With the official release of Independence Day: Resurgence on June 24, it looks like we’re in for a nostalgic ride.

Taking place twenty years after the first movie, Earth has seemingly recovered from the events of the alien invasion. Scientists have figured out a way to use the extraterrestrial technology left behind to protect the planet from further and future attacks. At least until they realize that the aliens sent out a distress signal and reinforcements have finally arrived:

 

Watching just how much energy and power the alien invaders possess got us thinking — we started to rehash some of the top alien invasion movies and tried to rank them based on how much damage their weaponry did to Earth on a global scale. What we ended up with was a list of 9 movies, each with weapons more dangerous than the last, and a deeper understanding of just how much energy it would take to power each.

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!

Global Destruction Score Summary:

Movie: War of the Worlds
Weapon: Alien Tripod War Machines
Global Destruction Score: 1/9

Movie: Stargate
Weapon: Nuclear Bomb
Global Destruction Score: 2/9

Movie: The World’s End
Weapon: The Network
Global Destruction Score: 3/9

Movie: Independence Day
Weapon: Direct Energy Weapon
Global Destruction Score: 4/9

Movie: The Avengers
Weapon: Wormhole
Global Destruction Score: 5/9

Movie: Battleship
Weapon: Force Field
Global Destruction Score: 6/9

Movie: Star Trek: Generations
Weapon: Trilithium Missiles
Global Destruction Score: 7/9

Movie: Star Wars
Weapon: Death Star
Global Destruction Score: 8/9

Movie: Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Weapon: Starkiller Base
Global Destruction Score: 9/9

Alien Tripod War Machines – War of the Worlds

War of the Worlds was first made into a movie adaptation of the H.G. Wells novel of the same name in 1953. In 2005, Steven Spielberg directed a more modern version of the same story. Some of aliens in this modern adaptation are known as Tripod War Machines. These machines are equipped with weapon’s that can generate enough energy to incinerate a human being down to ash in an instant.

To help you better understand the amount of power it would take to achieve this kind of destruction, let’s take a closer look at the cremation process. A typical incinerator used for cremation in the United States runs at a temperature of 1,100 degrees Fahrenheit (593 degrees Celsius). It takes approximately two to three hours to burn a body completely, due to the fact that we are made up of 75% water. In addition, during this process, many human bones do not turn to ash.

Spontaneous combustion helps to better clarify just how much heat generation is required in order for a person to turn to ash. In 1951, Mary Reeser was found dead in her house. Her body had reached 3,500 degrees Fahrenheit. Only part of her left foot and backbone remained. One would have to assume that the energy or power required to completely incinerate a human being would have to be even hotter to get the job done in the blink of an eye.

While this alien weaponry did not actually destroy a major city or even the world, it was responsible for the annihilation of most of the population within New Jersey (and other areas). On our Global Damage Scale, the Alien Tripod War Machines score a 1 out of 9.

Nuclear Bomb – Stargate

Since the movie’s release in 1994, Stargate has gained a huge fan base due to subsequent television series and other related films. The premise involves an ancient artifact known as the Stargate that can generate a wormhole, one that connects Earth to another planet. Wanting to test out this wormhole, the United States government sends a team of military personnel through the gate in order to discover what’s on the other side. Should whatever it is that they find on the other side prove to be hostile, the group brings a nuclear weapon along for the ride to destroy the gate should it prove necessary.

The interesting thing about this movie is that in this case, us humans are the aliens bringing in a weapon of mass destruction to another planet. After discovering that the people living on the planet are peaceful, our protagonists discover that they suffer under the rule of an alien being known as Ra. As the story unfolds, Ra eventually steals the nuke and almost successfully uses it against the very people who brought it to the planet in the first place. After some quick thinking, the team is able to transport the bomb to Ra’s ship where it detonates.

A nuclear weapon is pretty serious business. One of the biggest differences between a nuclear and regular or conventional explosion is that it is possible for a nuclear explosion to be thousands or even millions of times stronger than the largest conventional explosion. The temperature in a nuclear explosion is also much higher, and the energy generated is light and heat, otherwise known as thermal energy. While thermal energy can generate into electricity, creating a nuclear explosion every time we need to power up our laptops isn’t exactly a plausible scenario.

To measure the amount of energy a nuclear weapon can produce, we need to look at the yield. The yield defines the quantity of TNT that is required to generate the same volume of energy when detonated. For example, a 1 kiloton nuclear weapon produces the same amount of energy as 1,000 tons of TNT.

