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Yo, what's going on everybody? Happy Friday, it's the Redbeard Podcast, and this week we're gonna be doing a special for you. We're actually gonna be talking today about Independence Day, the movie. We just passed July 4th, hope everybody had a good holiday, but no more of a perfect time to talk about the movie and how big of an impact it had on cinema at large and how it kind of revolutionized the way movies are made today.
So stick around and enjoy this Independence Day episode. Redbeard Podcast is brought to you by D-School Dudes. Mankind, that word should have new meaning for all of us today. We can't be consumed by our petty differences anymore.
We will be united in our common interests. Perhaps it's fate that today is the Fourth of July, and you will once again be fighting for our freedom. Not from tyranny, oppression, or persecution, but from annihilation. We're fighting for our right to live, to exist.
And should we win the day, the Fourth 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 vanish without a fight. We're going to live on.
We're going to survive. Today, we celebrate our Independence Day. Hey everybody, we're back. And welcome to this Friday's episode of the Redbeard Podcast.
I got Jim and Cooley with me. What's up guys? What up? Hello.
Hey. So this week we decided as the Redbeard Podcast crew to bring you guys a really special episode because two days ago it was the Fourth of July and just the perfect time to talk about a movie called Independence Day. Which is actually Jim. What is this movie to you?
It is my favorite movie of all time. Of all time. I know a lot of people are going to disagree with that. But God, it was great.
It was an awesome movie, man. It wasn't an old to me into who I am today. Hey, man. It was one of the first, well not one of the first, but I would say probably like it's up there in the third or fourth.
As far as like my favorite like Alien Invasion movies or Alien Movies. This movie actually came out 22 years ago to the day as of the Fourth of July. This past Fourth of July. It actually came out on July 3rd at midnight.
But I ended up seeing it on the Friday and I'll never forget that when I was in the theater I actually kind of felt like shit. I went with my dad and my sister and didn't expect the movie to be as good as it was, but the movie was awesome. I actually felt better after I left the theater because the adrenaline started going. I was sick.
It was a really good movie. What are some things about this movie that really stand out to you, man? What makes this your favorite movie of all time? I'm sure it's like a ton of things.
But there's got to be something specifically. It really is. It was that perfect movie that came out at the perfect time when I was the perfect age. It was the first movie that I saw that really had special effects that blew me away.
I was always kind of a sci-fi nerd at the time. And Independence Day was that first movie. How old were you when it came out? I was 15 at the time.
I was 15 years old. So I was finally going to movies by myself or with friends. I saw this movie. Sci-fi was always like Star Trek at the time.
There wasn't really cool science fiction. And then this movie came out and it brought forth Will Smith, who became a superstar after this movie. I don't know the whole idea of the disaster movie kind of made the forefront in this whole apocalypse movie where the world is going to end. It's happened before movies, but it really rang true in this one.
This was the first time that it became a blockbuster and spawned this whole genre of end of the world movies. Not all of them were good. As a matter of fact, most of them weren't good. But this was the one that started it all.
We wouldn't have Armageddon. We wouldn't have the Avengers if it wasn't for this apocalyptic movie. This movie definitely was another movie that really made Jeff Goldblum a household name. He was pretty big after Jurassic Park in 1993.
And then this movie came out in 1996. The fact that this movie was the second big movie, I think that a lot of people were like, Jeff Goldblum, the guy from Jurassic Park. It's cool that he was actually in this. I loved this character in this.
Well, no, of course the fly. That was the big one. Because that one put him on the map for me. I saw that and I was like, this dude's dope.
He's a dope. Well, when you think about the power sci-fi act. I mean, the fly was like an 80s movie. And then that was when he was super young.
And then fast forward like early 90s, you got Jurassic Park. And then three years later, he's an Independence Day among other things. And now Jeff Goldblum has just become a parody of himself, I think. I mean, there's a lot of things about Jeff Goldblum that I think are interesting.
