secretary of Defense has kept the existence of a recovered spaceship and alien corpses at Area51 a secret even from the President, in order to maintain PlausibleDeniability, so the President doesn't learn about the secret laboratory beneath Area 51 until Julius Levinson confronts them and the truth comes out. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff points out that a good time to share this secret would have been some time after the aliens themselves arrived in force over Earth and ''before'' the military launched a fruitless attack against them without knowing anything about their capabilities.



* PatrioticFervor: The president is a handsome young fighter pilot who helps save the world and gives a RousingSpeech about July 4 being Independence Day for the entire world, after [[AmericaSavesTheDay America Saved the Day]].



* PhonyNewscast: The DVD release includes the faux newscasts depicting how TV news reported on the arrival of the alien craft. One of the Making-Of featurettes used to promote the film also opened like this.



* PlugNPlayTechnology: David's Macintosh laptop is somehow able to directly interface with the alien mothership and upload the virus to their systems (complete with a [[ViewerFriendlyInterface helpful "Uploading Virus" indicator]]). It's possible that this framework was set up by David and the lab technicians at Area 51 in the interim between the former's idea and his reveal to Whitmore and the others, but this isn't explicitly stated.
** The novelization reveals that modern human computers are essentially reverse engineered from the captured ship.

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* PlugNPlayTechnology: David's Macintosh laptop is somehow able to directly interface with the alien mothership and upload the virus to their systems (complete with a [[ViewerFriendlyInterface helpful "Uploading Virus" indicator]]). It's possible that this framework was set up by David and the lab technicians at Area 51 in the interim between the former's idea and his reveal to Whitmore and the others, but this isn't explicitly stated.
**
stated. The novelization reveals that modern human computers are essentially reverse engineered from the captured ship.ship.
* PostApocalypticDog: Jasmine Dubrow and her son Dylan have their dog Boomer with them throughout the film, and three of them are amongst the only survivors of the alien attack in LA. A shot of Boomer escaping a car being blown away by the firestorm is one of the film’s iconic images. Boomer makes it to the end of the film where he joins Jasmine and Dylan in welcoming Steve and David back to Earth.
* PostApocalypticTrafficJam: After the City Destroyers take position over major cities around the world, everybody and their dog try their damnedest to evacuate, leading to a scene in which David Levinson and his father Julius are the only people in the lanes heading [[WashingtonDCInvasion towards Washington, D.C.]] while the other half of the highway is loaded with bumper-to-bumper traffic. Jasmine Dubrow and her son are also stuck in a similar traffic jam of people fleeing Los Angeles. A later scene in which the military tries to nuke a City Destroyer flying over Houston has a brief shot of an APC sent to surveil the nuke's effectiveness stopping on an overpass that has the "outgoing" lanes full with empty cars (General Grey mentions to President Whitmore that the city was evacuated hours ago, and that “casualties should be at a minimum” - looks like the people of Houston wasted no time in abandoning their cars and getting out of town).



* ProductPlacement

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* ProductPlacementPreBattleBanter:
** During the briefing before the first attack on one of the invaders' ships, Marine pilots Wilder and Hiller joke around.
--->'''Captain Wilder''': You scared, man?\\
'''Captain Hiller''': No. You?\\
'''Captain Wilder''': No. (mock fear) Hold me!\\
'''Captain Hiller''': Hey, pay attention!
** Later on, when they're at the flight line Captain Wilder continues.
--->'''Captain Wilder''': Let's kick the tires and light the fires, big daddy!\\
'''Captain Wilder''': As the Good Reverend would say: [''switches to Southern preacher voice''] Why we are on this particular mission, we'll never know. But I do know, here today, that the Black Knights will emerge victorious once again.
* PreSacrificeFinalGoodbye: {{Downplayed|Trope}}. The alien ship is about to destroy Area 51 with its primary weapon and all of the attacking jets are out of missiles. Just before pilot Russell Casse performs a kamikaze attack to ram the ship and destroy it, he asks the ground controllers to tell his children that he loves them very much. His son is present in the control room and hears him.
* ProductPlacement:



* QuizzicalTilt: One of the alien invaders tilts their head upon seeing Steven Hiller and David Levinson in one of their ships



* RadarIsUseless
** An [[PlanetSpaceship alien mothership nearly as big as the Moon]] isn't noticed by deep space radar until, in astronomical units, it is within spitting distance of Earth.
** In the sequel ''Film/IndependenceDayResurgence'' it is {{Justified}}, as the Queen's mothership has a CloakingDevice, but there's no indication as to whether the original ship(s) also had them.

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* RadarIsUseless
**
RadarIsUseless: An [[PlanetSpaceship alien mothership nearly as big as the Moon]] isn't noticed by deep space radar until, in astronomical units, it is within spitting distance of Earth.
** In * RammingAlwaysWorks: An F-18 ramming into the sequel ''Film/IndependenceDayResurgence'' it is {{Justified}}, primary weapon of the alien ship just as it's about to fire happens to be precisely what's needed to destroy it. It sort of makes sense, as the Queen's mothership has a CloakingDevice, but there's no indication as to whether alien laser, instead of hitting the original ship(s) also had them.people on the ground, explodes right next to the ship. Also it probably detonated the armed missile still attached to the plane (thanks to a malfunction).



* RepeatingSoTheAudienceCanHear: Early in the film, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff does a variation while in a meeting with the President. After receiving a message by phone from an AWACS pilot investigating one of the newly-arrived [=UFOs=], he turns on the speakerphone and orders the pilot to repeat everything he just said, so the President can get the message first-hand.



* RockyMountainRefuge: Subverted. The very first thing that the U.S. government does once the aliens arrive on July 2 is to send the Vice President and the Joint Chiefs of Staff to Cheyenne Mountain to keep them safe (they also request [[ActionPolitician President Whitmore]] to go, but he refuses). NORAD is then demolished by the aliens on July 3, effectively decapitating the government beside Whitmore. [[note]]In the novelization, the aliens achieved this with swarms of fighters alone rather than with the larger, WaveMotionGun-equipped City Destroyers, highlighting just how powerful their weaponry is. However, [[AllThereInTheManual supplementary materials]] for [[Film/IndependenceDayResurgence the sequel]] suggest that a City Destroyer was used instead.[[/note]] This means that when Area51 detects a City Destroyer moving towards it and Major Mitchell remarks that the base is partially embedded in a mountain, everybody knows [[OhCrap that this is not going to make any difference]].



