where does tom cruise live in war of the worlds

War of the Worlds Locations

War of the Worlds is an American sci-fi action movie directed by Steven Spielberg, written by Josh Friedman and David Koepp, and based on the novel by H. G. Wells. Starring Tom Cruise, Dakota Fanning, Tim Robbins, Miranda Otto, Justin Chatwin, and Rick Gonzalez, along with the narration by Morgan Freeman, the film tells a modern version of H.G Wells' sci-fi classic. It was released on June 29, 2005, in the United States, grossing $591.9 million against a $132 million budget. The film was also nominated for 3 Oscars. War of the Worlds was shot at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, Universal Studios in Universal City, and Fox Studios in Los Angeles.

Where was War of the Worlds Filmed?

War of the Worlds was filmed in Athens, Beacon, Brownsburg, Canyon Country, Carroll St, Cold Spring, Croton-on-Hudson, Elizabeth, Ferry St, Fox Studios, Howell, John F. Kennedy Blvd, Korean War Veterans Pkwy, Lexington, Mesa, Naugatuck, Piru, Raphine, Red Hook and Santa Clarita.

The complete list of the locations with latitude and longitude coordinates are listed below in the table.

War of the Worlds Locations Map

War of the worlds locations table, related movies.

• 28 Years Later
• Late Night with the Devil
• The Idea of You
• Joker: Folie à Deux
• Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire

No comments written yet.

Please enable JavaScript in your browser for better use of the website!

Filming locations

War of the worlds (2005).

This movie starring Tom Cruise, Dakota Fanning and Justin Chatwin was filmed at more than 4 locations. Among them Grace Community Lutheran Church in Newark, United States. All filming locations of War of the Worlds from 2005 are listed below.

STORY 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.

Adventure, Thriller, Science Fiction

PRODUCTION COUNTRY

United States of America

Steven Spielberg

Tom Cruise (Ray Ferrier) , Dakota Fanning (Rachel Ferrier) , Justin Chatwin (Robbie Ferrier) , Miranda Otto (Mary-Ann) , Tim Robbins (Harlan Ogilvy) , Rick Gonzalez (Vincent) , Yul Vazquez (Julio) more... , Lenny Venito (Manny the Mechanic) , Lisa Ann Walter (Bartender) , Ann Robinson (Grandmother) , Gene Barry (Grandfather) , David Alan Basche (Tim) , Roz Abrams (Herself) , Camillia Monet (News Producer) , Michael Brownlee (TV Reporter, Osaka) , Marlon Young (News Cameraman) , John Eddins (News Van Driver) , Peter Gerety (Hatch Boss / Load Manager) , David Harbour (Dock Worker) , Miguel Antonio Ferrer (Brazilian Neighbor) , January LaVoy (Brazilian Neighbor's Wife) , Stephen Gevedon (Neighbor with Lawnmower) , Julie White (Woman) , Marianne Ebert (Hysterical Woman) , Rafael Sardina (Mechanic's Assistant) , Amy Ryan (Neighbor With Toddler) , Ed Vassallo (Intersection Guy) , Michael Arthur (Intersection Guy) , Danny Hoch (Intersection Guy Cop) , Sharrieff Pugh (Man Studying Street) , Erika LaVonn (Photographer) , Christopher Evan Welch (Photographer) , John Michael Bolger (Man Holding Woman) , Omar Jermaine (Man Holding Woman) , Robert Cicchini (Guy in Suit) , Jim Hanna (Bus Driver) , Tracy Howe (Crowd Onlooker) , Adam Lazarre-White (Crowd Onlooker) , Vito D'Ambrosio (Crowd Onlooker) , Laura Zoe Quist (Crowd Onlooker) and others.

Kathleen Kennedy (Producer) , Colin Wilson (Producer) , John Williams (Original Music Composer) , Janusz Kamiński (Director of Photography) , Michael Kahn (Editor) , Terri Taylor (Casting) , Debra Zane (Casting) more... , Rick Carter (Production Design) , Doug J. Meerdink (Art Direction) , Joanna Johnston (Costume Design) , Cari Finken (Special Effects) , H.G. Wells (Novel) , Norman Newberry (Art Direction) , Anne Kuljian (Set Decoration) , Andrew Menzies (Art Direction) , Pamela Wise (Costume Supervisor) , Kathryn Blondell (Hair Department Head) , Tony Fanning (Supervising Art Director) , Damian Collier (Executive Producer) , Paula Wagner (Executive Producer) , Cedar Valentine (Art Department Coordinator) , Randy Dutra (Animation Supervisor) , Jenn Emberly (Animation Supervisor) , Tim Harrington (Animation Supervisor) , Ryan Church (Creature Design) , Tannis Vallely (Casting Associate) , Robert Wojewodski (Assistant Costume Designer) , Donna Maloney (Costume Supervisor) , Amy Roth (Costume Supervisor) , Peter Myles (Music Editor) , Edward Karam (Orchestrator) , Conrad Pope (Orchestrator) , Terry Atchison (Armorer) , David Fencl (Armorer) , Frank House (Armorer) , Steve Karnes (Armorer) , Ana Maria Quintana (Script Supervisor) , Karl J. Weschta (Armorer) , Larry Zanoff (Armorer) , Katharine Kremp (Hairstylist) and others.

Paramount, DreamWorks Pictures, Amblin Entertainment, Cruise/Wagner Productions

If you love to travel and like to visit countries like United States or places like Grace Community Lutheran Church in Newark. If you want to share your love for War of the Worlds or movie stars like Tom Cruise, Dakota Fanning and Justin Chatwin. And if you love movies and series in genres like adventure, thriller and science fiction, then SCEEN IT is the place to be. It is a great guide for everybody who loves traveling, watching movies and series and visiting filming locations.

other titles

LOCATION collection

Where was it filmed.

Universal Studios War of the Worlds (2005)

Ray Ferrier and his kids exit the house looking with disbelief what has happened outside.

Grace Community Lutheran Church War of the Worlds (2005)

The earth moves, people panic and the church collapses.

13 John Fitzgerald Kennedy Blvd War of the Worlds (2005)

Ray Ferrier is watching for his children at his house when something strange is happening in the sky.

31-1 Fiske Place War of the Worlds (2005)

** spoiler alert ** Ray Ferrier manages to get his daughter back to his ex wife safely. Arriving at the house he is in for a surprise.

CLICK HERE and watch War of the Worlds

Locations on map, the exact gps locations.

Where Does Tom Cruise Live And How Big Is His House?

With a  net worth of $600 million , Tom Cruise and the word "movie star" are practically synonymous. Given his impressive resume, spanning from his breakout 1983 role in "Risky Business" to his ever-more-momentous "Mission Impossible" blockbuster franchise, the actor has not stopped making the big bucks for both himself and everyone around him — with his films earning hundreds of upon hundreds in the three decades he's been a star.

Like many of Hollywood's biggest stars, Cruise's life story was as close to rags-to-riches as they come. "For years, all I had were a bed, a desk and a chair," Tom Cruise told Roger Ebert in 1986. "When I was making a movie, they put me in hotel rooms. Between jobs, I moved back into my apartment, and my lifestyle dropped considerably." Coming from an underprivileged childhood, Cruise quickly learned the value of hard work no matter one's net worth.  "It's a strange thing, being handed so much power," Cruise also related to Ebert.  "My point of view and my values haven't changed. Everybody wants to push and pull me, but I refuse to change my lifestyle."

Nonetheless, Cruise's lifestyle has changed on the surface at least. Given that he has no doubt ditched that scarcely decorated apartment for cushier digs since, let's explore just where and what type of home Cruise inhabits these days!

