На основе фильма в 1997 году компанией «Fox Interactive» была создана одноименная компьютерная игра.
Аббревиатура «ID4», которой первоначально именовался этот фильм, была создана после того, как возникли юридические проблемы с правом на название «День независимости».
Специальная версия фильма имеет хронометраж 153 минуты.
В начале фильма по телевизору начинается прямое включение с Новосибирском (Россия), после этого на нем показывают карту с городами: Москва, Петроград, Новосйойрск (создатели имели ввиду Новосибирск).
Bill Pullman used the memory of a decayed tooth which was pulled from his mouth in order to come up with a terrified expression when speaking with the alien invaders.
To achieve the effect of flames traveling down the street, they a had miniature tilted upward and had the explosives at the bottom with a camera mounted on the top.
Two scenes, one where a replica of the bus from Speed crashes through a billboard for the movie Stargate, also directed by Roland Emmerich, and one where a theater whose marquee reads "Coming Soon: Independence Day" is destroyed, were filmed but didn't appear in the final cut.
In the Special Edition, during the scenes where David is searching for his ex-wife's telephone number, his computer screen displays humorous street names such as "Heresheis Avenue."
As is the case with many 20th Century Fox Films, the film cans for the advance screening prints and show prints had a code name. Independence Day was "Dutch 2".
The final sentence of the President's speech was not in the original script and was added at the last minute for dramatic effect in an effort to convince 20th Century Fox not to avoid a legal battle to earn the right to name the film "Independence Day."
Fox first wanted to open the film on Memorial Day and change the name to 'Doomsday' to avoid the fierce competition on July 4th.
The film initially was green-lit with a budget of US$69 million from the studio.
The advertising campaign cost US$24 million. The airtime for the trailer shown during the Superbowl alone cost US$1.3 million.
Director Roland Emmerich got the idea for the film while fielding a question about the existence of alien life during promotion for Stargate.
The President's speech was filmed on 6 August 1995 in front of an old airplane hangar. The hangar once housed the Enola Gay, which dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima exactly 50 years earlier on 6 August 1945.
The man in the office building that is destroyed in the initial attack is played by Volker Engel, the movie's visual effects supervisor.
Will Smith's squadron were stationed at El Toro air base. This is the same name as the air base from which the Flying Wing Bomber flew out of to drop the A-bomb on the Martians in the movie The War of the Worlds. El Toro Marine Corps Air Station was a real air base in Orange County, California, from 1943 until its decommissioning in 1999.
Matthew Perry was originally offered the role of Captain Jimmy "Raven" Wilder but pulled out at the last minute. His father John Bennett Perry plays a secret serviceman in the movie.
On the Special Edition DVD, delete scenes are replaced that explain apparent inconsistencies in the Theatrical Version: - Upon arriving at Area 51, Russell Casse searches frantically for a doctor for his son Troy. He states that he has "a problem with his adrenal cortex". Since we've seen Troy vomiting and feverish earlier, he could be suffering from either Addison's Disease or Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia, both which affect the Adrenal Cortex and have vomiting as a symptom. - Miguel refers to Russell by his first name for most of the movie. A deleted scene reveals that this is because, as Miguel tells Russell, "You're not my father. You're just the guy that married my mother." This also explains why Miguel looks very little like Russell. - When David is driving to Washington DC to alert Constance, he tells his father, "She always keeps her cell phone listed for emergencies." When he calls her, she answers the phone and says, "David! How did you get this number?" A deleted scene explains how he tracked her secret cell phone number down by searching for various aliases she's used in the past - in this case, it was her married name. - When Jasmine is first seen dancing, it soon cuts to her saying, "I came to get my check and I got talked into working." If one wonders where her son is while she's working unexpectedly (no time to call a sitter), a deleted scene shows him and Boomer the dog in the manager's office waiting for her. This is part of the reason she quits - her boss yells at her for "bringing that kid in here."
The White House interiors were originally built for The American President, and were subsequently used for Mars Attacks!.
Dr. Okun is a reference to Jeffrey A. Okun, one of the visual effects supervisors from director Roland Emmerich's previous film Stargate
Producer Dean Devlin said that well over half of the dialogue in the scenes Jeff Goldblum shared with Judd Hirsch and Will Smith was improvised.
The line, "Eh, fuck my lawyer," was improvised by Harvey Fierstein and the expletive was dubbed over with "forget" in the final cut.
An entire scene in which Jeff Goldblum explains the nature of the alien signal had to be cut to avoid possible controversy that would have arisen from a shot in which Harvey Fierstein planted an unscripted kiss on an unsuspecting Goldblum.
Footage of fiery debris was captured on film after a pyrotechnics malfunction occurred on set. The footage was used as the falling wreckage of the "Welcome Wagon" helicopters.
Over 70 mock news broadcasts were created for the film.
Traditionally, Roland Emmerich's regular film crew gives the crew or cast member the nickname "Evil" if their name appears in the credits at the same time the music turns ominous. With this film, Julie Moran (who appears as herself) received the honors.