* ScaryDogmaticAliens: The aliens operate as a HordeOfAlienLocusts, migrating from planet to planet, destroying the native population, and consuming all the resources before moving on, but when diplomacy is attempted with a captured alien, it's shown that they're intelligent enough to understand that other species perceive their genocidal ways as wrong. They just don't care.



** May be justified though as it appears that these aliens have curbstomped the living ''crap'' out of everything they've come across prior to Earth, and nobody else ever came up with the idea, or if they did, never had the sheer balls to try it. As such, electronic counteroffensives by a race who appears to be all but dead in the water probably never occurred to them. Or maybe the idea of deceit is literally an ''alien concept'' for a telepathic species.



* SelfDamagingAttackBackfire: The city destroyers are so named because their main energy weapon is capable of creating a chain reaction effect that can incinerate an entire city in a single shot. However (provided their [[DeflectorShields shields]] are down), any damage to the firing mechanism during the charging sequence will cause the beam to reverse itself and destroy the ship.



* ShatteredWorld: In the beginning, the audience gets to see what appears to be a chunk of a destroyed planet, having its inhabitants wiped out by the Harvesters, just as the Harvester mothership is making her way towards Earth.
* ShortLivedAerialEscape: The First Lady is evacuated from Los Angeles in a helicopter, but doesn't get out of the blast zone in time when the aliens attack.



* SkyConsumingDogfight: There are two dogfighting scenes -- the first where the alien ships are invulnerable due to their shields, and the second at the end where they aren't.
* SleptThroughTheApocalypse: Steven Hiller briefly wakes up to the house shaking and thinks it's an earthquake, only for his wife Jasmine to tell him "not even a four-pointer, go back to sleep." They only find out what it really was when Steven steps outside to grab the morning paper, sees the neighbors packing all their things and getting ready to leave, and ''then'' looking out and seeing the [[MileLongShip city-sized spaceship]] hovering over downtown Los Angeles.



* SnipingTheCockpit: This trope is brought up when Dr. Okun is asked by the president if the alien invaders can be killed. He replies that "Their bodies are just as frail as ours ... You just have to get past their technology, which is, I'm sorry to say, ''far'' more advanced".



* SorryToInterrupt: Somebody walks in on what looks like a pilot proposing to another pilot.



* StandardEstablishingSpaceshipShot: The opening shot of the movie has an alien ship flying over the Moon's Sea of Tranquility[[labelnote:*]]Mare Tranquillitatis[[/labelnote]] about to enter Earth orbit.



* SuperCellReception: The Area 51 scientists attach a radio transmitter to the bottom of the fighter so that they'll be notified once David uploads the virus. It's still able to transmit confirmation despite being deep inside the mothership, which clearly has a thick hull.

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* SuicideAttack: The good guys have an epiphany over the alien ship's weak point, but nobody has any missiles left - save for one, which malfunctions. With no other choice to stop the all-destroying enemy attack, the pilot of the malfunctioning jet pilots it straight in said weak point. Boom go the missile, the jet, the pilot and the gigantic alien ship.
* SuperCellReception: The Area 51 scientists attach a radio transmitter to the bottom of the fighter so that they'll be notified once David uploads the virus. It's still able to transmit confirmation despite being deep inside the mothership, which clearly has a thick hull. hull.
* SuperweaponSurprise: The humans defeat a seemingly unstoppable alien invasion via a computer virus.



* SurprisinglySuperToughThing: The government attempts to nuke one of the alien spaceships. They fail.

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* SurprisinglySuperToughThing: The government attempts US military launches a nuclear missile at a city-sized alien spacecraft. The ship's DeflectorShields repulsed normal missiles from jet fighters earlier, but everyone is truly demoralized when the intense fireball explosion subsides, only to nuke one of reveal that the alien spaceships. They fail.craft hasn't even suffered a single scratch.



* SuspiciouslyAproposMusic: Guess what track is playing when the [[AsianAndNerdy nerdy Asian astronomer]] first detects the transmission of the alien ships? Music/{{REM}}'s "It's the End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)". In an early trailer, the song in this scene is instead "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" by Tears for Fears, also suspiciously apropos.



* TechnologicallyAdvancedFoe: The movie drives the point home early, as TheMothership is said to be [[PlanetSpaceship 1/4th the size of the moon]] and deploys individual craft to cities around the world that are still 15 miles across. In this case, though, it's said that human technological development is heavily based on the {{Area 51}} Roswell alien ship of the same design, so humans find ways to fight back in part because they had developed some familiarity with their technology.



* ThatsAnOrder:

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* ThatsAnOrder:ThatsAnOrder: Capt. Steve Hiller yells this at his subordinate and best friend Jimmy, who has taken his air mask off in the middle of a dogfight with alien fighters. Jimmy is too far gone in gasping panic to obey, and it quickly becomes a moot point when the aliens shoot him down.



* ThatsNoMoon: The alien mothership is mistaken for a meteor until it's discovered that it is slowing down as it approaches Earth.



** Background materials attempt to HandWave this by saying that the attack begins just after midnight on July 3rd. The novelization has David calculating the end of the countdown at 2:32am EST.

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** Background materials attempt to HandWave this by saying that * TrappedInContainment: The alien autopsy scene goes off script when the attack begins just after midnight on July 3rd. The novelization has David calculating the end alien turn out to be only mostly dead and psychically takes control of the countdown at 2:32am EST.poor man in the surgical suite.



* TriumphantReprise: Twice: One where the City Destroyer attacking Area 51 blows up, and another when a montage shows humanity celebrating their survival.



* {{Tuckerization}}: Dr. Okun is named for ([[WriteWhoYouKnow and modeled after]]) Jeffrey Okun, the visual effects supervisor on ''{{Film/Stargate}}'', while Creator/VincentSchiavelli’s character of Dr. Engel is named for the film’s visual effects supervisor Volker Engel.

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* {{Tuckerization}}: Dr. Okun is named for ([[WriteWhoYouKnow for, and modeled after]]) after, Jeffrey Okun, the visual effects supervisor on ''{{Film/Stargate}}'', while Creator/VincentSchiavelli’s character of Dr. Engel is named for the film’s visual effects supervisor Volker Engel.Engel.
* TwoScenesOneDialogue: During the preparation for the final campaign, the various Air Forces of the world lay out the battle plan they've received from the Americans, each scene showing combat planners from each Air Force discussing or briefing the next step of the plan.



