Harvester pilot

A Harvester pilot is a Harvester that is given the job of piloting an Attacker, a Fighter or any aircraft. One participated in the 1996 invasion of Earth.

Profession

Harvester pilots are tasked by Harvester Queens to pilot their spacecraft, most notably Attackers and Fighters during war. However, a Harvester pilot could also pilot a Harvester Mothership, since it was leaving Earth after the IDR Harvester Queen died to find a new Queen, or even a Queen's Pod, since the Queen was never seen piloting her own ship during the entire film, so it's possible she hired one of her own pilots to steer her ship.

History

War of 1996

Following a dogfight between the Harvesters and humans in the ruins of Los Angeles, this alien pilot pursued Steven Hiller, but only for Hiller to cause it to crash his vessel in the Grand Canyon. Hiller knocked the alien unconscious and subsequently brought it to Area 51. The alien was later shown to the guards outside Area 51 by Hiller, acting as the latter's "proper clearance."

The pilot was autopsied by Area 51's scientists lead by Dr. Brackish Okun in an attempt to remove its exo-suit. However, the pilot awoke during the procedure and attacked its handlers. It then used Okun as its puppet to communicate its captors to demand its freedom, controlling his vocal cords with its mind. This act would put Okun in a 20 year-long coma. When President Thomas Whitmore tried to establish dialogue with the alien and questioned for the reason why its kind came to Earth, the pilot revealed to the President through a telepathic assault on his mind, showing him images of its kind destroying other alien worlds and harvesting their natural resources - with Earth being their latest target for harvest.

The alien's hostile action forced the President's security detail to fatally shoot the alien with Major Mitchell finishing it off with several gunshots to its head from his Beretta 92SB pistol.

Gallery

SFX

Toys

Independence-day-alien-attacker-pilot-carded-action-figure-962-p.jpg

Behind the Scenes

• The scene where Major Mitchell approaches the wounded alien and shoots it in the head at point black range was not in the script and added at the last minute. This was done after one of the few complaints test audiences had was that the aliens weren't suffering enough.