| Major Cast | |
|---|---|
| Will Smith | as Captain Steven Hiller |
| Bill Pullman | as President Thomas J. Whitmore |
| Jeff Goldblum | as David Levinson |
| Mary McDonnell | as First Lady Marilyn Whitmore |
| Judd Hirsch | as Julius Levinson |
| Robert Loggia | as General William Grey |
| Randy Quaid | as Russell Casse |
| Margaret Colin | as Constance Spano |
| Vivica A. Fox | as Jasmine Dubrow |
| James Rebhorn | as Albert Nimziki |
| Harvey Fierstein | as Marty Gilbert |
| Adam Baldwin | as Major Mitchell |
| Brent Spiner | as Dr. Brakish Okun |
| James Duval | as Miguel |
| Lisa Jakub | as Alicia |
| MPAA Rating: | PG-13 |
| Production Companies: | Twentieth Century Fox Centropolis Entertainment |
| Distributor: | Twentieth Century Fox |
| Release Date (US): | 7/03/1996 |
| Running Time: | 145 minutes |
| Domestic Box Office: | $306,124,059 (12/13/1996) |
| Foreign Box Office: | $? |
| Production Budget: | $75,000,000 (Est.) |
Strange interference in the cable TV signal at the New York station where David Levinson works is determined by him to be a countdown — to something.
At nearly the same time, gigantic spaceships appear and hover over Earth's major cities. They do nothing and ignore all attempts at radio communication. Being a bright guy, Levinson soon realizes that the aliens are using our satellites to synchronize their actions. He has to get this information to the president — and he has a chance of doing so, since his ex-wife works in the White House.
Levinson drives to Washington, DC with his father, and manages to get his ex-wife on the phone. He convinces her to take him to the president, where he makes a good case. About this time, communication with light is tried: a helicopter carries an electronic billboard to the Washington ship. Almost immediately, the aliens blast it out of the air. The president, his staff, cabinet officials and the Joint Chiefs of Staff move to Andrews AFB and board Air Force One, with Levinson and his father in tow. The plane begins its takeoff run just as the Washington ship lets loose with its primary weapon. The center of the city is wiped out, and the expanding blast wave almost catches Air Force One. However, it survives and flies to Area 51. There, the CIA director tells the president something extraordinary: Area 51 has been studying a crashed alien scout ship for 40 years.
Meanwhile, now that the aliens are known to be hostile, the world's military forces begin attacking their ships. They achieve little. US Navy jets fire missiles at the ship over Los Angeles; a force field stops the missiles, and swarms of alien scout ships emerge to do battle. Having their own shields, the scout ships decimate the fighters. One pilot, Captain Hiller, lures his pursuer into a canyon close to Area 51 and ejects just before his jet hits the canyon wall. The alien ship also crashes, but winds up on the desert floor. Hiller comes down close to it; he climbs on and cold-cocks its occupant as it emerges from the hatch. Then he drags it on his chute to the nearby base.
The scientists of Area 51 are elated to have another alien to study, and Hiller is elated at the prospect of learning to fly an alien ship. But it is Levinson who eventually comes up with the idea that cracks the puzzle of how to deal with the threat of the aliens. He writes a computer virus that will disable their shields; after that, they can possibly be successfully attacked. One slight problem remains: how to deliver the virus? The plan is for Hiller to fly the captured scout into the mother ship near the Moon, piggyback the virus onto the data stream it automatically uploads, and then, once it has passed to all the other ships, leave atomic bombs on delayed fuses in the mother ship and escape.
This is a very risky plan, but it is Earth's only chance.
Some people consider this an unintentionally funny film. I think I understand why. There is, for example, the crowd of people — including a "dumb blonde character" friend of Hiller's fiancee — who assemble atop a Los Angeles skyscraper to celebrate the aliens. (They are wiped out by the blast.) There are the protracted scenes of buildings collapsing and vehicles tumbling end over end through the air, accompanied by a musical score that doesn't quite work somehow. There is Captain Hiller, dragging the alien for miles across the desert: a near-superhuman feat.1 (It would make more sense to carry the gangly unconscious intruder on his back.) There is the subplot about the drunken crop-duster pilot who claims he was abducted by aliens 40 years ago, and is a figure of fun because of that. (He becomes a hero.) There is crazy-weird Doctor Okun. (He dies.)
Despite all that, I thoroughly enjoyed the film, and I consider it a very good effort. The effects are excellent, and only slightly overdone. The plot is tight, has some interesting twists, and moves along swiftly. The acting is generally good, even if there are some hokey characters and scenes.
This film is, I think, Roland Emmerich's homage to George Pal's War of the Worlds. Consider: Alien ships come to Earth in large numbers. They blast major cities to rubble with irresistible weapons. Our weapons prove useless; even an atomic bomb has no effect. The ugly, nasty aliens are about to crush human civilization utterly when they are felled by a virus.
My Rating:
8 out of 10
Capsule review: Some hokey scenes and, at one point, the musical score's failure to score do not greatly diminish this blockbuster alien-invasion epic. It is well-plotted, moves along swiftly, and is thoroughly enjoyable.
| IMDB Rating: 7.0 | Raters: 479,076 |
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