President Joe Biden took the airwaves on Thursday evening to make big announcements about COVID-19 vaccine rollout in America, and he reminded a lot of people of another famous president, albeit a fictional one. The President emphasized the importance of vaccine availability nationwide, noting that if things go according to schedule that families could begin to have small gatherings together without worry by Independence Day. Citing the July Fourth holiday by that name, along with his tone and delivery, got a lot of people thinking about Bill Pullman’s famous speech as President Whitmore from Roland Emmerich’s 1996 disaster film. We’ve collected some of the best tweets about it below!
As you may recall, the iconic sci-fi movie has many memorable moments but Pullman’s speech where he specifically says “Today, we celebrate our Independence Day” remains the most popular. Speaking in a previous interview about the movie, Pullman revealed that his performance in the speech is the reason that the film ended up being titled “Independence Day” in the end!
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“We shot that at night, of course, because it’s dark and not on a soundstage or anything,” Pullman previously said to Cinema Blend. “It was really late, and it got moved into the schedule early, because Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich were in contention right then with Fox about the title. I think it was gonna be Doomsday. It’s what Fox wanted, and it was a title that was typical of the time [for a] disaster movie. They really wanted Independence Day, so we had to make the speech really good. And then they cut it together, and a couple of nights later, Dean came to my trailer, and he said, ‘Do you wanna see it’? โฆ 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.”
If you can’t wait until July, Independence Day is now streaming on HBO Max.
Joe said bring it on
Big Biden saw Bill Pullman’s speech in “Independence Day” and saw it as a challenge.
โ Ragnarok Lobster (@eclecticbrotha) March 12, 2021
Just vibes
Anyone else get real Bill Pullman vibes from that speech
โ Grace Segers (@Grace_Segers) March 12, 2021
We’re all waiting on that Pullman moment
When the president was talking about the fourth, I thought he might go full Bill Pullman for a moment there. pic.twitter.com/BQ97EGoWKA
โ Steven Shepard (@POLITICO_Steve) March 12, 2021
Ball’s in your court Joe
Biden do the Bill Pullman speech word for word on 7/4 challenge
โ laura olin (@lauraolin) March 12, 2021
Didn’t wanna get sued
My goodness, that was a great speech by POTUS Biden! You might not have shed a tear, but I’m pretty sure I did. Also, somewhere a speechwriter missed a perfect tie-in to a certain Bill Pullman speech! pic.twitter.com/75oNAv86ro
โ Robert Glowacki, PhD (@RGlowacki13) March 12, 2021
This close
Biden *almost* quoted Bill Pullman in Independence Day.
โ Tom Oates (@toates) March 12, 2021
You weren’t the only one
Some real Bill Pullman vibes from Joe tonight. pic.twitter.com/DmQ1mB27FP
โ Nick Bullock (@Nick_Bullock) March 12, 2021
It’s gonna happen folks
By saying we will hopefully “celebrate our independence from this virus,” President Biden has set himself up to just give the Bill Pullman #IndependenceDay speech on July 4th. pic.twitter.com/crsI8mXira
โ Anthony Wright (@aewright) March 12, 2021
The biggest tease
If Biden doesnโt come out on July 4 and give the Bill Pullman Independence Day speech word for word, this has all just been a big tease.
โ Jeshua_11 (@refractedglow11) March 12, 2021
DMCA Takedown on Joe
Bill Pullman has submitted a copyright claim https://t.co/LKlvsPappf
โ Michael McDevitt (@MikeMcDTweets) March 12, 2021