There was a surprising amount packed into the first Independence Day: Resurgence trailer. There were dogfights, moon attacks, secret bases... pretty much everything you’d expect from a Roland Emmerich-directed alien invasion movie. Here’s everything we saw.
One of the things about this trailer that marks a departure from the first movie is that there are a lot more non-American groups and people involved. In this case, a UN convoy travels out to the desert...
...where people have apparently made little shrines out of the alien heads—from the first movie, I’m betting. “We found something out here, something only you might understand,” says the voiceover.
Of course she’s addressing Jeff Goldblum, who’s in a uniform. This makes sense, since his character, David Levinson, is in charge of the Earth Space Defense. “Oh my God,” is his fairly in-character response.
Not only skulls, but the wreckage of a ship.
Despite the hero’s entrance Jake Morrison (Liam Hemsworth) is getting here, we know that, at least at the start of the movie, he’s assigned to drive a forklift around the moon because of a mistake he made in his past. There is a lot of moon stuff in the movie and the trailer.
“I spent 20 years trying to get us ready for this. We used their technology to strengthen our planet. But it won’t be enough,” is David’s rather gloomy voiceover. The synopsis has a similar theme:
After “Independence Day” redefined the event movie genre, the next epic chapter delivers global catastrophe on an unimaginable scale. Using recovered alien technology, the nations of Earth have collaborated on an immense defense program to protect the planet. But nothing can prepare us for the aliens’ advanced and unprecedented force. Only the ingenuity of a few brave men and women can bring our world back from the brink of extinction.
This is a nice homage to the first shot of the original Independence Day. Of course, we have a moon base now.
Here’s the ESD (Earth Space Defense) walking into an eerie, smoke-filled room. We know from the first movie that this is how the aliens love to kill humans.
See? I bet scientists were doing experiments here, just like the first movie.
Former president Thomas J. Whitmore (Bill Pullman) says, “I see them, in my dreams. They’re coming back.” With the beard and all, it very much seems like he’s taken on the role of paranoid elder statesman.
From here out, the voiceover is the president’s speech from the first movie. Every character reveal is paired with some immense danger, too. There’s Judd Hirsch as Julius Levinson, on a boat for some reason. It looks like there’s a tanker ship, too? Either way, a giant alien spaceship is menacing the skies.
And we get Dylan Dubrow-Hiller (Jessie Usher). All we really know about him is that he’s grown up as the son of the guy who saved Earth, Will Smith, a.k.a. Sir Not-Appearing-In-This-Film.
President Whitmore steps into the belly of the beast, while his daughter Patricia (Maika Monroe) tries to stop him. She’s both a fighter pilot and working for the new president in some secret capacity.
More destruction shots.
David and Jake have some moon adventures. It very much looks like Jake is taking over as the action and comedy buddy of David in this film.
New president Lanford (Sela Ward) gets threatened and protected in the command center. We also see David here in another shot, so it might be the Earth Space Defense headquarters. Ward has described her character as “tougher, more decisive, not afraid to use force, she’s more aggressive” than Whitmore.
Jasmine (Vivica A. Fox) is a stripper no more. Now a hospital administrator, but still running for help.
Definitely more advanced space battles in this movie, and much more CGI.
This looks like it takes place before Whitmore steps into the smokey alien room, since he’s in the background. In the foreground, we’ve got William Fichtner’s General Adams, who will be more important in the next few films than he is in Resurgence.
This looks like a Moon Tug, the space forklift that Jake has been doomed to pilot. Comes in handy regardless.
Especially since he saves David on it.
The trailer ends with the usual blitz of images. Joey King’s character is trapped on a bus. It looks like David is with Dr. Catherine Marceaux (Charlotte Gainsbourg), Jake’s love interest is Patricia, and two unknowns hold hands.
And we end with David saying, “That is definitely bigger than the last one,” as both a comment on the alien ship and a meta-commentary on Resurgence as opposed to Independence Day.
Contact the author at katharine@io9.com.