War of the Worlds
War of the Worlds
(2005)
PG-13 | 1h 56min | Adventure, Sci-Fi, Thriller | Released 29 June 2005 (USA)
(2005)
PG-13 | 1h 56min | Adventure, Sci-Fi, Thriller | Released 29 June 2005 (USA)
Cast:
Tom Cruise...Ray Ferrier
Dakota Fanning...Rachel Ferrier
Miranda Otto...Mary Ann
Justin Chatwin...Robbie
Tim Robbins...Harlan Ogilvy
Tom Cruise...Ray Ferrier
Dakota Fanning...Rachel Ferrier
Miranda Otto...Mary Ann
Justin Chatwin...Robbie
Tim Robbins...Harlan Ogilvy
Films Adapted from The War of the Worlds novel published in 1898:
- 1953: The War of the Worlds (1953 film), produced by George Pal and directed by Byron Haskin, for Paramount Pictures
- 1981: The War of the Worlds: Next Century, a Polish film by Piotr Szulkin
- 2005: War of the Worlds (2005 film), directed by Steven Spielberg, for Paramount Pictures.
- 2005: H. G. Wells The War of the Worlds (Hines film), directed by Timothy Hines, for Pendragon Pictures
- 2005: H. G. Wells' War of the Worlds (The Asylum film), directed by David Michael Latt (titled Invasion or The Worlds in War internationally), for The Asylum.
- 2008: War of the Worlds 2: The Next Wave, sequel to The Asylum's film, directed by C. Thomas Howell
- 2012: Alien Dawn: based very loosely on H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds set in Los Angeles, Directed by Neil Johnson[citation needed]
- 2012: War of the Worlds - The True Story a sci-fi/horror mockumentary, by Pendragon Pictures
- 2012: War of the Worlds: Goliath: Animated sequel set 15 years after the Wells novel
- 2013: The Great Martian War 1913–1917, a science fiction docudrama told in the format of an episode on the History Channel on the centennial of the first year of the War To End All Wars.
The "Ulla" war cry of the Tripods was made with a didgeridoo and computer effects.
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M1 Abrams Tank used in the film
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Wernher Von Braun's Legacy
1. Russian Threat
2. Terrorist / The Rogue Nation Threat
3. Asteroid Threat 2029, 2036
4. The ET Threat
1. Russian Threat
2. Terrorist / The Rogue Nation Threat
3. Asteroid Threat 2029, 2036
4. The ET Threat
War of the Worlds
Ray Ferrier (Tom Cruise) is a divorced union container crane operator with few skills as a father. Ray's ex-wife (Miranda Otto) drops off their rebelious but coming of age teenage son Robbie (Justin Chatwin), and meek 10-year old daughter Rachel (Dakota Fanning) for a weekend visit with their father in New Jersey. (Filmed in Bayonne in the shadow of the worlds longest arch bridge.) Ray is a self-absorbed individual who feels imposed upon by having to baby sit his own children. Then something happens that will change their entire lives. An unusual and violent lightning storm hits the town. In the intersection down the street, Ray sees a huge three-legged war machine rise from beneath the street. The machine begins to fire and incinerate everything and everybody. The Martians have begun the war by attacking Earth with only one goal in mind, destroying everything in sight. Ray becomes a real father when he decides to protect his children and take them to their mother house. Ray grabs his handgun and a few supplies and steals a minivan from his friends service station, begging the friend to come with them, but leaving him behind when he doesn't understand the danger and refuses to get in. The mother and her new husband have already left for Boston so the Ferriers hole up in their house. Overnight, the Martians show up around their and cause great destruction. A news van is outside and the reporter informs Ray the Machines are in all cities. They decide to try to make it to Boston They start running for their lives and are just ahead of the Martians, when they get caught up in a frantic mob of people in upstate NY who are also fleeing the machines. The mob tries to get in the car or take it away from them. In a Mexican standoff, Ray relinquishes the car to an armed gunman in exchange for letting him get Rachel out of the car. Ray drops his gun which is picked up by another mobmember who shoots the other gunman. They manage to get on a ferry as several more machines rise in the distance and the ferry leaves before it's full. A machine rises from the river and overturns the ferry but the Ferriers swim to shore. Robbie follows an Army unit into battle against Ray's wishes but he cannot stop him. Ray and Rachel are taken in by a sole man holed up in the basement of his rural house. Machines are all around and they send a camera tentical into the basement where they are holed up to look for humans which they avoid by moving and hiding. Then some Martians come in personally to investigate, but they're called back to the ship before they find the humans. Ray and the homeowner dispute over how to handle the situation. The machines have increased in number and are everywhere, and they can not be destroyed by our military. They make it to Boston and the Martians start dying from various sickness caused by germs that humans are built up immunity to, but the Martians don't have. Douglas Young (the-movie-guy)
=================================
Ray Ferrier is a dock crane worker who leaves his shift in Brooklyn and drives home to meet his ex-wife, Mary Ann, and his two kids, Robbie and Rachel, at his home in Bayonne, New Jersey. When he arrives, late, they are all waiting for him. Ray sees that Mary Ann is pregnant. After a few minutes of debate, over the children sharing a room and Robbie's homework assignment due on Monday, Mary Ann and her new husband leave for Boston to visit her parents for the weekend.
Ray mildly orders his son to play catch with him in the back yard. Ray notices that Robbie now wears a Boston Red Sox hat; Ray is a Yankees fan. While the two play catch it becomes clear that father and son share a strained relationship. After a brief argument, Robbie allows one of Ray's throws to fly past him and break a window in the basement. Rachel comments that Ray "won't reach" Robbie by being belligerent. Rachel asks what they should have for lunch and Ray coldly replies "you know, order." Ray goes upstairs to his bedroom to get some sleep.
When he wakes up several hours later, he finds Rachel watching cartoons in the living room. She also informs her father that Robbie has taken off with his prized Mustang. Ray becomes furious and rushes out to the street to find Robbie. People have gathered on the street. Ray also sees everyone looking to the north of his block where a strange storm appears to be swirling in the wrong direction. Ray goes into his backyard, taking Rachel with him. The wind picks up, but blows towards the storm. Suddenly, several bolts of lightning begin to strike the ground, some hitting dangerously close to Ray's yard. He and Rachel rush back into the house for shelter and find that every clock has stopped and the power is out. Ray's watch has stopped and his cellphone is dead. After telling Rachel to stay in the house, he goes outside and finds Robbie nearby; his son had taken his car downtown and left it there when it stalled. Ray orders Robbie to watch his sister until he comes back. Ray passes by an auto repair shop where the owner, Manny, tells him that the starter is burned out on a minivan he's looking over. Ray tells Manny to replace the solenoid.
Ray walks downtown to the site where the lightning struck. A crowd has gathered around a large hole in the street. Ray touches a piece of the cracked pavement and finds that it's unusually cold. Suddenly the ground under the hole surges upward and everyone scatters. A car that fell into the hold is thrown out. A huge machine on three stilted legs bursts out of the hole and observes the crowds. It lets out a loud blast like a fog horn and as the crowd continues to scatter, it begins to incinerate dozens of people with blasts of heat beams; people are turned instantly into ash when the beams strike them. Ray runs, escaping through a department store; as he does, the ash from an unfortunate victim covers him. Ray hides behind a building and watches the monstrous machine walk by. He is reminded of Robbie and Rachel when a man runs by carrying his own child.
Ray returns home in utter shock. Barely speaking to his kids and washing the ash from his face and hair, he tells them both that they're leaving immediately. Ray has Robbie take everything in his refrigerator and Ray retrieves a small pistol, tucking it into his belt. They go to Manny's garage and climb into the minivan the mechanic had been working on; since he'd replaced the solenoid, the car is able to run. Manny thinks Ray is joking with him until Ray tells him in a serious tone to come with them. As he tells Ray to get out of the car, the nearby Bayonne Bridge collapses. Ray speeds off while his kids become panicky, especially Rachel, who has a problem with enclosed spaces. Robbie tries to calm her. Ray tells Robbie about the machine and the destruction it caused. Ray plans to take his kids to a safe place, hopefully their mother and stepfather's house.
Arriving at Mary Ann's house, they find it deserted. The trio have a brief argument over what to eat and Ray takes them down to the basement where they'll spend the night. After a few hours of restless sleep, Ray wakes up and hears a commotion outside, which becomes a deafening roar. The three rush into the basement's utility room and lock the door against a wall of flames.
When Ray wakes up several hours later, he walks upstairs to find most of the house demolished. The commotion from the previous night was caused by a plane that had crashed in the neighborhood. While Ray walks by, he sees a man in the wreckage of the plane, cleaning out the food service carts. Ray finds out that he's a cameraman for a news network and is there with a woman reporter. The woman tells Ray that the reports about the tripods are all the same, once they start moving, no more reports or news come from the area they attack. The woman eagerly asks Ray if he's a survivor of the plane crash; when he tells her he isn't, she and her crew hastily leave.
