War of the Worlds movie corrections

In the scene where the aliens appear to throw the Bayonne Bridge off its pylons and the eighteen-wheeler crashes on top of the apartments, look closely on the far right. There is a red car, and right above it is a round black object above the hedge. As the scene continues, it starts to fade away into the red house behind it. See more...

Trivia

When a group of aliens are exploring in the cellar, one of them spins the wheel of an overturned bicycle, and all are startled when the bicycle falls, making for a moment of comic relief. There's more to it, though. The H.G.Wells book mentions that the aliens probably had no concept of the wheel, as not a single rotating part was found inside the captured tripods. So an upside-down bicycle must have puzzled them a great deal. See more...

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Movie Mistakes blog

War of the Worlds (2005) - 74 corrections

Directed by Steven Spielberg, starring Dakota Fanning, Miranda Otto, Tim Robbins, Tom Cruise (add more)

Genres: Action, Adventure, Sci-fi, Thriller

Comments made in brackets are corrections from other visitors. As such, any aggressive/abusive corrections (and I get quite a few) written as if they're comments I've made myself will be ignored. To submit your own corrections for mistakes, just click the edit icon under an entry, then choose "correct entry". Some entries have "duplicated entry" after them - these are entries which were already listed on the main page, but were submitted again. I occasionally leave these online for a while, just in case they were moved in error, so don't worry about pointing them out to me.

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As they main characters walk to the ferry, there is a blood donation lady explaining that they are full for certain types of blood. Why are they taking blood donations? The aliens vaporise every part of the human body. The only reason they would need blood is if limbs were torn off (And people shooting people would not be the cause to ask the Red Cross to call for a national blood drive during an alien attack). [There are plenty of injuries outside limb loss and gunshot wounds that might require a blood transfusion to treat.]

Corrected by Phixius

As Tom Cruise yells , "Get off the car" to the mob in Athens NY and the guy in the red flannel jacket is on the roof. In the next shot he's standing next to the driver's side door. [After Ray shouts "Get off the car!" you can see the guy in the red jacket getting off the roof, when the shot cuts, there is enough time for the guy to completely get off and stand with his arms up.]

Corrected by Potorrero Time

In the final scene where the military begins to fire Javelin anti-tank missiles at the tripods, the missile flies a straight path. But; a Javelin is a "top attack" missile, meaning it goes vertical and comes down at a steep angle to hit a tank in the weakest part of the armor, so they would do the same thing to the tripods instead of a straight flightpath. [The Javelin missile has both a top attack mode and a direct attack mode. With no evidence that the top armour on the tripods is particularly weak, the military have apparently decided to try the direct attack mode, possibly in hope of immobilising the tripods by damaging the leg structure.]

Corrected by Tailkinker

The same silver Mazda station wagon appears in numerous locations in the background during the attack on Ray's neighborhood. Though it is possible that that car in that color is very popular there, it is obvious the film-makers used the same car. [You said yourself it's possible the car was very popular, so no mistake unless you're able to find something (i.e. license plate) proving it's the same car.]

When the first tripod emerges there is a man filming it on his camera. As has been stated before, the camera could have still been working because it wasn't connected to a power source and was switched off. However, this cannot be, because in Ray's house, the lights which were off didn't work, and what's more his mobile phone (which was off and not connected to a charger or anything like that) also did not work when he tried it. [Ray's phone was never off, so it does not work. As for the lights in the house not working, they require "electricity" to be COMING TO THE HOUSE to operate, so whether or not they were on or off makes no difference, as a power station affected by EMP would result in no production of ANY electricity to all of the houses/buildings in the entire town.]

Corrected by Jazetopher

After Ray says to Robbie that the next time he takes the car without permission he will call the cops, he says "Robbie" and slaps his hands together. As he is doing the clapping a car is driving by, but the cars are all supposed to be down so no one should be driving. [There are people pushing all of the cars that are seen moving.]

During the filming of the underwater scenes (where the ferry capsizes) Steven Spielberg played a prank on Tom Cruise and Dakota Fanning by playing the dramatic music from Jaws through the massive underwater speakers on the sound stage. [IMDb ripoff.]

When Tom Cruise exits his ex-wife’s house where the plane has crashed, you see one of the rotors turning slowly. The plane crashed late the night before, that rotor would surely have stopped turning by now. It didn't look like it was that windy outside and even if it was; it would take a big gust of wind to keep it turning. [Turbines have a lot of kinetic energy. Inertia alone could easily have kept it spinning for hours. A lot of wind would be required to start it turning, but if it was already in motion the wind speed could be substantially less and still have a noticeable effect.]

Corrected by Phixius

In the scene when the aliens first emerge from the ground, there is a man trying to video the event on his camcorder. If the lightning wiped out all electricity, why is his camcorder still working? [Listed and corrected several times already. Please check before submitting.]

Corrected by Twotall

As to the initial EM pulse, it is unlikely that changing the solenoid on the van would have helped, as the one he has to change it with was in proximity to the van when the EM pulse disabled them. Unless he keeps spare solenoids in a shielded box then it is likely that all solenoids would have been equally affected, irregardless of whether or not it was installed or not. [If an electrical object is completely turned off and not attached to a power source then it isn't necessarily destroyed by an EM Pulse. Therefore, if he had a spare solenoid on a shelf, it could have been fine.]

