War of the Worlds (2005 film)

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War of the Worlds
An alien hand holds Earth, that is engulfed in flame. A red weed surrounds the hand. Above the image is the film's title, WAR OF THE WORLDS and the main actor, TOM CRUISE. Below is the release date, JUNE 29, and the cast and crew credits.
Theatrical poster
Directed by Steven Spielberg
Produced by Kathleen Kennedy
Colin Wilson
Damian Collier (executive)
Paula Wagner (executive)
Written by Josh Friedman
David Koepp
H. G. Wells (novel)
Narrated by Morgan Freeman
Starring Tom Cruise
Dakota Fanning
Justin Chatwin
Miranda Otto
Tim Robbins
Music by John Williams
Cinematography Janusz Kaminski
Editing by Michael Kahn
Studio Amblin Entertainment
Cruise/Wagner Productions
Distributed by Paramount Pictures (USA)
DreamWorks (non-USA)
Release date(s) United States:
June 29, 2005 (2005-06-29)
United Kingdom:
July 1, 2005 (2005-07-01)
Running time 117 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget US$132 million[1]
Gross revenue US$591,745,540[1]

War of the Worlds is a 2005 science fiction film adaptation of H. G. Wells' novel of the same name, directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Josh Friedman and David Koepp. It stars Tom Cruise as Ray Ferrier, a dock worker estranged from his wife and children and living separately from them. As his wife gives their children to him to take care of for a few days, Earth is invaded by aliens riding Tripod vehicles, and Ray tries to protect his children and go to Boston to rejoin his wife.

War of the Worlds marks Spielberg and Cruise's second collaboration, after Minority Report. The film was shot through 73 days, using five different sound stages as well as locations at Connecticut, New York, California, Virginia and New Jersey. The film was surrounded by a secrecy campaign so few details would be leaked before its release.

Tie-in promotions were made with several companies, including with Hitachi. The film released in United States on 29 June and in United Kingdom on 1 July. The film generally received positive reviews and attained a 73% "fresh" rating on the film review site Rotten Tomatoes, based on 240 reviews. War of the Worlds was also a box office success, being 2005's fourth most successful film both domestically, with $234 million in North America, and worldwide, with $591 million overall.

Contents

[edit] Plot

The film begins with the narrator (voiced by Morgan Freeman) stating this opening line:

No one would have believed in the early years of the 21st century that our world was being watched by intelligences greater than our own.
That as men busied themselves about their various concerns, *they* observed and studied, the way a man with a microscope might scrutinize the creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water.
With infinite complacency, men went to and fro about the globe, confident of our empire over this world.
Yet across the gulf of space, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic regarded our planet with envious eyes and slowly, and surely, drew their plans against us.

The story opens with Brooklyn dock worker Ray Ferrier (Tom Cruise) finishing the third shift in the morning. His ex-wife Mary Anne (Miranda Otto) and her new wealthy husband Tim (David Alan Basche) drop off Ray's 10-year-old daughter Rachel (Dakota Fanning) and teenage son Robbie (Justin Chatwin) at Ray's house. They are staying with him in Bayonne, New Jersey, while Tim and Mary Anne visit her parents in Boston for the weekend. Later that day, Ray wakes up from a nap and Rachel tells him that Robbie has stolen his car and left.

Ray sets out to find him, but is immediately distracted by a strange wall cloud. It begins to unleash EMPs repeatedly in the same area a short distance from Ray's house. The EMPs disable all of the working electronic devices in the area, including cars, leaving everyone stranded. Ray finds Robbie, and he tells him to take care of Rachel while he goes to investigate where the EMPs hit. He tells a fellow mechanic to change the solenoid of the car that he is repairing. Ray and many other people find a mysteriously cold hole from which a large tripod machine quickly emerges, and then begins to vaporize the human beings in its path. Ray runs from the scene back to his house. After packing food, Ray and his kids abandon their home and steal the only operating vehicle in town, due to his advice of changing the solenoid in the car.

