Independence Day (1996)
Action, Adventure, Science Fiction • 2h 25m
Director: Roland Emmerich
Cast: Bill Pullman, Jeff Goldblum, Mary McDonnell, Judd Hirsch, Robert Loggia, Randy Quaid, Margaret Colin, James Rebhorn, Harvey Fierstein, Adam Baldwin, Brent Spiner, James Duval, Vivica A. Fox, Lisa Jakub, Ross Bagley, Mae Whitman, Bill Smitrovich, Kiersten Warren, Harry Connick Jr., Giuseppe Andrews, John Storey, Frank Novak, Devon Gummersall, Leland Orser, Mirron E. Willis, Ross Lacy, Vivian Palermo, Raphael Sbarge, Bobby Hosea, Dan Lauria, Steve Giannelli, Eric Paskel, Carlos Lacámara, John Bennett Perry, Troy Willis, Tim Kelleher, Wayne Wilderson, Jay Acovone, James Wong, Thom Barry, Jana Marie Hupp, Matt Pashkow, Robert Pine, Marisa Johnston, Michael Winther, Warren Dexter Beatty, Paul LeClair, Michael Vacca, David Channell, John Capodice, Greg Collins, Derek Webster, Mark Fite, Eric Neal Newman, Levan Uchaneishvili, Kristof Konrad, Kevin Sifuentes, Elston Ridgle, Randy Oglesby, Barry Del Sherman, Lyman Ward, Anthony Crivello, Richard Speight Jr., Barbara Beck, Joe Fowler, Andrew Warner, Sharon Tay, Peter J. Lucas, Yelena Danova, Johnny Kim, Vanessa J. Wells, Jessika Cardinahl, Gary W. Cruz, Ron Pitts, Wendy L. Walsh, Christine Devine, Mark Thompson, Ernie Anastos, Kevin Cooney, Rance Howard, Nelson Mashita, Jeff Phillips, Sayed Badreya, Adam Tomei, Kimberly Beck, Thomas F. Duffy, Andrew Keegan, Jon Matthews, Jim Piddock, Frederic W. Barnes, Eleanor Clift, Jerry Dunphy, Jack Germond, Morton Kondracke, John McLaughlin, Barry Nolan, George Putnam, Eric Michael Zee, Pat Skipper, Carlos Lara, Mike Monteleone, Lee Strauss, Lisa Star, Malcolm Danare, Arthur Brooks, Michael Moertl, James J. Joyce, Joyce Cohen, Julie Moran, Robin Groth, Richard Pachorek, Dakota, Gary A. Hecker, Frank Welker
Best English-friendly & audio release
Fox 4K Blu-ray reference sound
Updated 1 year ago
Best video release
Fox 4K Blu-ray, merely okay with compression issues
4K tiers
video merely okay with compression issues but reference sound
About the film
Strange phenomena surface around the globe. The skies ignite. Terror races through the world's major cities. As these extraordinary events unfold, it becomes increasingly clear that a force of incredible magnitude has arrived. Its mission: total annihilation over the Fourth of July weekend. The last hope to stop the destruction is an unlikely group of people united by fate and unimaginable circumstances.
- Alternative Titles
- ID4, Independence Day 3D
Director: Roland Emmerich
Sony 4K Blu-ray (theatrical only in 4K)
Sony 4K Blu-ray Steelbook upcoming with Dolby Vision and both cuts in 4K
The LPCM 5.1 from the old Extended BD and the DTS-HD 5.1 from the new Extended UHD are exactly the same. The DTS-HD tracks on both of the theatrical UHDs are also the same, and in fact appear to be lossless versions of the Superbit DTS mix with no tampering.
Director: Mike Judge
Video format: 4K Streaming
Director: David Fincher
Digipack release includes an Amazing Amy book the standard edition doesn’t have.
