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{{Infobox City |
:{{Otheruses3|The War of the Worlds}}
official_name = Nashua, New Hampshire |
{{Infobox Film |
nickname = Gate City|
name = War of the Worlds |
image = War of the worlds Poster.jpg |
image_seal = Nashua,_NH_Seal.jpg |
image_map = Hillsborough Nashua NH.png |
director = [[Steven Spielberg]] |
map_caption = Location in [[Hillsborough County, New Hampshire]] |
producer = [[Kathleen Kennedy (movie producer)|Kathleen Kennedy]] |
subdivision_type = [[Counties of the United States|Counties]] |
writer = [[Josh Friedman]],<br \>[[David Koepp]] |
subdivision_name = [[Hillsborough County, New Hampshire|Hillsborough County]] |
starring = [[Tom Cruise]],<br \>[[Dakota Fanning]],<br \>[[Justin Chatwin]]<br \>[[Tim Robbins]],<br \>[[Miranda Otto]] |
music = [[John Williams]]|
leader_title = [[Mayor]] |
leader_name = Bernard A. Streeter ([[Republican Party (United States)|Rep]]) |
cinematography = [[Janusz Kaminski]]|
area_magnitude = 1 E9 |
editing = [[Michael Kahn]]|
area_total = 31.8 mi² / 82.5 |
distributor = [[Paramount Pictures|Paramount]] | [DreamWorks SKG|DreamWorks]]
area_land = 30.9 mi² / 80.0 |
released = [[June 29]] [[2005]] (in theaters), [[November 22]] [[2005]] (DVD) |
area_water = 0.9 mi² / 2.5 |
runtime = 112 min.|
population_as_of = 2000 |
language = [[English language|English]] |
population_note = |
budget = [[United States dollar|$]]132 million|
population_total = 86,605 ([[city limits|city proper]]) |
imdb_id = 0407304 |
population_density = 1,082.5|
timezone = [[Eastern Standard Time Zone|Eastern]] |
utc_offset = -5 |
timezone_DST = [[Eastern Standard Time Zone|Eastern]] |
utc_offset_DST = -4 |
latitude = 42° 45' 4" N |
longitude = 71° 28' 51" W |
latd=42 |latm=45 |lats=4 |latNS=N |
longd=71 |longm=28 |longs=51 |longEW=W |
website = [http://www.gonashua.com/ www.gonashua.com] |
footnotes =
}}
}}
'''Nashua''' is a city located in [[Hillsborough County, New Hampshire|Hillsborough County]], [[New Hampshire]], [[USA]]. As of the 2000 census, Nashua had a total population of 86,605, making it the second largest city in the state after [[Manchester, New Hampshire|Manchester]].
'''''War of the Worlds''''' is a 2005 [[science fiction film]] based on [[H. G. Wells]]' [[The War of the Worlds (novel)|original novel]] of the same name. It was directed by [[Steven Spielberg]] from a script by [[Josh Friedman]] {{ref|credit}} and [[David Koepp]] and stars [[Tom Cruise]], [[Dakota Fanning]], and [[Justin Chatwin]].


Built around the now-departed textile industry, in recent decades it has been swept up in southern [[New Hampshire]]'s economic expansion as part of the [[Boston, Massachusetts]], region. Nashua was twice named "Best Place To Live In America" in annual surveys by [[Money (magazine)|''Money'']] magazine. It is the only city to get the No. 1 ranking two times&mdash;in 1987 and 1997.
== Background ==
This film draws elements not only from the H. G. Wells novel, but also the [[The War of the Worlds (radio)|1938 radio play]] and the [[The War of the Worlds (1953 film)|1953 film]]. Hence, to place this film in proper historical context as an adaptation requires some knowledge of all three [[The War of the Worlds|previous incarnations]] of Wells' story.


== History ==
As in the original novel, which takes place in and around London, the narrative is told from the point of view of civilians caught up in the conflict. Whereas the novel portrayed the experience of a solitary British journalist early in the twentieth century, this film is, according to Spielberg, purported to show the war "through the eyes of one American family fighting to survive it". It is set in the early twenty-first century, and as in the radio play, begins the action in New Jersey.
Like many [[New England]] cities, Nashua grew because of [[textile]] mills using water power. The city was originally part of the Dunstable grant in [[Massachusetts]] and lies approximately in the center of the original [[1673]] grant. When the state line was redrawn in [[1741]], the town of [[Dunstable, Massachusetts]], was divided in two. [[Dunstable, New Hampshire]], was incorporated from the northern part of the town.


[[Image:Mills,_Nashua,_NH.jpg|thumb|left|''Nashua Manufacturing Company'' in 1921]]
== Plot ==
By [[1836]], [[Nashua Manufacturing Company]] had built three cotton mills and was producing 9.3 million yards of cotton cloth annually on 710 looms, and the town of Dunstable was renamed "Nashua." The legislature declared that it was now named for the [[Nashua River]]. Six railroad lines crossed the city with 56 trains entering and departing daily before the Civil War.
{{spoiler}}


What is now Nashua broke in two for a while, following a tax dispute between the town of Nashville north of the Nashua River, where most of the wealthier people lived, and town of Nashua south of the river. The two joined together and chartered the city in [[1853]].
===The invaders arrive===
The film opens with narrator [[Morgan Freeman]] (in voice-over only) paraphrasing the classic opening paragraph of [[H. G. Wells]]' novel. Onscreen, we witness a long, slow zoom-out from the cells of a [[microorganism]] to the drop of water in which it apparently resides. The narration is further accompanied by scenes of the world's great cities and cultures.


The textile business started moving to the South during the [[Great Depression]], with the last mill closing in 1949. [[Sanders Associates]], a newly created defense firm that is now part of [[BAE Systems]], moved into one of the closed mills and launched the city's rebirth. The arrival of [[Digital Equipment Corp.]] (now part of [[Hewlett-Packard]]) in the 1970s made the city part of the [[Boston, Massachusetts|Boston]]-area high-tech corridor.
The action then switches to the New York waterfront docks at the [[Brooklyn Army Terminal]]. Ray Ferrier (Cruise) is a crane operator living in [[Bayonne, New Jersey]]. He is initially shown in the cab of a tall crane (that resembles and foreshadows the tripods he will soon encounter). He has agreed with his ex-wife, Mary-Anne ([[Miranda Otto]]), to watch their kids, teenager Robbie ([[Justin Chatwin]]) and preadolescent Rachel ([[Dakota Fanning]]), for the weekend while she and her new husband (Tim) go to visit her parents in [[Boston, Massachusetts|Boston]]. Ray lives in a small row house, while Mary-Anne lives in a larger home with the kids, with Ray seeming jealous, like complimenting on their [[Lexus LX]], or being amazed by their workout room. Mary-Anne tells Ray that she will leave her cell phone on in case of an emergency and Ray reassures her not to worry. While Rachel seems almost too mature for her age, Ray's son repeatedly acts out against him, eventually taking Ray's prized [[Shelby Mustang|Shelby GT350]] out for a joyride.


==Geography==
Meanwhile, in background shots, news networks have been reporting [[Electromagnetic pulse|EMPs]] and freak lightning storms in the [[Ukraine]] which leave all electronic equipment in the affected areas incapacitated, followed afterward by seismic activity. Ray offers Robbie to play some catch before he has to start his research paper. As Ray and Robbie exchange sarcastic remarks to one another, Robbie purposely misses catching the ball and lets it break his father's window. Pissed off, a tired Ray goes to bed only to wake up to find Robbie gone with his car. Ray goes out to look for Robbie when he notices a massive cloud appearing over the city, so thick that the streetlights turn on. Ray runs to his backyard and notices that the wind is blowing toward the storm. He calls Rachel out to get a look at it when lightning beings striking the ground, getting closer to Ray's house and they run inside. As he is reassuring Rachel about the lightning, 26 bolts of lightning, unaccompanied by thunder, hit the same spot just a few blocks away. The entire area is then left with no power whatsoever. All motor vehicles in the vicinity have apparently also stopped working. Ray leaves Rachel alone, and goes to investigate. Before he does, he finds Robbie and tells him to stay with Rachel.
Nashua is located at {{coor dms|42|45|4|N|71|28|51|W|}} (42.751038, -71.480817){{GR|1}}. According to the [[United States Census Bureau]], the city has a total area of 82.5 [[square kilometer|km²]] (31.8 [[square mile|mi²]]). 80.0 km² (30.9 mi²) of it is land and 2.5 km² (0.9 mi²) of it is water. The total area is 2.98% water. The highest point in Nashua is ''Long Hill'' (418 [[foot (unit of length)|feet]] above [[sea level]]), in the southern part of the city.


The city is bordered on the east by the [[Merrimack River]], across which lies the town of [[Hudson, New Hampshire]]. To the north is [[Merrimack, New Hampshire]], west is [[Hollis, New Hampshire]], and south is [[Tyngsboro, Massachusetts]]. The city is roughly bisected by the [[Nashua River]].
===The first strike===
[[Image:tripod in action.jpg|250px|thumb|right|Ray and others flee as a tripod unleashes its Heat-Ray.]]
When he arrives, Ray discovers that the lightning has punched a small hole in the middle of an [[Intersection (road)|intersection]]. Even though lightning had just struck the same area several times, the pieces of pavement and rocks are ice cold. Suddenly, movements underground can be felt, then the street begins to crack open, windows smash and buildings are torn apart, then the ground caves in, taking a [[Nissan pickup]] and a [[Jeep Grand Cherokee]] with them, then spitting one of them back out onto a [[Ford Taurus]], and the other into a building. Just then, a huge robotic leg comes out and smashes a [[Saturn S-series]], which Ray was hiding behind. Shortly afterwards, a massive [[Tripod (The War of the Worlds)|tripod]] battle machine rises from beneath the surface. At the sight of this massive machine, the awed crowd turns and flee for their lives, looking back every second they can. Ray then comes out from the safety of a building and all is silent. Everyone are staring with both wonder and disbelief at this towering machine. Suddenly, the tripod lets out a noise which sounds like a deafening [[foghorn]] and people everywhere duck for cover.
[http://www.waroftheworldsfilm.com/downloads/tripodcall.wma].