He's actually going to be at Boston Comic Con. I'm hoping to meet him. He's a funny dude, man. He does a lot of funny things.
Him and by the way, Boston Comic Con and Michael J. Fox are going to be at Boston Comic Con. I'm hoping to meet both of them. I'm in the other camp where I don't really think that this was like the greatest movie ever.
I think it was a good movie. Yeah. But actually, I'm sorry. Let me reiterate.
I think it was a fun movie. Let's put it that way. It was a fun movie that I could go to the theater. I could eat popcorn.
I could be blown away by a bunch of like really cool special effects. Underwhelmed by a bunch of really underwhelming special effects. And it just ran this gamut. But to me, it was a story that just, and I'll start right if I just jump in to something like some interesting stuff that I found out.
Because I did a little bit of research was Emmerich. The director, Roland Emmerich, was a, he started film school in 1977. Yeah. Right?
So what does that mean for his film style and what he's going to bring to the table? He was influenced greatly by, you know, 77 was the other Star Wars came out. 75 was the other Jaws came out. You had in 1978, there were some other films that came out.
1979 was Alien. Right? Like you could see all of these little bits and pieces that he threw. There was actually a scene in this movie that was straight out of Star Wars.
And I don't know if, do you know what I'm talking about, Jim? Are you talking about when the, I'm trying to think when Captain Hiller is flying away from the spaceship, the little mini drone? No, no, Grand Canyon. The planning sequence when they're in that little space.
Oh, yes. And they're talking about this impossible mission to go and like target this like 20 centimeter gap. I don't know how big it was really. But I mean that little gap that, you know, it's impossible.
Nobody's going to be able to fly a ship into that. And like, you know, Will Smith steps up and he's like, I'd like to give it a shot, sir. And it was like, that was... I'm an operating aircraft.
No one in this world is wild. Wow, if I can operate. And this is straight up the Death Star attack. This is straight up the Death Star attack planning sequence in Star Wars.
I've seen the ship in action, sir. I know it's capabilities. Did enough times you take him down. Do yourself.
You know, it was, look, man, to me, to me, like that, and that wasn't bad. I'm not saying that that was a bad thing. I'm just saying that that was, you can see his influences here. And so it was in Omar's, right?
Like I'll take it as that. I'm not saying he was ripping him off. I'm saying that was, you can see like where he's getting his, not his ideas, but his influences. But I think that's normal, man.
I think like when any movie or any director, I mean they're basing, you know, what they want to see on film. You know, because of the things that have influenced them in the past. And I feel like that's, I mean, anybody's going to bring some things that have touched them in a way and tried to kind of feed off that. Like that stuff keeps them going.
One of the things I found interesting about this movie is that Dean Devlin and director Ronald Emmerich, they actually finished this screenplay. They finished the screenplay. What did I say? Ronald?
Oh, Roland, sorry. I don't know how that also came up my tongue the wrong way. Yeah, I mean, Roland Emmerich, they actually finished this screenplay in a hotel in Mexico. Just like a weird fact.
And it's never really explained why they were there probably for something, but they finished the screenplay in a hotel in Mexico. And then they pitched it to studios, check this out. They pitched it to studios on a Thursday. It was greenlit the next day on a Friday.
And they started pre-production on one day. That would never, ever happen today. That will never happen again. And his directing career has never reached higher points than that moment.
It was the first time he blew up the White House, which we know he would learn to do many more times. Oh my God, that's a staple. He would have done it in 10,000 BC if the White House were around. So that White House that they blew up was actually a model that they built that was 14 feet long and 5 feet high.
And they actually had a backup White House that they had in case the first take didn't actually work. And they had all these different mini explosives rigged up to it. And these people were sitting in almost an arena type setting where they were actually going to film the explosion. So they did it, set up all the triggers, and the White House blew up and they got it on the first shot.
And then after that they obviously slowed down the explosion. Because when they blew up they had multiple camera angles. So you can see the windows exploding and stuff like that. And obviously they put in the spacecraft and the helicopter getting exploded as it taken off.