They drive to Tim's large house, where they take refuge in the basement for the night. During the night, a tripod disables a large airplane that crashes into the development, demolishing all of the houses. In the morning Ray has a brief conversation with a small news team, who show video footage to Ray of the lightning in the previous "storm". The woman shows it in slow-motion and he sees what they believe to be a pod, with the aliens "riding" with the lightning into the ground where the Tripod machines were buried. The woman believes the tripods were buried in the earth since before the rise of humanity. The news crew decides to leave after hearing a horn blast of a nearby Tripod. Ray takes Rachel in his hands and tells her to look only at his face and nowhere else in order not to see what happened during the night. Ray and his family drive towards Boston, Massachusetts. At one point they stop in order for Rachel to go to the bathroom. She runs to the river, but there she sees bodies being brought by the river. Ray comes to her and closes her eyes in order not to see anything. When army passes nearby, Robbie wants them to take him with them but none of them listens to him. He has an argument with Ray. Later Ray asks Robbie to drive the car to sleep a little. In the evening, their van is seized by a mob. Ray is able to escape by firing a small revolver that he brought from his house, but the vehicle is eventually stolen by another man who took Ray's revolver after it was dropped down and who kills the man attempting to drive the van and takes his place. Ray and his children surrender the vehicle and continue on foot.

They reach a Hudson River ferry in Athens, New York, but three tripods appear over the horizon. The ferry moves off, but a tripod hiding underwater tips the ferry over and many on board fall victim to more tripods. Tripods are catching those in the water and taking them aboard. Ray, Robbie, and Rachel escape and swim to safety. Shivering, the trio witness refugees running over the hill across the Hudson a few miles away being attacked by three more tripods. They escape as they see the town of Athens being destroyed.

Later, they come across American military forces somewhere in Massachusetts, trying to keep more alien machines back but ultimately fruitless effort as the alien machines are protected by impenetrable shields. Although their weapons are ineffective, the Marine Corps delays its advance so the refugees can escape. Robbie wants to witness the battle and Ray reluctantly lets him go in order to save Rachel from being taken away by a married couple nearby (Ray left her there and ordered to not go anywhere in order for him to reach Robbie). The woman tries to convince her to come with them, telling her husband she can't leave her there alone. In the ensuing chaos an enormous firebomb erupts and the entire military platoon is wiped out. Robbie is separated from Ray and Rachel and they fear he is dead.

Immediately following the battle, Ray and Rachel are offered shelter in a basement by a man named Harlan Ogilvy (Tim Robbins) who lost his family to the aliens. The invaders settle close to the house where the trio is hiding and tensions start to emerge between Ogilvy, who wants to strike back at the alien invaders and Ray, who is preoccupied with his own safety and that of his daughter. Ray wants to hide until the invaders move off to a different area. Meanwhile the invaders begin spreading a strange "red weed", which appears to be a mysterious plant synthesized from the blood of harvested humans.

From the start Ogilvy exhibits signs of mental stress. Later that night a tripod probe invades the basement, where the three manage to escape detection. A small contingent of aliens then enters and explores the house, even examining photographs of their strange human prey while Ray struggles to stop Ogilvy from attacking the aliens, until a siren emitted by the tripod summons them to return. Ogilvy cracks mentally after witnessing one of the alien tripods harvesting blood and tissues from a helpless human victim. Ray, concerned that the commotion Ogilvy is creating might draw the attention of the invaders to himself and his daughter, murders Ogilvy as a means of silencing him. Ray and Rachel fall asleep, but are awakened as a probe enters the basement and sights Rachel. Ray attacks the probe with an axe and the probe retreats, while Rachel flees the house.

