War of the Worlds (2005)
Director: Steven Spielberg
Starring: Tom Cruise, Dakota Fanning, Tim Robbins
Unique Angle: Spielberg’s version updates the story to a modern-day setting and centers it on a father’s struggle to protect his children during the Martian invasion. The focus shifts from Wells’ grim survival narrative to a more personal redemption story, adding a new emotional layer to the original themes.
True Adaptation Checklist Evaluation
Martian Invasion Essentials
| Checklist Item | Included? | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Cylinders (Martian Landing Pods) | ⚠️ Sort of | The creators take a very unique angle here. The aliens travel in capsules that are delivered by lightning into the ground, where their long-buried tripods await. |
| Tripods | ✅ Yes | The tripods are huge, sleek, and terrifying. They stay true to the book’s three-legged design while adding a modern, high-tech look. |
| Tentacles | ✅ Yes | The tripods have long tentacle-like arms that they use to grab people, staying true to the machines’ design in the book. The aliens themselves do not have tentacles—they are insect-like with long limbs. So only the machines carry this detail forward. |
| Red Weed | ✅ Yes | The red weed spreads fast and takes over everything. In this version, the aliens fertilize it with human blood, spraying it over the land after they harvest people. This detail isn’t from the book—it’s a creative twist added in the film. |
| Black Smoke | ❌ No | The film leaves this out. There’s no black smoke or chemical weapon like in the book. The focus is on the heat ray instead. |
| Heat Ray | ✅ Yes | The heat ray is the aliens’ main weapon. It vaporizes people in an instant and destroys anything in its path. We see it cut through streets, cars, buildings, and crowds. The effects are spectacular—fast, bright, and terrifying. |
| Snatching and Feeding on Humans | ✅ Yes | The tripods use their tentacles to harvest people and store them in wire cages. The cages are a standout feature—rarely shown in other versions, but beautifully updated here while staying true to the book. Victims are sucked upward from the cages, suggesting direct feeding. |
| Martians Destroyed by Microorganisms | ✅ Yes | The aliens are killed by Earth’s microorganisms, just like in the book. Their tripods break down, and the red weed withers away. Humanity survives, thanks only to nature. |
| Martian Intelligence | ✅ Yes | The aliens show clear planning and intelligence. They buried their tripods underground thousands of years before humans even existed, waiting for the right time to strike. |
Essential Characters
| Checklist Item | Included? | Details |
|---|---|---|
| The Narrator | ✅ Yes | Tom Cruise plays Ray Ferrier — deadbeat dad turned unlikely hero. Ray is the main character we follow through the invasion, giving us a clear point of view as society collapses around him. |
| The Curate | ⚠️ Sort of | Harlan Ogilvy, played by Tim Robbins, takes on the role of a man breaking down under pressure. He shows the same kind of fear and madness as the Curate, though without the religious angle. |
| The Artilleryman | ⚠️ Sort of | Harlan Ogilvy also hints at the Artilleryman’s survival ideas. He talks about hiding underground and fighting back, but his plans are frantic and desperate, not bold or visionary like in the book. |
| The Astronomer (e.g., Ogilvy) | ❌ No | Although Harlan Ogilvy shares a name with the astronomer from the book, he isn’t a scientist or explorer. He’s a paranoid survivor with no connection to the story’s early scientific curiosity. |
| The Brother (Secondary Perspective) | ❌ No | Ray mentions he has a brother early on, but we never see him. The story stays focused on Ray’s journey with no secondary perspective. |
| The Wife (Emotional Anchor) | ✅ Yes | Ray’s emotional anchor is his family. His goal throughout the film is to protect his children and get them safely back to their mother, his ex-wife. |
Atmosphere and Allegory
| Checklist Item | Included? | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Appropriate Era & Setting | ✅ Yes | Although set in modern-day America rather than Victorian England, the film retains the core emotional and societal themes of Wells’ original—existential dread, helplessness, and the collapse of human systems in the face of an overwhelming alien threat. |
| Societal Collapse | ✅ Yes | The film shows mass panic, violence, and total breakdown of order. The angry mob stealing Ray’s car and the chaos at the ferry are strong examples of how fast society collapses. |
| No Human Victory | ✅ Yes | Humans have small wins — Ray brings down a tripod with grenades, and the army takes out a sick one at the end. But the real victory belongs to Earth’s microorganisms, not human action. |
| Atmosphere of Horror and Helplessness | ✅ Yes | The film captures fear and helplessness in scene after scene. There’s no real news, just panic. A burning train speeds by, mobs fight for spots on the ferry, and the tripods pick people off like cattle. |