As with much of New England, the weather in this city varies greatly throughout the year. Harsh winters often batter the area while the summers can be scorching; it is a four-season area.
Then something begins to happen. The machine starts to bring out two strange looking things that glow a bright blueish-white at the end. At this point nobody has any idea what this tripod machine is trying to do. The tripod then opens fire with dual [[Heat-Ray]]s on fleeing civilians, vaporizing them on contact: when hit, people seem to turn to ash and disintegrate instantly. As their clothes are inexplicably and completely unaffected, it is soon quite literally raining pants and shirts. Ray then turns and flees as the Heat-Ray is unleashed and kills innocent men and women. While it's raining clothing, Ray looks back and a man runs ahead of him and is suddenly hit by the Heat-Rays and vanishes. A terror-stricken civilian jumps into their car, hoping to start it. That person and the car get blown away. While running as fast as they could, Ray and others see a women suddenly struck by the Heat-Ray and ash covers them all. Ray then enters a department store and sees the destruction through the windows. Somehow, the Heat-Rays go straight through the glass without even damaging it and vaporizes two men. When buildings are hit by the Heat-Rays, they catch fire and collapse. Within seconds, the entire area around the intersection is flattened and the machine begins to move out. A father and his young daughter flee from the area just as the tripod had left.


==Demographics==
Ray hurries home, shaken and covered with the ashy remains of his neighborhood and neighbors. When he finally arrives at his house, Rachel is waiting for Ray at the door. Ray seems to be in a trance and sits on the kitchen floor. His kids keep asking him what happened and what was all covered over him. Rachel then reaches out and touches her father's coat and Ray jumps up in terror. Looking into a mirror, Ray vigorously wipes off the human ash from his face and body. He gets his kids together, brings food and his [[revolver]]. As they are leaving the house, several people come running from the direction of the Tripod. All of them are also covered in human ash from victims of the Heat-Rays. Ray finds and steals a newly-repaired [[1994]] [[Plymouth Voyager]], which appears to be the only working motor vehicle in the vicinity. They hop into the vehicle and Manny the Mechanic shows up just as they are about to leave. As Ray and Manny argue, a tree behind the van catches on fire. Rachel witnesses this and begins to panic. Ray tells Robbie to close the car door and he puts the pedal to the metal. They escape the city just as the tripod reaches their block, kills Manny and uses its rays to slice up the [[Bayonne Bridge]]. A huge explosion then follows and buildings everywhere crumble.
[[Image:Court_House,_Nashua,_NH.jpg|thumb|left|''Court House'' in c. [[1910]]]]
As of the [[census]]{{GR|2}} of 2000, there were 86,605 people, 34,614 households, and 22,083 families residing in the city. The [[population density]] was 1,082.5/km² (2,803.5/mi²). There were 35,387 housing units at an average density of 442.3/km² (1,145.5/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 89.25% [[White (U.S. Census)|White]], 2.01% [[African American (U.S. Census)|African American]], 0.32% [[Native American (U.S. Census)|Native American]], 3.88% [[Asian (U.S. Census)|Asian]], 0.03% [[Pacific Islander (U.S. Census)|Pacific Islander]], 3.05% from [[Race (U.S. Census)|other races]], and 1.46% from two or more races. 6.22% of the population were [[Hispanic (U.S. Census)|Hispanic]] or [[Latino (U.S. Census)|Latino]] of any race.


There were 34,614 households out of which 31.6% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 49.3% were [[Marriage|married couples]] living together, 10.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 36.2% were non-families. 28.3% of all households were made up of individuals and 8.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.46 and the average family size was 3.05.
===Flight from destruction===
The family hits the highway, trying to get to away from the assault. Robbie keeps asking what is going on and Ray then describes all that he witnessed when Rachel begins to go into complete panic. They take refuge for the night in the basement of Mary-Anne and Tim's empty house in [[suburb]]an [[New Jersey]]. While they are sleeping, a strange noise wakes them up. The house begins to shake and they run into a room on the side of the basement just as a streak of flame breaks through the windows. Ray goes upstairs to survey the damage, and he discovers that a plane crash has completely destroyed the neighbourhood around the house (and the house itself). He learns from the crew of a [[CBS]] TV news mobile unit that countless tripods have appeared near every major city of the world, wreaking havoc everywhere. The news team also shows Ray a videos of countless tripods destroying a city and of a lightning strike from one of the mysterious lightning storms. The video shows one alien "riding" the lightning in a capsule to a tripod below, thus explaining how the aliens arrived. The news team also tells Ray that they watched a battle between the tripods and a National Guard unit at the [[Pine Barrens (New Jersey)|Pine Barrens]]. All weapons were ineffective as each tripod is equipped with an invisible [[deflector shield]] that protects it from damage. When Robbie sees the plane crash, he is infuriated by the sight.
[[Image:Tripod26wj.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Ray watches as a tripod destroys his entire neighborhood.]]
Pushing on in the minivan, they drive through [[Upstate New York|Upstate]] [[New York]], trying to stay off the highways (in fear of people that might take their car) until they can make it to [[Boston, Massachusetts|Boston]], where Mary-Anne and Tim are staying with her parents. They witness further signs of the destruction: dozens of bodies floating down a river. Robbie runs after a passing [[United States National Guard|National Guard]] convoy, hoping to "get back at" the tripods, but Rachel pleads with him to stay. The family continues heading along the Hudson, only to encounter a mob of people in [[Athens, New York]] converging on a ferry-boat landing. The minivan is taken from them at gunpoint, and they take refuge in a deserted diner, where they witness a major gun fight over the minivan. They trek from there to the ferry on foot, interrupted by a [[railroad]] crossing where a burning train rushes past. They arrive at the ferry dock where they are briefly united with one of Ray's neighbors, (a woman named Sheryl and her daughter, Nora) just as a tripod appear on a hill behind them. Rachel was the first to notice it, nudging her father's hand Ray looks back with fear. Then Robbie turns around and has his first actual encounter with these invader's machines. The tripod lets out the deafening noise to alarm the refugees. At the sight of the tripod, the crowd at the ferry dock goes into a complete panic. The mob rushes toward the ferry. Then, out of nowhere, two more tripods appear from beyond the hill, turning on their several searchlights. Ray, Rachel, and Robbie slip past National Guard troops who have ordered the ferry to cast off, although it could take more passengers, even as the tripods begin attacking the frenzied, stranded mob. Another tripod appears from under water, and capsizes the ferry. Ray, Robbie and Rachel all jump into the river, only to pop up out of the water to see the front of a car slaps right into them. When the three finally rise again to the surface, they see [[tentacle]]s from the alien machines whip into the water, abducting the survivors of the sinking vessel.


[[Image:Railroad_Square,_Nashua,_NH.jpg|thumb|right|''Railroad Square'' in [[1910]]]]
[[Image:Tripods.jpg|250px|left|thumb|Three tripods descend on the Hudson ferry.]]
In the city the population was spread out with 24.7% under the age of 18, 8.1% from 18 to 24, 33.5% from 25 to 44, 22.2% from 45 to 64, and 11.6% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females there were 97.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 95.2 males.
Ray and his kids swim safely to the opposite shore after the ferry is sunk, but they see the wreckage of the capsized vessel and hear the screams from others who were being attacked and abducted and they know they could not answer them, they also see hundreds of people getting attacked by three tripods and their terrifying heat-rays on their side of the Hudson. They hide behind a bush just as a tripod walks by, and it starts to rain clothing (like it did at Ray's neighbourhood when the tripod first appeared). They move away from the tripods and set out on foot. They join a group of refugees, trying to get to [[Boston, Massachusetts|Boston]], only to find their way blocked by a horrific battle between tripods and the [[United States Army|US Army]], the [[United States Marine Corps|US Marine Corps]] and the [[United States Air Force|US Air Force]], using [[tank]]s, [[helicopter]]s, [[jet aircraft]], and [[artillery]] to try and hold back the tripods. Robbie runs to the crest of the hill to watch and join the battle. Ray leaves Rachel by a tree and reaches Robbie to try to convince him that they need to flee together. Rachel is found by a couple and is being asked to come with them for safety, but she pleads that she's waiting for someone. Finally Robbie convinces his dad Ray, that he needs to stay and fight/watch the battle, so Ray leaves and grabs Rachel just as the older couple were about to take her away. As they leave, it appears that the tripods have swarmed and killed the soldiers and Robbie as well. Ray and Rachel take refuge in the cellar of an abandoned farmhouse at the invitation of a man who has taken shelter in the house, an [[Emergency medical technician|EMT]] from [[New York City]], named Harlan Ogilvy ([[Tim Robbins]]), who lost his entire family during the invasion. Ray discovers that he is also madly plotting a one-man assault on the aliens.


