After the release of the disaster epic 2012 (2009), director Roland Emmerich had said, “This is the biggest movie I’ve done so far. I said to myself that I’ll do one more disaster movie, but it has to end all disaster movies.”

Emmerich’s appetite for destruction continues despite his declarations. In Independence Day (1996), he sent a laser crashing into the White House, which caused it to implode. In his climate change drama The Day After Tomorrow (2004), Emmerich turned the Statue of Liberty into a popsicle. In 2012, entire countries and cities ceased to exist. But Emmerich isn’t done yet. In his latest release Independence Day: Resurgence, in which Earth is threatened by an alien invasion, some of the world’s most prominent cities and landmarks are reduced to rubble. The aliens uproot Dubai’s Burj Khalifa and use it as a missile to blow up London. They gleefully throw Malaysia’s Petronas Towers into the London bridge. Las Vegas already does not exist, and Singapore and London are gone by the end of the movie.

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‘Independence Day: Resurgence’.

Despite a meta-remark from the character played by Jeff Goldblum that “They like to get at the landmarks”, New York City, the favoured target of movie havoc, is left alone by Independence Day: Resurgence. A surprising omission, given that in a list of cities laid low by Hollywood filmmakers, New York City is right at the top.

New York City has been vulnerable as early as King Kong (1933), in which the eponymous irate primate takes the love of his life to the top of the Empire State Building after destroying much of the city. The remake, by Peter Jackson in 2005, is even more graphic. Think of the iconic closing sequence of Planet of the Apes (1968) that was leaked by the DVD poster, “You blew it up. God damn you. God damn you all to hell.”

In Armageddon (1998), showers of meteors hit the surface of the Earth, making their landing at the Big Apple. In Deep Impact (1998), a comet lands in the Atlantic Ocean creating a tsunami that floods the financial capital.

Bane from Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises (2012) begins his mission to take over Gotham (which is based on New York City) by initiating detonations at the bridges in Brooklyn, Manhattan and Williamsburg. A final showdown in The Avengers (2012) is also staged in New York City.

Apart from the skyscrapers in downtown Manhattan, the Statue of Liberty is another favourite target.

In the futuristic Oblivion (2013), a montage depicting the dire state of the planet includes images of a dismantled Statue of Liberty. In Cloverfield (2008), the statue is beheaded, and the head lands in the centre of NYC. X-Men (2000) sets its climactic fight sequence on top of the statue, with her torch being destroyed by Magneto. The statue even finds its way into the Hong Kong actioner A Man Called Hero (1999).

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The beheading of the Statue of Liberty in ‘Cloverfield’.

New York City is shorthand for the extent of damage caused by a disaster or an alien invasion. If these forces have reached the financial capital of the world, it must mean that the entire planet is in grave danger.

In an article for Boston Globe, architectural historian Max Page wrote, “When New York is no longer destroyed, on film, in flight simulator software, video games and paintings — that will be a sign that the city no longer dominates America’s, and the world’s, imagination. And if New York is no longer the setting of our worst fears, then it may also no longer be the home of our greatest hopes. And that would be the beginning of the city’s end.”

Another popular city for Hollywood to destroy is its backyard: Los Angeles. In The Day After Tomorrow, a tornado blows off the Hollywood sign. In the cult film Sharknado (2013), sharks engulf the city of angels. The Hollywood sign is destroyed, mayhem erupts and humans are sucked up by the invading marine creatures. In every single one of the titles in the Terminator series, Los Angeles is reduced to ashes.

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‘Sharknado’.

When the stakes get higher, it is the turn of the capital of the United States of America. In Richard Donner’s Superman II (1980) General Zod causes the Washington Monument to keel over, damages the White House and forces the President of the United States to abdicate.

Washington, DC appears to be a personal favourite of Emmerich. In The Day After Tomorrow, Emmerich blankets the seat of power with snow. In his White House Down (2013), a bomb is detonated at the centre of the Capitol building.

Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011) continues this assault by having the bad robot Megatron remove Abraham Lincoln from the Lincoln Memorial and occupy the spot. The White House comes under assault by a North Korean terrorist group in Olympus Has Fallen (2013).

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‘Olympus Has Fallen’.

