We didn't realize it at the time — nobody ever does — but the '90s were a vintage era in Hollywood.

It was a time when major studios were happy to take a punt on original scripts, knowing that people would, as often as not, buy theater tickets to watch quality releases. Good movies will always be made, of course — just as even the most golden of ages produce their fair share of stinkers — but this was a time when the Venn diagram circles labelled 'acclaimed' and 'popular' intersected on a satisfyingly regular basis.

But beyond the critic-friendly fare produced by the likes of Quentin Tarantino, the Coen Brothers, Paul Thomas Anderson, and Martin Scorsese, this was also a peak period for popcorn-friendly action movies… and especially sci-fi action movies. Highbrow reviewers didn't always appreciate their brilliance back then, but looking back all these decades later, many of the best examples still stand up now.

"Independence Day" — which turned 30 last week — isn't even the best entry in the genre, but it repeatedly shows why the end of the 20th century was the perfect time to experience blockbuster thrills and spills in a multiplex. And, spoiler, there was barely a superhero in sight.

The '80s had teed up the subsequent decade's action explosion perfectly. On one side was the family-friendly fare championed by George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, timeless movies like the "Star Wars" sequels, "ET", "Back to the Future," and "Indiana Jones" that produced a generation of budding cinephiles. They were complemented by the more rugged, violent, and grown-up adventures popularized by the likes of "Aliens", "Predator", and "Die Hard".

Anything less than spectacular would no longer cut it in the blockbuster stakes, as the kids of the '80s got that little bit older and decided to take their new favorite genre with them.

It's easy to dismiss this kind of filmmaking as simplistic and dumbed down. Its poster boys were uber-producers Jerry Bruckheimer and his late filmmaking partner Don Simpson, whose "high concept" ethos distilled movies down to a pithy elevator pitch you could squeeze into a single sentence.

But the company's undisputed classics of the era make it obvious they were on to something — "Crimson Tide" (feuding submariners try to avert World War III), "The Rock" (rogue marines capture Alcatraz to hold San Francisco to ransom) and "Con Air" (a bunch of prisoners capture their transport plane). It's a formula that also worked for "Speed" (a bomb will explode if a bus goes under 50mph), "Twister" (scientists chase tornadoes across America), and "Under Siege" ("Die Hard" on a boat).

The director/producer duo of Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin were clearly paying attention when they made "Independence Day", their follow-up to 1994's "Stargate". Let's start with their own high concept, easily summed up as a modern-day spin on HG Wells' "The War of the Worlds", but with bigger spaceships and a more pronounced fetish for major landmarks.

Speaking to the Guardian, Devlin recalled Emmerich's original idea. "[He said], 'What if we woke up tomorrow morning and we walked outside to get the newspaper and above it was a 15-mile-wide spaceship blotting out the sun for an entire city?' Then he turned to look at me and goes, 'I think I have our next movie.'"

"Independence Day" didn't need to be part of a major franchise to get noticed. The teaser trailers, with their carefully choreographed moments of tourist hotspot destruction, were enough for that, as was the brilliant sci-fi movie poster, which saw Manhattan dwarfed by a flying saucer. "The question of whether or not we are alone in the universe has been answered," said the wonderfully doom-mongering tagline.

As with many of the other action movie classics of the era — not to mention the classic Irwin Allen disaster epics of the 1970s, such as "The Poseidon Adventure" and "The Towering Inferno" — "Independence Day" prioritized its cast over spectacle.

The biggest name on the roster was arguably Jeff Goldblum, who, thanks to the double whammy of "Jurassic Park" and "ID4", briefly had the two highest-grossing films of all time on his resumé.

But Emmerich and Devlin also spotted the star power of Will Smith before he became a bona fide A-lister, and packed out the vast supporting cast with familiar — though not necessarily movie star — names: "Taxi"'s Judd Hirsch as Goldblum's dad, Bill Pullman as an idealistic POTUS, and Randy Quaid as a former pilot with a bone to pick with ET. They also boosted the film's geek credentials by casting Brent Spiner ("Star Trek: The Next Generation"'s Data) as Area 51's eccentric head of ET research.