Tom Cruise's penthouse is cool — even for Tom Cruise

Tom Cruise has called Florida his home base since 2018. Per Architectural Digest , Cruise fetched a pretty $55 million when he sold his Los Angeles and New York properties in 2016, moving into a multimillion-dollar penthouse in Clearwater, Florida. Planned by a wealthy Scientologist — Cruise is controversially tied to the religion — the 10-story SkyView condominium is one block from the Church of Scientology, per People . With Cruise reportedly close friends with church leader David Miscavige, a source told the outlet that the movie star was "very relaxed when he's here." 

In addition to occupying the entire top two floors, according to AD, Cruise's pad packs amenities like a roof deck, a nearly 40-foot pool, a bar, and more.What sets the pad apart from other celebrity dig, however, is the passageway that leads to a private, smaller condo on the second floor (which houses a flight simulator, for one). Additionally, there is a nine-car garage and private car elevator (what a cool phrase to say). Now that's  on par with expectations for the "Mission Impossible" star.

Tom Cruise sold his vacation home in Colorado for millions

Although Clearwater, Florida, might be Tom Cruise's personal headquarters, he also owns property in West Sussex, England — for one. Per The Sun , the estate was purchased by Cruise in 2006 for a reported $4.2 million. Bearing the regal title of "Rede Place," the property is located in Dormans Park, East Grinstead, which is reportedly close to the British headquarters of the Church of Scientology. Boasting 14 acres of land and an 11,331-square-foot interior, per insider , the manor was constructed in 2003, meaning Cruise would likely be one of its very first owners.

Cruise parted ways with his longtime 320-acre Telluride, Colo. ranch, which was reportedly a vacation refuge frequented by Cruise with ex-wife Katie Holmes and his children. Putting the ranch on sale for $39.5 million in March, per Forbes , the home sold without a hitch two months later for the asking price . Ardent followers of Cruise's career might remember this was the shooting location for a follow-up to his infamous 2005 interview with Oprah Winfrey , as noted by  Town & Country . However, Cruise's Telluride ranch's main draw, aside from being a ski haven known for its celebrity denizens, is the cozy seclusion it provides for the uber-famous. No wonder it sold so fast! 

Movie Reviews

Tv/streaming, collections, great movies, chaz's journal, contributors, creaking havoc.

Now streaming on:

"War of the Worlds" is a big, clunky movie containing some sensational sights but lacking the zest and joyous energy we expect from Steven Spielberg . It proceeds with the lead-footed deliberation of its 1950s predecessors to give us an alien invasion that is malevolent, destructive and, from the alien point of view, pointless. They've "been planning this for a million years" and have gone to a lot of trouble to invade Earth for no apparent reason and with a seriously flawed strategy. What happened to the sense of wonder Spielberg celebrated in " Close Encounters of the Third Kind ," and the dazzling imagination of " Minority Report "?

The movie adopts the prudent formula of viewing a catastrophe through the eyes of a few foreground characters. When you compare it with a movie like "The Day After Tomorrow," which depicted the global consequences of cosmic events, it lacks dimension: Martians have journeyed millions of miles to attack a crane operator and his neighbors (and if they're not Martians, they journeyed a lot farther). The hero, Ray Ferrier ( Tom Cruise ), does the sort of running and hiding and desperate defending of his children that goes with the territory, and at one point even dives into what looks like certain death to rescue his daughter.

There's a survivalist named Ogilvy ( Tim Robbins ) who has quick insights into surviving: "The ones that didn't flatline are the ones who kept their eyes open." And there are the usual crowds of terrified citizens looking up at ominous threats looming above them. But despite the movie's $135 million budget, it seems curiously rudimentary in its action.

The problem may be with the alien invasion itself. It is not very interesting. We learn that countless years ago, invaders presumably but not necessarily from Mars buried huge machines all over the Earth. Now they activate them with lightning bolts, each one containing an alien (in what form, it is hard to say). With the aliens at the controls, these machines crash up out of the Earth, stand on three towering but spindly legs and begin to zap the planet with death rays. Later, their tentacles suck our blood and fill steel baskets with our writhing bodies.

To what purpose? Why zap what you later want to harvest? Why harvest humans? And, for that matter, why balance these towering machines on ill-designed supports? If evolution has taught us anything, it is that limbs of living things, from men to dinosaurs to spiders to centipedes, tend to come in numbers divisible by two. Three legs are inherently not stable, as the movie demonstrates when one leg of a giant tripod is damaged, and it falls helplessly to the ground.

The tripods are indeed faithful to the original illustrations for H.G. Wells' novel The War of the Worlds, and to the machines described in the historic 1938 Orson Welles radio broadcast. But the book and radio program depended on our imaginations to make them believable, and the movie came at a time of lower expectations in special effects. You look at Spielberg's machines and you don't get much worked up, because you're seeing not alien menace but clumsy retro design. Perhaps it would have been a good idea to set the movie in 1898, at the time of Wells' novel, when the tripods represented a state-of-the-art alien invasion.

There are some wonderful f/x moments, but they mostly don't involve the pods. A scene where Ray wanders through the remains of an airplane crash is somber and impressive, and there is an unforgettable image of a train, every coach on fire, roaring through a station. Such scenes seem to come from a kind of reality different from that of the tripods.

Does it make the aliens scarier that their motives are never spelled out? I don't expect them to issue a press release announcing their plans for world domination, but I wish their presence reflected some kind of intelligent purpose. The alien ship in "Close Encounters" visited for no other reason, apparently, than to demonstrate that life existed elsewhere, could visit us, and was intriguingly unlike us while still sharing such universal qualities as the perception of tone. Those aliens wanted to say hello. The alien machines in "War of the Worlds" seem designed for heavy lifting in an industry that needs to modernize its equipment and techniques. (The actual living alien being we finally glimpse is an anticlimax, a batlike, bug-eyed monster, confirming the wisdom of Kubrick and Clarke in deliberately showing no aliens in "2001").

The human characters are disappointingly one-dimensional. Cruise's character is given a smidgen of humanity (he's an immature, divorced hotshot who has custody of the kids for the weekend) and then he wanders out with his neighbors to witness strange portents in the sky, and the movie becomes a story about grabbing and running and ducking and hiding and trying to fight back.

There are scenes in which poor Dakota Fanning , as his daughter, has to be lost or menaced, and then scenes in which she is found or saved, all with much desperate shouting. A scene where an alien tentacle explores a ruined basement where they're hiding is a mirror of a better scene in " Jurassic Park " where characters hide from a curious raptor.

The thing is, we never believe the tripods and their invasion are practical. How did these vast metal machines lie undetected for so long beneath the streets of a city honeycombed with subway tunnels, sewers, water and power lines, and foundations? And why didn't a civilization with the physical science to build and deploy the tripods a million years ago not do a little more research about conditions on the planet before sending its invasion force? It's a war of the worlds, all right -- but at a molecular, not a planetary level.

All of this is just a way of leading up to the gut reaction I had all through the film: I do not like the tripods. I do not like the way they look, the way they are employed, the way they attack, the way they are vulnerable or the reasons they are here. A planet that harbors intelligent and subtle ideas for science fiction movies is invaded in this film by an ungainly Erector set.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

Now playing

Monica Castillo

Brian Tallerico

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare

Glenn kenny.

Matt Zoller Seitz

Christy Lemire

Film credits.

War of the Worlds (2005)

Rated PG-13 for frightening sequences of sci-fi violence and disturbing images

116 minutes

Tom Cruise as Ray Ferrier

Dakota Fanning as Rachel

Miranda Otto as Mary Ann

Justin Chatwin as Robbie

Tim Robbins as Harlan Ogilvy

Directed by

• Steven Spielberg
• Josh Friedman
• David Koepp

Based on the novel by

Latest blog posts.

