Ray Ferrier (Cruise) is a divorced dockworker and less-than-perfect father. When his ex-wife and her new husband drop off his teenage son Robbie and young daughter Rachel for a rare weekend visit, a strange and powerful lightning storm suddenly touches down. What follows is the extraordinary battle for the future of humankind through the eyes of one American family fighting to survive it in this contemporary retelling of H.G. Wells seminal classic sci-fi thriller.
Written by Majorwest
At least twenty civilian refugee / survivor extras were carefully made up to look horribly wounded. Make-up technicians simulated large bleeding wounds, third-degree burns, and melted flesh. In the final version, the wounded survivors' scenes were cut and the film earned a mild PG-13 rating.
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Goofs
Revealing mistakes:
After the crash of a jumbo jet right in the backyard, Ray's mysteriously untouched van right next to it somehow has a clear lane to drive out. And somehow a news van that had been filming National Guard units in the Pine Barrens (a hat-tip to Orson Welles' 1938 radio broadcast) the night before was already there. And raiding the airliner wreckage for food is hardly necessary with so many abandoned houses and stores available.
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Quotes
[first lines]
Narrator:
No one would have believed in the early years of the 21st century that our world was being watched by intelligences greater than our own; that as men busied themselves about their various concerns, *they* observed and studied, the way a man with a microscope might scrutinize the creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water... See more »
Crazy Credits
There are no opening credits after the title is shown.
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