War of the Worlds

2005 Directed by Steven Spielberg

They're already here.

Ray Ferrier is a divorced dockworker and less-than-perfect father. Soon after his ex-wife and her new husband drop off his teenage son and young daughter for a rare weekend visit, a strange and powerful lightning storm touches down.

Tom Cruise Dakota Fanning Miranda Otto Justin Chatwin Tim Robbins Rick Gonzalez Yul Vazquez Lenny Venito Lisa Ann Walter Ann Robinson Gene Barry David Alan Basche Roz Abrams Michael Brownlee Camillia Sanes Marlon Young John Eddins Peter Gerety David Harbour Miguel Antonio Ferrer January LaVoy Stephen Gevedon Julie White Marianne Ebert Rafael Sardina Amy Ryan Ed Vassallo Michael Arthur Danny Hoch Show All…

Alternative Titles

Samkarota omi, Rat svetova, Planetary War

thriller adventure science fiction

117 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by Mary Conti 14

When 9/11 happened, I was in middle school. I was 13. When the first plane hit, I was just getting settled into second period. At about 9:15, the principal turned on the speaker and delivered the news. But we didn't hear about the planes, because at that point, there wasn't enough information to know about the planes in the first place. All we heard were the buzzwords: "Terrorists" "Attack" "Explosion" So the school was to be evacuated for safety precautions, of course.
It was one of the scariest moments of my life. I saw no explosions that day. I didn't see any death. I just saw the people in my life and strangers completely freaking out, and it wasn't until…
Review by josh lewis ★★★★★ 8

one of the medium's foremost masters of screen space has a panic attack, a full-blown psychotic breakdown when confronted with the post-9/11 horror and confusion and paranoia that comes with the realization that our space no longer feels safe. some of the straight up cleanest and scariest monster/disaster suspense sequences ever put to film. watched this on the new 4K blu-ray and felt like i was seeing a number of its gruesome images i've never been able to get out of my head for the first time again; the stylish shadows, light blooms, muted colors and grain textures all look incredible and only serve to heighten the ground-scale vaporizing, rivers of corpses and fertilized roots of human blood. someone should scare the shit out of spielberg again so we can get more movies like this and Munich.
Review by brat pitt ★★★ 15

so close to being “pretty good!” this was one of the first sci-fi horrors i was ever allowed to watch and as a 10 year old with a panic disorder i loved it — it really hit home to see a girl my age struggling with the same thing.
i do maintain that the first half is as good as i remember, but around the midpoint the story slows way tf down and it dissolves into some Casual Propaganda. clearly a post-9/11 piece and in a bad way — military portrayed as heroic good guys instead of the foot soldiers of oppression they are — no thank you! the national guard trucks were real and clearly loaned in exchange for…
Review by SilentDawn ★★★★½ 2

84
"Steven Spielberg’s filmography is often so encompassing and ambitious that it tends to lose certain works in its wake. For every BFG or Ready Player One, films that offer his stylistic traits but tend to suffer from intrinsic elements of the source material, there’s a Lost World or The Post: movies that linger in the conversation simply by being a Spielberg movie, and in watching them, you’re perplexed as to why they’re so frequently ignored or lost in the shuffle. To be fair, in the grand scheme of things, anything lesser than Jaws, Close Encounters, E.T, Indiana Jones, Schindler’s List, Jurassic Park, Saving Private Ryan and all of his other smash pop culture phenomenon, would of course find trouble…
Review by demi adejuyigbe 7

SPACE WEEK MOVIE NO. 3

Poochie-ass ending.
Review by Naughty aka Juli Norwood ★★★★ 5

Surprisingly dark and twisted so unlike your typical Steven Spielberg film and I love it! Spectacular Special Effects! As far as acting goes the young upstart Dakota Fanning stole the show!
I could have done without the whole bad dad, teenage angst thang but other than that I truly enjoyed the film and it has become my favorite film adaptation of H.G. Well's Novel!
Review by Kemper ★★★★ 1

Overall I actually really enjoyed this remake, I would even go as far as saying this is better than the original.

