# War of The Worlds (Thread contains SPOILERS!) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 27, 2005, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-of-the-worlds-thread-contains-spoilers/309990 "2005-06-27T03:39:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2005, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-of-the-worlds-thread-contains-spoilers/309990/121 "2005-07-03T02:23:23Z")
> [@flamingbananas](#): > > This move was amazing. I thought Cruise acted really well and Fanning acted exactly how I prolly would have in that situation. The tripods were badass and just… wow. I’m hoping to see this again later today. Yes…I too would have screamed just like Dakota Fanning. > [@ouryL](#): > > I thought the first half sucked. People were calm when they should have been running their asses off and people were hysterical to the point you wanna shoot them. Well you pretty much got your wish for the second part. I thought the first half of the movie was crazy! Freakin 1920’s style Death Rays blasting people into ashes! The movie is relatively bloodless but there are a whole lot of holy freakin shit!! moments: -That first monsterous tripod going apeshit on Bayonne, NJ. (that’s the [Bayonne Bridge](http://www.roberts-1.com/bikehudson/v/r/verr_gwb/photos/jun-02/bb/arch_outside_400.jpg), not the [Pulasky Skyway](http://www.explorer.road.jp/us/nj/expressways/pl_skyway02.jpg). (The viaduct leading up to the main span of the PS is an all steel truss structure while the BB has I-beams supported by concrete columns.) -The bodies all washing by in the river -The crowd tearing apart their stolen minivan outside the diner -The flaming train -The flaming humvees rolling off the hill -The ferry landing And one thing I loved - one of the first movies AFAIK where the hero basically was like “ok asshole, since you refuse to listen to reason and are behaving in an erradic way that will get us all killed, I’m taking you down”. Unfortuneately, I never did care for the deux ex machina ending of any version of WotW. Gangster Octopus - You did see that movie. It was called Independence Day. ---
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2005, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-of-the-worlds-thread-contains-spoilers/309990/122 "2005-07-03T02:36:24Z")
> [@](#): > > Spoiler: > One thing I don’t get about these alien movies is that while the beings look really scary and evil I don’t see how their bodies reflect any kind of evolutionary advantage over ours. I guess that’s one of those Hollywood annoyances. You don’t need any evolutionary advantage to successfully invade and conquer – just better technology. If Wells’ novel is really a satirical reflection on British colonialism, remember that white Europeans were in no way physically nor mentally superior to the darker people they stole countries from. Given that the current U.S. administration is acting as if we were an imperial power, maybe that kind of satire is relevant again. ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2005, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-of-the-worlds-thread-contains-spoilers/309990/123 "2005-07-03T03:04:29Z")
> [@Tripler](#): > > Dude, don’t be a Communist. For the love of Og. . . They don’t call it The Red Planet for nothin’, ya know. ---
**Author:** ![Battle\_Pope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@Battle\_Pope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Battle_Pope)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2005, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-of-the-worlds-thread-contains-spoilers/309990/124 "2005-07-03T03:31:07Z")
Saw it this afternoon & loved it. I pretty much agree with the other high points raised here. One nice touch was how the aliens seemed clever (more than just technologically advanced): The long shots of the Tripods _hearding_ people around. Related to this, the whole ambush of the ferry. The way the Tripods just waited, causing the mob to panic and rush the ferry, allowing the machine in the river to flip it & catching the people as they flounder in the water. Much more efficient than chasing people through ruins. As for the ending: They should have left the son’s fate unknown - assumed dead - rather than the typical feel-good bit. Having said that, I was half-expecting to see Cruise & his wife join up at the end and have the ‘family brought back together through hardship’ cliche. Anyone else love to see a novel set 6 months after an event like this and its effect on the world? ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2005, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-of-the-worlds-thread-contains-spoilers/309990/125 "2005-07-03T03:51:05Z")
> [@BlackKnight](#): > > Both children were annoying. What was the point of the conversation about the splinter in Dakota’s finger? I thought it was to show her as being tough for her age - except she spent the rest of the movie whining and screaming. Don’t you get it? Think about it. What did she say about her hand and the splinter. That when her body was ready it would push it out. That’s what the Earth did to the aliens. The thing about her hand is just a really short version of the film. It’s called foreshadowing. If you’d like to learn more about foreshowding, you can read about it in your local library. ---
