A Lifetime of Happiness: Movies, TV, and Video Games

Independence Day (1996)

June 30, 2021 Steve Bennet-Martin, Stephen Martin-Bennet Season 1 Episode 74
A Lifetime of Happiness: Movies, TV, and Video Games
Independence Day (1996)
Show Notes Transcript

The Steves discuss the blockbuster hit Independence Day as they like their fireworks for the 4th of July, along with what they are watching and what's making them happy.

  • Sobriety
  • Panic (Hulu)- Bingeworthy
  • Penny Dreadful (Netflix)- fun catching up
  • Independence Day
    • Movie background and cast details
    • Character and plot discussion
    • Do we believe in aliens?
    • The franchise that could have been.


Stay happy!

Ending- Any music or audio clips were borrowed from the original source material.

Support the show
Steve:

Hello returning happies and new listeners. This is Steve

Stephen:

and Martin, and this is Steven Martin Bennett. And welcome to a lifetime of happiness

Steve:

podcast, where we take you on our journey through some of the movies, TV shows, and other bits of pop culture that are helping to keep us. Well, hopefully bring a smile to your face along the way.

Stephen:

And today, before you go out into the holiday weekend, going to the beaches and lighting fireworks, we wanted to take a moment to remind you what the 4th of July is really awesome. All about

Steve:

alien. Yes. Yes. We're going to be talking about the 1996 movie independence day. And you know what I realized when we're doing the show notes? What's that honey it's episode 74. Like seven for like 4th of July.

Stephen:

That's really cool. Yeah. And 74 episodes. My goodness.

Steve:

Yes. We've been at it a minute. Huh? Just a little bit. Yes. And speaking of the podcast, making us happy, what else? Didn't make us happy. My love. Well, why don't you go

Stephen:

first?

Steve:

Well, I am celebrating today as the day of recording. My 30 day sober anniversary. Congratulations. Yes, my first sober birthday of sorts. I've been counting my days up to 30 and that's my first big milestone I've hit. You know, of course after the one day and the one week. Yeah.

Stephen:

And funny enough that's what's making me happy too. Yes.

Steve:

Well, in addition to that, also the red bugs slope preserve SLU, slew, whatever, I don't know in Sarasota was very, it was a pleasant surprise for if you ever are in our area in Sarasota and looking to get a nice little nature walk, it was right in the middle of Sarasota where you went and expect there to be a nature

Stephen:

trail. Yeah. Like you walk. You know, 50 feet from the parking lot and all of a sudden the air smells different. There's a canopy of trees and you're like, oh yeah, I'm just in the middle of a forest now. And we had one, our brunch at the breakfast.

Steve:

Yes. And we took Grammy for a walk. So we were able to walk children in

Stephen:

nature. I know it's like you're walking children in nature. Yes. And

Steve:

in addition to my sobriety and nature, making us happy, we've also been bingeing, some fun things on TV, happy dinner have. Yes. And the one that I really enjoyed recently was panic on Amazon prime because when we watched the preview. Everything. We love to small town, full of teenagers, ready to graduate and get into college with all the teen angst with a game that's dangerous for their lives.

Stephen:

Yes and no. I thought it was going to go in one direction and it ended up being more about other things and it was interesting twists and turns. And so if you have Amazon prime, it's free. Watch it. It's fun. It's called panic.

Steve:

Yes. And has there been anything else that you've been watching that's been making you happy? My love. So,

Stephen:

I have recently restarted. Penny dreadful that used to be on Showtime. Yeah.

Steve:

I remember that we watched a couple of

Stephen:

seasons. We watched one season. Oh. And there were three. And so I thought, you know what, I'm going to go back and finish it because I remembered enjoying it. And we're now to the part of summer. There's nothing on really not until we get to big brother. And so I figured, you know what, let me go back and go through my wishlist of things that we had started and never finished that I wanted to get back to. So penny dreadful, it is, it's a really interesting cast. It blends vampires, Frankenstein Wolf man, Dorian gray.

Steve:

All this supernatural stuff you love. And it's also in like old, tiny England. Right.

