The foghorn-sounding noise that the tripods make before they go on a killing spree is honestly one of the creepiest sounds I've ever heard in a movie. Also, Gene Barry and Ann Robinson, the two stars from the 1953 movie, made a cameo at the very end as the kid's grandparents.

This must be the first movie that Cassie spent more time hiding than Carly did

28:45 Ladies and Gentlemen. We have our first nomination for "Best Jump Scare" for the Poppies 2025!

The original novel by H.G. Wells is amazing. Consider that he wrote it between 1895 and 1897, before cars, airplanes, and very few homes had electricity, he wrote about aliens coming to earth in spaceships and using laser beams instead of solid projectiles. His imagination was insane.

The older couple on the porch at the end were the original actors from the 1953 "War of the Worlds"

I remember seeing this in theaters and thinking to myself "When was the last time I saw Tom Cruise playing a character who is simply a working man and father." He's not a navy pilot; not a Superspy; not a Vampire; not a Hotshot Lawyer getting paid 6 figures a year; he's just a hard working every man. This was a role that was just simple yet very grounded and real.

“From the moment the invaders arrived they were doomed, mankind had earned its immunity” what a line that tells so much. Amazing movie. Amazing reactions👏🏼

Cassie during an alien invasion “ can you just leave already?!” Aliens “well sheesh, you don’t have to be rude about it!” 😤

Lmao. Cassie would be the one to defeat the aliens with firm but polite words. "Can you leave already!"

I remember when this movie came out some criticism was that "no way humans would behave like that, they would come together and help each other in times of need and blah blah blah". Well, after seeing people fighting over toilet paper during the pandemic, I guess it's not that weird the way they behaved in this movie...

"You don't head to the city." There's a reason this saying exists: "Head for the hills!"

The original story is a simple premise. Aliens come to earth, start destroying everything, but are killed by common viruses that humans are resistant to. But its a classic.

Cassie's scream at the Martian face was absolutely priceless

The scene where they are driving on the "turnpike" and stop at the farm house was filmed next to my house. when they started filming, they asked for locals to be extras....it was a "big deal" in my tiny farm town lol. The school even told students and teachers to go be extras and don't worry about missing school lol. Only downside was they would shut down the road to my house when filming and I couldn't get home in the afternoons. Literally had the road blocked with cops and I could see my house but was forced to sit in my truck and wait. That was super annoying. Tom Cruise apparently left large tips (money) for waitstaff at restaurants...and also left money for a local kid that was trying to raise money for medical treatment. I think there was like a jar/sign at our local Dairy Queen and he left a bunch of money.

In case you have not noticed, this movie was a reunion for two TOP GUN actors: Tom Cruise & Tim Robbins. A lot of people had forgotten Tim Robbins played Merlin, the radar interceptor officer (RIO) or the back seater who was initially paired with Cougar. Upon Maverick's return to the carrier just before the massive dogfight with the Mig-28s, Merlin became his RIO. TOP GUN forever!!!

When Dakota throws her head down onto the car seat as they're frantically racing to safety of some kind, with the camera whipping down with her, Dakota crying and conveying absolute terror, then delivers the most chilling line in a movie: 'Is it the terrorists?' When I saw this opening day in the theatre, the collective audience gasped on this moment. We were only four years out from 9-11 and it was still fresh in our minds. Hearing it now, almost twenty years out, it takes me right back to the atmosphere of the times and unease still in the air. But, Dakota. I just saw her in an Episode of Friends where she guest stars as a little girl Joey has a scene with and she is freakin' all timer hilarious in it. And here she makes you tear up from her uncertainty and horror. The range on her at such a young age. She was a prodigy. Legend.

War of the Worlds is a novel first published in the late 1800s. The radio broad cast of the story in 1938 was narrated by Orson Wells (if you don't know who he is he is worth looking up). The story was presented as radio news reports causing many to believe they were true and not fiction send many people into panic . Some news papers said that the panic was exaggerated.

One of Spielbergs most underrated movies.

I wanted to see this movie for my birthday with friends in high school, but I waited and waited and no one was showing up. I had resigned myself to seeing the movie all alone, when two of my less-closer friends showed up together. They were the last two I expected to show up, but they came with a present and a card, and we all watched War of the Worlds. It made all the difference. I'll always associate this movie with friendship, how people can always surprise you and the difference even a small gesture can make to someone, even if they aren't your best friend.

24:31 This part too. The entire sequence in the basement was so nerve-wracking and tense. What happens at the end of it is understandable but so unsettling at the same time.

Independence Day had humans defeating the aliens with a computer "virus" which was a homage to war of the worlds.

Ever want a night of entertainment without the screen, Jeff Waynes musical the War of the Worlds is the best version of this story. Narrated by Richard Burton, absolutely incredible.