Ray gathers his family and they set out again in the minivan. They drive for a while and pull over when Rachel needs to relieve herself. She defiantly walks farther than Ray wishes her to and stops by a creek. While she looks at the water, she sees dozens of human bodies floating by. She is terrified by the sight until Ray suddenly finds her and scolds her for wandering off too far. Back at the truck, and Army convoy passes by. Robbie seems overcome with anger and wants to join them in their counterattack against the invaders. Ray tries to reason with Robbie, telling him that the idea of them joining up with the Army is ludicrous.
Ray lets Robbie drive for a while so he and his daughter can get some sleep. They come to a small town where evacuated people have gathered. The crowd quickly becomes hostile toward Ray's family and wants their vehicle. Ray and Robbie are forcefully pulled from the truck and beaten by the mob. Rachel panics and Ray, gathering his senses, uses his gun to force the crowd to retreat a bit. Moments later, he is forced to drop his pistol when another man, determined to take the truck for himself, holds a pistol on Ray. Ray is permitted to get Rachel out of the truck and walk away. The crowd again becomes violent and the man who took the minivan is attacked.
The family continues to walk with the crowds of evacuees. At a railroad crossing, a train zooms by, the entire length of it is on fire. At a ferry crossing in Athens, New York, the family waits to cross the river on one of the boats. Ray meets a woman he knows who has her own daughter in tow. The sound of the alien call is heard nearby and the crowd of people begin to rush the ferry. Army guards close the gates and deny Ray, his friend and their kids entry. The see a way to bypass the gates and make it to the boat, but only Ray and his kids are able to board. Robbie sees that several people are trying to climb over the ferry's ramp and goes to help them. As the boat crosses the river, another tripod rises from the river and attacks, turning the ferry over and spilling cars and people into the water. Ray and the kids surface and swim for shore as tentacles from the tripod grab people out of the water. Ray and the kids make it to the opposite shore. While they steal away, they see garments floating down from sky.
Still walking, the family passes by a battle between the aliens and the Army. Jets zip by overhead and Robbie somehow becomes entranced by the battle, which is unseen and taking place over a hill. Robbie approaches it while Ray and Rachel yell for him to come back. Robbie ignores them and is stopped at the top of the hill by Army personnel. Ray leaves Rachel under a tree and confronts Robbie, telling him that he doesn't need to become involved and that his sister is very worried about him. Robbie insists that he needs to see the battle and Ray reluctantly lets him go, accepting that he can't stop his son's obsession and needs to protect his daughter. Ray picks up Rachel just as a final assault of helicopters fails to stop the tripods. The last thing Ray sees after Robbie rushes over the hill is a tripod looming over a wall of fire. It also becomes obvious that the tripods have a protective shield covering them that repels all bombardment. Just then Ray and Rachel are called by a man who owns a nearby house. The owner, Olgilvy, offers them sanctuary in his basement. However, it becomes clear to Ray that Olgilvy is mentally unstable and plans to tunnel out of the basement.
A series of loud noises from upstairs prompt the group to hide. A snake-like probe is sent into the basement. The group narrowly avoids detection and the probe is withdrawn after a few minutes. Later, three of the aliens enter the basement - they are three-legged and very curious. Ray also stops Olgilvy from shooting them with his shotgun, knowing the noise will attract more of them. The aliens leave when their horn sounds.
Ray also discovers that the aliens are covering the landscape with a mysterious and rapidly-growing red vine and they are using blood harvested from humans they've captured to fertilize it. At this revelation, Olgilvy becomes extremely agitated, digging frantically in his basement and muttering "Not MY blood!" repeatedly. Ray realizes that if Olgilvy continues to act the same way, he'll only grow worse and they'll all be found. Ray tries one last time to calm the man but fails. Ray has Rachel put on her headphones and listen to her music while he confronts and kills Olgilvy behind a closed door. After he emerges from the room, Ray and Rachel fall asleep. When Rachel awakes, she sees the alien probe has returned and they've been discovered. Ray uses an axe to cut the eye of the probe off, however, Rachel has fled the house. Ray rushes out in time to see her captured by a tripod. The tripod attacks Ray, who hides in a nearby Humvee, and he's flipped over. The tripod loses interest in him, however Ray uses a grenade from a belt he finds to get it's attention. It uses a tentacle to lift him into an underslung cage filled with other people. Ray finds Rachel, who's in deep shock. While Ray figures out how to escape, a large valve opens overhead and sucks up one of the captives. The valve then tries to capture Ray, who takes the grenade belt with him. His fellow captives keep hold of his arm and drag him back. When Ray lands in the cage, he shows a soldier that he'd pulled the pins from two of the grenades. They explode inside the tripod and the cage is released, falling onto a nearby tree, freeing everyone.
Ray and Rachel make it to Boston. While being directed by more soldiers, Ray notices that the red weeds are dying and that a tripod has come down. Another nearby tripod sounds it's horn and everyone flees. Ray notices that a small flock of birds have landed on the tripod - it's shield is not functioning. Ray relays this discovery to a captain standing by, who orders his platoon to bring up Javelin missiles. Several rockets are fired at the defenseless tripod, which collapses, demolishing a building. The evacuees and soldiers approach the tripod, which opens a hatch, spilling a bright orange fluid. An alien arm with a pink hue (instead of the steel-gray color Ray had seen on the aliens in the basement) falls out limply. The aliens are dying of some unknown cause.
Ray walks Rachel to his in-laws' house. His ex-wife and her new husband are there, along with her parents. Rachel runs to her mother. Robbie steps out of the house too and he an Ray embrace.
The narrator's voice returns and informs us that the aliens had killed billions, however they were defenseless against disease-carrying bacteria to which humans have long been immune.
Ray Ferrier (Tom Cruise) is a divorced union container crane operator with few skills as a father. Ray's ex-wife (Miranda Otto) drops off their rebelious but coming of age teenage son Robbie (Justin Chatwin), and meek 10-year old daughter Rachel (Dakota Fanning) for a weekend visit with their father in New Jersey. (Filmed in Bayonne in the shadow of the worlds longest arch bridge.) Ray is a self-absorbed individual who feels imposed upon by having to baby sit his own children. Then something happens that will change their entire lives. An unusual and violent lightning storm hits the town. In the intersection down the street, Ray sees a huge three-legged war machine rise from beneath the street. The machine begins to fire and incinerate everything and everybody. The Martians have begun the war by attacking Earth with only one goal in mind, destroying everything in sight. Ray becomes a real father when he decides to protect his children and take them to their mother house. Ray grabs his handgun and a few supplies and steals a minivan from his friends service station, begging the friend to come with them, but leaving him behind when he doesn't understand the danger and refuses to get in. The mother and her new husband have already left for Boston so the Ferriers hole up in their house. Overnight, the Martians show up around their and cause great destruction. A news van is outside and the reporter informs Ray the Machines are in all cities. They decide to try to make it to Boston They start running for their lives and are just ahead of the Martians, when they get caught up in a frantic mob of people in upstate NY who are also fleeing the machines. The mob tries to get in the car or take it away from them. In a Mexican standoff, Ray relinquishes the car to an armed gunman in exchange for letting him get Rachel out of the car. Ray drops his gun which is picked up by another mobmember who shoots the other gunman. They manage to get on a ferry as several more machines rise in the distance and the ferry leaves before it's full. A machine rises from the river and overturns the ferry but the Ferriers swim to shore. Robbie follows an Army unit into battle against Ray's wishes but he cannot stop him. Ray and Rachel are taken in by a sole man holed up in the basement of his rural house. Machines are all around and they send a camera tentical into the basement where they are holed up to look for humans which they avoid by moving and hiding. Then some Martians come in personally to investigate, but they're called back to the ship before they find the humans. Ray and the homeowner dispute over how to handle the situation. The machines have increased in number and are everywhere, and they can not be destroyed by our military. They make it to Boston and the Martians start dying from various sickness caused by germs that humans are built up immunity to, but the Martians don't have. Douglas Young (the-movie-guy)
=================================
Ray Ferrier is a dock crane worker who leaves his shift in Brooklyn and drives home to meet his ex-wife, Mary Ann, and his two kids, Robbie and Rachel, at his home in Bayonne, New Jersey. When he arrives, late, they are all waiting for him. Ray sees that Mary Ann is pregnant. After a few minutes of debate, over the children sharing a room and Robbie's homework assignment due on Monday, Mary Ann and her new husband leave for Boston to visit her parents for the weekend.
Ray mildly orders his son to play catch with him in the back yard. Ray notices that Robbie now wears a Boston Red Sox hat; Ray is a Yankees fan. While the two play catch it becomes clear that father and son share a strained relationship. After a brief argument, Robbie allows one of Ray's throws to fly past him and break a window in the basement. Rachel comments that Ray "won't reach" Robbie by being belligerent. Rachel asks what they should have for lunch and Ray coldly replies "you know, order." Ray goes upstairs to his bedroom to get some sleep.
