Did You Know?

During the filming of the underwater scenes (where the ferry capsizes) Steven Spielberg played a prank on Tom Cruise and Dakota Fanning by playing the dramatic music from Jaws (also one of Spielberg's films) through the massive underwater speakers on the sound stage.

When the aliens are investigating the junk in the basement, one of them plays with a bicycle wheel. This is tied to the original book when the main character observes that, with all the advanced technology the aliens possess, they don't use any wheels, and wonders if the alien life form had skipped the invention of the wheel.

Some army troops used were from the 29th Division (Maryland Army National Guard), known as "The Blue and the Gray" from their yin-yang looking shoulder patch (visible when the day convoy went by the Ferrier's and the son was getting splashed).

Convoy Scene military vehicles were real and still had their white greasepencil convoy markings (data similar to license tag info) chalked on the driver's side doors. Either speed or special-effects rendered these markings invisible in the final cuts.

Wardrobe standards were so strict that soldiers during the Virginia filming were not allowed to wear their own civilian Underarmor (tm) or GoreTex (tm) warmth clothing under their uniforms - as real National Guardsmen so often do during maneuvers. This was despite filming on what turned into the coldest days of 2004 - and wearing light-weather BDUs (BattleDress Uniforms).

Tim Robbins's line, "It's not a war any more than it's a war between men and maggots", is a slightly modified quote from the original novel, substituting "maggots" for "ants". The line was also used in the infamous 1938 Orson Welles radio broadcast. In addition, the news reporter's line, "Once they begin to move, no more news comes out of that area", is taken directly from The War of the Worlds. Also taken from the original film were the scenes with the probe examining the basement, followed by the inquisitive aliens. Tom Cruise chops the head off the probe with an axe, just as Gene Barry did in the original. Also, the shot of the dying alien's arm coming down the ramp is a reference to a similar shot in the original film.

This is one of the first movies to show The United States Marine Corps new MARPAT digital camouflage uniforms, as well as the Interceptor body armor vests used by all branches of the US military.

An actual out-of-use Boeing 747 was bought to be used as the crashed plane.

The wide shot of the bridge exploding, followed by a tanker crashing into a group of houses as the minivan escapes, was conceived of, and shot, only one month prior to its footage premiering during the SuperBowl spot, effects ready and all.

While filming in Bayonne, New Jersey, studio Paramount Pictures offered quick cash to residents who lived on First Street and Pointview Terrace to move their cars off the block, between a Tuesday and Friday. This was in order for the film crew to resume shooting.

While scenes were being shot at the riverbank on the Farmington River in Windsor, Connecticut, two life-sized mannequins being used as extras had gotten free and drifted into the river. The production's water-safety crew performed a search but weren't able to recover the mannequins. Police departments along the river were notified of the missing mannequins, according to Windsor police Lt. Shannon Haynes, who said, "We just wanted them to know that if they got any calls about bodies floating in the river."

This is the third incarnation of The War of the Worlds story that Ann Robinson has appeared in, having played Sylvia Van Buren in the original 1953 film The War of the Worlds and then reprising her role for three episodes in the TV series, War of the Worlds.

There were rumors of the movie's title being changed to "Out of the Night", but was thought to produce a negative fan reaction. The title was also believed to be used as an alias to keep unwanted people away from the set.

When filming on a residential street in Howell, New Jersey, the actors took refuge in the garages of near-by homes for warmth.

Tom Cruise's sixth consecutive film to break the $100m barrier domestically since 2000 and his 13th movie to break that barrier in total.

The "Ulla" war cry the Tripods made, was made with a didgeridoo and computer effects.

The organism seen in the opening sequence is known as the Paramecium, being a unicellular pond water protozoan that is a eukaryote, shown complete with cilia, oral groove, macro nucleus and central vacuole.

According to an interview George Lucas gave time.com ("A Conversation with George Lucas", posted Tuesday, Mar. 14, 2006), War of the Worlds is the first movie where Steven Spielberg turned away from traditional storyboarding and used a Pre-Vis system. He also stated that he had introduced Spielberg to Pre-Vis on Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith.

Right before the Hudson Ferry scene, Ray and his children watch in horror as a locomotive speeds by on fire, and out of control. The train is part of the MTA Metro-North Railroad, which runs in New York, New Jersey, and Conneticut. It can be identified by the paint scheme on the side.

A segment of a scene early in the film, in which people are seen fleeing from a tripod (panic-stricken crowd running along a street while buildings are being destroyed by a tripod in the background), recreates the subject-matter of the painting "Panic in the Streets" by Geoff Taylor, a print of which was included in the booklet accompanying the 1978 release of "Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of The Worlds".

The scenes on and around the commercial plane wreckage were shot on the Universal Studios Hollywood back lot.

"Fallujah" was the name that make-up technicians gave to their original new "combat grime" coloration applied to the soldiers. It was inspired by the cover photo of a news magazine showing a close up of a Coalition soldier in Iraq.

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.

Ogilvy's farmhouse was on a still-active real farm. The tractor shed contained real farm machinery. The barn visible in some shots was taken over by the production: lighting rigging filled the hayloft while the ground floor served as extras' holding. Background players not-needed in various scenes puttered about out-of-view in the barn's cattle stalls while drinking cocoa and munching craft service nuts.

Ogilvy's yard was at a real farmhouse. Because the existing exterior cellar door was on the "wrong" side of the house (visually anyway), the crew built an old-looking fake cellar doorway on the opposite side - complete with edging of cast-cement replicas of the local building stone. It looked real and was used in the film, but it leads nowhere. The crew scooped out a foot of earth from under it so that Ray, Rachel, and Ogilvy (when fleeing "into the basement") could appear to descend a little after their first few steps. Action then cuts to the basement interior - filmed on a studio soundstage.

Due to Steven Spielberg's last minute post-production work, he had to drop out of a scheduled appearance with Tom Cruise to promote the film on The Oprah Winfrey Show. This was the episode of Cruise's highly publicized "couch jumping" incident.

Gene Barry's final film.

The first time we see Ray he is operating a towering crane, a structure similar to the aliens in their huge tripods.

After hearing Steven Spielberg make a remark about how catastrophes brought out the best in people, David Koepp wrote the scene where Ray is forced to give up the van at gunpoint.

Steven Spielberg:  [rear-view window]  important image seen in rear-view mirror.

Steven Spielberg:  [fathers]  The main character is a divorced father whose children are angry at him, mirroring Spielberg's experience with his absentee father.