7.5/10
Review by thomas1995 ★★★ 1

WHAT IS IT? IS IT TERRORISTS?
PROS:
~The best element of the film is the tension that is created through various scenes. The first appearance of the aliens from the ground and the following chaotic situation is a foreshadowing of the intimidating entity that will be revealed. Furthermore, the panicked people, the collapsing buildings, the damaged airplane, the scene aboard the ferry and the hide-and-seek in the basement are intense and show the desperation that people can be found into from one moment to the next.
~The film is a commentary of how an invasion of any kind could affect the humans. The scene where the family drives through a crowd of desperate people indicates the fear and the anxiety.…
Review by Neil Bahadur ★★★★★ 3

An equal parts thrilling-and-terrifying masterpiece on the utter destruction of humanity from the sick genius Steven Spielberg
Review by Erik Nordgren ★★★½

steven spielberg: i guess i’ll do this alien movie now
john williams: i have to go as hard as possible in every scene or i’ll die
Review by Syaoran ★½ 3

I guess Spielberg focused too much on capturing that chaotic end-of-the-world atmosphere that he forgot to present a cohesive narrative and likable characters.
Review by sydney ★★★★ 3

personally, i think the ending is depressing as hell, i'm not sure what the epilogue implies if the whole thing's supposed to be a terrorism allegory, and the whole basement chunk of the movie is...odd. it's all pretty ridiculous of course, but spielberg could sell ice to the proverbial eskimo if he made a movie about it - nobody else can pull off the human element in a disaster movie quite this well, and nobody else makes mass death by vaporization, bizarre gore, and the imminent extinction of the human race look so beautiful. elegant even. he also borrows heavily from JURASSIC PARK (because who else could he borrow from?) with great results, and uses digital effects in a very…

Recent reviews

Review by Aarne ★★★½

Lightning never strikes in the same place twice.
-Ray Ferrier
War of the Worlds seems, at first, like any other sci-fi action flick. However, despite the many cliches it employs, it quickly turns into something more than what it at first promises. The shift in tone, going from a predictable and somewhat goofy sci-fi extravaganza into a much darker setting, certainly helps in giving this movie its own flair.
Indeed, it was that tonal shift that really caught me off guard. This film, like many others like it, sets off by introducing us to a group of characters (in this case, a somewhat broken family) who we get to follow as they endure the trials and tribulations that the story…
Review by Marco Luka ★★★★

Such an underrated movie...
This movie was one from the first movies that I watched when I was kid..
Now after all this movie I watched it again and literally This like my first time cause I don't remember that much details 😅😃
Steven Spielberg... Well.. that man knows how to direct a good Sci-fi movie ❤️
This is my third movie for Spielberg and it's so goood 🔥🔥🔥
Alot of great shots...
I like this movie too much and deserve more rating than this
Review by mprak ★★★

what a shitty ending
Review by Leowe ★★

One of the few great disappointments in Spielberg's directorial career.
Im Grunde genommen ein ziemlich trashiger B-movie-Streifen, der seine Genre-Herkunft durch die hochkarätigen Darsteller zu verschleiern versucht. Nach einem soliden Beginn, enttäuscht das Ding allerdings umso stärker, je näher es dem Schlussakt entgegen geht.
Review by Markus ★½

2-3, Spielberg sei Dank, gute Szenen, aber der Rest, oje oje, ist wegen des unglaublich schwachen Drehbuchs kaum zu ertragen. Unsympathischer Familienvater grinst und rennt (manchmal) weg, (manchmal) aber auch nicht und schaut sich das Vernichtungsspektakel an. Hat selber dann mehrmals Schweineglück, während um ihn herum alle weggebrutzelt werden. Die Erde ist am Ende am Ende, aber Happy End weil seine Familie überlebt. Gute Nacht.
Review by slimeluca ★★★½

would've been pretty good until the ending
Review by James Zuranik ★★

This film disappoints me. Given the story it is based on, it should be good, but it really lacks feeling. There is a lot of good action on screen but it never feels exciting to watch. I don't feel anything for the characters either, they appear to convey emotion, but I don't feel it. This film just doesn't draw me into it. It has good cinematography, very well done effects, and the aliens and their tri-pods look excellent; but the void of emotion I have while watching it makes it such a lackluster film for me.
Review by Ricardo Barria ★★★½

Its still a lot of fun, Spielberg does not miss
Review by Alisha C. Browne ★★★½

Watched this movie back when I was a kid. This movie sure gave me a good scare and some nightmares too (even still today). I loved how the tripods looks. The ending really sucked though. It felt incompleted.
Review by ReaWare ★★★★

All clear.
But why people keep going straight ahead on tripods' arms? Why Tom Cruise's son ask him to let him go home alone? But most of all, seriously? Only a .38 and a p226 in all that crowd of American people?
This movie is not credible.
Review by Samantha Steele ★★★★

Every time I watch this movie, it scares me just as much as the first time I watched it.
Review by fps_grave ★★★★

2005 and it still looks incredible, one of the more "realistic" looking invasion movies