Talk:War of the Worlds (2005 film)/Archive 1

message: Maybe I'm sounding stupid, but I'm just tossing this out...isn't it a bit exaggerated to go into such deep detail describing the movie to even name what brands of cars that were used? --213.66.196.7 19:42, 14 May 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: You are the third person to mention this. I am actually currently attempting to crunch things down right now - just over half-way done (I pretty much am rewritting it from scratch). It may still may come out a bit long, but be assured that it won't be as needlessly detailed. --Bacteria 20:01, 14 May 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Ah, all right. I apologize for that. --213.66.196.7 12:28, 15 May 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Detail

message: Hi folks,
Max Terry has reverted the Spielberg template back to the vertical format, which I think gives too much white space on either side of the box. Could we please reach a consnsus at Template talk:Steven Spielberg's films. Cheers, The JPS 21:42, 8 May 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Template 

message: By now everyone is used to aliens having energy weapons, mind powers and force fields, but does anyone actually know how the hell force fields work? In Star Wars force fields can stop lasers but normal light passes through very easily. In War of the Worlds the tripods are protected from the legs up by force fields, how about taking them down using mines or other buried explosives? The tripods obviously don't have a force field protecting the bottom of their 'feet' otherwise they would be walking around mid-air supported by them, which they don't. Everyone says to me "their aliens, you're not supposed to understand their technology otherwise it would already exist". My point is that I don't give a damn how alien tech works now because none of it makes logical sense anyway, except the Point Of View gun from Hitchhiker's Guide, damn force fields really annoy me.--Mohamo July 7, 2005 06:08 (UTC)
:While I would say absoltuely nothing that in any way condones this awful movie, I must note the following: It would be theoretically possible to have a force field set up in a manner such that forces exerted on the machine's body via a normal operation of the machine (i.e. the normal force opposing the foot's stepping) would be ignored, but any force in excess of that normal force (i.e. an explosion or a projectile) would trigger the activation of the shield. I'm not a WotW apologeticist, but this is an explanation that is not particularly logically taxing. jglc | t | c 13:34, 22 July 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Alien Tech 

message: Removed reference to that completely.  Some theorize that it is a retelling of the ALCS?  Who? Why?
Considering that the film wrapped up filming in August 2004, that reference is just blatantly wrong. --Madchester 00:15, July 11, 2005 (UTC)
I almost reverted it out when I saw it, but figured someone else would do so after a suitable interval.  Don't y'all know a joke when you see one?  I thought it was inspired.  I wish I had written it... everyone's repeating it around the club. :) Wahkeenah 03:34, 11 July 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: Red Sox v Yankees Theory 

message: Note, 
,  are the same user. 
--Madchester 16:35, July 12, 2005 (UTC)
::Notify the admins on the administration board. Scorpionman 13:24, 23 May 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Note on Anonymous user

message: The following section is both poorly written, as well as redundant with the line under "These are the known errors," "After the electromagnetic pulse stops most electronic equipment from working, we see a man using his video camera."  As such, I removed the following:
:A lot of errors in the movie are related to the electromagnetic pulse related damages caused by the 'lightning' bolts the aliens beam down in. At the IMDb, the widely-noticed glitch of a working video camera in a world of dead electrical equipment was originally listed as a goof, but has since been retracted. Instead, it has been posed that the camera worked because it was off at the time of the pulses. This is not right. All the cars that were turned off at the time of the pulses also fail to operate.
:However, the presence of the camera is so blatent that it is not likely that a writer or director (with the possible exception of Ed Wood) could have missed it. It must therefore have a reasonable explanation.
:The most likely is that the man holding it lived outside the radiation radius and came in with it between the period when the lightning struck and the tripod arose. Less likely is the still-plausible idea that the camera was somehow sheilded from the radiation.
jglc | t | c 13:45, 22 July 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: Removal of material under "EMP Related"

message: Is it a goof that the tripod at the end seems to be broken (its shield isn't functioning) when in fact it's only the alien inside that is ill? -ZA
:Hmm, that could be a goof, but I'm not 100% sure. Maybe he hit the wrong button or something? Heh. Thunderbrand 22:13, July 27, 2005 (UTC)
Question: If the first "EMP" blast took down all the cars in the city (including the repaired van). Why was that van it not affected after the second EMP storm that took the 747 down in the suburbs?
I'm pretty sure it was the heat-ray from an already operational tripod that took down the 747. Nothing was buried under the neighborhood where Mary-Anne's house was.- JustPhil 13:45, 26 January 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Goof?

