War of the Worlds (2005)
They're already here.
A contemporary retelling of H.G. Wells’ seminal classic, Steven Spielberg's reimagining of War of the Worlds is a dramatic science fiction thriller that reveals the extraordinary battle for the future of humankind through the eyes of one American family fighting to survive it. As with Spielberg's other post-millennium science fiction thriller Minority Report, War of the Worlds sees the filmmaker reflecting on a post-9/11 world through the lens of genre to tell a story for its time, much like the 1953 George Pal production of Wells' story before it.
Tom Cruise stars as Ray Ferrier, a divorced dockworker and absentee father. Soon after his ex-wife (Miranda Otto) and her new husband drop off his teenage son Robbie (Justin Chatwin) and young daughter Rachel (Dakota Fanning) for a rare weekend visit, a strange and powerful lightning storm touches down. At an intersection near his house, Ray witnesses an extraordinary event that will change his family's lives forever. A towering three-legged war machine emerges from deep beneath the earth and, before anyone can react, incinerates everything in sight. An ordinary day has suddenly become the most extraordinary event of their lifetimes—the first strike in a catastrophic alien attack on Earth.
Ray scrambles to get his children away from this merciless new enemy, embarking on a journey up the Eastern seaboard that will take them across the ravaged countryside, where they're caught in the desperate tide of refugees fleeing from an extraterrestrial army of tripod war machines. But no matter where they run, there is no safety, no refuge...only Ray’s unconquerable will to step up and protect the ones he loves.
