# War of the Worlds (2005 film)
**War of the Worlds** is a 2005 American science fiction thriller directed by [Steven Spielberg](https://www.edgepedia.org/steven-spielberg), freely adapted from H.G. Wells's 1898 novel *The War of the Worlds*, in which a divorced New Jersey dockworker tries to protect his two children during a catastrophic alien invasion. It stars [Tom Cruise](https://www.edgepedia.org/tom-cruise), Dakota Fanning, Justin Chatwin, Miranda Otto, and [Tim Robbins](https://www.edgepedia.org/tim-robbins), from a screenplay by Josh Friedman and David Koepp.[1](https://amblin.com/movie/war-of-the-worlds/) • [2](https://www.paramount.com/movies/war-of-the-worlds-2005) Released by Paramount Pictures on June 29, 2005, it was a major commercial success and drew a largely positive but divided critical response.[3](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/MovieDetails/67276) • [4](https://sightlines.media/film/74/war-of-the-worlds-2005)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Release | June 29, 2005 (wide, United States), Paramount Pictures; PG-13 for frightening sequences of sci-fi violence and disturbing images[3](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/MovieDetails/67276) • [5](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/War-of-the-Worlds) |
| Running time | 116 minutes per The Numbers and Roger Ebert's review; Paramount and the AFI Catalog list 117 minutes[5](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/War-of-the-Worlds) • [6](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/war-of-the-worlds-2005) • [3](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/MovieDetails/67276) |
| Principal cast | Tom Cruise (Ray Ferrier), Dakota Fanning (Rachel), Justin Chatwin (Robbie), Miranda Otto (Mary Ann), Tim Robbins (Harlan Ogilvy); Ann Robinson and Gene Barry, stars of the 1953 film, appear as the grandparents[3](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/MovieDetails/67276) |
| Box office | $234,280,354 domestic and $603,873,981 worldwide per Box Office Mojo; The Numbers reports $606,836,535 worldwide, against a $132,000,000 production budget[7](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt0407304/) • [5](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/War-of-the-Worlds) |
| Opening weekend | $64,878,725 domestically, 27.7% of the total gross[5](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/War-of-the-Worlds) |
| Critical scores | 76% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer from 264 reviews, with a 42% Popcornmeter score from more than 250,000 ratings[8](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/war_of_the_worlds) |
| Visual effects | About 400 invisible-effects shots by Industrial Light & Magic, supervised by Dennis Muren and Pablo Helman[9](https://www.awn.com/vfxworld/war-worlds-post-911-digital-attack-0) |
## Spoilers
### Plot
Ray Ferrier (Tom Cruise) is a dockworker living in [Bayonne, New Jersey](https://www.edgepedia.org/bayonne-new-jersey), divorced from his first wife Mary Ann ([Miranda Otto](https://www.edgepedia.org/miranda-otto)) and estranged from his two children, teenage Robbie ([Justin Chatwin](https://www.edgepedia.org/justin-chatwin)) and young Rachel (Dakota Fanning), of whom he has custody on weekends.[2](https://www.paramount.com/movies/war-of-the-worlds-2005) • [4](https://sightlines.media/film/74/war-of-the-worlds-2005) During one visitation, a series of strange lightning storms strikes the neighborhood; at an intersection near his house, Ray watches a towering three-legged war machine emerge from deep beneath the earth and incinerate everything in sight, the first strike of an all-out alien invasion.[1](https://amblin.com/movie/war-of-the-worlds/)
Ray takes his children on a journey up the Eastern seaboard toward Boston, where Mary Ann's parents live, moving through a countryside crowded with refugees while tripod war machines vaporize the population.[1](https://amblin.com/movie/war-of-the-worlds/) • [2](https://www.paramount.com/movies/war-of-the-worlds-2005) Tim Robbins appears as the survivor Harlan Ogilvy.[3](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/MovieDetails/67276) The aliens' weapons and shields prove unstoppable against anything humanity can throw at them, and the human race faces the end of its existence.[5](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/War-of-the-Worlds)