So I think that's pretty cool that they got that on the first take. And that was one thing the studio was a little ify on. Like, oh you're going to blow up the White House. This might not be a good thing to do politically.
But they got the go ahead and it was one of the most iconic scenes of all time. It is. It's probably the most iconic scene of Independence Day. But how excited were you when you first saw the Empire State building blow up?
Yeah, that was awesome. Oh my God. That was the pinnacle moment for me as a child. When I saw first off the lead up they did a great job in that movie of building up suspense.
Yeah, they did. And then leading up to the moment where they. Well, it's a good like 45-50 minutes before the explosion. Oh yeah, it took a while.
The aliens are coming in and what's happening. And then the helicopter comes in built with all the lights flashing. Yeah, close encounters. Yeah, be kind of like close encounters.
Then the helicopter gets blown up. But welcome, Wagon. What is up with the, all right, close encounters as well. Like, I mean, like, what is up with the idea of like speaking to them with lights without knowing that's a way of communicating.
They're speaking with lights. It's almost like a binary slash, what a Morse code. So that's how they were trying to communicate them. But they also used in close encounters.
They used tones. But with that welcome wagon, it had like patterns of light. They were almost like, when you send out like an SOS with like a flashlight, it's kind of the same type of thing. It's all like mathematics.
I can't explain it. Yeah, I don't know. But I almost feel like using lights to communicate is very non-threatening. Right.
Like it seems semi-peaceful to me. Right. To us as humans. But I'm saying like, you don't know what you're triggering.
I mean, if you're about to meet an alien race, you got to pick something. Yeah, exactly. You don't know how they communicate. I mean, the only, the one movie that I think kind of summed up how we would possibly realistically communicate is contact, where they're sending like plans in with like all binary code and like mathematics.
Like, I feel like it's a universal language in a way. So who knows? I mean, that's, but yeah, I mean, I agree with Jim. You got to start somewhere.
I thought arrival was cool. Oh, the arrival was awesome. Oh, the arrival was good. I thought your top of the screen would be really keen.
No, no, but arrival. Yeah, that was definitely really cool. There was a kid that used to live next door to me that totally had backwards legs and then he had an operation and now he still has a limp, but he's fine. Pretty much.
Cool segue, man. It's true. It really, it happens in life. You know, you don't expect it.
Oh, my God. Don't drink when you're pregnant. Yo, I want to jump in on one thing. You talked about the Empire State Building.
Yes. So here's another cool fact. So the character Russell Case, you know, who's obviously the guy, you know, Randy Quaid plays, he actually was supposed to blow up the ship at the end of the movie. With his like, his, like, crop dusting plane.
Yeah, it was supposed to have a bomb strapped to it and he was supposed to like take off that plane and accept that he wasn't going to come back. And he was, that's how he was going to blow it up. They ran this, like with test audiences and that's like the one problem people had with it. Did you say Russell Case?
Isn't that his name in the movie? I'm Russell Case, sir. I thought it was cousin Eddie. That's booooo.
Shitter's full. Yeah. It was the same character, bro. I guess.
Yeah. They actually reshot it and they put him in an F-16, right? So he, you'll notice too that I'm leading back to the Empire State Building. It's all going to be full circle.
Do it. So they actually had to reshoot it. And if you look at Randy Quaid in one scene, he's got like, shorter hair. And then like when he's like drinking coffee, trying to get silver, his hair is a lot longer.
And he's like, his beard is all like makeup. And then the other thing I noticed is that when he's in the plane and he says, hello boys, he's clean shaven, which I thought was interesting. So, but the other thing too. So he goes up, right?
And that scene, you know, obviously is all special effects. And the other thing that you see happen is the Empire State Building upside down in reverse. Oh, wow. Was it really?
Yeah. That's, they actually use the same shot, but reverse it. Because the Empire State Building comes down like this. If you flip it, it's just going reverse.