Holds the record for most miniature modelwork to appear in one film. It is said more minatures were used for this film than in any other two films combined. Due to the advances in digital technology since this film's release, most experts believe this record may stand forever.
The initials of several model shop crew members can be seen as graffiti on a wall behind the tank that's parked on the freeway in Houston.
During the alien's initial attack, the shots of cars landing on other cars was achieved by using cranes that released actual hollowed-out cars onto cars loaded w/ explosives.
The alien spacecraft miniature was 65 feet wide.
The White House which exploded was built at 1/12 scale, just to be blown up. Nine cameras filmed the explosion at various speeds, one of which was 12 times faster than normal, then played back at normal speed to make the explosion seem larger on film.
The movie features, thanks to special effects, 3,978 F-18 Hornets, 52,278 pieces of debris, 3,931 alien attackers, 1,549 missiles, and 22,014 light balls.
The Macintosh laptop that David uses is shown as a Powerbook XXXX, a prototype model with no designation. Despite this, clips from the film, showing the laptop with its prominent Apple logo, were used a series of Powerbook ads at the time. The ads' slogan was "What kind of laptop would *you* choose to save the world?"
According to producer/co-writer Dean Devlin, the US military had agreed to support the film by allowing the crew to film at military bases, consulting the actors who have military roles, etc. However, after learning of the Area 51 references in the script, they withdrew their support.
On the DVD commentary, visual effects supervisor Volker Engel reveals that the fire engine seen tumbling through the air was simply a model purchased at a toy store.
After the climatic battle, one of the F/A-18s that returns to the base can be seen with the tail code of 'VM'. This is the designation for Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 314 (VMFA-314) Black Knights, the same squadron that Will Smith flies with in the film and that gets massacred by the city destroyer that took out LA.
Between principal photography and the re-shoot of Russell's scenes in his F18, the cockpit mock-up was used in The Rock and had been repainted. Therefore Russell's F18 is darker than the other planes.
In the briefing room scene at Area 51 behind Hiller and Grey there is a night vision pan of the base. What you are seeing are actual shots of the real Area 51 taken by a conspiracy theorist from a place called "Freedom Ridge". The ridge was commandeered by the U.S. government in the late 90's and is no longer accessible to the public.
The phrases said by the pilots when firing their missiles is NATO brevity code for the types of missiles being launched. "Fox One" means a semi-active radar-guided missile (AIM-7 Sparrow), "Fox Two" is an infrared-guided (heat-seeking) missile (AIM-9 Sidewinder), and "Fox Three" is is an active radar-guided missile (AIM-120 AMRAAM).
In the special edition Vivica A. Fox's character quits her job as a stripper. When she leaves, she says to her boss, "Nice working for you, Mario" in a sarcastic tone. This is a jab at producer Mario Kassar, who forced Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin to cut some scenes from their last film, Stargate.
"Everybody Wants To Rule The World" by Tears for Fears was originally picked to play during the film's introduction before it was replaced by R.E.M.'s "It's the End of the World As We Know It".
The line "Elvis has left the building!", which Will Smith yells toward the end of the movie, is translated "Last train to Mikkeli has just left!" on the Finnish DVD. Mikkeli is a town in Finland.
Production designer Patrick Tatopoulos presented director Roland Emmerich with two concepts for the aliens. Emmerich liked both designs so much, he came up with the idea to use one design as the actual alien and the other to be a bio-mechanical suit the aliens could wear. Both of Tatopoulos's concepts appear in the film.
In the scene where Cpt. Hiller (Will Smith) is talking to Gen. Grey (Robert Loggia) about retuning to El Toro, the giant screen behind them is displaying some sort of night vision display and the bottom of the screen is endlessly rotating through various numbers and stats. At one point, instead of numbers, the screen reads "And now I see with eye serene the very pulse of the machine - Wordsworth", an excerpt of a William Wordsworth poem entitled "She Was a Phantom of Delight."
The scene in which Will Smith drags the unconscious alien across the desert was filmed on the salt flats near Great Salt Lake in Utah. Smith's line, "And what the hell is that *smell*?" was unscripted. Great Salt Lake is home to tiny crustaceans called brine shrimp. When they die, the bodies sink to the bottom of the lake (which isn't very deep) and decompose. When the wind kicks up just right, the bottom mud is disturbed and the smell of millions of decaying brine shrimp can be very very bad. Apparently, nobody warned Will.
The street names seen on David's laptop screen (Ashford, Volker, etc.) are the names of prominent crew members.
The names of the pilots on the status screen aboard Air Force One during the first retaliation attack are the last names of several of the film's associate producers and video unit team.
Not a single real fixed wing aircraft was actually in the air at any time in this film.
The main helicopter used during the "Welcome Wagon" operation was a Sikorsky S-64 Skycrane which was outfitted with an array of flashing lights. In the DVD commentary, producer Dean Devlin said that when they first test-flew the helicopter with the lights on, over 150 calls were received in Orange County from callers who spotted the helicopter and, unsure of what it was, reported it as a "UFO sighting".
