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This scum Thomas Whitmore is really bothering Kenshiro! IT MUST BE REWRITTEN OR ADDED TO!! So sayeth the great god of Earthrealm Raiden: or he will send lightning bolts to terminate you. |
President Thomas Whitmore is the president of the United States and one of the main protagonists in the movie Independence Day, and it's sequel Independence Day: Resurgence. Before he became the recent president he was a pilot in the Gulf War and got into a fight that David started.
He is portrayed by Bill Pullman who also portrayed Dr. James Harvey in the film Casper and Captain Lone Star in the film Spaceballs.
Independence Day
| “ | Good morning. Good morning. In less than an hour, aircraft from here will join others from around the world, and you will be launching the largest aerial battle in the history of mankind. Mankind, that word should have new meaning for all of us today. We can't be consumed by our petty differences anymore. We will be united in our common interest. Perhaps it's fate that today is the 4th of July, and you will once again be fighting for our freedom. Not from tyranny, oppression, or persecution, but from annihilation. We're fighting for our right to live, to exist, and should we win the day, the 4th of July will no longer be known as an American holiday, but as the day when the world declared in one voice, 'We will not go quietly into the night! We will not vanish without a fight! We're going to live on, we're going to survive. Today we celebrate our Independence day!' | „ |
| ~ Whitmore |
Whitmore leading his fighters in the July 4th counterattack
The president was first seen waking up in bed with his daughter, Patricia Whitmore sleeping next to him while he is asking his wife what time is it in LA. After receiving news about the alien visitors he remained at the white house till David told him that the aliens are using the humans satellites against them and a countdown to the destruction to the cities the aliens are at. The president then ordered an evacuation after Welcome Wagon was shot down but only a few people survived or escaped the cities that got destroyed while the President and his staff escaped Washington DC's destruction via Air Force One. After hearing that the helicopter carrying his wife did not make it to the safest city Whitmore then ordered a retaliation against the attackers only to learn about the aliens shield technology and objected on a nuclear attack against the alien attackers over American soil. It was that time Davids father mentioned about Area 51 which he later learned that the Secretary of Defense mentioned Area 51 was actually real and the President ordered Air Force One to head to Area 51 where he meet Major Mitchell and Dr Okun who are in charge of Area 51. Whitmore then learned about the spaceship that they were hording was actually recovered by the government long ago and learned that the alien is an organic life form. After meeting Steven Hiller who bought an unconscious alien to the base he decided to go see Dr. Okun examining the alien only to learned the alien attacked everyone and Whitmore saw the aliens thoughts about the aliens are moving from planet to planet and after they consume every last resources from planets they head to the next planet to destroy and Earth is next.
The president then goes with the Secretary of Defense's idea of nuking the aliens only to learn that even a nuke cannot penetrate the shielded aliens. After witnessing his wife dies he then learned about Davids idea of planting a virus to the aliens mother-ship in one final attempt to save humanity and agreed to gather every last plane and pilot they can find for the final battle and use Morse code to message every squadron around the world about a worldwide counter-attack on the aliens. After giving a speech about the humans fighting for the right to survive he jumped into an F-18 and lead Eagle squadron to attack the alien spaceship that is heading to destroy Area 51. At first Whitmore's first missile failed to damage the alien ship his next shot did damage the alien ship causing a dogfight with the US Fighters and the alien attackers. Despite able to damage the alien spaceship the US Fighters are running out of missiles so they decide to attack the aliens primary weapon otherwise the aliens will wipe out Area 51. Whitmore fires his last remaining missile but he got a negative impact and his wingman Eagle 2 got shot down and the only one that can save them is Russell Casse who has one remaining missile. After Whitmore and the remaining jets "Plow the road" Russell Casse was in range and about to fire the missile only to find out that the missile was jammed. Russell Casse then told everyone to tell his children that he loved them very much then crashed his plane into the weapon causing not only the weapon to explode but took down the city sized spaceship with him. Whitmore and the remaining jet fighters then flee the exploding spaceship and told the general to spread the word about how to take out the aliens. After the alien mothership is destroyed and the earthbound aliens are defeated the president and his friends then celebrated the 4th of July in victory.
Post-War
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Whitmore was reelected for a second term as the president who proved his leadership in the time of crisis that was War of 1996, and he remained a popular figure in both his country and the whole world long after his term ended in 2001. He was a proponent of the Earth Space Defense initiative, which he also appointed David Levinson as the ESD's civilian director, and convinced William Grey to run for president.
Following the death of Steven Hiller in the 2007 ESD Spring Expo, Whitmore became a recluse due to deterioration in his mental health. This is in fact due to his traumatic experience with the captured alien in 1996 that rendered him with a mental imprint of seeing images through the aliens.
In 2016, as the world prepared to celebrate the war's 20th anniversary, President Elizabeth Lanford began the celebrations by unveiling a commissioned portrait of Whitmore to honor his 'valor and leadership to unite the world and lead humanity from its darkest day to a brighter future.
Independence Day: Resurgence
Whitmore sacrifices himself.
When a new alien assault began to approach Earth, Whitmore attempted to warn the people at a public address at the White House, but it was assumed that he was simply suffering another breakdown until the attack actually started. After the first assault decimated Earth's two decades of advances and their initial plans failed, Levinson became concerned that their years of planning meant nothing, but Whitmore rallied the men at ESD headquarters by reminding them that they hadn't stood a chance last time either, and the important thing was to keep on fighting.
On July 4th 2016, Levinson and Dr. Okun devised a plan to expose and defeat the Harvester Queen by tricking her into capturing a tug filled with fusion bombs by broadcasting a signal matching the alien sphere they had retrieved earlier. Although Patricia was willing to volunteer for the assignment, the former president took the tug instead, convincing his assigned bodyguard Matthew Travis to let him go by appealing to Travis as a friend and a fellow father, rather than as a former president.
Patricia intercepted the tug, leaving Whitmore pleased to see her in the air once more. Whitmore explained that he wasn't saving the world this time, but rather his daughter. Spotting enemy fighters approaching, Whitmore requested Patricia give him cover to fly his tug within the Queen's Pod and Patricia complied. Once clear, Whitmore flew inside the ship where he came face to face with the surprised Queen. Once Levinson raised a shield around the area, Whitmore told the Queen "on behalf of the planet Earth, I want to wish you a Happy Fourth of July" before detonating the bombs, killing himself and destroying the Queen's ship. However, the Queen herself survives the blast due to a personal shield but Patricia and ESD pilots Jake Morrison, Rain Lao, Charles Miller and Dylan Hiller are able to finish what Whitmore started.
Trivia
- In the original 1996 movie, Whitmore has brown hair when he was young, while in the 2016 sequel, he has gray hair, due to aging.