Maverick That Fans Should Watch Next

"Independence Day" is obviously a movie about an alien invasion, but it's also –- and this is important –- a movie about a group of heroic pilots. The events of the film are as follows: On July 2, 1996, aliens invade Earth and send saucers over 15 major cities. President Whitmore (Bill Pullman) orders evacuations of the affected cities, but it's too late. The saucers fire beams into the cities, killing millions instantly.

A lot more people die, and Whitmore's nuclear attack fails. When tech expert David Levinson (Jeff Goldblum) creates a computer virus to disable the alien shields, Whitmore realizes their only hope is to mount a counterattack. They contact all the remaining pilots from around the world, including Captain Steven Hiller (Will Smith) and retired fighter pilot Russell Casse (Randy Quaid). Whitmore, a former fighter pilot himself, even joins the fight. One of the most successful films of the 1990s -– it became the second-highest grossing film of all time following its release -– "Independence Day" ushered in a new era of Hollywood blockbusters and is often seen as the precursor to the big-budget sci-fi and disaster movie resurgence in this decade.

Apart from the obvious pilot connection, "Independence Day" has another link to "Top Gun: Maverick." Bill Pullman's son, Lewis Pullman, stars as the reserved Lieutenant Robert "Bob" Floyd in "Maverick," a role his father helped him prepare for. "I always run everything by him before I start a job, and he always delivers me gold," the younger Pullman told The Hollywood Reporter.