History Trivia / IndependenceDay

** Will Smith's "AND WHAT THE HELL IS THAT SMELL?!" line while ranting about having to drag an unconscious alien through the desert in his parachute when he could have had a day off for the Fourth of July was not in the original script: the desert setting that they were filming in was actually the salt flats near Great Salt Lake in Utah. Great Salt Lake is home to brine shrimp. When they die, the bodies sink to the bottom of the lake (which isn't very deep) and decompose. When the wind kicks up just right, the bottom mud is disturbed and the smell of millions of decaying brine shrimp can be very very bad. Apparently, nobody warned Will Smith. (Roland Emmerich also said that he would have loved to let Smith improvise how much as he could, given how hilarious the scene turned out)

** [[ArrestedDevelopment Ann("Her?")]] is the president's daughter.

* SpiritualSuccessor: To ''{{Film/Stargate}}''.

** The MadScientist with the really [[EinsteinHair wild, unkempt]] haircut working at Area 51 who winds up [[spoiler: dead and MindRape 'd]] by one of the downed aliens is none other than [[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration Data]] and [[ConanOBrien Conan]] [[WesternAnimation/SouthParkBiggerLongerAndUncut O 'Brien]].

* HeyItsThatGuy: Ross Bagley who played the character Dylan Dubrow, who also worked with Will Smith as his cousin Nicky on the FreshPrinceOfBelAir... [[TheLittleRascal That Little Rascal!!!]]

* HeyItsThatGuy: Ross Bagley who played the character Dylan Dubrow, who also worked with Will Smith as his cousin Nicky on the FreshPrinceOfBelAir.

** [[MrsDoubtfire Mrs. Doubtfire's]] brother is killed by the aliens while his eldest daughter survives.

** [[Spaceballs Lone Starr]] is the President.

** [[ArrestedDevelopment Ann("Her?")]] is the president's daughter.

* RetroactiveRecognition: The President's wife is... well... [[Series/BattlestarGalacticaReimagined the President.]]

** The First Lady later appears as the President-dying-of-cancer in ''Series/BattlestarGalacticaReimagined''. Maybe someday she'll play a character who doesn't die.

* HeyItsThatGuy: Ross Bagley who played the character Dylan Dubrow, who also worked with Will Smith as his cousin Nicky on the FreshPrinceofBelAir.

* DevelopmentHell: Two sequels to the film have been planned for several years, yet they still have yet to enter production.

* TropeNamer: For YouDontWantToDieAVirginDoYou

** The MadScientist with the really [[EinsteinHair wild, unkempt]] haircut working at Area 51 who winds up [[spoiler: dead and MindRape 'd]] by one of the downed aliens is none other than [[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration Data]] and [[ConanOBrien Conan]] [[SouthParkBiggerLongerAndUncut O 'Brien]].

** The MadScientist with the really [[EinsteinHair wild, unkempt]] haircut working at Area 51 who winds up [[spoiler: dead and MindRape 'd]] by one of the downed aliens is none other than [[StarTrekTheNextGeneration Data]] and [[ConanOBrien Conan]] [[SouthParkBiggerLongerAndUncut O 'Brien]].

** As usual, most of JeffGoldblum's dialogue was improv.

* DeletedScene: A deleted scene early in the movie had David explaining exactly how our satellites were being hijacked by the aliens. At the end of the scene, Harvey Fierstein's character planted an (ad-libbed) kiss on David. Ironically, it was [[StraightGay Roland Emmerich]] himself who decided to cut the scene, lest he incur the wrath of the [[MoralGuardians MPAA]]. And the kiss in question was at best a platonic kiss, so it wasn't even that close to potentially upsetting the MPAA, especially seeing how [[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons another thing that Fierstein was in]] got away with a similar male-male kiss without it being censored.

* HeyItsThatGuy: Ross Bagley who played the character Dylan Dubrow, who also worked with Will Smith in the FreshPrinceofBelAir.

** Will Smith's "AND WHAT THE HELL IS THAT SMELL?!" line while ranting about having to drag an unconscious alien through the desert in his parachute when he could have had a day off for the Fourth of July was not in the original script: the desert setting that they were filming in was actually the salt flats near Great Salt Lake in Utah. Great Salt Lake is home to brine shrimp. When they die, the bodies sink to the bottom of the lake (which isn't very deep) and decompose. When the wind kicks up just right, the bottom mud is disturbed and the smell of millions of decaying brine shrimp can be very very bad. Apparently, nobody warned Will Smith.

* RetroactiveRecognition: The President's wife is... well... [[BattlestarGalacticaReimagined the President.]]

* TropeNamer for: YouDontWantToDieAVirginDoYou

* RetroactiveRecognition: The President's wife is... well... [[BattlestarGalacticaReimagined the President.]]

* MeaningfulReleaseDate: It was originally scheduled for release on July 3; public anticipation did lead to some showings on the 2nd, however.