Five-Minute Independence Day: Resurgence Trailer Remembers The War Of 1996

Twenty years after prying our way from the clutches of extinction, humanity is thrust into grave danger once more in Independence Day: Resurgence, with today’s barnstorming five-minute trailer – five minutes! – outlining much of the plot underpinning Roland Emmerich’s long-awaited sequel.

The elevator pitch? Commemorating two decades since the War of 1996, and after advancing military tech in the form of the unified Earth Space Defense program, the world’s leading powers stand defiant against any alien threat. But for all of their bravado, complacency creeps through the bleeding-edge defenses when Jeff Goldblum’s David Levinson stumbles upon an alien ship – one that just so happens to be transmitting a distress signal to the stars.

What follows is a deluge of cinematic destruction that hews closely to Emmerich’s M.O. in that the world’s monuments are literally torn asunder and, in the spirit of the ’96 original, the fate of our world is left in the hands of a small group of pilots, scientists and one former POTUS.

That is, of course, the returning Bill Pullman, who stars opposite Goldblum, Judd Hirsch, Vivica A. Fox, Brent Spiner, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Jessie Usher, Maika Monroe and Sela Ward.

Independence Day: Resurgence is now one month out its theatrical bow in the States. To celebrate, and after unveiling its standard new cover, Empire Magazine has today showcased its foreboding Subscribers’ Cover, which you can feast your eyes on below.

We always knew they were coming back. After Independence Day redefined the event movie genre, the next epic chapter delivers global spectacle 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.