---
title: "War of the Worlds"
year: 2005
kind: "film"
canonical: "https://film.one/film/war-of-the-worlds"
fi1m_id: "war-of-the-worlds"
imdb_id: "tt0407304"
tmdb_id: 74
fi1m_score: 70
critics_score: 65
critics_reviews: 14
published: "2026-09-24T21:08:18.380741+00:00"
updated: "2026-09-24T21:08:27.881254+00:00"
region: "TR"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# War of the Worlds (2005)

Directed by Steven Spielberg · 1h 57m · RTÜK 16+ · Adventure, Thriller, Science Fiction

## Identity

War of the Worlds

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/war-of-the-worlds
- **Type:** Film
- **Fi1m ID:** war-of-the-worlds
- **IMDb ID:** tt0407304
- **TMDB ID:** 74
- **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0407304/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/74

**Fi1m score: 70** · Critics 65 from 14 reviews

*In a sentence:* Armageddon from the back seat of a stolen people carrier, right up until Spielberg remembers it is a 12A

> Spielberg films the invasion from the pavement, at a running man’s eye level, and for an hour it is as frightening as anything he has made. The second half narrows to a cellar and the last ten minutes lose their nerve.

## Synopsis

New Jersey. Ray (Tom Cruise) has his two children for the weekend: Rachel (Dakota Fanning), the younger, and Robbie (Justin Chatwin), a teenager who calls his father by his first name. Their mother, Mary Ann (Miranda Otto), is driving to Boston with her new husband, Tim (David Alan Basche). A storm comes in. Lightning strikes the same crossroads twenty-six times. Ray goes to look. The road splits, a three-legged machine climbs out of the ground, and a beam of light turns the crowd around him to ash. He runs home, takes the one van that still works from Manny the Mechanic (Lenny Venito), and drives his children out with no idea where they are going.

## Review

Steven Spielberg takes H. G. Wells’s novel out of Victorian Surrey and drops it on New Jersey, and he makes one decision that governs everything else: we never leave Ray (Tom Cruise). There are no generals, no scientists, no maps with arrows on them. What Ray cannot see, we cannot see, and the screenplay by David Koepp and Josh Friedman keeps him at the level of a man trying to get two children from one place to another. For its first hour it is as frightening as anything Spielberg has made.

The machine arrives about twenty minutes in and he makes us wait for it. Lightning hits the same crossroads again and again, and then the road buckles and a tripod climbs out of the ground on legs the height of a tower block. Janusz Kamiński shoots it from where Ray is standing, with the colour drained until the street looks like a photograph left in the sun. Then the beam. People are there, and then they are a puff of grey and a shirt drifting down to the tarmac. We were frightened, properly, and the reason is that Michael Kahn does not cut away: the shot holds long enough for Ray to understand what the dust on his face is.

There is a sequence inside the stolen van, the camera moving around the three of them through the windows as they argue, that runs on without a visible cut and tells us more about this family than a page of dialogue would. Later an airliner lies across a suburban street, and Rick Carter has built the wreck so that Ray walks through the fuselage as if through a neighbour’s kitchen. Joanna Johnston puts Cruise in one grey work jacket and leaves him in it; by the end it looks dug up.

Cruise is better here than the poster suggests. Ray is a poor father who is good at exactly one thing, moving fast, and the film does not pretend he learns much else. Dakota Fanning screams a great deal, and the script has the sense to make Ray irritated by it rather than moved. Justin Chatwin’s Robbie wants to go and fight, which is the film’s only glance at the world beyond this car, and it is settled in one roadside argument that is better written than most of the speeches in the genre.

The second half shrinks. Ray and Rachel end up in a farmhouse cellar with Harlan Ogilvy (Tim Robbins), and Spielberg turns the picture into a haunted house film. Robbins is unnerving, but it goes on, and a film that had been about a city dying is now about a lantern and a door. The invaders, seen close to, are a mistake, less frightening than their shadow was. John Williams holds back for most of the running time, low strings and drums and no tune, and it suits the picture; when a melody at last arrives near the close it is telling us how to feel about something the script has not earned.

Which brings us to the ending, and we will not describe it. It takes about ten minutes, resolves two hours of chaos with a tidiness the previous hundred did not prepare us for, and hands back some of the bleakness the film had been brave enough to hold. Gene Barry and Ann Robinson, the leads of the 1953 film, appear briefly as the grandparents, which is a kind thing to have done. Most of the reviews hold the finish against the whole picture; we think it costs a good deal without sinking what came before.

