Corrected entry: 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.
Super Grover
24th Jan 2006
War of the Worlds (2005)
15th Dec 2005
War of the Worlds (2005)
Corrected entry: 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.
Correction: 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.
24th Jul 2005
War of the Worlds (2005)
Corrected entry: 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.
Correction: 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.
13th Jul 2005
War of the Worlds (2005)
Corrected entry: 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.
Correction: 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.
28th Nov 2005
War of the Worlds (2005)
Corrected entry: 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.
Correction: 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.
14th Jul 2005
War of the Worlds (2005)
Corrected entry: 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.
Correction: 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.
23rd Sep 2005
War of the Worlds (2005)
Corrected entry: 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.
Correction: 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.
13th Jul 2005
War of the Worlds (2005)
Corrected entry: At the end of the movie, Tom Cruise and Dakota Fanning and a whole bunch of other people fall over 50 feet from the sky in a small cage and land in a tree. The branches come through the holes in the pod, but no one gets hurt. Everyone is fine.
Correction: So nobody getting hurt is a plot hole? This can be referred to as simply having good luck and it actually happens in real life.
Join the mailing list
Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.
Correction: 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.
Super Grover ★