Stephen:

Which, you know, I

Steve:

love as well. So exactly. Yes. You know what else? I know that you love very much. What is that disaster movie? Oh my gosh. I do so much. Exactly. And so you've been very patient in waiting for us to cover this movie, but with it being holiday themed, it also is perfect to wait for this to launch. So let's get into independence day. For those of you who don't know independence days in 1996, American Saifai directed and co-written by Roland. What do we know him from

Stephen:

babe? So he also did the day after tomorrow, which is fantastic. And he did 2012 back when everybody knew that the Mayan calendars ended at 2012 and everyone was sure that we were all going to die on a certain day in 2003.

Steve:

Yes, and we, we did not, but it was a good movie. I do remember that and I love supporting him not only because he feeds your fuel for disaster, but he also is a very big advocate for the LGBT community because he is openly very loud and proudly gay

Stephen:

himself. I did not know that.

Steve:

Yes. Meanwhile, his co-writer and producer Dean Devlin partner with him here as well as when they worked on Godzilla together. As well as this movie sequel in 2015. So it's a creative team. He often brings in Dean Devlin to help him with a lot of his projects.

Stephen:

I'm not as familiar with a lot of the Godzilla lore in my mind, Godzilla was always the villain. And so the 1998 Godzilla kind of fit in with how I saw Godzilla. And now these days they have the whole monster verse movies were Godzilla and king Kong. Really aren't the bad guys. So that's a whole different thing, but I got sidetracked. Anyway, the cast in this. Oh amazing. Yes. I

Steve:

know one of them, Jeff Goldblum was in Jurassic park and I also know will Smith was from the French prince of Bel air. Yeah.

Stephen:

Yes. And bill Pullman from my favorite Mel Brooks movie Spaceballs Mary McDonnell, who was recently on rebel, but she has a long and illustrious. Movie career I

Steve:

noticed from mostly from rebel, but that's because it was the most recent thing. Yes. There was also a Judd Hirsch who I know is in taxi, which is an old classic I've never seen. Yes.

Stephen:

Margaret Colon, who I originally saw on as the world turns. And then we saw her as Blair's mom on gossip girl.

Steve:

Ah, and Randy Craig Quaid was in there as well as he went to the Quaid brother.

Stephen:

He's also the one that went crazy and isn't allowed back in the U S right now is hiding out in Canada.

Steve:

Oh, good for him. And then you have a Robert

Stephen:

logia from big James reborn from the talented Mr. Ripley, who James reborn is also from guiding light and he played a lot of villains in the nineties. That's how he got written off of guiding light was for being a villain raping and abusing his wife and stepdaughter. And. Unfortunately, Bradley reins was also an alcoholic

Steve:

and I was going to say, so he was a gray area.

Stephen:

You're like, I love my gray area. Villains Bradley reins was a very bad man.

Steve:

Yes. And it also had Harvey Firestein who I remember being so shocked when he came out.

Stephen:

Yeah. From Mrs. Doubtfire. And, and to also one, the two. For hairspray on Broadway.

Steve:

Yes. So I remember even being young, not really knowing what gay was. I saw him and I was like, he's like me,

Stephen:

it's an amazing, amazing cast. Like these are very talented people and it's a great movie. It released on July 3rd. And I actually saw it opening night with my cousins in Columbus, Ohio, I believe. And it was. Fantastic. And it's a 20th century Fox movie had a$75 million budget and it made 817.4 million. That's a little success story. Just a little bit. I mean, it was everywhere I have probably unless I gave it away. There's some thing possibly still in storage. The big alien, you know, the, where the head opens up, I had it, it stood over a foot tall and it had. You could turn it on and had a motion detector where the face would open up and go. Oh, cool. I used to set it up and turn on the motion detector and wait for mom. Goodbye.

Steve:

I'm sure she loved that. He did. Yes. And the IMDBs summary of the, the movie is the aliens are coming and their goal is to invade and destroy earth fighting superior technology. Mankind's best weapon is the Welter survive. How does that stack up?