Seeing as the nuclear bomb from Stargate was placed and detonated on a ship, we can assume that if the situation were to happen today, Ra’s ships definitely would not have stood a chance. We’re giving this ‘alien’ weapon a 2 out of 9 on the Global Damage Scale.

“The Network” – The World’s End

The World’s End is a British film written by Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright (who also directed). The movie starts 20 years after a group of friends from childhood attempt to complete a pub-crawl through their hometown. What the gang doesn’t realize is that since they’ve been gone, their hometown has served as home base for aliens known as, The Network.

Ultimately, The Network abandons its mission after the main characters convince it that its plan will not work and self-destructs, effectively turning the town of New Haven into rubble and ash. This then sets off a series of events that destroys modern technology, sending the world spiraling back into the Dark Ages.

In this particular case, The Network itself is the alien weapon of mass destruction. While its reach only went as far as the destruction of one small town, the effects were far reaching and eventually impacted the entire world.

When it comes to energy, the initial explosion set off by The Network is comparable to a nuke or massive amounts of TNT. Both would easily have enough power to take out a small town. While it is not likely that the destruction of a small town would devastate telecommunication technologies, it is possible that there would be damage to power lines, generators, or even sections of the grid.

On the Global Damage Scale, The Network ranks in at a solid 3 out of 9.

Direct Energy Weapon – Independence Day

We can’t have a list that references alien invasion movies without including, Independence Day. The particular scene we’re thinking of is a memorable one. With an alien craft hovering above the White House, and the general population believing that the aliens themselves are there to spread peace – the unthinkable happens. A bluish-white beam of light extends down from the ship, effectively destroying the White House and most of the State.

The type of weapon the aliens used is generally accepted to be what we, here on Earth, would define as a direct energy weapon. Direct Energy Weapons have the capability to produce highly focused energy. That energy can then be directed towards a target, in order to damage that target. The energy produced can come in several different forms including, electromagnetic radiation (radio frequency, microwave, masers and lasers) particles with mass, and sound.

At the moment, the Pentagon is working on technologies related to direct energy weaponry in order to help defuse threats by missiles. The reason why the government is focused on developing this type of weaponry is because it is impossible to evade once fired, and the emitted beam is precise, hitting its target with more accuracy than other weapons.

As there isn’t a laser powerful enough to provide a direct comparison, it makes it difficult to know just how much energy it would take to power a laser strong enough to destroy a state. The best related example would like be the nuclear bomb – and even then it would depend on the power of the bomb to destroy an area that large.

While the aliens in Independence Day didn’t manage to destroy the entire world, we’re giving them a 4 out of 9 on the Global Destruction Scale.

Wormhole – The Avengers

Wormholes are theoretical passages through time and space that could potentially create shorter travel times from one place to another, anywhere in the universe. In the final battle of The Avengers, the group finds themselves battling an alien race called, Chitauri whilst trying to save as many citizens as possible.

To generate the wormhole, the bad guys made use of the Tesseract, an ancient Asgardian artifact that has (in previous Avenger related films) been used to power weapons of mass destruction. Taking that information into consideration, it can be assumed that the Tesseract itself can generate enough energy to at least destroy a small to medium sized city.

Yes, we know it’s true that the wormhole itself didn’t cause any damage. However, the alien’s flying through the wormhole certainly did a number on New York City! This is why we’re giving the power of the wormhole a 5 on the “Global Scale” of mass destruction.

Force Field – Battleship

Battleship, as the name implies primarily takes place out at sea, where an alien structure has created a force field around Hawaii, between several military ships and the rest of the fleet.

Force field research is limited in today’s day and age for several reasons. The first being, it would take an incredible amount of energy in order to power a force field for long periods of time.

Another element to consider is that the purpose of a force field is to cover or protect a large area. In modern day warfare, this type of protection isn’t necessary because our weaponry consists of bombs or missiles that target a specific area. Therefore, the focus is then on deflecting those individual attacks as generating enough energy would take up too much of our resources.

That being said, there have been experiments that prove that generating a force field is possible using plasma. Basically, if you can put yourself behind a wall of the stuff, if can prevent something like electromagnetic radiation from a laser or other related directed energy weapon from hitting you. That being said, you would also need a magnet that is strong enough to hold that plasma in place, which would also consume a ridiculous amount of power. Other issues arise due to a little something called, physics.

If you turn on your plasma shield to protect your ship from enemy fire, and those missiles just bounce right off like ping-pong balls. However, should you try and return fire? You would have to turn that plasma shield off, because in reality, it works both ways.

