History YMMV / IndependenceDay

** This is an actual sentence from the tie-in novel ''Silent Zone:'' [[ItMakesSenseInContext "For the next six days,]] Literature/BridgetJones [[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 same can also be said for Emmerich's subsequent films like ''Film/Godzilla1998'', ''Film/TheDayAfterTomorrow'', ''Film/TenThousandBC'', and ''Film/TwentyTwelve'', which, while successes, weren't as fondly remembered as ''Independence Day''.

* NeverLiveitDown: Despite their sheer destructive power and technological mastery, the aliens’ campaign will always be marred by the fact that they were ultimately defeated by a computer virus programmed by an Apple PowerBook 5300. It’s commonly suggested that all the aliens needed to achieve victory over humanity was to simply install or update Norton antivirus software.

* FirstInstallmentWins: ''Independence Day'' made a strong impact on its release and it's 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.

* SpiritualAdaptation: ''[=ID4=]'' follows a very similar plot structure to that of ''Literature/TheWarOfTheWorlds'', including an unstoppable alien force invading 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". In fact, Creator/StevenSpielberg put [[Film/WarOfTheWorlds his planned adaptation]] on hold because he felt that this film beat him to it. Creator/LindsayEllis noted the similarities (and [[SpiritualAntithesis differences]]) when comparing ''[=ID4=]'' and Spielberg's adaptation of ''War of the Worlds''.

** The role of President Whitmore was originally written with Creator/KevinSpacey in mind, as he was Dean Devlin's high school friend, but the studio overruled. Nearly twenty years later, Spacey [[Series/HouseOfCardsUS finally managed to become President]].

** Creator/KevinSpacey was originally considered to play Whitmore, but a Fox executive didn't think he had the star quality needed. Years later, Spacey, by that point a Hollywood A-lister (at least before his sex scandal destroyed his career), would play a far more [[PresidentEvil evil]] United States President on ''Series/HouseOfCardsUS''.

** The novelisation states that the President is a senator from Illinois who supports the Chicago White Sox. In 2008, [[UsefulNotes/BarackObama an Illinois senator who supports the White Sox]] would become the President.

** “Welcome to Earth!”, which is often mistakenly said as “Welcome to Earf!”.

s plan is to make the President look far weaker for political reasons... while the human race is being annihilated.

* 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 also the President. In ''Series/BattlestarGalactica2003'' But here, instead of dying of incurable cancer, she's dying of incurable injuries.

* 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". In fact, Creator/StevenSpielberg put [[Film/WarOfTheWorlds his planned adaptation]] on hold because he felt that this film beat him to it. Creator/LindsayEllis noted the similarities (and [[SpiritualAntithesis differences]]) when comparing ''[=ID4=]'' and Spielberg's adaptation of ''War of the Worlds''.

* AmericansHateTingle: Irony about the trope name aside. In the United States the film is definitely divisive, but it's hard to deny it has a pretty devoted fanbase. Outside of the US, however, finding devoted fans is challenging to say the least. That said, [[Film/IndependenceDayResurgence its sequel]] earned [[http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=id42.htm nearly triple its domestic gross overseas]] [[CriticalDissonance despite getting awful reviews]], suggesting there is still a fanbase for the original outside the U.S. that was willing to check it out regardless. (Not to mention the original was a smash hit [[http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=independenceday.htm both inside and outside the U.S.]].)

* WhatAnIdiot:
** Tiffany ignores Jasmine's warnings of getting out of Los Angeles and instead heads directly to the gathering on the US Bank Tower's roof, right under the City Destroyer. Guess what happens?
** Albert Nimzicki is a complicated example. He is the Secretary of Defense and an entire fleet of alien spaceships shows up and float ominously over the world's major cities. As the former head of the CIA, he becomes privy to the fact that Area51 has indeed been housing a crashed flying saucer and alien corpses and been studying them and their tech for ''decades.'' Does he choose to immediately inform the President about everything the research had discovered in order to better inform his decision-making? While he makes (in retrospect) bad choices, his working assumption that launching nuclear weapons will defeat the invaders remain untested for long, and it isn't exactly unreasonable (at least before the first counterstrike with fighter planes fails) that it could work. If nuclear weapons would've worked, there would be no need to reveal Area51. The Novelization is more of a straight example of this - his plan is to make the President look far weaker for political reasons... while the human race is being annihilated.
** Everyone involved in deciding that air-to-air missiles should be deployed as the main attack against miles-across ships. Even if the alien ships hadn't been shielded they would have been useless, as demonstrated in the finale when the shields are down. Possibly justified as that's all they had; it's hard enough to mount a massive counterstrike with depleted manpower, doubly so if the base that's launching the fighters is mainly for aircraft testing, not a dedicated airbase.

** Dean Devlin's mother was an actress named Pilar Seurat. One of Seurat's acting roles was in a 1963 episode of the anthology series ''Series/AlfredHitchcockPresents''. Her co-star on the episode was Creator/RobertLoggia, who played General Grey in ''[=ID4=]'' thirty years later. Wonder if Devlin and Loggia were amused at this.

** The same can also be said for Emmerich's subsequent films like ''Film/TheDayAfterTomorrow'', ''Film/TenThousandBC'', and ''Film/TwentyTwelve'', which, while successes, weren't as fondly remembered as ''Independence Day''.

