 The storyboards for the Judgement Day scenes near the end of the  film were much more graphic than what was seen in the film, and  included images such as the Statue of Liberty melting, the Hollywood  sign going up in flames and even Dr. Silberman being incinerated by  a nuclear blast. However, the VFX team were told that it was "too  soon after 9/11" to show such graphic destruction, and that only a  single nuclear explosion should be seen, and that it should actually  be of relatively poor quality compared to what was seen in the  second film.