The median income for a household in the city was $51,969, and the median income for a family was $61,102. Males had a median income of $43,893 versus $29,171 for females. The [[per capita income]] for the city was $25,209. 6.8% of the population and 5.0% of families were below the [[poverty line]]. 8.7% of those under the age of 18 and 6.4% of those 65 and older were living below the poverty line.
===Days of imprisonment===
Not long after Ray and Rachel have entered the basement, some kind of [[red weed]] begins appearing in the windows. Ray warns Ogilvy to not talk to Rachel, at which point the noise the tripods are making ceases. Shortly afterwards, an alien probe appears, searching the basement for signs of life. Ogilvy is about to launch a surprise attack on the probe, using an axe, but Ray convinces him not to, fearing it will attract the aliens. Ogilvy ducks under the probe and the axe he is carrying hits some glass. The camera notices this and goes to investigate. Ray, Ogilvy, and Rachel hide behind a mirror. Just as the probe begins to leave Rachel's foot slides out from hiding. When the probe eventually goes around the mirror, it finds nothing but Rachel's boot. The three are seen in the background and then hiding beneath the stairs. After they successfully elude the probe, several aliens subsequently appear and examine the basement, fascinated with the human artifacts. Ogilvy finds his shotgun and takes aim at the aliens, but Ray silently (so not to alert the aliens to their presence) wrestles the gun away and the two struggle before the aliens are called back outside.


===The invaders' plan===
== Politics ==
{{Nashua State Reps}}
More of the red weed grows in the basement. While two tripods cover the ground with a red spray (Ray discovers that it is made up of [[blood|human blood]]), Ray and Ogilvy watch as another tripod lowers a human to the ground before stabbing him with a syringe, draining him of all his blood. Ogilvy is thrown into madness by the sight, and begins raving loudly, "Not my blood! Not my blood!", after assaulting Ray. Ray has no choice but to kill Ogilvy in a tunnel he had been digging (he hoped to dig the tunnel all the way to [[New York City]], planning to organize a Resistance, launching sneak attacks at night from the city's numerous [[New York City Subway|subway]] tunnels) to silence him to avoid attracting attention from the aliens and to protect his daughter. A horrified Ray then falls asleep with his daughter.
{| class="wikitable" style="float:left;" width="200px"
[[Image:WOTWRedWeed.jpg|thumb|300px|Ray discovers the [[red weed]] has covered everything]]
!colspan=2| '''Nashua Aldermen'''
|-
|''Name''
|''Classification''
|-
|-
|Brian McCarthy
|At-Large
|-
|James Tollner
|At-Large
|-
|Steven Bolton
|At-Large
|-
|David Deane
|At-Large
|-
|Fred Teeboom
|At-Large
|-
|David Rootovich
|At-Large
|-
|Mark S. Cookson
|Ward 1
|-
|Richard LaRose
|Ward 2
|-
|Dan Richardson
|Ward 3
|-
|Marc Plamondon
|Ward 4
|-
|Mike Tabacsko
|Ward 5
|-
|Robert Dion
|Ward 6
|-
|Richard Flynn
|Ward 7
|-
|Dave MacLaughlin
|Ward 8
|-
|Gregory Williams
|Ward 9
|}
The city's government is headed by [[Mayor]] Bernie Streeter and the fifteen [[Aldermen]], six at-large Aldermen elected three at a time every four years, and nine ward Aldermen, one for each ward in the city, elected every two years.


Like other municipalities in New Hampshire, elections for city offices are technically nonpartisan. However, state and federal election results in the city were overwhelmingly in favor of the [[United States Democratic Party|Democrats]] during the 2004 Election[http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041104/ELECTIONS/111040113/-1/elections06], with the Democratic Presidential Candidate [[John Kerry]] winning in all 9 wards of Nashua [http://www.sos.nh.gov/general%202004/hillpres04.htm], Democratic Gubernatorial Candidate [[John Lynch]] winning in 6 of the 9 wards [http://www.sos.nh.gov/general%202004/hillgov04.htm] while the two candidates were neck and neck in their races elsewhere in the state.
===Captured===
Moments later, however, Rachel awakens to one of the aliens' scanner mechanisms staring right at her. Rachel runs away screaming, and, after Ray had hacked apart the alien probe with a hatchet, he goes outside searching for her. When he leaves the house, he discovers that the [[red weed]] has covered everything in sight. He is still looking for Rachel when a tripod appears out of nowhere. Ray hides in an abandoned [[Jeep Comanche]], which the tripod flips over. While laying in the [[Jeep Comanche|Comanche]], he sees Rachel about 30 feet away from him. The tripod then starts to move toward her, and Ray leaves the [[Jeep Comanche|Comanche]] and he also runs toward her. But he is too late and Rachel is captured by the Tripod. Ray finds a belt of [[hand grenade]]s from an abandoned [[High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle|Humvee]] military vehicle, and throws one of the grenades at the tripod. The tripod isn't affected (because of its shield), but it is enough for the tripod to notice him, and he is also captured.


In the [[New Hampshire General Court]], Nashua is represented in the House by Hillsborough County's 20th (Ward 1), 21st (Ward 2), 22nd (Ward 3), 23rd (Ward 4), 24th (Ward 6), 25th (Ward 7) and 26th (Wards 5, 8 and 9) districts and in the Senate by District 12 (Wards 1, 2, 5 and 9, shared with [[Hollis, New Hampshire|Hollis]], [[Mason, New Hampshire|Mason]], and [[Brookline, New Hampshire|Brookline]]) and District 13 (Wards 3, 4, 6, 7, and 8).
He is placed in one of the two metal 'nets' or baskets underneath the 'belly' of the tripods along with many other humans. Ray finds Rachel in the basket, and she is apparently in some sort of shock. As he reaches her, a horn is blown; a hatch opens above the basket and a 'tentacle' reaches into the basket, pulling a human prisoner into the machine. When he gets her to talk, the tentacle comes back out and wraps around Ray's legs as he covers Rachel in order to protect her and starts to pull him into the tripod to be the next victim to be drained of blood. However, a captured soldier, followed by the rest of the captured people, snatches Ray's arm, and prevents him from being entirely sucked in through an [[orifice]]-like opening. Ray manages to pull the pins on the grenades inside the tripod, then he is pulled out by others in the basket just before the grenades explode. As the tripod begins to shake out of control, the baskets are ejected and the machine collapses to the ground.


The 2005 city election saw a conservative slant[http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051108/NEWS01/51108018] and a recall petition gathered against Mayor Streeter.[http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051108/NEWS01/51108018] Ironically, Streeter first came to power via a recall of his predecessor, Don Davidson, who has now announced his intention to challenge Streeter in the recall election. Streeter successfully challenged this recall, drawing a ruling from a judge stating that only the city's aldermen may move to remove the mayor from office. A main feature of the election was the city government's attempt to take over, via [[eminent domain]], the local water utility, Pennichuck Water Works, against its wishes. In the run-up to the election, the utility ran many advocacy ads in the local media, and their "slate" of candidates opposing the takeover was elected.
===Defeat===
Ray and Rachel, and most of the other civilians and soldiers in the baskets survive the explosion (though some are seen impaled on branches or lying motionless), fall off the tripod, and Ray and Rachel make their way to Boston, where they find that the red weed has begun dying and the alien machines have begun collapsing. As they are being guided with a group of [[civilian]]s away from a malfunctioning tripod by soldiers from the [[10th Mountain Division]], Ray sees that the machine's shields are defunct (by noticing that birds were landing on the still walking tripod), leaving it open to attack, and takedown, from [[Javelin anti-tank missile]] attacks by the soldiers. After the tripod falls to the ground (taking out a large factory and several civilians with it), a hatch opens up, and gallons of an orange liquid substance pours out - this is quite possibly the tripods' fuel, as the same substance is seen spurting out from the probe when Ray hits it with the hatchet at the farmhouse, and is also released when Ray destroys the other tripod with the grenades. As the troops surround the hatch, a sickly looking alien slides one arm and part of its body out of the hatch, and dies.


==Commerce==
Ray arrives with Rachel at Mary-Anne's parents' house in Boston, where Mary-Anne, her parents, and Tim are all together and safe. They discover that Robbie, too, has survived and made his way to the house, and happily reunites with his real "Dad".
[[Image:Main_Street, Nashua,_NH.jpg|thumb|left|''Main Street'' in the [[1920s]]]]
The city may be best known today as a shopping mecca to residents of [[Massachusetts]] who come north of the state border to take advantage of the lack of a [[sales tax]] in [[New Hampshire]], particularly at the 1,000,000 [[square foot]] [[Pheasant Lane Mall]] just over the Tyngsboro/Nashua border.


The Mall is the anchor for the "South Nashua" commercial area, which spans from Tyngsboro to Exit 3 on the [[Daniel Webster Highway]]. The rest of the city's commercial zoning is focused primarily along the Main Street area and the Broad Street/Amherst Street corridor.
As in the original novel, over the final shot of the collapsed and immobile tripods, a narrator ([[Morgan Freeman]]) reveals that the aliens were defeated by exposure to Earth's native [[bacteria]] and other [[microorganism]]s, to which they were not immune.


There is a [[use tax]] that Massachusetts charges its residents to pay for items purchased in New Hampshire that are subject to taxation in Massachusetts, but it is unknown if anyone actually pays.
== Quotes from Spielberg ==
On the web site [[Dark Horizons]], Spielberg described his preferences for [[long take]]s in special effect-heavy movies:
:"I'm more interested in concept shots and money shots than I am in tons of [[MTV]] coverage, which certainly takes a lot of time. But if I can put something on the screen that is sustained where you get to study it and you get to say, 'How did they do that?' That's happening before my eyes and the shot's not over yet, it's still going and it's still going and my God, it's an [[special effects|effects]] shot and it's lasting seemingly forever. I enjoy that more than creating illusion with sixteen different camera angles, where no shot lasts longer than six seconds on the screen. To pull a rabbit out of a hat, because you are really a smart audience and you're in the fastest media, the fastest growing new media today and you know the difference between sleight of hand visually and the real thing. I think what makes ''War of the Worlds'', at least the version that we're making, really exciting, is you get to really see what's happening. There's not a lot of visual tricks. We tell it like it is, we show it to you, and we put you inside the experience."