* UniversalDriversLicense
** Steve claims that he is aware of the alien fighter capabilities and that makes him the best chance of flying the Roswell ship. Being a pilot he already has a background in adjusting to different control schemes, but the controls seem fairly intuitive using dual joysticks. His first attempt in the cockpit ends with him going in reverse, although the movement directions being labeled wrong by the scientists weren't helpful. Immediately after making that claim David asks him quietly if he really believes he can fly it.

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* UniversalDriversLicense
**
UniversalDriversLicense: Steve claims that he is aware of the alien fighter capabilities and that makes him the best chance of flying the Roswell ship. Being a pilot he already has a background in adjusting to different control schemes, but the controls seem fairly intuitive using dual joysticks. His first attempt in the cockpit ends with him going in reverse, although the movement directions being labeled wrong by the scientists weren't helpful. Immediately after making that claim David asks him quietly if he really believes he can fly it.


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* UnusualChapterNumbers: The movie is divided into "chapters" numbered July 2, July 3 and July 4.


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* VictoriousChorus: Can be heard in the finale as they watch the remains of the mothership falling from the sky.


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* WashingtonDCInvasion: The most famous scene has the aliens destroying the White House, though they were simultaneously attacking many other cities as well.


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* WeWouldHaveToldYouBut: The Secretary of Defense decides not to tell the President of the U.S. about Area 51 (where the alien spaceship is being studied) because of "plausible deniability". It was established in his dealings with his family that the President was a bad liar, and if he had known about Area 51 he wouldn't have been able to effectively lie if questioned about it (e.g. by a reporter).


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* WhenTheClockStrikesTwelve: The Aliens begin their attack at 12 AM July 3rd, 1996


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* WithThisRing: Steve has been carrying around an engagement ring with leaping dolphins for his girlfriend Jasmine. His pal Jimmy hits on the reason Steve hasn't asked yet: the Air Force will not look kindly on his career ambitions because Jasmine is a stripper. Jimmy gets on one knee to encourage his friend to kiss the butt of the brass so they'll overlook it. Cue the rest of the Black Knights walking in on them.


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* WronskiFeint: Steven Hiller uses the canyon ploy to escape from the alien dogfighters. He then uses the actual Wronski Feint on his last pursuer, ejecting and deploying his plane's drag chute, causing both plane and alien fighter to crash. Mostly justified since the chute obscures the alien's sight, and by the time it slides off the alien craft, it's too close to the canyon wall to pull up in time.
* XenomorphXerox: The Harvesters have a biomechanical body with skeletal features and a head-shape resembling that of a Xenomorph Queen.


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* YoureNotMyFather: Right after Russell is arrested for throwing leaflets from his plane, Miguel takes the RV, with the intent of taking his sibling Alicia and Troy and leaving Russell behind in jail. Just then Miguel is surprised to see Russell walking towards him, who goes on to explain that with the impending AlienInvasion, the police had bigger things to worry about. In a deleted scene included in the Extended Edition, Miguel calls him out for being a drunk and tells him that he's not their father, "just a man that married our mother," though Russell reminds him that Troy is his. As the movie progresses, Miguel sees how much Russell actually loves his children, and even feels proud when Major Mitchel tells Miguel "your father was a brave man," after Russell [[spoiler: rams [[HeroicSacrifice his fighter plane into the Invaders' ship's primary weapon, causing it to backfire and destroy the ship.]]]]
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--> '''Whitmore's daughter''': Is Mommy sleeping now?\\
'''Whitmore''': Yeah... Mommy's sleeping.

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--> '''Whitmore's daughter''': '''Patricia:''' Is Mommy sleeping now?\\
'''Whitmore''': '''Whitmore:''' Yeah... Mommy's sleeping.
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** Russell Casse is trying ot earn a living as a crop duster.
** Steve Hiller and Jasmine Dubrow are in bed, hungover, after a night out before having breakfast and getting the paper.

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** Russell Casse is trying ot to earn a living as a crop duster.
** Steve Hiller and Jasmine Dubrow are in bed, hungover, hungover after a night out out, before having breakfast and getting the paper.

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Massive example crosswicking. Also removed natter and word cruft, and rewrote an example that had a very tasteless writeup


* AchillesHeel: [[spoiler:The open bay of an alien saucer's main cannon. Or to be more exact, the volatile plasma within the bay.]]

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* AchillesHeel: AchillesHeel:
**
[[spoiler:The open bay of an alien saucer's main cannon. Or to be more exact, the volatile plasma within the bay.]]



* ActionBomb: Upon realizing that the missiles of his airship are stuck and thus cannot be shot at thealien saucer's WaveMotionGun, Russel Casse performs a HeroicSacrifice by piloting straight at it to prevent the next city destruction. His last words are "Hello boys! I'm baaaaaaack!"



* ActivationSequence: The City Destroyers' main cannon. First, the petal-like doors surrounding it open, bathing the target city in an eerie-calm blue light. As eight pylons approach the central spire, it also unlocks and lowers the firing mechanism, the "Hammer." The pylons begin charging the spire, activating the targeting laser that shines down. Then, the "Hammer" fires an energy pulse which obliterates the target building, and the chain reaction quickly moves outwards to wipe out the target city.



* AdmiringTheAbomination: Dr. Okun can barely contain his enthusiasm for the aliens' technology and anatomy.
-->'''Okum:''' The last twenty-four hours have been really exciting!\\
'''President Whitmore:''' "Exciting"? People are dying out there! I don't think "exciting" is the word I'd choose to describe it!



