Yes: Independence Day is first and foremost a blockbuster action flick, with clear and uncomplicated "good guys" and "bad guys"…so deep symbols aren't exactly its thing.

But that's the great thing about symbolism. Even in popcorn summer movies, symbols rear their ugly heads. And we say "ugly" heads because these aliens are nasty.

This is a movie about a plucky, not-so-little country called America trying to defeat the superior forces of a massive colonial army. And this movie is centered around America's birthday: July 4th.

Remember why we celebrate July 4th in the first place? That's right: because once upon a time, a plucky, not-so-little set of colonies called America signed a little doc called the Declaration of Independence, which essentially defeated a massive colonial army called England.

Yeah. Those aliens would look a lot cuter if they were wearing those snazzy red coats.

The aliens in Independence Day can be read, in fact, as a condemnation of the British Empire—of course, it can also be read as anti-empire in general, but since this film is about America's independence day, we're focusing our laser symbol-reading vision in on the Brits.

Check out President's brief turn as a Miss Cleo-type psychic. Although he only gets "the sight" for few seconds, that's enough time to learn the aliens' plans—which are pretty narrowly focused on pillaging the earth for its resources:

PRESIDENT: I saw his thoughts. I saw what they're planning to do. They're like locusts. They're moving from planet to planet, their whole civilization. After they've consumed every natural resource, they move on. And we're next.

Hrrm. Moving an entire civilization—maybe like an entire civilization that likes to drink a lot of tea? Moving from planet to planet—kind of like an empire that once bragged that it covered so many countries that "the sun never set on the British Empire"? Consuming natural resources—kind of like how the British Empire consumed the diamonds of South Africa, the sugar of the Caribbean, tea from India, and cotton from Egypt?

Sure: the British didn't have magic alien telepathic powers. But they did have a whole lot of other powers—which is why Independence Day bleeds red, white, and blue symbolism even as it reconstructs the patriotic fervor of America's first Independence Day.