Movie Trailers

• Directors: Roland Emmerich
• Producers: Dean Devlin
• Writers: Dean Devlin, Roland Emmerich
• Genres: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi, Thriller
• Actors: Will Smith, Bill Pullman, Jeff Goldblum, Mary McDonnell, Judd Hirsch, Robert Loggia, Randy Quaid, Margaret Colin, Vivica A Fox

On July 2, a giant alien mothership enters orbit around Earth and deploys several dozen saucer-shaped “destroyer” spacecraft, each 15 miles (24 km) in width. As the destroyers take positions over some of Earth’s major cities, David Levinson (Jeff Goldblum), an MIT graduate working for a cable company in New York City, discovers hidden satellite transmissions which he believes to be a timer counting down to a coordinated attack by the aliens. With the help of his ex-wife Constance Spano (Margaret Colin), a White House employee, he and his father Julius (Judd Hirsch) gain entrance into the Oval Office to warn President Thomas J. Whitmore (Bill Pullman) of the impending attack. The President immediately orders large-scale evacuations of the targeted cities, but the aliens attack with advanced directed-energy weapons before these could occur. The President, portions of his staff, and the Levinsons narrowly escape aboard Air Force One as the destroyers simultaneously lay waste to Washington, D.C, New York City, Los Angeles, and several other major cities around the world.

On July 3, the United States conducts a coordinated counterattack; the movie follows the Black Knights, a squadron of Marine Corps F/A-18 Hornets, as they participate in an assault on a destroyer near the destroyed city of Los Angeles. Their weapons fail to penetrate the craft’s force field, and it responds by releasing scores of smaller “attacker” ships which are similarly shielded and armed with directed-energy weapons, and a one-sided dogfight ensues. Captain Steven Hiller (Will Smith) survives the attack by luring a single attacker to the Grand Canyon.[4] There, he blinds the alien with the braking parachute on his jet and ejects just before running out of fuel, causing both to crash in the desert. Having parachuted to safety, he subdues the injured alien. Hiller is picked up by Russell Casse (Randy Quaid), who is traveling across the desert with a group of refugees in a convoy of RVs. They take the captured alien to nearby Area 51, commanded by Major Mitchell (Adam Baldwin), where the President and his remaining staff have also landed. Here, it is shown that Area 51 conceals a top secret facility housing a repaired attacker and three alien bodies recovered from Roswell in 1947.

…

With the successful implantation of the virus, President Whitmore leads the American jet fighters against an alien destroyer on approach to Area 51. Although the aliens now lack shields, the fighters’ supply of missiles are quickly exhausted against the colossal craft and its large complement of assault ships. The underside of the alien craft opens up as its directed-energy weapon prepares to fire on the base. Russell possesses the last remaining missile, but his firing mechanism jams; changing his plan, he pilots his aircraft into the alien weapon in a kamikaze attack. The ensuing explosion causes a chain reaction which annihilates the ship. Using this same method, human resistance forces around the world destroy the remainder of the alien ships and saving several surviving major cities, while the nuclear device planted by Hiller and Levinson destroys the alien mothership soon after the duo escape. Hiller and Levinson return unharmed, crash-landing their captured alien fighter in the desert close to Area 51. The world celebrates, and the film ends as the main characters watch debris from the mothership enter the atmosphere like fireworks.

• Directors: Roland Emmerich
• Producers: Dean Devlin
• Writers: Roland Emmerich, Dean Devlin
• Genres: Fantasy, Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
• Actors: Kurt Russell, James Spader

The theatrical version of the film begins in 1928, where Professor Langford discovers a massive stone ring in the sands of Giza, Egypt. In the present day, Langford’s daughter Catherine offers Egyptologist Daniel Jackson the chance to translate Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs that may prove his controversial theory regarding the Pyramid of Khufu. Jackson accepts and is taken to a US military installation inside Creek Mountain, Colorado. Jackson translates the hieroglyphs on the stone ring’s coverstones, which read: “A million years into the sky is Ra, Sun God. Sealed and buried for all time, his Stargate.” Formerly retired Air Force Colonel Jack O’Neil arrives to take command of the project and declares all information regarding it classified.

Jackson notices that the symbols are star constellations that are coordinates for a location within space, the sequence is entered into the Stargate, creating a wormhole to a location in another galaxy. After O’Neil leads a team through the Stargate, they find themselves inside a pyramid in the middle of vast sand dunes. Jackson reveals they cannot dial home because the Stargate coordinates to go back to Earth are missing. Some team members stay at the pyramid while Jackson, O’Neil, and others go out and discover a mining village inhabited by humans who assume them to be gods sent by Ra.

