preguntas frecuentes for
War of the Worlds (2005) More at IMDb Pro »

No. The aliens were killed by bacteria and microbes. The birds were a plot device to show the humans that the shields were down.

Tiny earth borne microorganism did them in. At the end, Morgan Freeman (narrator) tells us that humans have suffered billions of lives to earn the right to live with these tiny creatures. He is of course referring to evolution. We are not meant to know or understand the alien technology or history. For all we know, these aliens have never had microbes on their home, or have long ago destroyed them and in doing so, forgotten them and left themselves open when they landed on earth. But more likely is that the aliens simply weren't adapted to the specific microbes that live on Earth, because they never evolved to live with them, as we humans did during millions of years. The invaders were so focussed on technology that the thought of lethal microorganisms never occurred to them.

Because this was a movie about Ray and his struggle to survive and grow as a character. It was a first person narrative. ID4 is an example of a movie you are looking for, or the 1953 version of War of the Worlds, which show the aftermath of the Martian attacks.

Simple, they were here to reap humans. We are food. So, why reap a crop that hasn't reached its potential? They waited for human population growth to be at max, while our defenses were at the point where we still couldn't put up a resistance.

-or-

They would have probably "seeded" several, or even many, planets with the tripods many years ago. (Ogilvy's estimate of "a million years" has no real support as the tripods could have been planted here as few as 10 thousand years ago, besides he's the only one who says that and he's wacko) and waited until they needed a planet.

--or--

The tripods have been put into place by an un"manned" fleet that is sent out into the universe and automatically searching for useful planets (that's probably a pretty boring job for the actual aliens). It just took the aliens that long to come after.

4b) Then why vaporize us like they started?

To herd us. A perfect example is the ferry scene. Lots of people in a small area. And a few thousand vaporized compared to the billions...not a big loss.

It is assumed that Ogilvy was dead. The primary reason being that Ray would not have felt safe going to sleep with his daughter on the couch if Tim Robbins' character was simply knocked out.

Well he takes an axe into the room so what else would Ray do with an axe that silences another man. He is dead because Ray couldn't take the risk of being found with his daughter there because Ogilvy was making too much noise.

Don't know. Again it was a 1st person point of view. We don't know any more then what Ray sees, and we don't see Robbie after he runs over the ridge. Maybe he hid, maybe he made it to Boston with the military unit that Ray encountered there. Besides, lots of people are seen running down the hill after the explosion. He survived the same way they survived.

It is likely homage to the original book. The narrator learns that the town his wife was in was completely destroyed, but finds her alive at their house.

Maybe Robbie joined the army, maybe not fought with them, but they took him with them when they retreated. He also could have been taken with the other survivors. I guess we will never know but that's my opinion.

Good question. One theory is that they came down with the lightning as the pods did. Another theory is some kind of Alien Cloak device. -or-

The tripods could have been buried quite deep, there are very few places on earth where we have an intimate knowledge of what lies beneath even half a mile under the surface. The tripod 'heads' were also relatively small, the were probably buried in some kind of capsule that had buried itself with the legs curled inside.

As they would have been buried deep underground, humans didn't expect anything to be so deep so didn't look and therefore didn't find.

Terraforming is one possible conclusion. Another is that it was brought accidentally by the aliens (from the book). Another is that they were using human blood to 'miracle gro' this plant. We see blood misting out of the tripods in one scene. Could this be the aliens landscaping and watering the plants?

Probably because they were not switched on at the time. In the case of military vehicles, EMP does not effect diesel engines and it is likely that they were braced against EMP anyway.

That's an easy one. All military electronics are designed to withstand an electromagnetic pulse. Besides, they generally use diesel engines, which wouldn't be affected by an EMP anyway.

Easy, you don't know. And unless it's a special feature on some future DVD, won't ever know. Speculate and theorize all you'd like, but if Ray didn't know, neither will you.

Maybe it was human blood that's been altered to better suit their taste (like sugar in lemonade) or maybe it sustains their life (like a baby in a womb).

Theorizes that it could be a refueling mechanism for the tripod itself or food for the tripod (see 19). My only problem with this is that the alien crawled out of the same hatch that the goo leaked out off. Internal rupture? Who Could say?

And/or our blood was being synthesized and utilized by the pilots of the tripods. The orange spray was basically its exhaust. Venting the liquid after it was used.

Surprisingly, the concept is quite sound; assuming the shields were some form of electromagnetic shell, they would implement a premature detonation of any weapon entering its range but allow anything else to pass through; the spikes on the tipod legs and head are indeed suggestive Electric Reactive Armour, an experimental countermeasure against anti-tank weapons. If the tripods were able to generate a large enough charge, an aura of plasma, simlar to the one seen in the film would result.

