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Fun Fact: While filming nearby, Tom Cruise, along with a twenty-member entourage including Steven Spielberg, visited a Lexington, Virginia Dairy Queen. Cruise saw a jar on the counter with a photo of Ashley Flint and her story. Flint had been in a go-cart accident a few months earlier, leaving her family with a mountain of hospital bills. Cruise put $5,000 cash into the jar.

Another Fun Fact: When the aliens are investigating the junk in the basement, one of them plays with a bicycle wheel. This is a reference to the original book; the main character observes that, with all the advanced technology the aliens possess, they do not use any wheels, and wonders if the alien life form had skipped the invention of the wheel.

Honestly, seeing the Tripod coming out of the ground for the first time, blowing out its haunting horn, and then started turning people into dust, is one of the scariest scenes of the movie! I was utterly terrified of them! 😱

Another Fun Fact: The grandparents shown in the last scene in Boston are actually the two main actors from the 1950s version of war of the worlds.

The ending with the aliens dying from common cold is not bad. It's actually very elegant. It reflects how real colonization attempts were sometimes foiled by diseases the invaders were unprepared for. And it makes sense for the aliens who, if you've read the book, had basically eliminated all disease on their planet, which meant there was nothing to keep their immune systems in shape.

“Hey, honey. Let me just shower the neighbors off of me.” That was HILARIOUSLY dark! 🤣🤣

It always pissed me off that the brother was willing to abandon his sister. It doesn't seem like he wanted to fight to protect her only to prove himself.

What I love about this film is Tom cruise IS not the action hero he always is dudes out of his element, he’s just a dad trying to keep his family and he plays it great!

Another Fun Fact: During the filming of the underwater scenes (where the ferry capsizes), director Steven Spielberg played a prank on Tom Cruise and Dakota Fanning by playing the dramatic music from Jaws (also one of Spielberg's films) through the massive underwater speakers on the sound stage.

I remember my dad taking me to see this, and our town's movie theatre had a warning on the poster saying, "this movie is not recommended for very young children, it may contain disturbing imagery and strong violence" or something like that. My dad ignored it and bought us the tickets and i still remember staying for the whole movie while other parents walked out with their kids

“HERE WE ARE!! PISMO BEACH AND ALL THE CLAMS WE CAN EAT!!” I admittedly laughed too hard at that joke 😂😂😂

Ok, so a few thing's that critic may have missed. - The red weed is a terraforming agent. In the book, it's the explanation as to why mars became red. - The third time the aliens investigated the house is because the crazy dude was screaming his lungs out before being put down. - The loved one being alive and well after being apart trope is also in the book. - Robbie wanting to go to the military out of nowhere is probably a fight or flight response to what's his seeing. During calamities, people tend to either run or face the fear so as to not feel haunted by it. And honestly, that would be my reaction as well lmao; running would be too much of a stressor in the long term for me, might as well recieve a big dosage of fear right now rather than spread it thin.

Something small I appreciate that Doug does that I don't see often is he says who plays the characters as they come up. It shows a respect for the actors themselves

In my opinion, one of Spielberg’s most underrated films. Plus, the 9/11-inspired imagery after Tom Cruise survives the first attack is haunting in the best way possible

To be fair, H. G. Wells' alien 👾 designs in the novel 📖 was basically an octopus 🐙

The car mob scene is absolutely terrifying on a realistic level. What's chilling to me is that it actually isn't far off at all from how OUR world was reacting in March 2020 when there was uncertainty about the pandemic. People fighting over toilet paper, raiding the shelves at the grocery store until there was nothing left, shopping lines so long that they extended way outside the store. Human civility is thrown out the window in times of crisis. Straight up.

At least this one better represented the book with tripods, red weeds, and a crazy guy in a basement.