…

Jackson convinces the locals that their “gods” are mere mortals and, with their help, make it back to the Stargate hoping to deactivate the bomb. When the locals begin an open rebellion against Ra’s troops, Ra decides to retreat and prepares his ship for takeoff. O’Neil transports the bomb to Ra’s ship in orbit where it explodes, killing Ra. The team is able to return to Earth, though Jackson decides to remain on the planet and help the locals build a new society.

• Directors: Roland Emmerich
• Producers: Dean Devlin, Mark Gordon, Gary Levinsohn
• Writers: Robert Rodat
• Genres: Action, Drama, War
• Actors: Mel Gibson, Heath Ledger, Jason Isaacs, Joely Richardson, Chris Cooper, Tom Wilkinson

At the beginning of the American Revolution, Benjamin Martin (Gibson) is a South Carolina veteran of the French and Indian War and a widower raising his seven children on his farm. Gabriel (Ledger), the eldest, is anxious to join the American forces fighting the British in the Revolutionary War. Knowing war from personal experience, Ben tries to discourage his son’s ambitions, but his son enlists anyway.

Gabriel returns home two years later, stumbling wounded into the family home and carrying military dispatches. The next day, a military skirmish have the Martins caring for the wounded from both sides. British soldiers – the ruthless Green Dragoons cavalry – arrive and kill the Colonial wounded, burn down the Martin house and arrest Gabriel as a spy, intending to hang him. Ben’s next eldest son Thomas (Smith) is shot and killed by the leader of the Green Dragoons, Colonel William Tavington (Isaacs).

Making use of his knowledge of fighting in the wilds, Ben and his two younger sons, Nathan (Morgan) and Samuel (Chafin) set forth to ambush the British column in the woods. They manage to kill most of the soldiers in an ambush and free Gabriel. The boys are horrified at their first glimpse of their father’s ferocity. Gabriel rejoins the cause against his father’s will again, stating it is his duty as a soldier. Ben decides to join as well, leaving the rest of the children in the care of their aunt Charlotte (Joely Richardson), Ben’s sister-in-law.

…

Martin and his family return to their home to find the militia helping to rebuild it. Occam (Jones) tells Ben, “Gabriel said that if we won the war, we could build a whole new world. Just figured we’d get started right here, with your home.” Benjamin smiles.

• Directors: Roland Emmerich
• Producers: Dean Devlin, Roland Emmerich, Ute Emmerich, Williem Fay, Peter Winther, Kelly van Horn, Rob Fried, Cary Woods
• Writers: Screenplay, Dean Devlin, Roland Emmerich, Story, Ted Elliott, Terry Rossio, Dean Devlin, Roland Emmerich, Characters, Toho Co Ltd
• Genres: Action, Sci-Fi, Thriller
• Actors: Matthew Broderick, Jean Reno, Maria Pitillo

The film’s opening credits play over a montage of French nuclear tests in French Polynesia, observed by lizards. An egg is irradiated by the tests.

Years later, a Japanese fishing ship is attacked by an unseen, giant monster that attacks from below the water: only one sailor survives. Traumatized, he is questioned in a hospital by a French scientist as to what he saw. His only reply is “Gojira”, which is later Romanized as “Godzilla”.

Another attack near the Eastern Seaboard culminates in the eventual destruction of a fleet of fishing ships. The crew survive, after witnessing their boat sinking, but it shoots up from underneath and lands with a huge splash in the surface.

Dr. Niko Tatopoulos, an NRC scientist, located in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone researching the effects of radiation on wildlife, is interrupted by the arrival of an agent of the U.S. State Department. He is sent to Panama, escorted by the military, to observe the wreckage of the recovered Japanese fishing ship and a set of massive footprints in the grassy soil. The Frenchman is also there, observing the scene and introduces himself as an insurance agent. Aboard a military aircraft, Tatopolous identifies skin samples he recovered as belonging to an animal “unknown to science”. He dismisses the military’s theory that the creature is a reawakened dinosaur, theorising that its origins in French Polynesia make it a mutant created by nuclear testing.

…

The crowd and the military celebrates Godzilla’s demise. As Nick, Audrey and Animal reconcile, Roaché quietly leaves, taking the videotape Animal had recorded, detailing the entire incident. In the smoking ruins of Madison Square Garden, it is revealed a single egg has survived the bombing. As the film concludes, the egg begins to crack. A baby Godzilla hatches from the egg and roars.