== Education ==
He described the story as follows:
According to the 2000 U.S Census[http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/QTTable?_bm=y&-geo_id=16000US3350260&-qr_name=DEC_2000_SF3_U_DP2&-ds_name=DEC_2000_SF3_U&-_lang=en&-redoLog=false&-_sse=on], 22,700 residents over age three currently are enrolled in a Nashua educational institution, approximately a fourth of the city.
:"It's nothing you can really describe. The whole thing is very experiential. The point of view is very personal — everybody, I think, in the world will be able to relate to the point of view, because it's about a family trying to survive and stay together, and they're surrounded by the most epically horrendous events you could possibly imagine."


In [[2004]], Nashua's high school, one of the largest in New Hampshire, split off into a new high school known as Nashua High School North. North is located on Broad Street, just across the Nashua River from the old or "South" high school off Exit 5.
== Box office ==
Despite the controversies detailed below, the movie received positive reviews and made an impressive box-office performance. As of November 22, 2005, (the last day it was at the box office) it has earned $234.3 million domestically and $357.1 million overseas, making the total $591.4 million. It is the 4th highest grossing movie of 2005 (after ''[[Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith]]'', ''[[The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe]]'' and ''[[Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (film)|Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire]]'').


Nashua is currently experiencing an education-funding crisis. Mayor Bernie Streeter has mandated that each city department cut 5% from their budget. In order to do this the Nashua School District has had to consider either closing an elementary school, eliminating high school busing, closing the Alternative Middle School and/or cutting into special education and technical courses.
This is considered to be good news for both Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruise. First of all, Spielberg has not seen such a massive success since ''[[Saving Private Ryan]]'' (1998), and the $100-million ''[[Minority Report (film)|Minority Report]]'' (2002) — his first collaboration with Cruise — earned a reasonable $132 million. In the case of Cruise (whose 43rd birthday coincided with the movie's release), this movie is the biggest blockbuster of his career, since the movie opened its first weekend with $65 million (which is a record-high for [[Paramount Pictures]]), beating ''[[Mission: Impossible II]]'''s nearly $58 million (also from Paramount). By July 31, it had surpassed ''Mission: Impossible II'' in terms of total domestic box office receipts, a movie that earned $215.4 million.


Nashua is also home to [[Daniel Webster College]], one of the few places in the northeast which hosts an undergraduate program in aviation, which is largely because of its location next to Nashua's airstrip, Boire Field.
== Budget ==
In [[August 2004|August of 2004]], [[The Internet Movie Database]] reported that the film was "poised to make history in Hollywood as the most expensive film ever made — surpassing ''[[Titanic (1997 film)|Titanic]]''<nowiki>'s</nowiki> $198 million budget." The report quoted an unnamed source that said, "''No expense will be spared. Spielberg wants to make it the film of the decade.''" ''[[The New York Times]]'', the original source for this number, ran a correction a few days later that the budget is actually $128 million. The final budget, however, has been confirmed to be $132 million.


===Colleges===
== References to 9/11 ==
[[Image:Danielwebstercollege.JPG|thumb|right|''Entrance of Daniel Webster College'']]
{{Spoiler}}
Nashua is not generally considered a college town compared to nearby locales such as [[Durham, New Hampshire]], but as of 2006 the city has 5,000 students enrolled at six colleges: Hesser College Nashua campus, Southern New Hampshire University Nashua campus, Franklin Pierce College Nashua campus,
[http://www.dwc.edu Daniel Webster College],[http://www.nashua.nhctc.edu the New Hampshire Community Technical College Nashua campus], and [http://www.rivier.edu Rivier College].


===High schools===
Spielberg stated that the events of [[September 11, 2001]] had a significant effect on how he approached making this film. Many images in the film harken to the images and iconography of the 9/11 attacks.
After 2004, the city's only high school was split into the old [http://www.nashua.edu/nhs Nashua South] (home of the "[[Panther]]s", opened in 1976 and rebuilt/reopened in 2004) and the new [http://www.nashua.edu/nhn Nashua North] (home of the "Titans", opened in 2002) on Broad Street. The split of the two schools has caused an increase in athletic choice but a sudden decrease in athletic success. The once powerful Nashua High teams have split up, leaving them more vulnerable.
* The film starts with a shot of Lower Manhattan.
* Nearly every house in Ray's neighborhood has an American flag out front, mirroring the patriotism expressed after the terrorist attacks.
* Police officers tell civilians in danger to "Clear the intersection!" This was ordered by police officers in the Manhattan area on 9/11.
* Large crowds on the street staring in disbelief or running in panic at a rising [[tripod]], similar to the reactions of New Yorkers watching the attacks unfold.
* The dust that covers Ray after the initial attack, mirroring the clouds of dust that covered New York after the WTC's collpase.
* Ray runs into a store during the tripod's attack, mirroring how civilians escaped the cloud of dust caused by the collapsing buildings. However, the structure does not provide any shelter against the attack.
* The clothes of heat-ray victims float through the air, similar to how office papers floated from the World Trade towers after the planes' impact.
* Rachel asking Ray during the attack, "Is it the terrorists?"
* Upon entering Ray's ex-wife's house, a photo is shown on the table. In it, the family is pictured in front of the Brooklyn Bridge, with the World Trade Center site slightly visible in the background.
* A civilian aircraft crashes next to the same house.
* In the small town where the family's minivan is stolen, walls of posters are shown with pictures of missing people, as happened after 9/11 around the WTC.
* Civilians use a river ferry to move away from danger areas.
* The main characters watch horrific destruction unfold from the safety of the other side of the Hudson River.
*When Ray and Rachael are walking to Boston with the crowd of people, the camera pans out and shows smoke hanging over the city, a reference to the smoke that hung over New York after the attack.
* When Ray and Rachel arrive to the grandparents' house in Boston, everything is covered in a layer of dust. This is a reference when after the 9/11 attack, certain areas of New York were covered in dust from the clouds of dust.


The city is also home to [http://www.bghs.org/ Bishop Guertin High School] (home of the "[[Cardinal (bird)|Cardinal]]s"), a private, coeducational Catholic high school.
== Criticism and controversy ==
=== Tom Cruise, Scientology and the film ===
Though there is no apparent [[Scientology|Scientological]] ideology represented in the film — which was not written, produced or directed by anyone associated with the Scientology movement — press coverage in May and June 2005 leading up to the film's release focused on Tom Cruise's proselytizings for Scientology. Around this time, Cruise had changed publicists, from [[Pat Kingsley]] to his sister, [[Lee Anne DeVette]], and spoke to interviewers more frequently about Scientology — and his sudden engagement to actress [[Katie Holmes]] — than about the film itself.
Some press coverage noted[http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=100&ObjectID=10328889] the similarity between the film's promotional poster and the front cover of ''The Invaders Plan'' (volume one of ''[[Mission Earth (novel)|Mission Earth]]'') by [[L. Ron Hubbard]], founder of Scientology. This similarity is not singular to the film, however, as the image of a hand grasping the Earth is a recurring one in science-fiction: it was used, for example, for the [[1975 in film|1975]] movie ''[[Rollerball (1975 film)|Rollerball]]''. Moreover, the image used to promote the 2005 film is very similar to the image that was often used in advertising Paramount's ''[[War of the Worlds (TV series)|War of the Worlds]]'' during its first season.


Currently there are 4,486 students enrolled in the Nashua High School system, according to the 2000 US Census.
=== Critical reaction ===
Though the film garnered a positive box office response, reviews were mixed. Critic [http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050628/REVIEWS/50606007 Roger Ebert] regarded it: ''"...a big, clunky movie containing some sensational sights but lacking the zest and joyous energy we expect from Steven Spielberg."''


===Middle schools=== [[Image:Fairgroundmiddleschool.JPG|thumb|right|Entrance to Pennichuck Middle School]]
Still, as is typical with Spielberg's 21st century output, reactions to the movie have been heavily polarized, with other critics declaring it a near masterpiece. Writing for ''The Coast'', critic Mark Palermo says of the film, "Imagine ''Jurassic Park'' handled with the sorrow and doom of ''Schindler's List''. It's the most terrifying movie in ages."
*[http://www.nashua.edu/elm Elm Street]
*[http://www.nashua.edu/fairgroundsjh Fairgrounds (Middle)]
*[http://www.nashua.edu/pennichuckjh Pennichuck]
*[http://www.nashua.edu/alt/ The Academy for Learning and Technology]


