War of the Worlds (2005 film)

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War of the Worlds
Directed by	Steven Spielberg
Produced by	Kathleen Kennedy
Written by	H. G. Wells (novel) Josh Friedman David Koepp
Narrated by	Morgan Freeman
Starring	Tom Cruise Dakota Fanning Miranda Otto Justin Chatwin Tim Robbins
Music by	John Williams
Cinematography	Janusz Kaminski
Editing by	Michael Kahn
Distributed by	USA Theatrical Non-USA DVD Any USA DVD reissues 2006- (see below): Paramount Pictures 2005 USA DVD: DreamWorks SKG Non-USA Theatrical: Paramount through United International Pictures
Release date(s)	June 29 2005 (in theaters), November 22, 2005 (DVD)
Running time	118 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$132 million
Official website
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

War of the Worlds is a 2005 science fiction/disaster film based on H. G. Wells' original novel of the same name. It was directed by Steven Spielberg from a script by Josh Friedman^[1] and David Koepp and stars Tom Cruise, Dakota Fanning and Justin Chatwin.

It is one of four film adaptations of the novel, preceded by two straight-to-video versions released in the same year, as well as the original 1953 film version.

Contents 1 Background 2 Characters 3 Plot 4 Production 4.1 Quotes from Spielberg 4.2 Budget 5 Cast 6 Critical reaction 7 Criticism and controversy 7.1 Tom Cruise, Scientology and the film 7.2 Press coverage and anti-piracy controversy 8 Box office 9 Awards and nominations 10 Trivia 11 Source material 11.1 Novel 11.1.1 Differences 11.1.2 Similarities 11.2 1938 radio program 11.3 1953 movie 11.4 Television series 11.5 Other movie references 12 DVD info 13 See also 14 Footnotes 15 External links

[edit] Background

This film draws elements not only from the H. G. Wells novel, but also the 1938 radio play and the 1953 film. Hence, to place this film in proper historical context as an adaptation requires some knowledge of all three previous incarnations of Wells' story.

As in the original novel, which takes place in and around London, the narrative is told from the point of view of civilians caught up in the conflict. Whereas the novel portrayed the experience of a solitary British journalist early in the twentieth century, this film is, according to Spielberg, purported to show the war "through the eyes of one American family fighting to survive it". It is set in the early twenty-first century, and as in the radio play, begins the action in New Jersey.

[edit] Characters

• Ray Ferrier: Knowing that the character was to be played by Tom Cruise, writer David Koepp intentionally wrote Ray as the opposite of the type of confident characters Tom has played. The back-story that Koepp designed is that Ray's life has not turned out as he had hoped (often citing Bruce Springsteen's "Glory Days" as a basis). Ray is divorced with two kids, who do not give him their respect as a father. Ray's self-absorbed personality is challenged when the aliens invade, as he has to put it aside to keep his children safe.
• Robbie Ferrier: Ray's teenage son. He often scoffs at his father's attempts at parenting, which becomes a problem when Ray tries to take control when fleeing the alien menace.
• Rachel Ferrier: Ray's young daughter. Despite her age she is incredibly self-reliant, and even seems to possess more maturity than her father at times, as well as and puting more trust in her brother as her caretaker than Ray.
• Harlan Ogilvy: Little is known about Ogilvy other than that he had a wife and child before the invasion. Presumably, they were killed by the invaders, which pushed Ogilvy's mind into an unhealthy place. He seems to draw inspiration about life, especially during the alien occupation, from his time as a paramedic.
• Invaders: Extraterrestrials who invade Earth. Nothing is really known about these aliens, including their world of origin, and most of the information concerning them in the film is speculative. While Koepp has provided some minor details of their back-story in the script and in interviews, they remain largely enigmatic.

[edit] Plot

As in the novel, the film begins with an unnamed narrator who informs us, retrospectively, that Earth was being observed by extraterrestrials with immense intelligence and no compassion. As man dominated the world without doubt, much in the way microorganisms "swarm in a drop of water," these beings have plotted to take it from him.

