City Destroyer

City Destroyer
Specifications
Type	Attack spaceship
Dimensions	25 km
Technology	Anti-gravity systems
Weapons	Direct energy cannon
Defense systems	Deflector shields Fleet of Alien attackers
In the movies
Appears in	Independence Day Independence Day: Resurgence

A City Destroyer is an enormous spacecraft that was used by the Harvesters as their main attack force during the War of 1996.

Design

A City Destroyer is, by Earth standards, of staggering size: shaped overall like a concave saucer, its diameter is of 15 miles (or 25 kilometers) and its height from the center up is of just under four kilometers, tapering out to a single kilometer on the brim. The brim is not perpendicular to the bottom of the ship; instead, the edge of the bottom expands outward slightly before uniting with the upper dome. The upper dome is not perfectly smooth: the control tower, a wafer-shaped structure longer and taller than it is wide (though not so tall as to be the ship's tallest point), protrudes from a dish-shaped indentation near the edge roughly three or four kilometers in diameter. The underside of the ship is not uniform either: it is arranged in a symmetrical, bas-relief design not unlike the petals of a flower, with street-like corridors separating warehouse-sized blocks.

Purpose and operation

City Destroyers are deployed more or less simultaneously from the Mothership in order to hover over strategic locations on the target planet. As soon as the ships are deployed, a countdown begins. Once all the Destroyers are in position and the countdown reaches zero, the first volley of the firing procedure begins - that is, all the Destroyers open the ports at the center of their underside which houses their main weapon: a devastating cannon/mining laser. Once the weapon is charged, the Destroyers simultaneously launch a ball of energy that disintegrates its target and then expands out with destructive force sufficient to demolish an area the size of a large city. If more targets must be hit in order to obtain control of the planet, another countdown then presumably begins as the ships re-position to destroy targets unaffected by the first volley.

In case of counterattack by the residents of the besieged planet (as well as to destroy smaller targets impractical for the Destroyers to attack), the Destroyers will deploy Attackers, which are small, nimble crafts designed for dogfighting. This pattern continues for any additional volleys. The volleys are also potent enough to level an entire mountain, which is best demonstrated on how a City Destroyer managed to completely obliterate NORAD at Mt. Cheyenne. Like the attackers, they also carried powerful deflector shields, being capable of withstanding up to a nuclear warhead without so much as a scratch. This was best demonstrated during the failed nuclear strike on a City Destroyer above Houston, which destroyed the city but the City Destroyer remained completely unaffected.

The ships have weaknesses, however: they are just as susceptible to computer viruses when infected (although they have a slight delay in being infected). In addition, the use of their onboard cannon also carries the risk of being destroyed by a missile/suicide attack while charging up a volley, which would result in catastrophic damage to the ship. This was ultimately how the City Destroyer targeting Area 51 and all of the other City Destroyers during the War of 1996 were taken down.

History

In the War of 1996, thirty-six City Destroyers participated in the invasion of Earth and destroyed at least 108 human cities. The City Destroyers were finally brought down during the July 4th counterattack after the Americans managed to disable their shields and discovering their weakness in their exposed primary weapons. After the war, the destroyed vessels were mined by humanity for their resources and technology.

Although the City Destroyers were taken down, one intact Destroyer managed to land in the African nation of Umbutu. This vessel drilled into the Earth until it was deactivated when the mothership was destroyed during the July 4th counterattack. However, the aliens of the vessel kept fighting Umbutu's military forces for 10 years until they were eradicated. The Destroyer remained dormant and Umbutu's isolationist policies prevented the international world from investigating the vessel.

In 2016, the Umbutu Destroyer was suddenly reactivated. This forced Umbutu's leader Dikembe Umbutu to request the aid of ESD Director David Levinson to investigate the vessel. It was then learned that the Destroyer had sent a distress call to its home planet, sending the Harvester Mothership with the Harvester Queen to Earth.

Gallery

A City Destroyer undocking from the mothership.

A City Destroyer hovering over the White House.

Over New York City.

Over Los Angeles.

Over the ruins of NYC.

The intact City Destroyer in Umbutu.

Inside the Umbutu City Destroyer

City Destroyer's control panel.

Main Weapon

Concept Art

Other Media

Video game

The City Destroyers in the 1997 video game are basically the same as the ones in the film. They appear in every level, with the exception of the Mother Ship level. After completing the mission objective, the Destroyer prepares to fire. Its primary weapon must then be destroyed before the time is up. Cannons and shield generators are attached to the underside of the Destroyers.

Toy line

The "Defend New York City" Micro Battle playset includes an Alien Destroyer and 2 "plasma bombs".

Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me

The famous scene where the City Destroyer blew up the White House was used by Dr. Evil to communicate what exactly would happen to America if the President failed to give him his $100,000,000,000 via his Moon Base's "laser", or rather, similar results to what would ultimately happen.

Star Fox 64

The Saucerer boss in Star Fox 64 and its 3DS remake was explicitly based on the City Destroyers, even sharing a similar weakness to them in destroying the core as well as attempting to blow up a base. Unlike the City Destroyers, however, the Saucerer has to flip over to actually use its volley cannon.

Sonic Adventure 2 and Shadow the Hedgehog

The Eclipse Cannon weapon system aboard the Space Colony ARK, and to a certain extent the ARK itself, was reminiscent of the City Destroyers' trademark weapon system. In addition, in one cutscene for the latter game where Black Doom has the ARK fire its Eclipse Cannon at Central City to destroy it, the shot of the city being destroyed resembled the famous scene of the City Destroyer stationed at Washington D.C. destroying the White House.

Behind the Scenes

• The fiery clouds that were produced by the City Destroyers entering Earth's airspace were created by injecting gray painting into a large water tank, with an internal lighting rig a bluescreen backdrop. Multiple takes were then composited into live action location shots. There were difficulties in depicting the effect on the early televised views of the Destroyers entering the airspace of Siberia and elsewhere in which they had to be played back on set many months before any final visual effects shots would be ready.

• The shadows of the Destroyers passing over the cities and monuments were achieved both by digital manipulation of wide location shots and by simply moving large cutouts over miniature monuments shot outdoors in daylight.

• The Destroyers were created in three different scales: a four-foot version for wide space shots, a twelve-foot hero model for the majority of shots, and a massive thirty-five foot section representing one sixth of the ship for closeups.

• The Destroyers' primary weapon with its metallic petals opening up was filmed with a larger-scale mechanized miniature section that was shot upside down to facilitate lighting.

• The primary weapon seems to fire in three distinct stages: Stage one was the buildup of energy streams around the central firing point; stage two was an intense light beam that served to illuminate and designate the target, much similar to the laser sight of a gun and stage three was "the hammer" of the energy that traveled down the sighting beam to annihilate its target and spread outwards.

• The Umbutu Destroyer is seemingly a different design than the other City Destroyers seen, having sets of landing struts and more concave appearance on its underside, giving it a more bowl-like shape.

External links

• ID4 Dimensions - City Destroyer schematics