Ray attempts to find Rachel, but he is attacked by a tripod. He tries to find safety in a truck, but the truck is tossed upside-down by the tripod. While upside down, Ray sees Rachel standing on the ground harsh and screaming as the tripod heads toward her. As Ray escapes, he finds Rachel being pulled into a metal cage on the tripod along with other humans. The tripod seems to not care about Ray anymore and so Ray heads to a nearby HMMWV where he finds a pack of hand grenades. He throws a grenade at one of the tripod's legs, but its shield deflects the blast. Now the tripod has its attention on him, and Ray is then placed into the same cage with Rachel, where he finds her in shock. Ray is grabbed by a mechanism that attempts to pull him into the body of the tripod to certain death, when a soldier and others valiantly fight to keep him out of the clutches of the device. After the group successfully saves Ray, it is revealed that he left two grenades into the tripod. The grenades detonate, causing a multitude of explosions in the tripod, destroying it entirely. The cage lands on the ground and everyone in it escapes.

After they are freed, Ray and his daughter continue to move towards Boston. It is there that they find that all the "red weed" is dying, along with other tripods. He notices that the shields are not active when he realizes birds are flying near and landing on one still-living tripod, so he tells a soldier. The soldiers attack the tripod with Javelin missile launchers. The tripod topples to the ground, disgorges a revolting cargo of blood-colored liquid, and the alien invaders inside are found to be dying as well. With the threat over, Ray finally brings Rachel to Mary Anne and Tim at Mary Anne's parent's house, where she has been waiting for them - along with their son Robbie. Mary Anne tells Ray thank you while hugging Rachel, and she seems grateful to Ray for all he has done.

The narrator's voice returns with this closing statement:

From the moment the invaders arrived, breathed our air, ate and drank, they were doomed.
They were undone, destroyed, after all of man's weapons and devices had failed, by the tiniest creatures that God in his wisdom put upon this Earth.
By the toll of a billion deaths, man had earned his immunity, his right to survive among this planet's infinite organisms.
And that right is ours against all challenges. For neither do men live nor die in vain.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Production

[edit] Development

After collaborating in 2002's Minority Report, Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruise were interested in working together again. Spielberg stated about Cruise, "He's such an intelligent, creative partner, and brings such great ideas to the set that we just spark each other. I love working with Tom Cruise."[2] Cruise met with Spielberg during the filming of Spielberg's Catch Me If You Can and gave three options of films to create together, one of them being an adaptation of The War of the Worlds.[2] Spielberg chose The War of the Worlds and stated, "We looked at each other and the lights went on. As soon as I heard it, I said `Oh my God! War of the Worlds - absolutely.' That was it."[2]

The film is Spielberg's third on the subject of alien visitation, along with Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.[2][3] Producer and longtime collaborator Kathleen Kennedy notes that with War of the Worlds, Spielberg had the opportunity to explore the antithesis of the characters brought to life in E.T. and Close Encounters of the Third Kind.[3] "When we first started developing E.T., it was a much edgier, darker story and it actually evolved into something that was more benign. I think that the edgier, darker story has always been somewhere inside him. Now, he's telling that story."[3] Spielberg stated that he just thought it would be fun to make a really scary film with really scary aliens, something which he had never done before.[2][3][4] Spielberg was intent on telling a contemporary story. Kennedy stated the story may be something born out of a fantasy notion but in fact is dealt with in a hyper-realistic way.[3]

"I grew up watching his movies, studying them. I often tease him that I know his movies better than he does! It's a real lesson in storytelling - every time I look at his films, I learn something."
— Tom Cruise admiring Steven Spielberg[2]

Josh Friedman delivered a screenplay, which was then rewritten by David Koepp.[5][6] Spielberg accepted the script after finding it had several similarities to his personal life, including the divorce of his parents (Ray and Mary Ann's divorce), and because the plight of the fictional survivors reflects his own uncertainty after the devastation of the September 11 attacks.[4] For Spielberg, the characters' stories of survival needed to be the main focus, as they featured the American mindset of never giving up.[4] Spielberg described War of the Worlds as "a polar opposite" to Close Encounters, with that movie featuring a man leaving family to travel with aliens, while War of the Worlds focused on keeping the family together. [4]

Although accepting the script, Spielberg asked for several changes. Spielberg had been against the idea of the aliens arriving in spaceships.[6] The original Martian cylinders were discarded, where Spielberg replaced the origins of the Tripods with stating they were buried in the underground of the Earth long time ago.[6][7] Koepp fitted in a really neat homage to the cylinders, and specifically, the unscrewing of the lid.[6] Koepp stated far more clearly in the script, "as ray climbs to his feet, that entire circle starts to rotate again, like a big turntable, causing tremors that ripple out from its center."[5][6]

[edit] Filming

Destroyed Boeing 747 used on the War of the Worlds set. Currently, the destroyed airliner is used as a memory in Universal Studios's back-lot-tour.