Corrected by shortdanzr

As the three drive away from the bathroom stop, after encountering the Army for the first time, we can hear the sound of the EAS (emergency alert system) on the radio, then the announcer stating "This was only a test if this had been an actual emergency." If ever there was a time for the EAS to be activated for real, this would be it. [Not a mistake, however. Tests are simply automatic. That's the irony.]

Corrected by Phixius

When Ray comes upon the news cameraman scouring the wreckage of the crashed airliner, the cameraman does not hear Ray's questions. The female reporter explains that he's deaf from a shell that exploded near him, and demonstrates this by yelling at him only inches from his head. A couple of shots later, a tripod is heard trumpeting off in the distance (and is certainly less loud than the shouting demonstration) "Hear that? We gotta go," exclaims the deaf cameraman. [The deaf guy never says anything. It's a different camerman who says that.]

At the very end, when Tom's son appears and they hug, there is no explanation whatsoever as to how he survived the explosion that engulfed him earlier. When he runs over the hill all we see is fire rising into the sky, incinerating anything that was near. It is impossible for any normal person to have survived a blast of that magnitude. [Just because there is no explanation offered in the film, does not mean it doesn't fall within the realm of possibility. Yes, there is a huge fireball at the top of the hill, but obviously Robbie had just barely made it past that specific area, before it was consumed by fire.]

Corrected by Rikki

When Ray arrives at his home to meet his ex and kids after he gets off work, his ex-wife is wearing a short green blouse with a long black skirt. When she's in the bedroom speaking to Ray and Robbie regarding his paper, she's wearing a long dress, then in the next shot walking down the stairs, it is a short blouse again. [Mary Ann is wearing the same outfit throughout these shots, including Ray's driveway, in Ray's kitchen, walking up the stairs, in the kids' bedroom, then walking down the stairs, to the last shots of her at Ray's front door. She wears a brown skirt, a green floral pregnancy blouse, a long blue knit sweater with a brown furled edged collar (sleeves are also furled and are visible under coat sleeves in some shots), and a long grey tweed coat.]

Corrected by Rikki

In the scene when the aliens first arrive, all the electrical services, phones, mobile phones, cars, etc. cease to function, but when the aliens start moving and attacking, we see a woman taking photographs with a digital camera and a man using a video camera. [EMPs only work on running electronics. For instance, cars, cell phones and wrist-watches but if a device is not on when the EMP blast occurred it can still function properly. So after an EMP is triggered, you can still use digital cameras and video cameras. Assuming they weren't on.]

In one scene after their car has been taken, the three bunch together and Robbie has a bloody nose. You see him in the next shot and his nose is clear, in fact his whole face is clean. [They don't bunch together, and it's not in "the next shot" that the blood is gone. At the diner, Robbie has the bloody nose when the gunshot is heard, and Rachel runs to his arms, while Ray sits across from them at the table. Now there are three shots where Robbie's face is not visible, the first of which he buries his face into his wet jacket sleeve while he hugs Rachel. It's very reasonable to think that the small amount of blood was wiped away during the time his face was not seen onscreen.]

Corrected by Rikki

When Ray Ferrier walks to the area where the lightning struck 26 times in one place, he walks past a number of cars which are between him and the camera. In the window of the last one he walks past, you can see a cameraman looking into the lens of the camera filming the shot. [The reflection in the window of this car is a gentleman with a baseball cap simply walking past the car, along with the rest of the crowd on the busy street; he does not look into a lens, nor is there any lens or any other camera part visible in the reflection.]

Corrected by Rikki

When Tom Cruise goes out after the lightning storm to find his son, he puts on a blue zip-up sweatshirt. For the rest of the movie, he's wearing a leather jacket over the sweatshirt. [When Ray is watching the overhead clouds (in front of his house and in the backyard), and the subsequent lightning strikes, he wears only the blue sweatshirt. Then when he heads out from his house, meets Robbie in the street, heads to the area of the 26 strikes, comes home with human "dust" all over him, and finally when he, Robbie and Rachel leave in the van, Ray is wearing the leather jacket, with white stripes on the sleeves, over the blue sweatshirt.]

Corrected by Rikki

When Tom Cruise and his kids are in the basement of the ex-wife's house, there is this drawn out dramatic scene where Tom Cruise races to slam the door of a little closet they hide in as flames fill the room when a plane crashes on the house. When they enter, the door opens inward, toward the closet. The next morning when they emerge, the door opens in the opposite direction. Since doors that 'slam' close are not swinging doors, it is impossible to open the door in the other direction. [There are actually two doors that lead to the furnace room ("little closet"). The outer door that opens out into the main area of the basement, which Robbie opens, has six carved panels and a door knob. There are 2-3 steps to the second inner door, which Ray forcibly closes, that opens into the furnace room, and it is a solid door with a door knob and a dead-bolt.]

Corrected by Rikki

Most of the way through the movie Robbie is wearing sneakers. After the ferry disaster scene when they are all walking through a field towards the battle he still has sneakers on, but when he runs off up the hill and Ray goes after him and struggles with him on the ground you see Robbie stand up and he is wearing what seems to be heavy duty military boots. [When Ray, Robbie and Rachel swim to shore they are soaked as they watch the tripods' massive destruction. In the next shot, as they walk amongst the large crowd of refugees, a considerable amount of time has passed; they are all completely dry, Rachel is now wearing a long wool hooded cloak and Robbie is wearing the combat boots. Robbie does wear the boots when "they are all walking through a field towards the battle" and when he runs up the hill. So Rachel and Robbie found the cloak and boots during the time offscreen.]

Corrected by Rikki

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War of the Worlds (2005) - 74 corrections

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