​Nocturnal Suburban Teen Angst Fantasia: Jane Schoenbrun on I Saw the TV Glow

A Preview of the 2024 Cannes Film Festival

Driven By Love and Necessity: An Interview With Lily Gladstone

I’ve Never Seen Anything Like It Before: Roger Corman (1926-2024)

13 War Of The Worlds Facts That Will Help Tom Cruise Fans Prepare For The End Of Times

"War of the Worlds" by H.G. Wells was first published in 1897, and since it was first released to the public, this text has proven unspeakably influential on the collective consciousness, especially regarding people's perception and visualization of alien invasions. Further reinterpretations such as the iconic Orson Welles broadcast of "War of the Worlds" have kept this classic story around in some form in the broader pop culture. Its enduring appeal is perfectly encapsulated by the presence of the 2005 Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruise blockbuster, simply titled "War of the Worlds." What other 1897 novels were inspiring massive blockbusters in 2005?

Given its box office success and connection to two extremely well-known artists in the world of cinema, countless people are well aware of this interpretation of "War of the Worlds." But there are many facts about this movie that are still far from common knowledge. Details like the inspiration for the designs of the movies aliens, for instance, or Spielberg's regrets over this blockbuster are just the tip of the iceberg in terms of obscure but no less pivotal facts about this box office sensation. "War of the Worlds" continues to fascinate the public at large just as these details about its 2005 film adaptation will doubtlessly fascinate fans of the feature.

How long Spielberg waited to make War of the Worlds

Steven Spielberg can make movies quickly once he's committed to directing them, but he's also not the kind of guy who just rushes into making a movie the moment he gets enchanted by a certain concept or plot. He's going to wait until all the stars align and he has the resources to realize his full vision. Plus, there can often be extra challenges, such as difficulties with casting or visual effects obstacles, that can make directing these motion pictures a challenging prospect. Projects like "The Adventures of Tintin" or "Lincoln" took decades to realize and "War of the Worlds," as it turns out, was another Spielberg movie that had to wait for just the right moment to exist.

Spielberg explained to the Director's Guild of America that he'd been yearning to do a "War of the Worlds" adaptation for years, but back in 1996, his plans got derailed when he saw "Independence Day." That movie forced Spielberg to reconsider how he'd execute a big-budget alien invasion movie. Returning to the drawing board was a difficult experience for Spielberg, but it eventually led him to figure out that the way to make this "War of the Worlds" adaptation unique was to tell it from the perspective of everyday people. Through waiting and being more measured in how he approached this adaptation, Spielberg tapped into a rich thematic vein that made this "War of the Worlds" adaptation extra enticing to him.

The origins of Spielberg and Cruise doing War of the Worlds

In 2002, Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruise collaborated for their first time ever on "Minority Report." An iconic leading man was acting out the creative vision of an equally iconic filmmaker. This momentous occasion turned out to be so fruitful for both artists that, per their own anecdotes , they immediately began thinking up future projects to collaborate on the moment "Minority Report" was finished.

In contemplating the next Spielberg & Cruise endeavor, the two men looked over a trio of separate concepts. One of them was a modern-day adaptation of "War of the Worlds." Just introducing this concept immediately sparked the imaginations of both Spielberg and Cruise and the duo set out on making it a reality. It's no wonder they sparked to "War of the Worlds" given that, much like "Minority Report," this would be a decidedly modern adaptation of a beloved piece of science-fiction literature.

Earlier abandoned Spielberg movies about dark alien invasions

Part of the marketing push for "War of the Worlds" included emphasizing how this movie was so drastically different from earlier Spielberg movies centering on ordinary humans encountering aliens. These weren't the friendly otherworldly visitors from "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" or "E.T." Instead, "War of the Worlds" concerned brutal aliens who were merciless in their slaughtering of human beings. It was certainly a departure from some of Spielberg's earliest movies, but that doesn't mean Spielberg had never entertained the idea of doing a darker production involving aliens.

Back in the late 1970s, Spielberg had planned to follow up "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" with "Night Skies," a dark horror movie about aliens terrorizing a family that lives on a farm. Despite having a connection to a box office smash like "Third Kind," "Night Skies" never got off the ground, though one of its characters did inspire "E.T." Speaking of that 1982 film, per a breakdown by Birth.Movies.Death (reported on by SlashFilm ), a treatment was penned for a sequel to that family-friendly feature that would've involved Elliot and his adolescent chums getting kidnapped by evil aliens who proceed to torture these kids. Neither of these movies involving Spielberg ever got off the ground, but they did hint at the kind of grim alien storytelling he delivered with "War of the Worlds."

What inspired the idea of aliens being buried in the Earth

In the original H.G. Wells novel "War of the Worlds," the alien invaders that devastate Earth come from the planet Mars. It's a classical approach to an extra-terrestrial invasion story, in which the conquering forces come from another planet and wreak havoc on Earthlings. One would imagine, then, that any adaptation of "War of the Worlds" would have to keep this critical part of the original novel. However, in one of many drastic changes from the source material, Spielberg's vision for "War of the Worlds" instead depicts the alien invaders being buried deep within the Earth and emerging only when the time is right to lay waste to humanity.

Entertainment Weekly reported that key creative personnel on the movie offered up different reasons for why this change was incorporated. Steven Spielberg claimed it was done solely because he'd felt there were already so many "War of the Worlds" adaptations featuring alien invaders descending from the heavens. He wanted to provide a new piece of visual language for how this story could be adapted. However, screenwriter David Koepp offered up the reasoning that this change happened to make the plot seem more scientifically realistic. Whatever informed this noticeable change, altering the origins of the alien invasion showed how "War of the Worlds" wasn't slavishly devoted to every aspect of its source material.

How David Koepp approached writing War of the Worlds

Screenwriter David Koepp had already collaborated with Steven Spielberg on multiple occasions before "War of the Worlds" came about, including with the blockbuster movie book adaptation "Jurassic Park." Given their extensive experience with one another, reuniting once again for "War of the Worlds" may have seemed, on paper, like it would be a walk in the park. However, tackling this seminal piece of science-fiction literature came with countless major challenges that Koepp found quite hard to navigate as a screenwriter.

Koepp explained to Empire that the biggest challenge he faced from the get-go on penning "War of the Worlds" was figuring out why this novel needed another big-screen adaptation. The lengthy legacy of "War of the Worlds" movie initially seemed too daunting to overcome, until Koepp zeroed in on the idea of making this version of the story told just from the perspective of one father. Rather than taking a cue from "Independence Day"  and other alien invasion movies that focus on an ensemble cast, Koepp's "War of the Worlds" screenplay would have a much more intimate scope. Considering this and other ways "War of the Worlds" could subvert viewer expectations over how an alien invasion movie operates gave Koepp some direction on where to take this adaptation.

The quick pre-production of War of the Worlds

"War of the Worlds" was a massive production, but also one that ran on quite the accelerated production schedule. Notes about the production reveal that Steven Spielberg told producer Kathleen Kennedy from the start that he wanted to start shooting with only a handful of months of prep despite the epic scope of the screenplay. To assuage her fears of pulling this off, Kennedy recalled how Spielberg reminded her that "War of the Worlds" was just about three people, with occasional sequences involving thousands of background players.

While this was a helpful and calming piece of advice, it was still a whirlwind to get "War of the Worlds" ready in the time allotted. The feature's pre-production period was especially crunched, though was made manageable thanks to the crew largely working with Spielberg in the past. This innate familiarity meant people were able to understand Spielberg's vision right away and get "War of the Worlds" running in no time flat. It didn't hurt that Spielberg now had decades of experience under his belt with realizing big-budget action movies full of spectacle and elaborate set pieces. With these factors in play, it quickly becomes apparent how and why "War of the Worlds" was able to get off the ground with such speed.

