War of the Worlds
Movie, 2005, The 2000s, Set in New Jersey
War of the Worlds is #23 of 35 in release order and #23 of 35 in chronological order in the Steven Spielberg.
The story
Ray Ferrier is a divorced dockworker and less-than-perfect father. Soon after his ex-wife and her new husband drop off his teenage son and young daughter for a rare weekend visit, a strange and powerful lightning storm touches down.
War of the Worlds recap
War of the Worlds (2005) follows a divorced dock worker trying to keep his two children alive when alien war machines rise from the ground and attack. Steven Spielberg directs David Koepp and Josh Friedman's update of H. G. Wells's 1898 novel. Ray Ferrier (Tom Cruise), a crane operator, has his teenage son Robbie (Justin Chatwin) and young daughter Rachel (Dakota Fanning) for the weekend when lightning storms strike his neighbourhood. Huge three-legged tripods, buried long ago, climb out of the streets and vaporise people with heat rays. Ray steals the only working car and flees toward Boston, where their mother Mary Ann (Miranda Otto) is staying. A mob seizes the car, a ferry is capsized, and Robbie breaks away to join the army against a hill full of tripods. Ray and Rachel hide in a farmhouse cellar with Harlan Ogilvy (Tim Robbins), whose growing madness threatens to give them away. Morgan Freeman narrates. War of the Worlds follows The Terminal and precedes Munich.
War of the Worlds ending explained
War of the Worlds ends with the invaders killed by Earth's germs. Ray kills Ogilvy to keep him quiet, then loses Rachel to a tripod and is captured too; inside its cage, he pulls grenades from a soldier's belt and blows it up from within. In Boston, Ray notices birds landing on a tripod and tells soldiers its shield is down, and they bring it down. Ray delivers Rachel to her mother and finds Robbie alive. As in Wells's novel, a closing narration explains that bacteria finished what human weapons could not.
Post-credits scenes
No. War of the Worlds has no mid- or post-credits scene.
Where to watch War of the Worlds
War of the Worlds is streaming on Paramount+, Peacock, Kanopy, and HBO Max in the US. You can rent or buy it on Amazon, Apple TV, and Google Play.
Ratings
IMDb 6.6/10, Rotten Tomatoes 76%
Where it fits
- Release order: after The Terminal, before Munich.
- Chronological order: after The Terminal, before Munich.
Cast
- Tom Cruise as Ray
- Dakota Fanning as Rachel
- Miranda Otto as Mary Ann
- Justin Chatwin as Robbie
- Tim Robbins as Harlan Ogilvy
- Rick Gonzalez as Vincent
- Yul Vazquez as Julio
- Lenny Venito as Manny the Mechanic
- Lisa Ann Walter as Bartender
- Ann Robinson as Grandmother
- Gene Barry as Grandfather
- David Alan Basche as Tim
Directed by Steven Spielberg.