The action opens with Brooklyn dock worker Ray Ferrier beginning a seemingly normal day. His young daughter Rachel and teenage son Robbie are staying with him at his house in Bayonne, New Jersey, while his ex-wife Mary Anne and her new husband Tim visit her parents in Boston for the weekend. Later on that day, a strange wall cloud arrives unleashing lightning repeatedly in the same spot, making a small hole from which a large tripod machine emerges and begins murdering human beings in its path. Witnessing, and barely escaping the horror, first-hand, Ray takes his kids and steals the only operational vehicle in town. They drive towards Boston, but the van is seized in a mob. From there, they continue moving on foot and gather with other refugees. They soon come across American military forces trying to keep more machines back - a valiant, but ultimately fruitless effort as the alien machines are protected by impenetrable shields. Robbie wants to see the battle over the hill and Ray, reluctantly, lets him go. In the ensuing chaos, the entire military platoon is wiped out as Humvees roll down the hill in flames. Robbie is separated from Ray and Rachel, and is feared dead. The two are shortly offered shelter in a basement by a man named Harlan Ogilvy. The invaders have settled close to the house where the trio are hiding, and Ogilvy is clearly becoming mentally-unbalanced and dangerous to Ray and his daughter. The situation becomes worse as the invaders begin spreading a strange "red weed", a mysterious plant composed in part of the blood of captured humans. Realizing that the life of his daughter is in danger by the clearly unstable Ogilvy, Ray faces the unsettling task of killing him. The two are forced to leave the basement when a probe discovers their presence. After escaping a brief capture by one of the tripods, they continue to move towards Boston. It is there that they find the red weed dying along with run-down alien machines. When one of the machines is brought down by a small band of soldiers, due to inoperative shields, they discover that the alien invaders inside are dying as well. With the threat over, Ray finally brings Rachel to her mother where she has been waiting for them, along with their son Robbie.

The narrator's voice returns, informing us that it was not any weapon of man that defeated the menace; it was instead the small things in nature that were their undoing. The very bacteria that have plagued man, and to which he had long since developed an immunity, attacked the invaders upon their arrival, sealing their inevitable doom.

[edit] Production

[edit] Quotes from Spielberg

On the web site Dark Horizons,^[2] Spielberg described his preferences for long takes in special effect-heavy movies:

"I'm more interested in concept shots and money shots than I am in tons of MTV coverage, which certainly takes a lot of time. But if I can put something on the screen that is sustained where you get to study it and you get to say, 'How did they do that?' That's happening before my eyes and the shot's not over yet, it's still going and it's still going and my God, it's an effects shot and it's lasting seemingly forever. I enjoy that more than creating illusion with sixteen different camera angles, where no shot lasts longer than six seconds on the screen. To pull a rabbit out of a hat, because you are really a smart audience and you're in the fastest media, the fastest growing new media today and you know the difference between sleight of hand visually and the real thing. I think what makes War of the Worlds, at least the version that we're making, really exciting, is you get to really see what's happening. There's not a lot of visual tricks. We tell it like it is, we show it to you, and we put you inside the experience."

He described the story as follows:

"It's nothing you can really describe. The whole thing is very experiential. The point of view is very personal — everybody, I think, in the world will be able to relate to the point of view, because it's about a family trying to survive and stay together, and they're surrounded by the most epically horrendous events you could possibly imagine."

[edit] Budget

In August of 2004, the Internet Movie Database reported that the film was "poised to make history in Hollywood as the most expensive film ever made — surpassing Titanic's $198 million budget." The report quoted an unnamed source that said, "No expense will be spared. Spielberg wants to make it the film of the decade." The New York Times, the original source for this number, ran a correction a few days later that the budget is actually $128 million. The final budget, however, has been confirmed to be $132 million.

[edit] Cast

• Tom Cruise — Ray Ferrier
• Dakota Fanning — Rachel Ferrier
• Justin Chatwin — Robbie Ferrier
• Tim Robbins — Harlan Ogilvy
• Miranda Otto — Mary Ann
• David Alan Basche — Tim
• Yul Vazquez — Julio
• Rick Gonzalez — Vincent
• Lenny Venito — Manny
• Morgan Freeman — The Narrator

[edit] Critical reaction

The film garnered a positive box office response,^[3] with reviews being generally positive. Rotten Tomatoes currently has the movie rated at 73% fresh.^[4] Overall reviews have praised the film for its special effects and the direction of Steven Spielberg, but have criticized the film for gaps in logic and holes and inconsistencies in the storyline. Some critics such as Glenn Whip (LA Daily News) and Bruce Westbrook (Houston Chronicle) consider the film a near masterpiece.^[5][6]