Another explanation is that they turned off the shields temporarily when they picked up humans, otherwise it would negate the bird-scene at the end, which indicated that the shields were offline.

They may have been killed by aliens.

Another explanation is one you could only come to if you have read the book. Along with heat rays, the aliens also used a kind of black smoke that caused people to suffocate. You could assume that these people were victims of this. However once again, you are left to your imagination, much the same as Ray is.

If you think about it, the aliens were dying. They essentially had the flu. Think about driving a car. Now picture it with a temperature of 105.

The only way to explain the shields being down is that the operator has already died or passed out, or doesn't have the strength to turn them on.

--or--

Another interesting theory is that the tripods were bio-mechanical. The appendages looked like they may have been organic, and the umm...anus...looking thing that was pulling in Ray looked very organic. So maybe the tripods also got sick.

Interesting view, but again, it's all speculation.

That is very similar to how the demise of the aliens in ID4 came about. Once the virus was uploaded to the "main server" as it were, the rest succumbed to it as well.

We know that microorganisms caused the ultimate demise of the aliens here. So much like any disease or sickness, it spread through the ranks decimating all those who were susceptible to it.

Again, we have to speculate.

Maybe there was an army camp over the hill, and the tripods came at them much like they did at the ferries.

When people are in a panic, they tend to look to authority for help. In this case, it's the army. You would think you would be safe with the army right?

Then, when the tripods appear, and the army is helpless, people see that, and run again.

Probably because people have a high moisture content and cloth a low one. Again, this is an alien technology, earthly rules don't apply.

Essentially, the "rays" were designed to disrupt molecular and biological integrity.

Such rays aren't actually that far from reality. A chemical weapon massively used in Falluja (Iraq), white phosphorus (aka "Willie Pete"), burns the bodies and leaves the cloths intact. An extremely graphic documentary (Falluja, the Hidden Massacre by Italian journalist Sigfrido Ranucci) shows pictures of the effects of white phosphorus on human bodies. Please note that the documentary was aired on Italian television in Nov. 2005, and couldn't have influenced Spielberg.

The distressing down to the military costumes was called Fallujah.

The person posting above me really doesn't know much about this. White Phosphorous isn't a chemical weapon. It is the chemical component in illumination Flares. There was some controversy surrounding deaths relating to their use, although it was said to be accidental and on a small scale. Also, it has the same effect on clothing (note how to spell "Clothes"), as it causes a burning effect which will not extinguish under water, and therefore burns clothes too.

It is an adaptation of a novel written in 1898. That novel heavily influenced all alien-invasion stories since. That movie, book, or video game which seems similar to this was influenced by the book. HG Wells did not see whatever you are thinking of, get in his time machine and go back and write the book. For instance, no, the scene where the alien tentacle is looking through the basement wasn't a rip-off of "Jurrasic Park." Science fiction existed long before that. For instance, in a little novel called "The War of the Worlds" the main character is hiding in a basement and a Martian tentacle is probing while he tries to keep out of its way.

The novel was in fact influenced by the Invasion fiction of the late 19 century most notably the novel The Battle of Dorking.

Dakota Fanning screams a lot because she is portraying a ten year old girl.

The people in this movie haven't seen anything like this and will obviously be extremely scared and the only thing they can do is run and scream. It's natural to scream when you're scared. Since they were being invaded by aliens I would think that they would be scared.

Do you expect people to be calm during an alien attack?

23) The airplane doesn't wreck the van Ray is using because it missed it. Pure dumb luck, fate, whatever you'd like to call it.

They were watching us with telescopes, not microscopes...

According to David Koepp, his intention was that the tripods were sent down in capsules as a contingency, ahead of a potential invasion force, although this is not made clear in the film itself.

An important theme in the novel (and partly the movie as well) is the seperation between evolution and technology. The aliens are so arrogant and over-dependant on their technological superiority, that they never consider their evolutionary inferiority, i.e. they are well prepared for full frontal attacks, but defenseless against the tiniest form of attack possible. The danger of becoming over-dependant on technology is a recurring theme in science-fiction, e.g. in 2001: A Space Odyssey, the Terminator and The Matrix series.

There is a basement sequence in the movie because much of the novel took place in basements. The main character in the book spends time first with a sniveling, drunken cleric who makes a lot of noise and endangers them. Later he spends time in a basement with an artilleryman who is something of a survivalist. These characters are combined into the character Tim Robbins plays.

Besides, in a disaster/action movie, a relax in pace is often used for explanation, speculation and plot/character development, things that are hard to establish during action sequences. Also, it is necessary to prevent the story from becoming a blurred succession of events steadily increasing in intensity, by which the audience gets emotionally exhausted.