* AlienAbduction: Russell... or so he claims. The viewer is left to draw their own conclusions about whether or not this was entirely a delusion brought on by alcoholism, war trauma, or just being nuts.
** The novelization has him see the alien downed by [[Creator/WillSmith Captain Hiller]], and think that it's not the same as the ones who abducted him. Then he starts to wonder whether other aliens are visiting Earth, or if it even really happened. The same novelization strongly implies that it ''did'' happen: inside their bio-suits, the invading aliens look exactly like the ones in Russell's memories. There was a [[Creator/{{MarvelComics}} Marvel]] comic book that shows several events from the earlier lives of the characters, as a sort of "prequel". Russell is clearly shown to be abducted by the invaders.
* AlienAutopsy: Dr. Okun and his colleagues at {{Area 51}} try to surgically extract the unconscious alien brought to them by Steven Hiller from its organic suit. [[spoiler:Unfortunately, [[OhCrap it wakes up before they finish.]]]] Three others are said to have been autopsied after [[RoswellThatEndsWell the Roswell crash]]; their remains are kept on display.

to:

* AlienAbduction: Russell... or so he claims. The viewer is left to draw their own conclusions about whether or not this was entirely a delusion brought on by alcoholism, war trauma, or just being nuts.
**
nuts. The novelization has him see the alien downed by [[Creator/WillSmith Captain Hiller]], and think that it's not the same as the ones who abducted him. Then he starts to wonder whether other aliens are visiting Earth, or if it even really happened. The same novelization strongly implies that it ''did'' happen: inside their bio-suits, the invading aliens look exactly like the ones in Russell's memories. There was a [[Creator/{{MarvelComics}} Marvel]] comic book that shows several events from the earlier lives of the characters, as a sort of "prequel". Russell is clearly shown to be abducted by the invaders.
* AlienAutopsy: Dr. Okun and his colleagues at {{Area 51}} Area51 try to surgically extract the unconscious alien brought to them by Steven Hiller from its organic suit. [[spoiler:Unfortunately, [[OhCrap it wakes up before they finish.]]]] Three others are said to have been autopsied after [[RoswellThatEndsWell the Roswell crash]]; their remains are kept on display.display.
* AlienInvasion: The aliens send several massive ships over major cities. They then use powerful WaveMotionGun to destroy the cities. They later launch assault with fighter craft to attack the human military attempting to fight back.
* AliensNeverInventedDemocracy: The movie doesn't offer much detail about the society of the invading aliens.
* AliensNeverInventedTheWheel: The aliens have superior technology in many respects, but their actual computer technology lacks any sort of safety protocols to prevent intrusion. A lone man with a laptop is able to hack into the network of the mothership, and by proxy, the entire fleet, shutting down their shields. It's often theorized that the aliens are some sort of a HiveMind who've never encountered any other species with computers, and thus were unfamiliar with the idea of malware (the movie's distant sequel debunks this, however).
* AliensSpeakingEnglish: A notable aversion. The Harvesters do ''not'' speak our language. They communicate with the characters through telepathy.
* AllIsWellThatEndsWell: The kids of the drunkard who crashes his plane into the soft spot of the alien mother ship are pretty sad because their dad just died only to be all "Hooray!" when Bill Pullman tells them "All their base are belong to us! The good guys win! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!". However, the oldest child does appear to be more solemn than anyone else when a serviceman tells him "What your father did was very brave. You should be proud." And the teenager informs him "[[SoProudOfYou I am]]."



* AllYourBaseAreBelongToUs: The aliens take out every major military base in the second day of their invasion, including NATO's headquarters; the president then assumes command and control in Area51, which is a safe haven because of its top-secret nature.



*** When the original ending was scrapped, a brief segment was added to the news bulletin of his arrest to indicate that he was a pilot in Vietnam.



* AmericaSavesTheDay: The plan to save the world was conceived by the American characters at Area 51, then broadcast via Morse code to the rest of the world. It's a JustifiedTrope, considering Area 51 is portrayed in the film as harboring a recovered scout craft used by the very alien race invading -- implying that the U.S. has had decades to study them for forty years prior. Without that ace up its sleeve, the United States was as helpless as everyone else.
** Notably, the Independence Day UK radio play had the British military specifically refer to this trope after they manage to deal a decisive blow to the aliens in their part of the world.

to:

* AmericaSavesTheDay: The plan to save the world was conceived by the American characters at Area 51, then broadcast via Morse code to the rest of the world. It's a JustifiedTrope, considering Area 51 is portrayed in the film as harboring a recovered scout craft used by the very alien race invading -- implying that the U.S. has had decades to study them for forty years prior. Without that ace up its sleeve, the United States was as helpless as everyone else.
**
else. Notably, the Independence Day UK radio play had the British military specifically refer to this trope after they manage to deal a decisive blow to the aliens in their part of the world.



* ApocalypticMontage: A catastrophic showcase of destruction is seen when the aliens use their {{Kill Sat}}s on the major cities.



* {{Area 51}}: Really is the site of a crash-landed flying saucer. More accurately, the crash took place in Roswell, New Mexico, and the remains of the saucer -- and its crew -- were brought to Area 51.
* ArtisticLicense

to:

* {{Area 51}}: Really is Area51: Unbeknownst to the site president for reasons of PlausibleDeniability. He begins to reassure a crash-landed flying saucer. More accurately, conspiracy theorist that the crash took place in Roswell, New Mexico, government has never captured a UFO and really had no idea an invasion was coming, only to be told by his Secretary of Defense that "that's not entirely accurate". The film actually lost its support from the remains Pentagon because of this since the official policy of the saucer -- and its crew -- were brought to U.S. military is that there are no aliens at Area 51.
51 and there never have been.
* ArtisticLicenseArtisticLicense:



* ArtisticLicenseGeography

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* ArtisticLicenseGeographyArtisticLicenseGeography:



* ArtisticLicenseGunSafety

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* ArtisticLicenseGunSafetyArtisticLicenseGunSafety:



* ArtisticLicenseMilitary

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* ArtisticLicenseMilitaryArtisticLicenseMilitary:



* ArtisticLicensePhysics

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* ArtisticLicensePhysicsArtisticLicensePhysics:



* AsYouKnow

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* AsYouKnowAsYouKnow:



* BackInTheSaddle: President Whitmore, getting back in the cockpit to rally the surviving military forces after they have been on the wrong side of a CurbStompBattle in order to SaveTheWorld. Foreshadowed earlier in the film with discussion that he was elected as the youthful war hero, only to be seen as being too young to be an effective politician. Quite a few of the other pilots were long-since retired, including Russell, who hadn't flown a military jet since the UsefulNotes/VietnamWar.