===Elementary schools===
Most reviews have praised the movie for spectacular sound and special effects, as well as Spielberg's direction. But some opt to dwell on inconsistencies in the film's logic and unlikely coincidences in the storyline. Other critics felt the movie's characters, such as Tom Cruise's Ray Ferrier, Justin Chatwin's Robbie Ferrier and Dakota Fanning's Rachel Ferrier, were simply not likable characters.
*[http://www.nashua.edu/amherst/ Amherst Street]
*[http://www.nashua.edu/birchhill/ Birch Hill]
*[http://www.nashua.edu/bicentennial/ Bicentennial]
*[http://www.nashua.edu/broad/ Broad Street]
*[http://www.nashua.edu/charlotte Charlotte Avenue]
*[http://www.nashua.edu/drcrisp/ Dr. Crisp] [[Image:Bicentennialschool.png|thumb|right|Near The Entrance of Bicentennial Elementary School]]
*[http://www.nashua.edu/fairgrounds/ Fairgrounds (Elem.)]
*[http://www.infantjesusparish.org/ijs/ Infant Jesus]
*[http://www.nashua.edu/ledge/ Ledge Street]
*[http://www.nashua.edu/maindunstable/ Main Dunstable]
*[http://www.nashua.edu/mountpleasant/ Mount Pleasant]
*[http://www.nashua.edu/newsearles/ New Searles]
*[http://www.stchrisschoolnh.org/ Saint Christopher]
*[http://www.nashua.edu/sunsetheights Sunset Heights]


== Media ==
Many reviews praise the portrayal of human reaction to disaster, especially during the first hour, but say the pace of the film bogs down when Ray, Rachel, and Ogilvy are trapped in the basement playing a cat-and-mouse game with a Tripod's camera.
The city has a daily newspaper, the ''[[Telegraph of Nashua]]'', which is printed in neighboring [[Hudson, New Hampshire]]. Nashua also has two weekly newspapers, ''[[The Broadcaster]]'' and ''[[Hippo Press|The Hippo]]'', as well as a regional [[radio station]], WSNH 900 [[amplitude modulation|AM]] ([[ESPN Radio]]). Another radio station, WSMN 1590 AM ("the Tiger"), went dark in January [[2005]]. Longtime [[frequency modulation|FM]] station WHOB 106.3 FM moved to [[Hooksett, New Hampshire]], after changing owners in [[2004]].


==Sports==
Some literary experts gave the film a negative review as they felt it didn't have enough in common with the original novel by [[H. G. Wells]].
[[As of 2006]], Nashua's only professional sports team is a [[Can-Am]] minor league baseball team: The [[Nashua Pride]], which has played at [[Holman Stadium (New Hampshire)|Holman Stadium]] since [[1998]]. Before the Pride, Holman was the home stadium for the independent [[Nashua Hawks]]; the AA [[Nashua Pirates]] (the first professional stop for [[Barry Bonds]]); and the A [[Nashua Dodgers]], the first racially integrated professional baseball team in the modern age of baseball.


For years, the [[Nashua, New Hampshire High School South|Nashua High School]] Panthers were contenders for state championships in many sports because they were one of the largest high schools in the state. This advantage was decreased somewhat when Nashua High split into a new [[Nashua, New Hampshire High School North|North]] school ("The Titans") and the original South school. Both schools compete in the Class L (''large'') division of the [[New Hampshire Interscholastic Athletic Association]] as well as its counterpart in Boys' Football, Girls' and Boys' Skiing, Girls' and Boys' Lacrosse, Boys' Ice Hockey and Boys' Wrestling "Division 1". The North/South split became the premier high school rivalry in the city, supplanting the old rivalry between the public High School and the private [[Bishop Guertin High School]], which normally competes in Class L, but is in "Division 2" for Football.
=== Press coverage and anti-piracy controversy ===
The press preview of the movie raised severe criticism, as every journalist who wanted to take a look at the movie before it premiered had to sign a [[non-disclosure agreement]]. This NDA stated that the undersigned could not publish a review of the movie before its world-wide release on [[29 June]] [[2005]]. Many people have argued that the movie might not be able to catch up with the great expectations that might have been postulated by such reviewers.


In collegiate sports, Nashua is home to the [[Daniel Webster College]] Eagles[http://www.dwc.edu/athletics/], who compete within the [[Great Northeast Athletic Conference]] or "GNAC", and [[Rivier College]] Raiders, who also compete in the GNAC.
Furthermore, at the New York premiere of the film at the [[Ziegfeld Theatre]], all members of the press were required to check all electronic equipment — including [[mobile phone|cell phones]] — at the door, as part of a larger sweeping anti-piracy campaign by the film's producers hoping to keep the film from leaking on the [[Internet]].


The city also has an active running club known as the [http://www.gatecity.org Gate City Striders].
Among other efforts to curb piracy, the producers also prevented theatres from screening the movie at midnight the night of [[June 29]], despite the recent success of midnight screenings of such films as ''[[Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith]]''. The producers also chose not to screen the film in any [[DLP]]-equipped theatres. Some viewers saw these efforts as overreactions, especially the movie fans who enjoy seeing blockbusters such as ''War of the Worlds'' as early as possible.


== Awards and nominations ==
== Other ==
The Division II DCI [[drum and bugle corps]] The Spartans are based in Nashua. [http://www.spartansdbc.org]
=== [[2006 Academy Awards]] ===
Three nominations:
* [[Academy Award for Sound|Achievement in Sound]]
* [[Academy Award for Sound Editing|Achievement in Sound Editing]]
* [[Academy Award for Visual Effects|Achievement in Visual Effects]]


== Transportation ==
Central Ohio Film Critics
[[image:boirefield.jpg|thumb|right|''Entrance of Boire Field,'' Nashua's airport]]
* Best Sound Design
An extension from the [[Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority]] commuter rail [[Lowell, Massachusetts|Lowell]] Line to Nashua is being proposed. Meanwhile, in March [[2005]], Nashua lost its only scheduled commuter bus service to [[Boston, Massachusetts|Boston]]. However, [[Greyhound Lines|Greyhound]] still runs a limited number of buses between the two cities through Vermont Transit.


[[U.S. Highway 3]] and the [[Everett Turnpike]] run through the city. Nashua Municipal Airport (Boire Field), a [[general aviation]] facility, is located in the city's northwest corner. Public transportation is provided by the Nashua Transit System.
M.P.S.E. Golden Reel Awards
* Best Sound Editing in Feature Film - Sound Effects & Foley


== Famous residents, past and present ==
=== [[2005 Golden Raspberry Awards]] ===
One nomination:
* Worst Actor (Tom Cruise)