On the Bonneville Salt Flats, cast and crew wearing long pants still managed to get sunburns on their legs; the white salty surface reflected the sunlight up their pant legs.
When Will Smith enters the squadron locker room, the extras (pilots) watching television are real pilots from VMFAT-101, the Marine Corps FA-18 Training Squadron.
VMFA-314 "The Black Knights," the squadron Will Smith belongs to, had been stationed at MCAS El Toro until 1994.
Spanish television advertisements for this movie, showing the large ships hovering over New York, were mistaken by some Spaniards for real disaster news footage much as Orson Welles' War of the Worlds radio play sparked alien-war panic.
Jeff Goldblum's character is a passionate environmentalist. Roland Emmerich would later make an entire film about environmental disaster in The Day After Tomorrow.
Shot in 72 days, an unusually short period of time for such a big blockbuster.
Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich penned the script in four weeks. It was sent out on a Thursday, and they started fielding offers the next day. By Monday, they were in pre-production.
According to the liner notes from the recent La La Land Records limited release of the complete score by David Arnold, the drum rhythm heard during the invasion scenes near the beginning of the film are Morse Code letters D-I-E.
Most of the cast and crew, including Will Smith, were unpleasantly surprised to suffer severe sunburn on their legs during the filming in Utah of the Grand Canyon duel/crash scenes.
The producers wanted to find real-life material that reflected how a small but elite air force could face off against overwhelming power (like the alien armada) and they contacted the Israeli Air Force to request footage. The IAF agreed after clearing post-combat videos of any classified materials, and the footage helped Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin script and film the climactic battle.
The film was banned in Lebanon under pressure from Hizbollah, because it included scenes where Israeli and Iraqi soldiers joined forces, in the montage where militaries around the world signed onto the U.S.'s plan to counter-attack the alien forces. In 1996 (and to the present day), Lebanon officially boycotts any form of entertainment that features Israelis.
Shown on a computer monitor in the SETI office is a diagram of "Deep Space Satellite Devlin" (named after producer/co-writer Dean Devlin). The satellite is a miniature version of the Death Star with solar arrays attached.
The highest-grossing movie of 1996.
The smoky effects of the alien spacecraft as it moves into position above New York City (starts about 22 minutes 44 seconds into the movie) was created by a double exposure on the film. The effect comes from recording water in a tank turning murky after a clod of dirt was dropped into it.
Jada Pinkett Smith turned down the role of Jasmine Dubrow because of scheduling conflicts with The Nutty Professor.
The "futuristic" looking computer in the control center at Area 51 are components of an IBM AN/FSQ-7 Combat Direction Central, built in 1954 to protect the US from Soviet bomber attack. It was the largest and heaviest computer system ever built, the full system weighing 6000 tons and taking up an entire floor of a bomb-proof blockhouse. Components of decommissioned systems were sold for scrap and bought by film and television production companies who wanted futuristic looking computers, despite the fact they were built in the 1950s. The components used in this film were previously used in 'The Time Tunnel (1966)' and 'The Towering Inferno (1974)' amongst many others.
Многие актеры массовки — это люди, выжившие после цунами.
Наоми Уоттс и Юэн МакГрегор ранее уже играли персонажей, состоящих в отношениях, в фильме «Останься» (2005).
На кинофестивале в Торонто в 2012 году герои фильма встретились со своими прототипами из реальной жизни — семьей, которая выжила после цунами, на чьей истории и основан фильм.
Этот фильм был одним из последних фильмов испанской студии «Ciudad de la Luz» (City of Light). В октябре 2012 года она объявила о своем закрытии.
На самом деле семья, по образу которой созданы персонажи этого фильма, это семья испанцев, жившая в Японии во время цунами.
По словам Наоми Уоттс продюсеры фильма услышали интервью по испанскому радио, в котором семья рассказывала свою историю о том, как они пережили цунами, и решили снять по ней фильм.
Когда Даниэль встречает своего отца, тот обращается к нему по-шведски, произнося его имя как «Йохан». Настоящее имя актера сыгравшего роль Даниэля — Йохан Сандберг, а актер, игравший его отца, это его настоящий отец — Жан Роланд Сандберг.
Когда Лукас разговаривает со шведом, который отчаянно пытается найти своего сына, он берет ручку и начинает писать имя мальчика левой рукой, но в следующем кадре он пишет его уже правой рукой.
Имя главного героя Элиа соответсвует имени библейского пророка Ильи, смысл деяний которого перекликается со многими эпизодами в фильме. Так например сцена, в которой Элиа разговаривает с воронами, соответствует библейской легенде о том как пророка накормил ворон.
Название картины перекликается с известной комедией Уильяма Шекспира «Укрощение строптивой» (по итальянски La bisbetica domato), в которой своенравную и капризную героиню вразумляет мужчина.
Фильм занимает 11-е место по посещаемости среди зарубежных лент в советском кинопрокате.
The carpet on Lisa's "sick room" was fake. It was just painted on the floor to accomplish the stunt where Lisa's bed gets pulled out of the room with a tractor.
