War of the Worlds - Pods Emerge
War of the Worlds is a 2005 American science fiction action film[2] directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Josh Friedman and David Koepp, based on H. G. Wells' 1898 novel, The War of the Worlds. It stars Tom Cruise in the main role, Dakota Fanning, Miranda Otto and Tim Robbins, with narration by Morgan Freeman. It follows an American dock worker who must look after his children, from whom he lives separately, as he struggles to protect them and reunite them with their mother when extraterrestrials invade Earth and devastate cities with giant war machines.
The film was shot in 73 days, using five different sound stages as well as locations in California, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, and Virginia. It was surrounded by a secrecy campaign so few details would be leaked before its release. Tie-in promotions were made with several companies, including Hitachi.
War of the Worlds was released theatrically by Paramount Pictures on June 29, 2005. It received generally positive reviews, with many praising the performances (particularly those of Cruise and Fanning), Spielberg's direction, its screenplay, dark and realistic tone, action sequences, sound design, and visual effects. It was massively successful, grossing over $603 million worldwide, making it the fourth most successful film of 2005. It also earned Academy Awards nominations for Best Visual Effects, Best Sound Mixing and Best Sound Editing.
Plot[edit]
An opening narration explains that Earth was being observed by extraterrestrials with immense intelligence and no compassion: "As man dominated the world, without a doubt, much in the way microorganisms swarm in a drop of water, these beings plotted to take it all from them."
Divorced longshoreman Ray Ferrier works as a crane operator at a dock in Brooklyn, New York, and is estranged from his children: 10-year-old daughter Rachel, and teenage son Robbie. Ray's pregnant former wife, Mary Ann, drops the two off at his house in Bayonne, New Jersey on her way to visit her parents in Boston. Later, a strange storm occurs during which lightning strikes multiple times into the middle of a nearby intersection, causing an EMP that instantly fries almost all electronic devices. Ray reluctantly joins the crowd at the scene of the impacts, where a massive "tripod" war machine emerges from the ground and uses powerful energy weapons to destroy the area, disintegrating most of the witnesses into gray ash.
Ray collects his children, steals the only working van, and drives to Mary Ann's empty home in suburban New Jersey to take refuge. That night, they take shelter in the basement, but they soon hear a strange roaring noise followed by an explosion that destroys the house. By daybreak, they discover the cause of the previous night's strange events: a Boeing 747 had crashed into the neighborhood. Ray meets a wandering TV news team scavenging the wreckage for food wherein a correspondent reveals that Tripods have attacked major cities around the world, and that they have force shields that protect them from humanity's defenses; she adds that the tripods' pilots traveled to Earth within the lightning storms to enter their machines, which were apparently buried underground for thousands of years.
Ray decides to drive the kids to Boston to be with their mother, but a desperate mob swarms around their vehicle, forcing them to abandon it. They eventually get to a Hudson River ferry, only to be surrounded by tripods, which either massacre or abduct many of the refugees, but Ray's family manages to escape. They witness US Marines engaging in a battle with some tripods. Much to Ray's dismay, Robbie joins the futile fight against the Aliens out of hatred for the invaders, while Ray and Rachel quickly flee. The Marines are obliterated, with Robbie presumed to have been killed with them. Shortly afterward, the pair are offered shelter in a nearby house by a deranged former ambulance driver named Harlan Ogilvy.
The three remain undetected for several hours, even as a high-tech inspection camera and a group of aliens explore the basement. They soon discover that the aliens have started cultivating a red-colored vegetation across the landscape that is quickly spreading. The group deduces that the aliens are terraforming Earth, potentially using the red vegetation as a food source. A few hours later, Harlan suffers a mental breakdown after witnessing the tripods harvesting human blood and tissue to fertilize the alien vegetation. Fearing his mad shouting will alert the aliens, Ray reluctantly kills him. A second tripod camera then catches the Ferriers sleeping, causing Rachel to flee and be abducted by the tripod. To rescue Rachel, Ray intentionally attracts the aliens' attention and is pulled into the tripod. With the other abductees' help, he destroys the tripod from within with grenades.
A few days later, Ray and Rachel arrive in Boston, where they find the alien vegetation withering and the tripods inexplicably collapsing. When an active tripod appears, Ray notices birds landing on it, indicating that its force shields have been disabled. He alerts the soldiers escorting the fleeing crowd, who shoot it down with anti-tank missiles. As the soldiers advance on the downed tripod, a hatch opens and a pale, sickly alien struggles halfway out before collapsing and dying. Ray and Rachel finally reach Mary Ann's parents' house, where they are reunited with Mary Ann and Robbie, who have somehow survived.
In closing, the narrator, echoing Wells' monologue from the original novel, explains that the aliens died because they were vulnerable to the countless microbes that inhabit the Earth, which "God in His wisdom" placed on the planet.