Nashua is the birthplace of professional wrestler [[Triple H]] and pop singer [[Mandy Moore]].
== Trivia ==
{{spoiler}}
* There is a reference to the original novel when a couple of aliens explore the basement that Ferrier and Ogilvy are hiding in, and one of them pauses to spin the [[wheel]] of a [[bicycle]] hanging on the wall &mdash; as if wondering what it is. In H.G. Wells' novel, the narrator discovers that in the alien technology, "the ''wheel'' is absent; among all the things they brought to earth there is no trace or suggestion of their use of wheels." (Their technology is based on elastic organic musculature.)
* There are a few references to the [[The War of the Worlds (1953 film)|original 1953 film]] and the later television series. There is a scene with an alien camera searching the house which Ray destroys with an axe, and one at the end with one of the aliens sliding an arm and part of his body out of his tripod and then dying, just as at the end of the 1953 film; there is also a street sign, behind Ray just before the [[Heat-Ray]] assault that says Van Buren, named after [[Ann Robinson]]'s character from that film; several lines of dialogue, especially those spoken by Tim Robbins' character, are taken directly from [[Orson Welles]]' infamous [[The War of the Worlds (radio)|radio adaptation]] of the novel; the plot device that the aliens had been to Earth before and left behind their tripods is reminiscent of a revelation in [[War of the Worlds (TV series)|''War of the Worlds'' TV series]] in which a tripod (an "older model" of the war machines in the 1953 film) is unearthed, having been left behind for hundreds to thousands of years.
*The sound which the Tripods emit to signal each other and induce fear in the humans is actually, in musical terms, a [[minor third]].
*The line "Once the Tripods start to move, no more news comes out of that area," was used in the 1953 [[film]], symbolizing the power the aliens use and the swiftness they employ.
* The stars of the 1953 film version, actors [[Gene Barry]] and [[Ann Robinson]], make a cameo appearance together &mdash; playing Mary-Anne's parents at the end of the film.
* The 1953 film ends with the characters taking refuge in a church just before the aliens' attack abruptly stops. In the new film, a church is the first building seen wrecked as the tripod emerges.
* The movie contains several subtle references to the original novel. An example is the boat scene, which is somewhat similar to the Thunder Child chapter in the novel.
* There are also references to earlier films about alien contact with Earth ''[[E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial]]'' (in the basement scene, the aliens cause a bicycle suspended on hooks to crash to the floor) and ''[[Close Encounters of the Third Kind]]'' (the synthesizer "note" sounded by the alien tripods [http://www.waroftheworldsfilm.com/downloads/tripodcall.wma] NOTE: This 'sound' from the tripods is in the original H.G. Wells novel, and should not be considered a rip-off of ''Close Encounters''), as well as ''[[The Day the Earth Stood Still]]'' (the mass stoppage of electrical power) and ''[[Quatermass and the Pit]]'' (Extraterrestrial machines buried underground since prehistoric times). Some find also that shots in the diner, where Ferrier and the kids take refuge after the mob captures the minivan, evoke memories of the diner in the original ''[[The Blob]]''.
* The plane in the crash scene is an [[All Nippon Airways]] (Japan) [[Boeing 747]]. The plane-crash set was built on the [[Universal Studios]] [[backlot]], right next to the famous Bates house from ''[[Psycho]].'' Despite great demand for the location, the studio has decided to keep the crash set intact as a permanent installation on the backlot tour.
* At the hill scene in the middle of the movie, when Ray Ferrier and his two kids are walking on a deserted farm with other refugees, U.S Air Force and Navy jets streak overhead firing at a nearby tripod. If you watch closely, the first jet that flies over is an [[F/A-22 Raptor]] stealth fighter, followed by one [[F/A-18 Hornet]], two [[F-16 Falcon]]s and an [[A-10 Thunderbolt II]]. The tanks that mount a ground offensive in that scene are [[M1A1 Abrams]] utilizing depleted uranium armor that was introduced in 1980 but not equipped until after 2001. The helicopters that bombard the tripod are [[AH-64]] Longbow Apache attack helicopters and [[AH-1 Cobra]] Light Attack helicopters. They are both missing landing equipment: landing wheels on the Apache and landing struts on the Cobras. The AH-1 Cobra was introduced in the 1970s but has remained a faithful part of the U.S Army and several other select armies around the world. The shoulder-portable anti-tank missile launchers seen in both the hill scene and at the end of the movie are [[FGM-148 Javelin]] missiles, first used by the U.S. military in 2003, the [[SRAW]] and the [[Carl Gustav recoilless rifle]].
* In the movie, Ray Ferrier's house is located in [[Bayonne, New Jersey|Bayonne]], [[New Jersey]] right near the [[Bayonne Bridge]]. The shot of the first tripod coming out of the ground was filmed in the '''[[Five corners]]''' intersection in the [[Ironbound]] neighborhood of [[Newark, New Jersey]]. The two places are about 25 miles (50 km) away but in the movie they are a couple of blocks away from each other (it appears that in the movie five corners was used to play a random intersection in Bayonne and not supposed to be the five corners located in Newark).
* In the movie, Mary-Anne's house is supposed to be in suburban New Jersey. The neighborhood was filmed in a residential development in [[Howell, New Jersey]].
* There is a poster advertising Spielberg's ''[[Jaws (film)|Jaws]]'' in Ray's house.
* [[Tom Cruise]] and [[Steven Spielberg]] had three films in mind to collaborate on after they had finished ''[[Minority Report (film)|Minority Report]]''. When Steven mentioned ''War of the Worlds'' to Tom, Tom said "Definitely ''War of the Worlds'', Steven!"
* Pre-production started in August 2004, and filming began in [[New Jersey]] in October 2004. The producers made sure to shoot the scene where the bridge behind Ray Ferrier's house is blown up, as soon as possible so that it was ready as a teaser trailer during the [[Super Bowl]] in January 2005. The film did not wrap until March 2005, and the post production crew had only 100 days to get the film ready (special effects, editing, music, etc.) for release on [[June 29]] 2005. Finishing touches were literally being finalized at the last minute, but Steven Spielberg made his proposed release date.
* Many have noticed that the aliens in the movie appear to be similar to the aliens in the 1996 movie ''[[Independence Day (film)|Independence Day]]''. Their head shapes are exactly alike, but the aliens in the movie are smaller than the ones in ''Independence Day''. The design is interesting as Spielberg more or less denounced ''Independence Day'' in comparison to ''War of the Worlds''.
* There is a widespread agreement in [[Japan]] that Spielberg has made a [[kaiju]] movie, in which, unlike American monster movies, indestructible giant monsters beyond understanding kill people mercilessly. At the world premiere in [[Tokyo]], Spielberg said, "Well, certainly the first tripod was taken down in [[Osaka]], because Osaka has so much experience with [[Gamera]] and [[Godzilla]]." This could explain why in the movie the tripods appear from under earth after a million years of hibernation, they are as tall as Godzilla, and they roar. In fact, one scene in the movie with a tripod looming over a hill crest almost parallels a scene in the original 1954 Godzilla movie where the monster's enormous visage is seen emerging from behind a hillside as people flee in terror.
* Spielberg made adjustments to the film to add a touch of realism. First, it shows no coverage of [[Washington, D.C.]] or [[New York City]] (going with the fact that most likely, if aliens invaded the earth, they would randomly kill everything that moved, and not know the specific people to target). Unlike other movies, badges were not taken off cars and labels were not taken off food products, and the [[CBS]] network was used to show coverage of the alien attacks.
* The scene in which Ray, Rachel and Robbie are escaping [[New Jersey]] in the van they acquire via the highway is presented as one continuous shot.
* There is a similarity to a novel in ''[[The Tripods]]'' series, which draws heavy inspiration from the original ''War of the Worlds''. In the novel ''The White Mountains'', the main character is picked up by a tentacle and drawn towards an opening in a ''Tripod''; using a grenade he and his friends salvaged, he kills the machine. In the movie, Ray is similarly grabbed by a tentacle and is drawn into an opening in the alien machine, leaving hand grenades inside when he is pulled out.
* The last scene in the film is similar to the famous last scene of the classic Western ''[[The Searchers (film)|The Searchers]]''.
* When Ray, Robbie and Rachel are walking to the ferry, you can see [[Steven Spielberg]], walking somewhere behind them.
* During the very same scene, you can hear through the speakers on the pier the song "If I Ruled The World" by [[Tony Bennett]].
* During the filming of the underwater scenes, [[Steven Spielberg]] played a prank on [[Tom Cruise]] and [[Dakota Fanning]] by playing the dramatic music from ''[[Jaws (film)|Jaws]]'' through the massive underwater speakers on the sound stage.
* In an early scene where Rachel is channel surfing, she hits briefly upon a shot of a car being demolished by a speeding [[locomotive]]. This is a scene from ''[[The Greatest Show on Earth]]'', which [[Steven Spielberg]] has reported as the first movie he ever saw. Also, while channel surfing, she flips to an episode of ''[[SpongeBob SquarePants]]'', "[[The Secret Box]]". The scenes in the episode and the sound is spliced out of order. At the very beginning of the scene, there is also a very short shot of the anime ''[[Sailor Moon (English version)|Sailor Moon]]'', in its English Version.
* Although hard to discern, in the scene where Ray finds the red weed, a black tarp is visible in the black background of the image. This is the edge of the soundstage and can be seen in the enlarged view of the image.


Actor [[Mike O'Malley]] is a graduate of Bishop Guertin High School.
==Source material==
{{listdev}}

=== Differences from the book ===
* The film's most obvious difference is that it takes place in the early 21st century northeastern United States rather than southern England "early in the twentieth century."
* The film's aliens do not land on Earth in giant cylinders before unleashing their war machines. Instead, the tripods have already been buried underground, and the alien beings arrive in capsules transported via [[lightning]] bolts.
* The aliens' tripods are more formidable in combat than their novel counterparts: the latter, although deadly, are still susceptible to conventional weapons and can be defeated in combat. The film counterparts are fitted with a 'shield' that makes them impervious to attack. The idea of the shields stems from the 1953 film version.
* The film omits a prominent element from the novel: the [[Black smoke|Black Smoke]], which was a part of the Martians' deadly arsenal. Writer David Koepp has explained that this was dropped more or less due to lack of time and didn't make it past his first draft, so any sightings of a similar substance are purely coincidence and can be attributed to other sources. The film also does not include the [[HMS Thunder Child|''Thunder Child'']], whose symbol of power but ultimate failure to stop the invaders was represented in the 1953 film by the [[nuclear weapon|atomic bomb]]; however, there is a vaguely similar scene taking place on land in which military forces fight valiantly in an effort to hold back the tripods until refugees make it to safety.
* The film's aliens are drastically different in design, featuring more humanoid mouths and also being [[tripedal]], where Wells' Martians have lipless v-shaped mouths and [[tentacle]]s. Also, the Martians of Wells' book, as well as in the movie, feast on the blood of humans (Wells described the clean skeletons of humans and other animals) but the aliens in the book apparently don't use human blood as fertilizer for their [[xenoforming]] project. In the movie the invaders also are uninterested in animals (rats, birds).
The alien's design has been the subject of some critizism; many consider them too cute and humanlike, as opposed to the novel's entirely non-human and repulsive aliens.
* In the film, Tim Robbins's character, Harlan Ogilvy, plays a synthesized dual role of curate and artilleryman from the novel, while sharing the name of the novel's narrator's friend. The film's Ogilvy has the qualities of the novel's increasingly mad curate, who drives the narrator to fight with him frequently. In the book, the character named Ogilvy is one of the first people killed by the alien's [[Heat-Ray]]. The film's Ogilvy has the qualities of the novel's artilleryman in that he is digging a tunnel for an underground city with the goal of resistance. The novel's curate is taken, and presumably "eaten", by the aliens after being struck in the head and left for dead by the narrator. In both versions, the story does not state outright that the main character killed the man, but the novel narrator does say "the killing of the curate" was "a thing done, a memory infinitely disagreeable but quite without the quality of remorse."
* The film never says where the aliens are from, unlike the book, where they are from [[Mars]]; in 1898, when the book was written, the possibility of life on Mars was considered realistic. This difference in origin shrouds the motive for the attacks on the Earth. In the book, the Martians are escaping from their dissipated planet, searching for a place to continue their civilization, rather than the "extermination" explanation given by a character in the film. It may or may not be coincidence that the red weed produced by the invaders would, if multipled on a large scale, duplicate an environment of much the same red hue of Mars.
* H.G. Wells never had the narrator play the hero. In fact, the story is told as a recount of the war, thus eliminating any doubts about the welfare of the narrator. In the film, the main character, Ray, succeeds in blowing up an alien tripod, creating the idea that heroes can be made in the face of an unbeatable foe, an idea Wells passed by.
* Much like in the 1953 film, the unnamed narrator and main character is not the same as he is in the novel. He is not divorced (although Ray shares a very similar goal of reuniting with his (ex-)wife), nor does he have a son or daughter to look after.
* While Ray has a brother much like the book's narrator, the film does not touch upon anything from this character's point-of-view, as the narrator recites some of what the brother witnessed during the invasion.
* In the novel, the narrator becomes trapped in an abandoned house when an alien cylinder lands close by. In the film, Ray, Rachel and Ogilvy are trapped in the house because the tripods are still outside. However, the scene in which the airplane crashes into Mary-Anne's house is similar to the scene in the book when the cylinder lands.
* No matter the location, virtually every version of the story tells of an arrival and then assault by what are the first aliens to land on Earth. However, in this version, it is established that the invasion has already begun in other parts of the world, though the main character is oblivious to this until much later in the story.
* The design of the tripods is not the same as their description in the novel. Wells describes the machines as "Walking engines of glittering metal...pieces of intricate rope dangling from it...green gas squirting from its joints...its motion was like a head moving about..." There are also no references to the invaders having any other machines than the tripods - in the novel, the Martians also had a [[Handling-Machine (War of the Worlds)|Handling-Machine]] (a five-legged machine with three tentacles used to build the tripods), Digging Machine (an automated tripod-excavator) and a [[flying-machine|Flying Machine]].

