Twenty years is a long time to wait for a phone call that never comes. For fans of the original 1996 blockbuster, that’s basically how it felt when Independence Day Resurgence finally hit theaters in the summer of 2016. The original was a cultural earthquake. It turned Will Smith into the biggest movie star on the planet and made blowing up the White House a cinematic rite of passage. But the 2016 film? It felt like a echoes of a party that ended two decades ago.
People expected a revolution. They got a retread.
Honestly, the "Independence Day 2016" release was a fascinating case study in how to—and how not to—handle a legacy sequel. It had the scale. It had Jeff Goldblum being peak Jeff Goldblum. It even had a massive $165 million budget. Yet, it struggled to justify its own existence to a generation of moviegoers who had already seen the world end dozens of times in Marvel movies and Christopher Nolan epics.
The Will Smith Sized Hole in the Middle of the Movie
You can't talk about Independence Day Resurgence without talking about the guy who wasn't there. Will Smith’s Captain Steven Hiller was the soul of the first film. His absence in 2016 wasn't just a casting hiccup; it was a structural collapse.
Reports at the time suggested Smith was interested, but the timing didn't work out. He chose to do Suicide Squad instead. Director Roland Emmerich had to pivot, fast. The script was rewritten to explain that Hiller died in a test flight of an alien-hybrid fighter jet years prior. It was a cold way to treat a legend.
Instead of Smith, we got Jessie T. Usher playing Hiller’s son and Liam Hemsworth as a rebellious pilot. They’re fine actors, but they lacked that "kick the alien in the face" charisma that made the 1996 film a global phenomenon. The 2016 sequel felt like it was trying to pass the torch, but the wick was wet. When you replace a superstar with "younger, cheaper" versions, audiences smell it. They felt it in their wallets.
Why the 2016 World-Building Actually Kind of Worked
Credit where it's due: the world-building in Independence Day Resurgence was actually pretty cool. Unlike most sequels that just repeat the same day, this movie imagined an alternate timeline. In this 2016, humanity had spent 20 years harvesting alien tech.
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We had moon bases. We had hybrid fighter jets. We had global unity because, hey, nothing brings people together like nearly being wiped out by giant space squids.
This "Earth Space Defense" (ESD) concept was the film's strongest suit. Seeing David Levinson (Jeff Goldblum) as the Director of ESD felt natural. The movie showed us a world where the 1996 invasion wasn't just a scary memory, but the foundation of a new civilization. It was optimistic sci-fi, which is rare these days.
But then the aliens came back. And they brought a bigger ship. A much, much bigger ship.
The "Queen" alien was a massive 3,000-mile wide vessel that literally had its own gravity. It started sucking up entire cities. While the visual effects were top-tier for 2016, it suffered from "sequel bloat." If the first ship was big, the second one has to be a continent. It’s a trope that felt tired even back then. When everything is huge, nothing feels dangerous. You lose the stakes in the pixels.
The Box Office Reality Check
Let’s look at the cold, hard numbers because they tell a story of "close but no cigar."
The 1996 original made over $817 million worldwide. In 1996 dollars, that's monstrous. It was the highest-grossing film of that year. Fast forward to the Independence Day 2016 release, and the film pulled in roughly $389 million. On a $165 million production budget—not including the massive marketing spend—that’s a disappointment. It didn't lose money in the long run, but it certainly didn't launch the "Independence Day Universe" that 20th Century Fox was clearly hoping for.
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Why the drop? Competition was part of it. 2016 was a crowded year. We had Captain America: Civil War, Finding Dory, and Rogue One. The "disaster movie" genre, which Emmerich essentially pioneered, had been diluted. Every superhero movie now ends with a city being leveled. The novelty of seeing a landmark explode had evaporated by the time the 2016 sequel arrived.
Characters We Actually Liked (and Ones We Didn't)
Jeff Goldblum and Judd Hirsch (playing his father, Julius) carried the movie's heart. Their chemistry is effortless. Every time the movie focused on them, it felt like Independence Day.
Then you had the newcomers.
Maika Monroe took over the role of Patricia Whitmore from Mae Whitman (a casting choice that caused a fair bit of controversy and "bad look" headlines at the time). Bill Pullman returned as a bearded, PTSD-stricken former President Whitmore. His "sacrifice" play at the end was a blatant attempt to recapture the magic of his iconic 1996 speech. It was emotional, sure, but it felt like a cover song.
The addition of Dr. Brakish Okun (Brent Spiner) waking up from a 20-year coma was a highlight. It leaned into the weirdness. It was campy. It was fun. The 2016 film was at its best when it embraced its own absurdity rather than trying to be a gritty war drama.
Critical Reception and the "Rotten" Problem
Critics weren't kind. The movie currently sits with a 29% on Rotten Tomatoes.
The consensus was that it lacked the "charm" of the first. That’s a vague word, "charm," but it fits. The first movie was a character-driven ensemble piece that happened to have aliens. The 2016 version was a CGI-driven spectacle that happened to have characters.
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The dialogue was often clunky. Characters would explain things they already knew just so the audience could keep up. "It’s a touch-screen," one character says about alien tech... in 2016. We all had iPhones, guys. We get it.
The Cliffhanger That Went Nowhere
The most frustrating part for fans of Independence Day Resurgence was the ending. It ended on a massive cliffhanger. We find out there are other alien races out there—friendly ones—who want to give us the technology to take the fight to the "Harvesters" on their own turf.
It set up an intergalactic war. Independence Day 3 was supposed to be a space odyssey.
But because the 2016 box office was lukewarm, those plans were shelved. Disney bought Fox shortly after, and the franchise has been in stasis ever since. We’re left with a sequel that serves mostly as a bridge to a third movie that will probably never happen. It’s a middle chapter with no beginning or end.
Actionable Takeaways for Movie Buffs and Creators
If you’re revisiting this film or studying why certain sequels fail, there are a few "rules of the road" to keep in mind.
- Star Power is Non-Negotiable: If your franchise is built on a specific persona (like Will Smith), you can't just swap them out and expect the same results. You have to change the tone entirely.
- Scale Isn't Substance: A 3,000-mile wide ship isn't "scarier" than a 15-mile wide ship if the audience doesn't care about the people on the ground.
- The 20-Year Gap is Dangerous: Nostalgia is a powerful drug, but it wears off in the first twenty minutes. After that, the movie has to stand on its own feet. Independence Day Resurgence leaned too hard on "Remember this?"
- Watch the "Vance" and "Brakish" Scenes: If you want to see what worked, watch the scenes involving the older cast. There’s a shorthand and a comfort there that the movie desperately needed more of.
To get the most out of a rewatch, try to view it as a standalone sci-fi alternate history rather than a direct sequel. The "Earth Space Defense" tech and the concept of a unified planet are genuinely interesting. It’s a great "what if" scenario that just happened to get bogged down by the requirements of being a summer blockbuster.
If you’re looking for a double feature, pair it with the original 1996 film back-to-back. You’ll see exactly how much the "visual language" of Hollywood changed in two decades—shifting from practical models and pyrotechnics to digital environments and green screens. It’s a lesson in the evolution of cinema, for better or worse.