Independence Day Scenes 11-15 Summary

Scene 11

Now we're back at the White House, where things are tense (shocker). The President and others—including the Secretary of Defense (Nimziki) and a man named General Grey—are discussing what to do, including the option of upgrading to DEFCON 3.
General Grey and Nimziki seem to have pretty different approaches to stuff. Nimziki seems quick to spring into action without a lot of discussion or thought, and Grey's basically the opposite.
The July 4th weekend is creating complications, since lots of people are off getting their BBQ and party prep on.
Then some military commanders come in to announce the splitting off of the smaller ships.
The aliens are about to enter the atmosphere. Dum dum dummm.

Now suddenly we're across the world in an Iraqi desert.
The ships become visible as the people below stare.
We don't get to see their reactions, but we imagine they're more than a little puzzled. And afraid.

On a submarine in the Persian Gulf, military-types are monitoring the ships and getting infrared images of them.
They relay the images to Washington.

Now we're back at the White House, where people are rushing around the Oval with updates and watching the news. Ships have appeared around the world. We're not sure if they're at DEFCON3 yet, but their stress levels are at about DEFCON1000.
The President is in communication with pilots who are trying to gain visibility as they fly toward the ships.
The ships are then vaporized in a big cloud of fire.
Well, that's a wrinkle. Back at the White House, the team discusses what to do now. The President refuses to leave the White House.
(We'd want to hide under the duvet, too.)

Back at David's office, David's trying to analyze that signal…while everyone else is kind of watching the news with their jaws hanging out. Guess the secret is out to the general public.
He starts babbling about his thoughts on the signal to the other folks at the office, but they're all too mesmerized by the news to pay attention—and he's too wrapped up in his thoughts to notice anything else.
Connie is giving a news conference about the appearance of the ships.
We then cut to Russell's kids in California, who are also watching the news.
David's coworkers start heading for the bomb shelter in the basement. No one is sure what the aliens are up to yet, but that seems like a smart idea.