The War of the Worlds (radio)

:{{Otheruses3|The War of the Worlds}}

References in fiction

Michael Crichton's Sphere cites the Orson Welles broadcast as an example of why, in the event of an actual alien arrival, it would be more prudent to anticipate mass panic on the part of humanity than wonder and awe.

Related Topics:
Michael Crichton - Sphere

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In the 1984 movie The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension, the plot hinges around an alien race of Red Lectroids which arrives on earth in Grover's Mill, New Jersey during Orson Welles' The War of the Worlds radio broadcast, their cover being that of employees of a fictional defense contracting company called Yoyodyne.

Related Topics:
1984 - The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension - Grover's Mill - Orson Welles - Yoyodyne

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The War of the Worlds TV series also incorporated a similar premise. In an episode taking place in Grover's Mill during the 50th anniversary, it is revealed that Orson Welles was hired by the government to orchestrate the broadcast in order to cover up what was a reconnaissance mission by the same aliens who would launch an all-out war 15 years later.

Related Topics:
''War of the Worlds'' TV series - Reconnaissance - An all-out war 15 years later

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The episode is briefly referred to in Radio Days by Woody Allen.

Related Topics:
Radio Days - Woody Allen

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In the 1990 film Spaced Invaders, a crew of rather dimwitted Martians intercepts radio signals from a rebroadcast of the performance and believes the entire Martian invasion fleet is moving in, leading them to land on Earth and get stranded, setting up the plot of the film.

Related Topics:
1990 - Spaced Invaders

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The X-Files episode "War of the Coprophages" parodied the 1938 panic as a small town called "Miller's Grove" (a reference to the Welles program's "Grover's Mill") is seized by fear of an invading horde of tiny robot cockroaches.

Related Topics:
The X-Files - 1938

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The 1992 BBC TV Halloween special Ghostwatch was similar in its shocking displays of a haunted house in North London.

Related Topics:
1992 - BBC TV - Ghostwatch - North London

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A similar realistic-looking "hoax" was a 1977 British science fiction movie entitled Alternative 3 which was presented as a science documentary, though the credits showed a production date of April Fool's Day. To this day, there are many who contend the events documented in Alternative 3 were at least partly factual.

Related Topics:
1977 - British - Science fiction - Alternative 3 - April Fool's Day

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A comic book story that crosses over the War of the Worlds story with Superman was published. However, instead of taking place in the period as in the novel, the story is set in 1938.

Related Topics:
Comic book - Superman

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An Adventures in Odyssey episode, Terror From the Skies, is based on and makes many references to The War of the Worlds. Like Orson Welles' broadcast, it features a dramatized radio broadcast that tells about an alien invasion of Earth.

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