message: Robbie has a schoolwork to do about French occupation of Algeria. Why this subject ? Is there something political behind this ? Namely the French/US opposition about Iraq.
:you are not seriously suggesting that there is some kind of symbolism in the movie, are you?
::There is symbolism and symbolism... ;) If this film is actively supporting the US politic, with Robbie extremely eager to fight against "invaders" after some kind of "terrorist attack", and bashing France in the process, it should appear in the page, don't you think ?
:I simply interpreted it as a sly foreshadowing to the oncoming invasion. It reminded me of the metaphor of Wells' novel concerning the British Empire. --Bacteria 22:51, 22 November 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: Robbie's schoolwork about the French occupation of Algeria

message: With all the discussion about the plot holes on this page, I haven't seen any mention of the problem with trying to understand the motivation of the aliens.  At first they are vaporizing people, but later they are harvesting them.  If they want to harvest people, why would they start out by terrorizing them and vaporizing them?  --Samuel Wantman 11:14, 2 December 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: I doubt the aliens could use 6 billion people for fertilizer. They needed to subject Earth and eliminate any remote/possible threat first before they began terraforming.- JustPhil 20:27, 8 December 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Alien motivation 

message: I've seen this twice on 2 dvd's, and I seem to remember in the scene where the red plant is shown and the tripod fertilizing it, the first time I remember seeing some kind of tube that bodily sucked up the person, and the blood was shown being sprayed over the plant. Now watching it a person is dropped and the drained via a needle-tipped tube, and no spray is shown. Is it possible there are two versions with slightly different editting (maybe a director's cut or some such), or am I just remembering wrong?
:I think you're just remembering it wrong. I've seen the film five times in theatres, and I don't recall what you describe originally seeing, and I've heard nothing about any alterations like this. The man is simply taken and stabbed offcamera with the needle follwed by a shot of his blood flowing through the tube. Your recollection of the spraying may be from Ray holding his hand out in front of the window and having it covered in a bloody mist. --Bacteria 21:21, 31 December 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  2 DVD versions? 

message: * Why don't the humans use nuclear weapons? You'd think they'd try them at least once in the film?
Yeah, that would work, I'm sure.
If you are defending your own planet, and there are billions of humans running around with a massively smaller number of enemies, nuclear weapons are hardly the best option. In order to defeat the aliens you would need to destroy Earth's ability to support life, killing billions directly, and the rest of the population indirectly. The tripods' shields may simply be able to withstand the impact of nuclear blasts anyway. Kombucha 18:56, 24 February 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: First of all using one nuclear weapon wouldnt kill the planet so it should have been tried as a last result considering the speed people were dying. Their was mass panic and considering the past I dont think their is much emphasis on human life preservation from the part of the government. And considering that the tripods killed everything that would come in sight i do not see any reason the government would make land-based warfare on the aliens. After seeing the energy fields i would definately start using mass explosive force insead of shooting at them with machine guns like the army does in the movie. Tutmosis 20:56, 24 February 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: How exactly do you imagine that one nuke would destroy every Tripod on Earth, considering that they are all over the world? You would need to use hundreds of nuclear weapons which would kill millions, maybe even billions in the explosions alone. All other life on the planet would probably die within a year due to the fallout and inevitable nuclear winter.Kombucha 21:02, 24 February 2006 (UTC)
replies: text:  You dont have to use nuclear bombs but no where in the movie did it mention bombings taking place or explosives being set up. Instead the heroic US army went to fight with machine guns and helicopter missiles which is quite pointless considering when the first tripod emerged It killed 50 people in limited time even a person trying hiding in his car. Dont you think a tripod wouldnt be able to defeat some troops? The only thing they could have done is do some bombing on the tripods which they never tried. Tutmosis 22:30, 24 February 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: You only saw one battle that happened in one place, early on in the invasion. It is obvious to you that the Tripods have shields against smaller weapons, because you are watching something that you know is not real. In reality it is unlikely that military leaders would seriously consider those kind of shields as existent. The first choice in warfare would not be huge bombs, but more conventional weapons such as missiles from helicopters and heavy machine guns. Presumably once the military realized that they would need to use more power, they would have attempted to do so.Kombucha 22:40, 24 February 2006 (UTC)
replies: text:  How long does it take for the military to understand this, they've been riding around for couple days now trying to kill them. The movie battle took place on like day 3. Tutmosis 14:09, 25 February 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I don't know, it's a FILM it's not REAL. Maybe they had never fought the Tripods before, they just spent time gathering forces together. If I were fighting machines like that I would try to do what I could. Nuclear weapons would not work, quite clearly, and apart from some kind of guerilla warfare, this was the only option. Kombucha 16:21, 25 February 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  A-Bombs 

message: "In the movie, Ray Ferrier's house is located in Bayonne, New Jersey right near the Bayonne Bridge. The shot of the first tripod coming out of the ground was filmed in the Five corners intersection in the Ironbound neighborhood of Newark, New Jersey. The two places are about 25 miles (50 km) away but in the movie they are a couple of blocks away from each other (it appears that in the movie five corners was used to play a random intersection in Bayonne and not supposed to be the five corners located in Newark)."
According to Google Earth, Five corners and Bayonne bridge are under 6 miles (10km) away, or 15km by car, but that's still far from 50km! Allright, it is not exactly few blocks away, but anyway...--Nije bitno... 14:51, 15 April 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Bayonne and Ironbound 50km away?!

