War of the Worlds

Continuity mistake: After Ray walks out of Mary Ann's destroyed house, he sees Max on the airplane wreckage. In the first shot Max's body faces out, towards Ray, as he drags the food locker, but in the next overhead shot Max's body faces the seats. His position and things on the plane also differ. (00:42:40)

Super Grover

Continuity mistake: As the News Producer speaks with Ray amidst the plane wreckage, her black bag, her actions, and how she hold things such as food trays, change abruptly in consecutive shots, while Max searches for food in the locker. (00:43:15)

Super Grover

Continuity mistake: When Ray is at the News Producer's van, she grips and starts to push the videotape with her palm up, but in the next close-up it's the opposite, she's pushing it with her palm down. (00:44:00)

Super Grover

Continuity mistake: Just before the news van leaves, in the shot facing the News Producer she asks Ray, "Hey were you on that plane?" then extends her left arm to touch Ray with her left hand. However, in the shot facing Ray, she has her right arm extended to touch Ray. (00:45:15)

Super Grover

Continuity mistake: In the scene where Ray, Robbie and Rachel are going outside of the house to find the remains of the airplane, as Ray is putting Rachel in the car, in the right hand side of the shot you see Robbie walking towards the wreckage, and he puts his hands over his head. In the next shot, it's a close up of him and his hands are at his sides, where he then proceeds to put his hands in the position they were in in the previous shot. (00:45:45)

Continuity mistake: When they leave Mary Ann's house in the minivan, Ray has Rachel in his arms, and the pink cord on Rachel's sweater disappears between shots. It's hanging on her arm, under Ray's chin, the first time he tells his son to get in the van, but it's not there the second time, and it's back on the third. (00:46:00)

Continuity mistake: When Ray parks the van at the side of the road, the van is about 60-70 ft away from the tall wood post, at the road intersection up ahead. However, in the first shot of the military vehicles approaching, the van is parked directly in front of that wood post at the intersection, and this also occurs in the shot as Ray shouts, "Robbie! You wanna go in that direction?" (00:47:40 - 00:49:00)

Super Grover

War of the Worlds mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When they stop so the kids can go to the toilet, in a long shot of Ray trying to persuade Rachel not to go too far, we see him start to open the boot (trunk) of the car. When it cuts to a closeup he's not. (00:47:50)

Jon Sandys

Continuity mistake: When the van is parked at the side of the road, as Rachel heads off Ray shouts, "Every time you guys don't listen to me I'm telling your mother..." In the next shot the van is seen quite a distance away as Rachel reaches the shoreline. After seeing the floating bodies Ray picks her up, turns around and as he begins to run the van is seen, only this time is much, much closer. Ray never moved the van, as shown in the following shots. (00:48:00)

Super Grover

Continuity mistake: When Robbie shouts at the soldiers driving by, puddle water splashes all over him, and the pattern and/or amount of water all over Robbie's jacket varies shot to shot. For example: when Ray shouts, "You're in charge now, you tell me..." there are many water spots on both sides of Robbie's jacket, but two shots later as Robbie shouts, "We get back at them!" only his left side is wet. Quick drying. (00:49:10)

Super Grover

Continuity mistake: After their long drive into the country, Robby and Ray begin arguing at the side of the road. In one shot as Robbie waves his arms, Robbie's blue boxers and pants are on so only the boxer's red waistband is seen. In the next shot, as Robbie still waves his arms, both the pants and boxers are pulled higher up, so now only a bit of the blue boxers are seen. (00:49:20)

Continuity mistake: In the countryside, after Rachel witnessed many dead bodies float down the river, and they head back to the van, an Army Convoy rolls by. While rolling by, Robbie starts jumping up and down waving his arms. His pants creep down enough to see his butt crack and reveal his red underwear. The next moment, picking up at a different angle, his backside is now covered by his grey underwear. (00:49:25)

Continuity mistake: When Rachel's still in the back seat of the van, while everyone is attacking Ray and Robbie in order to steal the vehicle, a large shard of glass hanging in the backseat window-frame disappears between shots. (00:54:00)

Hamster

Continuity mistake: After losing the van the trio sit in the diner, and things on their table repeatedly change, such as when the gunshot rings out. Robbie first flips the coffee cup upside down, but in the next shot when Robbie turns the cup is upright, only to be upside down again when Rachel runs into his arms. (00:55:20)

Super Grover

Continuity mistake: The Hudson Ferry employee runs to the two soldiers and shouts, "Get that ramp up. Cast off. No more peopleĀ…" In the next semi close-up of the crowd converging on the ferry, there is a large grey car on the dock at the base of the ramp. In the next shot that car is inexplicably gone. (00:59:45)

Super Grover

Continuity mistake: When Ray runs to catch the ferry, Sheryl loses her grip of him and when the soldier abruptly stops her the green hat falls behind her. Yet as the ramp rises, when Ray shouts, "There's room on the boat," Sheryl's hat is back on her head. (01:01:05)

Super Grover

Continuity mistake: In the overhead shot when Robbie (Justin Chatwin) is helping people get over the top of the ramp of the ferry the water in the back of the ferry is calm. A few seconds before the captain had gone all ahead full, created a water spray and even ripped off the moorings. The water should have been churned by the screws. (01:01:50)

Continuity mistake: As the boy runs up the stairs to the second level of the ferry Tom Cruise yells, "Robbie". If look closely there's a large speaker in front of him that can be seen in the first two shots but then disappears for the rest. (01:01:50)

????

Continuity mistake: When the ferry casts off in the wideshot, there are only six people hanging off the outer edge of the ramp as it's being raised. When Robbie and another gentleman help these people over, in the close-up one of them wears tan pants, a long blue coat and knit hat, but this person was not amongst the six in the previous shot. (01:01:55)

Super Grover

Continuity mistake: Right after the Hudson-Athens ferry boat captain guns the engines you can see there are no ropes between the boat and the pier. In the next shot there are as the pilings are ripped off into the water. (01:01:55)

????

Continuity mistake: On the ferry, Rachel wears the purple/pink camouflage hoodie over her orange knit sweater with the colorful stripe sleeves, as usual. Now this is where things become strange. In the first shot as the trio come ashore, she is only wearing her orange sweater, she is not wearing the purple/pink hoodie - note the clear lack of fur hood. In the very next shot as they climb a bit more and then rest, Rachel is wearing the purple/pink hoodie - note the hood, but now it's on under her orange sweater. In the underwater shots she is also wearing it under the orange sweater. (This odd mistake has absolutely nothing to do with the very long wool cloak that Rachel wears in the next scene). (01:02:20 - 01:04:40)

Super Grover

More mistakes in War of the Worlds

Ray: Can you think of a plan that doesn't involve your 10-year-old sister joining the army?

More quotes from War of the Worlds

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.

More trivia for War of the Worlds

Question: Several other answers and corrections state that the reddish liquid sprayed by the tripods was what essentially grew the red vines. However I thought I heard someone in the film say something along the lines of "using us (i.e. blood) as fertiliser". Can someone please clarify?

Answer: Since the tripods tended to spray the red fluid shortly after pulling a human into themselves, it seems a good assumption that the red fluid is essentially blood. Given this, it seems likely that the "spore" of the vines is spread in the red fluid.

scwilliam

More questions & answers from War of the Worlds

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