## Production
**A long-gestating project.** Spielberg had wanted to make *War of the Worlds* for years but set it aside after [Roland Emmerich](https://www.edgepedia.org/roland-emmerich)'s *Independence Day*, saying that Emmerich "took all the steam out" of his plans and that he needed to find another angle on a Martian invasion story, which he found in the point of view of a deadbeat father who has to become, in a couple of days, the greatest dad of his life to save his children.[10](https://www.dga.org/craft/dgaq/issues/0604-winter-2006/dga-interview-steven-spielberg) In January 2004, Spielberg and Cruise holed up for several days with writer-director [David Koepp](https://www.edgepedia.org/david-koepp), who had written *Jurassic Park* and *The Lost World* for Spielberg, in a marathon brainstorming session; Josh Friedman also shares screenplay credit.[11](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2005-may-08-ca-war8-story.html) • [3](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/MovieDetails/67276) The film was produced by Kathleen Kennedy, Colin Wilson, and [Paula Wagner](https://www.edgepedia.org/paula-wagner), with Amblin Entertainment and Cruise's C|W Productions among the production companies.[3](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/MovieDetails/67276) • [5](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/War-of-the-Worlds) It was Cruise's second collaboration with Spielberg.[12](https://bfidatadigipres.github.io/tom%20cruise/2025/05/24/war-of-the-worlds/)
**A compressed schedule.** The entire production lasted about 10 months, with a 72-day shoot spanning both coasts, predominantly the Eastern Seaboard, and only 12 weeks of post-production. [Industrial Light & Magic](https://www.edgepedia.org/industrial-light-and-magic) called it the tightest job in the company's history, delivering about 400 invisible-effects shots while also transitioning to a new digital pipeline during its relocation to San Francisco's Presidio.[9](https://www.awn.com/vfxworld/war-worlds-post-911-digital-attack-0) The tripods' visual effects were created under senior supervisor Dennis Muren, an eight-time Oscar winner, with Pablo Helman; cinematography was by Janusz Kaminski, editing by Michael Kahn, production design by Rick Carter, and the score by [John Williams](https://www.edgepedia.org/john-williams).[13](https://digitalproduction.com/2023/02/08/krieg-der-welten-retro-artikel/) • [3](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/MovieDetails/67276) Spielberg described the film as a cousin of *Saving Private Ryan* within science fiction, a story told in a first-person point of view with deliberately realistic, ordinary characters.[14](https://www.blackfilm.com/20050624/features/warofworldpress1.shtml)
## The post-9/11 framing
Spielberg and his collaborators deliberately grounded the invasion in the imagery of September 11, 2001. Spielberg drew the film's rough, unpolished visual style from the amateur video recorded on 9/11, which showed dust and debris dropping through the air and shaky handheld images of chaos, and he wanted the movie to conjure an apocalyptic feeling of post-9/11 panic and paranoia.[9](https://www.awn.com/vfxworld/war-worlds-post-911-digital-attack-0) Spielberg told the Los Angeles Times, "I think 9/11 reinformed everything I'm putting into 'War of the Worlds 2005.'"[11](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2005-may-08-ca-war8-story.html) Amblin's own account places the film alongside *Minority Report* as Spielberg reflecting on a post-9/11 world through the lens of genre, much as the 1953 George Pal production had reflected its own Cold War moment.[1](https://amblin.com/movie/war-of-the-worlds/)
The transposition is explicit in the film's setting and details: the story moves Wells's late-Victorian invasion to post-9/11 New Jersey and Boston,[15](https://news.liverpool.ac.uk/2021/09/10/how-9-11-changed-cinema/) and screenwriter David Koepp confirmed a reading in which the aliens stand for a contemporary terror from the East, with a giveaway clue in Robbie's homework project on the French occupation of Algeria.[16](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/war-of-the-worlds-12a-296508.html) Academic critics have read the film in the same register: Joshua Gunn argues that the film re-stages a state of nature as a "state of emergency" and reads the father figure as a figure of sovereignty, drawing parallels with the narrative arc of the [George W. Bush](https://www.edgepedia.org/george-w-bush) presidency.[17](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15295030701849332) Film historian Joseph McBride grouped *War of the Worlds* with *Minority Report* (2002) and *Munich* (2005) as an informal trilogy exploring American shock and anxiety in the War on Terror era.[18](https://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/cine/vol4/iss1/2/)
