20 Things You Somehow Missed In Independence Day

9. Freedom Ridge

Independence Day Star Wars
20th Century Fox

Wanting the movie to be a real celebration of alien-hunting and conspiracy culture (hence why Area 51 features so prominently) Roland Emmerich filled the movie with odes to America's legion of UFO nuts.

One understated moment occurs in the base's briefing room, when a night vision shot of the facility pans across the screen.

This was actual footage filmed from the so-called "Freedom Ridge", an elevated spot of the Nevada desert where truth-seeking individuals would set up camp to search for flying objects and observe the shadowy US facility in the distance. The area has since been closed to the public.

Managing Editor
Managing Editor

WhatCulture's Managing Editor and Chief Reporter | Previously seen in Vice, Esquire, FourFourTwo, Sabotage Times, Loaded, The Set Pieces, and Mundial Magazine