Unclear and Present Danger15 Jul 2024

Independence Day

In Independence Day, humanity makes its first contact with an alien race. What follows is one day of destruction, one of despair, and one day where the human race, led by the United States, fights back. Jamelle and John use the film to discuss the triumphalist American optimism of the 1990s as well as the political afterlife of the imagery of the film, which extends into the post-9/11 era.

Some of the taglines for Independence Day were “We’ve always believed we weren’t alone. On July 4th, we’ll wish we were,” “The day we fight back!” and “Welcome to earth.”

Independence Day is available to buy or rent on Amazon Prime or Apple TV. You can also stream it on demand at Hulu.

Episodes come out roughly every two weeks, and we’ll see you then with an episode on Mars Attacks, Tim Burton’s satirical counterpoint to Roland Emmerich’s earnest blockbuster.

And don’t forget our Patreon, where we watch the films of the Cold War and try to unpack them as political and historical documents! For $5 a month, you get two bonus episodes every month as well as access to the entire back catalog — we’re almost two years deep at this point. Sign up at patreon.com/unclearpod.

The latest episode of our Patreon podcast is on Rambo, the 2008 legacy sequel written and directed by Stallone.

Connor Lynch produced this episode. Artwork by Rachel Eck.

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Episoder(108)

Saving Private Ryan

On this week’s episode of Unclear and Present Danger, Jamelle and John watched Steven Spielberg’s World War II epic, Saving Private Ryan, starring Tom Hanks, Ed Burns, Matt Damon and Tom Sizemore, amo...

1 Okt 0s

X-Files: Fight the Future

On this week’s episode of Unclear and Present Danger, Jamelle and John discuss the 1998 X-Files movie, directed by Rob Bowman with a screenplay by X-Files creator Chris Carter. Starring, obviously, Da...

5 Sep 0s

Gattaca (feat. Nicole Hemmer)

On this week’s episode of Unclear and Present Danger, Jamelle is joined by Nicole Hemmer, a professor of history at Vanderbilt University and co-host of the This Day in History podcast, to discuss the...

14 Aug 0s

Armageddon

On this week’s episode of the pod, Jamelle and John cover Michael Bay's 1998 asteroid movie Armageddon — the one where oil drillers, not astronauts, are sent to save the world. They discuss why it rea...

17 Jul 0s

Godzilla (1998)

On this week’s episode of Unclear and Present Danger, we watched Roland Emmerich’s attempt to bring Godzilla to Hollywood in the appropriately titled Godzilla. Ostensibly a film about the dangers of n...

4 Jul 0s

Bulworth (feat. Vinson Cunningham)

On this week’s episode of Unclear and Present Danger, Jamelle and John are joined by Vinson Cunningham of the New Yorker to discuss Bulworth, the 1998 black comedy (no pun intended) written, directed ...

27 Mai 0s

Oklahoma City: A Survivor's Story

On this week’s episode of Unclear and Present Danger, Jamelle and John watch the 1998 Lifetime film Oklahoma City: A Survivor’s Story, starring Kathy Baker as Priscilla Salyers, a real-life U.S. Custo...

17 Apr 0s

Mercury Rising

On this week’s episode of Unclear and Present Danger, Jamelle and John watch the 1998 action thriller Mercury Rising, directed by Harold Becker and starring Bruce Willis, Alec Baldwin, and Miko Hughes...

26 Mar 0s