When he wakes up several hours later, he finds Rachel watching cartoons in the living room. She also informs her father that Robbie has taken off with his prized Mustang. Ray becomes furious and rushes out to the street to find Robbie. People have gathered on the street. Ray also sees everyone looking to the north of his block where a strange storm appears to be swirling in the wrong direction. Ray goes into his backyard, taking Rachel with him. The wind picks up, but blows towards the storm. Suddenly, several bolts of lightning begin to strike the ground, some hitting dangerously close to Ray's yard. He and Rachel rush back into the house for shelter and find that every clock has stopped and the power is out. Ray's watch has stopped and his cellphone is dead. After telling Rachel to stay in the house, he goes outside and finds Robbie nearby; his son had taken his car downtown and left it there when it stalled. Ray orders Robbie to watch his sister until he comes back. Ray passes by an auto repair shop where the owner, Manny, tells him that the starter is burned out on a minivan he's looking over. Ray tells Manny to replace the solenoid.
Ray walks downtown to the site where the lightning struck. A crowd has gathered around a large hole in the street. Ray touches a piece of the cracked pavement and finds that it's unusually cold. Suddenly the ground under the hole surges upward and everyone scatters. A car that fell into the hold is thrown out. A huge machine on three stilted legs bursts out of the hole and observes the crowds. It lets out a loud blast like a fog horn and as the crowd continues to scatter, it begins to incinerate dozens of people with blasts of heat beams; people are turned instantly into ash when the beams strike them. Ray runs, escaping through a department store; as he does, the ash from an unfortunate victim covers him. Ray hides behind a building and watches the monstrous machine walk by. He is reminded of Robbie and Rachel when a man runs by carrying his own child.
Ray returns home in utter shock. Barely speaking to his kids and washing the ash from his face and hair, he tells them both that they're leaving immediately. Ray has Robbie take everything in his refrigerator and Ray retrieves a small pistol, tucking it into his belt. They go to Manny's garage and climb into the minivan the mechanic had been working on; since he'd replaced the solenoid, the car is able to run. Manny thinks Ray is joking with him until Ray tells him in a serious tone to come with them. As he tells Ray to get out of the car, the nearby Bayonne Bridge collapses. Ray speeds off while his kids become panicky, especially Rachel, who has a problem with enclosed spaces. Robbie tries to calm her. Ray tells Robbie about the machine and the destruction it caused. Ray plans to take his kids to a safe place, hopefully their mother and stepfather's house.
Arriving at Mary Ann's house, they find it deserted. The trio have a brief argument over what to eat and Ray takes them down to the basement where they'll spend the night. After a few hours of restless sleep, Ray wakes up and hears a commotion outside, which becomes a deafening roar. The three rush into the basement's utility room and lock the door against a wall of flames.
When Ray wakes up several hours later, he walks upstairs to find most of the house demolished. The commotion from the previous night was caused by a plane that had crashed in the neighborhood. While Ray walks by, he sees a man in the wreckage of the plane, cleaning out the food service carts. Ray finds out that he's a cameraman for a news network and is there with a woman reporter. The woman tells Ray that the reports about the tripods are all the same, once they start moving, no more reports or news come from the area they attack. The woman eagerly asks Ray if he's a survivor of the plane crash; when he tells her he isn't, she and her crew hastily leave.
Ray gathers his family and they set out again in the minivan. They drive for a while and pull over when Rachel needs to relieve herself. She defiantly walks farther than Ray wishes her to and stops by a creek. While she looks at the water, she sees dozens of human bodies floating by. She is terrified by the sight until Ray suddenly finds her and scolds her for wandering off too far. Back at the truck, and Army convoy passes by. Robbie seems overcome with anger and wants to join them in their counterattack against the invaders. Ray tries to reason with Robbie, telling him that the idea of them joining up with the Army is ludicrous.
Ray lets Robbie drive for a while so he and his daughter can get some sleep. They come to a small town where evacuated people have gathered. The crowd quickly becomes hostile toward Ray's family and wants their vehicle. Ray and Robbie are forcefully pulled from the truck and beaten by the mob. Rachel panics and Ray, gathering his senses, uses his gun to force the crowd to retreat a bit. Moments later, he is forced to drop his pistol when another man, determined to take the truck for himself, holds a pistol on Ray. Ray is permitted to get Rachel out of the truck and walk away. The crowd again becomes violent and the man who took the minivan is attacked.
The family continues to walk with the crowds of evacuees. At a railroad crossing, a train zooms by, the entire length of it is on fire. At a ferry crossing in Athens, New York, the family waits to cross the river on one of the boats. Ray meets a woman he knows who has her own daughter in tow. The sound of the alien call is heard nearby and the crowd of people begin to rush the ferry. Army guards close the gates and deny Ray, his friend and their kids entry. The see a way to bypass the gates and make it to the boat, but only Ray and his kids are able to board. Robbie sees that several people are trying to climb over the ferry's ramp and goes to help them. As the boat crosses the river, another tripod rises from the river and attacks, turning the ferry over and spilling cars and people into the water. Ray and the kids surface and swim for shore as tentacles from the tripod grab people out of the water. Ray and the kids make it to the opposite shore. While they steal away, they see garments floating down from sky.
Still walking, the family passes by a battle between the aliens and the Army. Jets zip by overhead and Robbie somehow becomes entranced by the battle, which is unseen and taking place over a hill. Robbie approaches it while Ray and Rachel yell for him to come back. Robbie ignores them and is stopped at the top of the hill by Army personnel. Ray leaves Rachel under a tree and confronts Robbie, telling him that he doesn't need to become involved and that his sister is very worried about him. Robbie insists that he needs to see the battle and Ray reluctantly lets him go, accepting that he can't stop his son's obsession and needs to protect his daughter. Ray picks up Rachel just as a final assault of helicopters fails to stop the tripods. The last thing Ray sees after Robbie rushes over the hill is a tripod looming over a wall of fire. It also becomes obvious that the tripods have a protective shield covering them that repels all bombardment. Just then Ray and Rachel are called by a man who owns a nearby house. The owner, Olgilvy, offers them sanctuary in his basement. However, it becomes clear to Ray that Olgilvy is mentally unstable and plans to tunnel out of the basement.
A series of loud noises from upstairs prompt the group to hide. A snake-like probe is sent into the basement. The group narrowly avoids detection and the probe is withdrawn after a few minutes. Later, three of the aliens enter the basement - they are three-legged and very curious. Ray also stops Olgilvy from shooting them with his shotgun, knowing the noise will attract more of them. The aliens leave when their horn sounds.
Ray also discovers that the aliens are covering the landscape with a mysterious and rapidly-growing red vine and they are using blood harvested from humans they've captured to fertilize it. At this revelation, Olgilvy becomes extremely agitated, digging frantically in his basement and muttering "Not MY blood!" repeatedly. Ray realizes that if Olgilvy continues to act the same way, he'll only grow worse and they'll all be found. Ray tries one last time to calm the man but fails. Ray has Rachel put on her headphones and listen to her music while he confronts and kills Olgilvy behind a closed door. After he emerges from the room, Ray and Rachel fall asleep. When Rachel awakes, she sees the alien probe has returned and they've been discovered. Ray uses an axe to cut the eye of the probe off, however, Rachel has fled the house. Ray rushes out in time to see her captured by a tripod. The tripod attacks Ray, who hides in a nearby Humvee, and he's flipped over. The tripod loses interest in him, however Ray uses a grenade from a belt he finds to get it's attention. It uses a tentacle to lift him into an underslung cage filled with other people. Ray finds Rachel, who's in deep shock. While Ray figures out how to escape, a large valve opens overhead and sucks up one of the captives. The valve then tries to capture Ray, who takes the grenade belt with him. His fellow captives keep hold of his arm and drag him back. When Ray lands in the cage, he shows a soldier that he'd pulled the pins from two of the grenades. They explode inside the tripod and the cage is released, falling onto a nearby tree, freeing everyone.
Ray and Rachel make it to Boston. While being directed by more soldiers, Ray notices that the red weeds are dying and that a tripod has come down. Another nearby tripod sounds it's horn and everyone flees. Ray notices that a small flock of birds have landed on the tripod - it's shield is not functioning. Ray relays this discovery to a captain standing by, who orders his platoon to bring up Javelin missiles. Several rockets are fired at the defenseless tripod, which collapses, demolishing a building. The evacuees and soldiers approach the tripod, which opens a hatch, spilling a bright orange fluid. An alien arm with a pink hue (instead of the steel-gray color Ray had seen on the aliens in the basement) falls out limply. The aliens are dying of some unknown cause.
Ray walks Rachel to his in-laws' house. His ex-wife and her new husband are there, along with her parents. Rachel runs to her mother. Robbie steps out of the house too and he an Ray embrace.
The narrator's voice returns and informs us that the aliens had killed billions, however they were defenseless against disease-carrying bacteria to which humans have long been immune.
War of the Worlds (2005)
Trivia
While filming nearby, Tom Cruise, along with a twenty-member entourage including Steven Spielberg, visited a Lexington, Virginia Dairy Queen. Cruise saw a jar on the counter with a photo of Ashley Flint and her story. Flint had been in a go-cart accident a few months earlier, leaving her family with a mountain of hospital bills. Cruise put 5,000 dollars cash into the jar.