That's that same shot. Oh. Which I thought was pretty awesome. So a little fun fact for you right there.
That's interesting. That is very interesting. Yeah. So.
Stations, right? Right? Crazy. It occurred to me that Roland Emmerich is basically like Michael Bay times 10.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Definitely.
He's like the poor man's Michael Bay. Yeah. Yeah. And he's not as womanizing either.
No. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah.
Yeah. I mean, yeah. He's definitely. He loves a man.
And for those that don't listen. Yeah. Yeah. He's very, and to his benefit because I mean, like it's Michael Bay takes a lot of shit for that.
Yeah, he does. Rightfully so. I mean, like you didn't really need Megan Fox in a Transformers movie. I wasn't complaining.
No, I wasn't. Who was completely? Who's the love interest I candy that you need in a movie? I got a shy little buff though.
I don't know. I didn't find that that unbelievable. I mean, there's always like that really attractive girl that likes the guy that like doesn't have to be a 10, but like is quirky in some way. She also didn't look at all like a high schooler.
No. No. No. Just like nobody and Saved By The Bell was in high school.
Yeah. They were all like late college. But when I talk about Michael Bay and Transformers, let's get back to ID for. Yeah.
So did you know that the movie actually was not originally supposed to be called Independence Day? What was it supposed to be called? I don't know what it is originally supposed to be called, but they ended up calling it Independence Day because it was going to be so basically it was a similar movie to another alien movie that was coming out at the same time. That movie was called Mars Attacks.
That was actually supposed to come out in very different movies. Yeah. But they were both alien related at the time. Like they were like aliens are alien invasion, another kind of alien invasion in some ways, but Mars Attacks was actually supposed to be coming out in August.
Got pushed back to December once ID for came out and ID for officially was named Independence Day because of Bill Pullman's speech where he's like today we celebrate our Independence Day. What a classic speech. That line at the end is why they actually called it like ID for Independence Day, which I thought is pretty cool. But Mars Attacks got pushed back because Independence Day was doing so well in theaters that it didn't want that to be overshadowed, but it came out in December and nobody really cares about Mars Attacks anyway.
That Independence speech, Independence Day speech to me was so iconic. I rewrote it for when I lost my virginity. And I'm not going to say the whole thing because it takes forever, but it totally ends with, I'm going to live on. I'm going to have more sex today.
I celebrate my Independence Day. I said it with a group of my friends. And I remember one of my friends stood up and gave the salute, gave the real quick hard-core salute that that guy does afterwards. He's actually like the most hardcore extra of all time.
The best hard-core. For the longest time, I actually thought that was the guy who plays Mr. Nimsicki. After he got fired, I figured he was like, he was like, yes, I'm still going to participate.
James Redporn? James Redporn, yeah. Who I met and was a super nice guy. Also, super obscure fun fact, I was talking about this with Coolier earlier today.
Harry Connick Jr. plays Will Smith's best friend in the movie. He was not supposed to play that part. As a matter of fact, Matthew Perry was cast for that.
And then right before filming, he dropped out. And as a last minute replacement, they got Harry Connick Jr. Who I thought was a great man. Yeah, imagine Matthew Perry going, got it right here.
Yeah. Yeah, doing like revenue in the Netherlands. Kicked the tires and light the fires, big daddy. Also, did Roland Emmerich ever know anything about any US president besides the early ones like George Washington and Abe Lincoln?
What do you mean? He always, and this isn't just Independence Day. It's like all of his like disaster films. The president always like, the US president always sticks around.
You know, I'm not going anywhere. You know, I'm staying right here in the thick of things and I'm going to be the hero and I'm going to go into a bunker. Yeah, when when when Secret Service rolls up and they're like, you know, you know, George Bush, you know, Trump, even, even my beloved fucking Obama. Obama, Jim Carter is jumping into his jumping into the damn car and going to the bunker.