How 9/11 impacted War of the Worlds

The terrorist attacks of September 11 had an unmistakable impact on the entertainment industry, with movies now having to make sure they were in step with a new societal status quo. There was no going back to the world before 9/11 and motion pictures were going to have to reflect that harsh reality. This also applied to Steven Spielberg's blockbusters, which were often thought of as the ultimate forms of escapist entertainment. However, the filmmaker has been very open that "War of the Worlds" was built from the ground up to be a vision of the alien invasion movie for the post-9/11 era.

Spielberg opened up to USA Today about how 9/11 had altered the emotional ambiance of America, with fear being a much more noticeable part of people's everyday lives. Such rampant terror is present in "War of the Worlds," a movie where evil aliens can pop out from anywhere and devastate humanity. Spielberg opted to filter this relevant atmosphere through everyday people rather than powerful politicians or members of the military. Like so many Americans in the wake of 9/11, the protagonists of "War of the Worlds" are just trying to hold onto their loved ones in the wake of the unthinkable.

How Spielberg saw War of the Worlds fitting into his fixation on broken families

The concept of broken families is a prominent one throughout the works of Steven Spielberg, and he manages to explore this conceit once again when it comes to "War of the Worlds." In a deviation from the storyline of the original H.G. Wells novel, this adaptation of "War of the Worlds" follows a largely absent father who must take care of his two kids when the apocalypse suddenly bears down on the human race.

Spielberg acknowledged to USA Today that his take on "War of the Worlds" was thematically consistent with his prior works, while also noting how the film ran in the opposite direction of "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," his 1977 sci-fi film about a dad who abandons his kids to be with aliens. "I've grown up a lot," Spielberg explained. "I wasn't a dad when I was 27, 28 years old and made that movie. I'm a father now. It's very easy to have somebody leave his family to get on a mother ship when you're not a father yourself." Decades later, Spielberg had become a dad and this meant adjusting the way he navigated broken families in sci-fi films, as seen by the central emotional core of his vision of "War of the Worlds."

Spielberg embraced digital storyboards for War of the Worlds

Steven Spielberg is an old-fashioned guy in many ways. Most notably, he always shoots his movies with 35mm cameras, even as most of the rest of Hollywood has shifted towards capturing motion pictures with digital cameras. However, that doesn't mean Spielberg totally ignores new technological shifts that open up new possibilities for him as a storyteller. Take the world of storyboards for instance. Spielberg has often turned to his paper storyboards in the past as a useful guide for initially executing his creative vision. Though he'd often go in a new direction once the cameras started rolling, those storyboards were still a useful tool to help get his imagination rolling.

Animation World Network revealed that with "War of the Worlds," though, Spielberg upgraded this part of the process to an entirely digital format for the first time. Visual effects supervisor Den Gregoire revealed that the cramped production time on "War of the Worlds" made the use of digital storyboards, which offered more flexibility on what Spielberg could plan for individual shots in advance, a vital tool. These tasks weren't just something delegated to the visual effects team either. Spielberg immersed himself in all kinds of intricate planning using these digital storyboards, a clear sign that this filmmaker was incredibly capable of reveling in exciting new technologies.

The design choices for the film's aliens

The aliens in "War of the Worlds" are not on-screen for much of the movie's runtime, with the creatures instead primarily staying inside their tripods as they decimate humanity. However, they do show up within the final 40 minutes of the feature, with their most prominent appearance coming as part of a suspenseful sequence where it looks like our lead characters will be discovered in the basement of a farm. For this incarnation of the "War of the Worlds" aliens, the visual effects team was very careful about what kind of design they employed for these otherworldly visitors and what kind of real-world inspiration they'd turn to.

A breakdown of the movie's visual effects by Animation World Network revealed that Spielberg got the ball rolling on what the aliens should look like by initially proposing that their appearance take a cue from jellyfish. The animators enjoyed grappling with how these otherworldly creatures would walk on the surface of Earth, with red-eyed tree frogs serving as a basis for their physical behavior. There was also excitement from the animators over how "War of the Worlds" never fully explains who these aliens are, which lent an instantly compelling aura of mystery to their design. Even if they're not explicitly on-screen for much of the movie, there was tons of thought given to the design of the alien invaders of "War of the Worlds."

The biggest challenges John Williams faced in the score

John Williams and Steven Spielberg have been working together for decades now; when you think of one, you think of the other. If a new Spielberg movie is gracing the big screen, chances are, audiences are also going to get a new collection of compositions form John Williams. Given how long they've been working together, one might imagine that Williams would find it as easy to navigate composing music for a new Spielberg movie as it would be to tell what's on the back of his hand. However, a title like "War of the Worlds" presented some unique obstacles for this master composer to navigate.

Williams explained to Gramaphone that "War of the Worlds," as well as fellow 2005 movie "Revenge of the Sith," provided him with the challenge of making sure his music was as bombastic and lively as the images on the screen. With "War of the Worlds," Williams was concerned about making sure his score could measure up to all the Tripods and otherworldly invaders dominating the screen. For another composer, it may have been too tall of an order to come up with a score that could stand out against all that big-screen spectacle. For Williams, though, it was just another job in his longstanding and expansive career working alongside Steven Spielberg.

War of the Worlds and its box office run

2005 was a difficult year for the domestic box office. While individual movies like "Revenge of the Sith" were making money, the marketplace as a whole was down from 2004 and suffering from a deluge of underperforming films. With these financial difficulties, it's no wonder that all eyes turned to "War of the Worlds" as a potential savior for the year's box office. After all, Spielberg and Cruise had shattered box office records before. Perhaps they could inject some of that financial prowess into a year desperately short on hits.

"War of the Worlds" couldn't quite kick out all the box office blahs of 2005, but it still managed to perform quite respectably. The film debuted over the 4th of July weekend, where it scored the second biggest opening in history for a movie opening over that holiday frame (ironically, it only came in behind a movie from 2004, "Spider-Man 2") Its eventual $603.9 million global haul on a $132 million budget was superb and, thanks to a $234 million domestic total, gave Cruise his biggest North American box office performer ever until "Top Gun: Maverick" appeared . Overall for 2005, "War of the Worlds" emerged as the fourth biggest movie of 2005 domestically . Not too shabby of a performance and a much-needed win for the beleaguered 2005 box office.

Spielberg's problems with the War of the Worlds marketing

"War of the Worlds" received generally positive reviews upon its initial release, but it was far from universally beloved. One point of common criticism was the ending, which recreated the conclusion of the original H.G. Wells novel by having the aliens succumb to bacteria exclusive to Earth. It's a subversive ending in theory, but it's easy to see why it rubbed viewers the wrong way. What worked in a novel over 100 years earlier isn't also going to work perfectly in a 2005 blockbuster, especially one that otherwise eschewed core tenets of the original H.G. Wells text up to that point. Even director Steven Spielberg has expressed retrospective regret over this motion picture's conclusion.

In a book entitled "James Cameron's Story of Science Fiction," a conversation between Spielberg and James Cameron is relayed in which the former director admits that "War of the Worlds" didn't have a satisfactory finale. Spielberg goes on to express frustration with how he always struggled throughout the movie's production on how a modern-day "War of the Worlds" should end. Spielberg finally noted that having Morgan Freeman provide closing narration explaining the demise of these aliens was his way of trying to mitigate the problems with this feature's ending. Though it couldn't quite nail its ending, at least "War of the Worlds" was otherwise a generally well-liked foray into darker sci-fi cinema for Spielberg.