Fun fact: after Akira Toriyama (the creator of dragon ball) died, Justin chatwick payed his respects to the legend and apologised for the dragon ball movie

Supposedly, when the book was published all other book about England's military was about how unbeatable it was. This book was about the opposite, their military facing something it couldn't beat. Only one of their vehicles were defeated by ramming a boat on it. And the alien just avoided getting in the ocean after that. Oh, and is so old that at the end scientist were studying a flying vehicle the Martians constructed. Yes, the novel is way before airplanes.

The ending does a great job representing how even the biggest of powers can be taken down by sheer ignorance of underestimating your enemy. They thought they were unstoppable, and didn’t even think to check for disease. It’s a representation of how unchecked power led to Britains downfall, but it also applies to every modern superpower. Whilst they could have spent a longer time leading up to it in the movie, I’m glad it stayed true to the novel. It’s infuriating when people say it’s a bad ending because the humans should have made some super weapon to take them down, which misses the point entirely.

My first exposure to War of the Worlds was actually a recording of the original radio broadcast. Even though I knew it was a recording, it was downright CHILLING!

I think the ending doesn't work because there's still fighting and hope. In the book, by the time the aliens finally succumb to the diseases, everybody's morale is ground to a fine dust and even the main character himself walks towards one of the tripods with the intention to _finally die._ And only _then_ everybody learns that the aliens are over. In the movie they learn that the aliens are over by shooting a rocket at it and then cheering when it hits.

“You know what H. G. Wells’ classic story of interplanetary invasion needs? Family drama! With really annoying kids!” “Brilliant!!”

The sounds the tripods make is SO FRIGGIN SCARY. Love it so much.

It's cool seeing the set at Universal Hollywood. For one Halloween horror nights we were able to actually get off the tram and walk around the plane

If I could make a suggestion. I think a Recess Schools Out review would be a good idea. Both to commemorate Summer and also Dabney Coleman.

"Not a TON more but about enough to get a twenty minute review out of" Dialogue like this is why I still love Doug even after all these years. That perfect blend of self awareness and honesty.

At least their weakness wasn't water. It's a little more understanding that an alien race would underestimate the deadliness of the diseases on the planet compared to being weak to water and trying to take over a planet that's mostly water.

So fun story that ties I have to this movie: Back in 7th Grade (2008), my English teacher had a mini-library where you could take a book to read when there's downtime after a Test or if she didn't have anything to teach that day. (Yeah, some days she didn't feel like teaching) And one of the books was the screenplay for this movie. I saw the movie the day it got released with my Grandfather; so I had vivid memories of what was in the movie. One example the TV in the movie is showing SpongeBob, but it the screenplay; it notes The PowerPuff Girls. I never read a screenplay before, only those theatre plays you got in a collection of other acquired reading books. So this was such an eye opener. I visioned the movie how it would be like if I shot it or made it. And it also helped me with my writing. So much so when it came to the end of the year, I asked my teacher if I could have it? Since it meant so much to me. Her response: "No. Put it back." So I went to the mini-library and placed the book in my backpack and left. I still have the book to this day. Worth also noting when this movie came on HBO MAX, I decided to watch it again for the first time. With all the ideas a vision I had with the screenplay, I felt like seeing a screenplay to screen would look... and this movie sucks now because it's not as good as I visioned it with the screenplay. So, fun little story.

Cool to see Doug finally cover this one

2005 was truly Tom Cruise’s year. Marrying Katie Holmes, stating that psychiatry is evil, going bat-s**t insane on Oprah, having a war with a 60 Minutes interviewer, etc.

One of the stupidest scenes in any Hollywood film EVER (technically that includes Troll 2) is when they wake up the next morning and get out of the basement to find a crashed 747 on the driveway some 100 feet from where they spent the night !!! There's no way in hell anyone could SURVIVE something like that, let alone sleep through it !!!

Fun Fact: Steven Spielberg reunited with one of his actors from *"JAWS"* (1975) in the 2005 remake of *"War of the* *Worlds";* and that was Jonathan Filley who played Tom Cassidy, the "luckiest drunk" boyfriend of Chrissie Watkins. However, Jonathan never acted after *"JAWS"* and he's credited in this film as New York's Unit Production Manager.