Populating the film with quality actors paid big dividends, helping to ground a film whose script rarely shied away from the ridiculous. In a screenplay that shifts from gung-ho action to self-aware gags to over-earnest, tub-thumping presidential speeches (and back again), it certainly helps if your cast can play their roles as if they're on stage at the Royal Shakespeare Company. In the same way, nobody could watch Ed Harris in "The Rock" or Gene Hackman in "Enemy of the State" and claim they were phoning it in.

There's also a lot to be said for the "Independence Day"'s deployment of practical effects. The mid-'90s were a dangerous time to be a filmmaker, when many were tempted to use computer effects when they should have known better. Look at the best action movies of the era, however, and they tend to use the CG to enhance, rather than replace, more traditional techniques.

As groundbreaking as "Jurassic Park" was, Steven Spielberg was remarkably sparing with the digital moments, while "The Matrix" — a film whose bullet-time effects quickly became ubiquitous — hung its action credentials on its live-action fights and wire work.

"Independence Day" was cut from the same cloth, using CG in the right places (most notably in its spectacular aerial dogfights) while also building (and subsequently blowing up) intricate practical models to deliver moments of pure, joyous cinematic carnage. These moments would undoubtedly be animated in a computer now, losing the tactile qualities — and the intrinsic gravity of the situation — you only capture in real life.

Thirty years on, "Independence Day" and its '90s action brethren have come to feel like relics. Sure, superhero movies, their most obvious descendants, still set their eyes on top acting talent, and the best directors (most notably Christopher Nolan) tend to make a point of shooting practically when they can.

But, aside from the numerous "Die Hard" spin-offs, the '90s generation were predominantly telling original stories, well away from the restrictions of franchise filmmaking, starting and finishing an entire story in roughly two hours. Indeed, it's remarkable how few of the classics of the era were followed up by a successful sequel. ("Independence Day: Resurgence" took 20 years to arrive, and when it did, didn't even make half as much at the box-office as its predecessor.)

And crucially, the action movies of the late 20th century were usually about people. Most of the time, they were ridiculous, over-the-top, broadly drawn, clichéd, cookie-cutter characters, but they also tended to — more or less — obey the laws of physics. Without superpowers or magic to fall back on, heroes had to rely on little more than implausible levels of ingenuity and resilience, a capacity to dodge bullets/laser fire, and a gift for making the right quip at the right time. "Independence Day" may just have been on to something.

"Independence Day" is available on Hulu in the US and Disney+ in the UK.

"Independence Day" definitely isn't "The War of the Worlds". The characters are all new, the alien invaders don't come from Mars, and HG Wells sure as hell didn't write about spaceships engaging in "Star Wars"-esque dogfights over Victorian England.

But here's the contradiction. "Independence Day" totally is "The War of the Worlds". It's about Earth being hopelessly outgunned by aliens from outer space and a human resistance fighting back against impossible odds. It also has, more or less, the same ending — the extra-terrestrials' demise by computer virus is a cunning update of the original book's microbial final twist.

Director Roland Emmerich's genius, however, was reinventing Wells' sci-fi classic for the blockbuster age. His aliens had Hollywood in their blood, their entire plan built around delivering the perfect money shot. Let's be honest, there has to be a more practical way of flattening entire cities than blasting famous landmarks with a Death Star-scale super-lasers, but it wouldn't have been quite so popcorn- — or movie poster- — friendly.

Besides, nobody was going to believe that humanity's nemesis hailed from Mars after the Viking landers had sent back photos of a barren, dead world. Reinventing the aliens' origin story — as nomadic, resource-hungry scavengers — just made sense in the cynical '90s.

"The War of the Worlds" is cut from the same cloth as fellow genre pioneers "Frankenstein" and "Dracula" (the latter was, coincidentally, originally published the same year as Wells' alien invasion classic). Each story is so versatile that it can be reimagined again and again to reflect the hopes and fears of any time period. You can change a few names here and there — as "Nosferatu" famously did with Bram Stoker's vampire page-turner — but these plotlines have become archetypes within our collective consciousness.