Stephen:

It's actually not bad. And when you think about it, because this movie has so much going on, it's hard to get into two sentences, but in the grand scheme of things, the main thing that we are fighting for is our right to live. So I, I, I kind of approve of that. Yeah. Now,

Steve:

With this all-star cast, do you have any favorite characters in the movie that you'd like to talk about?

Stephen:

So many, but like, we'll go through them a little bit. This is one of the ones where will Smith solidified himself as a movie star because before fresh prince, he hadn't done any acting really. And then you, he started with fresh prince and then he got this and then there was. Bad boys. And then the one with the dog. Well that's later on, I was going to say men and black.

Steve:

Yes. But yeah, it definitely is the first one. I think that kind of just switched him from TV, start to movie

Stephen:

star and he plays captain Steven Hiller. And he's in a relationship with Vivica Fox who plays Jasmine. He wants to fly for NASA and she's a stripper, so that actually can go against him. They want their NASA people to be.

Steve:

Squeaky clean. Yes. And one thing I like is when Mary McDonald, the first lady was talking with Jasmine and she made the comment about, you know, oh, I'm sorry. And she's like, no, I make good money. And I care for my kid. Like, I'm not sorry about what I do. And I really like that. Yeah. And I really liked that in her character.

Stephen:

I do too. And she has a kid Dylan who, if you watch the later seasons of fresh prince about layer plays, Will's new. Toddler NEF cousin.

Steve:

Yeah. You mean like fifth or sixth season of every show where they need to add in a kid. That would be it. Here's looking at you Dawn from Buffy.

Stephen:

So it also has Jeff Goldbloom as David Levinson, Margaret Colon, as his estranged wife or ex-wife Connie. I can never remember what it is. I like to pretend they're still married because they never went through with the divorce. And his father Judd, Hirsch plays, Julius Lebanon. And so Jeff, Goldbloom extremely intelligent MIT grad, and he works for a cable company. His dad likes to say that he's a cable repairman. He's a little bit more than that. And he runs all the technology, making sure that all of the stations stay on the air. Margaret Colin is Connie is the communications director. For the president of the United

Steve:

States. Yes. She's a very important lady. Yeah.

Stephen:

One of my favorite things that his dad Julius does in the movie is he's talking to Connie later and he says, you know, when, when they were coming and we knew that there was something and there was going to be trouble, all they could think about was you, he had to get to you, you know, there's still love. There. She goes. Love was never our pride. And he says, all you need is love John Lennon shot in the back. Very sad. Yes. And I just, I think that, that like his line delivery is so, so, so good. Judd Hirsch is amazing. He was actually playing much older than he was in real life. And that is very, very good. And another big character bill Pullman thing, president Whitmore and Mary McDonnell is his first lady. They have an incredible bond together and she can always tell. When he's lying. Do you know what that's like my life I do, because I have that ability with you.

Steve:

It's very hard. Cause I'm a really, really good

Stephen:

liar right now. You are really bad and you have a vein in the middle of your forehead that will pop out when you're a Fitbit. Yeah. Yes. It's my

Steve:

tell. But just like with the president, you know, the, his person is one of the few people who can realize and

Stephen:

see, and it's so cute when he does, because they'll be talking and he'll say something and. Nah. Yeah. Yeah. And just the way that they do it. Their daughter is a very young may Whitman who people might know from arrested development. And then she was also in parenthood, the TV show, and she

Steve:

was such a cute little girl. She grew up to be a very, like, she's an

Stephen:

excellent actress. She's very pretty. And I think it was very shitty. For them to recast her whenever her character came back for the sequel. Yes.

Because

Steve:

didn't they say it was because she wasn't attractive enough and I'm like, she's a beautiful,

Stephen:

beautiful, talented actress. And that was kind of. What was insinuated now, the other last main character is Randy Quaid playing Russell. Yes. And he

Steve:

shows up as the alcoholic crop duster, who claims he was abducted by aliens. There's a lot of probing jokes around and his kids are just so embarrassed by his dad.

Stephen:

Yeah. And they live in an RV and the kids are pretty much raising themselves and one of them is sick and on medication. The older brother is always just he's the parent. And those are the people that you really need to know.