I love this movie more than the original, and I loved the original! Tom Cruise was terrific!

Tripod crawling out scene is amazing especially when it dumps soil from horn holes and make this creepy inception sound for the first time. Bridge explosion scene with gas trucks falling on houses was also one of the most memorable action scene i watched in childhood. What movie is really missed is that stating aliens attacked earth because of envy of our emotions it fails to show that emotionality through main characters except few small scenes of empathy

The only War of the Worlds that matters is Jeff Wayne's musical version. It's honestly amazing that despite how long that stage musical has been running it still hasn't been made into a movie

Another Fun Fact: Due to Steven Spielberg's last minute post-production work, he had to drop out of a scheduled appearance with Tom Cruise to promote the film on The Oprah Winfrey Show. This was the episode of Cruise's highly publicized "couch jumping" incident.

8:05 Bummer that he didn't mention that the entire location was 100% practical. And that the set is still there today and can be seen at Universal studio tour. Personally it was a moment where my mind was blown that this was all made for one scene and it paid off completely.

Aside from th 1953 movie version, the best adaptation of the story was actually Jeff Wayne's 1978 rock album based on War of the Worlds. It's awesomely paced and told with spot-on music. It even has Richard Burton narrating. How can you beat that?

I will die on the hill that the best adaptation of War of the Worlds is the Jeff Waynes musical.

I had read the book before seeing those movie in theaters and I must say the ending was actually the best part! One of the few things that was actually in the book.

Back in the day I also figured about the ending: how could a so advanced culture not be aware of bacterial/prokaryotic lifeforms? For colonialists in our history it makes sense, but in this scenario, where it seems that they observed multiple evolutionary cycles on different planets... it felt utterly unprepared of them. Although I found the core of the message cool I also did not think it made any sense

14:45 I remember when I first saw this movie, I was 11 years old. When it got to this blood fertilizer scene, I got so scared that I couldn’t stop shaking. So my dad beckoned me over to him & held me close to comfort me.

Check out Jeff Wayne's war of the worlds, it is pretty good audio experience

3 takes: 1) Real fans of the original should have no qualms about the ending of the 2005 remake. Both were anticlimactic... 1955: They couldn't handle our atmosphere. 2005: SAME! 2) The 2005 remake gave us the nice cameo by the original 2 lead actors from the 1955 classic, shot in Brooklyn Heights, no less. 3) Love, love, loooooove that post 9/11 realism of the lady turning into dust, the destruction of the Bayonne Bridge being praised by real world engineers for its accuracy, and the near-perfect CGI ride-along sequence of being inside the family van and outside of it immediately after shit hits the fan!❤

I feel the thing with Robbie's character is that it's alluding to WHY Spielberg remade War of the Worlds to begin with. The post 9/11 climate. There's a few lines that make it very obvious, like after Robbie asks "WHO'S ATTACKING US?" and Rachel then asks "IS IT THE TERRORISTS?" He's a young man reacting to seeing not just his country, but his WORLD attacked. And like many directionless young men faced with a crisis, his reaction is that he must fight.

I know it’s a very old story but I forever love the fact that when Orson Welles did a reading of the book live on radio it was so convincing that people believed it was real

My take: the best version of The War of the Worlds is the Jeff Wayne concept album from 1975. Perfectly captures every aspect of the story through music and narration alone

I love how Robbie runs after the army the same way a three year old would run towards a moving ice cream truck. I laughed hard at his fake out death XD

My first introduction to War of the Worlds was listening to the radio music play. Honestly, I think the worst thing any of the movie adaptations could do would be to show what the aliens actually look like. Because they aren't the focus of the story. It's the examination of the various ways humanity would react to such an extreme paradigm shift, that we aren't alone in the universe and could be destroyed by these beings, that makes the story so powerful.