Filming locations were mainly inside the United States. The film shooting lasted an estimated 72 days.[8] In 2004, the production crews quickly were set up on both coasts to prepare for the start date, scouting locations up and down the Eastern Seaboard and preparing stages and sets which would be used when the company returned to Los Angeles after the winter holiday.[3] Pre-production took place in only three months, essentially half the amount of time normally allotted for a film of similar size and scope. Spielberg notes, however, "This wasn't a cram course for War of the Worlds." "This was my longest schedule in about 12 years. We took our time."[3]

Director of photography and longtime Spielberg collaborator Janusz Kaminski and Spielberg noted that they wanted to complete the film as fast they could.[3] Spielberg collaborated with crews at the beginning of pre-production with the use of previsualization, considering the tight schedule.[8] The scene, which depicts Ray and other pupils viewing the Tripods was filmed at Newark, New Jersey.[9] Later, Spielberg filmed several scenes at Virginia.[10] The continuous scene was filmed at California.[11]

The ferry scene was filmed at Athens, whereby Mary Ann's parents house was located at Brooklyn (but was featured in the film at Boston).[2] For the scene involving a crashed Boeing 747, the production crew bought an unused airplane, with transportation costs of $2 million,[12] broke it into pieces and built houses around them.[2] The destroyed plane was kept for Universal Studios back-lot tour.[12] Ray's house was filmed at Bayonne (with a soundstage doubling the interior), New Jersey, meanwhile the valley war sequence was filmed at Lexington, Virginia and Mystery Mesa in California.[13] The film used six sound stages, spread over three studio lots.[2]

[edit] Design and visual effects

Industrial Light & Magic was the main special effects company.[14][15] While Spielberg had used the computer to help visualize sequences in pre-production before, Spielberg said, "This is the first film I really tackled using the computer to animate all the storyboards."[3] He decided to employ the technique extensively after a visit to his friend George Lucas.[3][14][15] In order to keep the realism, the usage of computer-generated imagery shots and bluescreen was limited, with most of the digital effects being blended with miniature and live-action footage. The design of the Tripods was described by Spielberg as "graceful," with artist Doug Chiang replicating aquatic lifeforms. The visual effects crew tried to blend organic and mechanical elements in the Tripods depiction, and made extensive studies for the movements of the vehicle to be believable, considering the "contradiction" of having a large tank-like head being carried by thin and flexible legs. The aliens themselves had designs based on jellyfish, with movements inspired by red-eyed tree frogs.[16]

A scene which depicts Ray and his family are driving in their minivan when they come upon an increasing number of displaced persons. Janusz Kaminski and Spielberg wanted a lot of interactive light in that scene, so, they added different kinds of lights, including Coleman lamps, oil lanterns, flashlights and Maglights.[3] Crews of Industrial Light & Magic admitted that the bridge scene in the film was the toughest scene to be made with heavy usage mix of CGI effects and live action elements.[17] The scene involved Tripods shooting a Heat-Ray towards the minivan and minivan escapes from it involved a lot of CGI layers to work out. The visual effects suited the storyline of the film, concluding a tribute to science fiction film of the 1950s.[18] Over 500 CGI effects were used in the film.[19]

Costume designer Joanna Johnston created 60 different versions of Ray's leather jacket, to illustrate the degrees to which he is weathered from the beginning of the journey to the end. "He begins with the jacket, a hoodie, and two t-shirts," explains Johnston.[3] One piece of Dakota Fanning's costume that takes on a special importance is her lavender horse purse: "I wanted her to have something that made her feel safe, some little thing that she could sleep with and put over her face," Johnston notes. "That was the lavender horse purse. We tied it up on a ribbon and Dakota hung it on her body, so it was with her at all times."[3] Johnston dressed Robbie for an unconscious emulation of his father, "They're more alike than they realize, with great tension on the surface," Johnston says.[3]

