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Movie Review:
War of the Worlds

Production Companies: Paramount Pictures, DreamWorks SKG, Amblin Entertainment, Cruise/Wagner Productions
Director: Steven Spielberg
Principals: Tom Cruise, Dakota Fanning, Miranda Otto, Justin Chatwin, Tim Robbins
Rating: PG-13 (violence, terrifying alien scenes)

By Gregg Tubbs

(UMCom) – How often have we stared up at the stars and wondered if someone is up there? For some of us, it’s a spiritual mystery. Is God still there? Does He care about me? For others, it’s a question about them—the aliens. Are there other creatures out there and, if so, what are their intentions?

 
Rachel (Dakota Fanning) and Ray Ferrier (Tom Cruise). Copyright © 2005 Paramount Pictures
Steven Spielberg’s wildly entertaining, white-knuckle thriller War of the Worlds deals with the latter question, and the answer is a disturbing one: There are aliens and they are up to no good. Surprisingly, it also broaches the first mystery. Staying true to its source, the 1898 novel by H.G. Wells, this film affirms that even during an alien attack, God does indeed work in strange and mysterious ways.

War of the Worlds shows us a nearly apocalyptic global event through the eyes of a single family. Ray (Tom Cruise) is a New Jersey dock worker who has never grown up. He has never committed to the rigors of being a husband or father and, since his divorce, seems destined to losing what little connection he has to his children as they bond with their new stepfather. But everything changes during a seemingly unremarkable weekend, when he shows up (late as usual) to pick up his kids Robbie (Justin Chatwin) and Rachel (Dakota Fanning). Hostile aliens have arrived in an eerie thunderless lightening storm, and Ray becomes his children’s sole lifeline, fighting for their survival and determined to reunite them with their mother.

 
Ray (Tom Cruise), and Rachel (Dakota Fanning) seek shelter in Harlan Ogilvy's (Tim Robbins, left) basement. Copyright © 2005 Paramount Pictures
In a nutshell, that is the story. But it’s enough for Spielberg to weave his gripping tale of survival. In a way, Spielberg is completing his alien trilogy, with each turning a little darker than the last. His Close Encounters of the Third Kind was a wide-eyed utopian dream where benign aliens and good-hearted humans meet and play nice. In E.T. - The Extraterrestrial, the dream ends and humans get nasty with an innocent, almost Christ-like alien. Now we have War of the Worlds, a waking nightmare where everyone is nasty with everyone else.

Focusing on basic survival behavior—fight or flee—we see lots of each, with humans depressingly spending almost as much time fighting each other as they do the aliens. Many commentators see echoes of post-9/11 America in this. In fact, at the start of the attack, young Rachel asks, “Are they terrorists?” War of the Worlds is not a “deep” film, by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, clocking in at less than two hours, I felt it could have been a little longer and explored the themes of the morally dark side of survival. But two scenes do go there. In the first, Ray and his children are in a van trying to leave town when their way is blocked by a panicked, angry crowd. After a few people attempt to seize the van for themselves, mob mentality takes over, and the whole crowd begins to attack the car. Only when Ray pulls a gun do they let the car pass. At no time does anyone in the crowd protest that attacking a vehicle with children in it is wrong. Although this is a science-fiction film, the sad scene has the ring of truth.

 
 Copyright © 2005 Paramount Pictures
In the second, more troubling scene, Ray and Rachel are given shelter in a basement by another human refugee (Tim Robbins). Harlan seems harmless at first, but as the aliens advance, he becomes more paranoid and more threatening. Fearing that Harlan will give away their hiding place, Ray strangles him in a back room. It’s here where I wish Spielberg had lingered to explore the moral implications of killing one person to protect another. Was Harlan really a threat? Could he no longer be reasoned with? And if not, couldn’t he have been restrained, or Ray and Rachel simply left? It may be that Ray did the right thing, but there is relatively little soul-searching before or after he commits murder.

At the film’s end, as all human attempts to defend earth have failed, the alien crafts begin to stall and crash on their own. Sickly aliens tumble out to die. Staying true to Wells’ original story, the aliens have succumbed to earthly diseases for which they had no defense. As the narrator explains, despite all human might and knowledge, we were saved by the lowliest creatures that “God in his infinite wisdom chose to put on this planet,” proving that men may fail, but God always prevails—in strange and wonderful ways!

Gregg Tubbs is a freelance writer living in Columbia, Md.

This review was developed by UMC.org, the official online ministry of The United Methodist Church

Study Questions

  • Have you read the original book or seen any of the earlier films based on it? If so, how did this film compare?
  • Did you like the way the film focused on one family, drawing them closer, or should it have focused on epic battles and broad themes?
  • Why do you think Robbie insisted on staying behind to see the battle? Was it revenge or fascination?
  • Some see this film, and Spielberg’s decision to make it, as a commentary on post-9/11 America. Do you view it as such? In what way?
  • Do you believe there is life on other planets? Does the Bible tell us anything about life outside of our planet?
  • If there is life on other planets, do you believe God has dominion over them as well? Why?
  • Did Ray have the right to kill Harlan? Why do you think he did it? Would you have done the same? Would Jesus have approved of what he did?
  • Did you suspect the film would end the way it did? Would you have preferred a victory by mankind?
  • Could the end of the film be described as a miracle by God? How?
  • Have you seen any of Steven Spielberg’s other “alien” films? Do you see spiritual elements in them?

Group Activities

Message of Faith: When NASA launched its Voyager I & II spacecrafts, they contained metal data disks meant to convey our culture to alien races, if encountered. Have your group assemble a “space capsule” to convey their faith if discovered by another race (alien or earthly). For this exercise, you may want to assemble supplies in advance, including a Bible and hymnal you can mark on, a container that can hold them, and perhaps a tape recorder and recordable tape. Ask your group to work together to fill the container with testaments to their faith.

Suggestions:

  • Highlight passages in the Bible, particularly those that encapsulate what Christian faith is about.
  • Highlight favorite and “essential” hymns.
  • Collect objects that have special religious meaning.
  • Record spoken testimonials on tape, or record your group singing a favorite song.
  • Place your capsule in a safe place and make a plan to revisit your capsule at a later date.

Humble Creatures: In the end, the aliens were brought low by “God’s most humble creatures.” With your group, play a game of “20 Questions” that explores the humble and underappreciated elements of God’s creation. Use the categories animal, vegetable or mineral, and try to guess which of God’s beneficial creations you (or other participants) are thinking of.

Suggestions:

  • Yeast (single-cell organism that helps make wine, bread)
  • Wheat
  • Honey bees (honey, pollination)
  • Oxygen
  • Water
  • Gravity (mention that it is neither animal, vegetable or mineral)

War of the Words: Jesus came as the foretold Messiah to conquer sin and death with words and ideas, not armies and weapons. As a group, read how Jesus sparred with the Pharisees in Matthew 22 and discuss how he successfully won the war of words with them.

Resources
Official War of the Worlds Web site

Theatrical Trailer
QuickTime