More than a century later, we still can't get enough. They're also — to use that hoary old sci-fi/fantasy cliché — a brilliant way of pointing a mirror back at the time they were made.

"The War of the Worlds" was less than 40 years old (and still in copyright) when a 20-something Orson Welles turned it into a radio drama in 1938. The cinematic immortality of "Citizen Kane" was still three years away when the Hollywood wunderkind went looking for a story to adapt as a fake newscast for Halloween.

Writer Howard Koch shifted the action from 19th-century London to contemporary New Jersey (coincidentally, also the location of Steven Spielberg's 2005 "War of the Worlds"), and the resulting broadcast became one of the most famous — and definitely most infamous — radio dramas in history. Indeed, it was so far ahead of its time that "Ghostwatch", the BBC's spooky primetime mockumentary, got itself into trouble for a similar, knowingly 'fake news' stunt over half a century later.

Welles and co designed the adaptation to sound like a news bulletin — complete with weather reports and 'expert' analysis — as the aliens made their move on New York. And even though subsequent reports about the mass panic the broadcast generated in the real world were almost definitely exaggerated, some listeners who came to the show late really did believe that it was time to start welcoming their Martian overlords.

Welles' "War of the Worlds" was perfectly timed to capitalize on fears about the escalating threat of war in Europe. But the first blockbuster movie adaptation arrived in a very different political climate, when the Cold War was driving fears about the rise of communism and the threat of nuclear war.

When the Martians attack in George Pal's 1953 movie, the US army — unsurprisingly — drop an atomic bomb on their invasion fleet, but they're left unscathed thanks to their powerful forcefields. A powerful statement about the pointlessness of nuclear war, or simply an excuse to keep the story's common cold conclusion intact?

The movie is probably more important, however, as a precursor of the sci-fi blockbusters that would follow. Filmed in Technicolor, its visual effects were truly groundbreaking, as the movie imagined alien terrors that, before then, had only been possible on the page or on radio.

Anyone who's read the original book will note that Pal's floating Martian war machines don't quite match Wells' tripods, though the movie does subtly point out that — despite appearances — they're actually walking on invisible forcefield legs. Yes, really…

Wells' story got an unlikely new lease of life in the late 1970s when an American composer made a concept album that found its way into millions of record collections in the UK.

The snappily titled "Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of the War of the Worlds" reimagined the alien invasion as a prog rock opus, with Richard Burton as the journalist recounting the story, and '70s music stars Justin Hayward, David Essex, Phil Lynott (Thin Lizzy) and Julie Covington (who'd had a number one with "Don't Cry for Me Argentina") popping up on the soundtrack. Nearly 50 years later, Wayne is still touring his masterwork, finding new stage effects and guest stars (Liam Neeson has replaced Burton in later versions) to bring the invasion to life.

But even though the names were changed, "Independence Day" may just be the "War of the Worlds" that's had the biggest cultural impact of all. It was everywhere in 1996, with its superlative marketing campaign propelling it to the top of that year's box office chart. It was 1996's "Jurassic Park", the sci-fi epic that everybody went to see.

It arguably changed the rules of engagement for subsequent adaptations of Wells' novel, as any set-pieces featuring flying saucers flattening cities would now be judged against Emmerich's highly lucrative carnage. Spielberg's "War of the Worlds", released nearly a decade later, wisely took a very different route, keeping Wells' tripods and noxious red weed, and loading the invasion with powerful post-9/11 subtext.

In 2019, the BBC went down a path it had with many classic novels and adapted "The War of the Worlds" as a three-part period piece. The same year, another, longer-running TV version focused on the story of survivors after an alien apocalypse that had wiped out most of the Earth's population.

And then, in 2025, Wells' text finally met its match in the universally panned version that pitted a desk-bound Ice Cube against invaders who want us for our data. This was a "War of the Worlds" for the digital age, built on sledgehammer-subtle allegories for privacy and surveillance.

