War of the Worlds story

movie: War of the Worlds (2005) · 2005-06-23

War of the Worlds is a 2005 American science fiction action film directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Josh Friedman and David Koepp, based on the 1898 novel by H. G. Wells and jointly produced by Amblin Entertainment and Cruise/Wagner Productions and released by Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks Pictures. Synopsis: An American dock worker is forced to look after his children, from whom he lives separately, as he struggles to protect them and reunite them with their mother when extraterrestrials invade the Earth and devastate cities with giant war machines.

13 total · 1 choice · 6 major · 6 minor

ThemeLevelMotivation
attack from outer space by a genocidal enemy choice The story above all follows a genocidal effort by space aliens to invade and colonize the Earth from the point of view of a longshoreman and his two estranged children.
civilians suffering in war major The viewer is shown recurring scenes war refugees fleeing the carnage of the alien invasion.
extraterrestrial being major Strange space aliens that walked on all fours were going about exterminating all the human beings they could find.
facing an invading force major The viewer is shown recurring scenes of the U.S. military waging war against the invading aliens.
facing an overpowering adversary major The United States, and by extension the world, was quickly overwhelmed by the invading aliens in their giant tripodal war machines.
father and daughter major The story follows Ray and his estranged 10-year-old daughter, Rachel, as bond throughout the course of an alien invasion of Earth.
father and son major Robbie held a grudge against his estranged father, Ray. Having to flee together from invading aliens helped mollify the tensions between the two to some extent, but in the end Robbie parted ways with his dad.
brother and sister minor Robbie and his kid sister, Rachel, interacted.
death ray minor The aliens used special directed energy beams to disintegrate people into gray ash.
mother and daughter minor Rachel was reunited with her mother in the end.