Independence Day is a 1996 American science fiction action film directed by Roland Emmerich, written by Emmerich and the film's producer Dean Devlin. The film stars an ensemble cast of Will Smith, Bill Pullman, Jeff Goldblum, Mary McDonnell, Judd Hirsch, Margaret Colin, Randy Quaid, Robert Loggia, and Vivica A. Fox. The film follows disparate groups of people who converge in the Nevada desert in the aftermath of a worldwide attack by a powerful extraterrestrial race. With the other people of the world, they launch a counterattack on July 4—Independence Day in the United States.
Aliens is a 1986 science fiction action film written and directed by James Cameron. It is the sequel to the 1979 science fiction horror film Alien, and the second film in the Alien franchise. Set in the far future, it stars Sigourney Weaver as Ellen Ripley, the sole survivor of an alien attack on her ship. When communications are lost with a human colony on the moon where her crew first encountered the alien creatures, Ripley agrees to return to the site with a unit of Colonial Marines to investigate. Michael Biehn, Paul Reiser, Lance Henriksen, and Carrie Henn are featured in supporting roles.
Predator is a 1987 American science fiction action horror film directed by John McTiernan and written by brothers Jim and John Thomas. Arnold Schwarzenegger stars as Dutch Schaefer, the leader of an elite paramilitary rescue team on a mission to save hostages in guerrilla-held territory in a Central American rainforest, who encounter the deadly Predator, a skilled, technologically advanced extraterrestrial who stalks and hunts them down. Carl Weathers, Elpidia Carrillo, Bill Duke, Richard Chaves, Jesse Ventura, Sonny Landham, and Shane Black are supporting co-stars.
Alien vs. Predator is a science fiction action-horror media franchise created by comic book writers Randy Stradley and Chris Warner. The series is a crossover between, and part of, the larger Alien and Predator franchises, depicting the two species — Xenomorph (Alien) and Yautja (Predator) — as being in conflict with one another.
Vivica Anjanetta Fox is an American actress, producer and television host. Fox began her career on Soul Train (1982–1983) and played roles on the daytime television soap operas Days of Our Lives (1988) and Generations (1989–1992). In prime time she starred opposite Patti LaBelle in the NBC sitcom Out All Night (1992–1993). Fox's breakthrough came in 1996, with roles in two box-office hit films, Roland Emmerich's Independence Day and F. Gary Gray's Set It Off.
Roland Emmerich is a German film director, screenwriter, and producer. He is widely known for his science fiction and disaster films and has been called a "master of disaster" within the industry. His films, most of which are English-language Hollywood productions, have made more than $3 billion worldwide, including just over $1 billion in the United States, making him the 17th-highest-grossing Hollywood director of all time.
Stargate is a military science fiction media franchise based on the film directed by Roland Emmerich, which he co-wrote with producer Dean Devlin. The franchise is based on the idea of an alien wormhole device that enables nearly instantaneous travel across the cosmos. The franchise began with the film Stargate, released on October 28, 1994, by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Carolco, which grossed US$197 million worldwide. In 1997, Brad Wright and Jonathan Glassner created a television series titled Stargate SG-1 as a sequel to the film. This show was joined by Stargate Atlantis in 2004, Stargate Universe in 2009, and a prequel web series, Stargate Origins, in 2018. Also consistent with the same story are a variety of books, video games and comic books, as well as the direct-to-DVD movies Stargate: Children of the Gods, Stargate: The Ark of Truth, and Stargate: Continuum, which concluded the first television show after 10 seasons.
An independence day is an annual event commemorating the anniversary of a nation's independence or statehood.
Mythic Entertainment was an American video game developer based in Fairfax, Virginia that was most widely recognized for developing the 2001 massively multiplayer online role-playing game Dark Age of Camelot. Mythic was a prolific creator of multiplayer online games following its establishment in the mid-1990s.