Steve:

Exactly. And one thing I liked, I mean, while we're still talking about Randy Kuwait's characters, I know like as we go through the movie, his is one of the many different redemption arcs that we see because as he goes through the training and as he goes into fight and fly, he ends up being one of the main heroes that saves the day and it really kind of helps redeem him. He makes the joke as he's flying, he's like he picked a hell of a day to get sober. Yes. And then I can, I can re I can understand that. Cause I picked like a week before going to New York for a wedding to get sober. So sometimes you can't really pick when the right time to get

Stephen:

sober is Nope. And one of the things that I really enjoy about this and it is true for good disaster movies, you have to, it. About the characters. Yes. It's the same with horror movies, because if they're going to be killing off the cast, you have to care about, you have to care that something is happening and

Steve:

Rob zombie's Halloween where everyone's a nasty twat. So you don't really care who lives or dies. Exactly.

Stephen:

And that is always the example I use nobody in Rob zombie's Halloween was worthy. Of caring about. So when they died, I just, you don't care.

Steve:

Then that was the red flag. I was waving in front of you to get you to go.

Stephen:

But so this one, they do a really good job with the script and with these actors that you're like, I like these people, so you don't want bad things to happen to them, but it is a disaster movie, bad things are going to happen. It starts on July 2nd.

Steve:

Yes, it does. And it starts off with cable signals getting messed up, which would cause us to be very upset

Stephen:

back end. Yeah, because back in the day, I, you might be too young for this when there were solar flares and it usually happened around August that your TV would have these like brown dots and like wobbly things. And there was nothing you could do about it. Until cable became advanced. Yeah. But I remember whenever it was solar flare time, it was almost like you would just had a radio program.

Steve:

Yes. And speaking of solar flares before, you know it, the sky is on fire as the alien ships enter orbit. And I don't know, what's worse that are missing.

Stephen:

I could you imagine how terrifying that would be the disguise

Steve:

on fucking

Stephen:

fire? Yeah. Well, and then like say you're driving along and they haven't figured out what it is yet. And all of a sudden the fire clears and you see this giant ship clear the horizon. Like they show all these actions. As it happens. And I think that's exactly what would, it would be like you and I would be getting ready for like Eastern time zone. We would have been getting ready for work as it was happening.

Steve:

So yeah, I can see just if that was happening, there'd be a couple of crashes on the highway.

Stephen:

Oh. In Sarasota. Traffic is already bad enough. Harvey Fierstein plays a really, he's a fun campy character in this. He is David's boss at the cable company. And at first he's more concerned about making sure the signal gets clear. David, David, we need to get these things. Other people can say David and David realizes something though that there's a code in the city. And he figures it out that it's account

Steve:

and it's a countdown to something, babe.

Stephen:

Yeah. And he finally figures it out. As all of these ships are moving into place. And it's a countdown that he figures out before anybody. And I was able

Steve:

to, and he heads to DC just in time to save his estranged wife and we're in the president, right.

Stephen:

Because the president sends out the welcome wagon helicopter with the lights to try to do

Steve:

friends for, Hey aliens, thank you for visiting

Stephen:

us. Well, I blame Steven Spielberg and close encounters because they had a whole thing with light and sound. Whenever the alien showed up on that mountain that they were like, oh, we'll talk to the aliens this way. We all grew up with that. So of course you send out the welcome wagon with lights and things to say, you know, welcome. We hope you come in peace. Boom. The thing opens up. Welcome wagon explodes.

Steve:

Yes, it certainly does. Harvey Fierstein gets trapped in his car and he's like, oh crap. Oh crap. Yeah.

Stephen:

And it honestly the destruction of the major cities it starts with. The one over the empire state building. And it's it. This is what disaster movies are for. You're waiting for the big explosions and this one, they give it to you in the beginning because not only is it a disaster movie, it's a great character study. So it doesn't have to rely just on the. Of destruction later, they give the journey. Yeah. And so that the empire state building blows up the large building in. LA that Jasmine stripper friend is up there. Like welcome aliens, make yourself at home. She goes out big. She was from saved by the bell, the new class. I

Steve:

believe it. I also know her from other things. She has a very distinctive voice.

