War of the Worlds (2005 film)

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

Errors and inconsistencies in the film

EMP related

Several errors in the movie have to do with the EMP-related outages caused by the lightning bolts in which the aliens beam down.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

These are the known errors:

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

• After the electromagnetic pulse stops most electronic equipment from working, we see a man using his video camera. Later in the film they also show video clips taken of the aliens landing. Also, throughout the film, lights such as at the grade crossing and outside the diner work, as do the train and ferry, while cars in the same area do not. However, the effects of an EMP can be prevented if the object happens to be inside a Faraday cage (a container of conductive material).
• After the major lightning storm, all the cars on the road are dead, but Ray gets Manny's Plymouth Voyager working by telling him to replace the Solenoid. Chrysler vans (Dodge Caravan, Plymouth Voyager, Chrysler Town and Country) have their solenoids built into the starters. Earlier Manny says that he replaced the starter, so then, the van would be able to work without Ray's advice.

Continuity

• Repetitive and glaring continuity glitches seem to occur in the scene where the first tripod appears. Scenes of Ray on his own are spliced into scenes where he is accompanied by his two friends.
• As Ray prepares to leave his home in New Jersey, for the last time, to flee the aliens, he unpacks a revolver pistol, reaches behind him, lifts his jacket and shirt, slips the gun between his pants and skin, and releases the jacket and shirt, not tucking in the shirt. Later, when he is about to go to sleep in the basement of Mary-Anne and Tim's empty house, he lifts his jacket, and the gun is between his pants and shirt, now neatly tucked in, the gun is not touching his skin.
• Watch the Ford Escort wagon and the Toyota Prius during the scene on Ray's block. Those cars appear many times driving by showing that they are on a loop.

Other apparent inconsistencies

• While Ray and his family are mobbed for their car, other cars in the area seem to be working, such as those waiting on the ferry, as evidenced by the fact that people were riding in their cars for the trip across the Hudson
• Ferrier's mechanic friend seems oblivious to the tripods and their massive destruction and carnage, even though his service station is within walking distance of the strike and initial disaster scene. However, the novel's narrator also notes "the blank incongruity of this serenity" of the oblivious townspeople, despite "the swift death flying yonder, not two miles away" after the initial two attacks. The novel's narrator also appropriates a cart under the pretence of "borrowing" it from a shop owner "quite unaware of what was going on behind his house."
• The type of train that interrupts Ferrier and his family during the ferry sequence is used for services on the eastern shore of the Hudson River, but is instead seen engulfed in flames on the western shore of the Hudson (the old New York Central West-Shore line), where there has been no passenger service for decades.
• After the aliens begin to succumb to the Earth's bacteria and the tripods start behaving "erratically," it is unclear why their protective shields should be lowered. (It is quite likely that the machines are made with technology that is bio-mechanical based as they try to engulf Ray with muscular like organs that resemble a bodily orifice. Thus the shields are most likely generated using an organically based power source or device. When the "health" of the tripod started to fail, so did the shield. This may also explain why the alien cockpit seems to be filled with a pinkish liquid.)
• When Ray throws the ball towards Robbie, there is no ball visible in his hand before the throw.