My biggest nitpick with the movie is that for some reason the crazy basement guy says “There’s no war between men and maggots!”, a misquote of the book’s “There’s no war between men and ants!”

Small fact-2:47 most of the filming place in Bayonne, New Jersey the alien destroying the Bridge is the Bayonne bridge.

It’s about time the critic is reviewing this War of the Worlds movie, this is one lot of people have requested for over a decade!

Another Fun Fact: The convoy scene military vehicles were real and still had their white greasepencil convoy markings (data similar to license tag info) chalked on the driver's side doors. Either speed or special-effects rendered these markings invisible in the final cuts.

Im surprised you didn't touch on the infamously rushed production schedule. Spielberg filmed all the major action sequences first and all the smaller scenes later so the film was ready for its June 2005 release date. The rushed production was probably why the finished product was so muddled.

Review Megamind please.

Another Fun Fact: Steven Spielberg said after the shooting that he would never make a film with Tom Cruise again. Reasons given for this were Cruise' behavior on set related to his involvement with the controversial Church of Scientology (Cruise was rumored to have tried to convert Spielberg), and especially his erratic performance on Oprah Winfrey's Episode dated 23 May 2005, which Spielberg felt was hurting the movie. The rift was further said to be caused by Scientology's well-known opposition to psychiatry (which reportedly comes from its founder L. Ron Hubbard, after several psychiatrists had rejected his spiritual healing theories and suggested that he suffered from paranoid schizophrenia): Spielberg was unhappy with Cruise' repeated rants against the use of Ritalin in children with ADD, and was especially angered when a psychiatrist friend of his was harassed by Scientologists, after he had mentioned the doctor's name in Cruise' presence. However, they seemed to have made amends by 2023, when a clip was released of both men hugging, and Spielberg praising Cruise for saving the movie industry after the COVID-19 pandemic with Top Gun: Maverick.

4:58 One of the ideas I got from this story was these characters don't know anything about each other. The audience is thrown into the story as it they are. We learn with images that Dad is into cars, builds engines, works a lot. Daughter absorbs information and is probably autistic. Son is all over the place. He hates his dad and mom, driven by things he doesn't understand. Doesn't know his kids. The kids don't know him. But they have to trust this guy. And this guy needs to get it done. Besides given the time this came out. We didn't actually know if anyone else was going to make it, save Ray.

"Look at the damn birds!" and "The javelin is the key!" is a pretty hype moment in my opinion. It's not a long payoff, but it's a pretty satisfying moment.

The 53 movie special effects still look pretty good

7:48 great little joke on Orson Welles infamous War of the Worlds radio broadcast that sent an entire nation into panic. Btw, it helped Welles secure a contract with RKO and eventually make Citizen Kane.

12:20 It makes sense considering the 9/11 aftermath at the time. Lindsay Ellis made a great video about this movie within that context

"DOOOOOOOD! I thought you weren't gonna cover this since you said you won't do an Old Vs New and said you didn't really like either film!" -Douchy McNitpick

Another Fun Fact: After her actions in the film, Dakota Fanning's character was voted 'most useless thing to have in an apocalypse' by MTV

Something Tom Cruise does extremely well? He makes a family argument feel legitimately awkward to be around. It's good! You ever third wheel around another family having a real argument? Tom Cruise really captures how uncomfortable it is.

“HERE WE ARE! PISMO BEACH AND ALL THE CLAMS WE CAN EAT!” I will never not love a Bugs Bunny quote. 😂

Another Fun Fact: Early in the movie when Robbie and Rachel are watching TV in Ray's house and Rachel is channel surfing, the train crash scene from the 1952 movie "The Greatest Show On Earth" is briefly seen. "The Greatest Show On Earth" was the first movie Steven Spielberg ever saw and it inspired him to want to go into a motion picture career.

Another Fun Fact: The organism seen in the opening sequence is known as a paramecium, being a unicellular pond water protozoan that is a eukaryote, shown complete with cilia, oral groove, macro nucleus and central vacuole.

fun little detail is the Grandparents are actually the actors from the original movie.