* BadassBoast: During Whitmore's RousingSpeech.

to:

* %%* BadassBoast: During Whitmore's RousingSpeech.RousingSpeech.
* BehindTheBlack: Steve walks out the front door, picks up the paper, reads it, looks to the neighbors to his left and right packing up, then when a helicopter flies overhead he sees the giant flying saucer that's been in front of him the whole time. You'd think it'd be the first thing he saw when he opened the door. To make things worse, Jasmine makes the same mistake, not noticing it until she sees he's staring at it. Justified since Steve was looking down most of the time, first just sleepily then after tripping over a toy left in the sidewalk. Jasmine was bringing Steve a brimming cup of coffee, so was likely watching that to make sure she didn't spill. The enormous size of the spaceship might have contributed. Not looking at it, sleepy, concentrating on other things ... big dark thing hanging over the city in the distance = "dark cloud".



** Then again, given the fact that Steve earlier laid out one of the bio-suited aliens with just one punch...



* BombersOnTheScreen: There are shots of this interspersed with action shots to drive home the scale of the aliens' attack across the world (and by "world" we mean the continental United States).



* BottomlessMagazines: Subverted with the fighter jets running out of missiles, as it seems like they won't have anything else to attack with. But then the pilots "plough the road" with a seemingly endless supply of bullets from their Gatling cannons. In real life, fighter jets carry enough rounds for less than ten seconds of continuous fire.



* CameFromTheSky: Area 51 conceals a repaired attacker and three alien bodies recovered from Roswell in 1947. A fresh one also gets shot down.



* CapsLockNumLockMissilesLock: A brief case played for laughs when Russell Casse hops in an F-18 fighter jet. He flew military jets in Vietnam, and has been flying a crop duster ever since, and has been given a crash-course in modern military jets, but the first button he presses activates the "Missile Launch". Fortunately, he manages to find the off switch before any missiles actually launch.
-->'''Russell:''' I picked a helluva day to quit drinkin'...



* ChessMotifs: David Levinson is a [[SmartPeoplePlayChess chess player]]. He constantly uses chess analogies to describe the alien invasion.
--> "Checkmate!"



* CollapsingLair: The mothership at the film's climax.

to:

* CollapsingLair: CollapsingLair: The mothership at destruction of the film's climax.enemy mothership, with a [[TimeBomb tactical nuclear missile with a 30 second timer]].
* CombatTentacles: The aliens are a version of TheGreys encased in an exoskeleton with numerous tentacles used for offense.



* CrowdPanic: People are temporarily in awe as they see one of the alien spaceships approaching New York, but once it parks itself over the city, everyone breaks out into a panic to get out while they can.

to:

* CrowdPanic: People are temporarily in awe as they see one of at seeing the alien spaceships approaching New York, but ships arriving. Then once it parks one of them starts to park itself over the city, everyone breaks New York City, they break out into a panic to get out while they can.can.
-->'''President Whitmore:''' If you feel compelled to leave these cities, please do so in an orderly fashion.\\
''([[GilliganCut Cut to people desperately trying to get out of New York]])''



* DangerousWindows: Subverted in ''Film/IndependenceDay'': the monster smashes into the window but it doesn't break. And then promptly Inverted when Grey comes up with an idea to get rid of the threat.
-->'''General William Grey:''' Is that glass bullet-proof?\\
'''Major Mitchell:''' No, sir!
* DangerTakesABackseat: Strangely averted. Steven drives across the desert with an unconscious alien in the back of his truck. He brings it to the secret lab without incident. Very unexpected.



* DEFCONFive: Averted. President Whitmore considers upgrading to DEFCON 3 but we are not told from where.
* DeflectorShields: At least half of the film is spent trying to figure out how to get around the alien ship's deflector shields with the technology the humans have.

to:

* DEFCONFive: DefconFive: Averted. President Whitmore considers upgrading to DEFCON 3 but we are not told from where.
* DefensiveFailure: A rare good-guy/good-guy example occurs as Major Steven Hiller is climbing into a helicopter to go look for his girlfriend:
-->'''NCO:''' Hey, what the hell you doing? ''[draws pistol, points it at Hiller]'' Get out of there, sir.\\
'''Hiller:''' Something I gotta do. I'm just gonna borrow it for a while.\\
'''NCO:''' No you're not, sir.\\
'''Hiller:''' You really gonna shoot me? ''[NCO hesitates, and then lowers the gun]''\\
'''Hiller:''' Just tell 'em I hit you. ''[the (rather large) NCO looks insulted as Hiller takes off]''
* DeflectorShields: At least half of The invading alien armada have energy shields so potent they can shrug off [[NukeEm nuclear weapons]] without a scratch. Humanity ultimately wins by uploading a computer virus to the film is spent trying to figure out how to get around mothership that disables the shields, then nuking the mothership before they can correct the problem. Without the shields, the alien ship's deflector shields fighters are more or less on par with if not worse than the technology the humans have.human fighters, although by that point they have a numbers advantage due to repeated [[CurbStompBattle one sided battles]].



* DesperationAttack: After the [[AlienInvasion Invaders]] destroyed 36 cities across the world, we see the President of the United States order airstrikes on the ships that leveled Los Angeles, New York City, and Washington. Within the span of about one hour, what was supposed to be the opening phase of a counterattack, ends in failure as, thanks to the Invaders' DeflectorShields, [[CurbStompBattle every aircraft sent up to meet them were shot down]], and [[SittingDuck their bases were destroyed]]. Citing this failure, the Secretary of Defense levies the possibility of using nuclear weapons, but the president is against the idea. Hours later, after a captured pilot [[MindRape forces its way into the lead scientist's mind]] and reveals their ultimate plan [[PlanetLooters to conquer earth, kill every living thing, and take every natural resource for themselves]], [[GodzillaThreshold the president finally agrees to use nuclear weapons]]. When a nuclear missile is launched at the ship hovering above Houston, Texas, the president and his staff are ecstatic to see the detonation. Unfortunately, the ship's shield saves it, and the president orders every aircraft with a nuclear payload to abort the mission.



** The only way this could even remotely have been possible is if the nuke set off some kind of [[DisasterDominoes chain reaction]] in the alien mothership's own [[MadeOfExplodium interstellar drive/fuel store/ammunition depot]], as when a [[Film/PearlHarbor single fighter-carried bomb]] [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII detonates an entire battleship or carrier.]] Even [[spoiler:Steve Hiller and David Levinson]] weren't expecting this to happen; [[OhCrap the looks on their faces]] when the mothership blew up in a [[ImpressivePyrotechnics spectacular]] Creator/MichaelBay [[ImpressivePyrotechnics fashion]] is telling. The nuke was meant to cripple the mothership to buy time, not to destroy the whole shebang.



