The War of the Worlds

Character mistake: On several occasions, scientist (Clayton Forrester) refers to the impacting objects as "meteors". Any scientist knows (or should), that when a meteor impacts the the ground, it becomes a "meteorite".

Character mistake: During the first big battle between the Martians & the U.S. Army, the Martians use their heat ray to vaporise people and equipment. Dr. Forrester, a physicist, then quickly speculates, "It neutralises mesons somehow. They're the atomic glue holding matter together. Cut across their magnetic lines of force and any object will simply cease to exist." During the '50s mesons were theorised to hold atomic nuclei together strongly. But if the Martian rays worked as the Dr. guessed, then objects wouldn't just vaporise. They'd explode with the ferocity of nuclear weapons.

Continuity mistake: When Sylvia and Dr. Forrester are in the farm house, Sylvia cooks some eggs, then places the plates of eggs on the table. As she places them down you can see a plate with toast stacked on it. This plate disappears in the next shot of them both sitting down. (00:42:40)

Hamster

More mistakes in The War of the Worlds

Major General Mann: Pattern-wise, one lands, then two, making groups of threes joined magnetically. Is that possible?
Dr Clayton Forrester: If they do it, it is.

More quotes from The War of the Worlds

Trivia: Steven Spielberg saw this film when he was a child and was fascinated by the Martians. He later based E.T. from E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) on them.

More trivia for The War of the Worlds

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