How Bill Pullman's Iconic Speech In 'Independence Day' Inspired Movie’s Title Change

Bill Pullman’s inspiring speech in the movie “Independence Day’’ is considered one of the greatest scenes of all time in the history of Hollywood. The compassionate speech turned out to be the most significant moment in the film as the U.S. Air Force headed out to fight against the aliens.

However, the actor who played President Whitmore in the sci-fi movie recently revealed that there was a battle between the studio and the makers when it came to naming the movie. The 66-year-old star noted that 21st Century Fox originally wanted to name the film “Doomsday,” before Whitmore’s speech in the film inspired the name change.

In an interview with Cinema Blend, Pullman explained that the particular scene was about to get filmed and the makers, Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin, were still fighting about the title with the production company.

He also shared that “Doomsday” was considered to be an appropriate name for the movie at the time.

“We shot that at night, of course, because it's dark and not on a sound stage or anything. It was really late, and it got moved into the schedule early because (producer) Dean Devlin and (director) Roland Emmerich was in contention right then with Fox about the title,” Pullman said.

The “Equalizer” star admitted that he was in extreme pressure while performing the speech because Emmerich and Devlin wanted to name the movie “Independence Day.”

“They really wanted 'Independence Day', so we had to make the speech really good. Dean comes to my trailer, and he said, 'Do you wanna see it?' So he popped in the VHS, he showed me the cut of the speech, and I went 'Holy Mother, they have got to name this movie 'Independence Day'.' And they did,” Pullman said.

The 1996 film turned out to be a success for the production team since it received generally positive reviews from the critics as well as the audience. The film accumulated more than $817 million globally and became the second-highest grossing movie back then.

It was only behind “Jurassic Park” (1993), which earned $914 million during its theatrical run. However, a 3-D version of the movie was released in 2013 and took the film’s earnings to over $1 billion.