During the filming of the underwater scenes (where the ferry capsizes), director Steven Spielberg played a prank on Tom Cruise and Dakota Fanning by playing the dramatic music from Jaws (1975) (also one of Spielberg's films) through the massive underwater speakers on the sound stage.
One scene shows Ray running out of the house to find Robbie while dozens of people are right outside his house photographing the lightning storm. To film the scene, producers hired people on the street to come to the street at the time of shooting with a camera and film so they could get pictures of Tom Cruise for free.
When the aliens are investigating the junk in the basement, one of them plays with a bicycle wheel. This is a reference to the original book; the main character observes that, with all the advanced technology the aliens possess, they do not use any wheels, and wonders if the alien life form had skipped the invention of the wheel.
The tripod design for the alien machines is based on H.G. Wells' original description from his book, including the heat rays at the ends of arms. The "red weed" is also from the novel, as is the alien "need" for humans.
Ray's horror at discovering ash all over himself after stumbling home was influenced by September 11 survivor stories.
Real National Guard troops, mostly from Virginia, drove most Convoy Scene military vehicles. Extras, bit-players, and stunts-crew filled in the Hummer seats and troop trucks.
There are very few panoramic images in this movie. Almost all shots, especially during the tripod attacks, were filmed with the camera set at a person's eye-sight. This manner of filming was influenced by the amateur footage of the terrorist attacks on New York City of September 11, 2001.
Ogilvy's yard was at a real farmhouse. Because the existing exterior cellar door was on the "wrong" side of the house (visually), the crew built an old-looking fake cellar doorway on the opposite side - complete with edging of cast-cement replicas of the local building stone. It looked real and was used in the film, but led nowhere. The crew scooped out a foot of earth from under it so that Ray, Rachel, and Ogilvy (when fleeing "into the basement") could appear to descend a little after their first few steps. Action then cut to the basement interior - filmed on a studio soundstage.
The "Ulla" war cry of the Tripods was made with a didgeridoo and computer effects.
The convoy scene was filmed on one of 2004's coldest days in Virginia - so cold that "unfreezable" blue liquid in portable latrines froze solid.
Due to Steven Spielberg's last minute post-production work, he had to drop out of a scheduled appearance with Tom Cruise to promote the film on The Oprah Winfrey Show (1986). This was the episode of Cruise's highly publicized "couch jumping" incident.
Steven Spielberg owns one of the last copies of the Orson Welles radio script, which he purchased at an auction. Spielberg wanted to make the film years ago, but decided against it when Independence Day (1996) was released. However, he wanted to work with Tom Cruise again after Minority Report (2002), and picked War of the Worlds (2005) as their next project.
In 2005, the plane crash set was featured in Universal Studios Hollywood's public Studio Tour. The wreckage was located only a few feet from the infamous Psycho (1960) house and Bates Motel sets.
As Ray and Rachel run for cover toward Ogilvy's farmhouse basement door, a flaming military Hummer rattles past. The moment was filmed in just one or two takes because the special effects flame liquid dripped onto the driver's side tire and set it on fire.
Had a 72-day shooting schedule. This was the same amount of time used for Steven Spielberg's previous movies, Schindler's List (1993) and Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981).
According to an interview with Miranda Otto, she originally turned down the part offered by Steven Spielberg as she was newly pregnant. However, Spielberg wanted her to play the part and changed the script to incorporate her pregnancy into the role.
An actual out-of-use Boeing 747 was bought to be used as the crashed plane.
The actors (including extras) portraying soldiers used real military firearms rather than the usual cast-rubber prop weapons. The current-issue carbines and M-16 rifles were de-weaponized by removing the firing mechanisms, but otherwise were "the real thing."
When filming on a residential street in Howell, New Jersey, the actors took refuge in the garages of nearby houses for warmth.
Some shots that were seen in the trailer, were not in the finished theatrical release. The most notable of these is named "Camelot" for its ethereal lighting design where Robbie, Ray, and Rachel encounter a roving battalion of tripods in a deserted Massachusetts neighborhood. They watch from behind an SUV, as a tripod pulls people out of a building with its tentacles.
"Fallujah" was the name that make-up technicians gave to their original new "combat grime" coloration applied to the soldiers. It was inspired by the cover photo of a news magazine showing a close up of a Coalition soldier in Iraq.
To illustrate the contentious relationship between Ray and Robbie, they are seen wearing New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox baseball caps punctuating their rivalry.
Before David Koepp was hired, Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruise asked J.J. Abrams to write the script. But, he had to turn it down, as he was working on the pilot for Lost (2004) at the time.
Tim Robbins' character is a combination of three different characters from the H.G. Wells novel: the Curate who gets trapped in the ruined house with the main character, the Artilleryman, whose behavior and dialogue is the main basis for the film's character, and he is named Ogilvy, after a friend to the Narrator.
This is the first major motion picture to use real M1 Abrams tanks instead of other tanks dressed up to resemble them.
The crew started filming only seven months prior to its release. In order to finish all 500+ CGI effects, Steven Spielberg did all the big action scenes in the early stages of shooting.
While scenes were being shot at the riverbank on the Connecticut River in Windsor, Connecticut, two life-sized mannequins, being used as extras, drifted into the river and were gone before they could be retrieved. The production's water-safety crew performed a search but weren't able to recover the mannequins. Police departments along the river were notified of the missing mannequins, according to Windsor police Lieutenant Shannon Haynes, who said, "We just wanted them to know that if they got any calls about bodies floating in the river."
This is one of the first movies to show The United States Marine Corps' new MARPAT digital camouflage uniforms, as well as the Interceptor body armor vests used by all branches of the U.S. military.
Tom Cruise's sixth consecutive film to break the 100 million dollar barrier domestically since 2000, and his 13th movie to break that barrier in total.
Ogilvy's farmhouse was on a still-active real farm. The tractor shed contained real farm machinery. The barn visible in some shots was taken over by the production: lighting rigging filled the hayloft while the ground floor served as extras' holding. Background players not-needed in various scenes puttered about out-of-view in the barn's cattle stalls while drinking cocoa and munching craft service nuts.
Reunites Tom Cruise with Tim Robbins after Top Gun (1986).
Wardrobe standards were so strict, that soldiers during the Virginia filming were not allowed to wear their own civilian Underarmor (tm) or GoreTex (tm) warmth clothing under their uniforms - as real National Guardsmen so often do during maneuvers. This was despite filming on what turned into the coldest days of 2004 - and wearing light-weather BDUs (BattleDress Uniforms).
The opening voiceover monologue paraphrases and updates the first paragraph from H.G. Wells' novel. For example, "nineteenth century" is changed to "twenty-first century".
The words "alien" and "Martian" are never spoken in the movie. While it was plausible in 1898 to believe that sentient beings could live on Mars, this had been debunked by the late twentieth century. So for verisimilitude, the aliens' origin point is left undefined.
According to an interview George Lucas gave Time.com ("A Conversation with George Lucas", posted Tuesday, March 14, 2006), War of the Worlds is the first movie where Steven Spielberg turned away from traditional storyboarding and used a Pre-Vis system. He also stated that he had introduced Spielberg to Pre-Vis on Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005).
At least twenty civilian refugee/survivor extras were carefully made up to look horribly wounded. Make-up technicians simulated large bleeding wounds, third-degree burns, and melted flesh. In the final version, the wounded survivors' scenes were cut and the film earned a mild PG-13 rating.
Wardrobe staff obtained hundreds of slightly-used military uniforms which had old regimental patches on the sleeves from their various original units. Meticulously, Wardrobe removed the patches and replaced them with patches from the 29th Division - the "Blue and Gray" division whose emblem is a circular "ying-yang". Wardrobe also sewed a new US flag patch onto each uniform - and then prior to filming applied roll-on "stage dirt" to each flag so that it would not look too bright. Soldiers with patches other than the 29th Division are likely real NG troops wearing their own issue uniforms (and whose patches are from their own local units).
There were rumors of the movie's title being changed to "Out of the Night," but this was thought to produce a negative fan reaction. The title was also believed to be used as an alias to keep unwanted people away from the set.
During the initial attack as Tom Cruise is running down the street, you can clearly see a street sign that reads "Van Buren". This is a nod to The War of the Worlds (1953) where Ann Robinson, who is also in this film, played Sylvia Van Buren.
DIRECTOR_TRADEMARK(Steven Spielberg): [music]: John Williams scores. A short sequence of notes, repeated used as a signal to the audience. The tripods use a long, drawn out, low tone (like a foghorn), followed by a higher pitch (sounding like an orchestra), as a way of communicating to other tripods (as it was in the book). The two notes are similar to the two notes used in Jaws (1975). As in different attacks in the movie, like the beginning of the Hudson Ferry attack, it announces to the audience that something is about to happen (again, like in Jaws (1975)). In that scene, it seems to mean "Come here, other tripods, I've found a bunch of humans." As a counter-example, though, the same tones are used at the end of the "aliens in the basement" scene, and seem to mean a rallying signal, as in "everyone, report back to your posts", as the aliens immediately leave. Note, also, that a basic five-tone sequence was used in Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), as a connection to that film's aliens.