Where Was War of the Worlds Filmed?

With the New Hollywood Era maestro Steven Spielberg at the helm, ‘War of the Worlds’ is a mind-bending 2005 familial sci-fi thriller movie . Based on the 1898 novel by H. G. Wells, the story follows Ray Ferrier (Tom Cruise), a dock worker who reunites with his estranged children over a weekend. When diabolical aliens emerge from the ground and progress to annihilate the planet, Ray must reunite the children with their mother. The sprawling journey leads them from New York to New Jersey to Boston, while the aliens named “Tripods” always remain in their tails. If you seek to know where the movie was filmed, let us take you on tour.

War of the Worlds Filming Locations

‘War of the Worlds’ was filmed in its entirety in the US, especially in and around California, New York, New Jersey, Virginia, and Connecticut. Filming commenced on November 8, 2004, coming under wrap by March 7, 2005. Janusz Kaminski, a long-time collaborator of Spielberg known for his work on ‘War Horse’ and ‘ Minority Report ,’ joined the team as cinematographer. At the same time, Academy Award-winning production designer Rick Carter (‘ Avatar ’) came on board to handle the production design. Let us now take you to the specific locations where the movie was filmed!

Los Angeles County, California

Most of the filming took place in and around Los Angeles, where the team lensed segments in multiple studio locations. Some scenes were filmed in the Sony Pictures Studios, a famous production facility located at 10202 West Washington Boulevard in the Culver City community of LA County. Since its foundation in 1912, the studio has been home to critically acclaimed shows like ‘ The Goldbergs ’ and ‘ Insecure .’

Another prominent studio location was 20th Century Fox Studios (also known as Searchlight Pictures), at 10201 Pico Boulevard, in the Century City suburbs of Los Angeles. The crew got hold of Stage 15 and 16 of the iconic studio, where they filmed a considerable chunk of sequences. Since its inception in 1935, the studio has been part of the former “Big Six” major American film studios. Stage 15 is the same stage where groundbreaking movies like ‘ Fight Club ,’ ‘ Die Hard ,’ and ‘ The Sound of Music ’ was filmed.

The cast and crew also headed to Universal Studios, a central movie production hub at 100 Universal City Plaza in Universal City, in the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles County, to film some scenes. Filming took place in stages 27 and 28, and the crashed plane set is still a major attraction of the studio tour. Moreover, the Boston street scenes were filmed in the Warner Brothers Burbank Studios, another member of the former “Big Six” club at 4000 Warner Boulevard, in the Burbank area of LA County. By 2015, the busy 62 acres studio facility had 35 sound stages to aid various degrees of production.

Some exterior scenes were also filmed in Santa Clarita, an upscale Californian city in northwestern Los Angeles County. In the city, the crew specifically lensed scenes in the eastern suburbs of Canyon Country. The spectacular valley war sequence was filmed in Mystery Mesa, a studio facility in Santa Clarita. Once located at 30300 MYSTERY, Mesa Drive, in the town, the studio has been permanently out of order. Furthermore, filming of a major scene took place in Witmer Street & Ingraham Steet, near the Westlake neighborhood of Los Angeles.

Other Locations in California

Several other segments were lensed in California. Filming of the Athens diner scene, which is supposed to be in New York, actually took place in the historic unincorporated township of Piru, situated in the eastern Ventura County of California. The town derives its name from the lake of the same name, tucked away in the middle of Los Padres National Forest and Topatopa Mountains. Several productions have toured the town in their filming journey, from the Will Smith starrer ‘ King Richard ’ to the TV series ‘ True Blood .’

New York City, New York

Several scenes were filmed in and around New York City. The opening dock scenes were filmed at Red Hook in the central neighborhood of Brooklyn. Filming also took place at Water Street & Peck Slip in Manhattan. Mary Ann’s parents’ house is supposed to be in Boston. However, the scenes were filmed in the heart of NYC, outside a property located at Carroll Street, in the Park Slope community of Brooklyn. Furthermore, filming of the freeway sequence occurred at Korean War Veterans Parkway in Staten Island, the southernmost borough of New York City.

Other Locations in New York

The cast and crew extensively toured New York since most of the story unfolds in the state. Some scenes, especially the ferry sequences, were filmed in Athens, a picturesque town in New York. Others were filmed in Cold Spring, a village in the town of Philipstown in Putnam County, and the city of Beacon in Dutchess County. Several exterior sequences were filmed at Croton-on-Hudson, a village in Westchester County, north of New York City.

Rockbridge County, Virginia

The production team visited the mountainous southeastern state of Virginia to film some scenes. Some filming took place at Raphine, an unincorporated community in Rockbridge County in the Shenandoah Valley. Additional filming went underway in Brownsburg, an unincorporated community in the same Rockbridge County. The exterior filming for the valley war scenes occurred in Lexington, a major Virginian city in the southern Shenandoah Valley.

To actualize the epic ambiance of the story, the director took the team on a sprawling tour, which led them to New Jersey. Ray’s house seems to be in New York. However, the scenes were filmed on a soundstage at JF Kennedy Boulevard in the New Jersey city of Bayonne. In another sequence, we see an ironbound neighborhood. The scenes were filmed on Ferry Street in the iconic NJ city of Newark. On the other hand, the plane crash scene was filmed near the community of Howell. Additional filming in the state took place in the city of Elizabeth.

Connecticut

Additional filming took place in Connecticut. The crew visited the serene township of Naugatuck in the New Haven County of Connecticut. In the town, they set up scenes in the Uniroyal Chemical Company, which was one of the production centers of the town’s affluent rubber business. The vast production schedule also led them to Windsor, a historical town in the Hartford County of Connecticut, bordering the capital city of Hartford. The town’s history can be traced back to 1637 when it was the first English settlement in the state.

Read More: Best Tom Cruise Movies

SPONSORED LINKS

• Movie Explainers
• TV Explainers
• About The Cinemaholic

War of the Worlds (2005 film)

War of the Worlds is a 2005 science-fiction action film starring Tom Cruise and Dakota Fanning , based on the eponymous novel by H. G. Wells .

• 2 Ray Ferrier
• 3 Rachel Ferrier
• 4 Harlan Ogilvy
• 8 About War of the Worlds (2005 film)
• 9 External links

Narrator [ edit ]

• [first lines] No one would have believed, in the early years of the 21st century, that our world was being watched by intelligences greater than our own; that as men busied themselves about their various concerns, they observed and studied, the way a man with a microscope might scrutinize the creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water. With infinite complacency, men went to and fro about the globe, confident of our empire over this world. Yet, across the gulf of space, intellects vast and cruel and unsympathetic regarded our planet with envious eyes...and slowly, and surely, drew their plans against us.
• [last lines] From the moment the invaders arrived, breathed our air, ate and drank, they were doomed. They were undone, destroyed, after all of man's weapons and devices had failed, by the tiniest creatures that God in his wisdom put upon this Earth. By the toll of a billion deaths, man had earned his immunity, his right to survive among this planet's infinite organisms. And that right is ours against all challenges. For neither do men live nor die in vain.

Ray Ferrier [ edit ]

• [to Robbie] Okay, hey, enough of the "Ray" shit, alright! It's Dad, Sir, or, if you want, Mr. Ferrier. It sounds a little weird to me, but you decide.
• [to Robbie] You can hate me, but I love you!
• Two for you, two for Robbie, two for me... One for the house.
• [looking out at the teleporter's bolt of lightning] Where's the thunder...?
• Robbie, you wanna head in that direction?! There's nothing living in that direction, Robbie!
• We're gonna leave this house in 60 seconds.
• Let's try a plan that doesn't involve your 10-year-old sister joining the army?
• Get in the car, Manny, or you're gonna die!
• [angrily, to a soilder] LOOK AT THE GODDAMN BIRDS!!!!