War of the Worlds is a surprisingly dark film. The 9/11 imagery (less than four years after the attacks), the human ash covering Ray, Rachel’s terror and anxiety during the first attack (amazing acting from Dakota btw), Ray being forced to kill Harlan, and the extremely uncomfortable family dynamics due to Ray’s poor parenting…it can be a rough watch for those thinking it’s just eacapist blockbuster fare from Spielberg.

Dakota Fanning always was an uncannily good actor as a kid. Her performance in this is quite amazing.

No one mentions the cast, while not “Star studded” there are some well known ones. My favorite of which, is Miranda Otto who plays Eowyn in the Lord of the Rings plays the mom. ❤️

One of the best parts about reaction channels, is that they can give new "life" to a movie you thought you didn't like. I remember being _so_ disappointed when seeing this in theaters that i've never watched it again. But watching this, there are so many pieces of this movie that have been stuck in my mind for almost two decades now. And the ending was suitably epic and quite a bit more satisfying than i remember: "for neither do men live or die in vain." It's a powerful statement, when you're in the right mind to hear it.

"We'll build our own tripods. Ours will have four legs." -Michael Madsen (Scary Movie 4)

I love the Hushabye Mountain scene, it really shows how far you’ll go to protect your child.

This is easily one of my top 10 favorite movies. I saw it as a kid, and it just stuck with me. I think no other alien invasion movie, has had this sense of hopelessness and despair. The conflict is almost entirely out of the hands of the main characters, and the best they can do is just survive. No big military planning in the pentagon, no famous landmarks getting blown up, just a very small scale and desperate survival story, in the face of hopeless odds.

Everyone take a drink every time someone mentions the 1938 radio broadcast.

The grandparents at the end of the movie are the original stars (Gene Barry and Ann Robinson) from the 1953 War of the Worlds movie.

I found out a while back that the grandparents at the end were the cast of the original War of the Worlds

Someone else has probably said this, but what the aliens were trying to do was to “teraform” the Earth. Change it so they can live on it comfortably. It’s the same thing that Zod and the Kryptonians were trying to do to Earth in “Man of Steel”. It’s what some scientists are proposing that we do to Mars if we ever get there…

For anyone who doesn't know the War of the Worlds is a social commentary on Imperialism. H. G. Wells was in his original book criticising the British Empire's own brutal and often genocidal expansionism. Wells wrote a book where the shoe was on the other foot and his own country faced an existential threat to it's existence from a merciless and seemingly senseless enemy. That the Martians are defeated by disease is reminiscent of how British expeditions would (usually) annihilate any native resistance due to their technological superiority, but often helplessly suffered and died to the many exciting diseases found around the world. Whilst America hasn't engaged in outright Imperialism, wars such as Korea, Vietnam and the War on Terror weren't particularly good for the local populations.

I remember when I first saw this, in the movie theater, there was an electrical storm outside when we left. It was creepy as hell.

I really love the sound design and the sense of scale in this movie. You really buy how helpless humanity feels against these giant, seemingly-unstoppable invasion machines.

When you realize the two characters in the basement fighting over the shotgun were in the same plane in Top Gun 20 years earlier 👍

The scene where the tripod comes out of the ground in the town was amazing no CGI they built that whole area with the buildings breaking in half just love non-CGI effort put into movies

You two are great together. It's always fun watching the two of you interacting together.

Fantastic reaction. That scream slo-mo recap is definitely gonna win the Poppie award. 😅 I saw this when it came out and walked around the corner to my favorite pub, sat down at the bar and Becky the bartender said, How ya doun'? And I said, I feel like I just got hit by a bus.

That is what a mob in panic does. I've been near one. Most frightening thing I've ever seen.

18:41 Hearing Cassie say *“hell,”* you know it’s bad.

Love y’all’s reactions on this one!

That jumpscare was one of a kind

The reveal of the alien tripods with the vaporizing hit very hard in theatres. It was 4 years after 9/11 and the images of people covered in grey dust running through the streets of NYC was still kind of fresh.

The original War of The Worlds Movie from 1953 Still holds up and should not be overlooked.

When women ask men what we are thinking about and we say nothing, but really we are running scenes like this thru our minds all the time. We just never tell y'all. You are welcome.

Classic Cassie 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 8:19 "Try changing the solenoid." 12:33 "He's the only one that's got a new "solerator" or whatever." 28:44 "OK. Fake. Fake. Fake. Fake. Fake. Fake. Fake. Fake...Movie. Movie. Movie. Movie. Movie. Movie. Movie. Movie...!@#%&@#$@#!!!!" 29:11 *(Lamaze breathing)* "Ho! Ho! Ho!...Nope! Nope!! NNNOOO!!!! *(Puts up crucifix fingers)* 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 29:16 *(Jazz Hands Finger Fence)* + *(Safe-Place Babbling)* 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

This is one of my favorite Spielberg movies, I'll never forget seeing it in theaters back in '05. Such an incredible film

I'd forgotten how intense this movie is. What a thriller!

