By Ben Olson
Reader Staff
Perhaps the second most famous instance of Will Smith smacking somebody in the face happened during the 1996 blockbuster Independence Day when he punched an alien. See it on the big screen Saturday, July 5, at 7 p.m. when the Panida Theater (300 N. First Ave.) screens the PG-13 film as its $5 movie.
Released in the heyday of 1990s blockbusters, Independence Day is an epic adventure starring Smith, Bill Pullman, Jeff Goldblum, Judd Hirsch, Randy Quaid and Vivica A. Fox. It has been credited as the film that caused the resurgence of disaster and sci-fi films that flooded marquees in the late ’90s.
A couple of days before the Fourth of July, an extraterrestrial mothership enters Earth’s orbit just beyond the moon and sends flying saucers to hover over the planet’s largest cities. A few different storylines converge as the world discovers the aliens are not friendly.
What follows is an epic battle that sees Earth’s various militaries struggling to best the foreign invaders as the brightest and quirkiest minds try to figure out how to win the battle for the planet.
Perhaps the best anecdote about Independence Day came from actor Ethan Hawke, who was initially offered the role of Smith’s fighter pilot character and turned it down because he thought the script was ridiculous.
“I remember reading the script, making fun of some of the lines to my friends. Look at this terrible line: ‘E.T. phone home.’ What a stupid line,” said Hawke.
The actor saw Independence Day on its opening weekend because he thought it would be “amusing to see how bad” it was.
“I walk into the theater, obviously it’s completely sold out. … Will Smith says, you know, the ‘E.T. phone home’ line and boom, the place roars. … I’m sitting there going, ‘Oh my god,” he said.
Smith made his own mistake a few years later by turning down the role of Neo in The Matrix. Touché.
Don’t miss out like Ethan Hawke. For only $5, you can watch aliens invade Earth. What a deal.