Critic James Berardinelli gave the film 3 out of 4 stars, he wrote in his review: "…War of the Worlds may not stand up well to careful inspection and it may not be the smartest science fiction film brought to the screen (although, when considering movies such as the like-themed Independence Day, it's far from the dumbest), but it is an intense, visceral experience."^[7]

Some thought otherwise, Critic Roger Ebert gave the film 2 out of 4 stars and regarded it: "...a big, clunky movie containing some sensational sights but lacking the zest and joyous energy we expect from Steven Spielberg."^[8] The film has been attacked by some literary experts, arguing that the film has little in common with the original H.G. Wells novel and could be viewed as just a star vehicle for Tom Cruise.

[edit] Criticism and controversy

[edit] Tom Cruise, Scientology and the film

Press coverage in May and June 2005 leading up to the film's release focused on Tom Cruise's proselytizing for Scientology. Around this time, Cruise had changed publicists, from Pat Kingsley to his sister, Lee Anne DeVette, and spoke to interviewers more frequently about Scientology — and his sudden engagement to actress Katie Holmes — than about the film itself. Some press coverage noted[1] the similarity between the film's promotional poster and the front cover of The Invaders Plan (volume one of Mission Earth) by L. Ron Hubbard, founder of Scientology. This similarity is not singular to the film, however, as the image of a hand grasping the Earth is a recurring one in science-fiction: it was used, for example, for the 1975 movie Rollerball. Moreover, the image used to promote the 2005 film is very similar to the image that was often used in advertising Paramount's War of the Worlds TV series during its first season.

[edit] Press coverage and anti-piracy controversy

The press preview of the movie raised severe criticism, as every journalist who wanted to take a look at the movie before it premiered had to sign a non-disclosure agreement. This NDA stated that the undersigned could not publish a review of the movie before its world-wide release on 29 June 2005. Many people have argued that the movie might not be able to catch up with the great expectations that might have been postulated by such reviewers.

Furthermore, at the New York premiere of the film at the Ziegfeld Theatre, all members of the press were required to check all electronic equipment — including cell phones — at the door, as part of a larger sweeping anti-piracy campaign by the film's producers hoping to keep the film from leaking on the Internet.

Among other efforts to curb piracy, the producers also prevented theatres from screening the movie at midnight the night of June 29, despite the recent success of midnight screenings of such films as Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. The producers also chose not to screen the film in any DLP-equipped theatres.

[edit] Box office

Despite the controversies detailed below, the movie received positive reviews and made an impressive box-office performance. As of November 22, 2005, (the last day it was at the box office) it has earned $234.3 million domestically and $357.1 million overseas, making the total $591.4 million. It is the 4th highest grossing movie of 2005 (after Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire).

Spielberg has not seen such a massive success since Saving Private Ryan (1998) — another Paramount/DreamWorks co-production — and the $100-million Minority Report (2002) — his first collaboration with Cruise — earned a reasonable $132 million. In the case of Cruise (whose 43rd birthday coincided with the movie's release), this movie is the biggest blockbuster of his career, since the movie opened its first weekend with $65 million (which is a record-high for Paramount Pictures), beating Mission: Impossible II's nearly $58 million (also from Paramount). By July 31, it had surpassed Mission: Impossible II in terms of total domestic box office receipts, a movie that earned $215.4 million.

[edit] Awards and nominations

2006 Academy Awards

Three nominations:

• Achievement in Sound
• Achievement in Sound Editing
• Achievement in Visual Effects

Central Ohio Film Critics

• Best Sound Design

M.P.S.E. Golden Reel Awards

• Best Sound Editing in Feature Film - Sound Effects & Foley

2005 Visual Effects Society Awards

Three Wins:

• Best Single Visual Effect of the Year (Fleeing the neighborhood)
• Best Models and Miniatures in a Motion Picture
• Best Compositing in a Motion Picture

2005 Golden Raspberry Awards

One nomination:

• Worst Actor (Tom Cruise)

[edit] Trivia

This article or section may contain original research or unattributed claims. Please help Wikipedia by adding references. See the talk page for details.