H.G.Wells always had a way of showing the true colors of humankind - both the bright, and the dark

This movie had some flaws, but it captured the tone of existential dread and hopelessness perfectly. Fight back, get slaughtered. Run away, get hunted down. Hide somewhere, they will find you eventually. Unless, of course, you're Ray with two little hand grenades that can level a house somehow. Lol

I know that few catch that, but the last words, about the mankind "right to survive in this universe", because of all those we have lost over the time, and that ultimately "nobody lives or dies in vain" are among the most powerful, wholesome and uplifting words ever written about mankind.

Others have already mentioned the connections people made with this movie and the 9/11 attacks due to their close proximity, time-wise. There's a little more to it. There's a reason why there are very few sweeping, overhead shots in this film. It's producers were inspired by all of the camcorder footage of the 9/11 attacks, and filmed it with primarily eye-level shots to replicate that sensation of being on the ground and looking up at a major disaster.

Jeff Wayne's Musical adaptation includes the song "Forever Autumn" sung by Justin Hayward, the season at the end of the film is a nod to that song. PS. I wish they would make a musical version of this movie set in London set to Wayne's classic album, OG tripods towering over Big Ben, that I would pay to see, even for a musical, a bit like The Greatest Showman.

Considering that there are thousands of species of bacteria on our skin and in our guts and probably elsewhere. Even eating/pulverizing humans without heat treatment(let alone if you let them decompose prior) could be dangerous for those not having appropriate immunity or medical treatment.

I love at the beginning that you both were so tired. I thought, "they're gonna be wide awake in about 10 minutes." 😅 Saw this movie in theaters on my 16th birthday. One of my all time faves!

As to Orson Wells radio production of war of the Worlds . Queen mentions it in” Radio Ga Ga”

You saying the moving was traumatizing was so real. So many people hated this movie and I actually was disturbed and in awe by it when I saw it. I was like 16 when I saw it and was literally on the edge of my seat the whole movie. I thought it was very well done.

The bits that made me most tense watching this movie was when Tom's character kept leaving his daughter on her own.

Tim Robbin’s from Shawshank Redemption was the crazy guy in the house. I think he did an excellent job

You guys are the best. I really appreciate your wholesome speech, and sincerely kind and empathetic reactions. My 9 year old always asks to watch you guys. Keep up the good work!

Always fun watching the both of you react to these types of movies. Cassie makes the most memorable quotes. ❤❤

In the original movie all churches survived so Spielberg made sure the first building destroyed in his version was a church. 😮😂

1938 radio version of this story caused a panic

What I remember the most from this movie was Dakota Fanning's almost non stop screaming. Her vocal cords had to have been shot by the time they finished filming.

The prologue and the epilogue are the first and last paragraphs from the novel. H.G. Wells commenced writing War Of The Worlds in 1895. It was first featured as a magazine serial in 1897 and the first edition of the novel was released on the 1st of January 1898.

"I might just want to call it." So real. So funny.

6:19 "Cassie, Cassie....oh no Cassie..."😂😂😂

I have never wanted a kid to die in a movie as much as I did Robbie. The opening and closing monologues by Morgan Freeman are directly from the original novel.

I remember seeing this in theaters. I was wide alert the entire time after the first attack. Great movie.

When he stops to look when running at the beginning he's checking its direction & speed btw

12:55 This was parodied in one of the Scary Movie movies where the alien rays were only disintegrating people’s clothes - the opposite lol

Tom Cruise's character is just one of the best heroes ever. Half-ass looser and failed father who steps up like no one else and gives every last thing he's got to save his children. When the shit hit the interstellar fan his true colors shone like a blinding supernova.

“Carly is tired” Damn I wish I looked that refreshed when I was tired

One thing to keep in mind is that the original novel was written in the late 1800s, when germ theory was still relatively new. So having communicable disease be the solution was a pretty groundbreaking idea. And really, how often do you see an alien invasion story where the aliens are defeated by a non-human earth life-form?

"You don't go to the city. You go to the country." And eat a lot of peaches.

one thing i appreciate about your reactions is you have both earbuds in instead of just in one ear. there's so many reactors who just stick it in one ear and prioritize talking the whole time. it's just not how movies are meant to be experienced

In 1938 they broadcast the story as though an alien invasion was actually taking place. It is often said that it cause widespread panic, but apparently it had compatatively few listeners Jeff Wayne's Musical Version is well worth listening to/watching a petformance of.

