MovieChat Forums > Independence Day: Resurgence (2016) Discussion > Wouldn't a ship that size completely mes...

Wouldn't a ship that size completely mess up earth's orbit

posted 8 years ago by Glozwell
15 replies | jump to latest

I'm not an astrophysicist or anything but I've seen stuff on TV about how earth's orbit and the orbit of the moon are in a delicate balance that makes conditions for life on earth possible. So since we know the mothership in this movie is large enough to have a pretty serious gravitational effect, wouldn't that change the earth's center of gravity and mess everything up? Like throw us into a different orbit and permanently screw up our climate and maybe bring the moon crashing down on us?

I know the movie has lots of problems but it seems like this would've at least been a new avenue for massive planetary destruction which of course is Roland Emmerich's favorite thing.

[–] zgurda 8 years ago

i was wondering the same thing,that ship was way over the top and i think it should definitely mess up the whole planet
but then again the whole movie is ridiculous so i guess it doesn't matter

[–] creatorof2002 8 years ago

I want to add that there is no way a ship could be THAT BIG and maintain structural integrity. Blah blah blah all you want about how its "alien technology" and "alien material" A machine can only get so big before structural integrity becomes a problem. In real life the largest aircraft carrier is a quarter of a mile long. Try building a 20 mile long aircraft carrier and see how well it holds together?

[–] Lothar_gr 8 years ago

Well, i don't want to appear defensive of this horrible movie, but, hasn't Star Wars already portrayed such massive ships already decades before "Independence day". I suppose structural integrity would also be a problem for the death-star ship/station/whatever as well.

[–] creatorof2002 8 years ago

1. The Star Destroyers, even the SUPER star destroyers were much smaller than the mother ship in this movie, the only construct of comparable sizes is Death Star and I think to be fair the death star was MUCH SMALLER than the ship in this movie, it was more comparable to the mother ship of the first Independence Day in size, and also it was SPHERICAL in shape which is more durable for a large construction, thats why gravity pulls planets into a spherical shape as opposed to the disc shape of that movie. Granted I don't think the death star would hold up well but it has way better odds than the mother ship of this movie and it did not have the logistical problems of actually landing on planets with all the weird effects that would have.

[–] tdl797 8 years ago

What about Starkiller Base though - remember in that meeting how they show how much bigger it is than the Death Star. Corny/funny. ha. Although, I think it was built inside of a planet, right? Eh, who cares?

[–] TheCommenteer 8 years ago

I think he was talking about the actual Star Wars movies, not the new nonsense with Star Wars branding on it.

[–] simian_ninja 8 years ago

Yeah but Star Wars is also about people who use an invisible power called The Force.

Independence Day, at least the first hour or so of the first film, was somewhat believable in what would happen should aliens actually appear to us. The sequel really went over the hill with the hole in the earth and the ship crashing down into the planet. It was really hard for me to believe any of that, more so than the President of the US suddenly getting in an airplane ready to shoot down alien scum.

That being said, I was pretty sad about Whitmore in this film.

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Death is the standard breach for a complex prize.

[–] KthulhuX 8 years ago

Blah blah blah all you want about how its "alien technology" and "alien material" A machine can only get so big before structural integrity becomes a problem. In real life the largest aircraft carrier is a quarter of a mile long. Try building a 20 mile long aircraft carrier and see how well it holds together?

If it's built in space, then that's not really a problem.

[–] Burk48917 (11433) 7 months ago

but it is meant to, and does, land on planets.

[–] Mad_Monkey 8 years ago

I thought the same thing. As big as it was landing on the earth, it would have had serious repercussions not to mention knocking the moon out of orbit. There's no way earth could have survived just from the ship landing on it.

[–] Pixanaut 8 years ago

Yes.

And it would throw Earth off it's axis, which would cause havoc with weather systems... which would already be skewed because the ship would have thrown the moon (which controls our tides) out of its orbit.

That ship just PASSING BY our planet or moon within 250,000kms would probably drag us out of position and off axis enough to cause serious environmental problems here.

[–] cogioia 8 years ago

I'm an afrophysicist at Harlen University in Kentucky and I reckon this is definitely possible. The mother ship being lighter than earth actual creates anti gravity situation which makes for the inertia balance. I did build a model of this recently and the results were conclusive, although I was high as a kite at the time.

[–] TheCommenteer 8 years ago

It also wouldn't just take off with no impact on anything or anyone like it did at the end. They made a big point of showing its gravity affecting us as it lands, but then at the end it takes off and everyone just hangs out waving goodbye.

[–] bluerisk 8 years ago

I'm woundering if a ship of this size wouldn't crush itself to pieces.
The gravitational pull on a rather hollow structure...

Ich bin kein ausgeklügelt Buch, ich bin ein Mensch mit seinem Widerspruch.
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[–] thingmakersback (1403) 7 months ago

Yeah, this movie and Moonfall displaced The Core as the stupidest sci-fi movie ever made for any significant budget.