Released over two discs, the first one contains both the original theatrical
edition plus an extended special edition with an extra eight minutes of
footage, plus two audio commentaries: one with producer/director/writer duo
Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich and the other with Special Effects
Supervisors Volker Engel and Doug Smith.
Disc two contains the following treats :
Original Bi-plane ending (4 mins): Filmed but not included in the
final version, this sequence - presented in non-anamorphic 2.35:1, which
contains an in-built running commentary
over parts of it, shows local loony Russell Casse (Randy Quaid), who
was once sexually experimented upon by aliens, in a bi-plane rushing about amongst
the F-18s on the suicide run to save the day. It was taken out and replaced
with Quaid in an F-18 of his own because the filmmakers thought the method
of transport for him might not be quite so realistic. And, of course, the rest
of the movie is 100% fact? :)
Featured Specimens: Three featurettes are included all of which
contain plenty of interview clips from cast and crew, plus non-anamorphic
2.35:1 widescreen film clips and concept artwork. Creating Reality
(30 mins) looks at taking the idea from the page to the screen; The ID4
Invasion (22 mins) begins as a humourous spoof of news reports as if the
action was happening for real - Orson Welles eat your heart out; and The
Making of ID4 (29 mins) is an HBO First Look 'making of' introduced by
Jeff Goldblum as he eschews the chance to check out Area 51 and goes for
"Area ID4" instead...
Teaser Trailers (5 mins): Three of them. All non-anamorphic, with
two in 1.66:1 and one in 2.35:1.
Theatrical Trailer: (2½ mins): Non-anamorphic 2.35:1
widescreen with a deep voice behind it, but not the famous Don La Fontaine.
TV Spots: A hilarious 15-second TV trailer, plus five quick-fire
30-second TV trailers which don't take the piss so much apart from the last
one which features REM's It's The End of the World as We Know It
and I Feel Fine.
Apple Computer TV Spot (30 seconds): Yes, a Mac really can save
the world(!)
Superbowl TV Spot (30 seconds): Shown during the match itself,
"Enjoy the Superbowl. It may be your last!"
Stills Gallery: Scores of photos covering Production Photographs,
Conceptual artwork for the Alien Ships, Sets and Props and Alien Beings, plus
storyboards for the "Welcome Wagon", the midnight destruction and the Bi-plane
ending.
There are 57 chapters for the extended version (3 less for the regular),
plus subtitles in English for the hard of hearing, Czech, Danish, Finnish,
Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelandic, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese and Swedish.
The glorious animated and scored menus show the enemy ships entering Earth's
atmosphere and the destruction of the Whitehouse.
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
