00:00On behalf of the planet Earth, every 4th of July.
00:08Independence Day is easily one of those all-time favorite franchises for a lot of fans.
00:13It kicked things off back in 1996 and later returned with Independence Day Resurgence.
00:19Now, almost a decade later, we're finally hearing fresh updates about a possible third movie,
00:24and honestly, it's only natural people are still curious about where the story goes next.
00:30The original film was absolutely massive, pulling in over $817 million worldwide.
00:36It ended up becoming the highest-grossing movie of 1996,
00:40and for a while, even stood as the second-biggest film ever globally, just behind Jurassic Park.
00:46So yeah, safe to say it was huge, and success like that almost always sets the stage for a franchise.
00:52Back in May 2015, reports suggested that both Independence Day 3 and even 4 were being planned.
01:00Then, in October 2016, director Roland Emmerich spoke about the future,
01:05mentioning that potential sequels might even be made as TV films, though nothing was fully locked in at the time.
01:11He also shared some early ideas about what a third movie's story could look like.
01:16In Independence Day, the story kicks off on July 2, 1996, when a massive alien mothership arrives near Earth
01:24and deploys enormous saucers over major cities around the world.
01:28As panic spreads, key characters are introduced, like Captain Stephen Hiller, tech expert David Levinson,
01:34and President Thomas Whitmore, each playing a crucial role in what's about to unfold.
01:39It doesn't take long for things to go south.
01:42The aliens launch a coordinated attack, wiping out cities like Los Angeles, New York, and Washington, D.C.,
01:49killing millions in a matter of minutes.
01:52Humanity tries to fight back, but the alien ships are protected by powerful force fields,
01:57making all military efforts, including nuclear strikes, completely useless.
02:02Things start to turn when David figures out the aliens' plan.
02:06They're basically going from planet to planet, wiping out civilizations and harvesting resources.
02:12With that knowledge, he comes up with a risky plan,
02:15to upload a computer virus into the alien mothership to disable their shields.
02:20On July 4, the final counterattack begins.
02:24Hiller and David take an alien ship into the mothership,
02:27successfully upload the virus, and destroy it with a nuclear weapon.
02:30Back on Earth, with the shields finally down, human forces are able to fight back effectively.
02:37In a heroic moment, Russell Cass sacrifices himself by flying his jet into a saucer's weapon,
02:43destroying it, and helping turn the tide of the battle.
02:46In the end, the alien invasion is defeated,
02:49and humanity celebrates a hard-fought victory,
02:52with the surviving characters reuniting after saving the planet.
02:55In Independence Day Resurgence, the story picks up 20 years after the events of the first film.
03:02Humanity has rebuilt and is now far more prepared, thanks to alien tech.
03:07A global defense system called Earth Space Defense has been formed,
03:11with bases on the Moon, Mars, and beyond,
03:13all set up to protect Earth from another invasion.
03:17Things seem under control, until a new threat emerges.
03:21David Levinson returns, now leading the ESD,
03:25and discovers that the aliens from the first movie
03:28actually sent a distress signal before they were defeated.
03:31That signal brings an even bigger and more dangerous alien force to Earth,
03:36led by a massive mothership and a powerful queen.
03:39At the same time, a mysterious spherical alien intelligence appears.
03:44Basically, an AI from another species that's also been fighting these invaders,
03:49known as the Harvesters.
03:50It reveals that these aliens are a hive mind controlled by a queen,
03:54and if the queen is killed, the entire invasion force will collapse.
03:59A huge battle follows.
04:01Earth's defenses get wrecked, cities are threatened again,
04:04and the alien mothership starts drilling into Earth's core,
04:08which would destroy the planet.
04:09To stop it, the team comes up with a risky plan to lure the queen into a trap.
04:14In a heroic moment, former President Thomas Whitmore sacrifices himself to damage her ship,
04:20but the queen survives, leading to one final showdown.
04:24In the end, her shield is briefly taken down,
04:28giving Captain Dylan Hiller and the remaining pilots a chance to strike and finally kill her.
