Director Roland Emmerich (1955)

Moonfall (2022), a science fiction disaster film, is the result of collaboration between writer, director, and producer Roland Emmerich. In 2011, astronauts Brian Harper and Jocinda Fowler are repairing a satellite during a Space Shuttle mission when a strange black swarm attacks their orbiter. The swarm kills one of their crewmates and leaves Fowler incapacitated. Despite Harper’s account of the event, which he stands by for eighteen months, his explanation is not believed and he is ultimately fired due to alleged human error. A decade later, K.C. Houseman, who holds the belief that the Moon is an artificial ...

Midway (2019) is a war film that depicts the crucial Battle of Midway, which marked a turning point in the Pacific Theater during World War II. In December 1937, American naval attaché intelligence officer Lieutenant Commander Edwin T. Layton receives a warning from Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto during a state function. The Japanese leader emphasizes that their country’s dependence on imported oil means they would be forced to declare war if the US were to threaten their supply. And so it happens on December 7, 1941, when Japan launches a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor after the US cuts off their oil supply. In response to this act of aggression, Lieutenant Richard ...

Roland Emmerich co-wrote and directed Independence Day: Resurgence (2016), the highly-anticipated sequel to the original 1996 film. In this new installment, set twenty years after the War of 1996, the United Nations has established the Earth Space Defense (ESD), a global research program that uses alien technology to protect Earth from potential extraterrestrial threats. Thanks to humanity’s triumph over the aliens in their previous attack, peace reigns among nations and civilization has been restored. To further safeguard against future invasions, the ESD has expanded its reach by setting up bases on the Moon, ...

Stonewall (2015), an American coming-of-age drama film directed by Roland Emmerich and written by Jon Robin Baitz, follows the story of Danny Winters, a gay boy originally from Indiana. In the late 1960s, Danny flees his conservative hometown and moves to New York City. There, he is caught in a compromising position with his boyfriend by his friends before leaving. While his mother loves him, she does not stand up to her upset husband, who refuses to sign Danny’s scholarship application for Columbia University. Despite this obstacle and leaving his supportive little ...

In the action-packed film White House Down (2013), directed by Roland Emmerich and written by James Vanderbilt, U.S. President James Sawyer stirs up controversy with his proposal to sign a peace agreement that would remove military forces from the Middle East. John Cale, a divorced Capitol Police officer, strives to impress his daughter Emily by interviewing for the Secret Service and getting them tickets for a White House tour. However, his college acquaintance and interviewer Deputy Special Agent-in-Charge Carol Finnerty deems him unfit for the job. As chaos erupts in Washington, D.C. with a bomb detonating at the United States Capitol, Finnerty takes Speaker of the ...

Anonymous (2011), a period drama directed by Roland Emmerich and written by John Orloff, tells a fictionalized tale of the life of Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford. The film suggests that de Vere was actually the true author of William Shakespeare’s plays. In modern-day New York, Derek Jacobi delivers a monologue at a theatre questioning the lack of written manuscripts from Shakespeare, despite his unparalleled success as a playwright. Meanwhile, Ben Jonson prepares to take the stage. The narrator offers to lead the audience on a journey through an alternative ...

2012 (2009) is a science fiction film directed and written by Roland Emmerich and Harald Kloser. American geologist Adrian Helmsley travels to East India in 2009 to meet with astrophysicist Satnam Tsurutani, where he learns about a new type of neutrino causing the Earth’s core to heat up. Upon his return to Washington D.C., Adrian informs White House Chief of Staff Carl Anheuser and President Thomas Wilson. The following year, over forty-six nations work together to build nine arks in Tibet and secure important artifacts. Nima, a Buddhist monk, is evacuated with his ...

10,000 BC (2008) is an American action-adventure film co-written, co-produced and directed by Roland Emmerich, with additional writing and scoring by Harald Kloser. The movie follows a tribe called the Yagahl living in the Ural Mountains during the last Ice Age. Their main source of sustenance is hunting woolly mammoths, but their numbers are rapidly decreasing. A skilled hunter who has successfully taken down a dangerous animal receives blessings from an elder shaman named Old Mother. When the village chief discovers a young survivor named Evolet, who had escaped from a ...