Another favoured staging ground for mayhem is Las Vegas, which has numerous replicas of famous monuments. These are destroyed often as a tongue-in-cheek reference to famous disaster films, as in Godzilla (2014), in which imitations of the Statue of Liberty and the Eiffel Tower are torn apart.

The Hollywood love of monument destruction is parodied in UHF (1989), in which Weird Al Yankovic’s version of Rambo starts blowing up famous monuments such as the Eiffel Tower and the Colosseum for no reason in particular. In Pacific Rim (2013), the sea monster spares the Sydney Opera house but attacks the city instead.

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‘UHF’.

Hollywood has not even left European cities alone. Paris has long been the go-to destination for outer-space invaders and the forces of nature, with the Eiffel Tower, in particular, being subjected to immense pain. In Mars Attacks (1996), the aliens melt the tower, while it is vapourised in GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra (2009). In Armageddon (1998), the meteor shower knocks the tower off and breaks it in half. In Edge of Tomorrow (2014), both the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre are seriously damaged by invading aliens.

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‘GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra’.

Why should London be left behind? In GI Joe: Retaliation (2013), London is obliterated. In Thor: Dark World (2013), St Paul’s Cathedral is scratched, while many other buildings are completely razed. Another 2013 film, London Has Fallen, which is a sequel to Olympus Has Fallen, targets important landmarks. An explosion occurs at Trafalgar Square, Chelsea Bridge is wrecked, and Big Ben and the Palace of Westminster are severely damaged.

Alan Taylor, the director of Thor: The Dark World (2013), said the big reason for the constant strikes on the Great Britain capital is financial: “It’s a great place to shoot and boasts good crews... And finally, a little thing called tax breaks, which is why London is blowing up a lot this summer!”

If a city or a country qualifies for Hollywood-style annihilation, it means that it has arrived as a lucrative market. Apart from its use in Independence Day: Resurgence, the 2,722-foot high Burj Khalifa in Dubai was used prominently in Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol (2011). A key battle sequence in Pacific Rim takes places in Hong Kong. This shift in locations has been reflected in the box office receipts. Pacific Rim grossed $101.8 in the US while bringing in $309.2 million from other territories.

The fact that Hollywood is turning its attention to Indian monuments to ruin might not be liked by government authorities, but it is a sign that the Indian market matters for American studios. India has become one of the most lucrative overseas destinations for Hollywood titles. Such films such as The Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) and The Jungle Book (2016) have hit screens in India a week before they arrived in the US. The Jungle Book, in particular, has proved to be a huge moneyspinner. In 2015, Furious 7 became the first Hollywood film to gross Rs 100 crore in India. Independence Day: Resurgence has already had an opening day box office gross of Rs 4.7 crore in India.

Yet, we won’t allow them to touch our monuments. Emmerich had earlier wanted to blow up the Kaaba, the cube-shaped structure in Mecca, in 2012, but he was reined in. He thought that he might at least be able to knock off a few Indian monuments, and he wanted to smash the Taj Mahal in Agra and the Gateway of India in Mumbai to smithereens in Independence Day: Resurgence. According to a report in Hindustan Times, Indian audiences would have been “too touchy”, and the monuments were spared.

This is possibly why in 2015, the makers of Pixels were asked to remove a scene depicting the Taj Mahal exploding for the Indian release of the film.

Tim Burton’s kooky aliens in Mars Attacks (1996) did not face any problems in blowing up the UNESCO World Heritage Centre. They even took a picture while doing the deed.

Emmerich had previously managed to suggest that India would not be spared the wrath of climate change. In 2012, a tidal wave swallows up the Himalayas. As crowds of Indians walk to higher ground, another wave lurks in New Delhi. The movie was a monster hit in India.

Asked why filmmakers choose to destroy monuments that capture popular imagination, James Sanders, author of Celluloid Skyline said, “What would be the point of showing a demolished suburban street? You’d get the point but it just wouldn’t have the punch. You take the most familiar, iconic symbol of civic society in the world — a big city, and for Americans, that’s New York — and that’s where disaster is going to be the most powerful.”

If India continues to embrace Hollywood, that might not be the case anymore. The list of cities marked for demolition by American studios could potentially expand to include Mumbai and New Delhi – and that’s not a bad thing at all.