History YMMV / IndependenceDay

* OneSceneWonder: The RAF pilo were a good joke for British audiences: "The Americans are planning a counter-strike!" "Well, it's about bloody time!" Tally-ho, chaps!

** “Welcome to Earth!”, which is often mistakenly said as [[{{Mondegreen}} “Welcome to Earf!”]].

* InferredHolocaust: With most of the world's major population centers blown up and massive chunks of alien debris crushing landmasses and plunging into the ocean (no doubt creating tidal waves), the world does not look positive in the wake of the attack. Then again, since the alternative was total annihilation, there's only so much room to complain.

* MoralEventHorizon: The aliens' blowing up several cities at once is terrible, but what truly cements the aliens' status as unforgivable, especially in-universe, is when the captive alien reveals that they want to annihilate humanity, and they have done this to countless other worlds in order to steal their resources. Simply put, they're PlanetLooters!

* OneSceneWonder: The RAF pilots were a good joke for British audiences: "The Americans are planning a counter-strike!" "Well, it's about bloody time!" Tally-ho, chaps!

** The President's wife is... well... [[Series/BattlestarGalactica2003 the President.]] Except here, instead of dying of incurable cancer, she's dying of incurable injuries.

** “Welcome to earth!”, which is often mistakenly said as [[{{Mondegreen}} “Welcome to earf!”]].

* SpiritualAdaptation: [=ID4=] follows a very similar plot structure to that of ''Literature/TheWarOfTheWorlds'', including an unstoppable alien force invades Earth to strip it of its resources, the protagonist spends the majority of the story trying to find his loved ones, and the aliens ultimately being defeated by a "virus".

* {{Woolseyism}}: Will Smith's "Elvis has left the building!" was changed to "Last train to Mikkeli has just left!" in the Finnish DVD.

** Some of the effects used to simulate the city destruction sequence have not aged well since 1996.

** [[CoolOldGuy Julius]] is well liked for providing some of the best lines in the movie. [[PluckyComicRelief Mot just comical]], but also for the moment where he [[PapaWolf stood up for his son]] against The Freaking President and his Staff no less!
** Similarly, General Grey is this for being A ReasonableAuthorityFigure who manages to keep [[ConsummateProfessional A Cool Head]], him willing to [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech call out]] Nimzicki for keeping his mouth shut about [[spoiler: Area 51]] adds to his popularity.
* FirstInstallmentWins: ‘’Independence Day’’ made a strong impact on its release and despite it’s SoBadItsGood reputation is considered by many to have a reasonably good and distinguishable plot, special effects and performances. The sequel is considered an embarrassment even by many hardcore fans of the original.

** This is an actual sentence from the tie-in novel ''Silent Zone:'' [[ItMakesSenseInContext "For the next six days,]] [[{{Literature/BridgetJones}} Bridget Jones]] [[NamesTheSame was the most powerful weapon in the United States military's arsenal."]] Especially funny considering the movie and both novels were released in 1996.

** The technicians who first detect the arriving aliens get a decently colorful scene and lines before disappearing, when they feel like they could have provided some additional minor Pov.

* TheProblemWithLicensedGames: WebVideo/TheAngryVideoGameNerd ripped the Playstation game of ''[=ID4=]'' apart for clunky controls and pop-up issues (as well as a terrible password screen), and when he played the Katina level in ''VideoGame/StarFox64'', ''WebVideo/ClementJ642'' called ''[=ID4=]'' "Complete ass" and said that that one ''Star Fox'' level was better at being ''[=ID4=]'' than the ''[=ID4=]'' game was.

** [[CoolOldGuy Julius]] is well liked for providing some of the best lines in the movie [[PluckyComicRelief not just comical]], but also for the moment where He [[PapaWolf stood up for his son]] against The Freaking President and his Staff No Less!
** Similarly, General Grey is this for being A ReasonableAuthorityFigure who manages to keep [[ConsummateProfessional A Cool Head]], Him willing to [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech call out]] Nimzicki for keeping his mouth shut about [[spoiler: Area 51]] adds to his popularity.

* AngstWhatAngst: In typical Emmerich fashion; one particularly jarring example though is when Steve Hiller is leading the first strike against the City Destroyer over Los Angeles, or rather what's ''left'' of it. What does Jimmy and the other pilots do as Steve mulls the fate of his loved ones? Crack cheap jokes as they're gliding over the annihilated city. They quickly shut up once they pass a wall of clouds and see the sheer size of their target.

