The War of the Worlds

Revealing mistake: Near the beginning, when the giant fiery comet hits, it goes behind a hill, yet you can still see the glow of the comet through the hill and the shops in front of the hill, revealing it is a backdrop. (00:04:20)

Hamster

Revealing mistake: A second martian saucer crashes but it is the same as the first but reversed (look at the striped awning to the store window for both shots). (01:23:25)

Larry Koehn

Revealing mistake: The tri-lens is now facing the movie camera and not facing down towards the table top when Barry attacks the Martian. (00:52:25)

Larry Koehn

Revealing mistake: After Forrester picks up the school bus sign, there's a shot of a Martian machine blasting at a bridge. Looking closely, the light poles can be seen through the machine, showing the model was matted over the background.

Movie Nut

Revealing mistake: In the first scene of the crashed meteor, on the extreme left of the scene where the smoke is, it seems to be billowing up from behind a stage wall, as there is a definite vertical line and a gap between the smoke and the left edge of the frame.

Movie Nut

Revealing mistake: As the command post is engulfed by fire, one (stuntman) soldier comes crashing through and over a table. As he does, the gloves he wore to protect his hands during the fire scene are visible. Nobody else was wearing gloves. (00:38:00)

Movie Nut

Revealing mistake: As Forrester is easing up to check the Martian arm, a second Martian flyer crashes. As it does, you can tell that it is a re-use of the first one crashing, but flipped so that it's hitting left side first rather than right side first.

Movie Nut

Revealing mistake: When the military starts firing, not only do you see the wires holding the saucers, but the "electromagnetic shields" can be seen as glass or plastic domes, as the studio lighting is reflecting in them.

Movie Nut

Visible crew/equipment: After the demonstration at the blackboard, the big group of soldiers walk over to the big table with the picture of the world on it. As they walk away from the blackboard, they turn and walk down some steps, and as they do you can see the shadow of a boom mic pole on the upper side of the grey part of the wall. (00:55:40)

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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