Stephen:

Yes she does. And David had convinced everyone and they get on a helicopter to head to air force one. As air force, one is starting to take off. The white house explodes because that's where the aliens were over, not the Capitol and the, the Washington monument. They were over the white house. It explodes. The first lady had been in LA giving a speech. She didn't get out in time. Her helicopter goes down on something that we're all concerned about though. Is that Jasmine. Is supposed to be with her son and their dog boomer in LA. And

Steve:

is there one about boomer during that accident? Especially when they were in the little under hanging, the fire

Stephen:

was coming. Oh. And like she's looking, she sees all these people running past them and she looks in the rear view mirror and then she sees fire and she gets out and she grabs the kid and puts him on her hip and she's running with it. And then she's like, all these people were keep running down. One of the tunnels in LA and she sees this door and she's like Bama. And finally the dog starts going and it's jumping from car to car and the fire's coming closer and it's coming closer and she gets inside of this maintenance shed in the tunnel and bowler and just as the fire's coming

Steve:

boomers. Okay. The dog does not die. So do not worry about.

Stephen:

Like I've seen it so many times. It still gives me anxiety during

Steve:

that scene. Yes. The fact that like all of this shit goes down and it just ends. And you realize that it's only July 2nd. And then now it's July 3rd. And you're like, oh, that was just the first day that it was called and it's called independence day. So July 3rd, doesn't end up really working out much better for captain Steven. Cause he sent up with his buddy Harry Connick Jr.

Stephen:

Yup. And they are. Kind of like the Maverick and goose cause they're in is he's a Marine pilot. And so they're going up and Harry Connick Jr. Is your comic relief and until yup. Kick the tires a lot. The fire's big daddy and they were up there and because the welcome wagon has gone down, all the cities have been destroyed. Very like we are going to it. And they get up there and their view, like you said, and what did they find out, darling?

Steve:

They find out that.

Stephen:

The ship has shields.

Steve:

The ship has shields, but they're able to well, before they end up winning, one of them does not make it out alive. He was truly as the goose. He's the funny BFF who dies. Yup.

Stephen:

And like, just like in top gun and goose gets killed off. Harry Connick Jr. Gets killed off here and it's fine.

Steve:

He manages to crash the alien ship. He does win in the end. Well,

Stephen:

everyone else in his team. Does he, he makes it

Steve:

away. I was gonna say. And what I did find interesting about it is for such a great movie, and that really handles a lot of the emotional impact. Like I don't remember him. Bring up his, you know, his buddy who died or like all the people in a squadron, he very much was like more like, yeah, I beat the alien. He wasn't really mournful and that's okay. Cause there's a lot of mourning going on

Stephen:

in the movie. Yeah. And I, I think if there had been a longer time table, he would've got to gotten the chance to mourn like top gun gave Maverick and Meg Ryan, a chance to be sad that he died, but. You have 72 hours to do the whole

Steve:

thing. Exactly. And he goes right into getting the alien and Carnot's ass back

Stephen:

to the, so he's trying to head back to El Toro, but he's now he realizes how far away he is. And that's when Russell Case and his caravan of idiots in their RVs comes by and he hops a ride in a truck and they put the alien. And will was like, yeah, there's an air force base near here. I flew over it. And Russell Case like is not on the map. And he goes, well, I know what's there. Do you know our air force base that ended up being, it ended

Steve:

up being area 51, which as we learned from the president, couldn't be

Stephen:

real. No. And he's like, and Le Julius David's father was like, what about, what about that area? Area 51. And there. Sir, no matter what you might've read and the national Enquirer, it's not real. And James reborn, the guy evil guy from guiding light that's the chief of staff is like, that's not exactly true. Mr. President two words, plausible deniability. And they've had the ship there since the fifties. Yes.

Steve:

But it's only in the past few days with everything going on with these aliens, that things really start going on in the lab. And it ends up with an autopsy that does not go very well.