Like, there's, you can't tell the Secret Service that you're not going. They're going to grab you and take you. Macombat Pilot, I belong in the air. I like how he's like, where do you think you're going?
And that's the only question that was asked. Everyone's just like, okay. Yeah, exactly. Secret Service.
Cool. You're the president. I feel like, you know what it was though? I feel like at that point, they already dropped a nuke and it didn't work.
And then they're just like, you know what, at this point, like, it doesn't matter. And if he didn't go up, nothing would have happened because he's the one who's like, I'm going to have a second shot. But I mean, realistically, did it matter? Like, they dropped it on Houston.
I think only wiped out a lot of people. I mean, Houston has screwed for years. So nobody, Houston has a problem. No people can say, remember the Alamo and Amina.
Do you remember that? Yeah. Not around no more. So I think, for me, one thing about Independence Day, man, is it's just such a very quotable movie for me.
Like, I can go back to so many quotes from that. I mean, I've always wanted my computer to start up and just go, good morning, Dave. You know, but say like, my name, but I thought it was just such a cool thing. I love how he always has like that countdown.
I found their code somehow in some weird airway. That's the other thing that made no sense. How did you just find the code? Like, you found a live, like, I found it embedded in their thing.
Checkmate. Like, you know, it's like, all right, cool. I mean, I'm glad you found the countdown, which saved everybody's ass. But, you know, at the same time, how did you just stumble upon that?
Well, I think Will Smith, almost everything that came out of Will Smith's mouth was a catchphrase that was uttered for years to come. Yeah. Like, welcome to Earth. That's what I call a close encounter.
And I was supposed to be a barbecue. And what the hell's that smell? You want to see my clearance? Here's my clearance.
Like, it's all stuff that people are like- Got to get me one of these! You know? It's all memorable lines. And speaking of Will Smith, like I said, this is probably the movie that really catapulted him into Superstardom.
I mean, he was on Fresh Prince, which, as we all know, I think it's one of the beloved TV shows of our generation. Hey, it's still on a rerun, man. No, yeah, it's people love it. And then he did six degrees of separation, you know, to show his dramatic side.
And people were like, oh crap, he can, he might be able to make the jump and do movies via Sirius Actor. And then two years later came out with Bad Boys. And Bad Boys was like the awakening, was like, wait a second, who's this? Yeah.
And then because of that, he gets into Independence Day. Independence Day is this huge blockbuster. Not that Bad Boys wasn't. But Independence Day, at the time, was one of the biggest box office successes of all time.
Yeah, I mean, Bad Boys was an action movie but also had a lot of comedy in it. And this was very similar but had more action and had a more serious tone to it. Yeah. Like for me, I guess the reason why I didn't appreciate it as a film is like, I personally, and this is a personal thing, I like a story about, you know, the character and like finding the character and the hero and watching them grow into the hero to save the day.
Like I don't like, like Will Smith was one of my particular problems with the film because the minute you see him, you automatically know that he is going to be one of the people that pull everything together. He's just like, yeah, he jumps up out of bed, puts his shit on and he's like, I'm going to get that fucking spaceship. Was that another earthquake? Yeah, he's like, they lay in and he gets dressed and she's like, don't go, or whatever she says.
And he's like, yeah, well, why not? And she's like, because of that. And she points at the spaceship. And he doesn't care.
He's just ready to go and fight this thing and it just bothered me a little bit. I mean, I think one of the coolest things about this movie too is that you get to see like the inside of like the mothership. Like they went, they left Earth too, went to space, got into the mothership and then got out. I mean, and that she seemed at the end is so unrealistic by the way.
Like if you actually, you get a side, can you get us out of here in 30 seconds? Dude, I literally put a timer on my phone by like 14 seconds on TV time. They're done. Like they slow 30 seconds down is like 50 seconds.
Like they would have never gotten out of there. And which is, you know, it makes for a great movie and they get out. Still, I feel like that, that squeeze they get through at the end, they should have opened that up a little bit more. What are you, which movie are you talking about?
