Todorov’s theory on narrative stages

Independence Day (1996)

Equilibrium• The story starts with the President of the United States,

Thomas Whitmore (Bill Pullman), in the White House, casually on the phone with his wife, who is away from home.

• The staff in the White House are calm and friendly towards each other, with no worry about the alien invasion.

Disruption• The Secretary of Defence are alerted of an alien object in

Earth’s airspace by some workers in a SETI laboratory.• They notice that the ‘object’ is roughly the size of the moon,

and is breaking into smaller pieces.

Recognition of Disruption• David Levinson (Jeff Goldblum) realises that the signals that were

disrupting the satellite signals were an embedded signal to co-ordinate all the destroyers to attack the largest cities at once.

• He, his father Julius (Judd Hirsch), his ex-wife Constance (Margaret Colin) , the President, the President’s daughter and all of the main staff escape the White House in Air Force One before the wave of fire from the destroyers caught them.

Attempt to repair disruption• After nearly all the Black Knights are taken down by alien fighters after

unsuccessfully penetrating the alien shields to take down the destroyers. Only Steven Hiller (Will Smith) survived.

• Levinson then comes up with the idea of installing a computer virus onto the mothership which will be fed down to the alien fleet via the satellite transmission. This would disorient the ships and remove the shields.

• All the remaining survivors of the attacks come together and have an aerial showdown over Area 51.

Reinstatement of equilibrium• The ships around the world are destroyed and the last cities of

the world survive the possible onslaught.• The mothership is blown up with a thermonuclear weapon

deployed by Hiller and both Hiller and Levinson escape before the detonation.