6:35 I REALLY recommend watching the making of. An absurd amount of the chaos and destruction during the initial attack was done in-camera.

War of the Worlds, has been remade so many times...nothing can top the Olson Welles Adaptation...that led to widespread panic. class moment, but this version. actually not that bad, there was a recent version in the UK that was a mini-series, and hated

Everyone rips on Robbie, but it’s Dakota Fanning I can’t stand in this. She just whines and screams the ENTIRE movie!

Based on what I’ve seen in this review, this movie feels like it was unfinished. 🤨 It’s like they started making the movie by hitting all the key moments from the original story, starting injecting a few new ideas, then ran out of time and/or money before they could think of a way to have it amount to something, looked over what they had so far, and then said, “meh, good enough.”

15:15 okay that joke KILLED ME!

16:42 cmon Blow-Ku shoot some farts from your hands and beat the aliens

The issue with the movie isn't how anticlimactically the aliens died to the Common Cold, the issue is Ray has no resolution to his character arc. He's a guy who barely cares for his children and only sees them due to obligation. During his time with the kids, an alien invasion causes all hell to break loose, so he is forced to be a responsible parent for once in his life. However, this development falls flat on it's face due to Robbie. Robbie was initially shown to be someone who takes care of his younger sister, and the moment where she yells "who would take care of me if you go?" to him really highlights how much she looks up to her big brother and how little confidence she has in her father to take care of her. It's not some random moment of her going "I'm mad too!," it makes perfect sense that she would react this way for Robbie trying to do something so reckless. Then, at the moment where Robbie runs off to try to join the military and Ray stops him, this should have been the moment where Ray puts his foot down and starts acting like a goddamn father in order to save his dumbass son. Robbie is just mad that he's a weak little dipshit whose powerless in the face of this alien invasion, so he tries to do something as stupid as be where the action is in order to compensate for his powerlessness. Apparently, he forgot about his little sister, Rachel. He wants so badly to go with the military that he'll potentially get himself killed and leave her with only their neglectful father to take care of her. It doesn't add up with how he was characterized earlier in the film where he was the one who comforted Rachel while Ray was losing his patience with her and even told her to shut up. Then Robbie tells his father that he needs to let him go, and Ray ultimately lets Robbie go straight into danger where he is seemingly incinerated in a huge fireball, and that would be entirely due to Ray's incompetence as a father. But at the end, Robbie is perfectly fine and somehow made it to his mother's house in Boston, which feels like a huge cheat. How the hell did he survive on his own for all that time and make it to Boston? Not only did Ray fail to be a responsible father, not only was Robbie suddenly written to be a complete dipshit and run straight into danger, but everything just works out in the end despite how unbelievable it all is. It would have actually been better if Robbie died as it would have given consequences to Ray's incompetence, but Ray simply should have developed into a responsibe father and actually bonded with his children in order to complete his character arc. The alien invasion itself isn't the point of this movie, it's more of a background event than anything else. But since Ray's character development fizzles out, this movie has nothing else but the spectacle, so once the aliens catch a Cold and die, there's nothing else to care about. Therefore, the ending sucks. However, the movie was already sucking as soon as Robbie left and Tim Robbins' character appeared.

Years ago I saw a breakdown as to why this movie failed but ID4 was a success despite being full of disaster and death. A good point was brought up: this movie was 4 years after 9/11 and everyone remembers the imagery of people covered in dust post attack and dead bodies. It was asserted that this movie was "too soon" for some of the imagery

Hello guys! You always make My day! Today has been tough and this is great!

2011 Doug: I'm not gonna review either of the War of the Worlds film 2024 Doug: A War of the World film review Don't worry Doug, I remembered it so you don't have to! Also, PLEASE review Megamind Vs. The Doom Syndicate and Mondo TV's 2010 Fantasy Island Animated Series.