Rachel Ferrier [ edit ]

• [as the family is chased by a tripod] Is it the terrorists?!
• [just before the tripods appear] The trees are moving...
• [unseen] Are we still alive?
• [crying, and softly hitting him] Robbie! What are you trying to do?! Where are you trying to go?! Who's going to take care of me if you go?!
• Is it them?! Is it them?!

Harlan Ogilvy [ edit ]

• This is not a war any more than there's a war between men and maggots... This is an extermination.
• You and me - I don't think we're on the same page.
• I'm dead set on living. [laughs, to himself] "Dead set on living".
• So what are you gonna do? Hide and wait here till they come and get you? Is that your "plan"?

Other [ edit ]

• Reporter: Once the tripods start to move, no more news comes out of that area.
• Marine Corps Captain: Our mission Lieutenant, is to delay their advance until those refugees get to safety! Now keep firing!
• Marine Corps Officer: Guidons, Guidons, Black Six. Attack, attack, attack!
• National Guard Lieutenant: Load the Gustavs, this is gonna be a tough kill!
• Tim: (awkwardly) I'm.....uh.....I'm gonna wait outside.
• Mary Ann: You're out of milk. And everything else.
• Captured Army Private: Everybody, down!- [when explosion is about to occur]

Dialogue [ edit ]

Taglines [ edit ].

• They're Already Here.
• This Summer, The Last War On Earth Won't Be Started By Humans.

About War of the Worlds (2005 film) [ edit ]

• Though War of the Worlds may have been based on an H.G. Wells novel from 1897, the film is very much about a specific, confusing, terrible time in American history: the period directly following the 9/11 terrorist attacks and how we, as a country, reacted to it. The movie tries to work through this collective angst and trauma, a fact that is, somehow, even more obvious watching it more than a decade after its initial release. The story begins in New York City, where Tom Cruise's Ray works on the docks and lives in New Jersey. When the alien attack first begins, greater New York City is the "ground zero" we see it depicted from. Ray's New Jersey community, filled with a sense of tight-knit camraderie and friendly neighborhood cops that feel totally different in the context of post-9/11 than they do in our current cultural context, is where this all begins for us. From there, we get several iconic images Americans have come to associate with 9/11: from traumatized people covered in ash to hordes of weary people walking across bridges to the signs people have made to look for their missing loved ones. At one point, when Ray and his kids are driving away from NYC, Dakota Fanning's Rachel asks if it is "the terrorists" as the city is destroyed behind them. This movie is also really pro-military. Pretty much whenever there is a heroic moment, it is a military man leading the way. The National Guard makes recurring appearances, somehow still in operation in the midst of this batshit crazy alien attack that the Earth is wholly unprepared for. This is not only an allegory for the police and firemen whose heroism has become a central tenet of our 9/11 narrative, but of the Iraq War that began probably around the time of this film's initial development.
• In re-watching War of the Worlds , it's hard not to compare it to Battlestar Galactica . War of the Worlds is dealing with a lot of the same themes as Battlestar Galactica, which premiered in the same year and was also a direct response to 9/11 and post-9/11 American life.
• Kayti Burt, “Steven Spielberg's War of the Worlds is His Most Underappreciated Movie” , Den of Geek , (Jun 29, 2016).
• SPIEGEL : Mr. Spielberg, no other film director has done more image-building for aliens than you: in your films "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" (1977) and "E.T." (1982) you describe them as loveable creatures. In your latest film, "War of the Worlds," which opens in cinemas on June 29, you have aliens from outer space attacking the world. What's the reason behind your change of heart?
• SPIEGEL : Mr. Spielberg, your plans to make a film of "War of the Worlds" date back to the early 1990s. Would you have made the film if September 11 had not happened?
• Tom Cruise and Steven Spielberg, Spiegel Interview With Tom Cruise and Steven Spielberg , Spiegel , (August 17, 2005).
• War of the Worlds is a big, clunky movie containing some sensational sights but lacking the zest and joyous energy we expect from Steven Spielberg.
• The problem may be with the alien invasion itself. It is not very interesting. We learn that countless years ago, invaders presumably but not necessarily from Mars buried huge machines all over the Earth. Now they activate them with lightning bolts, each one containing an alien (in what form, it is hard to say). With the aliens at the controls, these machines crash up out of the Earth, stand on three towering but spindly legs and begin to zap the planet with death rays. Later, their tentacles suck our blood and fill steel baskets with our writhing bodies. To what purpose? Why zap what you later want to harvest? Why harvest humans? And, for that matter, why balance these towering machines on ill-designed supports? If evolution has taught us anything, it is that limbs of living things, from men to dinosaurs to spiders to centipedes, tend to come in numbers divisible by two. Three legs are inherently not stable, as the movie demonstrates when one leg of a giant tripod is damaged, and it falls helplessly to the ground. The tripods are indeed faithful to the original illustrations for H.G. Wells' novel The War of the Worlds, and to the machines described in the historic 1938 Orson Welles radio broadcast. But the book and radio program depended on our imaginations to make them believable, and the movie came at a time of lower expectations in special effects. You look at Spielberg's machines and you don't get much worked up, because you're seeing not alien menace but clumsy retro design. Perhaps it would have been a good idea to set the movie in 1898, at the time of Wells' novel, when the tripods represented a state-of-the-art alien invasion.
• The human characters are disappointingly one-dimensional. Cruise's character is given a smidgen of humanity (he's an immature, divorced hotshot who has custody of the kids for the weekend) and then he wanders out with his neighbors to witness strange portents in the sky, and the movie becomes a story about grabbing and running and ducking and hiding and trying to fight back. There are scenes in which poor Dakota Fanning, as his daughter, has to be lost or menaced, and then scenes in which she is found or saved, all with much desperate shouting. A scene where an alien tentacle explores a ruined basement where they're hiding is a mirror of a better scene in "Jurassic Park" where characters hide from a curious raptor. The thing is, we never believe the tripods and their invasion are practical. How did these vast metal machines lie undetected for so long beneath the streets of a city honeycombed with subway tunnels, sewers, water and power lines, and foundations?
• Roger Ebert , “War of the Worlds" , Rogerebert.com , (June 28, 2005).

External links [ edit ]

• War of the Worlds quotes at the Internet Movie Database

• 2000s American films
• Science fiction films
• Films based on novels
• Remake films
• Films directed by Steven Spielberg
• Apocalyptic films
• Extraterrestrial life films
• Films based on works by H. G. Wells
• Screenplays by David Koepp
• Films set in New Jersey
• Films set in Boston

Navigation menu

War of the Worlds (2005)

Full cast & crew.

Directed by 

Writing credits ( wga )  , cast (in credits order) complete, awaiting verification  , produced by , music by , cinematography by , editing by , casting by , production design by , art direction by , set decoration by , costume design by , makeup department , production management , second unit director or assistant director , art department , sound department , special effects by , visual effects by , stunts , camera and electrical department , animation department , casting department , costume and wardrobe department , editorial department , location management , music department , script and continuity department , transportation department , additional crew , thanks .

Release Dates | Official Sites | Company Credits | Filming & Production | Technical Specs

Contribute to This Page

• Full Cast and Crew
• Release Dates
• Official Sites
• Company Credits
• Filming & Production
• Technical Specs
• Plot Summary
• Plot Keywords
• Parents Guide

Did You Know?

