War of the Worlds: The Attack (2023) is not a reboot of the Tom Cruise film of the same name. But it does share a lot of similarities in terms of plot and storytelling. The perspective is certainly different, with the story being told through the eyes of three teenagers. Its scale of production is quite smaller as well, which is visible in the production values and the final product. War of Worlds: The Attack does not have too many recognizable names. Lara Lemon, Sam Gittins, and Alhaji Fofana play the central trio, who have the arduous task of navigating the unfolding invasion.
In this piece, we examine in detail the plot of War of Worlds: The Attack and also explain its ending, which had a significant outlay on the rest of the film. We will also be updating our readers about what the ending means in terms of the possibility of a sequel.
War of the Worlds: The Attack (2023) Plot Summary & Movie Synopsis:
Hannah, Herb, and Ogilvy are best friends, currently in college. They have a keen intrigue in the study of astronomy and conspiracy theories. The movie begins with Hannah spotting a green mist in the sky and the trio subsequently following it into the woods. It is also revealed that they are students of Dr. Stint, who is a renowned academician in the field of extraterrestrial life species. Although they do not find anything, we see a silhouette of what looks like an alien, who is revealed to have arrived on Earth in the form of a meteor-like entity the next morning.
Herb’s father was also an astronomer but is no longer with them. Herb misses his father, and his absence has drawn somewhat of a wedge between Ellie, his mother, and him. When Ellie reveals the news to the trio, they jump out of their seats at the breakfast table and rush to the spot where police have made a fence. To investigate the pod more closely, they go around the back and are shocked to see the doors of the entity open. What they see can be best described in Ogilvy’s words – a floating octopus surrounded in black mist.
Why have the Martians arrived on Earth?
The trio are caught by a police officer, who takes them in. Dr. Stint arrives at the location soon and sends the kids away. Before they can leave, they watch in shock as a giant alien emerges from the pod. It stands up on its legs and starts attacking people, who rush for cover. The trio disappears into the forest on their bicycles and heads to Herb’s home. Ellie has gone to visit Herb’s uncle Tom in Leatherhead, and Herb cannot make contact. In fact, none of them can get a signal on their phones. The military sounds an advisory on their telly screen, asking all citizens to stay inside. The trio finds an artilleryman, Ben Baxter lurking in the courtyard of the house.
He is truly frightened and shaken to his core after his experience with one of the units sent to tackle the aliens. All of his mates have been wiped out by the alien, who seemingly has very slight weaknesses in its tough exterior. Ben reveals that another cylinder from space has landed at a different location. He uses Herb’s walkie-talkie to make radio contact with another soldier, Corporal Fred. But to Herb’s disappointment, Fred reveals that a third cylinder has landed near Leatherhead, and it won’t be safe for the trio to go there to fetch Ellie. The tripod aliens are killing everything in their sight. Fred advises them to get to a safe zone from where they can be transported across the border.
What do the tripods want to do on Earth?
Their plan to get to safety goes dead when the tripods attack the safe zone where Fred was posted. The aliens are many in number, but one of them is gunned down by a fleet of fighter jets. But they cannot do much damage and are destroyed by the other tripods. The trio is safe from the attack and uses the boat to head toward safety. Along their way, they run into a wacko priest who claims that God has abandoned his children because they have destroyed his greatest creation. He calls himself God’s loyal messenger and claims that everyone will die. The priest joins the trio in finding shelter for the night in one of the abandoned houses in the area.
His attitude suddenly turns aggressive as he starts talking nonsense and even holds a knife to Herb’s neck when they demand that he share the food on the table with them. He sits them down with him and talks about things like “repopulating the earth” and “giving his seed” to Hannah when it is time. The priest then tells how God took his wife and son away from him, leaving him like this. But he never lost faith and finally “heard his voice” after the invasion. He believes that he gained the ability to converse with Him in exchange for the life of his family. The priest warns the trio not to come near him while he is sleeping. Herb’s sleep is broken when he sees the tripods approaching their house. The priest ominously gets up and threatens to kill him, but the tripod breaches the house with its tentacles and takes the priest.
War of the Worlds: The Attack (2023) Movie Ending Explained:
The trio hides as it comes back but cannot find anything. The next morning Ben Baxter contacts the tripod using the walkie-talkie. He asks them to come to Putney Hill, where he has taken shelter. Ben informs them that a total of seven cylinders have landed from Mars till then. These Martian tripods are all heading toward Primrose Hill for some reason. They decide to take the fight to the tripods and go to Primrose. Once there, they notice that the aliens have planted what looks like eggs in the field. To get a closer look, Hannah and Herb go around the woods. One of the tripods takes Ogilvy in the meanwhile. But Ben saves his life by exploding a bomb on his person and killing the tripod and himself. The trio goes underground and takes refuge in the sewers, just like Ben had asked them to do.
What killed the aliens?
To their utter shock, they find that the next morning, everything is quiet on the ground. They go out to inspect and find that many aliens are dead. In fact, all of them have been wiped out! Dr. Stint reveals the reason behind it. These beings were from Mars and accustomed to a completely different atmosphere. On Mars, they did not have to face the microbial details of Earth-like bacteria, which ended up killing all of them.
All this while, the aliens were being poisoned, inhabiting Earth. The world is saved, and as we pan across the same field at Primrose, we see one of the eggs is still alive and hatches right before we cut to credits. This means that they could very well attack again, and this time, they might have adapted already to Earth’s atmosphere to survive. We will not have a sequel to this film since nothing has been announced. But given that this was an indie, that notion is unlikely to change.
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