Independence Day: Offically Alternate History
- Thread starter Marky Bunny
- Start date
That's a shitload of cities.
Also - it's clearly stated in the movie that "three" ships were heading for North America in the first wave - but Toronto gets it in the first wave here, in addition to LA, NYC, SF and DC?
Also - Toronto gets it in wave one - but the aliens don't bother going after Montreal until wave four?
redlightning
Banned
I recall the book Independence Day: Silent Zone saying that there were a billion killed and 150 cities destroyed during the attacks. Why all of a sudden is it 108 cities?
Maybe 108 cities was attacked, while 42 cities could be from outbreak of war with nearby countries, like India and Pakistan.
On that note, with the two largest Anglophone cities and media centers in Canada toasted, and Quebec sitting untouched (the Montreal attack was intercepted), I imagine that the balance of power between the provinces shifted quite dramatically. Ottawa was unscathed, so the situation probably wouldn't be as chaotic as in America, and the post-war unity fostered by the attack probably muzzled calls for outright independence, but I imagine the Bloc was relishing in Quebec's position of power.
With what weapons though? How much of the military is leftover after all the alien attacks to even fight, let alone win, a war with your neighbour?
And I would imagine that many countries would have used nukes on the ships earlier, with use of them being almost certain during the last battle. Seriously - who the hell uses fighter jets on a city-sized ship when you can just lob a few missles instead?
True but I'm still wrapping my mind around how three alien ships ended up becoming five alien ships during the first wave. Also Toronto gets toasted in wave one but (given the list of destroyed cities posted) the Toronto ship decides to go for Chicago, goes for Detroit and then turns around and goes for Montreal?
In the other thread for this I theorized that the aliens had enough of a grasp on psychology to figure that deliberately doing inefficient things to rub in that they will crush you anyway (since they would have if not for the whole Area 51 thing) could be a demoralizing thing for their enemies which could help during the land phase of the conflict. Rather much of a handwave, I know.
Blue Moon
Banned
Is this graphic and the maps from the actual war of 1996 site ? Could you post waves 2-4 if so ? Thanks.
Blue Moon
Banned
The movie mentions those 3 North American cities and some others but it never mentions the worldwide total as per the original novelization and new material -36 .
http://www.dailyscript.com/scripts/id4.html
A space ship logo spins next to the words VISITORS: CONTACT OR
CRISIS. Wolf Blitzer comes on screen live from the Pentagon.
WOLF BLITZER
Pentagon officials are reporting
more ships have just arrived over
the capitals of India, England and
Germany.
As he speaks we get quick glimpses of the other ships.
We were just hearing the early stages of the ship arrivals. For example on that ID4 script page General Grey also says
http://www.dailyscript.com/scripts/id4.html
GENERAL GREY
More ships keep arriving, fifteen
in total so far.
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Blue Moon
Banned
The original novelization mentions "over a 100 cities destroyed " and also notes there were 36 city destroyers. So if there were 3 waves that means 108 cities destroyed plus the other 36 cities that were the targets of the intercepted 4th wave and likely damaged when they crashed. So that means 144 cities totally or partially destroyed. A billion or more deaths seems likely given that number.
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Blue Moon
Banned
I really think what LordInsane says makes sense. Lets not forget the arrogance of the aliens either. They were doing things at their own pace. It's not like those pesky human bugs could do anything to stop them. You can't look at it the way a regular earthbound human power would that was doing such attacks .
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Blue Moon
Banned
For those unfamiliar with the BBC radio play...
Found the script
http://id4.freeservers.com/script.htm
That's not it. That's the film script. The related UK script is unrelated to the BBC radio play. Sorry but when you have Sir PAtrick Moore and Nicky Clark playing themselves (with Colin Baker and Toyah Wilcox) you have to be a purist!
Blue Moon
Banned
Oops sorry about that everyone. I saw the ship over Big Ben and assumedThat's not it. That's the film script. The related UK script is unrelated to the BBC radio play. Sorry but when you have Sir PAtrick Moore and Nicky Clark playing themselves (with Colin Baker and Toyah Wilcox) you have to be a purist!
Blue Moon
Banned
How about this -don't know if it is the whole thing ?Oops sorry about that everyone. I saw the ship over Big Ben and assumed
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qedmT3jF1FA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXrlV40SDM4
Blue Moon
Banned
One hour so definitely not
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independence_Day_UK
and there is this site
http://freespace.virgin.net/ty.po/DMaggsID4UK.html
Blue Moon
Banned
It would seem that for the most part peace breaks out among humans. The alien holdouts in the Congo are likely one of the few areas of conflict left on Earth.
Nick P
Donor
You have a tape collection?????
WHY?
Let's be fair now, my collection consists of about 15 tapes in a very dusty cassette box that moved to the attic from my car in about 2000 after I got a CD player. Not a lot of great tunes in there to be honest
It's a TAPE! I can't play the damn thing! I have no way to convert audio tape to MP3 and even less idea how to do it
For the aliens not destroying cities at a faster pace with nukes, I have a couple of suggestions.
1) Fallout and nuclear winter. If the aliens are planning on preserving Earth's ecology, they may wish to avoid these. Going from city to city, blowing them up one at a time, may have been done for environmental reasons.
2) While they clearly have incredible energy technology, such as antigravity and force fields, if someone can hack them their information technology may not be as comparatively advanced as we assume (a common issue in Hollywood depictions). Even in today's real world, that kind of precision targeting from orbit is very hard. Even "smart bombs" miss far more often than many people believe -- it's not one-hit-one-kill in the real world. So perhaps actually going from city to city is more efficient and has lower failure rates.
3) Arrogance and, let's be blunt, incompetence. Look at the utter debacle in the planning for the post-invasion Iraq -- their military command may not be any smarter than ours.
1) Fallout and nuclear winter. If the aliens are planning on preserving Earth's ecology, they may wish to avoid these. Going from city to city, blowing them up one at a time, may have been done for environmental reasons.
2) While they clearly have incredible energy technology, such as antigravity and force fields, if someone can hack them their information technology may not be as comparatively advanced as we assume (a common issue in Hollywood depictions). Even in today's real world, that kind of precision targeting from orbit is very hard. Even "smart bombs" miss far more often than many people believe -- it's not one-hit-one-kill in the real world. So perhaps actually going from city to city is more efficient and has lower failure rates.
3) Arrogance and, let's be blunt, incompetence. Look at the utter debacle in the planning for the post-invasion Iraq -- their military command may not be any smarter than ours.