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| “ | Where is it? (President Lanford: We shot it down. It crashed on the moon.) Not the ship. I want what's inside. | „ |
| ~ The Harvester Queen asking President Lanford about the location of the Sphere, in a deleted scene. |
The Harvester Queens are the overarching antagonists of the Independence Day franchise, and the one who led the second invasion serves as the main antagonist in the 2016 film Independence Day: Resurgence.
They are the highest-ranking members and the matriarchal body of the Harvesters, an alien species that destroys planets, and causes great conflict. They command the smaller Harvesters, and the latter follow every order the Queens have given them.
History
Background
For thousands of years, the Harvester Queens have led the destruction of countless planets and lifeforms. Among the lifeforms which were attacked were the Sphere and her species, in which she was the only survivor. Because of this, she swore vengeance on the Harvesters and their Queens, and has been rescuing other aliens from them.
Independence Day
| “ | There must have been a Queen up there that we didn't know about. | „ |
| ~ David Levinson's speculation about a Harvester Queen inside the Colony ship that attacked Earth during the War of 1996. |
The Harvester Queen which would later on appear in Independence Day: Resurgence never appears in the film; however, during the events of the film, she (offscreen) sent a Supreme Commander and their invasion force inside a Colony ship to start their invasion of Earth, and one of their city destroyers landed in Africa and started drilling for the planet's molten core. However, the Supreme Commander died after two humans, Captain Steven Hiller and David Levinson, entered the Colony ship with two hijacked Attackers, and blew it up from the inside. The City Destroyer which landed on Earth stopped drilling, and sent a distress signal into deep space. After finding the distress signal, the Harvester Queen was infuriated because of this, and she decided to harvest Earth. She and most of her invasion forces would eventually reach the planet in 2016.
Independence Day: Resurgence
| “ | No one has ever killed a Harvester Queen. | „ |
| ~ The Sphere about what happens if a Harvester Queen was killed off. |
In July 4, 2016, which takes place 20 years later, the same Harvester Queen, in her Harvester Mothership, travels to Earth to seek vengeance on humanity for killing most of the 1996 invasion fleet. She arrives at the planet Saturn in her Harvester Mothership, through a wormhole. She (or one of her minions) uses the Mothership to destroy not only the Rhea Base, which is owned by the Earth Space Defense, but also the moon of Rhea, one of Saturn's moons, which the Rhea Base is on. After this, she eventually reaches the planet of Earth, where she (or one of her minions) uses the Harvester Mothership to destroy the ESD Moon Base, killing everyone onboard, including Jiang Lao, the commander of the base. Once she arrives at Earth, the Mothership's gravity beams activate, lifting up debris from the Earth (including land masses, water, and even magma), and then deactivate, causing the debris to fall back onto Earth and killing thousands or millions of people. Then, the Queen's Harvester Mothership lands on the planet, causing the death of Jasmine Dubrow-Hiller and many other civilians, and minor damage to the White House.
During a human squad's attempt to kill the Harvester Queen by unleashing bombs unto the Queen's Pod she is in, she unleashes many of her Fighters against the H-8 Global Defenders and H-012 Bombers trying to kill her, and at least two of the Bombers are killed. One of the pilots (Jake Morrison) decides it would be best to fly inside the Mothership, as there are too many Fighters outside the Mothership. Dylan Dubrow-Hiller agrees with him, and the squad flies into the Mothership. There, they see not only the fields inside the Mothership, but also the Queen's Pod again, and decide to blow up the latter. However, the Harvester Queen knows the squad is coming after her, and she unleashes an electromagnetic pulse unto them. The human pilots lose their controls and try to restart their engines, but could not. The bombers try blow themselves up so they would not die for nothing. However, mysterious drones latch onto the missiles inside the H-012 Bombers so they could only cause minor explosions. Although the bombers died, the attempt was a failure, and the rest of the squad crash into the fields below.
After the Sphere is activated simply by Floyd Rosenberg touching it, the Queen immediately knows where the Sphere is, puts on her bio-mechanical exo-suit, and leaves the Harvester Mothership, using her Pod to fly over to Area 51 where the Sphere is. There, David Levinson plans to use a decoy of the Sphere on an ESD Moon Tug to bait the Queen like she baited the human squad, and blow her up. While Patricia Whitmore decided to fly the tug, her father, the ex-president Thomas Whitmore, decided to fly the Moon Tug to be the bait instead. As he flies into the Queen's Pod, he softly says to Patricia, "I'm not saving the world, Patty. I'm saving you.". Once inside the Queen's Pod, he blows himself up right in front of the Harvester Queen, destroying the Queen's Pod, and the plan is a success.
However, the Queen is protected by her exo-suit's energy shields, and survives the explosion as a result. She then sees David Levinson, his father Julius, and several kids in front of a schoolbus. She pursues them, but is targeted by Patricia and some of her pilots in H-8 Global Defenders. While she kills most of them, Patricia is able to deal enough blows on the Queen's shield to destroys it. The Queen, infuriated by this, uses one of her tentacles on her exo-suit to destroy Patricia's aircraft (though the latter survives using a parachute). However, Jake Morrison, Dylan Hiller, Rain Lao, and Charles Miller, come to the rescue using stolen Fighters, shooting at the Queen' gun and destroying it.
The Queen then controls her Fighters to protect herself as she makes way to Area 51, where she finally grasps the Sphere. However, the stolen Fighters overheated their engines because of their pilots making them fly too fast. They then target the back of the Queen's exo-suit, where the tentacles are. This gives the Queen herself a fatal would, with her screaming in agony. With her final strength, she starts to exit her exo-suit and attempts to kill everyone in the school bus, but her pain overwhelms her, causing her to fall to her death while her body is still half-exposed from her exo-suit.
With the Harvester Queen's death, her Fighters crash into the Earth, and the Harvester Mothership flies off, with the Harvester fleet intending to find a new Harvester Queen to lead their forces (as the Sphere predicted).
Quotes
| “ | (Director Levinson: Can you hear us?) She has arrived. (Director Levinson: Who is she?) She… is all! | „ |
| ~ A captured Haverster soldier announcing the Queen's arrival through ex-President Thomas Whitmore. |
| “ | She has her own shield. | „ |
| ~ David Levinson. |
Trivia
- While only one Harvester Queen was only shown in the sequel, the Queens are the overarching antagonists of the series because they were behind the Harvesters' destruction of life and planets.
External links
- Meet the Alien Queen (Instagram by aaronsimscreative).