• Crazy Credits
• Alternate Versions
• Connections
• Soundtracks

Photo & Video

• Photo Gallery
• Trailers and Videos
• User Reviews
• User Ratings
• External Reviews
• Metacritic Reviews

Related Items

• External Sites

Related lists from IMDb users

Recently Viewed

Tom Cruise and the Father’s Choice In War of the Worlds (2005)

War of the Worlds is a 2005 science fiction thriller about a father who tries to keep his children alive during an alien invasion. A global box office hit, it earned high praise for its direction and visual effects.

It’s observed that the creatures are riding beams of electricity into the ground where enormous tripod warships emerge. This happens right in front of Ray and naturally, panic overruns the city (and soon the world) as these devastating machines obliterate buildings and people while rampaging over anything in their way, themselves shielded by energy force fields no bullet or missile can penetrate. In a scramble, Ray thinks that taking the kids back to their mothers is the best thing he can do, but as they make their escape, passage becomes nearly impossible, and when they arrive, no one is home. More devastation follows, most notably a crashed 747 airliner that just missed the house, as they continue on a quest to reach safe haven, if there is any, alive.

Directed by Steven Spielberg , the story is not too concerned with logic, but rather characters and set-pieces. Everything is tossed into the action basket to great effect, staging and presenting some truly astonishing sequences, including a terrifying bit on a ferry boat and then a much more personal moment in the basement of a survivalist’s ( Tim Robbins ) home. While the movie lacks the narrative punch that should have put this leagues ahead of others in the genre and Ray is wedged into a heroic role at the end that feels forced. Still, there is a lot of great entertainment here, with Cruise delivering a pitch-perfect performance with plenty of satisfying thrills. And like every movie, it has one great moment.

A Father’s Choice

As the invasion gets underway, the landscape becomes an apocalyptic nightmare of chaos as Ray and his children fight to survive. After they attempt to cross the Hudson River, an alien mega-sized Tripod attacks and the boat capsizes, with hundreds struggling to make it to shore. Ray manages to get himself and his kids there, and they are immediately met with even more horror as the number of Tripods increase and the military arrives in defense. As a battalion of tanks and armored personal carriers engage the aliens, hundreds upon hundreds of people are caught in the middle on the crest of a nighttime hill with both combating sides firing upon the other in plumes of smoke and fury. Amid this cacophony raining around them, Ray learns that Robbie  doesn’t want to stay with him. He is drawn to the fight and to take up arms with the soldiers and face off against the invaders. Ray flat-out refuses to let his teenaged son go, desperately clinging to him as Robbie tries to pull away, pleading with him to stay as the boy claws his way up the hill to be in the battle.

Desperate to keep his family together, Ray is forced to leave the terrified Rachel alone for a moment as he puts his weight on Robbie and forces him to the ground as the air around them lights up with smoke and tracer fire. Meanwhile, another couple, fleeing the madness, sees Rachel standing by herself and attempt to rescue her, not knowing that her father is nearby. Looking back, Ray sees this and becomes torn between his children, not wanting to lose either but forced to choose. Robbie assures his father that this is what he wants, “I want to see this,” and to please let him go, which Ray finally, achingly, submits to, seeing that Rachel is being whisked away. Father and son say goodbye as Robbie runs over the crest and Ray rushes down to get his daughter as a hellfire of explosion overtake the hills, giving us the impression Robbie has met his end.

No parent should have to choose which child to leave behind, but that is the choice Ray faces, and what his responsibilities are to them. Robbie is independent and not close with his father, but there is respect, especially as the invasion escalates with Ray showing Robbie some behaviors that he hadn’t seen before. Like many who are victims of a horrific attack on their home, be it a city, state, county, or in this case, world, loyalties drive them to rise to the defense of that home. They want, they need to fight. Robbie feels this pull and is willing to sacrifice himself to that end. Ray understands this, but he fights a different battle. Ray is older and he has crested a different hill, that of a father charged with the safety of his children and with Robbie old enough to make his own way, he realizes he must let him go and now dedicate himself to Rachel. It’s a heartbreaking choice, but a necessary one. This single moment, buried in the context of the massive alien attack, is the central theme of the film, the evolving relationship between Ray and Robbie that sees a father accept the maturity of a son to go out into the dangerous world on his own. A parent must face this with any child, hoping they have prepared them for the task, and while Ray doubts himself, his feelings of inadequacies as a father a burden he sees in Robbie’s eyes every time they meet, his greatest act as a father is his trust. He lets his son go and that choice, metaphorically shown by the explosion of fire behind him, reveals the absolute loss of control he now has over any decision Robbie makes. It’s a great movie moment.

Before I Change My Mind Exclusive Clip & LA Premiere

What to Watch 40 Years Later: A dynamic directing duo begins in Blood Simple

Trunk Review

I.S.S. Review

Cult Killer Review

The Iron Claw Review

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Accept Read More

• Write for us

How old was Tom Cruise in the movie War of the Worlds?

Tom Cruise was 42 in War of the Worlds when he played the character 'Ray Ferrier'.

That was over 19 years ago in 2005.

Today he is 61 , and has starred in 86 movies in total, 37 of those since War of the Worlds was released.

How old do you think he looks in the movie?

In War of the Worlds, I think Tom Cruise looks:

Did you know?

• Director Steven Spielberg has worked with Tom Cruise a total of 2 times in his career.
• Tom Cruise's first movie was as 'Billy' in Endless Love, released in 1981 when he was 18
• War of the Worlds scores 6.48 out of 10 on TMDB .

The cast of War of the Worlds

Tom Cruise's other movies

• International edition
• Australia edition
• Europe edition

Cruise meets match in War of the Words

Tom Cruise believes in aliens. But while promoting his latest film, War of the Worlds , the actor has repeatedly found himself taking up arms against a swath of enemies closer to home.

At the premiere he called a Channel 4 prankster a jerk for squirting him with water; in an interview on US TV he branded the host "glib" and "irresponsible" for expressing his views on psychiatry.

But yesterday Top Gun met his match. After he launched an attack on Brooke Shields for revealing that she took psychiatric drugs to cope with post-natal depression, Shields struck back.

In a comment piece in the New York Times, usually reserved for policy wonks and public intellectuals, Shields, a Princeton-educated actor and former model, argued that Cruise's comments are "a disservice to mothers everywhere".

"I'm going to take a wild guess and say that Mr Cruise has never suffered from post-partum depression," wrote Shields, currently starring in Chicago in London.

"To suggest that I was wrong to take drugs to deal with my depression, and that instead I should have taken vitamins and exercise, shows an utter lack of understanding about postpartum depression and childbirth in general."

Shields' response came after Cruise, a Scientologist, last week lambasted both her and the host of NBC's Today Show, Matt Lauer, for their belief in psychiatry.

"She doesn't understand the history of psychiatry. She does not understand it in the same way you don't understand it, Matt. You don't know the history of psychiatry. I do."

Cruise insisted that antidepressants just "mask the problem", adding: "There is no such thing as a chemical imbalance."

His outburst was the latest in a recent litany of bizarre behaviour including jumping up and down on Oprah Winfrey's sofa as he declared his love for his fiancee, Katie Holmes.

Cruise's broadside on NBC was not the first time he had attacked Shields for taking antidepressants.

Responding directly to the accusations he made on the programme, Shields ended her article: "It's not the history of psychiatry, but it is my history, personal and real."

• War of the Worlds

Most viewed

Harlan Ogilvy

• View history

While the character shares his name with that of Ogilvy , a character in the original novel, he is a combination of that of the Artilleryman and the curate . His first name is a reference to author Harlan Ellison.