* DisconnectedByDeath: An Air Force AWACS jet goes out to recon the alien ships. The pilot is so horrified by the sight of the fireball as the ship enters the atmosphere that he doesn't pull up and away in time. Back at the White House, the military officer bangs fruitlessly on the phone button before he realizes that the connection was lost because the recon plane was.

to:

* DisconnectedByDeath: DisconnectedByDeath:
**
An Air Force AWACS jet goes out to recon the alien ships. The pilot is so horrified by the sight of the fireball as the ship enters the atmosphere that he doesn't pull up and away in time. Back at the White House, the military officer bangs fruitlessly on the phone button before he realizes that the connection was lost because the recon plane was.



* DivorceIsTemporary: David and Connie had been divorced for three years prior to the events of the film. Despite that, he refuses to take off his wedding band.

to:

* DivorceIsTemporary: David realizes the aliens are planning to attack. He enlists his father to drive him from New York City to Washington, DC so he can warn the president. David's ex-wife Constance happens to be the president's aide. By the end of the film, David is a hero who's helped saved the world, and he and Connie had been divorced for three years prior are on the road to reconciliation.
* DoesThatSoundLikeFunToYou: The president delivers one
to the events head scientist of Area51 when the film. Despite that, latter comments that the last 24 hours have been really exciting. The president doesn't believe the destruction of every major American city and the deaths of millions of people world-wide is "exciting". Subverted in that the scientist wasn't referring to the destruction, he refuses was referring to take off his wedding band.the alien space ship in their custody acting up.






* DyingDeclarationOfLove: The movie toys with the "don't want to die a virgin" variant twice. In the first instance, after the alien ship appears over Los Angeles, teenaged Alicia Casse's then-boyfriend tries using "Do you want to die a virgin?" to persuade her to have sex with him, but is foiled by the arrival of her older brother. Later in the film, Alicia herself tells another boy that she doesn't want to die a virgin, to which he replies something to the effect of "We'll both die as virgins together." The latter scene, however, only made it into the Special Edition DVD version of the film.



* EarthIsTheCenterOfTheUniverse: The supposedly unstoppable race of alien invaders that has conquered dozens of worlds meets its match in Steven Hiller, David Levinson, and a laptop computer.



* ElaborateUndergroundBase: Area 51 appears to be a small, unassuming Air Force base in the Nevada desert. 25 stories underground it is a sprawling research base containing a recovered UFO and the corpses of its crew.



* EvilLawyerJoke: When Marty Gilbert finds out the aliens are about to attack, he quickly worries about who he needs to warn.
-->'''Marty Gilbert:''' A countdown... wait, a countdown to what David?\\
'''David Levinson:''' [[ChessMotifs It's like in chess:]] First, you strategically position your pieces and when the timing is right you strike. They're using this signal to synchronize their efforts and in 5 hours the countdown will be over.\\
'''Marty:''' And then what?\\
'''David:''' ''Checkmate''.\\
'''Marty:''' [[OhCrap Oh, my God.]] I gotta call my brother, my housekeeper, my lawyer. Nah, forget my lawyer.



* ExposedExtraterrestrials: Subverted. What initially looks like naked aliens is later established to be some type of environmental/combat suit. Under the suit they're naked.



* FacePalm

to:

* FacePalmFacePalm:



* FallingIntoTheCockpit:
** Civilian pilots are recruited and given a few hours of lectures before taking to the sky in modern fighter jets without any actual flight simulations and manage to help win a battle against the aliens. Although Russell Case at least is noted as being a Vietnam veteran and thus has ''some'' relevant experience, although the scene switches before the Air Force officer who's appraising the volunteers can ask for further details.
** Steven pilots the crashed UFO to dock with the mothership. Despite not knowing about aliens until two days prior, he defends himself as the best choice because he's "seen these things in action" and therefore knows of their maneuvering capabilities. But that's more experience than anybody else has, because he's the only member of his squadron to not only survive the first engagement but successfully force one down, so he gets the gig.



* FatalFamilyPhoto: [[spoiler:Russell, maybe if you hadn't put that photo in your plane, you might have survived to see the end credits.]]

to:

* FatalFamilyPhoto: [[spoiler:Russell, maybe if you hadn't put that photo in your plane, you might have survived to see As Russell Casse is flying underneath the end credits.invader's ship, [[spoiler:he looks at a picture of his three children in the cockpit just before he performs a HeroicSacrifice by flying his jet into the ship's primary weapon and destroying it.]]



* FinalSolution: What the Aliens have in store for us. President Whitmore's MindRape by a captive Alien reveals that this isn't the ''first'' time they've done this, either; before arriving on Earth, the Aliens had already invaded, exterminated, colonized, and plundered countless other worlds.
* FingerInABarrel: One City Destroyer charges its main gun and Casse finds his missiles malfunctioning. In a HeroicSacrifice, he flies his plane right into the firing port, causing the energy blast to explode prematurely and sending the whole ship crashing down.



*** The enmity between Whitmore and David is only mentioned briefly during their first scene together, then immediately discarded and never mentioned again once Whitmore learns that David has vital information about the aliens. They are never shown to have any issues trusting each other and working together as both men clearly recognize that the threat posed by the hostile aliens is a much bigger and more pressing concern than their personal baggage with each other.



