It is a pretty great film until all of a sudden, it just isn't, and that's annoying but hey: happy endings.
I remember thinking that "The Last Of Us seemed to almost be homaging things, like the aeroplane, for example. The first movement feels like it directly influenced the first episode of LOU.
Well, it is one of the first science fiction stories ever written, give the man a bit of credit!
In the film there's a whole load of cobblers about his ex-wife and his son which makes your eyes roll out of your head in "Oh come on"
Much more recently, Kim Stanley Robinson shows this from the other end in Aurora - the humans land on an alien planet and never quite have enough time to figure out if it’s prions or microbes or something in between killing them off before they have to evacuate; done pretty believably I think
This is akin how I feel about The Snap. I become genuinely emotional thinking about it and its implications every time it comes up in MCU stuff, which is part of why I avoid a lot of MCU stuff
It really understands the idea of alien invasion fear as a fear of industrial warfare, in all its horror, visiting the viewer's homeland. So many people die, in fast and ugly ways
The best use of that gritty cinematic lighting in this film. The enormity of that highway just blowing away like paper with thousands of people on it. Watched it over an over one year, very haunting
After I watched it when I was like 15 I used to call it "the dakota fanning screaming movie" because it was the thing I took away. Like 15 years later I watched it and she didn't really scream that much, I think it was just the only part my younger brain really wanted to remember
My favorite part about the movie is that there is no explanation for what is happening, which is what I think getting eviscerated by a superior species would actually be like
Despite all the horrifying images burnt into my brain, there is one charming character moment that is classic Spielberg: the dad trying to stay calm and feed his kids peanut butter sandwiches.
(nothing horrifying here, I promise) https://youtu.be/vURIWyEUyao?si=yfAVDg1wyUFt1Zhc
This is my favorite scene in the whole movie. Him franticly trying to prepare the sandwiches. How the kids just sit there. Her delivery of the word "Birth." Him throwing the sandwich at the window makes me laugh every time. Every aspect of the scene speaks to just how stressed he is at this point.
I have read the book many times and somewhat of an afficionado of film / tv adaptations. This version because of the horror of these kinds of scenes is by far the best overall in my judgement at conveying the horror intended by the source material in a visual medium.
I rewatched it recently too. The scene on the way to the ferry was scary. The plane crash was haunting.
HOW people were killed at first were shocking, but later, in the "food hopper" it was gruesome.
also, the reveal about the alien vegetation is a touch that adds to the horror of the proceedings. every time you see it you’re reminded of the toll of the conflict.
always fascinated how the film dances around that reveal… lets you know exactly what the fertilizer is but never harps on it… saw it first as a teenager & that element went over my head but as an adult i’m always like Jesus Christ WHAT THE FUCK
in fact, one of the things spielberg does extremely well is *not* show you every bit of devastation. he gives you just enough — bodies in the river, a flaming train, people trapped in sinking cars — to let you do the rest of the work imagining how horrible it must be
Ah that’s such a good observation. That’s why it’s way scarier than the movies that put you in a helicopter and smash up a city. I had the same sensation with Cloverfield… horror is always human scale.
Can't remember where I read it, but a reviewer talked a lot about all of the Holocaust imagery in Spielberg's WOTW and that's always stayed with me too
What I found especially chilling is the way people started turning on each other for resources. The scene with the with a mob trying to commandeer a van; as Cruise's character rescues his daughter from the van and the mob, you hear gunshots as he walks away.
I gotta say tho, H.G. Wells' ending monologue about how our existence here was purchased through a billion deaths is utterly beautiful. "For no man ever lives, or dies, in vain."
It's also the most realistic take to this day when it comes to biological aliens, they (any invaders) would immediately be awash in all manner of creatures, new and ancient, trying to eat or multiply inside them. Biological warfare on the most massive scale imaginable. Will always be my favorite.
Movie is OK but i don’t like the finale. The soldiers see alien stuff dying all around them but they cannot refrain from heroically defeating the tumbling walker just before the pilot succumbs to the disease.
It’s Tom Cruise’s most passive role. His heroism comes in hanging back and looking out for his daughter.
I hadn’t seen this in a long time. It made me sad, because it’s pop entertainment aimed at a traumatized audience. A lot of the movie makes no sense now, until you remember the days after 9/11.
I liked how the movie showed how smart Cruise's character was, without him coming across as cocky. He didn't make any big speeches--he just kept making connections other people (including the audience) hadn't made yet. "Why is there no thunder?" at the beginning helps set up "The birds!" at the end.