11:35 I still get chills hearing that alien horn! 😮

15:10 That reminds me, you haven't done Chitty Chitty Bang Bang yet.

I got sidetracked thinking it was gonna be Mission Impossible or The Mummy 😁

Another Fun Fact: Steven Spielberg owns one of the last copies of the Orson Welles radio script, which he purchased at an auction. Spielberg wanted to make the film years ago, but decided against it when Independence Day was released. However, he wanted to work with Tom Cruise again after Minority Report, and when an adaptation of Hampton Sides' book 'Ghost Soldiers' fell through (it was already filmed as The Great Raid), they picked War of the Worlds (2005) as their next project.

The first attack and the car escape are so underated, the cameraperspective is amazing and well done. Also the horn sound from the tripods HAS to be one if the best Sounds designed in the past decades…

My favorite moment in this film is main character getting grenades into alien ship. He gets sucked in, everyone is trying to help him and he spills out grenades rings. I like soldier facial expressions "no, you did not"

Dakota Fanning hiding from threatening aliens? I’m surprised you didn’t have any “Coraline” jokes, or reference a character she also encountered in the 2000’s to be even scarier than the Other Mother… the Cat from “The Cat In The Hat”!! 😫

Another Fun Fact: Tom Cruise is in a minivan in both War of the Worlds and Jack Reacher: Never Go Back that in is the same make, model, color and even has the same faux wood paneling.

"Stop the steal" and "aliens" had me 🤣 13:28

I love that you're covering this on my break where i work at Universal studios at the studio tour where we have the real plane cut up for show!

Another Fun Fact: A segment of a scene early in the film, in which people are seen fleeing from a tripod (panic-stricken crowd running along a street while buildings are being destroyed by a tripod in the background), recreates the subject-matter of the painting "Panic in the Streets" by Geoff Taylor, a print of which was included in the booklet accompanying the 1978 release of "Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of The Worlds".

Another Fun Fact: In the scene where the tripod first emerges from the ground, a street sign in the background says "Van Buren." Sylvia Van Buren was a main character in the 1953 film.

One of my favorite WotW stories is the one about how an audio drama of the story allegedly caused a mass panic. Iirc, it was actually exaggerated by Newspapers who saw the new radio invention as a threat to their sales.

The plane crash set was part of Universal Studios Hollywood for a while after the movie came out as part of the tram tour ride. I got to see it twice, once with family and once with my university class. It looked amazing and pretty chilling. The drivers both told the story of a pilot who flew over the wreckage and reported that a plane had crashed in the early days of it being there.

Another Fun Fact: In 2005, the plane crash set was featured in Universal Studios Hollywood's public Studio Tour. The wreckage was located only a few feet from the infamous Psycho (1960) house and Bates Motel sets.

Fun fact: The aliens in this movie had vocal effects provided by Dee Bradley Baker. The same guy who voices Klaus on American Dad and Squilliam on Spongebob did the vocal effects for these aliens.

10:05 I think it stems from wanting to fight an invading force like plenty of teens who wanted to enlist not knowing what they're signing up for.

0:47 To this day, I'm amazed that no studio has ever managed to make one faithful adaptation to H.G. Well's War of the Worlds. Pendragon is probably the closest to a faithful adaptation, but with extremely poor special effects.

Another Fun Fact: The crew started filming only seven months prior to the movie's release, after a pre-production phase that lasted a mere 3 months (almost half of a normal schedule). Filming was done for 72 days spread out over 4 months, and in order to finish all 500+ CGI effects in time, Steven Spielberg did all the big action scenes in the early stages of shooting. From start to release, the movie was basically finished in 10 months, an unusually short time for such a big and special-effects-driven film.

Another Fun Fact: Tim Robbins' character is a combination of three different characters from the H.G. Wells novel: the Curate who gets trapped in the ruined house with the main character, the Artilleryman, whose behavior and dialogue is the main basis for the film's character, and he is named Ogilvy, after a friend to the Narrator.