| Narrator’s Psychological Decline | ❌ No | Ray shows fear and shock at times, but he never truly breaks down. The story doesn’t explore a full psychological collapse like in the book. |
Cinematic & Immersive Details
| Checklist Item | Included? | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Martian Sounds | ✅ Yes | The tripods blast a loud, deep horn that feels both alien and terrifying. It’s one of the most unforgettable parts of the film. |
| Visuals of Red Weed and Black Smoke | ✅ Yes | There’s no black smoke in this version, but the red weed is shown in full force. It spreads quickly and covers everything, making the land look strange and dead. |
| Heat Ray Effects | ✅ Yes | The heat ray effects are stunning. The blasts vaporize people and wreck the landscape in seconds, creating some of the most intense visuals in the film. |
| Desolate Landscapes | ✅ Yes | The film shows haunting scenes of destruction everywhere—burned towns, wrecked landscapes, and fields covered in red weed. |
| Decay and Rot | ✅ Yes | The film shows plenty of decay—dead animals, crows picking at the red weed, and fields rotting under the Martians’ influence. |
Bonus Features
| Checklist Item | Included? | Details |
|---|---|---|
| The Thunder Child (Naval Resistance) | ❌ No | There’s no real Thunder Child moment in this version. The closest parallel is Ray using grenades to bring down a tripod, but it’s a small, personal act, not a large military stand. |
| Adaptation-Specific Creativity | ✅ Yes | This version brings several bold ideas. The aliens ride lightning into buried tripods, and the red weed is fertilized with human blood. These changes are creative but still respect the spirit of the story. |
Observations and Analysis
Strengths:
- Stunning visuals and sound design, with tripods that are sleek, towering, and terrifying.
- Captures chaos, fear, and societal collapse while preserving Wells’ theme of survival through nature.
- Includes smart nods to Wells’ novel and the 1953 classic while adding thoughtful updates.
Weaknesses:
- Harlan Ogilvy combines traits of the Curate and the Artilleryman, while borrowing the Astronomer’s name, weakening the clear thematic contrasts from the book. Also puts a lot on Tim Robbins’ shoulders—but hey, he’s a heavyweight, he can handle it.
- Ray’s redemption arc personalizes the story in a way the novel didn’t, shifting the focus from humanity’s collapse as a whole to one man’s emotional journey.
Creative Deviations:
- Mars is never mentioned. The aliens’ origin is left vague, moving away from Wells’ specific science fiction roots.
- The aliens ride lightning strikes into long-buried tripods, replacing the classic cylinder landings.
- The main character, Ray Ferrier, is reimagined as a redemption story. Instead of a passive observer, he’s a flawed father who earns emotional growth through the invasion, shifting the focus from societal collapse to personal transformation.
- The alien arms closely resemble the 1953 design, even though the rest of their bodies are different. The death scene — with a weakened arm reaching from a fallen tripod — also mirrors a key moment from the 1953 film.
Faithfulness Rating
Mostly Faithful
Spielberg updates the setting, restructures the characters, and shifts the emotional focus—but the core of Wells’ story remains. Fear, collapse, helplessness, and humanity’s survival through natural forces are all preserved. The creative changes are noticeable but respectful, making this a strong adaptation of Wells’ vision.
Our Verdict
I thought I would hate it. But I didn’t. Spielberg’s War of the Worlds is visually stunning and emotionally powerful, even with the liberties it takes. The tripods are unforgettable. The heat ray effects, the red weed visuals, and the sense of overwhelming panic all hit exactly the right notes.
I appreciated how many smart nods there were to Wells’ novel and the 1953 film, even as Spielberg made the story his own. The survival-through-natural-forces theme remains fully intact, which really matters to me as a purist.
Plus, let’s be real—the Morgan Freeman narration at the beginning and end is almost unfair advantage. That voice, reading lines almost straight from Wells, instantly grounds the story with credibility and gravitas.
What bothered me most was the way key characters were combined into one messy figure. Harlan Ogilvy borrows the Curate’s breakdown, the Artilleryman’s survival dreams, and even steals the Astronomer’s name—losing the clear contrasts that made those characters so important in the book. Ray’s redemption arc also shifts the focus toward personal growth, when the real power of Wells’ story was its cold, sweeping view of humanity under attack.
Still, even with those flaws, this is a strong adaptation that respects the core of Wells’ story while bringing it into a new era. It’s not perfect. But it’s powerful—and it’s absolutely worth watching with both the novel and the 1953 film in mind.