When I was a child, I remember watching it every time it came on broadcast TV (pre-VCR, pre-TIVO, pre-Netflix, pre-internet). Even with its vintage special effects, it's still one of my favorite old-school sci-fi flicks along with Forbidden Planet and The Time Machine. It's based on a great premise concocted from a book written in the late 1800s by H.G.Wells. Amazing.

When they said the Javelin is the key the soldiers were referring to the shoulder fired rocket they used its a Anti tank guided missle used to take out armored targets :)

When you both wanted to jump under the covers…Classic sister move..

The 2 old folks at the house at the end (Gran and Gramps) were the original cast members from the original film.

Yall are too much...so fun watching your reactions.... made my night....thanks

I’m constantly asking myself why I keep watching this channel, and I think I finally figured it out. It’s just … wholesome fun. Thanks.

I lived through the 1989 San Francisco earthquake. Now for me, it was no big deal. I had lived through others and while this one was bigger than normal, Not a big deal. As far as I could see, there was no major damage. But as there was no power, there was no way to find out exactly. I found out through my car radio, that part of a bridge collapsed. And there was some other things that happened. As I drove a friend home from work (who was from New York and never experienced an earthquake and in partial shock) through the City, I would find out much more. When I got him home deep in San Francisco, we found his wife on their doorsteps in shock and crying. The chaos of no power and many many people in shock. Wandering around aimlessly. But I also saw SO MANY people comforting the people in shock. There were people directing traffic. There were people guarding stores in the big shopping area downtown to prevent looting. People going through the rubble to find survivors of a highway that collapsed on itself. Yes, bad things happened. But an amazing number of people came together and did what was needed and helped. It reinforced in me the goodness of humanity. I'll never forget that.

H.G Wells wrote the original book in 1897. At the time of its publication, the British Empire was at its largest. The British conquered the land of the Zulus and was soon to be at war with the Boers in South Africa. H.G. Wells wrote his book with a message of anti-imperialism and colonialism. From perspective of the reader of what its like to be invaded by a peoples with advanced technology. A very, "How would you like it if this happened to you?" perspective. H.G Wells was mostly inspired by the Black War in the early 1800s. Where British colonists pretty much wiped out the aboriginal Tasmanians. Before the British colonists arrived, it was estimated that there were 5,000-7,000 aboriginal Tasmanians living on the Island. By the time of the end the war, there was about 100 left.

You must listen to the original radio broadcast, from 1938. It was broadcast live as if it was a news cast and actually happening, it's insane and caused mass panic before the first commercial break. Because of this most missed that it wasn't real due to fleeing homes and trying to find cover from the invasion they believed was real.

"I'm better at aliens, I guess?" Lol

"I might just want to call it." The single greatest moment in channel history. That was epic.

15:14 they preserved this set, and you can see it during the Universal Studio tour in LA!

Dakota Fanning has said that when filming the ferry scene, Spielberg played the Jaws theme on loudspeakers.

Funny, but I thought Carly would be the main scaredy-cat and not Cassie so much. Carly is more braver than we thought, who knew.

The song Ray sings to Rachel is "Little Deuce Coupe" by the Beach Boys. Spielberg and Williams!

Dang, not including Austin Powers: Goldmember, this was one of five Tom Cruise movies between MI2 (2000) and MI3 (2006). The others were Vanilla Sky (2001), Minority Report (2002), The Last Samurai (2003) and Collateral (2004). The quality and variety even in just those few years is crazy.

Woohoo Carlys here..fun times ahead 😊😊 shout out to younger siblings..the War of the Worlds Rock Opera on youtube is amazing, people actually thought this was happening when it first came out on the radio..i cant believe u watched this without knowing the plot, talk about traumatic..Popcorn out 🎉

Oh no! The sweet lamb that is Carly being thrown to the wolves by an unsuspecting sister. Sounds like Old Testament drama to me. My prayers go out to them both.😅

I was pleasantly surprised by this movie when we saw it in the theater. It was a toss up between this or "Batman Begins" and my Dad had the deciding vote. Like some others here, I recommend the 1953 "War of the Worlds" too. The 2005 movie is adapter more from the HG Wells novel. The 1953 version is more of a modern sci-fi (for the time) reboot of the novel. However, the 2005 movie pays homage by using several quotes taken from the 1953 movie. FYI, the grandparents at the end of the movie are the 2 lead actors from the 1953 version.

Watching this great movie again with you 2 and the reactions was so good, thank you for making these reruns so enjoyable, some very impressive reactions throughout the movie...nice one guys..great job

When I first read the book around the age of 13, I thought the ending was amazing. The smallest living earth organisms saved the planet, and humanity!