We always knew they’d come back. Exactly two decades after Jeff Goldblum and Will Smith sent the extra-terrestrials packing, earning a celebratory cigar in the process, those aggrieved aliens are returning. That’s right, director Roland Emmerich is primed to lay siege to Earth’s prominent landmarks once again when Independence Day: Resurgence looms over theaters in June.
In anticipation of the sequel’s long-awaited arrival, which has more to do with production setbacks and less with the scientific realities of space-travelling across lightyears, 20th Century Fox has premiered the film’s latest TV spot during the Super Bowl, offering budding fans a much more comprehensive look at the story.
Granted, it’s one that Will Smith’s Colonel Steven Hiller won’t be a part of, with Fox bumping off his character in the intervening years to excuse the actor’s commitment to Warner’s Suicide Squad. Celebrated as an international hero, Hiller’s arc still features indirectly in the narrative of Resurgence in that his fallen pilot was killed while testing alien technology leftover from the initial invasion. It’s part and parcel of the sequel’s set-up, with humanity able to greatly advance its medical, technological and military frontiers with alien tech.
However, as today’s sizzle reel unequivocally proves, even a bolstered arsenal isn’t enough to prepare us for what’s coming. Liam Hemsworth headlines Emmerich’s long-in-development sequel as the de facto hero, flanked by a cast that includes old faces and new: Bill Pullman, Jeff Goldblum, Vivica A. Fox, Brent Spiner, Jessie Usher and Maika Monroe.
Independence Day: Resurgence opens on June 24.
Twenty years after the War of 1996, the international community recovers and the United Nations creates the Earth Space Defense (ESD), a united global defense program that serves as Earth’s early warning system and the main defense force using technology salvaged from remains of the alien forces, with some military forces assembled on the Moon. However, the aliens were able to send a distress signal before their final defeat while others went into hiding elsewhere around the world. The aliens in deep space receive the signal and sends a larger and a more powerful battle fleet than the previous ones, threatening the human race once more.