• The plane in the crash scene is an All Nippon Airways (Japan) Boeing 747. The plane-crash set was built on the Universal Studios backlot, right next to the famous Bates house from Psycho. Despite great demand for the location, the studio has decided to keep the crash set intact as a permanent installation on the backlot tour. The set was also used in a fashion shoot by famed photographer David LaChapelle.
• The plane's tail fin was repainted in a flat grey tone because it originally bore the colors and logo of a real airline. Pilots flying over the Universal backlot apparently saw the staged wreckage, recognized the colors and symbol on the tail and began calling in plane crash reports to the FAA. The plane parts were then repainted and disguised in order to discourage further false alarms.
• In the movie, Ray Ferrier's house is located in Bayonne, New Jersey right near the Bayonne Bridge. The shot of the first tripod coming out of the ground was filmed in the Five corners intersection in the Ironbound neighborhood of Newark, New Jersey. The two places are about 8 miles (13 km) away but in the movie they are a couple of blocks away from each other.
• The SpongeBob SquarePants episode shown early in the film is the episode "The Secret Box", which was shown on the opening day of the film on most networks of Nickelodeon^{[citation needed]}. The audio does not match up to the video, as it is actually a piece of audio layered over various clips from the show.
• Right before the ferry scene, Ray, the kids and the large crowd watch in horror as a locomotive speeds by on fire, and out of control. It can be identified by what's left of the paint scheme on the side. The locomotive is a GE Genesis. However, MTA Metro-North Railroad, which runs in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, does not run along the western bank of the Hudson River.
• This is the first major motion picture^{[citation needed]} to feature real M1 Abrams tanks, not British Centurion tanks dressed up to resemble them as in Courage Under Fire.
• The film was a co-production of Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks, which became sister studios after the parent of Paramount, Viacom, purchased DreamWorks in late 2005. The live-action DreamWorks library was sold to a George Soros-led group, but Paramount will retain distribution rights. Since the US DVD was originally released by DreamWorks, Paramount will hold the rights to any reissues.
• The film pays a tribute to the film Koyaanisqatsi in the introduction, when describing how the world was before the alien arrival. A series of 6 consecutive shots mimic Koyaanisqatsi shots.
• The film has become notable in the home theater community for the ultra-low bass frequencies of the tripod's "call," which has been reported to stretch down to 10 Hz.
• The end of the English dub of Sailor Moon's Moon Gorgeous Meditation attack from Episode 123 is heard on television. At the end of the film, Sailor Moon's music composer, Arisawa Takanori, is listed in the credits.
• The zoom into the water droplet at the end of the movie clearly shows eukaryotic cells, not prokaryotic. This is noticeable because the cells shown have membrane-bound organelles and nuclei. This detail indicates that the organisms were members of the kingdom Protista rather than Eubacteria. Although there are many diseases caused by protists (malaria for example) it is much more common for an infection to be caused by bacteria.
• The film's advertising style mimics that of past films capitalizing on mystery to entice viewers to see the film: film footage showed very little of what the alien attackers looked like, only the destruction they cause. Compare Alien and the 1998 remake adaptation of Godzilla.
• The scene set in a factory in Boston was actually filmed at a factory in Naugatuck, Connecticut. When the tripods are being landed on by birds they would have really been on top of Connecticut Route 8, a highway running adjacent to the factory.