It wasn't the sci-fi classic's finest hour, but it did at least continue to prove the remarkable malleability of a 129-year-old novel. Like "Independence Day," it wasn't Wells' "War of the Worlds", but it also was, all at the same time.

"Independence Day" is on Disney+ in the US and UK.

It looks there for the taking, doesn't it? The third rock from the sun just sitting there, all defenceless, run by squabbling politicians ruling over a human race who'd rather be sharing "get ready with me" videos than vigilantly watching the skies as they should be.

But next time you set your sights on invading planet Earth, remember that it's easier said than done. Some of the mightiest alien attack forces in existence have met their match in this particular corner of the Milky Way, as the residents of this nondescript ball of rock have repeatedly found ways to repel extraterrestrial attackers — even when they're massively outgunned.

So don't embarrass yourself in front of your attack fleet. Having painstakingly researched numerous previous assaults on Earth, we've assembled a guide to all the things you should — and indeed shouldn't — do the next time you try to bring those snivelling humans to their knees. Follow these tips, and the Earth can be yours to do with as you please.

DO… target major landmarks

Case study: "Independence Day"

If you really want to show your prospective underlings who's boss, you'll need to make a big entrance. Hovering over major landmarks (eg: The White House, The Empire State Building, the Capitol) is a great place to start, as the eyes of the world's media will be upon you.

Some bystanders will think you came in peace, of course, but by the time the masses have realized what you're up to, it'll be way too late for those puny humans.

DON'T… invade if you have a severe allergic reaction to water

Case study: "Signs"

Don't be like these crop-circle-obsessed idiots. If water's not for you, you really shouldn't set your sights on a planet whose surface is over 70% water. There are other, less soggy worlds to conquer.

DO… dress up as the personification of evil

Case study: "Childhood's End"

A bit of a cheat code, this, but if you really want humans to fear (or, at the very least, respect) you, you could do worse than model yourself on Satan/Beelzebub/Mephistopheles/Old Nick/the Devil/whatever you want to call him. They're sure to hang on your every word, though do be prepared for them to assume the worst of you, even if your intentions are good.

DON'T… get cocky

Case study: "Superman II"

Earth's famously yellow sun works such wonders on Kryptonian physiology that it can be tempting to get everyone you know kneeling at your feet. Alas, hubris is a one-way ticket to the Phantom Zone.

DO… plan ahead

Case study: "War of the Worlds"

Transporting invading forces down to a planet's surface can be such a time-consuming process that unnecessary delays could give locals an opportunity to mount a resistance — inconvenient, to say the least.

By playing the long game, however, you can bury your vehicles of mass destruction underground centuries before they're needed. A few carefully deployed bolts of lightning later, and you'll be frying humans for fun.

DON'T… get drawn into crazy conspiracy theories

Case study: "The X-Files"

Infiltrating the upper echelons of existing Earth governments may seem like an oven-ready route to taking control. But unless you have a clear, easy-to-define plan, your followers will get bored long before your Machiavellian schemes come to fruition.

DO… turn Earth into a pre-industrial society

Case study: "The Tripods"

Applying mind-controlling "Caps" to 14-year-old Earthers is a smart move that can ensure they'll spend their lives worshipping you as gods.

But arguably the Master's smartest move was rendering all Earth technology obsolete, making all the advances of the Industrial Revolution null and void – nobody's going to fight off your giant three-legged war machines with pitchforks and rotten cabbages.

DON'T… telegraph your arrival

Case study: "3 Body Problem"

There's a lot to be said for surprise attacks.

So if you're confined to sub-light speed travel (damn you, Einstein!), it's probably best not to give humanity a few centuries' head start — even if you're not confident their tech won't surpass yours in the meantime.

