Image via 20th Century Fox.

On Friday, the director Roland Emmerich returns to his roots by unleashing another movie in which, among other scenes of massive devastation, D.C. suffers the complete or near-complete demolition of its most famous landmark. Emmerich’s latest, White House Down, is the second movie to be released in 2012 in which the executive mansion is besieged and captured by terrorists. And while it is unlikely that Emmerich will let the terrorists prevail in the end, trailers and images of White House Down suggest that the White House is in for a beating when the film opens. So, in anticipation of Friday, DCist is recounting some of the most memorable instances of the White House being trashed, torched, and vaporized.

Movie: Independence Day

Year: 1996

Director: Roland Emmerich

Cause of White House destruction: Aliens with a big laser.

Roland Emmerich has made a career out of destroying the planet. From films like 2012, The Day After Tomorrow, and Godzilla, we’ve seen the total destruction of our planet over and over again, one iconic landmark at a time. Including the White House on numerous occasions. He’s had it decimated by a giant tidal wave-carrying-an-aircraft carrier in 2012, and had it turned into an icy, uninhabitable palace in The Day After Tomorrow, but his finest work has to be his first. In Independence Day, just as the the massive, city-wide alien ships have positioned themselves strategically above famous landmarks within the country, Jeff Goldblum’s character uncovers a hidden signal within our own satellites that reveals a countdown coming from the alien ships. The clock’s ticking as he frantically speeds to the White House to reveal what he’s learned to President Bill Pullman. Naturally, Goldblum, Pullman, and the rest of the key players of the film manage to escape on Air Force One just as the countdown reaches zero and the alien ship, positioned directly over the White House, obliterates it in one foul “pew.”