04:33With the queen gone, the alien forces shut down,
04:36and the mothership retreats.
04:38The movie ends on a big tease.
04:40The mysterious sphere invites humanity to join a larger intergalactic resistance
04:44and take the fight to the Harvester's homeworld,
04:47clearly setting up a much bigger war for a potential third film.
04:51Now we finally have a rough idea of what Independence Day 3 could have looked like.
04:56Even though Independence Day Resurgence expanded the universe,
05:00it didn't do nearly as well at the box office compared to the original.
05:04Because of that, plans for a third movie were basically dropped,
05:08even though Roland Emmerich really wanted to finish the trilogy.
05:12So a lot of potential ideas just ended up being left hanging.
05:16But what was the third movie actually going to be about?
05:20In a 2016 interview, Emmerich hinted that the next film would have gone full intergalactic,
05:25though he didn't reveal the full story.
05:28Still, based on what he said and how Resurgence ended,
05:31it's pretty easy to imagine where things were headed.
05:34The third movie likely would have taken things to a whole new level,
05:38showing a massive intergalactic war,
05:40while bringing back familiar characters and mixing them in with new ones.
05:44In an interview with Empire, Roland Emmerich shared what he had in mind for a third film.
05:49The next one will be an intergalactic journey, Emmerich promised,
05:53adding that the story would take place maybe a year or two later,
05:57instead of jumping decades ahead again.
05:59He also made it clear he wanted to continue with the same cast, saying,
06:03I want to maintain this group of people, especially the young characters.
06:08He even hinted at the direction, saying he imagined them now going in one of these ships
06:13they've rebuilt into a wormhole.
06:15I think it'll be the classic of going into space, but it has to be about Earth,
06:19and we have a really good idea for that.
06:21From that, it's pretty obvious where things were heading.
06:25In Resurgence, the sphere reveals that its system holds the key to superior technology,
06:31hidden on a secret planet, where it trains refugees from other destroyed worlds
06:35to fight back against the harvesters once and for all.
06:38So if humans are heading through a wormhole, they're most likely going straight to that planet,
06:44basically following through on the sphere's invitation to join the bigger fight.
06:48That means the third movie probably would have gone all out,
06:52showing humans teaming up with different alien species in a full-on intergalactic war.
06:57And since the series already showed humans adapting alien tech into their own weapons,
07:02we'd likely see some really cool hybrid tech and next-level gear.
07:06With the sphere's advanced AI and human creativity combined,
07:10humanity would have had a real shot at leading a massive alliance against the harvesters.
07:15The AI sphere would have probably played a huge role in getting revenge against the harvester aliens.
07:20In the original Independence Day, humanity, despite being way less advanced, managed to win thanks to smart thinking.
07:28Stephen Hiller flew an alien ship into the mothership,
07:31while David Levinson used a computer virus to shut down their defenses.
07:35So it's kind of interesting that in Independence Day resurgence,
07:38humanity is approached by an advanced AI sphere that's been fighting the harvesters for thousands of years.
07:45Instead of typical alien ally, it's literally a sentient machine with a personal grudge.
07:50The sphere even explains that it
07:52shed our biological existence for a virtual one thousands of years ago,
07:57and is the last survivor of its kind.
07:59When you think about it, the franchise started with humans using computers to beat the aliens,
08:04and now a super-intelligent computer is recruiting them to finish the job.
08:09That's probably not a coincidence.
08:11It also suggests the sphere and its allies are running low on numbers.
08:16The harvesters are planet destroyers after all,
08:19so even with advanced tech, the sphere still needs humanity's help.
08:23The idea seems to be combining human creativity and unpredictability
08:27with powerful alien tech to finally defeat the harvesters for good.
08:31If a third movie had happened, it likely would have brought everything full circle,
08:36letting the sphere get its revenge,
08:38while humanity steps up in a big way when things look the worst.
08:41Let me know what you think in the comments below,
08:44and don't forget to subscribe,
08:45because we'll be covering more updates on this soon.
08:48We'll see you next time.
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