Yeah, it was one of the first post-9/11 movies that really captured some of the feelings of powerlessness in the midst and aftermath of catastrophic attacks.
Spielberg is a master at this; he said in an interview about Jurassic Park (and I am paraphrasing) that you should spend $1 million on a prop with no more than 3 seconds of screen time to get the best reaction from the audience.
When they climb out of the river and you can see their breath and Dakota is shivering my first thought now is "Oh, they are all going to die of hypothermia."
I’ll never know how it felt to listen to Orson Welles’s radio version in 1938, but watching Spielberg’s WAR OF THE WORLDS on first release—and experiencing it as America’s post-9/11 nightmare—is close enough for me.
I remember having discussions with people that thought some of the violence circled back to a kind of shocking punchline (iirc the bodies-down-the-river scene made some people laugh!). I didn't have that reaction but I think speaks to how grisly some of those scenes were
Haven't seen it since it was in the theater and I still remember the neighbor guy with engine trouble Cruise helps like 5 min before getting vaporized by the heat ray.
So based on the beginning of this thread I was motivated to watch this for the first time tonight. Man what a shitty dad Cruise is at first. Also - how is the guy’s video camera rolling when all electronics are fried? But generally yeah, the sweeping scale of nightmarish scenes….of
"every 15 minutes this movie has an image that is so haunting and terrible that it will burn itself into your brain." I do not - ever - watch movies that do this. Actual life is upsetting enough without throwing in terrifying fiction on top of it.
It can be a cathartic release that allows you to cope and work through traumatic times even better. The macabre is multicultural, and it serves many purposes.
It may - for some. I just have nightmares and really wish I hadn't watched whatever it was. I've walked out of movies that were too violent for me-including "Robin Hood" (in the 80's, I think) - and had nightmares post-Jurassic Park (the 1st one. So yeah, no thanks.
If this is the movie I think it is, I remember watching it one and only time. I remember one of the tripods impaling a man(?) and lifting them into the air. Horrific, horrific, horrific. It's never left my mind and it's been close to a decade, I think.
The train on fire is the most memorable one, for me. No explanation, no sense of anyone helping; it just goes by, people stare, then go back to what they were doing.
Went to WotW in theaters with my younger brother who was like 12 at the time. We knew movie was 2 hours long and at the 90 min mark he leaned over to ask “how long have we been here?” He was thoroughly freaked out by that point.
From atmospherics to the tripod horn that's crushingly ALIEN in a theater. Andy Nelson is IMO the absolute best in the business, Speilberg's dream team with Anna Behlmer & Ron Judkins. Consummate professionals all.
I remember leaving the theater feeling tired and deeply shaken. I wasn't sure then whether that meant I liked it or not, and I'm still trying to work that out now.
Comments
I remember thinking that "The Last Of Us seemed to almost be homaging things, like the aeroplane, for example. The first movement feels like it directly influenced the first episode of LOU.
You'd think a species that kinda sorta mastered inter-solar system travel would be aware of alien microbes.
In the film there's a whole load of cobblers about his ex-wife and his son which makes your eyes roll out of your head in "Oh come on"
at 7:50 if this doesnt timestamp right https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-V3Iqd3WbVg&start=470
It was visually beautiful, sonically haunting and like most Spielberg films exquisitely cut.
(nothing horrifying here, I promise)
https://youtu.be/vURIWyEUyao?si=yfAVDg1wyUFt1Zhc
Then… the kid.
Spielberg at his absolute best, and absolute worst, in one movie.
I LOVE it though.
HOW people were killed at first were shocking, but later, in the "food hopper" it was gruesome.
And yes, very bleak movie. Well done. But more gory and traumatizing. I’ve never desired to see it again, as technically amazing as it was.
I hadn’t seen this in a long time. It made me sad, because it’s pop entertainment aimed at a traumatized audience. A lot of the movie makes no sense now, until you remember the days after 9/11.
https://bsky.app/profile/obsofdeviance.bsky.social/post/3ldnmloqvzs27
Shudder.
https://youtu.be/wkk1ohg99FY?si=mY5nMYxVSkLXWj2F
Did not expect such a brutal movie
From atmospherics to the tripod horn that's crushingly ALIEN in a theater. Andy Nelson is IMO the absolute best in the business, Speilberg's dream team with Anna Behlmer & Ron Judkins. Consummate professionals all.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Nelson_(sound_engineer)