message: The plot section of this article is needlessly over-descriptive and long...why do we care what specific car models were smashed by the tripods? Def. needs to be condensed. Scott 110 23:29, 16 April 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Plot writing style...

message: The Trivia section seems a bit bloated with useless information to me -- for example, many of the items which are said to be homages to the old film or television show are, in fact, from the original novel. That these scenes straight from the book appear in other media is not at all suprising or noteworthy "trivia." Anyway, I've boldly deleted a couple of particularly useless bits: it's not really interesting trivia that child star Dakota did her first stunt in this film (if it is, it's trivia for the her Wikipedia article, not this one), and comments about Tom Cruise's methods of signing autographs hardly seem to be War of the Worlds trivia, either. - Mecandes 19:36, 27 April 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: There's one bit of trivia that refers to the trumpet sound of the Tripods as a minor third. How can it be a minor third if there's no key to reference the sound? If the note's an A flat, for example, it's a major first in the key of A flat or a major third in the key of E natural. If there's no citable source for this from someone on the development team of the movie who says the trumpet note is a minor third in the key of whatever, I'd suggest removing it.Watemon 05:37, 3 August 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Trivia section

message: What is it with Robbie reappearing and that explosion that destroyed the house Ray, Rachael and Robbie were staying in? Was it an added feature, the ending I mean? And what was it that caused that explosion? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Punk18 (talk • contribs) 06:01, 7 May 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: It's not that hard to believe that Robbie could have easily been kept safe by the miltary forces when they retreated. The other thing to remember is that this is another reference to the novel in which the narrator believes his wife had been killed during the invasion, only for her to show up alive and safe in the closing of the story. I'm not sure what you mean by the explosion as "an added feature" or what it has to do with the ending. The house they were staying in was destroyed by a crashed plane, brought down by the tripods. By the way, please sure to sign your comments. --Bacteria 11:45, 7 May 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Robbie reappearing and the Explosion 

message: This section's extremely bloated. It's supposed to be a summary, not a minute-by-minute retelling. Over 3000 words is far, far, far too long. You can tell it's gone over the edge when vital plot details including "Mary-Anne tells Ray that she will leave her cell phone on in case of an emergency and Ray reassures her not to worry." are commonly seen. Furthermore, there are several inconsistencies, such as mentioning Robbie taking Ray's car twice, and introducing the narrator/Morgan Freeman at the end as if his speech at the beginning didn't exist. -- Viewdrix 21:30, 7 May 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Someone mentions this above, and I have to agree - there is far too much detail. Even the plots for each Star Wars episode aren't as long and detailed as this! As big as nerd I am for all things War of the Worlds, I am fully aware that we simply don't need so much information. Any more descriptive and we might as well post the film for download. We don't need to know the make and model of every freaking car that gets destroyed and we don't need to have a blow-by-blow detail of events (unless they are strongly related to the story or characters). Unless someone beats me to it, I'm going to try sometime this week to sift through a crunch, remove, and (when necessary) add to the plot so it'll look and flow a lot better. --Bacteria 13:12, 8 May 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Plot section 

message: OK... What I don't understand is why didn't the movie have the Tripods using the infamous Black Smoke? I found that so weird! It's a very important part of the original story and it's plot!!! Why cut it out? --jump5guy89 8:31am, 18 May 2006
::They cut it out of the 1953 film too...not to mention the other two 2005 remakes as well as the tv series. They probably felt that it didn't contribute any action to the plot. Scorpionman 13:22, 23 May 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Black Smoke

message: Why doesn't this link work? It only directs to the main site; it should direct to a sound clip! Scorpionman 13:10, 23 May 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Have you visted the site before now? The site, after being frozen in time since the film's release, just recently had a makeover. I scanned, but couldn't find any access to it, and there is no longer a "downloads" page there, so I can only assume they removed it during renovation. --Bacteria 18:08, 23 May 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  External link 

message: I changed the trivia fact of Robbie being a Boston fan because he lives with his stepfather and mother in Boston. This isn't possible, as the mother and father were going to Boston to visit her parents and left the children with Ray. Also, this is where they end up at the end of the movie. If they lived in Boston already, why drive all the way to New Jersey to drop off the kids? The must obviously live in one of the affluent bouroughs of New York.Flibbert 15:21, 24 July 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Boston