The president has an important message for you this July 4th. No, not the one who keeps using songs at poorly attended rallies without the band’s permission, it’s the one from the classic 1996 film Independence Day. Bill Pullman, who memorably played President Thomas J. Whitmore in the Will Smith action flick, has a message for you this Independence Day and, yes, it’s coronavirus related. In a PSA brought to you by the Alamo Drafthouse, Pullman asks everyone to celebrate their freedom by wearing “freedom†masks, so hopefully we can safely get back to bars, restaurants, schools, and — most importantly — movie theaters. “I may not be your president anymore,†Pullman says at the top of the video, “but I gotta tell you the 4th of July is still my favorite holiday and always will be.†Interspersed with footage of a toy airplane (nice touch), Pullman says “I’m going to be wearing my freedom mask every time I go into public places.†Maybe if we start calling them “freedom masks†people will start wearing them, like that time we started calling French fries “freedom fries†for some reason. Given that Pullman successfully navigated alien invaders in Independence Day, he seems to be a better authority on leading in times of crisis than the guy currently in office, so we should probably listen to him and wear our masks.
