In this week’s episode of Unclear and Present Danger, Jamelle and John watched the 1996 sci-fi action thriller Independence Day, written and directed by Roland Emmerich and starring an ensemble cast of Will Smith, Bill Pullman, Jeff Goldblum, Mary McDonnell, Judd Hirsch, Robert Loggia, Randy Quaid, Margaret Colin, Vivica A. Fox and James Rebhorn, among many others.

In Independence Day, humanity makes its first contact with an alien race. What follows is one day of destruction, one of despair, and one day where the human race, led by the United States, fights back. Jamelle and John use the film to discuss the triumphalist American optimism of the 1990s as well as the political afterlife of the imagery of the film, which extends into the post-9/11 era.

Some of the taglines for Independence Day were “We’ve always believed we weren’t alone. On July 4th, we’ll wish we were,” “The day we fight back!” and “Welcome to earth.”

Independence Day is available to buy or rent on Amazon Prime or Apple TV. You can also stream it on demand at Hulu.

Episodes come out roughly every two weeks, and we’ll see you then with an episode on Mars Attacks, Tim Burton’s satirical counterpoint to Roland Emmerich’s earnest blockbuster.

And don’t forget our Patreon, where we watch the films of the Cold War and try to unpack them as political and historical documents! For $5 a month, you get two bonus episodes every month as well as access to the entire back catalog — we’re almost two years deep at this point. Sign up at patreon.com/unclearpod.

The latest episode of our Patreon podcast is on Rambo, the 2008 legacy sequel written and directed by Stallone.

Connor Lynch produced this episode. Artwork by Rachel Eck.