[edit] Music

Longtime Spielberg collaborator John Williams composed the music score of War of the Worlds. He considered the score "a very serious piece," which had to combine "necessary frightening atmosphere" with "propulsively rhythmic drive for the action scenes."[20] A soundtrack album was released by Decca Records, that featured the film's music and Morgan Freeman's opening and closing narration.[21][22] The songs "Little Deuce Coupe" and "Hushabye Mountain" are also featured in the movie, the former sung by Tom Cruise, and the latter by Dakota Fanning.[23][24]

[edit] Themes

The film was described as an anti-war film, as civilians run and only try to save themselves and their family instead of fighting back the alien Tripods.[25] Debra J. Saunders of San Francisco Chronicle described the film as "If aliens invade, don't fight back. Run." Saunders compared the film to Independence Day, where the civilians do run, but they support the military efforts.[25] Many reviewers considered the film tried the recreate the atmosphere of the September 11 attacks, with bystanders struggling to survive and the usage of missing-persons displays.[26] Spielberg declared to Reader's Digest that beside the work being a fantasy, the threat represented was real: "They are a wake-up call to face our fears as we confront a force intent on destroying our way of life."[27]

[edit] Release

War of the Worlds premiered at the Ziegfeld Theatre on June 23, 2005. There Tom Cruise revealed his relationship with Katie Holmes.[28] Six days later, in June 29, the film was released in approximately 3908 theaters across America.[1]

[edit] Secrecy

Spielberg kept most of the parts secret in the filmmaking, as the casts and crews were left confused about how the aliens look.[29] The media reporters' questions about the rumored plot was answered, but the reporters' said we may not get "straight answers".[29] An IGN reporter interviewed David Koepp about the secrecy of the screenplay, Koepp answered, "[Spielberg] wouldn't give [the screenplay] to anybody". Koepp explained he would e-mail it to him, and he would give a section of the script that was relating to whatever somebody was doing.[29] Miranda Otto, thought of not even discussing the story with her family and friends. Otto said, "I know some people who always say, 'Oh, everything's so secret.' I think it's good. In the old days people didn't get to know much about movies before they came out and nowadays there's just so much information. I think a bit of mystery is always really good. You don't want to blow all of your cards beforehand."[30]

Spielberg admitted that after keeping things secret for so long, there is in the end the temptation to reveal too much to the detriment of the story at the press conference of War of the Worlds. So, Spielberg only revealed the hill scene (Ray tried to stop his son) and not the other scenes, as he stated, "To say more would reveal too much."[31] British Board of Film Classification refused to reveal the identities of War of the Worlds censors, a controversial 12A rating, keeping habit of secrecy.[32] The actual budget of the film was US$132 million,[1] currently fortieth most expensive film ever made.[33] The budget was not confirmed until the release of the film, several British publications claimed the film's budget surpassed budget of Titanic,[34] as the budget of Titanic was US$200 million.[35]

[edit] Marketing and home media releases

Paramount Pictures Interactive Marketing debuted a human survival online game on its official website, waroftheworlds.com, on April 14 to promote the film.[36] Hitachi collaborated with Paramount Pictures for a worldwide promotional campaign, under the title of “The Ultimate Visual Experience”. The agreement was announced by Kazuhiro Tachibana, general manager of Hitachi’s Consumer Business Group.[37] Kazuhiro stated, "Our ‘The Ultimate Visual Experience’ campaign is a perfect match between Spielberg and Cruise’s pursuit of the world’s best in film entertainment and Hitachi’s commitment to the highest picture quality through its digital consumer electronic products."[37]

The DVD was released on November 22, with both a single-disk edition and a two-disk special edition featured production featurettes, documentaries and trailers.[38] The film grossed $113,000,000 in DVD sales, bringing its total film gross to $704,745,540, ranking tenth place in the 2005 DVD sales chart.[39]

