- "That is definitely bigger than the last one."
- ―David Levinson
The Harvester mothership is a massive, mobile spaceship used by the Harvesters. The mothership is designed for stripping planets of their natural resources. A mothership participated in an attack on Earth during the War of 2016.
Features[]
The mothership resembles a massive disc similar to a City Destroyer; size-wise it is much larger than the first mothership that attacked Earth in 1996 and covered an area roughly the size of Earth's moon's surface. The mothership moves at a steady pace and is surprisingly fast for its size, being able to travel from Saturn to Earth within two days. The mothership is so huge that it has its own gravity field while having gravity pads on the bottom side to keep the planet it’s landing on from breaking.
Weapons[]
The mothership is armed with powerful energy cannons that can be arced into multiple beams to shoot multiple targets simultaneously. Like the other alien ships, the mothership is equipped with a energy shield that can withstand the ESD Moon Base's energy cannon.
The vessel also possessed a cloaking device which concealed its presence from electronic detection as demonstrated during its arrival to Earth before the ESD can respond, giving them no time to prepare their defenses against the massive vessel.
During the ESD's counterattack on the mothership, the vessel possessed a electromagnetic pulse weapon which instantly shut down human aircraft and satellite communications.
Harvesting Operation[]
The mothership's plasma drill.
The mothership harvest a planet's resources by latching on to the planet's surface with its massive landing struts and proceed to fire a direct beam of plasma, which is projected from the vessel's center, into the planet's core. The beam absorbs the magma from the planetary core in which the magma is transferred through the mothership and into its landing struts, where the feet grow roots which keeps the struts dig into the planet's surface.[1]
Interior[]
The mothership's interior is vast, resembling a giant mechanical-like cavern (being so spacious as to have its own ecosystem) containing what is essentially the aliens' civilization: military, social structure, transport, communications hubs, and a form of agriculture.[1]
The ground level serves as some kind of agricultural system with an unknown species of plants being grown in giant fields. Harvester drones are used to reap these fields.[1] Throughout the mothership are massive control towers, towering 175 kilometers high, which they serve as air-bases for Fighters that are docked on platforms.[1]
History[]
The mothership made its first appearance to humanity on July 4, 2016. It first arrived over the Moon, prompting the ESD Moon Base to fire its energy cannon at the ship. However, the mothership's energy shield protected the vessel from the ESD attack. In response, the mothership fires an direct energy beam that destroyed the Moon Base. The mothership continued its approach to Earth and easily destroying the Orbital Defense System. Due to the mothership's massive size and gravity, entire cities from Asia and the Middle East were uprooted until it lands over the North Atlantic Ocean and causing the lifted structures and debris to rain over Europe. Its landing annihilated the entire United States East Coast and much of northwestern Europe. The mothership then proceeded to drill downward to the Earth's molten core.
The Earth Space Defense launched an ill-fated assault on the mothership in an attempt to eliminate the Harvester Queen. Several bombers armed with cold fusion bombs entered the ship and were disabled by an electromagnetic pulse before they were neutralized by drones. However, the ESD managed to lure the Queen away from the mothership after tricking her into following the location of the Sphere, and managed to kill her. The death of the Queen caused the mothership to cease its drilling and retreat from Earth.
Gallery[]
Infographic[]
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Arrival to Earth[]
Crossing over the Moon[]
Landfall[]
Leaving Earth[]
Armaments[]
Mothership Interior[]
Concept Art[]
Behind the scenes[]
The mothership in Independence Day: Resurgence was conceived by Johannes Mücke, in collaboration with director Roland Emmerich.
The mothership's disc shape appearance was made to be simple and straightforward according to Johannes Mücke in The Art and Making of Independence Day: Resurgence:
- "Something that I've learned from [Roland Emmerich], which was such a great lesson, is that he believes in keeping it as simple as you can: The spaceship's a disc. He likes the most straightforward and simple idea you could have. It'll get super complicated by itself. If you start with a complicated thing, you'll have a Gordian knot, you'll have something like that which you'll never solve visually."
- ―Johannes Mücke
Roland Emmerich referred to early concept art of the mothership "a table on the Earth."[1] Mücke describes the mothership's interior to be about the size of North America.[1]
References[]
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