Godzilla is a 1998 American monster film directed and co-written by Roland Emmerich. Produced by TriStar Pictures, Centropolis Entertainment, Fried Films, and Independent Pictures, and distributed by TriStar, it is a reboot of Toho Co., Ltd.'s Godzilla franchise. It is also the 23rd film in the franchise and the first Godzilla film to be completely produced by a Hollywood studio. The film stars Matthew Broderick, Jean Reno, Maria Pitillo, Hank Azaria, Kevin Dunn, Michael Lerner, and Harry Shearer. The film is dedicated to Tomoyuki Tanaka, the co-creator and producer of various Godzilla films, who died in April 1997. In the film, authorities investigate and battle a giant monster who migrates to New York City to nest its young.
Zilla is a fictional monster, or kaiju, in Toho Co., Ltd.'s Godzilla media franchise. The character first appeared in Godzilla (1998), released by TriStar Pictures. It was initially created as a reimagining of Godzilla but was later re-branded as a separate character appearing alongside Toho's Godzilla. Patrick Tatopoulos designed it after iguanas with a slim theropod appearance rather than the thick, bipedal designs of Toho's Godzilla. TriStar's Godzilla, both the film and character, were negatively received by fans and critics. In 2004, it was featured in Toho's Godzilla: Final Wars as "Zilla". Afterwards, Toho trademarked new incarnations as Zilla, with only the iterations from the 1998 film and animated series retaining the Godzilla copyright and trademark.
Independence Day UK is a one-hour BBC Radio 1 science fiction special, first broadcast on 4 August 1996.
Dean Devlin is an American screenwriter, producer, director, and actor of film and television. He is best known for his collaborations with director Roland Emmerich, and for his work on the Librarian and Leverage television franchises. He is a co-founder of the production companies Centropolis Entertainment and Electric Entertainment.
Alien is a science fiction horror and action media franchise centered on the original film series which depicts warrant officer Ellen Ripley and her battles with an extraterrestrial lifeform, commonly referred to as the Alien ("Xenomorph"), and the prequel series following the exploits of the David 8 android and the aliens referred to as the "Engineers".
ID4 Online, known more formally as Independence Day Online, was an action game developed by Mythic Entertainment, and published by Centropolis Interactive. It is based on the 1996 film Independence Day.
Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem is a 2007 action game exclusive to the PlayStation Portable, developed by Rebellion Developments and published by Vivendi Games. It was released in November 2007 in North America and Europe, and December 2007 in Australia. It is part of the Alien vs. Predator franchise, an amalgamation of the Alien and Predator franchises. Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem is a tie-in to the film of the same title, which was released shortly after the game.
Independence Day is a combat flight simulator video game based on the 1996 film of the same name. The game was developed by Radical Entertainment and published by Fox Interactive in North America and Electronic Arts internationally for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation and Sega Saturn.
Predator is an American science fiction action horror anthology media franchise centered on a film series depicting humankind's encounters with an intelligent race of extraterrestrial trophy-seeking hunters known as the Yautja. Produced and distributed by 20th Century Studios, the series began with Predator (1987), directed by John McTiernan, and was followed by three sequels, Predator 2 (1990), Predators (2010), The Predator (2018), and one prequel, Prey (2022). The series has led to numerous novels, comics, and video game spin-offs such as Predator: Concrete Jungle (2005) and Predator: Hunting Grounds (2020). The Alien vs. Predator franchise combines the continuities and universe of the Alien franchise with the Predator franchise and consists of two films as well as varying series of comics, books, and video games. Unlike the Alien franchise, which features a continuous story arc, the Predator films are more non-linear, instead focusing on individual encounters with the Predators spread across multiple timeframes.
Independence Day: Resurgence is a 2016 American science fiction action film co-written, directed and co-produced by Roland Emmerich and co-written and co-produced by Dean Devlin, serving as a sequel to Independence Day (1996). It stars an ensemble cast that consists of Liam Hemsworth, Jeff Goldblum, Bill Pullman, Maika Monroe, Travis Tope, William Fichtner, Charlotte Gainsbourg, and Judd Hirsch. The film takes place twenty years after the events of the first film, during which the United Nations has collaborated to form the Earth Space Defense, an international military defense and research organization. Through reverse engineering, the world has fused the power of alien technology with humanity's and laid the groundwork to resist a second invasion.
The feature film Independence Day has been the inspiration for a series of novels. The first three novels were originally published in the 1990s based on the 1996 release of the first film, and were republished in March 2016 as a single-volume edition.