=== Similarities to the book ===
Although there are very huge differences from the book, there are also plenty of similarities.
* The fighting machines are tripods.
* The tripods are armed with Heat-rays.
* A speeding train runs by with every carriage aflame.
* The tripods emit a deafening call like a foghorn that is similar to that in the novel.
* Tripods are equipped with long tentacles that grab humans and put them into metal carriers or cages, just as in the book, where eventually these human prisoners will be drained of their blood for the use of food for the invaders.
* The red weed is spread everywhere the eye can see.
* Harlan Ogilvy is a mixture of the artilleryman and the curate.
* There is a scene where the characters are trapped in a farmhouse because of the invaders being outside.
* Ray's van is taken from them just like in the novel, where the narrator's brother and his two female companion's horse is taken. Ray also uses a revolver just as Miss Elphinstone does to scare off robbers in the novel.
* There is a scene where refugees take a ferry to get to safety.

== Cast ==
* [[Tom Cruise]] — Ray Ferrier
* [[Dakota Fanning]] — Rachel Ferrier
* [[Justin Chatwin]] — Robbie Ferrier
* [[Tim Robbins]] — Harlan Ogilvy
* [[Miranda Otto]] — Mary Ann
* [[David Alan Basche]] — Tim
* [[Yul Vazquez]] — Julio
* [[Rick Gonzalez]] — Vincent
* [[Lenny Venito]] — Manny
* [[Morgan Freeman]] — Narrator

== DVD info ==
*Revisiting the Invasion: Introduction with Steven Spielberg
*The [[H. G. Wells]] Legacy
*Production Diary: Part I — Filming on the East Coast
*Production Diary: Part II — Filming on the West Coast
*Pre-Visualization
*Designing the Enemy: Tripods and Aliens


== See also ==
== See also ==
* [[Citizens Action for Southern New Hampshire]]
{{wikiquotepar|War of the Worlds (2005)}}
* [[2005 in film]]
* [[Mine Falls Park]]
* [[Red weed]]
* [[John Lovewell (Junior)]]
*[[Nashua Corporation]]
* [[Tripod (The War of the Worlds)|Tripod]]
* [[Heat-Ray]]
* [[Scary Movie 4]]

==Notes==
# {{note|credit}} Josh Friedman's name is absent in early trailers, and his credit is most likely for legal reasons. In an interview with ''Creative Screenwriting'' magazine, David Koepp says that Friedman wrote a draft before Spielberg brought Koepp on board and that he (Koepp) wrote his script from scratch.

== External links ==
* [http://www.waroftheworlds.com/ Official Site]
* [http://www.waroftheworldsfilm.com/ The War of the Worlds Movie Site] — Directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Tom Cruise
*{{imdb title|id=0407304|title=War of the Worlds}}
* [http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1171975,00.html Guardian Unlimited: Spielberg and Cruise plan new War of Worlds]
* [http://www.apple.com/trailers/paramount/waroftheworlds/ First teaser trailer]
* [http://www.darkhorizons.com/news05/warworlds.php/ Cruise — Spielberg interviews on Dark Horizons]
* [http://romanticmovies.about.com/od/waroftheworlds/a/warworld022305.htm/ Interview with Doug Chiang and Rick Carter, designers on the film]
* [http://www.latinoreview.com/films_2005/paramount/wotw/featurette.html/ Behind the scenes featurette on the film]
* [http://www.calendarlive.com/movies/cl-ca-war8may08,2,6048620.story?coll=cl-home-top-blurb-right/ Los Angeles Times Summer Sneaks Article]
* [http://www.dreamworksfansite.com/waroftheworlds/images_official.php/DreamWorks Fansite's new images from War of the Worlds]
* [http://www.waroftheworldsmovies.info/ War of the Worlds Movies.info]
* [http://www.oregonherald.com/reviews/mark-sells/reviews/waroftheworlds.html Movie Review] — Mark Sells, ''The Oregon Herald''


==External links==
<!--Split film/book article intentional - Please do not remove this comment-->
[[Image:City_Hall_Cupola,_Nashua,_NH.jpg|thumb|right|''City Hall'' in [[1908]]]]
*[http://www.gonashua.com/ City of Nashua Official Web Site]
*[http://www.nashuahistory.com/ Nashua History Official Web Site]
*[http://www.nashuarpc.org/ Nashua Regional Planning Commission]
*[http://www.nhes.state.nh.us/elmi/htmlprofiles/nashua.html New Hampshire Economic and Labor Market Information Bureau Profile]
*[http://www.dwc.edu Daniel Webster College Website]
*[http://www.rivier.edu Rivier College Website]
*[http://marinel.net/nashua/ Ionel's Nashua regional links]
*[http://www.ctps.org/bostonmpo/pmt/PMT-7.pdf Lowell Line Extension]
*[http://www.nsks.org/ Nashua Soup Kitchen & Shelter]
*[http://www.harborhomes.org/ Harbor Homes Inc.]
*[http://www.hollowhill.com/nh/gilson.htm Haunted Gilson Road Cemetery] - Nashua's famous haunted cemetery
{{Mapit-US-cityscale|42.751038|-71.480817}}
{{New Hampshire}}


[[Category:2005 films]]
[[Category:Cities in New Hampshire]]
[[Category:Best Sound Editing Oscar Nominees]]
[[Category:Hillsborough County, New Hampshire]]
[[Category:Best Sound Mixing Oscar nominees]]
[[Category:Disaster movies]]
[[Category:Drama films]]
[[Category:Films based on science fiction books]]
[[Category:Films directed by Steven Spielberg]]
[[Category:Films set in New Jersey]]
[[Category:Horror films]]
[[Category:Paramount films]]
[[Category:Science fiction films]]
[[Category:Thriller films]]
[[Category:Visual Effects Oscar Nominee]]
[[Category:The War of the Worlds]]


[[sv:Nashua]]
[[ar:حرب العوالم (فيلم 2005)]]
[[bs:Rat svjetova]]
[[de:Krieg der Welten (Film)]]
[[es:La guerra de los mundos (2005)]]
[[fr:La Guerre des mondes (film, 2005)]]
[[it:La guerra dei mondi (film 2005)]]
[[nl:War of the Worlds (2005)]]
[[ja:宇宙戦争 (映画)]]
[[no:Klodenes kamp]]
[[pl:Wojna światów (film 2005)]]
[[pt:War of the Worlds (filme de 2005)]]
[[ru:Война миров (фильм, 2005)]]
[[fi:Maailmojen sota (elokuva 2005)]]
[[sv:Världarnas krig (film)]]
[[tr:Dünyalar Savaşı (film)]]
[[zh:世界大战 (2005年电影)]]

Revision as of 01:01, 7 May 2006

Nashua, New Hampshire
Official seal of Nashua, New Hampshire
Seal
Nickname: 
Gate City
Location in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire
Location in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire
CountiesHillsborough County
Government
 • MayorBernard A. Streeter (Rep)
Population
 (2000)
 • Total86,605 (city proper)
Time zoneUTC-5 (Eastern)
 • Summer (DST)UTC-4 (Eastern)
Websitewww.gonashua.com

Nashua is a city located in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, USA. As of the 2000 census, Nashua had a total population of 86,605, making it the second largest city in the state after Manchester.

Built around the now-departed textile industry, in recent decades it has been swept up in southern New Hampshire's economic expansion as part of the Boston, Massachusetts, region. Nashua was twice named "Best Place To Live In America" in annual surveys by Money magazine. It is the only city to get the No. 1 ranking two times—in 1987 and 1997.

History

Like many New England cities, Nashua grew because of textile mills using water power. The city was originally part of the Dunstable grant in Massachusetts and lies approximately in the center of the original 1673 grant. When the state line was redrawn in 1741, the town of Dunstable, Massachusetts, was divided in two. Dunstable, New Hampshire, was incorporated from the northern part of the town.

File:Mills, Nashua, NH.jpg
Nashua Manufacturing Company in 1921

By 1836, Nashua Manufacturing Company had built three cotton mills and was producing 9.3 million yards of cotton cloth annually on 710 looms, and the town of Dunstable was renamed "Nashua." The legislature declared that it was now named for the Nashua River. Six railroad lines crossed the city with 56 trains entering and departing daily before the Civil War.

What is now Nashua broke in two for a while, following a tax dispute between the town of Nashville north of the Nashua River, where most of the wealthier people lived, and town of Nashua south of the river. The two joined together and chartered the city in 1853.

The textile business started moving to the South during the Great Depression, with the last mill closing in 1949. Sanders Associates, a newly created defense firm that is now part of BAE Systems, moved into one of the closed mills and launched the city's rebirth. The arrival of Digital Equipment Corp. (now part of Hewlett-Packard) in the 1970s made the city part of the Boston-area high-tech corridor.