Stephen:

No. And while all this is going on, Jasmine's driving around the LA and she comes across the first lady, like you mentioned, and they have that wonderful conversation with what do you do? I'm a dancer. Ballet exotic. Oh yes.

Steve:

I really liked that. But then it is sad when she

Stephen:

dies. Yeah. But we're not there just yet because Steve isn't did, like, they were like El Toro has been destroyed and that's where Jasmine was supposed to be. And he's like, I don't want to believe that she's gone. Like in his heart, he knows that he would be there. So he hijacks a helicopter and flies there. And he and Jasmine have this great reunion and they pick up the first lady and take her to area 51. But as you said, that's where she dies. It's too late. And she does, she gets this, she gets to see her, the president and her daughter. And one of my favorite scenes that still makes me tear up is when the they're talking and he goes, the doctor. Say you're, you're going to be just fine. And she says liar, and then she dies. Yeah, no, it gets you every time it does, because I mean, they knew each other's soul and, and like, even when he's trying to make her feel better, she knew that that wasn't the truth. And

Steve:

it's quite the way to wrap up that second

Stephen:

act. And that is how we ended July 3rd. July 4th starts off slightly be more hopeful though. Yes.

Steve:

David finds out that you can give the ships a computer virus that will take out their shields. Yeah.

Stephen:

And he got that idea from his dad. Cause Julius is like, you can't be sitting around on the cold concrete, you'll get a cold and he's like cold and he, so he decides he's, it can do that. And everything starts coming together because all of our heroes are now at area 51 everyone's together. They have a plan. They have a plan now, but in between the plan love.

Steve:

Yes. Love, love. Oh, you need is love. And Steven Jasmine get married. They do. And through watching the wedding, David and Connie got a chance to reconnect

Stephen:

because she sees that he's still wearing his wedding band. She reaches over and they hold hands during the wedding ceremony. Cause they're the witness witnesses. Thank you. And so they can't really use any technology to talk to anybody around the globe. What did they decide to do

Steve:

while they decide to use Morse code? Yes.

Stephen:

So it's all with the du, du, du, du, du, du, du, du, du, du. And this is where. The most memorable thing from the movie happens, play that,

Movie Clip:

In less than an hour aircraft from here, we'll join others from around the world and you will be launching the largest stereo battle in the history of mankind. Mankind. That word should have new meaning for all of us. We can't be consumed by petty differences anymore. We will be United in our common interests, perhaps fate. Today's the 4th of July. And you will once again, be fighting for our freedom, not from tyranny, oppression, and persecution, but from annihilation. We're fighting for our right to live, to exist. And should we win the day? The 4th of July will no longer be known as an American holiday, but as the day when the world declared in one voice, we will not go quietly into the night. We will not Manish without a fight. We're going to live on. We're going to survive today. We celebrate our independence day.

Stephen:

that speech gets me in the fields every single time. Yes

Steve:

it does. I know that that was one of the things that you always start. Like I love the movie because of the president's speech. I

Stephen:

mean, that's just. I like there are certain things in movies that are just so well-written and so well delivered. And that is one of them, like on the 4th of July. That's what I always like picture in my head. Now,

Steve:

now it's time to kick some

Stephen:

ass. It is. So they're going to send David and Steve into space. And their plan is to send them up there with a nuke. And they'll upload the virus, take down the shields, which will take down the shields and they will put the nuke into the main ship and hopefully destroy the mothership. But while the shields are down, thanks to the coordinated Morse code effort that they can possibly. Bring down worldwide, everything and works

Steve:

together with the entire world to fight the alien

Stephen:

plan. But whenever Dave and Steve get up there and they put in the virus, all of a sudden their ship is stuck, but then it transfers back down and the shields do come down and then you've got all of our shit. Airplanes up there shooting, but they're not doing enough damage. The president's even up there and

Steve:

how that happened. I don't know

Stephen:

how they let him do that. And I guess it's because all the other pilots at Del Toro had been destroyed. Can you

Steve:

imagine a president that would do that? I know.