[edit] Source material

[edit] Novel

[edit] Differences

• The film's most obvious difference is that it takes place in the early 21st century northeastern United States rather than southern England "in the last years of the 19th century."
• Another significant difference is the change of the protagonist from a happily married middle-class intellectual without children to a divorced working-class father of two. The social background plays an important part in the plot. The protagonist's wife had left him for a richer and more successful man, her parents in Boston never approved of him, and - most important for him - his children treat him with open contempt. A significant sub-plot are the protagonist's efforts, not only to survive and save his children from the invasion, but also to win their respect. The embrace with his son in the final scene shows that he succeeded. All this, of course, has no parallel in the original novel.
• The film's aliens do not land on Earth in giant cylinders before unleashing their war machines. Instead, the machines have already been buried underground, and the aliens arrive in capsules transported via lightning bolts. The details of this are never clearly explained (when were the machines buried, and why did their makers wait so long before launching the invasion?) and this seems to have been an adapatation resulting from Mars, conclusively shown by space probes to harbor no intelligent life, being no longer a plausible origin for the invaders.
• The aliens' tripods are more formidable in combat than their novel counterparts: the latter, although deadly, are still susceptible to conventional weapons and can be defeated in combat. The film counterparts are fitted with a 'shield' that makes them impervious to attack. The idea of the shields stems from the 1953 film version. (Lacking such shields, modern weapons would have made short work of the Martian machines envisioned by Wells in 1898.)
• The film omits a prominent element from the novel: the Black Smoke, which was a part of the Martians' deadly arsenal. Writer David Koepp has explained that this was dropped more or less due to lack of time and didn't make it past his first draft, so any sightings of a similar substance are purely coincidence and can be attributed to other sources.^[9] The film also does not include the Thunder Child, whose symbol of power but ultimate failure to stop the invaders was represented in the 1953 film by the atomic bomb; however, there is a vaguely similar scene taking place on land in which military forces fight valiantly in an effort to hold back the tripods until refugees make it to safety.
• The film's aliens are drastically different in design, featuring more humanoid mouths and also being tripedal, where Wells' Martians have lipless v-shaped mouths and tentacles. Also, the Martians of Wells' book, as well as in the movie, feast on the blood of humans (Wells described the clean skeletons of humans and other animals) but the aliens in the book apparently don't use human blood as fertilizer for their xenoforming project. In the movie the invaders also are uninterested in animals (rats, birds). The aliens' design has been the subject of some criticism, considered too cute and humanlike^{[citation needed]}, as opposed to the novel's entirely non-human and repulsive aliens.
• In the film, Tim Robbins's character, Harlan Ogilvy, plays a synthesized dual role of curate and artilleryman from the novel, while sharing the name of the novel's narrator's friend. The film's Ogilvy has the qualities of the novel's increasingly mad curate, who drives the narrator to fight with him frequently. In the book, the character named Ogilvy is one of the first people killed by the aliens' Heat-Ray. The film's Ogilvy has the qualities of the novel's artilleryman in that he is digging a tunnel for an underground city with the goal of resistance. The novel's curate is taken, and presumably "eaten", by the aliens after being struck in the head and left for dead by the narrator. In both versions, the story does not state outright that the main character killed the man, but the novel narrator does say "the killing of the curate" was "a thing done, a memory infinitely disagreeable but quite without the quality of remorse."
• The film never says where the aliens are from, unlike the book, where they are from Mars; in 1898, when the book was written, the possibility of life on Mars was considered realistic. This difference in origin shrouds the motive for the attacks on the Earth. In the book, the Martians are escaping from their dissipated planet, searching for a place to continue their civilization, rather than the "extermination" explanation given by a character in the film. The prologue makes a few visual references to Mars, once while an image of Earth shifts into that of a red stoplight and later when the camera leaves the edge of an outer neighbouring planet of Earth. In Koepp's script, there is a brief shot in the prologue depicting the invaders' homeworld. However, it remains unnamed, referred to only as a "barren planet."
• H.G. Wells never had the narrator play the hero. In fact, the story is told as a recount of the war, thus eliminating any doubts about the welfare of the narrator. In the film, the main character, Ray, succeeds in blowing up an alien tripod, creating the idea that heroes can be made in the face of an unbeatable foe, an idea Wells believed was inappropriate for the tone of his story, abandoning an early idea, similar to the film, in which the narrator plans to suicide bomb a tripod (though even in this early idea, the character is not allowed to carry it out). The narrator was not meant to be a hero, but merely a survivor. However, Ray's idea of giving himself over to the invaders is still similar to the novel's narrator after he had lost all hope.
• Much like in the 1953 film, the unnamed narrator and main character is not the same as he is in the novel. He is not divorced (although Ray shares a very similar goal of reuniting with his ex-wife), nor does he have a son or daughter to look after.
• While Ray has a brother much like the book's narrator, the film does not touch upon anything from this character's point-of-view, as the narrator recites some of what the brother witnessed during the invasion.
• In the novel, the narrator becomes trapped in an abandoned house when an alien cylinder lands close by. In the film, Ray, Rachel and Ogilvy are trapped in the house because the tripods are still outside. However, the scene in which the airplane crashes into Mary-Anne's house is similar to the scene in the book when the cylinder lands.
• No matter the location, virtually every version of the story tells of an arrival and then assault by what are the first aliens to land on Earth. However, in this version, it is established that the invasion has already begun in other parts of the world, though the main character is oblivious to this until much later in the story. Additionally this scene also gives both the character and the audience their first image of the invaders, something that only happens later in both this and the 1953 film.
• The design of the tripods is not the same as their description in the novel. Wells describes the machines as "Walking engines of glittering metal... pieces of intricate rope dangling from it... green gas squirting from its joints... its motion was like a head moving about..." There are also no references to the invaders having any other machines than the tripods - in the novel, the Martians also had a Handling-Machine (a five-legged machine with three tentacles used to build the tripods), Digging Machine (an automated tripod-excavator) and a Flying Machine.

