Independence Day/Best scene/Roland Emmerich/Will Smith/Steven Hiller/Jeff Goldblum/David Levinson

On July 2, 1996, an enormous mothership orbits around Earth, deploying assault fortress saucers, each with a fifteen-mile radius, that take positions over Earth’s major cities. David Levinson, an MIT-trained satellite technician, decodes a signal embedded within global satellite transmissions, realizing it is the aliens’ countdown timer for a coordinated attack. With help from his ex-wife, White House Communications Director Constance Spano, David and his father Julius gain access to the Oval Office and alert President Thomas Whitmore to the threat. Whitmore orders evacuations of New York City, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C., but it is too late. The saucers fire destructive beams, causing massive explosions that kill millions. Whitmore, the Levinsons, and a few others narrowly escape aboard Air Force One as the capital is destroyed, along with the other locations over which the city-destroying warships are positioned. On July 3, counterattacks against the alien invaders begin worldwide, but