Stephen:

No, that's just not what they would do. And everybody's out of missiles. They haven't done enough damage and. There the things about ready to fire its primary weapon. The primary weapon is what took out all the cities and it is now centered over area 51. And one of the pilots that had been up there was, as you mentioned on his worst day to go sober. Yes. It was Randy Quaid Russell

Steve:

Case. Yes. And so he decides though he sacrifices himself to save the day. He says, tell my kids, I love them very

Stephen:

much. And that is really emotional cause his oldest son is down there and he hears it and he sends his ship directly up into there and taking out the primary weapon, the whole giant big ship explodes. Yes. Now we go back into space and David and Steve are stuck and they realize that they're not getting out. And so they're just going to release the nuke, sacrifice themselves, but take out the mothership because they. That they're prepping for an invasion. Yes.

Steve:

Yeah. Cause as you might've been able to tell by now, and hopefully you've watched it. Cause if not, we just spoiled the hell out of it. They were just really, after us to, they were not here to make love and peace. They were here to make word and kill us all and then drain us of our natural resources. That's exactly right. So it's very good that we ended up winning because I don't think. Really met eye to eye, ultimately

Stephen:

I, and they wouldn't have needed us for slaves or anything like that. There would have been, I don't think there would have been any humans. It would have been total eradication of our species, but when they sent the new kin, all of a sudden it released their ship and there's. Unbelievable scene. But at that moment, it's the suspension of disbelief and they make it out and they barely escape. Ooh. And they crash and then it's happy they crashed safely. Yes.

Steve:

They safely crashed. It's more of just a bumpy landing.

Stephen:

Yup. And then it's happy endings for everyone. That's still alive. That still lives here. The president and his daughter, David, his father and Connie and Steve and Jasmine. And it's really, really good. And it's enjoyable. It's a great popcorn. Yes, it

Steve:

certainly is. It's it's and it being a holiday theme. That's perfect to watch every year.

Stephen:

Oh yeah. And it's, it's one of those that surprisingly 15 years later, Has aged pretty well.

Steve:

Yeah. And speaking of aging I also did have a sequel, which we do have to acknowledge at the very least it came out in 2016 with much of the same creative team and case. However, it did not seem to capture the same Genesee qua that this one did. Cause with its budget of 165 million its box office was 389.7 million. So I mean, I would take those extra millions, but it's not enough to be considered a success. It was hoping compared to that first.

Stephen:

I didn't go see it in the theater. I actually rented it. Yes.

Steve:

Well, I mean, it works out well because when it first came out and work announced that this was part of his plan to end, you know, a three part six movie franchise claiming he already had independence day three and four all planned out. But after the. Lack of success from this. As well as just without the backing of his co-writer Devlin, who claimed to have no knowledge of the product, did it seem that it was not going to be likely to begin with, and then there was a final nail in the coffin. Yeah. And that was 20th century Fox being acquired by Disney. So now, while we never say never, it is a lot less likely that we'll be having a independent state franchise. Yeah.

Stephen:

Especially like bill Pullman is dead in real life. They killed off will Smith's character in the movie as punishment for not coming back, right? Yeah. He, I guess he didn't like the script and said, you know, I'm not coming back. And it's one of those things. Once you get rid of the people that really drew you in, and it's not their fault that bill Pullman is dead, but it is just one of those things. It didn't have the same magic at all.

Steve:

It did not cause this movie like was so big that it made a huge impact on disaster movies. I mean, I know that you're a huge fan of disaster movies. My memory is crap. So like when researching it though, they said that this was like a brand new bar for disaster movies that while they were disaster movies beforehand, like twister and twister was a great. But like that this was the first one that set a new standard for CGI effects 100%. And so, yes. What was that like seeing it in the theater? I, it

Stephen:

was to see all those cities destroyed, especially like the New York scene as the one they spend the most time on. That was just so severely impressive. Like if they ever do a. Cause for an anniversary of Jurassic park, they rereleased it updating some of the effects a little bit. So if they ever did that with this, which, I mean, this is the 15th year anniversary, this would've been a good one to do it. I would, or even if it did one of those go see the classics in the theater. So everything, I would see it again on the big screen, because just some of those scenes are severely impressive to see. And this led us to having great movies like volcanoes. Deep impact, deep impact, which is one like, so the same year, there were two asteroids headed towards earth movies, Armageddon and deep impact. And Armageddon was the more popcorn flick, deep impact was. Emotional character study and I prefer deep impact.

