Independence Day: Resurgence is a 2016 American science fiction film written and directed by Roland Emmerich with co-writers Dean Devlin, Nicolas Wright, James A. Woods, and James Vanderbilt. A sequel to the 1996 film Independence Day, it stars an ensemble cast featuring Liam Hemsworth, Jeff Goldblum, Bill Pullman, Maika Monroe, Jessie Usher, Travis Tope, William Fichtner, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Judd Hirsch, Brent Spiner, and Sela Ward.
The film takes place twenty years after the events of the first film, during which the United Nations has collaborated to form Earth Space Defense (ESD), an international military defense and research organization. Through reverse engineering, the world has harnessed the power of alien technology and laid the groundwork to resist a second invasion.
Plans for a sequel to Independence Day began as early as 2001, with 20th Century Fox eventually green-lighting the project in 2014. Principal photography began in April 2015 at locations primarily in New Mexico but also in the Bonneville Salt Flats of Utah, which were featured in the original. Independence Day: Resurgence was released in the United States on June 24, 2016, twenty years after the release of Independence Day, in 2D, 3D, and IMAX 3D, grossing $389.7 million worldwide at the box office. The film received generally unfavorable reviews from critics, who found the plot convoluted and action sequences overblown, though some praised its overall humor.