This is the third incarnation of H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds that Ann Robinson has appeared in, having played Sylvia Van Buren in the first film The War of the Worlds (1953), and then reprised her role for three episodes in the television series, War of the Worlds (1988).
While filming in Bayonne, New Jersey, studio Paramount Pictures offered quick cash to residents who lived on First Street and Pointview Terrace to move their cars off the block, between a Tuesday and Friday. This was in order for the film crew to resume shooting.
Justin Chatwin plays a character who has Dragonball toys on the shelf in his room. Chatwin would later play Goku in Dragonball: Evolution (2009).
Initially estimated to have a 2007 release date, this film was abruptly green-lit in mid-August 2004 for a 2005 release, when Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruise happened to become available, when other projects stalled.
The convoy scene military vehicles were real and still had their white greasepencil convoy markings (data similar to license tag info) chalked on the driver's side doors. Either speed or special-effects rendered these markings invisible in the final cuts.
Tom Cruise personally gave one of the extras on-set (Dustin Ardine) career advice in-between takes.
The movie was shipped to some theaters under the title "Uncle Sam" and to others under the name "Party in Fresno".
Ray drives a rare 1966 Shelby Mustang GT-350H, black with gold stripes. 1,001 were produced in total, with around 800 being produced in the black and gold color scheme. Also known as the "Rent-A-Racer", it was available for rent at Hertz for seventeen dollars per day, and seventeen cents per mile. An original example sold at auction in 2006 for 180,900 dollars, and since a crane driver would be unlikely to own such a valuable car, it's probably one of the many replicas which have subsequently been made, worth a fraction of that.
The wide shot of the bridge exploding, followed by a tanker crashing into a group of houses as the minivan escapes, was conceived of, and shot, only one month prior to its footage premiering during the SuperBowl spot, effects ready and all.
The first time we see Ray, he is operating a towering crane, a structure similar to the aliens in their huge tripods.
Steven Spielberg began filming Munich (2005) the day this film opened, and released it the same year.
Some army troops used were from the 29th Division (Maryland Army National Guard), known as "The Blue and the Gray" from their yin-yang looking shoulder patch (visible when the day convoy passes by the Ferriers).
The organism seen in the opening sequence is known as a paramecium, being a unicellular pond water protozoan that is a eukaryote, shown complete with cilia, oral groove, macro nucleus and central vacuole.
Tim Robbins' character can be seen digging a tunnel to escape from the invading Martians. Tim Robbins previously played Andy Dufresne in The Shawshank Redemption (1994), who also dug a tunnel to escape from prison.
The convoy scene used only around a dozen vehicles: mostly Humvees with a few trucks thrown in. There was one M1 tank and one self-propelled cannon (mistaken for a "tank" by most civilians). The convoy roared past Robbie, Ray, and Rachel on the roadside perhaps a half-dozen times. Editing together various shots from different angles created the impression of a much larger convoy.
The scenes on and around the commercial plane wreckage were shot on the Universal Studios Hollywood back lot.
DIRECTOR_TRADEMARK(Steven Spielberg): [rear-view window]: important image seen in a rear-view mirror.
Ray carries a Charter Arms Off-Duty .38 Special revolver.
A segment of a scene early in the film, in which people are seen fleeing from a tripod (panic-stricken crowd running along a street while buildings are being destroyed by a tripod in the background), recreates the subject-matter of the painting "Panic in the Streets" by Geoff Taylor, a print of which was included in the booklet accompanying the 1978 release of "Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of The Worlds".
Right before the Hudson Ferry scene, Ray and his children watch in horror as a locomotive speeds by on fire, and out of control. The train is part of the MTA Metro-North Railroad, which runs in New York, New Jersey, and Conneticut. It can be identified by the paint scheme on the side.
Tom Cruise took two days off from working on the film, when he fell sick with flu.
Cameo
Gene Barry, Ann Robinson: the grandparents appeared in The War of the Worlds (1953) as Doctors Clayton Forrester and Sylvia Van Buren. This was Barry's final film.
Director Trademark
Steven Spielberg: [fathers] The main character is a divorced father whose children are angry at him, mirroring Spielberg's experience with his absentee father.
Steven Spielberg: [Signs] Using a sign with directions or instructions as a joke. In this case, as the first buried machine is tearing up the street in Ray's hometown, causing all sorts of damage, the camera pans past a close-up of a municipal "No Littering" sign.
Spoilers The trivia items below may give away important plot points.
After hearing Steven Spielberg make a remark about how catastrophes brought out the best in people, David Koepp wrote the scene where Ray is forced to give up the van at gunpoint.
Tim Robbins's line, "It's not a war any more than it's a war between men and maggots", is a slightly modified quote from the original novel, substituting "maggots" for "ants". The line was also used in the infamous 1938 Orson Welles radio broadcast. In addition, the news reporter's line, "Once they begin to move, no more news comes out of that area", is taken directly from The War of the Worlds (1953). Also taken from the original film were the scenes with the probe examining the basement, followed by the inquisitive aliens. Tom Cruise chops the head off the probe with an axe, just as Gene Barry did in the original. Also, the shot of the dying alien's arm coming down the ramp is a reference to a similar shot in the original film.
After Ray and the kids reach dry land when the ferry is attacked and sunk, air raid sirens go off. On the day of extras casting in Athens, New York, the air raid sirens were tested, causing jokes among the extras that the Martians were coming too soon before the cameras.
The song that Rachel sings to herself while Ray is killing Olgilvy is 'Hushabye Mountain' from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968).
The gun that the man puts to Ray's head is a SIG-Sauer P226.
Trivia
While filming nearby, Tom Cruise, along with a twenty-member entourage including Steven Spielberg, visited a Lexington, Virginia Dairy Queen. Cruise saw a jar on the counter with a photo of Ashley Flint and her story. Flint had been in a go-cart accident a few months earlier, leaving her family with a mountain of hospital bills. Cruise put 5,000 dollars cash into the jar.
During the filming of the underwater scenes (where the ferry capsizes), director Steven Spielberg played a prank on Tom Cruise and Dakota Fanning by playing the dramatic music from Jaws (1975) (also one of Spielberg's films) through the massive underwater speakers on the sound stage.
One scene shows Ray running out of the house to find Robbie while dozens of people are right outside his house photographing the lightning storm. To film the scene, producers hired people on the street to come to the street at the time of shooting with a camera and film so they could get pictures of Tom Cruise for free.
When the aliens are investigating the junk in the basement, one of them plays with a bicycle wheel. This is a reference to the original book; the main character observes that, with all the advanced technology the aliens possess, they do not use any wheels, and wonders if the alien life form had skipped the invention of the wheel.
The tripod design for the alien machines is based on H.G. Wells' original description from his book, including the heat rays at the ends of arms. The "red weed" is also from the novel, as is the alien "need" for humans.
Ray's horror at discovering ash all over himself after stumbling home was influenced by September 11 survivor stories.
Real National Guard troops, mostly from Virginia, drove most Convoy Scene military vehicles. Extras, bit-players, and stunts-crew filled in the Hummer seats and troop trucks.
There are very few panoramic images in this movie. Almost all shots, especially during the tripod attacks, were filmed with the camera set at a person's eye-sight. This manner of filming was influenced by the amateur footage of the terrorist attacks on New York City of September 11, 2001.
Ogilvy's yard was at a real farmhouse. Because the existing exterior cellar door was on the "wrong" side of the house (visually), the crew built an old-looking fake cellar doorway on the opposite side - complete with edging of cast-cement replicas of the local building stone. It looked real and was used in the film, but led nowhere. The crew scooped out a foot of earth from under it so that Ray, Rachel, and Ogilvy (when fleeing "into the basement") could appear to descend a little after their first few steps. Action then cut to the basement interior - filmed on a studio soundstage.
The "Ulla" war cry of the Tripods was made with a didgeridoo and computer effects.
The convoy scene was filmed on one of 2004's coldest days in Virginia - so cold that "unfreezable" blue liquid in portable latrines froze solid.
Due to Steven Spielberg's last minute post-production work, he had to drop out of a scheduled appearance with Tom Cruise to promote the film on The Oprah Winfrey Show (1986). This was the episode of Cruise's highly publicized "couch jumping" incident.
Steven Spielberg owns one of the last copies of the Orson Welles radio script, which he purchased at an auction. Spielberg wanted to make the film years ago, but decided against it when Independence Day (1996) was released. However, he wanted to work with Tom Cruise again after Minority Report (2002), and picked War of the Worlds (2005) as their next project.
In 2005, the plane crash set was featured in Universal Studios Hollywood's public Studio Tour. The wreckage was located only a few feet from the infamous Psycho (1960) house and Bates Motel sets.