[edit] Reception

[edit] Box office

On June 29, 2005 (2005-06-29), the film grossed approximately US$21 million worldwide,[40] and earned the thirty-eight biggest opening week gross with grossing $98,826,764 in 3908 theatres, averaging $25,288 in each theater.[41] Meanwhile on the biggest opening weekend, War of the Worlds grossed $64,878,725 in 3908 theatres also, giving an average of $16,601,[42] ranking third-biggest film opening on Independence Day weekend.[43] The film earned $200 million in 24 days, ranking thirty-seventh place in the list of fastest films to gross $200 million.[44] The film has grossed an estimated $592 million worldwide,[1] making it the fourth highest grossing film of 2005, and the fifty-first highest grossing film worldwide.[45][46]

[edit] Reviews

The film received largely positive reviews from critics. Review aggregator website Metacritic gave it an average score of 73 out of 40 reviews.[47] On another website, Rotten Tomatoes, War of the Worlds currently garners an 73% "fresh" rating based on 240 reviews.[48] Among Rotten Tomatoes' Top Critics, which consists of popular and notable critics from the top newspapers, websites, television and radio programs, the film's reception was more ambivalent with 68% out of 41 reviews.[49]

James Berardinelli praised the acting and considered that focusing the narrative on the struggle of one character made the film more effective, but described the ending as weak, even though Spielberg "does the best he can to make it cinematically dramatic".[50] Total Film's review gave War of the Worlds 4 out of 4 stars, considering that "Spielberg finds fresh juice in a tale already adapted for film, TV, stage, radio and record", and describing the film as having many "startling images", comparing the first Tripod attack to the Omaha Beach landing from Saving Private Ryan.[51]

Los Angeles Times' Kenneth Turan, who felt the special effects was unusual, stated Spielberg may actually have done his job in War of the Worlds "better than he realizes", showing how fragile the world is. Turan claimed Spielberg raised a most provocative question: "Is the ultimate fantasy an invasion from outer space, or is it the survival of the human race?"[52] However, Broomfield Enterprise's Dan Marcucci and Nancy Serougi did not share Berardinelli and Turan's opinion. They felt the narration (ending narration by Morgan Freeman) was not needed, instead they suggested to put about the aliens died of cold and "The End" on the screen. Marcucci and Serougi felt the first half of the film was better than the second half of the film, stating the second half "ruined" everything.[53]

Michael Wilmington of the Chicago Tribune gave the film three and a half stars (out of four), calling War of the Worlds definitely wins its battle, but not the war. Wilmington stated the film brought the viewers on a wild journey through two sides of Spielberg; the dark and the light, also stating the film was a core sentiment, which only can be founded in Spielberg's E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.[54] About.com's Rebecca Murray gave a positive review, stating that " "Spielberg almost succeeds in creating the perfect alien movie", with criticism only for the ending.[55] Jonathan Rosenbaum of Chicago Reader praised the special effects and Cruise's performance.[56] Roger Ebert criticized the "retro design" and considered that despite the big budget, the alien invasion was "rudimentary" and "not very interesting", and considered the best scenes being Ray walking among the airliner wreckage and a train running in flames, declaring that "such scenes seem to come from a kind of reality different from that of the tripods."[57]

[edit] References

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  28. ^ Donna Freydkin (23 June 2005). "Cruise, Holmes step out". USA Today. http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/2005-06-23-war-of-the-worlds-premiere_x.htm. Retrieved 17 September 2009. 
  29. ^ a b c Steve Head (24 June 2005). "Headgame 7: War of the Worlds". IGN. p. 1-2. http://movies.ign.com/articles/628/628781p1.html. Retrieved 18 September 2009. 
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The War of the Worlds (Haskin, 1953) • The War of the Worlds: Next Century (Szulkin, 1981) • H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds (Hines, 2005) • H. G. Wells' War of the Worlds (Latt, 2005) (War of the Worlds 2: The Next Wave) •
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