When Ray Ferrier and his daughter Rachel flee a pitch battle between the military and the tripods , Harlan calls to them from an abandoned farmhouse and offers them shelter from the carnage. Harlan explains that he has theorised that the aliens had buried their technology there millions of years ago and that he and Ray can deduce their weakness by observing them, as their refuge is right in the middle of an alien camp. He offers to look after Rachel in the event that Ray is killed and tries to console Ray about the apparent death of his son Robbie , but Ray insists that Robbie is still alive. The three successfully hide from an alien probe, apparently undetected, for two days.

Harlan's machinations come to an end when he and Ray witness the aliens harvesting living human specimens to fertilise the Red Weed , he descends into a manic frenzy of shoveling into a tunnel in an attempt to escape. Unable to reason with him, Ray is forced to kill him to prevent the tripods from discovering them.

• 1 Fighting-Machine

• Get the App Roku Apple TV STIRR
• Schedule Full Schedule Shows Movies
• Find Comet in Your Area

War of the Worlds

Starring: Tom Cruise, Dakota Fanning

Director: Steven Spielberg

You Might Also Like

The X-Files: Teso Dos Bichos

Stargate SG-1: The Quest

The X-Files: Dreamland

The X-Files: Kill Switch

Find comet in your area.

COMET is also available on:

• Stream Online at  CometTV.com/watch-live/
• YouTube TV (for subscribers)
• Dish channel 289

Join the COMET mailing list

10 Great Sci-Fi Books That Made For Terrible Movies

• Adapting science fiction novels to films is a challenging task that often results in disappointing outcomes due to the difficulty of capturing the expansive worlds and thoughtful character development found in the source material.
• Some notable sci-fi books, such as Ender's Game and The Giver , failed to translate well to the big screen, lacking the serious nature and subtle story development that made the novels successful.
• Films like The Dark Tower and Dune struggled to condense complex and expansive stories into a short runtime, resulting in disjointed adaptations that failed to capture the essence of the original works.

Great sci-fi books are a common source for blockbuster films, but not all adaptations go as planned. Iconic science fiction film franchises like Jurassic Park , The Martian, and Blade Runner all owe their origins to novels, whether they were adapted faithfully or by taking creative freedoms. While some stories benefit from making changes to the source material, others do not, and the balancing act of determining what to keep and what to change becomes the challenge of adapting a novel to a screenplay.

Science fiction is an incredible challenge to adapt to begin with, as building expansive worlds often requires immense attention to detail, along with getting the script and casting right. With so many things that could go wrong, it's not hard to understand why so many science fiction and fantasy projects don't live up to expectations. Some outstanding sci-fi books have unfortunately made for terrible movies.

Ender's Game (2013)

With a stellar cast that included Asa Butterfield and Harrison Ford as well as solid visual effects for 2013, it's disappointing that Ender's Game flopped. The 1985 novel by Orson Scott Card mixes aspects of young-adult dystopian novels with interplanetary science fiction, telling the story of Ender, one of many young boys horrifyingly sent to war to defend Earth from an alien invasion. Unfortunately, the film adaptation failed to capture the serious nature of the book's storyline and lacked much of the thoughtfulness that went into Ender's character development in the novel.

The Time Machine (2002)

The 2002 adaptation of The Time Machine is not only a bad book adaptation, it's considered one of the worst sci-fi films ever. Like many science fiction adaptations, the story that made it onto film was underdeveloped, and failed to capture the magic of the original novella. The 1895 work of fiction by prolific science fiction writer, H. G. Wells, was massively influential, not only coining the term "time machine," but also popularizing the idea of time travel. For a film that should've been the archetype of time travel stories, the Guy Pearce starring adaptation was a complete miss.

The Dark Tower (2017)

Out of five Stephen King adaptations that were released in 2017, The Dark Tower was the most poorly received despite an all-star pairing of Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey. The Dark Tower isn't Stephen King's most notable work, but it is his most well-known series. The author's stories are typically lengthy, and The Dark Tower series is his most expansive set of novels. While most Stephen King adaptations have been made as TV miniseries, The Dark Tower adaptation tries to squeeze a dense story into a 95-minute film. At least Stephen King seemed to appreciate the script and enjoyed the film for what it was.

Dune (1984)

Like The Dark Tower , Dune is a dense and complex story, so fitting it into a two-hour film was never going to work. The movie feels disjointed and missed on many levels. Legendary film director David Lynch, who took on the project despite it being a far cry from his usual work, does not have fond memories of Dune 's production . The 1984 version of Dune was storied with studio interference, resulting in a product that failed to capture Frank Herbert's original story. Luckily, Lynch went on to make more incredible films and series, and Dune got another chance with Denis Villeneuve which has been met with acclaim.

RELATED: Dune Proves That David Lynch's Movie Got 1 Thing Exactly Right

The Giver (2014)

Like with Ender's Game , the 2014 adaptation of The Giver fails to bring a classic young-adult dystopia novel to the big screen. Pairing a young actor in Brenton Thwaites with veteran movie stars Jeff Bridges and Meryl Streep, not to mention Taylor Swift, the film at least managed to make a profit on its small budget. The Lois Lowry novel isn't as expansive as other science fiction stories but rather relies on subtle story development and character interactions. The movie shoehorns in a romantic subplot and a villain with an army of robots that just don't fit properly in Lowry's world.

John Carter (2012)

With Disney currently going through a series of box office struggles, the 2012 science fiction bomb, John Carter , seems highly relevant. Based on book one of Edgar Rice's highly influential Barsoom series, A Princess of Mars , the film was hyped up to become Disney's next big franchise. Unfortunately, everything went wrong with John Carter . The film had a massive, $250 million budget, relied heavily on CGI, and banked on the marketability of rising star Taylor Kitsch, all of which backfired.

War Of The Worlds (2005)

Directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Tom Cruise, War of the Worlds is one of the more agreeable sci-fi movies, as it can pass as a fun action movie. But that's the problem. War of the Worlds feels like a Tom Cruise action movie, combined with the usual familial elements of a Steven Spielberg film. As far as adapting the novel by H. G. Wells, it does a poor job of capturing the social commentary that makes the original story so special.

RELATED: Every Tom Cruise Sci-Fi Movie Ranked From Worst to Best

I, Robot (2004)

Isaac Asmiov is one of the most prolific science fiction writers ever, having written some of the most important science fiction works to date, including Foundation and I, Robot . His works popularized the idea of a "galactic empire," that would go on to be used in sci-fi worlds like Star Wars and Dune . I, Robot was a collection of short stories, already making it a challenge to seamlessly mold into a feature film. The 2004 adaptation resulted in a generic sci-fi action movie filled with clichés that only loosely related to Asimov's work, which, in fairness, is very typically very difficult to adapt.

The Island Of Dr. Moreau (1996)

Yet another adaptation from an H. G. Wells novel, The Island of Dr. Moreau is a sci-fi horror film that stars not only Val Kilmer but also the great Marlon Brando. The film was plagued by drama on set, with Kilmer clashing with director John Frankenheimer. Due to a series of unfortunate issues, the film fell behind schedule, which was likely a reason for its poor result. Despite having two ultra talented stars, the acting in the film was a point of contention. The film also veers away from its source material, introducing new characters and plot twists, ultimately resulting in a failed adaptation.

RELATED: Val Kilmer's Biggest Controversy: What Went Wrong With Island Of Dr. Moreau

Mortal Engines (2018)

With a deal of involvement from Peter Jackson as well as much of the team that worked on the Lord of the Rings films, the 2018 Mortal Engines adaptation seemed promising. The steampunk sub-genre of science fiction hasn't been explored much in film, and the film's visuals were highly notable in its trailers. Unfortunately, the project bombed commercially and critically, with a 26% rotten tomatoes score and only raking in $83 million on a $100-150 million budget. The film has a number of key differences to the Mortal Engines book it's based on.