As Ray and Rachel run for cover toward Ogilvy's farmhouse basement door, a flaming military Hummer rattles past. The moment was filmed in just one or two takes because the special effects flame liquid dripped onto the driver's side tire and set it on fire.
Had a 72-day shooting schedule. This was the same amount of time used for Steven Spielberg's previous movies, Schindler's List (1993) and Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981).
According to an interview with Miranda Otto, she originally turned down the part offered by Steven Spielberg as she was newly pregnant. However, Spielberg wanted her to play the part and changed the script to incorporate her pregnancy into the role.
An actual out-of-use Boeing 747 was bought to be used as the crashed plane.
The actors (including extras) portraying soldiers used real military firearms rather than the usual cast-rubber prop weapons. The current-issue carbines and M-16 rifles were de-weaponized by removing the firing mechanisms, but otherwise were "the real thing."
When filming on a residential street in Howell, New Jersey, the actors took refuge in the garages of nearby houses for warmth.
Some shots that were seen in the trailer, were not in the finished theatrical release. The most notable of these is named "Camelot" for its ethereal lighting design where Robbie, Ray, and Rachel encounter a roving battalion of tripods in a deserted Massachusetts neighborhood. They watch from behind an SUV, as a tripod pulls people out of a building with its tentacles.
"Fallujah" was the name that make-up technicians gave to their original new "combat grime" coloration applied to the soldiers. It was inspired by the cover photo of a news magazine showing a close up of a Coalition soldier in Iraq.
To illustrate the contentious relationship between Ray and Robbie, they are seen wearing New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox baseball caps punctuating their rivalry.
Before David Koepp was hired, Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruise asked J.J. Abrams to write the script. But, he had to turn it down, as he was working on the pilot for Lost (2004) at the time.
Tim Robbins' character is a combination of three different characters from the H.G. Wells novel: the Curate who gets trapped in the ruined house with the main character, the Artilleryman, whose behavior and dialogue is the main basis for the film's character, and he is named Ogilvy, after a friend to the Narrator.
This is the first major motion picture to use real M1 Abrams tanks instead of other tanks dressed up to resemble them.
The crew started filming only seven months prior to its release. In order to finish all 500+ CGI effects, Steven Spielberg did all the big action scenes in the early stages of shooting.
While scenes were being shot at the riverbank on the Connecticut River in Windsor, Connecticut, two life-sized mannequins, being used as extras, drifted into the river and were gone before they could be retrieved. The production's water-safety crew performed a search but weren't able to recover the mannequins. Police departments along the river were notified of the missing mannequins, according to Windsor police Lieutenant Shannon Haynes, who said, "We just wanted them to know that if they got any calls about bodies floating in the river."
This is one of the first movies to show The United States Marine Corps' new MARPAT digital camouflage uniforms, as well as the Interceptor body armor vests used by all branches of the U.S. military.
Tom Cruise's sixth consecutive film to break the 100 million dollar barrier domestically since 2000, and his 13th movie to break that barrier in total.
Ogilvy's farmhouse was on a still-active real farm. The tractor shed contained real farm machinery. The barn visible in some shots was taken over by the production: lighting rigging filled the hayloft while the ground floor served as extras' holding. Background players not-needed in various scenes puttered about out-of-view in the barn's cattle stalls while drinking cocoa and munching craft service nuts.
Reunites Tom Cruise with Tim Robbins after Top Gun (1986).
Wardrobe standards were so strict, that soldiers during the Virginia filming were not allowed to wear their own civilian Underarmor (tm) or GoreTex (tm) warmth clothing under their uniforms - as real National Guardsmen so often do during maneuvers. This was despite filming on what turned into the coldest days of 2004 - and wearing light-weather BDUs (BattleDress Uniforms).
The opening voiceover monologue paraphrases and updates the first paragraph from H.G. Wells' novel. For example, "nineteenth century" is changed to "twenty-first century".
The words "alien" and "Martian" are never spoken in the movie. While it was plausible in 1898 to believe that sentient beings could live on Mars, this had been debunked by the late twentieth century. So for verisimilitude, the aliens' origin point is left undefined.
According to an interview George Lucas gave Time.com ("A Conversation with George Lucas", posted Tuesday, March 14, 2006), War of the Worlds is the first movie where Steven Spielberg turned away from traditional storyboarding and used a Pre-Vis system. He also stated that he had introduced Spielberg to Pre-Vis on Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005).
At least twenty civilian refugee/survivor extras were carefully made up to look horribly wounded. Make-up technicians simulated large bleeding wounds, third-degree burns, and melted flesh. In the final version, the wounded survivors' scenes were cut and the film earned a mild PG-13 rating.
Wardrobe staff obtained hundreds of slightly-used military uniforms which had old regimental patches on the sleeves from their various original units. Meticulously, Wardrobe removed the patches and replaced them with patches from the 29th Division - the "Blue and Gray" division whose emblem is a circular "ying-yang". Wardrobe also sewed a new US flag patch onto each uniform - and then prior to filming applied roll-on "stage dirt" to each flag so that it would not look too bright. Soldiers with patches other than the 29th Division are likely real NG troops wearing their own issue uniforms (and whose patches are from their own local units).
There were rumors of the movie's title being changed to "Out of the Night," but this was thought to produce a negative fan reaction. The title was also believed to be used as an alias to keep unwanted people away from the set.
During the initial attack as Tom Cruise is running down the street, you can clearly see a street sign that reads "Van Buren". This is a nod to The War of the Worlds (1953) where Ann Robinson, who is also in this film, played Sylvia Van Buren.
DIRECTOR_TRADEMARK(Steven Spielberg): [music]: John Williams scores. A short sequence of notes, repeated used as a signal to the audience. The tripods use a long, drawn out, low tone (like a foghorn), followed by a higher pitch (sounding like an orchestra), as a way of communicating to other tripods (as it was in the book). The two notes are similar to the two notes used in Jaws (1975). As in different attacks in the movie, like the beginning of the Hudson Ferry attack, it announces to the audience that something is about to happen (again, like in Jaws (1975)). In that scene, it seems to mean "Come here, other tripods, I've found a bunch of humans." As a counter-example, though, the same tones are used at the end of the "aliens in the basement" scene, and seem to mean a rallying signal, as in "everyone, report back to your posts", as the aliens immediately leave. Note, also, that a basic five-tone sequence was used in Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), as a connection to that film's aliens.
This is the third incarnation of H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds that Ann Robinson has appeared in, having played Sylvia Van Buren in the first film The War of the Worlds (1953), and then reprised her role for three episodes in the television series, War of the Worlds (1988).
While filming in Bayonne, New Jersey, studio Paramount Pictures offered quick cash to residents who lived on First Street and Pointview Terrace to move their cars off the block, between a Tuesday and Friday. This was in order for the film crew to resume shooting.
Justin Chatwin plays a character who has Dragonball toys on the shelf in his room. Chatwin would later play Goku in Dragonball: Evolution (2009).
Initially estimated to have a 2007 release date, this film was abruptly green-lit in mid-August 2004 for a 2005 release, when Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruise happened to become available, when other projects stalled.
The convoy scene military vehicles were real and still had their white greasepencil convoy markings (data similar to license tag info) chalked on the driver's side doors. Either speed or special-effects rendered these markings invisible in the final cuts.
Tom Cruise personally gave one of the extras on-set (Dustin Ardine) career advice in-between takes.
The movie was shipped to some theaters under the title "Uncle Sam" and to others under the name "Party in Fresno".
Ray drives a rare 1966 Shelby Mustang GT-350H, black with gold stripes. 1,001 were produced in total, with around 800 being produced in the black and gold color scheme. Also known as the "Rent-A-Racer", it was available for rent at Hertz for seventeen dollars per day, and seventeen cents per mile. An original example sold at auction in 2006 for 180,900 dollars, and since a crane driver would be unlikely to own such a valuable car, it's probably one of the many replicas which have subsequently been made, worth a fraction of that.
The wide shot of the bridge exploding, followed by a tanker crashing into a group of houses as the minivan escapes, was conceived of, and shot, only one month prior to its footage premiering during the SuperBowl spot, effects ready and all.
The first time we see Ray, he is operating a towering crane, a structure similar to the aliens in their huge tripods.
Steven Spielberg began filming Munich (2005) the day this film opened, and released it the same year.
Some army troops used were from the 29th Division (Maryland Army National Guard), known as "The Blue and the Gray" from their yin-yang looking shoulder patch (visible when the day convoy passes by the Ferriers).
The organism seen in the opening sequence is known as a paramecium, being a unicellular pond water protozoan that is a eukaryote, shown complete with cilia, oral groove, macro nucleus and central vacuole.
Tim Robbins' character can be seen digging a tunnel to escape from the invading Martians. Tim Robbins previously played Andy Dufresne in The Shawshank Redemption (1994), who also dug a tunnel to escape from prison.
The convoy scene used only around a dozen vehicles: mostly Humvees with a few trucks thrown in. There was one M1 tank and one self-propelled cannon (mistaken for a "tank" by most civilians). The convoy roared past Robbie, Ray, and Rachel on the roadside perhaps a half-dozen times. Editing together various shots from different angles created the impression of a much larger convoy.