Set against Spielberg’s own work, this is closer to [*Jaws*](https://film.one/film/jaws) than to [*Close Encounters of the Third Kind*](https://film.one/film/close-encounters-of-the-third-kind): the visitors are not here to talk, and nobody pauses to ask what they want. A film about an invasion that never wonders why it happened is missing something. It is also why the first hour works. Watch it with the lights off and the sound up, and if there are children in the house, know that the 12A is doing a great deal of work. It runs 117 minutes.

*Fi1m score 70, published 24 September 2026.*

## What the critics say

Most critics rate the invasion itself highly and the film around it less so. The reviews cluster on Spielberg’s staging of the attack from ground level: the machines erupting out of the road, the crowd panic, the farmhouse basement, all praised for their immediacy and for effects that look naturalistic rather than showy. Several find the first half tense and frightening, and a few read it as a film about post-9/11 dread.

The reservations cluster almost entirely on the ending, which even admirers call sentimental, tidy or silly. The spread is wide, from Variety’s near-rave to The Independent, which finds the whole thing undermined by its last minutes. The New Yorker objects on different grounds, faulting the narrow focus on Cruise’s character and a lack of curiosity about the aliens, and The Guardian hears too many echoes of Spielberg’s earlier hits.

## Straight answers

**Is War of the Worlds worth watching?**

*War of the Worlds* (2005) is worth watching for anyone who wants an invasion film that stays at street level, and we scored it 70. The first hour, seen entirely from where Tom Cruise's Ray is standing, is as frightening as anything Spielberg has made. The second half shrinks to a farmhouse cellar and the last ten minutes lose their nerve, which costs it without sinking it.

**How long is War of the Worlds, and what is it rated?**

*War of the Worlds* runs 1h 57m and is rated 16+ by the RTÜK in Türkiye. It is an adventure and thriller film.

**Where can I watch War of the Worlds in Türkiye?**

*War of the Worlds* is not on any streaming or rental service in Türkiye at the moment. It is available in 49 other countries; change your country at the top of the page to see where. Availability is checked daily.

**How violent or frightening is War of the Worlds, and is it suitable for children?**

*War of the Worlds* (2005) is a 12A, and the certificate is doing a great deal of work: crowds are turned to ash on screen, a wrecked airliner lies across a suburban street, and a long stretch in a cellar with Tim Robbins plays as a haunted house film. It suits teenagers and adults. Younger children and the easily frightened should be kept away.

**Is War of the Worlds based on a true story or a book?**

*War of the Worlds* (2005) is based on H. G. Wells's novel, not a true story, with the action moved from Victorian Surrey to modern New Jersey and seen entirely through one father and his two children. Knowing the book is not needed; the film keeps the tripods and the invasion but tells it as a single family's escape. Gene Barry and Ann Robinson, the leads of the 1953 film, appear briefly.

**What should I watch after War of the Worlds?**

After *War of the Worlds*, try [*Children of Men*](https://film.one/film/children-of-men) (2006, Fi1m 85): Long handheld takes through a collapsing England; the world ends and nobody stops for lunch. Then [*Threads*](https://film.one/film/threads) (1984, Fi1m 92): Sheffield after the bomb; made for television, and harder to watch than anything here.

