On this day in 1996, as America geared up to celebrate the upcoming 4th of July, the alien invasion of Earth began. A massive mothership arrived in the planet’s orbit and unleashed saucers to major cities like New York, Los Angeles, and Washington D.C., causing destruction that would kill millions. It was only through the efforts of a disparate group of survivors, including the President of the United States, Thomas Whitmore, technician David Levinson, U.S. Marine Captain Steven Hiller, and the late former Air Force pilot Russell Casse, among others, that the world would eventually be saved. At least, that’s the case in the movie Independence Day from Roland Emmerich. However, an account on X (formerly Twitter) called ID4 in Real Time is imagining how those events would be conveyed over social media, and, shockingly, some people are falling for it.
ID4 in Real Time has been operating since 2019 and doing yearly live-tweetings of the beloved summer blockbuster to celebrate the release of the film and the holiday as well. Their posts begin in the days leading up to the invasion, discussing the failed attempts at passing President Whitmore’s (Bill Pullman) big crime bill and other happenings in the world before getting into the reports of aliens. The account isn’t afraid to mix in some references to current events either, like calling Whitmore’s bill the “Large Lustrous Legislation” in a parody of the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” or saying that they were accidentally tagged on the “experimental group communication tool Signal” by Al Nimziki (James Rebhorn), poking fun at a similarly grievous error by National Security Advisor Mike Waltz involving The Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg. All of it inevitably culminates in Russell’s heroic sacrifice and Earth — or rather, America — striking back and taking down the aliens to cheers.
For the most part, these tweets are pretty easy to identify as part of a bit, fleshing out the defining sci-fi disaster flick and putting a new spin on iconic scenes from an outsider’s perspective. However, out of context, some of these messages have also caught users unaware. Whether it’s an official-sounding breaking news tweet about sources within the White House having evidence of extraterrestrial invaders or using real European Space Agency developments to back up the findings of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute, they’ve elicited a fair few responses that didn’t immediately notice the theme.
Read the Responses to the Annual ‘Independence Day’ Live Tweeting
The ID4 in Real Time account has had a bit of fun giving “evidence” to users who have looked for any news of an alien invasion, only to come up empty. When one person asked for a source after scouring for official reports of UFOs entering Earth’s atmosphere, they shared the perfect page to learn all about the historic event — the IMDb page.
Another user turned to X’s built-in AI, Grok, for assistance. Grok hasn’t had a perfect track record, to say the least, and, naturally, it knew nothing of an invasion. Though the original post from the AI is no longer available, @1996ID4 mocked it for daring to suggest that these weren’t very real, deeply dangerous, and credible threats to all human life.
For the most part, though, most users are just taking in the fun of reliving the opening hours of the invasion as the miles-long UFOs start to position themselves over major U.S. cities and put the world in “checkmate.” There have been countless references to using nuclear weapons “immediately and often,” and remarks about President Whitmore’s efficacy in a crisis like this. Another user remarked about being fooled by a few of the messages before finally catching on that, with all the different officials from the movie referenced and jokes made, this is indeed an Independence Day thing.
Where to Stream ‘Independence Day’ This Week
If reliving Independence Day and its incredible destructive effects through live tweeting isn’t enough, Tubi is offering the film for free to users. Disney+ and Hulu subscribers can also watch Emmerich’s classic directly through those platforms as well, and, unsurprisingly, it’s been a streaming hit ahead of the holiday. However you watch, there should be no problem catching the iconic film this 4th of July weekend and reliving the thrills of watching the White House being blown to smithereens, with a cast consisting of Pullman, Rebhorn, Jeff Goldblum, Will Smith, Randy Quaid, Mary McDonnell, Judd Hirsch, Margaret Colin, Robert Loggia, Vivica A. Fox, and Harvey Fierstein uniting to fight back.