[edit] Similarities

Although there are very many differences from the book, there are also various similarities. Some are obvious, and others are noted by the naming of certain scenes in the DVD chapters.

• The lines spoken in the bookends of the film by the narrator are almost verbatim from those written in the novel.
• The fighting machines are tripods.
• The tripods are armed with Heat-Rays, however unlike the large funnels described in the original novel these heat rays fire large blue laser bursts indtead of waves of heat and are held below the head of the tripod and not above it as in the novel.
• A speeding train runs by with every carriage aflame.
• The tripods emit a deafening call like a foghorn that is similar to that in the novel.
• Tripods are equipped with long tentacles that grab humans and put them into metal carriers or cages, just as in the book, where eventually these human prisoners will be drained of their blood for the use of food for the invaders.
• The red weed is spread everywhere the eye can see.
• There is a scene where the characters are trapped in a farmhouse because of the invaders being outside.
• Ray's van is taken from them just like in the novel, where the narrator's brother and his two female companion's horse is taken. Ray also uses a revolver just as Miss Elphinstone does to scare off robbers in the novel.
• There is a scene where refugees take a ferry to get to safety, only to be attacked by a tripod that followed under-water. After the ferry was sunk, the main character escaped by swimming under-water.
• Manny is similar to the Landlord of the Spotted Dog, from whom the main character takes a means of transportation and who is then later killed by the invaders. The difference being that Ray steals Manny's car while the narrator plans only to borrow the Landlord's.
• The storm in which the invaders arrive is based on the storm in the novel in which the narrator gets his first frightening image of the tripods.
• Throughout the film, a flock of birds seem to follow the invaders in their machines, and help give away their inoperative shields. In the novel, birds are seen picking and eating the remains of the dead Martians (birds can also be seen scavenging dying red weed in Boston as well).
• The unearthing of the first seen tripod mirrors the arrival of the first Martian cylinder, from the crowd forming around the "landing" spot to the rotation of the ground, as if to mimic an unscrewing.
• The police in the intersection say "something's down there, and it's movin'" just like in the novel when a person declares the Martian cylinder to be moving.
• Robbie is thought to be dead, only to return to the main character in the end, similar to the novel's narrator and his wife.
• Ray has a brother. However, as mentioned above, no account of what the brother witnesses is included in the film.
• The tripods are seen smashing aside pine trees before an attack, as they are seen doing in the novel in their first appearance.
• There is a reference to the original novel when a couple of aliens explore the basement that Ferrier and Ogilvy are hiding in, and one of them pauses to spin the wheel of a bicycle hanging on the wall — as if wondering what it is. In H.G. Wells' novel, the narrator discovers that in the alien technology, "the wheel is absent; among all the things they brought to earth there is no trace or suggestion of their use of wheels." The alien's technology is based on elastic organic musculature.

[edit] 1938 radio program

Several lines of dialogue, especially those spoken by Tim Robbins' character, are taken directly from Orson Welles' infamous radio adaptation of the novel. In addition, the film is set primarily in New Jersey as is the radio play.

[edit] 1953 movie

Although not considered a remake of the 1953 version of The War of the Worlds, there are several instances where Steven Spielberg pays homage to the original film.

• Gene Barry and Ann Robinson from the 1953 original film make a cameo appearance as the grandparents.

• In the cellar, note the multi-colored lights just prior to the probe entering. This references the red, blue and green lights from the probe in the 1953 version of the film, though no part of the probe in this film emits any of those colors.

• When Ray (Tom Cruise) first encounters the aliens, there is a street sign behind him displaying "Van Buren", the surname of one of the two major characters in the 1953 film.

• The news reporter's line, "Once they begin to move, no more news comes out of that area," is taken directly from the original film.

• The scenes with the probe examining the basement followed by the inquisitive aliens. Tom Cruise chops the head off the probe with an ax just as Gene Barry did in the original film.

• The shot of the dying alien's arm coming down the ramp is a reference to a similar shot in the original film.