The scenes on and around the commercial plane wreckage were shot on the Universal Studios Hollywood back lot.
DIRECTOR_TRADEMARK(Steven Spielberg): [rear-view window]: important image seen in a rear-view mirror.
Ray carries a Charter Arms Off-Duty .38 Special revolver.
A segment of a scene early in the film, in which people are seen fleeing from a tripod (panic-stricken crowd running along a street while buildings are being destroyed by a tripod in the background), recreates the subject-matter of the painting "Panic in the Streets" by Geoff Taylor, a print of which was included in the booklet accompanying the 1978 release of "Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of The Worlds".
Right before the Hudson Ferry scene, Ray and his children watch in horror as a locomotive speeds by on fire, and out of control. The train is part of the MTA Metro-North Railroad, which runs in New York, New Jersey, and Conneticut. It can be identified by the paint scheme on the side.
Tom Cruise took two days off from working on the film, when he fell sick with flu.
Cameo
Gene Barry, Ann Robinson: the grandparents appeared in The War of the Worlds (1953) as Doctors Clayton Forrester and Sylvia Van Buren. This was Barry's final film.
Director Trademark
Steven Spielberg: [fathers] The main character is a divorced father whose children are angry at him, mirroring Spielberg's experience with his absentee father.
Steven Spielberg: [Signs] Using a sign with directions or instructions as a joke. In this case, as the first buried machine is tearing up the street in Ray's hometown, causing all sorts of damage, the camera pans past a close-up of a municipal "No Littering" sign.
Spoilers The trivia items below may give away important plot points.
After hearing Steven Spielberg make a remark about how catastrophes brought out the best in people, David Koepp wrote the scene where Ray is forced to give up the van at gunpoint.
Tim Robbins's line, "It's not a war any more than it's a war between men and maggots", is a slightly modified quote from the original novel, substituting "maggots" for "ants". The line was also used in the infamous 1938 Orson Welles radio broadcast. In addition, the news reporter's line, "Once they begin to move, no more news comes out of that area", is taken directly from The War of the Worlds (1953). Also taken from the original film were the scenes with the probe examining the basement, followed by the inquisitive aliens. Tom Cruise chops the head off the probe with an axe, just as Gene Barry did in the original. Also, the shot of the dying alien's arm coming down the ramp is a reference to a similar shot in the original film.
After Ray and the kids reach dry land when the ferry is attacked and sunk, air raid sirens go off. On the day of extras casting in Athens, New York, the air raid sirens were tested, causing jokes among the extras that the Martians were coming too soon before the cameras.
The song that Rachel sings to herself while Ray is killing Olgilvy is 'Hushabye Mountain' from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968).
The gun that the man puts to Ray's head is a SIG-Sauer P226.
Rense.com
The Coming 'ET Threat'
Will Be A Lie
From Duncan Roads
Hi Jeff -
I have attached below the startling testimony by Carol Rosin to the Project Disclosure (Steven Greer). Take note of the date, it is well before Sept 11, and subsequent events. It deals with the hidden agenda to weaponize space under cover of four bogus threats - specifically, a Russian threat (culminating in Star Wars); a terrorist/rogue nations threat (son of Star Wars); followed by an asteroid threat, and finally a hostile ET threat.
I am sure you are familiar with it, but given recent history I feel more people should consider this agenda as a likely candidate for one of the hidden reasons behind the 'war on terror' etc. I have already published it years ago, and mention it at any conference I speak at. I am always astonished at how few so-called UFO researchers have even heard of her, given that they all should have read all of the testimonies delivered to Greer's Disclosure Project.
Duncan Roads
Editor,
NEXUS Magazine
Testimony of Dr Carol Rosin
December 2000
Dr Carol Rosin was the first woman corporate manager of Fairchild Industries and was spokesperson for Wernher Von Braun in the last years of his life. She founded the Institute for Security and Cooperation in Outer Space in Washington DC and has testified before Congress on many occasions about space based weapons. Von Braun revealed to Dr Rosin a plan to justify weapons in spaced based on hoaxing an extraterrestrial threat. She was also present at meetings in the '70s when the scenario for the Gulf War of the '90s was planned.
CR: Dr Carol Rosin
SG: Dr Steven Greer
CR: My name is Carol Rosin. I am an educator who became the first woman corporate manager of an Aerospace Company, Fairchild Industries.
I am a Space and Missile Defense Consultant and have consulted to a number of companies, organizations, and government departments, even the intelligence community. I was a consultant to TRW working on the MX missile, so I was part of that strategy, which turned out to be a role model for how to sell space-based weapons to the public. The MX missile is yet another weapon system that we didn't need. I founded the Institute for Security and Cooperation in Outer Space, a Washington DC based think tank. I am an author and have testified before Congress and the President's Commission on Space.
When I was a Corporate Manager of Fairchild Industries from 1974 through 1977, I met the late Dr Wernher Von Braun. We first met in early 1974. At that time, Von Braun was dying of cancer but he assured me that he would live a few more years to tell me about the game that was being played- that game being the effort to weaponize space, to control the Earth from space and space itself. Von Braun had a history of working with weapons systems. He escaped from Germany to come to this country and became a Vice President of Fairchild Industries when I had met him. Von Braun's purpose during the last years of his life, his dying years, was to educate the public and decision-makers about why space-based weapons are dumb, dangerous, destabilizing, too costly, unnecessary, unworkable, and an undesirable idea, and about the alternatives that are available.
As practically a deathbed speech, he educated me about those concepts and who the players were in this game. He gave me the responsibility, since he was dying, of continuing this effort to prevent the weaponization of outer space. When Wernher Von Braun was dying of cancer, he asked me to be his spokesperson, to appear on occasions when he was too ill to speak. I did this.
What was most interesting to me was a repetitive sentence that he said to me over and over again during the approximately four years that I had the opportunity to work with him. He said the strategy that was being used to educate the public and decision makers was to use scare tactics That was how we identify an enemy. The strategy that Wernher Von Braun taught me was that first the Russians are going to be considered to be the enemy. In fact, in 1974, they were the enemy, the identified enemy. We were told that they had "killer satellites". We were told that they were coming to get us and control us-that they were "Commies."
Then terrorists would be identified, and that was soon to follow. We heard a lot about terrorism. Then we were going to identify third-world country "crazies." We now call them Nations of Concern. But he said that would be the third enemy against whom we would build space-based weapons.
The next enemy was asteroids. Now, at this point he kind of chuckled the first time he said it.
Asteroids- against asteroids we are going to build space-based weapons.
And the funniest one of all was what he called aliens, extraterrestrials. That would be the final scare. And over and over and over during the four years that I knew him and was giving speeches for him, he would bring up that last card. "And remember Carol, the last card is the alien card. We are going to have to build space-based weapons against aliens and all of it is a lie."
I think I was too naïve at that time to know the seriousness of the nature of the spin that was being put on the system. And now, the pieces are starting to fall into place. We are building a space-based weapons system on a premise that is a lie, a spin. Wernher Von Braun was trying to hint that to me back in the early 70's and right up until the moment when he died in 1977.
What he told me was that there is an accelerated effort in place. He didn't mention a timeline but he said that it was going to be speeding up faster than anybody could possibly imagine. That the effort to put weapons into space was not only based on a lie but would accelerate past the point of people even understanding it until it was already up there and too late.
When Von Braun was dying in front of me, the very first day that I met him, he had tubes draining out of his side. He was tapping on the desk telling me, "You will come to Fairchild." I was a schoolteacher. He said, "You will come to Fairchild and you will be responsible for keeping weapons out of space." The way he said it with this intenseness in his eyes, and added that very first day, the first time I met him, that space-based weapons were a dangerous, destabilizing, too costly, unnecessary, untestable, unworkable idea.
The last card that was being held was the extraterrestrial enemy card.
The intensity with which he said that, made me realize that he knew something that he was too afraid to mention. He was too afraid to talk about it. He would not tell me the details.
I am not sure that I would have absorbed them if he had told me the details or even believed him in 1974. But there was no question that that man knew and had a need to know, I found out later.
There is no doubt in my mind that Wernher Von Braun knew about the extraterrestrial issue. He explained to me the reasons why weapons were going to be put into space, the enemies against whom we were going to build these weapons, and that all of that was a lie. He mentioned that extraterrestrials were going to be identified as the final enemy against whom we were going to build space-based weapons back in 1974.
The way he said it to me, there was no doubt in my mind that he knew something that he was too afraid to talk about.
Wernher Von Braun never spoke to me about any of the details that he knew related to extraterrestrials except that one day extraterrestrials were going to be identified as an enemy against whom we are going to build an enormous space-based weapons system. Wernher Von Braun actually told me that the spin was a lie-that the premise for space-based weaponry, the reasons that were going to be given, the enemies that we were going to identify-were all based on a lie.
I have been tracking the space-based weapons issue for about 26 years.