DO… go back to an earlier point in history

Case study: "Star Trek: First Contact"

It's said that the definition of madness is doing the same thing again and again and expecting a different result. Cybernetic terrors, the Borg were quick to realize this, and — after one too many defeats at the hands of the technologically inferior Federation – changed the rules of engagement by travelling back in time to assimilate humanity before they had the wherewithal to fight back.

Employ this method, and resistance really will be futile.

DON'T… limit your aspirations to a small town

Case study: "The World's End"

We get it. You find a small suburban town you like – with more than its fair share of charming bars – and putting down roots seems the only logical thing to do. Being top dog on the local council, however, is not the same as world domination.

DO… develop the ability to loop time

Case study: "Edge of Tomorrow"

We all make mistakes, but that really doesn't matter if you can channel your inner Punxsutawney Phil and turn back time. By trapping everyone else in your own personal Groundhog Day, you can learn from your battlefield errors, fix the things that once went wrong, and ensure you come out on top. Every. Single. Time.

DON'T… skimp on your disguises

Case study: "The Invaders"

It's the small details that count. If your tech is sufficiently advanced to craft convincing human facsimiles, why not push the boat out a little further and give them a pulse and a pinky finger that doesn't stick out at a telltale weird angle?

DO… have humans raise your offspring

Case study: "Village of the Damned"

Even if their offspring are evil little ****s, humans tend to love their kids. Take advantage of this evolutionary flaw (sorry, trait) by impregnating Earth women and having them raise your progeny for you.

It's unlikely your children will be able to hide their inherited desire for world domination for long, but they'll do what they can to pave the way for your arrival.

DON'T… forget your jabs

Case study: "War of the Worlds"

Even humans know that it's often a good idea to get vaccinated when they visit a new country. So heading to Earth without boosting your immunity to local diseases means risking colossal embarrassment. And lots of excess phlegm.

DO… spread your spores

Case study: "Invasion of the Body Snatchers"

Spaceships are hard to do. Not only do you need to build them and develop a form of propulsion capable of traversing the immense distances between stars, but you also have to keep the creatures inside them alive in the vacuum of space. In other words, too much effort.

If, however, you spread your spores via stellar winds, all the painful work is done for you. Once your seeds have made Earthfall, it's just a small matter of infecting unwitting Earth folk and replacing them with pliant pod people. Job done.

DON'T… forget to update your anti-virus software

Case study: "Independence Day"

Maybe you forgot to renew your anti-virus subscription. Maybe you think your operating system won't be susceptible to malware designed for 'inferior' Earth computers. But come on, losing your fleet to a virus sent by a mid-90s Mac is a system error you'll never live down.

DO… hide in plain sight

Case study: "Bugonia"

Most humans choose not to believe that there are aliens among them. So if you sent a spy to Earth, made sure they looked entirely human and they got themselves, say, a respectable job as the CEO of a major company, nobody would ever suspect they came from another planet.

In fact, anyone who suggested they were born on a different world would be so thoroughly discredited that keeping their identity secret would be a doddle.

DON'T… rely on a hive mind

Case study: "The Avengers"

Sure, there are certain efficiencies that come from networking your computers, but you'll have egg on your face the next time Earth's Mightiest Heroes (their words, not ours) join forces and take out your command ship.

DO… absorb everything in your path

Case study: "The Thing"

If you're the sort of alien species who can absorb and replicate any species you come into contact with, then Earth really is yours for the taking. The only thing you need to avoid is crash-landing in an uninhabited area.

Find your way into more populated parts of the world, however, and projections suggest the entire planet could be yours in just three years.

DON'T… be dandruff

Case study: "Evolution"

Arsenic is poisonous to carbon-based lifeforms, so — the logic goes — selenium must be toxic to anyone whose DNA runs on nitrogen.

The science may be questionable, but would you want to take the risk? Especially when you know Earth has vast supplies of selenium-filled Head & Shoulders waiting to take you out.

DO… have fun

Case study: "Mars Attacks!"

Taking over your nearest neighbor in the Solar System is a serious business, but that doesn't mean you can't have a good laugh while you're doing it.