Steve:

And it also came at around the same time then right afterwards, there's Dante peak, which I remember with all the lava being really cool, not to be confused with Dante cov, the soft core gay porn, supernatural.

Stephen:

Exactly. And volcano and Dante peak came out around the same time Don to his peak had Pierce Brosnan. Yes. And that was in Washington state. I believe in volcano too. In LA and that was the volcano erupted in the middle of LA near the LA Brea tar pits. Also just a super, super enjoyable movie.

Steve:

Maybe some of your favorites of the disaster movies. I know he would just touch on a bunch, but what's your favorite disaster movie of all time? Oh,

Stephen:

goodness. Favorite disaster movie of all time. I think it would be between volcano deep impact on taste peak and the day after tomorrow. Well, it looks

Steve:

like we narrowed it down to Missoula to talk about them all. Now, getting back to this movie, a big theme of this movie, in addition to it being a disaster movie, and it also is the aliens are real and they're out there. And a lot of times in movies, they handle aliens very differently. Do you think that aliens are real.

Stephen:

I do. I. I don't see them like this. I see them somewhat more along the lines of some of our comic book aliens that they are more advanced races and they're just ignoring us because we're a backwater to

Steve:

them. Yeah. And that's exactly how I see it. And I don't know whether I'm forming that from, you know, all the comics and everything that we read together, but I'm just sure that if there are aliens out there that like, they're just like watching us, like, we're like one of their mojo verse TV channels of like, look at the funny monkeys. Yeah.

Stephen:

Yeah. I mean, like we are the duck dynasty of the whole universe for them where they are. Really, did you see what those people did again?

Steve:

I was going to say, did you see who they elected for president a

Stephen:

couple of years ago? Like I totally see the other aliens. Like they have warp drives and better medicines or healing things. Like probably closer to your topian societies, hopefully.

Steve:

So yes, if that happens in our lifetime, I'd be really psyched. I don't think I'd be out there like that. The the strippers friend being like, take me, take me. Welcome, welcome. But I would be watching it and you're like, what the hell is going on?

Stephen:

Cool. I think I've seen too many alien attack movies to be. Right off the gate being like trusting. Yeah. Trusting. Thank you. Now, what would you say are some of your favorite parts in the movie?

Steve:

I would say, say that, I mean, of course the action is something that, especially when I was watching it very young, I was like the one thing that get me to pay attention to movies was shit blowing up. So I, I love that, but I also just love the area 51 scene, just because. Knew about area of doing growing up. So being able to see what it would be like and having like the alien come alive with a thing coming out from the inside and then taking over the scientist guy. I mean, it was all just so fucking cool. Especially as a kid, I just remember watching me being like, I love that scene. Yeah. That one.

Stephen:

And I remember coming back from seeing this and thinking. That was one of the scariest things I had ever seen on a film. Yeah. And then the president's wife dying thinking, that's one of the saddest things I'd seen.

Steve:

And now one of the most inspiring things, what's your favorite part

Stephen:

to be the president speech? As much as I love all of the destruction, the thing that stuck with me the most is the president's speech where he rallies everyone before going up to take them on. And I just. Love it, like, I think it's good. Yes.

Steve:

So this year, while you are all speaking first to say a blade, because all your neighbors are putting a fireworks way too late. I mean,

Stephen:

come on people and just do it for one day. So just stay up and watch the movie instead. And like we've told you our favorite parts we would love to do. Your favorite parts? Yeah. Email

Steve:

us@happylifepodatgmail.com.

Stephen:

You can find us on all the socials at happy life pod on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Yes. And until next time, everybody. Boom. No,

Steve:

not boom. Okay. Stay happy.