There are various characters with their own stories throughout the united states, but it’s a good thing that they merge very quickly. A good thing about this movie, is that it doesn’t waste a lot of time with things that are not strictly related to the battle. You’re introduced to various character so you know what their stories are, and then you see how they interact and deal with the situation.
It starts with the SETI institute - search for extra-terrestrial intelligence. They pick up a strange signal, and it is soon confirmed that it comes from some alien ships who is very kindly slowing down.
During a night, various ships cover the sky of various cities around the planet.
The characters are: captain Steven Hiller (Will Smith) and his girlfriend Jasmine (Vivica Fox), plus her son and her dog Boomer. They are in love but his colleagues warn him that he want make a career if he marries a stripper.
The USA president Whitmore (Bill Pullman) and the first lady (Mary McDonnell). They have a daughter (Mae Whitman) because that’s what a president must be, a family man.
David (Jeff Goldblum) who is very keen on saving the planet, recycling and stuff, and who can decode an alien message, so he wants to go to the White House - with his father (Judd Hirsch), a fine actor, always a pleasure to see him in a movie - to warn his wife Constance (Margaret Colin) who works for the president. They live separated, but they still love each other. David once broke into her office and punched Whitmore in the face because he wrongly thought he was having an affair with his wife, before he became president.
Miguel (James Duval) with his brother and sister, and their alcoholic father (Randy Quaid) who was once a pilot, but then started drinking and saying that he was abducted by aliens.
When cities are destroyed and lots and lots of people die, Jasmine is able to save herself, her son and the dog (good) and drives around picking up any survivors she can find, including the first lady. She manages to reach Hiller, but the first lady is too badly injured and will die anyway.
Only now the president finds out that the area 51 is real, and that they have an alien aircraft there, luckily from the same aliens that are here now. Dr. Okun (Brent Spiner) works there, and is very excited when captain Hiller comes with the body of an alien. They probably thought he was dead, but he wasn’t, and he killed Okun before they could kill him.
The aliens are indeed mortals, but their ships have force-fields around them, and as long as the shields are raised they can do absolutely no damage to them.
David, who was dealing with the whole thing by getting drunk, has an idea from his father: give the aliens a cold, a virus: he devices a computer virus that once uploaded to the alien mothership will lower the shields of the alien ships worldwide.
Hiller and David go together to do this, and they warn every Country on the planet where the alien ships have appeared of what they are planning to do and what they will have to do afterwards (attack and destroy, basically). Now, I don’t know which is more ridiculous, that the president himself would lead the attack, what with him being a pilot, or that David can upload the virus to the mothership using his own personal computer, or that there are people in each of the world Countries that still know Morse code, but you know what, it really doesn’t matter much in this case. This movie is very entertaining, and you can easily laugh at the pc, take the morse code as a brilliant solution, and sort of smirk at the President-Soldier.
There’s a shortage of pilots so they enlist any volunteer men with piloting experience, and this way the alcoholic dad has a chance to redeem himself at his family’s eyes, because he volunteers and has a good chance of downloading his missiles and destroying a ship, and when there is a malfunction and he won’t launch them, he sacrifices his life by piloting his plane right into it.
As I said, I still like this movie very much, the way it’s written, right at the heart of the story without losing itself in useless side-stories, and the choice of actors: Will Smith, funny and handsome, and Jeff Goldblum his usual sexy self, and Vivica Fox, so beautiful but credible in an active role, and my favourite Baldwin, Adam, playing major Mitchell and also Judd Hirsch, a name that few people I know would recognize and yet a fine actor that is always a very fine addition to any movie, as is Robert Loggia playing the general.
I love how all the characters that we come to know separately really come together and interact the whole time. I love that it’s not simply an American problem, but that they communicate with all the other Countries to coordinate the Earth resistance. I like that they don’t stress too much on the deaths, meaning that we know that many many people have died, since entire cities around the world were destroyed, but we don’t have to look at tragic war scenes. This is an entertainment-movie, and you don’t focus on the tragedy but focus on the resistance.
The scene when the alien ship covers the whole city always reminded me of the anime Fushigi no umi no Nadia (In English The secret of Blue Water, in Italian il mistero della pietra azzurra) :-p
Anyway, Earth resistance wins, forces around the world destroy the alien ships and both Hiller and David come back unharmed because luck is always the greatest ally, and they can hug their loved ones, although I don’t believe for a second that this time it’ll work between David and Constance, because some people are not made to stay together, no matter how much they love each other. David said that she preferred her career to their marriage, but I mean, she worked in direct contact with the USA President, it’s not a little thing, maybe he could have understood and be more accommodating, right?
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