## Adaptation choices
Spielberg's version is only the second film adaptation of Wells's novel, following the 1953 George Pal production, and it is closer to the source in several respects: it keeps Wells's tripod war machines and the noxious red weed, and it loads the invasion with post-9/11 subtext rather than the flying-saucer spectacle of earlier versions.[12](https://bfidatadigipres.github.io/tom%20cruise/2025/05/24/war-of-the-worlds/) • [19](https://www.space.com/entertainment/space-movies-shows/30-years-on-independence-day-still-proves-the-versatility-of-the-original-the-war-of-the-worlds) The largest change is the protagonist. Wells's narrator is an unnamed writer-like figure; the film substitutes Ray Ferrier, an everyman dockworker and absentee father, and narrows the global catastrophe to a single fallible family.[4](https://sightlines.media/film/74/war-of-the-worlds-2005) • [20](https://popularculturereview.org/uploads/1/3/6/5/136597491/20.1.pdf) Roger Ebert, reviewing the film for the [Chicago Sun-Times](https://www.edgepedia.org/chicago-sun-times), noted that the tripods are faithful to the original illustrations for Wells's novel, while questioning why an invasion force capable of interstellar travel had not researched conditions on Earth beforehand.[6](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/war-of-the-worlds-2005)
## Reception and box office
The film opened domestically at $64,878,725 in 3,908 theaters (3,910 at its widest) and finished with $234,280,354 in the United States and Canada, 38.6% of its worldwide total.[5](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/War-of-the-Worlds) [Box Office Mojo](https://www.edgepedia.org/box-office-mojo) records $603,873,981 worldwide from 66 markets; The Numbers reports a slightly higher $606,836,535, both against a production budget of $132,000,000, meaning the worldwide gross was about 4.6 times the budget.[7](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt0407304/) • [5](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/War-of-the-Worlds) A 2005 year-end studio tally listed it fourth among the year's films by total gross in U.S. box office receipts.[21](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1313666/000104746906001488/a2167198zex3.pdf)
Critical response was positive on balance but divided. Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a 76% Tomatometer from 264 reviews, with a critics' consensus that it "delivers on the thrill and paranoia of H.G. Wells' classic novel while impressively updating the action and effects for modern audiences," alongside a 42% audience score from more than 250,000 ratings.[8](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/war_of_the_worlds) Ebert called it "a big, clunky movie containing some sensational sights" lacking the zest expected from Spielberg,[6](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/war-of-the-worlds-2005) while the Los Angeles Times critic Kenneth Turan wrote that Spielberg had made "what is arguably one of the best 1950s science fiction films ever, and that is not a backhanded compliment."[17](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15295030701849332) The film's 9/11 resonance was itself a subject of contemporary debate, with some critics questioning whether the film had arrived too soon after the attacks.[22](https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/films/features/war-of-the-worlds-spielberg-tom-cruise-b2782006.html)
The film's standing has held up in later comparison. When a 2025 screen-life adaptation starring Ice Cube was released on Prime Video to near-universal negative reviews, coverage repeatedly pointed readers back to the 2005 film, which returned to streaming charts on Netflix in the UK and [Paramount+](https://www.edgepedia.org/paramount) in the US.[23](https://www.techradar.com/streaming/as-prime-videos-war-of-the-worlds-alienates-fans-and-critics-its-2005-tom-cruise-led-namesake-is-getting-a-new-lease-of-life-but-id-recommend-a-different-version) • [24](https://www.tomsguide.com/entertainment/streaming/this-new-prime-video-sci-fi-thriller-just-hit-no-2-on-the-top-10-list-and-it-has-0-percent-on-rotten-tomatoes)