**Author:** ![FatBaldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecd19e/32.png) [@FatBaldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FatBaldGuy)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2005, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-of-the-worlds-thread-contains-spoilers/309990/126 "2005-07-03T04:03:28Z")
I just saw it this afternoon and I hated it. Yes, the special effects were good, and Cruise did a credible job with the script he had to work with, but overall the plot was really lame. I have to admit I haven’t read the book, or seen any of the earlier versions, and I probably won’t after seeing this thing. Generally, the movie reminded me a lot of _Independence Day_, but instead of the best and the brightest trying to figure out how to take out these invaders we have the Army with a few tanks & guns and everybody else panics. And don’t even get me started about the lame cop-out ending. You’d think that an advanced civilization that has spent thousands or millions of years plotting how to take over a planet would analyze **all** of the indigenous life forms, and not just the humans. I have to agree with some of the other posters that there must be two versions of this movie, because obviously most of you did not see the same one I did. ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2005, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-of-the-worlds-thread-contains-spoilers/309990/127 "2005-07-03T05:09:36Z")
> [@FatBaldGuy](#): > > And don’t even get me started about the lame cop-out ending. You’d think that an advanced civilization that has spent thousands or millions of years plotting how to take over a planet would analyze **all** of the indigenous life forms, and not just the humans. Blame HG Wells. :rolleyes: Saw it again, with my wife this time, this evening. Still liked it a lot. ---
**Author:** ![BlackKnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/eb8c5e/32.png) [@BlackKnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlackKnight)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2005, 7:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-of-the-worlds-thread-contains-spoilers/309990/128 "2005-07-03T07:15:13Z")
> [@Zebra](#): > > That when her body was ready it would push it out. That’s what the Earth did to the aliens. An alien invasion is much more like a viral infection (fittingly) than it is like a splinter. If they’d wanted foreshadowing, why not have a character suffering from a cold or flu, but then get over it at some point in the film? This would tie in much, much better with the ending of the movie than does a splinter. A splinter isn’t killed or destroyed; it’s pushed out. The aliens are not pushed out; they are destroyed. By a virus or bacteria that humans can survive because they’ve evolved to deal with it. I’ll see if I can find any books at the local library about poorly thought out foreshadowing in films. ---
**Author:** ![chique](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@chique](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chique)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2005, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-of-the-worlds-thread-contains-spoilers/309990/129 "2005-07-03T12:48:05Z")
> [@Larry Mudd](#): > > …and bought a ticket to _Bewitched_ to get in the door… Ooooh, that’s evil. I like that. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2005, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-of-the-worlds-thread-contains-spoilers/309990/130 "2005-07-03T13:05:23Z")
> [@](#): > > I have to agree with some of the other posters that there must be two versions of this movie, because obviously most of you did not see the same one I did. Well, I guess I’m going to have to see it again. I’ll wait for DVD though. The only two movies I have ever fallen asleep in where this and Godzilla. I just dozed off a couple of times. My Wife, who loves action movies, end of the world type movies, was not impressed with the movie either. She thought it was OK. I really, really wanted to love this movie. Guess I had my hopes up too high, and was a bit tired. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2005, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-of-the-worlds-thread-contains-spoilers/309990/131 "2005-07-03T13:45:16Z")
> [@FatBaldGuy](#): > > Generally, the movie reminded me a lot of _Independence Day_, but instead of the best and the brightest trying to figure out how to take out these invaders we have the Army with a few tanks & guns and everybody else panics. Independence Day is essentially a remake of War of the Worlds. I’ve never read the book, but it follows the exact same structure as the 1950s movie. The only difference is that it’s a computer virus that takes them out. Speilberg specifically said he was telling the story form the point of view of one guy and his family, not a bunch of ivory tower eggheads directing the action from some war room under a mountain. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2005, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-of-the-worlds-thread-contains-spoilers/309990/132 "2005-07-03T14:45:40Z")
> [@FatBaldGuy](#): > > And don’t even get me started about the lame cop-out ending. You’d think that an advanced civilization that has spent thousands or millions of years plotting how to take over a planet would analyze **all** of the indigenous life forms, and not just the humans. When we first went to the moon, NASA was pretty worried about germs. They took precautions but you know what? There is no way they were 100% sure about those precautions. The aliens may have taken their own precautions but they weren’t enough. (plus, that’s how it works in War of the Worlds) ---
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2005, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-of-the-worlds-thread-contains-spoilers/309990/133 "2005-07-03T15:18:09Z")
