Roland Emmerich has long been laying the groundwork for ‘Independence Day 2,’ with plot rumors and bits of information leaked by the director for the follow-up to his first big blockbuster making their way to the internet for years. Now we finally have an official plot synopsis, which sheds some light on what we can expect when the film is released next year. Check it out below:

“After Independence Day redefined the event movie genre, the next epic chapter delivers global catastrophe on an unimaginable scale. Using recovered alien technology, the nations of Earth have collaborated on an immense defense program to protect the planet. But nothing can prepare us for the aliens’ advanced and unprecedented force. Only the ingenuity of a few brave men and women can bring our world back from the brink of extinction.”

A lot of this information, including the talk about the “nations of Earth” collaborating on “an immense defense program” fits in nicely with earlier statements made by Emmerich, back when he was writing early drafts of the script. Here’s an excerpt:

”The humans knew that one day the aliens would come back, and they know that the only way you can really travel in space is through wormholes. So for the aliens, it could take two or three weeks, but for us that’s 20 or 25 years…It’s a changed world. It’s like parallel history. [Humans] have harnessed all this alien technology. We don’t know how to duplicate it because it’s organically-grown technology, but we know how to take an antigravity device and put it in a human airplane.”

So in a nutshell, we know for sure that humanity will be operating with higher technology scavenged from the remnants of the original alien fleet. While they cannot duplicate the tech, they can take what is already there and adapt it to what they can build, creating hybrid planes and weapons that would prove a better match against the superior alien forces. It also confirms that, similar to the original, none of the human preparation will be enough to withstand the alien force, with their only chance the brilliance and ingenuity of a few (most likely including Jeff’s Goldblum’s returning character).

If Emmerich manages to capture even a fragment of the magic of the original, this will definitely be a sequel worth seeing, especially as he’s had so many years to iron out his script. Here’s hoping the man manages to deliver, and we can once again cheer for the heroes of earth as they fight for their survival in ‘Independence Day 2.’

Source: Collider