• The 1953 film ends with the characters taking refuge in a church just before the aliens' attack abruptly stops. In the 2005 film, a church is the first building seen destroyed as the tripod emerges.

[edit] Television series

• The film's posters feature a symbolic image of the aliens' three-fingered hand grasping planet Earth. This is very similar to images used for the series' first season, both in the opening and closing of the episodes, as well as promotional material.
• The plot device that the aliens had been to Earth before and left behind their tripods is reminiscent of a revelation in War of the Worlds TV series in which a tripod (an "older model" of the war machines in the 1953 film) is unearthed, having been left behind for hundreds to thousands of years.

[edit] Other movie references

This article or section may contain original research or unattributed claims. Please help Wikipedia by adding references. See the talk page for details.

There are several references to other movies, mostly movies directed or produced by Steven Spielberg. For example, the bicycle falling from a hook is similar to a scene in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. The movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind also uses a low reverberating note, although both movies may have gotten the idea originally from the novel. In The Day the Earth Stood Still there is also a universal electrical outage. Quatermass and the Pit features extraterrestrial machines buried underground since prehistoric times. Some also find that the diner scene, where Ferrier and the kids take refuge after the mob captures the minivan, evoke memories of the diner in the original The Blob. The use of the song Hushabye Mountain is also an homage to the 1968 film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Besides the general tone of the film, the extended shot following the family car explicitly evokes Jean-luc Godard's Week End, as does the motif of cannibalism.

[edit] DVD info

• Revisiting the Invasion: Introduction with Steven Spielberg
• The H. G. Wells Legacy
• Production Diary: Part I — Filming on the East Coast
• Production Diary: Part II — Filming on the West Coast
• Pre-Visualization
• Designing the Enemy: Tripods and Aliens

[edit] See also

• Red weed
• Tripod
• Heat-Ray

[edit] Footnotes

1. ^ Josh Friedman's name is absent from early trailers and posters. In an interview with Creative Screenwriting magazine, David Koepp says that he was brought on board after Friedman had written a draft, and that he wrote his script from scratch.
2. ^ http://www.darkhorizons.com/news05/warworlds.php/ On-Set Interview: Tom Cruise and Steven Spielberg
3. ^ Box Office Information on Boxofficemojo
4. ^ 230 Reviews on Rotten Tomatoes
5. ^ Review by Glenn Whip on LA Daily News
6. ^ Review by Bruce Westbrook on Houston Chronicle
7. ^ Review by James Berardinelli on Reel Views
8. ^ Review by Roger Ebert on Chicago Sun-Times
9. ^ Creative Screenwriting Vol. 12, #3 (p. 52)

[edit] External links

• Official Site
• The War of the Worlds Movie Site — Directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Tom Cruise
• Scene by scene exploration of War of the Worlds The 2005 film decoded as a study of a vast, continuous human self-war.
• War Of The Worlds Invasion — Review and movie image gallery, plus many other War Of The Worlds movies.
• War of the Worlds at the Internet Movie Database
• War of the Worlds at Rotten Tomatoes
• Guardian Unlimited: Spielberg and Cruise plan new War of Worlds
• First teaser trailer
• Interview with Doug Chiang and Rick Carter, designers on the film
• Behind the scenes featurette on the film
• Los Angeles Times Summer Sneaks Article (archive link, was dead; history)
• Fansite's new images from War of the Worlds
• War of the Worlds Movies.info
• Movie Review — Mark Sells, The Oregon Herald

v • d • e The War of the Worlds
Battles	Horsell Offensive • Battle of Pine Summit • Battle of Weybridge/Shepperton • Fall of London • HMS Thunder Child
Martians	Black Smoke • Embankment-machine • Flying-machine • Handling-machine • Heat-Ray • Red weed • Tripod
Radio	The War of the Worlds • Grover's Mill • The Night That Panicked America
Films	The War of the Worlds • H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds • H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds • War of the Worlds
Jeff Wayne	Musical • Musical Highlights • Jeff Wayne's The War of the Worlds
Television Series	War of the Worlds (Mor-Tax • Mor-Taxan • List of War of the Worlds episodes)
Sequels	Edison's Conquest of Mars • Sherlock Holmes's War of the Worlds • Scarlet Traces • War of the Worlds: New Millennium
Miscellaneous	Doctor Clayton Forrester • Comic • The Space Machine • Superman • Arcade game