Geography

Nashua is located at 42°45′4″N 71°28′51″W / 42.75111°N 71.48083°W / 42.75111; -71.48083 (42.751038, -71.480817)Template:GR. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 82.5 km² (31.8 mi²). 80.0 km² (30.9 mi²) of it is land and 2.5 km² (0.9 mi²) of it is water. The total area is 2.98% water. The highest point in Nashua is Long Hill (418 feet above sea level), in the southern part of the city.

The city is bordered on the east by the Merrimack River, across which lies the town of Hudson, New Hampshire. To the north is Merrimack, New Hampshire, west is Hollis, New Hampshire, and south is Tyngsboro, Massachusetts. The city is roughly bisected by the Nashua River.

As with much of New England, the weather in this city varies greatly throughout the year. Harsh winters often batter the area while the summers can be scorching; it is a four-season area.

Demographics

File:Court House, Nashua, NH.jpg
Court House in c. 1910

As of the censusTemplate:GR of 2000, there were 86,605 people, 34,614 households, and 22,083 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,082.5/km² (2,803.5/mi²). There were 35,387 housing units at an average density of 442.3/km² (1,145.5/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 89.25% White, 2.01% African American, 0.32% Native American, 3.88% Asian, 0.03% Pacific Islander, 3.05% from other races, and 1.46% from two or more races. 6.22% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.

There were 34,614 households out of which 31.6% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 49.3% were married couples living together, 10.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 36.2% were non-families. 28.3% of all households were made up of individuals and 8.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.46 and the average family size was 3.05.

Railroad Square in 1910

In the city the population was spread out with 24.7% under the age of 18, 8.1% from 18 to 24, 33.5% from 25 to 44, 22.2% from 45 to 64, and 11.6% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females there were 97.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 95.2 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $51,969, and the median income for a family was $61,102. Males had a median income of $43,893 versus $29,171 for females. The per capita income for the city was $25,209. 6.8% of the population and 5.0% of families were below the poverty line. 8.7% of those under the age of 18 and 6.4% of those 65 and older were living below the poverty line.

Politics

Template:Nashua State Reps

Nashua Aldermen
Name Classification
Brian McCarthy At-Large
James Tollner At-Large
Steven Bolton At-Large
David Deane At-Large
Fred Teeboom At-Large
David Rootovich At-Large
Mark S. Cookson Ward 1
Richard LaRose Ward 2
Dan Richardson Ward 3
Marc Plamondon Ward 4
Mike Tabacsko Ward 5
Robert Dion Ward 6
Richard Flynn Ward 7
Dave MacLaughlin Ward 8
Gregory Williams Ward 9

The city's government is headed by Mayor Bernie Streeter and the fifteen Aldermen, six at-large Aldermen elected three at a time every four years, and nine ward Aldermen, one for each ward in the city, elected every two years.

Like other municipalities in New Hampshire, elections for city offices are technically nonpartisan. However, state and federal election results in the city were overwhelmingly in favor of the Democrats during the 2004 Election[1], with the Democratic Presidential Candidate John Kerry winning in all 9 wards of Nashua [2], Democratic Gubernatorial Candidate John Lynch winning in 6 of the 9 wards [3] while the two candidates were neck and neck in their races elsewhere in the state.

In the New Hampshire General Court, Nashua is represented in the House by Hillsborough County's 20th (Ward 1), 21st (Ward 2), 22nd (Ward 3), 23rd (Ward 4), 24th (Ward 6), 25th (Ward 7) and 26th (Wards 5, 8 and 9) districts and in the Senate by District 12 (Wards 1, 2, 5 and 9, shared with Hollis, Mason, and Brookline) and District 13 (Wards 3, 4, 6, 7, and 8).

The 2005 city election saw a conservative slant[4] and a recall petition gathered against Mayor Streeter.[5] Ironically, Streeter first came to power via a recall of his predecessor, Don Davidson, who has now announced his intention to challenge Streeter in the recall election. Streeter successfully challenged this recall, drawing a ruling from a judge stating that only the city's aldermen may move to remove the mayor from office. A main feature of the election was the city government's attempt to take over, via eminent domain, the local water utility, Pennichuck Water Works, against its wishes. In the run-up to the election, the utility ran many advocacy ads in the local media, and their "slate" of candidates opposing the takeover was elected.

Commerce

File:Main Street, Nashua, NH.jpg
Main Street in the 1920s

The city may be best known today as a shopping mecca to residents of Massachusetts who come north of the state border to take advantage of the lack of a sales tax in New Hampshire, particularly at the 1,000,000 square foot Pheasant Lane Mall just over the Tyngsboro/Nashua border.

The Mall is the anchor for the "South Nashua" commercial area, which spans from Tyngsboro to Exit 3 on the Daniel Webster Highway. The rest of the city's commercial zoning is focused primarily along the Main Street area and the Broad Street/Amherst Street corridor.

There is a use tax that Massachusetts charges its residents to pay for items purchased in New Hampshire that are subject to taxation in Massachusetts, but it is unknown if anyone actually pays.

Education

According to the 2000 U.S Census[6], 22,700 residents over age three currently are enrolled in a Nashua educational institution, approximately a fourth of the city.

In 2004, Nashua's high school, one of the largest in New Hampshire, split off into a new high school known as Nashua High School North. North is located on Broad Street, just across the Nashua River from the old or "South" high school off Exit 5.

Nashua is currently experiencing an education-funding crisis. Mayor Bernie Streeter has mandated that each city department cut 5% from their budget. In order to do this the Nashua School District has had to consider either closing an elementary school, eliminating high school busing, closing the Alternative Middle School and/or cutting into special education and technical courses.

Nashua is also home to Daniel Webster College, one of the few places in the northeast which hosts an undergraduate program in aviation, which is largely because of its location next to Nashua's airstrip, Boire Field.

Colleges

Entrance of Daniel Webster College

Nashua is not generally considered a college town compared to nearby locales such as Durham, New Hampshire, but as of 2006 the city has 5,000 students enrolled at six colleges: Hesser College Nashua campus, Southern New Hampshire University Nashua campus, Franklin Pierce College Nashua campus, Daniel Webster College,the New Hampshire Community Technical College Nashua campus, and Rivier College.

High schools

After 2004, the city's only high school was split into the old Nashua South (home of the "Panthers", opened in 1976 and rebuilt/reopened in 2004) and the new Nashua North (home of the "Titans", opened in 2002) on Broad Street. The split of the two schools has caused an increase in athletic choice but a sudden decrease in athletic success. The once powerful Nashua High teams have split up, leaving them more vulnerable.

The city is also home to Bishop Guertin High School (home of the "Cardinals"), a private, coeducational Catholic high school.

Currently there are 4,486 students enrolled in the Nashua High School system, according to the 2000 US Census.

===Middle schools===

Entrance to Pennichuck Middle School

Elementary schools

Media

The city has a daily newspaper, the Telegraph of Nashua, which is printed in neighboring Hudson, New Hampshire. Nashua also has two weekly newspapers, The Broadcaster and The Hippo, as well as a regional radio station, WSNH 900 AM (ESPN Radio). Another radio station, WSMN 1590 AM ("the Tiger"), went dark in January 2005. Longtime FM station WHOB 106.3 FM moved to Hooksett, New Hampshire, after changing owners in 2004.

Sports

As of 2006, Nashua's only professional sports team is a Can-Am minor league baseball team: The Nashua Pride, which has played at Holman Stadium since 1998. Before the Pride, Holman was the home stadium for the independent Nashua Hawks; the AA Nashua Pirates (the first professional stop for Barry Bonds); and the A Nashua Dodgers, the first racially integrated professional baseball team in the modern age of baseball.

For years, the Nashua High School Panthers were contenders for state championships in many sports because they were one of the largest high schools in the state. This advantage was decreased somewhat when Nashua High split into a new North school ("The Titans") and the original South school. Both schools compete in the Class L (large) division of the New Hampshire Interscholastic Athletic Association as well as its counterpart in Boys' Football, Girls' and Boys' Skiing, Girls' and Boys' Lacrosse, Boys' Ice Hockey and Boys' Wrestling "Division 1". The North/South split became the premier high school rivalry in the city, supplanting the old rivalry between the public High School and the private Bishop Guertin High School, which normally competes in Class L, but is in "Division 2" for Football.

In collegiate sports, Nashua is home to the Daniel Webster College Eagles[7], who compete within the Great Northeast Athletic Conference or "GNAC", and Rivier College Raiders, who also compete in the GNAC.

The city also has an active running club known as the Gate City Striders.

Other

The Division II DCI drum and bugle corps The Spartans are based in Nashua. [8]

Transportation

Entrance of Boire Field, Nashua's airport

An extension from the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority commuter rail Lowell Line to Nashua is being proposed. Meanwhile, in March 2005, Nashua lost its only scheduled commuter bus service to Boston. However, Greyhound still runs a limited number of buses between the two cities through Vermont Transit.

U.S. Highway 3 and the Everett Turnpike run through the city. Nashua Municipal Airport (Boire Field), a general aviation facility, is located in the city's northwest corner. Public transportation is provided by the Nashua Transit System.

Famous residents, past and present

Nashua is the birthplace of professional wrestler Triple H and pop singer Mandy Moore.

Actor Mike O'Malley is a graduate of Bishop Guertin High School.

See also

File:City Hall Cupola, Nashua, NH.jpg
City Hall in 1908

Template:Mapit-US-cityscale

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