I have debated Generals and Congressional Representatives. I have testified before the Congress and the Senate. I have met with people in over 100 countries. But I have not been able to identify who the people are who are making this space-based weapons system happen. I see the news. I see the administrative decisions being made. I know that they are all based on lies and greed.
But I have yet to be able to identify who the people are. That is after tracking this issue for 26 years. I know that there are big secrets being kept and I know that it is time the public and decision-makers pay attention to the people who are now going to be disclosing the truth. Then we need to make some definite changes and build a system in space that will benefit every single person, and all of the animals, and the environment of this planet. The technology is there. The solutions to Earth's urgent and long-term potential problems are there. I have a feeling that once we start studying this extraterrestrial issue, all of the questions are going to be answered that I have had for 26 years.
But I have concluded that it is based on a few people making a lot of money and gaining power. It is about ego. It is not about our essence and who we really are on this planet and loving each other and being at peace and cooperating. It isn't about using technology to solve problems and heal people in the planet. It isn't about that. It is about a few people who really are playing an old, dangerous, costly game for their own pocketbooks and power struggle. That is all it is.
I believe that this entire space-based weapons game is initiated right here in the United States of America. What I hope is that with this information that is being disclosed, the new administration will to do what is right. That is to transform the war game into a space game so that we use the technologies that are available not just as spin-offs of war technology, but as direct technological applications to build a cooperative space system that will benefit the entire world and that will allow us to communicate with the extraterrestrial cultures that are obviously out there.
Who would benefit from these space-based weapons? They are the people who work in that arena, people in the military, in industries, in universities and labs, in the intelligence community. This is not just in the United States but it is worldwide. This is a worldwide cooperative system. Wars are cooperative. Just as peace will be when it breaks out. But right now there are a lot of people benefiting.
This is what our economy has been based on in this country and spreading around the world-war. People suffer as a result. It is not fair. It never has been. People have screamed: "out of swords let us build plow shares, let's have peace and hold hands around the world," but it hasn't worked because too many people are benefiting. Not only are they benefiting financially, but from what my experience is there are people who actually believe that Armageddon should happen so we have to have these wars.
So, it is going from the pocketbook, to the religious right: some people actually believe that we have to have wars for these religious reasons. There are people who just love war. I have met warriors who just love to go to war. Then there are the good people, the soldiers, who just take orders. They have to feed their children and send them to college so they want to keep their jobs.
People in laboratories have told me that they don't want to work on these technologies for war but if they don't they won't get a paycheck. Who is going to pay them? But what I see is that there are not only dual uses for these technologies but there are many uses for the same technologies.
We can build space hospitals, schools, hotels, laboratories, farms, industries. It may sound far out but if we don't do that we are going to build battle stations and weapons pointed down all of our throats and into space. Apparently we have been doing some of that already.
We have a choice now that can be made. We can all benefit-all of the people in the military industrial complex, in the intelligence community, in universities and labs, in the United States and all over the world-we can all benefit. We can just transform that industry so easily with just a decision based on our highest consciousness, our spirituality, and on the fact that we have no choice unless we all want to die. And we don't. So we can all benefit financially, spiritually, socially, psychologically; it is technologically and politically feasible to transform this game now and everybody will benefit.
In 1977, I was at a meeting in Fairchild Industries in a conference room called the War Room. In that room were a lot of charts on the walls with enemies, identified enemies. There were other more obscure names, names like Saddam Hussein and Khadafi. But we were talking then about terrorists, the potential terrorists. No one had ever talked about this before but this was the next stage after the Russians against whom we were going to build these space-based weapons. I stood up in this meeting and I said, "Excuse me, why are we talking about these potential enemies against whom we are going to build space-based weapons if, in fact, we know that they are not the enemy at this time?"
Well, they continued the conversation about how they were going to antagonize these enemies and that at some point, there was going to be a war in the Gulf, a Gulf War. Now this is 1977, 1977! And they were talking about creating a war in the Gulf Region when there was 25 billion dollars in the space-based weapons program that had yet to be identified. It wasn't called the Strategic Defense Initiative, at least. Not until 1983. This weapons system, then, had obviously been going on for some time and I didn't know anything about. So I stood up in this meeting in 1977 and said, "I would like to know why we are talking about space-based weapons against these enemies. I would like to know more about this. Would someone please tell me what this is about?" Nobody answered. They just went on with this meeting as though I hadn't said anything.
Suddenly, I stood up in the room and said, "If nobody can tell me why you are planning a war in the Gulf when there is a certain amount of money in a budget so that you can create the next set of weapons systems that will be the beginning of the sell to the public about why we need space-based weapons, then consider this: my resignation. And you will not hear from me again!"
And nobody said a word, because they were planning a war in the Gulf and it happened exactly as they planned it, on time.
SG: Who was at this meeting?
CR: The room was filled with people in the revolving door game. There were people that I had seen once in a military uniform and other times in a gray suit and an industry outfit. These people play a revolving door game. They work as consultants, industry people, and/or military and intelligence people. They work in the industries and they revolve themselves through these doors and right into government positions.
I stood up in this meeting and asked if I was hearing correctly. That when there was 25 billion dollars expended in the space-based weapons budget, that there was going to be a war in the Gulf, stimulated, created, so that they could then sell the next phase of weapons to the public and the decision-makers. This war was going to be created so that they could dump the old weapons and create a whole new set of weapons. So I had to resign from that position. I could no longer work in that industry.
In about 1990 I was sitting in my living room looking at the money that had been spent on space-based weapons research and development programs and I realized that it had come to that number, about 25 billion dollars, and I said to my husband, "I am now going to stop everything. I am now going to stop and sit and watch CNN television and I am going to wait for the war to happen." My husband said, "Well, you have finally gone over the edge. You have flipped out."
Friends said, "You have really gone too far this time. There is not going to be a war in the Gulf, nobody is talking about a war in the Gulf."
I said, "There is going to be a war in the Gulf. I am going to sit here and wait for the war in the Gulf." And it happened right on schedule.
As part of the war game in the Gulf, we in the public were told that the United States was successful in shooting down Russian Scud Missiles. We were rationalizing new budgets based on that success. In fact, we found out later, after the budgets were approved for the next phase of weapons, that it was a lie. We did not have successful shoot-downs the way we were told. It was all a lie, just to get more money put in the budget to make more weapons.
I was one of the first people to go independently to Russia when I heard that they had "killer satellites."
[See the testimony of Dr Paul Czysz. SG]
When I went to Russia in the early 70's, I found out that they didn't have killer satellites, that it was a lie. In fact, the Russian leaders and people wanted peace. They wanted to cooperate with the United States and with the people of the world.
Another time I called Saddam Hussein when he was lighting his oil fields on fire. My husband was in the kitchen while I was making this phone call. I got a call back from his First Attaché with Saddam Hussein nearby and he asked, "Are you a reporter? Are you an agent?
Why do you want to know?"
I said, "No. I am just a citizen who helped to start the movement to prevent the weaponization of outer space and I have found that a lot of stories that I have been told about weapons systems and the enemies are not true. I wanted to find out what would satisfy Saddam Hussein so he would stop making these oil fields catch fire and stop antagonizing people." He said, "Well, nobody has ever asked him that question, what he wants."
So, when I hear that there is a possible threat of extraterrestrials-and I look at the history of thousands of years of possible ET visitations, and hear the disclosures of honest military-intelligence- industry people who have had experiences with UFO's, with crashes and landings, with live and dead bodies of extraterrestrial beings-I know it is a lie. And if I am ever told that these are enemies against whom we have to build space-based weapons systems, based on my own personal experience of having worked in the military industrial complex on weapons systems and military strategy, I am going to know it is a lie.
It is a lie.
Not only will I not believe it, but I am going to go out as loudly as I can and tell everyone to take a look. They [the ET's] have not taken us away yet. We are still here after thousands of years of visits. If in fact they are still visiting us now and we have not been harmed then we have to look at this as something that is not a hostile occurrence.
It would be my hope and my intention to do everything I could to work with people who are working to communicate with and cooperate with these extraterrestrial beings. They are clearly not hostile. We are here. That is enough proof for me.
There is no limit to how people can choose to live on this planet. We have a chance to do that and I think that the window is closing rapidly. I don't think that we have much time in which to make that decision. We are too close in too many ways to having some horrible disaster happen, having some sort of war take place, whether it is from high technology or an exotic weapons system.
We need leadership and it has to start with the United States President and that is who we all have to reach. If you are international, if you are around the world, if you are in the United States of America, whether you are from any party, any belief system or religion- the United States Commander in Chief, the President of the United States is the person that needs to be reached.
We need to say that we want an ultimate, comprehensive, verifiable ban on all space-based weapons.
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Duncan M. Roads, Editor, NEXUS Magazine
PO Box 30, Mapleton Qld 4560 Australia.
Tel: 07 5442 9280; Fax: 07 5442 9381
http://www.nexusmagazine.com
"The nature of the universe is such that ends can never justify the means. On the contrary, the means always determine the end."
(Aldous Huxley)