Independence Day

Independence Day

took a lot of dramatic cues from Close Encounters. I'm not talking context, the sci-fi context: I'm talking about little moments, little bits of cinematicness that remind me of CE3K. I wouldn't call it a rip-off, but they definitely took little bits of Close Encounters and placed it in this radically different context. Brent Spiner rushing toward the entrance to the hangar, saying "o boy, o boy" reminds me of Bob Balaban rushing toward the wreckage of the ship, saying "the Cotopaxi ..."

The people in the beginning, looking at the ships arriving, had a very Spielberg look ...

This is also Vivica Fox's last role before she went insane.

This is the movie that almost made Will Smith a star. You can see he's trying to breakout into full-blown star but hasn't quite made it yet.

And this is the movie that made Bill Pullman a cool President. (Harrison Ford had him beat, though, in Air Force One.)

Side note: With computer geeks, and probably with general people today, this movie lost all credibility when Jeff Goldblum said, "We can plant a virus, within their ship ..." "A computer virus ..."