I'm talking about Independence Day. We're like, the first one? Yeah. They're coming out of the mothership and that triangle door starting to close.
Like, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. To this day. They need to open those up a little bit more because the space that he goes through is impossible. I got confused because I just watched both movies and both movies do the same fucking thing with that close space thing.
And we're going to talk all about episode, we're going to talk about Independence Day resurgence in episode or next episode. One other fun fact I want to throw out just because I remembered it and we're talking about them in the mothership. You know where they're actually lighting the cigars? Or even at the end where like, you know, Jeff Goldblum and they're smoking the cigars.
Do not promise your fireworks. So Jeff Goldblum did not do well with like cigar smoke. He had like a really big problem with it. Like he couldn't do it.
And he had a problem lighting it and keeping it lit. So when they actually had to stop filming, an AD had to take a cigar, continue to light it and keep it going. So they were like, actually, they just handed it back to him. So, but I mean, he looks like he actually knows what he's doing to be honest with yourself.
I guess it's an indication he's a decent actor. Another thing that I personally enjoyed from this movie was the sheer scope of the Alien Invasion. Oh yeah. How gigantic it was.
Yeah. Remember in Star Wars, the very first scene in Star Wars where you see the Rebel ship flying away and then you see the destroyer come in. Yeah. And it just goes on and on and on.
That movie kind of gave me the same feel because you had the mini ships. Yeah. The mini ships were like a mile wide. Yeah, exactly.
And then the mothership was the size of the moon. Well, they did that really good because you actually see like the shadow and then it goes over the American flag which I thought that was a very cool scene where it has, you know, the shows where they landed on the moon. And it shows all the footprints. And then it shows the moon shaking.
And all of the footprints get washed away. I thought that was a very intriguing first moment in the movie to kind of be like, what the F is going on. Yeah. Oh, so good.
Yeah. I mean, I will tell you though, it's definitely up there with one of my favorite Alien movies of all time though. I'm going to say my first one is going to be close encounters. Two is going to be ET and Independence Day is another one.
But I mean, as far as like, I mean, Alien and Predator, they're not really like Alien Invasion movies. It's kind of just like, you know, action movies, but I think those are my top three. ET close encounters and Independence Day. Yeah.
So much of my youth is tied into this movie. I think back of just things that really bring back nostalgia and how I felt when I was a kid. That movie Independence Day, every time that I watch it, it does that for me. It takes me back.
The one part Independence Day that still I enjoy every time is where he goes into Area 51 and sees everything for the first time. And he's like, and my favorite line is they go, he's like, why wasn't I told about this? And then that guy goes, two words Mr. President plausible deniability.
And it's like, that is why our President has no fucking clue if there's something like that. You're, and Jim, you can kind of attest to this. You're a stepfather. You used to work at Area 51 and said there's nothing there that he knows about.
Yep. He worked there. He was working on radar to try and detect the stealth bomber, which was being built there. Yep.
That's not sorry for another time. Yeah, definitely. But yeah, it was a fun fact. He was there and he was like, no aliens, just stealth bomber.
But then he knows about it. Maybe it's above his clearance. He loved it to drink. To forget what you saw there.
Oh, man. Well, yeah. Well, that's it then. That's our Independence Day episode one.
Check us out on Monday when we talk Independence Day to resurgence. Yeah. Or regurgitation. Yeah, that's about right.
Regurgence. Yeah. Yeah. Check us out Monday for that.
And make sure you check out the We Love Wednesday's every Thursday show on Thursdays. And on Mondays after the bachelorette runs, once that ends, you get to listen to the bachelor after party with Becca and Tony. So we'll make sure you tune into that. And we'll see you later.
And check us out on nerdruckasnetwork.com. Yeah, I forgot about that. Yeah, man. Yeah.
That's where you can get all of our stuff. Nerd's making noise. We're on Twitter, too, and everywhere. So check us out.
I'm here for now. Goodbye. Goodbye, everyone. Peace.