Even if the aliens found out about bacteria way back when they buried the machines in the first place, bacteria are evolving all the time. The bacteria they may have (or have not) known about way back then could be very different from the bacteria present today. Even if they had vaccines against known bacteria, there would be new strains against which they would not be protected

According to studio estimates compiled by Exhibitor Relations:

The top-ten grossing films for the year: 1. Star Wars, Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, $380.3 million 2. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, $276.9 million 3. War of the Worlds, $234.3 million 4. The Chronicles of Narnia, $224.8 million 5. Wedding Crashers, $209.2 million 6. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, $206.5 million 7. Batman Begins, $205.3 million 8. Madagascar, $193.2 million 9. Mr. & Mrs. Smith, $186.3 million 10. Hitch, $177.7 million.

Also it was very popular with the audience. You can get a good movie which doesn't gross so well but has a positive reaction from the audience. This movie had a high gross as shown above and was also popular with the people who actually saw it. You can get a high grossing movie which was supposed to be good but the audience hated it. This is not the case with WOTW as it was high grossing AND got positive feedback from audiences.

The book was set in Great Britain. At the time it was written, The UK was the most powerful country in the Western world. The setting was changed to the USA as the USA is now the most powerful country. The theme of the book was that even the most powerful country was helpless against an outside power.

or

This is a US production and therefore the movie will be primarily geared towards the US. Setting the film in the States would make it more relevant to that audience.

No, there was no thunder. You are hearing a sound, but that is the sound of the "lightning" striking the ground. Thunder is different. It occurs as the air is disturbed by electrical discharge.

The reason the Army guy held on to Ray, and encouraged others to do so, when he was being suck up inside the opening (when no one had gone to the other victim's aid) is that he saw Ray had hand grenades, and could do some damage.

An alternative theory is that no one anticipated the first guy being taken. The unfortunate fellow was just pulled into the sphincter before anyone could react. When Ray's foot was grabbed, people now understood what was happening and decided to react. There's no evidence the soldier actually saw the grenades; he saw the pins later, though, and realized what happened.

Expanding on the person above me, they knew what was going to happen to Ray and then all decided that although they don't know each other, the only way they can survive this is if they stick together and take down the aliens as one force rather than several gangs trying to conquer the aliens by themselves. They are sticking together as the more people that stay alive, the more chance they have of surviving. The army man also has a sense of authority over the civilians so the civilians feel they should help the army guy.

Tom Cruise did not play some guy who brilliantly comes up with a solution which wipes the aliens off the face of the earth because the main character in the book was just an ordinary guy caught in extraordinary circumstances. If you want someone to save the world there are lots of other movies out there that do that. The whole point of the novel, and its many adaptations, is that the greatest power in the world is unable to do much, and yet the seemingly invicible enemy is brought down by bacteria.

Also in the extras on the DVD Tom Cruise actually says that Ray isn't supposed to be the hero, he's scared and he's doing something different and running away instead of being the hero and saving everyone. Ray isn't a typical superhero. The point of this movie is to show that ordinary people who aren't heroic get caught in the whole mess of the invasion. It's a different movie in that respect.

The grandparents had on clean fresh clothes because they still had some in the house. It didn't look like it took all that long for the aliens to start getting sick, and dying. It was probably less than a week. You don't go totally primitive in that length of time if your house is even partially intact.

That part of America hadn't been attacked as badly as the other parts so their district may not have been attacked yet therefore they were clean and tidy as they didn't have to run away.

Perhaps the engine room was still intact or at least operational. We don't know how it was set on fire. We assume it was a heat-ray, but anything could have happened. Besides, it takes quite a bit of track for a train to slow down with the brakes on; even with no power, a train with the brakes off can run for a long time.

Even more interesting is the people's reaction to it. After everything they've seen, they just quietly watch the train go by and then continue on their way.

Perhaps he knew he could have handled it without weapons. Looking at the scene at the docks when his car is overrun by the crowd, he seemed to be able to handle himself pretty well there. It was only because he was out-numbered that he was overcome. The only weapon he could have taken that he didn't that I remember would have been the shotgun and shotguns are loud.

Ray had to kill him because he was making too much noise. Wouldn't make much sense to up and blow him away if Ray needed it to be quiet. His daughter could have been hit by a stray bullet or the aliens could have heard the shot and come to investigate. There was an axe. That would make more sense to use.

Yes, Robbie has on different shoes and Rachel is wearing a tunic she never had on before shortly after the family gets out of the river. There could possibly be a deleted scene where they pick up some of the clothes which are raining down from the sky after some victims are taken. Or maybe the director just screwed up.

seriously why is the best scene from the book absent?