10 Film Characters Who Suffered Horrendous Fates In Other Media

For reasons still beyond understanding, people hold a soft spot for Independence Day's soft serve patriotism and big explosions. Alas, anyone at the age of reason when it was released saw it as the hollow, cliche-riddled mess that cynically preyed on the public's willingness to suspend disbelief.

Nevertheless, it was a huge hit and led to director Roland Emmerich turning into an Irwin Allen=type, making spectacles full of disasters and big stars gawking at explosions. Even his failures, like the much-maligned Godzilla remake and 2012, managed to earn their money back and then some.

After Stonewall failed to garner much attention, Emmerich went back to his roots with Independence Day: Resurgence. Most of the cast returned. The only hold out was Will Smith, who played Captain Steven Hiller and bravely piloted the alien ship.

So they just outright killed him.

And they didn't kill him heroically, nor did he die of natural causes In fact, his death is not really mentioned in the film, despite his stepson being one of the lead characters.

If you sift through the ad campaign, you'll find video of a news report with the headline "Alien Tech Malfunction Kills Col. Hiller." Smith was bummed to learn they killed him in small text in a viral ad. He missed the good news: they promoted him first.