While the alien force filed in Battleship might not be plausible using the technology we have at our disposal, we do know that it would take an incredible amount of energy to even produce. That’s why we’re giving it a 6 out of 9 on our Global Destruction Scale.

Trilithium Weapon – Star Trek Generations

In the Star Trek universe, there is a synthetic compound known as Trilithium. It’s tremendously powerful when used as an explosive, especially when used to start a nuclear reaction. More importantly, when fired at a star, it can stop all nuclear fusion within its core, causing the start to collapse under its own mass. The resulting shock wave is powerful enough to destroy everything in its system.

During the course of the movie, the villain developed a Trilithium weapon that could shoot the compound into space via torpedoes or missiles with the sole intent of destroying stars to suit his own purposes. As you can imagine, this does not sit well with the crew of the Enterprise.

This particular alien weapon is fairly plausible, depending on the distance of the target. We know that the moon is 384,400 km from Earth, and that in order for a space shuttle to successfully make it to the moon and back, each of the two Solid Rocket Boosters carries over 1 million pounds of solid propellant. The shuttle’s External Tank is also filled with over 500,000 gallons of extremely cold liquid oxygen and hydrogen. These fuel elements are mixed and then burned to generate fuel for the three main rocket engines.

As you can see, it requires an incredible amount of energy to get a shuttle from one place to another through space. That being said, the Trilithium missiles don’t require as much power, as their purpose is to land and destroy a star, not transport or support human life. However, the comparison serves to provide some context or insight into just how much energy it would take to realistically get a missile from one planet to another.

While the Trilithium missile itself only causes a particular reaction to occur within a star, which doesn’t require a lot of energy, the star’s reaction in this situation is pretty darn powerful. In fact, supernovas are a very real thing. They occur when there is a change to the core of the star. Therefore, if a substance like Trilithium were to exist, generating man made supernovas would be a likely possibility! The energy released from a supernova is incredible. The current estimated total output is as much as the total output of the sun in its 10 billion year lifespan.

So, while the alien weapon itself doesn’t cause any damage, the resulting effect of changing a star’s core and the devastation that a supernova would cause brings the Trilithium weapon in at 7 out of 9 on our Global Destruction Scale.

Death Star – Star Wars

It’s a classic scene. Princess Leia has been captured by Imperial forces and is forced to watch the utter and total destruction of her homeward Alderaan from the Death Star itself.

The Death Star is a mobile space station that also doubles as a galactic weapon of mass destruction. Over 100 kilometers in diameter, with an estimated 1.7 million personnel, the Death Star certainly would strike fear in the hearts of anyone looking at it. While we don’t quite have the technology to build a space station of that magnitude and size, scientists and researchers have since been keen to figure out how and if it is possible to build a death star today.

While there are many different sites on the plausibility of such a thing, researchers have made progress on recreating the powerful laser that can destroy worlds. In 2015, Japan fired the world’s most powerful laser at 2-petawatts (2 quadrillion-watts). It generated energy equal to 1,000 times the Earth’s power consumption. To run the beam itself, it only took about as much as running a microwave for 2 seconds and the beam was fired for only 1 pico-second. To put this into context, a 50,000 watt laser is capable of bringing down a drone that was 1 mile away. That laser is 10 billion times less powerful than the one fired in Japan. Prior to this, the University of Texas, Austin managed to develop a 1-petawatt laser.

Overall, the Death Star’s frightening ability to transport and support life for an army of incredible size, plus the fact that its got its own built-in super weapon, gives it a high score of 8 out of 9 on our Scale of Global Destruction.

Starkiller Base – The Force Awakens

The Force Awakens was one of the most anticipated movies of 2015, and when it came to alien weaponry, the Imperial forces didn’t disappoint. Starkiller base is the ultimate Global Disaster weapon, as during the course of the movie it destroys a total of 5 planets with one shot.

The weapon itself draws its power by draining the energy from stars. It then stores the power in the planet’s core until it is shot through a canon and into space, destroying its target in minutes. As you can imagine, the energy it would take to recreate such a weapon would be highly dependent on taking energy from sources produce energy (heat) on a scale that is so much greater than what the Earth currently can provide.

Because the weapon fired from the Imperial forces Starkiller base not only destroyed several planets, but also extinguished the lives of millions of people, it is clear that on our “Global Scale” of mass destruction, this alien weapon ranks in at 9 out of 9.