** Arguably the only reason [[MadScientist Okun]] appears in the sequel and having A larger role.

* AcceptableProfessionalTargets: "Oh, my God. I gotta call my brother, my housekeeper, my lawyer. Nah, forget my lawyer."

* EnsembleDarkhorse: Arguably the only reason [[MadScientist Okun]] appears in the sequel and having A larger role.

** “Welcome to earth!”, which is often mistakenly said as [[Mondegreen “Welcome to earf!”]].

** “Welcome to earth!”, which is often mistakenly said as [[Mondegreem “Welcome to earf!”]].

* HarsherInHindsight:
** Thanks to the now disturbing images of the destruction of the Empire State Building and the White House, this movie wasn't aired for a long time after 9/11. But since 2009, it came back on TV.
** Particular the image of the shadow crossing over the Twin Towers. And the fact that after the attack, the Twin Towers have been sheared in half.
** And the wall of fire spreading through the streets of NYC, much like the real-life wall of dust produced by the collapsing twin towers.
** David mentions that all cable repair guys can trace a cell phone signal. Now, with the stingray controversy in America, that sounds a lot worse.
** Russell Casse's [=PTSD=] falls under this as in the time since the movie's release, Creator/RandyQuaid has been hiding out in Canada over charges of animal abuse. When the sequel's crew went through their massive effort to get back as many cast members as they could, it was noted that it ended up being quite lucky that Russell was killed in the first film, or this would put them in quite an awkward position.
** UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror that came up in the wake of 9/11, in tandem with increasing socio-political polarization and "othering" in the U.S. and elsewhere in the decades since the film's release, makes the whole story's outlook on humanity's ability to set aside differences of race, creed, nationality, etc. and come together in the face of calamity seem poignantly optimistic -- even more so come the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic of 2020, which saw American citizens notably ''not'' banding together ''en masse'' to fight a common threat, leading to needless strife and death.

** UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror that came up in the wake of 9/11, in tandem with increasing socio-political polarization and "othering" in the U.S. and elsewhere in the 20+ years since the film's release, makes the whole story's outlook on humanity's ability to set aside differences of race, creed, nationality, etc. and come together in the face of calamity seem poignantly optimistic now.

** [[IndependenceDayResurgence The sequel]] suggests that Nimziki might have been on to something with the nukes: in 'Resurgence,' it's implied that alien shields do have a limit as to how much damage they can take, such as how [[spoiler:the Queen's shields are depleted after taking a cold fusion blast at point blank range and a few minutes of sustained laser fire]]. If more nukes had been launched against the ships as Nimziki wanted, they may have eventually destroyed the shields and the ships themselves... but the resulting fallout and nuclear winter would have made it a moot point.

** Also, TheWarOnTerror that came up in the wake of 9/11, in tandem with increasing socio-political polarization and "othering" in the U.S. and elsewhere in the 20+ years since the film's release, makes the whole story's outlook on humanity's ability to set aside differences of race, creed, nationality, etc. and come together in the face of calamity seem poignantly optimistic now.

* {{Woolseyism}}:
** Will Smith's "Elvis has left the building!" was changed to "Last train to Mikkeli has just left!" in the Finnish DVD.
** The German dub corrects a reference to the Golan Heights, which are referred to in the film as the "Golan Strait."

* SugarWiki/VisualEffectsOfAwesome: It still holds up well and the scope of the movie is awe inspiring. The sense of size and scale has not been matched by any movie since.

* SnarkBait: Considered this internationally in no small part to how [[EagleLand patri]][[AmericaSavesTheDay otic]] it is.

** The Apple [=Powerbook=] 5300 turned out to be as dangerous to humans, and was discontinued a month after the film's release.

** One person making a phone call says, "I love ''Series/TheXFiles''." In TheMovie for ''Series/TheXFiles'', [[DrowningMySorrows a drunken Mulder]] is shown [[TakeThat urinating on a poster for Independence Day]]. Ironically, ''[=ID4=]'' is fondly remembered twenty years later while ''Fight The Future'' is only remembered by X-philes.

** Hiller in a battleship: "Wooo! I got to get me one of these!!"