### Reviews we read (14)

- **Variety**, Todd McCarthy (90/100, inferred): McCarthy finds the film gritty, intense, and supremely accomplished, with its visceral attack sustaining the tension. He especially praises the naturalistic visual effects and the precisely staged farmhouse basement sequence. [Read](https://variety.com/2005/film/awards/war-of-the-worlds-2-1200524860/)
- **Radio Times**, Alan Jones (4/5): Jones calls it a spectacular disaster epic, though he finds its first half much stronger than its second. He praises the escalating tension and transfixing human drama. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-02g0ow/war-of-the-worlds/)
- **RogerEbert.com**, Roger Ebert (3/4): Ebert’s verdict is positive but qualified. He singles out the film’s most effective sequences, while finding it uneven overall. [Read](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/war-of-the-worlds-2005)
- **Slant Magazine**, Jeremiah Kipp (3/4): Kipp finds the film powerfully humane and morally ambitious, though its ending weakens that achievement. He praises Spielberg’s visceral, ground-level depiction of the invasion and the human cost of its destruction. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/war-of-the-worlds/)
- **IndieWire**, robbiefreeling (70/100, inferred): The discussion finds the film a powerful and worthwhile disaster movie, despite criticizing its ending and some script logic. It especially praises Spielberg’s unsettling depiction of panic and violence, including the scene of a man clawing through a shattered windshield. [Read](https://www.indiewire.com/news/general/war-of-the-worlds-some-kind-of-monster-225532/)
- **Empire**, Colin Kennedy (65/100, inferred): Kennedy finds the film an impressive but uneven blockbuster, with its final act and sentimental ending weakening the overall effect. He especially praises the terrifying, immediate staging of the alien attack and its post-9/11 resonance. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/war-worlds-review/)
- **Time Out**, JWin (65/100, inferred): The review appears to begin by questioning the film’s secrecy, then hints it may exceed those suspicions. The available text is too truncated to identify what the critic praises or criticizes. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/war-of-the-worlds)
- **Screen Daily**, John Hazelton (64/100, inferred): The review’s verdict is unavailable because the article text is behind a paywall. Its specific praise or criticism cannot be determined from the accessible page. [Read](https://www.screendaily.com/war-of-the-worlds/4023613.article)
- **The Guardian**, Rob Mackie (60/100, inferred): Mackie finds the film worth seeing, though it lacks the jolt of its inspirations. He praises its effective opening and memorable scenes, but says key moments recall Spielberg’s earlier hits. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2005/nov/11/dvdreviews)
- **The AV Club**, Scott Tobias (50/100, inferred): Tobias praises the film’s gripping visual storytelling and sustained tension, but finds its ending hollow and damaging. He singles out Spielberg’s command of effects and suspense as the film’s chief strength. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/war-of-the-worlds-1798200784)
- **The New Yorker**, David Denby (45/100, inferred): Denby finds the film’s disaster sequences stunning but criticizes its narrow, star-driven focus and lack of curiosity about the aliens. He particularly praises the weight and surprise of Spielberg’s moving-camera destruction scenes. [Read](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2005/07/11/stayin-alive)
- **The Independent**, Colin Maccabe (35/100, inferred): The critic finds the film bleak and ultimately undermined by its silly ending, despite its spectacle and Cruise’s effective performance. He especially praises the scenes of the alien machines erupting from the ground and the film’s vivid paranoid imagery. [Read](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/war-of-the-worlds-12a-295856.html)
- **Eye for Film**, John Gallagher (80/100, inferred): Gallagher gives the film an enthusiastic verdict, while admitting his fondness for Spielberg may make him biased. He praises the breathtaking destruction, striking sets and distinctive alien designs. [Read](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/war-of-the-worlds-film-review-by-john-gallagher)
- **Collider**, Scott Wampler (50/100, inferred): Wampler remains a fan but finds the Blu-ray release and the film’s ending disappointing. He praises the film’s intense alien-invasion sequences, while faulting its grainy presentation and abrupt, overly tidy conclusion. [Read](https://collider.com/war-of-the-worlds-blu-ray-review/)

## Details

- **Director:** Steven Spielberg
- **Director:** Steven Spielberg
- **Screenplay:** David Koepp, Josh Friedman
- **Novel:** H. G. Wells
- **Cinematography:** Janusz Kamiński
- **Editor:** Michael Kahn
- **Music:** John Williams
- **Production design:** Rick Carter
- **Costume design:** Joanna Johnston
- **Producer:** Colin Wilson, Kathleen Kennedy
- **Cast:** Tom Cruise as Ray; Dakota Fanning as Rachel; Miranda Otto as Mary Ann; Justin Chatwin as Robbie; Tim Robbins as Harlan Ogilvy; Rick Gonzalez as Vincent; Yul Vazquez as Julio; Lenny Venito as Manny the Mechanic
- **Runtime:** 1h 57m
- **Certificate (RTÜK):** 16+
- **Release (Türkiye):** 1 July 2005
- **Genres:** Adventure, Thriller, Science Fiction
- **Budget:** $132 million
- **Box office:** $604 million
- **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLnQXsKn5-E

## Where to watch in Türkiye

Not streaming, renting or buying in Türkiye at the last check.

Also available in: AR, AT, AU, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, EC, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, HK, HU, ID, IE, IL, IN, IS, IT, JP, KR, LT, MX, MY, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PE, PH, PL, PT, RO, RS, SE, SG, TH, US, VN, ZA. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country.

## If you liked this

- *The War of the Worlds* (1953): Where Spielberg took his grandparents from; brighter, sillier, and the Martian ray still hums.
- *Signs* (2002): The same invasion seen from a Pennsylvania farmhouse, with even less shown and more felt.
- *Children of Men* (2006), Fi1m 85: Long handheld takes through a collapsing England; the world ends and nobody stops for lunch. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/children-of-men.md)
- *Miracle Mile* (1988): One night in Los Angeles, one wrong-number phone call, and the end arriving on schedule.
- *Threads* (1984), Fi1m 92: Sheffield after the bomb; made for television, and harder to watch than anything here. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/threads.md)

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/war-of-the-worlds