## References
1. [War of the Worlds (2005) – About the Movie, Amblin Entertainment](https://amblin.com/movie/war-of-the-worlds/)
2. [War of the Worlds (2005), Paramount Pictures](https://www.paramount.com/movies/war-of-the-worlds-2005)
3. [War of the Worlds (2005), AFI Catalog](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/MovieDetails/67276)
4. [War of the Worlds (2005): analysis and influences, Sightlines](https://sightlines.media/film/74/war-of-the-worlds-2005)
5. [War of the Worlds (2005) – Box Office and Financial Information, The Numbers](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/War-of-the-Worlds)
6. [Creaking Havoc: War of the Worlds review, RogerEbert.com](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/war-of-the-worlds-2005)
7. [War of the Worlds (2005), Box Office Mojo](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt0407304/)
8. [War of the Worlds, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/war_of_the_worlds)
9. ['War of the Worlds': A Post 9/11 Digital Attack, Animation World Network](https://www.awn.com/vfxworld/war-worlds-post-911-digital-attack-0)
10. [Age & Innocence: DGA interview with Steven Spielberg, Directors Guild of America Quarterly](https://www.dga.org/craft/dgaq/issues/0604-winter-2006/dga-interview-steven-spielberg)
11. [Scared silly, Los Angeles Times](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2005-may-08-ca-war8-story.html)
12. [War of the Worlds (2005), BFI Southbank programme notes](https://bfidatadigipres.github.io/tom%20cruise/2025/05/24/war-of-the-worlds/)
13. [War of the Worlds – Retro Article, Digital Production](https://digitalproduction.com/2023/02/08/krieg-der-welten-retro-artikel/)
14. [Press Conference Interview with Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruise, blackfilm.com](https://www.blackfilm.com/20050624/features/warofworldpress1.shtml)
15. [How 9/11 changed cinema, University of Liverpool News](https://news.liverpool.ac.uk/2021/09/10/how-9-11-changed-cinema/)
16. [War of the Worlds (12A) review, The Independent](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/war-of-the-worlds-12a-296508.html)
17. [Joshua Gunn, "Father Trouble: Staging Sovereignty in Spielberg's War of the Worlds," Critical Studies in Media Communication](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15295030701849332)
18. [Jake T. Bart, "Moral Anxiety, Mortal Terror," Cinéaste / Grand Valley State University](https://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/cine/vol4/iss1/2/)
19. [30 years on, "Independence Day" still proves the versatility of the original "The War of the Worlds," Space.com](https://www.space.com/entertainment/space-movies-shows/30-years-on-independence-day-still-proves-the-versatility-of-the-original-the-war-of-the-worlds)
20. [Popular Culture Review, vol. 20.1](https://popularculturereview.org/uploads/1/3/6/5/136597491/20.1.pdf)
21. [Time Warner 2005 annual report exhibit, SEC EDGAR](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1313666/000104746906001488/a2167198zex3.pdf)
22. [How War of the Worlds became one of Steven Spielberg's most controversial movies, The Independent](https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/films/features/war-of-the-worlds-spielberg-tom-cruise-b2782006.html)
23. [As Prime Video's War of the Worlds alienates fans and critics, its 2005 namesake gets a new lease of life, TechRadar](https://www.techradar.com/streaming/as-prime-videos-war-of-the-worlds-alienates-fans-and-critics-its-2005-tom-cruise-led-namesake-is-getting-a-new-lease-of-life-but-id-recommend-a-different-version)
24. [Prime Video's War of the Worlds remake tops the top 10 list despite a 0% Rotten Tomatoes score, Tom's Guide](https://www.tomsguide.com/entertainment/streaming/this-new-prime-video-sci-fi-thriller-just-hit-no-2-on-the-top-10-list-and-it-has-0-percent-on-rotten-tomatoes)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Science fiction and fantasy films (individual works) › Science fiction and fantasy films of the 2000s › Science fiction films of the 2000s*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license