Over the course of his extensive career, Steven Spielberg has never shied away from exploring his personal obsession with alien lifeforms. From Close Encounters of the Third Kind to E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, his optimistic look at the existence of beings beyond our world has helped shape generations leading toward his latest alien epic, Disclosure Day.
But if his latest UFO-themed outing didn't quite hit the spot for you — and you felt like Spielberg's latest alien flick is a bit out of touch — then hop over to Paramount+ to revisit his rawest take on the first meeting of mankind with extra-terrestrials in the form of War of the Worlds.
True to its namesake, War of the Worlds is a loose adaptation of H.G. Wells' famous alien invasion novel — yes, the same one that terrified audiences when it was read over the airwaves by Orson Wells. It transports the tale from its early-20th-century London setting to 2005 New England, as derelict blue-collar father Ray Ferrier (Tom Cruise) does everything possible to escort his children, Robbie (Justin Chatwin) and Rachel (Dakota Fanning), through an apocalyptic hellscape overrun by sudden alien invaders from the great beyond.
As the creatures slowly cover the landscape with tripods — walking machines that gobble people up, chew, and then spit them out all over the terrain — humanity is thrown into a volatile mixture of panic and heroism. Spielberg directs a script co-written by Josh Friedman of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles fame and David Koepp, the mind behind Disclosure Day. The whole thing reads as not simply another patriotic alien invasion flick like Independence Day or an intimate portrait of grief and faith like Signs, but rather a 9/11 allegory that leans into all sides of the conflict as one father struggles to keep what's left of his family together.
In some ways, the film is classic Spielberg sci-fi fare. It's full of complicated family dynamics (Spielberg himself is famously a child of divorce in his teens) and high emotional stakes on top of the already world-changing events occurring around Ray and his family. "For the first time in my life, I’m making an alien picture where there is no love and no attempt at communication," Spielberg told Empire when speaking about his 21st century alien epic.
America changed following 9/11. The country's initial unification led to a form of patriotism that hasn't shown its face since, and yet there was an uneasiness, a distrust, that bubbled underneath. We see this in War of the Worlds in the highly combustible relationship between Ray and would-be guerrilla fighter Harlan Ogilvy (Tim Robbins), who Ray doesn't trust within an inch of his daughter. No longer could Spielberg make an optimistic alien movie like E.T., nor an inquisitive one about the possibilities that we're not alone in the universe, such as Close Encounters. Instead, the film meditates on how our isolationist mindset left us unprepared for the inevitable invasion — forcing our sons to fight and die to push the invaders back.
War of the Worlds is the farthest thing from Disclosure Day, a film that wants us to understand that the aliens involved did unspeakable things seemingly for our benefit. This isn't the case here. In War of the Worlds, the invaders see mankind as the enemy, and they aim to destroy us. And yet, even in that despair, in the wake of devastation, Spielberg gives Ray (and the audience) a real win. Like many young men after the Twin Towers fell in New York, Robbie wants to fight. He wants to protect his home or die in the pursuit of said glory. Though he wrestles with it himself, Ray ultimately understands the desire, allowing his son to go. But while we believe that Robbie dies in the conflict, Spielberg offers a happy ending after all, reuniting father and son despite the impossible circumstances — and boy, does it get you.
There's something truly remarkable about War of the Worlds. Not only does it boast incredible special effects, horrific action sequences, and wonderful character arcs, but it also features what is perhaps one of Tom Cruise's most underrated performances. While it's unlikely that anyone's favorite Spielberg movie is War of the Worlds (especially since Raiders of the Lost Ark and Jaws exist), it's a darn good film that certainly deserves recognition for doing something different than most of the director's alien epics — it may even be a contender for his best in the genre.