** "[[DyingMomentOfAwesome Hello, boys! I'm ''[[HeroicSacrifice baaaaack!]]''"

* FirstInstallmentWins: ''Independence Day'' made a strong impact on its release, and despite its SoBadItsGood reputation, it's 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.

* BrokenBase: American audiences have mixed feelings about this film. Is it a plain bad film, a SoBadItsGood film, or a genuinely good film?

* SoBadItsGood: How many view the film, admitting it's bad but enjoyable.

* AcceptableProfessionalTargets: What is Marty's reaction to hearing the aliens will destroy the cities: "Oh, my God. I gotta call my brother, my housekeeper, my lawyer. Nah, forget my lawyer."

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: This is the movie that put composer David Arnold on Hollywood's It List. To quote producer Dean Devlin, "Leave it to a Brit to compose the most patriotic music I've ever heard."

* 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.

* GuiltyPleasure: Is this for many Americans. In the words of Creator/LindsayEllis: "The film is dumb as a bag of rocks, and it is one of my favourite movies."

** The role of President Whitmore was originally written with Creator/KevinSpacey in mind, as he was Dean Devlin's high school friend, but the studio overruled. Nearly twenty years later, Spacey [[Series/HouseOfCardsUS finally managed to become president]].

** The filmmakers began work on this film having complete support and co-operation of the U.S. military, on one condition: that all references to Area 51 be removed from the movie - this was back when the U.S. government was steadfast in their denial that such a place existed. Almost two decades later and what do you know? Area 51 does exist after all! No word about any alien wreckage, of course...
*** Especially hilarious when, not much later, ''Series/StargateSG1'', which used Area 51 in a similar fashion, was ''so'' BackedByThePentagon that ''two Air Force Chiefs of Staff appeared on the show as themselves!'' SG-1 is, of course, a spinoff of [[Film/{{Stargate}} a previous Roland Emmerich film.]]

** 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 (or at least ''remembered'') twenty years later, while ''Fight The Future'' is only remembered by X-philes.
** The Apple [=Powerbook=] 5300 turned out to be as dangerous to humans due to, among other things, batteries that burst into flame in some models, and was discontinued a month after the film's release. Maybe David could have defeated the aliens by ''gifting'' them a few of the computers.
** Dean Devlin's mother was an actress named Pilar Seurat. One of Seurat's acting roles was in a 1963 episode of the anthology series ''Series/AlfredHitchcockPresents''. Her co-star on the episode was Robert Loggia, who played General Grey in ''[=ID4=]'' thirty years later. Wonder if Devlin and Loggia were amused at this.

** "Welcome to Earf!" [[spoiler: Even though in the movie he clearly says "Earth"]].
** "Oh, ''[[OhCrap shit]]''. Um...hide."

* 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'', ''LetsPlay/ClementJ642'' called ''[=ID4=]'' "Complete ass" and said that that one ''Star Fox'' level was better at being ''[=ID4=]'' than the ''[=ID4=]'' game was.

** "''[[DyingMomentOfAwesome Hello,]]'' [[HeroicSacrifice boys! I'm baaaaack!]]"
** An alternative would be Whitmore's RousingSpeech, particularly Bill Pullman's [[ThrowItIn ad-lib]] "Today...we celebrate...our Independence Day!"

** A blink-and-you'll-miss-it-example: [[http://www.impdb.org/index.php?title=File:IDHuey.jpg One of the Huey choppers escorting the Skycrane explodes before being hit]]. Worse still, the tail rotor of one of the choppers seems to stay suspended in place instead of falling out of the sky as it would otherwise do.

** Some of the effects used to simulate the city destruction sequence have not aged well since 1996. After several buildings explode, it is show that they are clearly models.
** Several of the explosion effects on the City Destroyer when it explodes at the end are very clearly 2-dimensional and superimposed on the shot.

* 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". In fact, Creator/StevenSpielberg put [[Film/WarOfTheWorlds his planned adaptation]] on hold because he felt that this film beat him to it.

** Nimziki gets two. We're supposed to be against his suggestion of using nuclear weapons but considering what we've seen so far that would be closest thing to a reasonable chance of success. Later he's supposed to be showing incompetence and cowardice for being against the plan to infect the mothership but the plan relies on a ''lot'' of luck, a human pilot managing to use an alien vessel, the aliens not getting suspicious and if it failed it would probably mean the end of all organized human resistance.

* SugarWiki/VisualEffectsOfAwesome: The Oscar-winning effects still hold 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.
** A lot of why it holds up is that most of the effects were practical effects and models, with just a bit of CGI for laser blasts and other things that don't have to look "real" to fool the eye. Shortly after this came out, these techniques were largely abandoned in favor of all-CGI effects.

** Everyone involved in deciding that air-to-air missiles should be deployed as the main attack against miles-across ships. Even if the alien ships hadn't been shielded they would have been useless, as demonstrated in the finale when the shields are down. Possibly justified as that's all they had; it's hard enough to mount a massive counterstrike with depleted manpower; doubly so if the base that's launching the fighters is mainly for aircraft testing, not a dedicated airbase.

* MisaimedFandon: During the Brexit referendum, President Whitmore's speech was liberally quoted by those in favor of leaving the EU. This completely missed the point of the speech, which was about humanity coming together in common cause.