Want to know what would happen if you attached the head of a "Sex and the City" star to a dog's body? You'll never know unless you try. Playing skittles with ancient landmarks? Why not give it a go? And surely it would be rude not to reimagine Mount Rushmore with your own visage.

DON'T… bother

Case study: "Doctor Who"

For a small blue dot described as "Mostly Harmless" by "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" (other reference works are available), Earth has a lot of supporters across the cosmos. Indeed, so many previous invasions have been thwarted by Time Lords, superheroes, and other unlikely protectors that it may be best to stay at home.

Brent Spiner is best known for playing Data, the sentient android in "Star Trek: The Next Generation." This summer, moviegoers can also see him reprise his role as an eccentric scientist in the new movie, "Independence Day: Resurgence," a sequel to the 1996 blockbuster "Independence Day."

We chatted with Spiner about the new movie, the 50th anniversary of "Star Trek," his comedic icons, and his (unauthorized) nickname for Stephen Hawking.

Fans of "Star Trek," or anyone who has seen interviews with Spiner, will know he absolutely drips with charm, but is also completely down to Earth and unpretentious. He seems to talk to everyone as if he's chatting with an old friend, and this feeling partly arises because he's constantly making jokes (see the bit below about there being starships on the movie set). It's impossible to convey these qualities through print alone, but his story about Stephen Hawking is a great example of what kind of interviewee he is. [Earth's New Battle Against Aliens: Photos from 'Independence Day: Resurgence']

Space.com: Is there anything you're particularly excited about in this new movie that you'd like to share with fans?

Brent Spiner: Well, I'm particularly excited to see it, since I haven't seen it. I'm expecting it'll be fantastic. I just want to see what Roland (Emmerich, the director) did. Because it was a lot of fun being on the set, but you never really have a clue until you actually see it.

Space.com: When you are on the set there are alien props and starships and things, does it actually feel like you're in a sci-fi setting or is it just like any movie set?

Spiner: Well, the starships were real, that wasn't CGI (computer-generated imagery); we actually had many starships on the set, so it felt very real.

Space.com: [Laughing]

Spiner: You know what, being on a film set feels like being in a sci-fi movie always because it's just so surreal. In this case there was a lot of blue screen stuff that we were working among and we had no idea what it was going to look like [in the movie], but that's part of the fun of doing a movie like this, because it's so much about imagination.

Space.com: As an actor, do you intentionally try to be associated with science fiction or is this just a coincidence that you seem to have stumbled into these two sci-fi franchises ["Star Trek" and "Independence Day"]?

Spiner: I think it is completely a coincidence. It's nothing I ever dreamed I would be doing. Really, for me, I always thought I was going to be doing comedy. And in fact, I still think I am. Not in every case, but [with] these two franchises … in both cases I think I have sort of been comic relief. Having spent seven years on "Star Trek," and then having done this film and the one before it, the characters both had the opportunity to grow, so they became kind of multidimensional and not just comic relief.

But in answer to your question specifically, no. I mean … no, I had no idea. I don't even know how I wound up in it.

Space.com: Well, I'm happy to talk about the non-science fiction roles in your career, but I write for Space.com, so obviously our readers have a particular interest.

Spiner: Right, exactly. Well, let me just say this, because I think this might help: I think there's a tradition in the history of films for character actors to wind up in genre things later in their careers, and so many of the guys I admired growing up, like Basil Rathbone and Peter Lorre and John Carradine, and really great character actors found their way into sci-fi and horror and things like that. Claude Rains. There's a real tradition for it. And not that I compare myself to those guys and their skills, but I'm happy to kind of belong in that tradition.

Space.com: Yeah, I guess in "Independence Day" there was a comedic element to your character that made it work very well. Do you think, as you just described, there really needs to be comedy in these types of genres — that it adds something?

Spiner: Well, I think you need comedy in everything. In every genre. I mean, if you look at the great dramas, even, [there is] comedy. Even [Eugene] O'Neill, I mean "Long Day's Journey [Into Night]" has laughs. It has to.