* FourStarBadass: General Grey, in contrast to the weaselly, ass-covering Secretary of Defense Nimziki. Honestly, Grey is the only person in the government who manages to keep a cool head throughout the crisis, besides President Whitmore, who himself is a badass from the Gulf War. It's really no surprise that in the movie's second act -- by which point the Vice President has been killed off-screen by the alien invaders -- General Grey becomes the President's de facto second-in-command and closest adviser. It's likely that in the movie's universe, General Grey emerges from the crisis with a George Marshall or Dwight Eisenhower-like level of respect, and it's likely that he's either going to be Whitmore's new VP or Secretary of Defense... and the most likely candidate to be Whitmore's immediate successor once his term of office is up.
** Spinoff material and the sequel reveal that [[spoiler: Whitmore appointed him National Recovery Director, and then convinced him to run in his place in the 2000 election due to his own declining health. Grey ran against ''Nimziki'' of all people, and handily won the election.]]

to:

* FourLinesAllWaiting: The movie starts following David in New York, President Whitmore in Washington, and Russell and Captain Hiller in Los Angeles. After the aliens begin their attack, we get Jasmine looking for survivors in LA. The plot points start to converge about halfway through the film, as the survivors start arriving at Area 51.
* FourStarBadass: General Grey, in contrast to the weaselly, ass-covering Secretary of Defense Nimziki. Honestly, Grey is the only person in the government who manages to keep a cool head throughout the crisis, besides President Whitmore, who himself is a badass from the Gulf War. It's really no surprise that in the movie's second act -- by which point the Vice President has been killed off-screen by the alien invaders -- General Grey becomes the President's de facto second-in-command and closest adviser. It's likely that in the movie's universe, General Grey emerges from the crisis with a George Marshall or Dwight Eisenhower-like level of respect, and it's likely that he's either going to be Whitmore's new VP or Secretary of Defense... and the most likely candidate to be Whitmore's immediate successor once his term of office is up.
**
up. Spinoff material and the sequel reveal that [[spoiler: Whitmore [[spoiler:Whitmore appointed him National Recovery Director, and then convinced him to run in his place in the 2000 election due to his own declining health. Grey ran against ''Nimziki'' of all people, and handily won the election.]]



* GenericDoomsdayVillain: The invading aliens only barely manage to avoid completely falling into this trope. Only one attempt at diplomacy is managed, which ends in failure and the revelation that they're simply a race of AlwaysChaoticEvil PlanetLooters comparable to locusts.



* GoodSmokingEvilSmoking: Steve only smokes cigars at the end of any aerial dogfight he wins, because he's the hero. David, on the other hand, spends the whole movie as an over the top green type. He berated his father for smoking cigarettes. But after he and Steve have saved the world (and they light up Victory Cigars together), he cheerfully tells his father, "Oh, I could get used to it."



* HeDidntMakeIt: Marilyn Whitmore, the President's wife and the First Lady, passes away after being unable to resist the wounds of a helicopter crash. The President is unable to explicitly tell his daughter that her mom died, so he relies on a poorly.disguised euphemism:
--> '''Whitmore's daughter''': Is Mommy sleeping now?\\
'''Whitmore''': Yeah... Mommy's sleeping.



* HemisphereBias: Most of the City Destroyers are concentrated in the Northern Hemisphere, because the aliens were initially targeting the Earth's major military-industrial nation-states (i.e. NATO, Russia, and China). Near the beginning of the invasion a news headline is briefly seen that says "Southern Hemisphere Unaffected", but it also says only 10-15 City Destroyers have been observed: the eventual total is 36 ships. By the end we do see crashed [=UFOs=] in Sydney and right against Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.
** The [[http://www.warof1996.com War of 1996]] website for ''Resurgence'' contained a map with a full list of the nearly 100 cities destroyed. The first film briefly alluded that the aliens planned out the follow-up second and third waves of their attacks, each wave and city bombardments happening roughly every twelve hours: they managed to stop the fourth wave just before it happened.

to:

* HemisphereBias: HemisphereBias:
**
Most of the City Destroyers are concentrated in the Northern Hemisphere, because the aliens were initially targeting the Earth's major military-industrial nation-states (i.e. NATO, Russia, and China). Near the beginning of the invasion a news headline is briefly seen that says "Southern Hemisphere Unaffected", but it also says only 10-15 City Destroyers have been observed: the eventual total is 36 ships. By the end we do see crashed [=UFOs=] in Sydney and right against Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.
**
Tanzania. The [[http://www.warof1996.com War of 1996]] website for ''Resurgence'' contained a map with a full list of the nearly 100 cities destroyed. The first film briefly alluded that the aliens planned out the follow-up second and third waves of their attacks, each wave and city bombardments happening roughly every twelve hours: they managed to stop the fourth wave just before it happened.



** The aliens only sent ''four'' out of 36 City Destroyers to the southern hemisphere in the first wave: one to South America (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil); two to Africa (Dakar, Senegal and Lagos, Nigeria); and a fourth to Jakarta, Indonesia (strictly going by the "equator"; north of that they sent three more to Singapore, Manilla, and Ho Chi Minch City). Australia wasn't in the first two waves at all, simply because it's so far away from other population centers, and similarly South Africa wasn't slated to be hit until the fourth wave. The Rio destroyer proceeded to hit São Paulo and Buenos Aires; the Dakar destroyer went on to hit the Ivory Coast and Congo, while the Lagos destroyer went on to hit Addis Ababa (in Ethiopia) and Nairobi (in Kenya). In the third wave one of the destroyers from India went around the rim of the Indian Ocean to hit Mogadishu, and one of the destroyers in Indonesia went south to hit Perth. Cape Town and Sydney were the next targets but they were stopped in time.
* HeroicBSOD

to:

** The aliens only sent ''four'' out of 36 City Destroyers to the southern hemisphere in the first wave: one to South America (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil); two to Africa (Dakar, Senegal and Lagos, Nigeria); and a fourth to Jakarta, Indonesia (strictly going by the "equator"; north of that they sent three more to Singapore, Manilla, and Ho Chi Minch City). Australia wasn't in the first two waves at all, simply because it's so far away from other population centers, and similarly South Africa wasn't slated to be hit until the fourth wave. The Rio destroyer proceeded to hit São Paulo and Buenos Aires; the Dakar destroyer went on to hit the Ivory Coast and Congo, while the Lagos destroyer went on to hit Addis Ababa (in Ethiopia) and Nairobi (in Kenya). In the third wave one of the destroyers from India went around the rim of the Indian Ocean to hit Mogadishu, and one of the destroyers in Indonesia went south to hit Perth. Cape Town and Sydney were the next targets but they were stopped in time.
* HeroicBSODHeroicBSOD:



* HiroshimaAsAUnitOfMeasure: When describing the mass of the alien mothership, it's said to be "a quarter the size of the moon."



* HollywoodHacking: With extra bonus points for [[PlugNPlayTechnology hacking into an alien computer]], and figuring out its display well enough to send [[HackedByAPirate a laughing skull and crossbones]] to the invaders. The {{novelization}} and {{deleted scene}}s imply that Apple computers (among other things) were [[ETGaveUsWiFi derived from alien technology]].