The American disaster movie, The Day After Tomorrow (2004), was co-created and directed by Roland Emmerich. Inspired by the 1999 book The Coming Global Superstorm by Art Bell and Whitley Strieber, the film follows Jack Hall, an American paleoclimatologist. Together with his colleagues Frank and Jason, they are conducting ice-core sampling in the Larsen Ice Shelf for NOAA. During their research, the ice shelf breaks off into the ocean. At a UN conference in New Delhi, Jack presents his findings on how climate change ...

The Patriot (2000) is an American epic movie portraying historical events. Directed by Roland Emmerich and written by Robert Rodat, the film centers around Benjamin Martin during the American Revolutionary War. A veteran of both the French and Indian War and a widower with seven children, Martin is summoned to Charlestown to vote on a levy that would support the Continental Army. Uncertain about war with Great Britain and not wanting to compel others to fight when he himself will not, Martin refrains from voting. However, the levy passes and his eldest son Gabriel enlists ...

Godzilla (1998), an American monster film directed and co-written by Roland Emmerich, follows the aftermath of a military nuclear test in French Polynesia. A giant creature attacks a Japanese cannery vessel in the South Pacific Ocean, leaving only one fisherman alive. NRC scientist Dr. Niko ‘Nick’ Tatopoulos is conducting research on the effects of radiation on wildlife in the Chernobyl exclusion zone when he is approached by an official from the U.S. State Department with a special mission. In Tahiti, a mysterious Frenchman interrogates the survivor about his experience, to which he keeps responding with ...

Independence Day (1996) is a sci-fi action film directed by Roland Emmerich. On July 2, an alien mothership enters Earth’s orbit and deploys saucers over major cities, including New York City, Los Angeles, and Washington D.C. U.S. Marine Captain Steven Hiller and his unit, known as the Black Knights fighter squadron based in MCAS El Toro, are called back to defend Los Angeles. His girlfriend Jasmine Dubrow decides to flee with her son Dylan. Meanwhile, retired combat pilot Russell Casse sees this as vindication for the alien abduction he claimed ten years ago. In New York City, technician David Levinson discovers ...

Stargate (1994), a sci-fi action-adventure film, was directed and co-written by Roland Emmerich. In 1928, at Giza in Egypt, archaeologist Professor Paul Langford unearthed cover stones engraved with Egyptian hieroglyphs and other markings. Underneath these stones, he found a large metallic ring that served an unknown purpose. Sixty-six years later, Professor Langford’s daughter Catherine invites Egyptologist and linguist Dr. Daniel Jackson to translate the hieroglyphs. The stones are now part of a classified project overseen by Special Operations Colonel Jack O’Neil of the U.S. Air Force. With Dr. ...

Director Roland Emmerich released Universal Soldier (1992), a military science-fiction action film set during the end of the Vietnam War. After receiving orders to secure a village, American soldier Luc Deveraux discovers that his squad and some villagers have been killed by his mentally unstable comrade Sgt. Andrew Scott. Scott has also taken two children hostage, prompting Deveraux to try and persuade him that the war is over. However, Scott becomes enraged and kills one of the children in front of Deveraux, then demands that he kill the other as a show of loyalty. Deveraux refuses and stops Scott from harming the ...

Moon 44 (1990), a film from Centropolis Film Productions and directed by Roland Emmerich, takes place in the year 2038. At this point in time, Earth’s natural resources have run dry and major corporations now control the galaxy. These companies constantly battle for rights to mining planets, with the most notable conflict taking place on Moon 44. This particular installation is currently under the control of Galactic Mining Corporation, as other nearby moons have been overtaken by rival Pyrite Defense Company’s battle robots. Due to numerous casualties during training, Galactic Mining cancelled its defense ...