Director: Jean-Luc Godard
Video format: 4K Streaming
Director: Terence Young
WB 4K Blu-ray despite frozen grain
Director: David Butler
Video format: Only Unofficial Sources
The DVD isn't an official one, and according to a user review on Amazon:
This DVD comes from Archive.org, where the movie can be viewed for free. The original source, comes from the Fox Movie Channel
Director: James Cameron
Fox Blu-ray for original cuts without the extra scene added in the re-release and AI upscaling
Newer Blu-ray/4K has the extra scene, but is poor and has excessive AI upscaling
An additional scene was added to the ending of the movie in the 2022 re-release: https://www.movie-censorship.com/report.php?ID=493908
Director: Peter Faiman
Australia Cut: Australia Fox DVD
International Cut: Paramount Blu-ray
Encore Cut: Germany Winkler Film 4K Blu-ray, censored but good encoding
US Paramount 4K Blu-ray, is the International US Cut and not the Encore Cut
Australia Cut: Laserdisc
The film exists in three versions:
- the original Australian cut (~104 minutes at 24fps/~100 minutes at 25fps);
- the American/international version (~98 minutes at 24fps/~94 minutes at 25fps) trimming some exposition in the Outback first half of the film and some shorter extensions of a few seconds in the New York section, altering some of the dialogue – including censoring a "fuck" to "screw" – but featuring one additional dialogue extension not in the Australian version (a comparison of the two cuts can be found at Movie Censorship);
- the Australian Encore Cut (~95 minutes at 24fps/~91 minutes at 25fps) which uses the international version source so it already has those alterations but also removes approximately three minutes consisting of parts of two scenes featuring Mick grabbing the crotch of a cross-dressing prostitute and a later sequence when he does the same thing at a party to a woman with a deep voice (a comparison of the international version and the Encore Cut can be found at Movie Censorship).
More Action on Blu-ray
Director: Richard Rush
> Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray (FiM encode on Radiance compared to Duplitech encode on Shout! Factory)
Directors: Joe Russo & Anthony Russo
Director: John G. Avildsen
Sony boxset or 2024 VHS packaging 4K Blu-ray
Sony boxsets or 2024 VHS packaging has Dolby Vision, 2019 Sony 4K Blu-ray is HDR10 only.
Original Stereo mix: Columbia Pictures LaserDisc, Sony 4K Blu-ray (any)
5.1 remix: Sony 4K Blu-ray, Sony Blu-ray
Dolby Atmos remix: Sony 4K Blu-ray (any)
Different gradings; Arrow looks better in some frames (particularly the restored day-for-night blue filters), while Shout! Factory looks better in others https://slow.pics/c/aQmQXCrc
Director: Robert Aldrich
Only the Arrow has the 6-track mix.
Director: Wong Kar-Wai
Video format: 1080p Blu-ray
2010 US Kino Lorber or 2012 UK Artificial Eye
2017 JP Kadokawa Blu-ray has the best encoding out of all the older discs.
Kino Lorber and Artificial Eye Blu-ray use the same master, between the two the PQ on Kino's release is slightly better, but the difference is negligible. However, Artificial Eye also includes the 2.0 stereo mix in addition to the 5.1 mix, while Kino only includes 5.1 mix.
The 4K restoration (Criterion, 4K etc) are cropped to 2.35:1, have revisionistic colour grading and other changes.
Caps: old master, old master vs 4K restoration
Wong Kar-Wai on the framing:
With Fallen Angels, I have changed the format to cinemascope, because it was originally what I had intended to release the film in. When we were cutting the film, we accidentally turned the Steenbeck on anamorphic instead of standard. I felt that the film looked much more interesting because it enhanced the distance of the characters on top of the extreme wide angle that we shot on. Back then, it was impossible to shoot a film in standard and release it in anamorphic. With this restoration, we have successfully fulfilled this wish.
Director: John Woo
Arrow has a different grade and a better encode than the Shout! Factory, though the difference in either is not major. Imprint release, which leaves Shout! Factory's master and subtitles as is, is encoded by FiM. https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?p=24473097&postcount=56
Original mix: Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray
Alternate mix: Scanbox Nordic PAL DVD
Surround remix: HK Video France 4K Blu-ray (5.0)
Original mix: Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray (similar to Criterion LaserDisc, but less distorted)
Alternate mix: Scanbox Nordic PAL DVD
Surround remix: HK Video France 4K Blu-ray (5.0)
Arrow used the alternate mix, but with extra filtering and lowered dynamic range. The alternate mix has much better fidelity.
Imprint presumably used the Shout! Factory original mix and left it as is, though no official confirmation.
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