* HopeSpringsEternal: Most of the major cities on Planet Earth have been wiped out, and all attempts at attacking the aliens have failed so far. But there are still planes, and pilots to fly them. And besides, it's the Fourth of July!



* HordeOfAlienLocusts: The invading aliens are a mix of these and PlanetLooters. President Whitmore even explicitly compares them to locusts after a brief telepathic connection to one.



* ImprobableCover: Every time there's an explosion that the heroes escape, they do so by this trope.
** The most blatant is the tunnel one: Jasmine, Dylan and Boomer hiding in a maintenance room inside the tunnel could be plausible... [[ArtisticLicensePhysics if not for the door that remains open with a wall of fire running through and somehow not entering the room]].

to:

* ImmuneToBullets: The aliens' ships are this thanks to their shields. Heck, they're ''nuclear weapon''-proof. The aliens themsevles, however, aren't.
* ImprobableCover: Every time there's an explosion that the heroes escape, they do so by this trope.
**
trope. The most blatant is the tunnel one: Jasmine, Dylan and Boomer hiding in a maintenance room inside the tunnel could be plausible... [[ArtisticLicensePhysics if not for the door that remains open with a wall of fire running through and somehow not entering the room]].room]].
* ImprobablePilotingSkills:
** Steven Hiller gets an If it flies with the alien space craft. [[SubvertedTrope Then he crashes]].
** The President orders anybody with piloting experience to fly F/A-18 Hornet fighters in the battle over Area 51. This includes a crop duster pilot.



* InscrutableAliens: The aliens just show up and blow up cities, the only time they communicate with humans is when one is taken prisoner and takes telepathic control of a scientist in order to demand its release.
--> ''Peace? '''No peace'''.''



** Likewise, Captain Hiller's F/A-18 experience somehow enables him to learn how to fly an alien spacecraft in a few hours.

to:

** Likewise, Captain Hiller's F/A-18 experience somehow enables him to learn how to fly an alien spacecraft in a few hours.hours.
* InterruptedCooldownHug: An amusing part happens where a news report is specifically warning citizens not to do this. Not that it helps...



* KeystoneArmy: The Mothership for the aliens. All their power and shield energy, not to mention coordination, originates from the ship. Once David uploads his virus, all alien craft lose their shields, and the novelization confirms that once it's destroyed, they also lose their power, hence the 34 remaining City Destroyers plummet to the ground.

to:

* KeystoneArmy: The Mothership for the aliens. All their power and shield energy, not to mention plus coordination, originates from the ship. Once David uploads his virus, all alien craft lose their shields, and the novelization confirms that once it's destroyed, they also lose their power, hence the 34 remaining City Destroyers plummet to the ground.ground.
* KillAllHumans: President Whitmore is talking to one of the aliens that are destroying earth's cities and killing humans. He tries to find out if there is a way to negotiate a peace:
-->'''Whitmore:''' ''[to alien]'' What do you want us to do?\\
'''Alien:''' Die. ''[alien proceeds to try to kill Whitmore by telepathic overload]''



* LastDayOfNormalcy: As July 2 starts, we see an ordinary day for several of the characters before the aliens arrive...
** David Levinson plays chess with his father, then goes to work where the satellite systems have gone down.
** Russell Casse is trying ot earn a living as a crop duster.
** Steve Hiller and Jasmine Dubrow are in bed, hungover, after a night out before having breakfast and getting the paper.



* LastWishMarriage: Just before Steven Hiller goes on his incredibly dangerous mission to implant the computer virus in the alien mothership, he finally marries his girlfriend.



* LimitedWindowOfVulnerability: The computer virus that lowered the alien ships' shields can only work for approximately fifteen minutes.



* ARareSentence: A BBC radio tie-in, which was basically ElsewhereFic combined with a ''Radio/TheWarOfTheWorlds'' homage, featured the following exchange:
--> '''RAF officer:''' Either I'm concussed or I'm watching Creator/PatrickMoore fist-fighting with an extra-terrestrial.\\
'''A Radio 1 disk jockey:''' No, that really is happening.\\
'''RAF Officer:''' Oh. Now there's something you don't see every day



** Not to mention that only Steve Hiller, a serviceman who survived a battle with the aliens, is allowed into the top secret research facility. The Casse family and the other refugees stay on the surface, until the base comes under attack and they're put in the secure laboratories.

to:

** Not to mention that only Only Steve Hiller, a serviceman who survived a battle with the aliens, is allowed into the top secret research facility. The Casse family and the other refugees stay on the surface, until the base comes under attack and they're put in the secure laboratories.
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** May be justified though as it appears that these aliens have curbstomped the living ''crap'' out of everything they've come across prior to Earth, and nobody else ever came up with the idea, or if they did, never had the sheer balls to try it. As such, electronic counteroffensives by a race who appears to be all but dead in the water probably never occurred to them.

to:

** May be justified though as it appears that these aliens have curbstomped the living ''crap'' out of everything they've come across prior to Earth, and nobody else ever came up with the idea, or if they did, never had the sheer balls to try it. As such, electronic counteroffensives by a race who appears to be all but dead in the water probably never occurred to them. Or maybe the idea of deceit is literally an ''alien concept'' for a telepathic species.



** Steve and David fly a 50-year old captured alien spacefighter to the alien mothership in orbit. The mothership allows the craft to land without attempting to contact the crew on board or determine what mission they were returning from. They also don't send anyone to meet with the crew once it docks.

to:

** Steve and David fly a 50-year old captured alien spacefighter to the alien mothership in orbit. The mothership allows the craft to land without attempting to contact the crew on board or determine what mission they were returning from. They also don't send anyone to meet with the crew once it docks.docks, and only eventually get suspicious enough to get some craft into a firing position past the point where the virus has been uploaded..



** Jimmy goes into a panic when he can't shake his bogey and tries to outrun it on pure velocity, even though all it does is make him a steady target, locks up his ship, and causes him to run short on oxygen even with an [=O2=] mask on. Lampshaded by Steve.

to:

** Jimmy goes into a panic when he can't shake his bogey and tries to outrun it on pure velocity, even though all it does is make him a steady target, locks up his ship, and causes him to run short on oxygen even with an [=O2=] mask on.on, and then ''takes his mask off to get even less oxygen still''. Lampshaded by Steve.

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