The movie stays pretty true to the book in spirit, and remember WOTW was written in 1898. The final denouement seems abrupt and obvious to us, but at time of writing, pathology was a very new science. The Martians in the story were dumbkopfs about disease because we were too at that time. Wells wrote that the Martians had eliminated germs and disease millenia ago (ha, ha), and neglected to take into account that Earth might have microbes that could affect them. The 1898 writing date also is a defense againt accusations that this is a thin plot. It’s one of the very first science fiction stories ever written - of course it seems simple to us. IMO, the simplicity is a good thing. It’s not about wars and presidents and computer geeks and international politics and 'droids and dancing bar critters. It’s about pure and simple destruction and survival and the unintelligible actions of aliens. I loved it. My favorite bit - the huge bass note that the tripods played to signal each other. Not quite like the howling or hooting in the book, but extremely impressive. BTW, I must have missed in the movie where the tripods were shown to have shields. I thought the presence of the crows flying around the hoods indicated that there were dead aliens inside attracting scavengers, as in the book. ---
**Author:** ![athelas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5e9695/32.png) [@athelas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/athelas)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2005, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-of-the-worlds-thread-contains-spoilers/309990/134 "2005-07-03T17:06:01Z")
By the way, I don’t think that the son was just trying to see some 'sploshuns. From what I saw, he was more of a misguided (idiotic) idealist, trying to help in whatever way possible. Notice when he climbed up to where people were hanging off the side the ferry, hauling them in? 'Course, he was bound to be - should have been - killed, but I can almost sympathize. ---
**Author:** ![HubZilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ccd318/32.png) [@HubZilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HubZilla)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2005, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-of-the-worlds-thread-contains-spoilers/309990/135 "2005-07-03T18:35:02Z")
I read [Ebert’s review](http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050628/REVIEWS/50606007) > [@Roger Ebert](#): > > Three legs are inherently not stable, as Ray demonstrates when he damages one leg of a giant tripod, and it falls helplessly to the ground. I didn’t see this scene in the movie. Was it cut from the version Ebert saw? ---
**Author:** ![Archergal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c89c15/32.png) [@Archergal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Archergal)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2005, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-of-the-worlds-thread-contains-spoilers/309990/136 "2005-07-03T18:36:07Z")
> [@teela brown](#): > > BTW, I must have missed in the movie where the tripods were shown to have shields. I thought the presence of the crows flying around the hoods indicated that there were dead aliens inside attracting scavengers, as in the book. There were a couple of scenes in the movie where you could see the shells and stuff thrown at them exploding x meters away from the tripods themselves. It was very close in effect to the way they showed the Martian shields in the 1953 movie. And I think one of the soldiers they met mentioned shields. Having said that, I think the presence of crows=dead/dying Martians makes lots more sense. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2005, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-of-the-worlds-thread-contains-spoilers/309990/137 "2005-07-03T19:00:55Z")
> [@Cuckoorex](#): > > I absolutely fucking _love_ this movie. Pure summer blockbuster of the highest caliber. > > One question that has bothered me since seeing the film, however, and maybe some of you Dopers can answer it for me: > > After the EMP hits, everything that runs on electricity is fried, right? So how the hell does that one guy have a working camcorder as the tripod is emerging from the ground? Perhaps he was just outside the effected area when the pulse went off? The bigger question is how did those journalists video tape the _lightening strikes_ and not have the EMP fry the camera since it had to be close to it. ---
**Author:** ![ouryL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ouryl/32/6067_2.png) [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2005, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-of-the-worlds-thread-contains-spoilers/309990/138 "2005-07-03T20:14:48Z")
> [@BlackKnight](#): > > I thought it was mostly crap. I’m surprised that it’s getting so many glowing reviews here. The special effects are decent (although not spectacular in this day and age), but the rest leaves much to be desired. > > First off, I don’t buy Tom Cruise as a blue collar worker. The movie would have been markedly better with a no-name Joe Shmoe as the lead. Especially if he was slightly overweight and didn’t look like a movie star. (I understand why they cast Cruise, of course.) > > Both children were annoying. What was the point of the conversation about the splinter in Dakota’s finger? I thought it was to show her as being tough for her age - except she spent the rest of the movie whining and screaming. And the son steals his dad’s car? I would have called the cops right away on the little bastard. Why the hell does he even _want_ these wretched spawn at his house? > > At least Dakota’s character wasn’t actively trying to get killed, like the son. What the hell was his problem? After he stole my car and gave me that kind of attitude, I would have let him run away with the army. Note to Hollywood: Not all teenage males are sullen, angsty pricks who act irrationally all the time and think they’re invincible. Really. > > Come to think of it, Tom could have saved countless lives just by rolling down his window as he drove past the damaged cars and yelling, “Check the solenoids!” (At least, I believe that’s the name of the part he told the mechanic to check. I don’t know car parts.) While it doesn’t take long for this knowledge to become obsolete, there were plenty of times in the beginning of the film for it to have been useful to _somebody_. > > Unsympathetic characters aside, there were too many implausable moments for me to take the film very seriously. For example, a plane crashes into your house, but your minivan not only survives completely intact, but doesn’t get a single flat tire driving over piles of broken glass and metal? (In my mind during the movie: “But it got a five-star safety rating!”) > > The heat rays looked cartoony and seemed remarkably inefficient. They only lasted for a second or two at a time, then stopped, then fired again. Why not a sustained barrage? Why not use poison gas? For that matter, why not just drop some bombs (or even very large rocks) from orbit onto all major cities? How the hell did these giant machines get buried underground and avoid detection for possibly thousands of years? Why are people standing around watching it come out of the ground instead of running? I fet no sympathy as the first wave were cut down. In my book, if there’s a gaping, growing hole in the middle of the street, you should go somewhere else immediately. > > The tripods, while realistic, didn’t impress me much. They just looked uninspired, artistically. Of course, we didn’t get many good close up shots of them, and when we did all we really saw were giant headlights. They were neither dark and graceful, nor lumbering and menacing. (Not to mention that when we first see a shield glow as it stops missiles, it clearly is not protecting the legs of the tripod. Later, a tripod appears to have its legs shielded, but that first time I couldn’t help but think, “Use your harpoons and tow-cables; go for the legs!”) > > Speaking of the shields, why do the shields go down? Sure, the controllers of the tripods get sick, but why would that make them lower their shields (or wonder in circles aimlessly)? Is there a thirty minute cool-down before they can use them again or something? Did they leave them on overnight and now the battery’s dead? > > Also, why doesn’t the snake-like sensor arm have a heat sensor? Or at least a microphone that doesn’t suck? It should have easily been able to detect the presense of Cruise, Dakota, and crazy shotgun guy. Heck, if it had even been able to _look down_ it would have found them easily behind the mirror. > > Alright, now that I’ve had my little rant, I’ll say what I liked about the movie. > I liked the train. It was an unexpected bit of creepiness. > I also liked how they lost the minivan. Very tense. > I also like how somebody else paid for my ticket. The movie suffers because we all saw ID4, which is the movie that made SS not make this movie years ago. But I have to admit liked the Tim Robbins bit. ---
**Author:** ![ouryL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ouryl/32/6067_2.png) [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2005, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-of-the-worlds-thread-contains-spoilers/309990/139 "2005-07-03T20:22:36Z")
> [@ouryL](#): > > The movie suffers because we all saw ID4, which is the movie that made SS not make this movie years ago. But I have to admit liked the Tim Robbins bit. Of course, I wish it had been Tim R. who had killed Tom C. instead, because he was the one being hysterical. ---
**Author:** ![nivlac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/3bc359/32.png) [@nivlac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nivlac)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2005, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-of-the-worlds-thread-contains-spoilers/309990/140 "2005-07-03T20:37:29Z")
> [@ouryL](#): > > I thought the first half sucked. People were calm when they should have been running their asses off and people were hysterical to the point you wanna shoot them. I agree. How does it make sense that people are just standing around when a monstrosity comes out of the ground? I actually thought they deserved to be stomped or zapped. Ditto for the Tom Cruise character. Obviously a not-too-bright guy who only starts running when all hell breaks loose. And that daughter of his … she screamed so much that I almost wished that one of those aliens just takes her away for good! So you can see that I didn’t think all that highly of the movie. The special effects were good, but the characterizations of the characters strained credibility. And then to top it off, Robbie somehow survived the explosive mayhem in which he was smack dab in the middle of. For what purpose? Obviously to give the movie a happy family ending. The best part of the movie was the opening and closing narration by Morgan Freeman, who’s truly a class act in any movie he’s in. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-of-the-worlds-thread-contains-spoilers/309990.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-of-the-worlds-thread-contains-spoilers/309990.md?page=8)