Space.com: OK, I know you're an actor, but I have to ask you about something Stephen Hawking said.

Spiner: I call him "The Hawk" because I've worked with him.

Space.com: Really?!

Spiner: Yeah, he did an episode of "Star Trek" and I was the lucky actor among the cast who got to work with him. So I've always referred to him as The Hawk since then.

Space.com: He gave you his blessing to call him The Hawk?

Spiner: No, he knows nothing about it. Unless he's read about it.

Space.com: [Laughing again]

Spiner: But he did have a good sense of humor so I suspect he'll be all right with it.

Space.com: OK, so Stephen Hawking thinks there's a good chance that if aliens come and find us it's probably because they want to kill us. What's your take on that?

Spiner: Well, my take is – I mean he is an astrophysicist, you know, and one of the great minds of the world, and so he formulates opinions about stuff like that. I don't even think about stuff like that. I mean, how would I know; I'm just an actor, you know. I mean, I think that if there [are] extraterrestrials — [Hawking] thinks they'll want to kill us, I think there's a lot of actors among them who would want to be beloved by everyone and who would turn to the stage.

Space.com: Do you have a busy year with this being the 50^th anniversary of "Star Trek"?

Spiner: I've got a busy year primarily because I'm in a television show also for Fox, and it's going to be on Cinemax on June 3, called "Outcast," [based on the comic by] Robert Kirkman. Again, there I am again in this genre stuff.[Ed note: The show has a supernatural bent.]  But it keeps calling me and I keep opening the door.

But let me just say one thing about "Trek" because I do owe it to it. There are people who are devoted to it and there are people who couldn't be bothered with it, but I think anything that has been part of our culture for 50 years is worth having a look at. And I think you pretty much have to take it seriously at half a century. And [it's still] going, because apparently they have a new show coming on CBS. So I think "Star Trek" is the great American epic, and may it live forever. And I'm also hoping that we make 10 more "Independence Day" movies in my lifetime.

Follow Calla Cofield @callacofield.Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.

Attack on Earth

"Independence Day: Resurgence," a sequel to the 1996 blockbuster "Independence Day" opens in theaters this Friday, June 24. In this still from the movie, an alien attack has devastating effects on a major world capital.

Alien Attack

An alien ship from the film wreaks havoc in the skies above a fleeing ship.

Shocking Discoveries

David Levinson (Jeff Goldblum) and former U.S. president Thomas Whitmore (Bill Pullman) make a shocking discovery.

Stars Return

Jeff Goldblum returns as David Levinson.

Big Names

Liam Hemsworth portrays fighter pilot Jake Morrison.

Heroes

Liam Hemsworth portrays Jake Morrison, a heroic fighter pilot of alien-human hybrid jets.

Honoring Heroes

President Lanford (Sela Ward) welcomes decorated fighter pilot Dylan Hiller (Jessie Usher) to The White House.

Making Headway in the War

Scientists survey the wreckage of a downed alien mothership.

Another Stellar Actor

Vivica A. Fox returns as Jasmine Hiller.

Creating a Movie

Director Roland Emmerich on the set of Independence Day: Resurgence.

Directing a Winner

(Second) Director Roland Emmerich on the set of Independence Day: Resurgence.

Following the Clues

Dr. Catherine Marceaux (Charlotte Gainsbourg) and David Levinson (Jeff Goldblum) investigate some clues about the aliens’ imminent attack.

Prepping for Battle

Fighter pilot Jake Morrison (Liam Hemsworth, center) and his squadron are briefed on plans to combat the alien invasion.

Choosing a loyalty

Fighter pilots Dylan Hiller (Jessie Usher, left) and Jake Morrison (Liam Hemsworth) have contrasting reactions to orders from a superior.

Meeting of the Minds

Gen. Adams (William Fichtner, left) confers with David Levinson (Jeff Goldblum) and scientist Dr. Okun (Brent Spiner).

Bringing Back Characters

Bill Pullman reprises his “Independence Day” role of Thomas Whitmore.