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The value of family has always been an important theme seen throughout War Of The Worlds. It’s a theme that stretches across multiple genres such as comedy, drama, and even alien invasions in science fiction. Everyone has their own definition for what family means to them, but what makes a family is how everyone cares for each other — and there’s nothing like an alien invasion to bring a family together.
Loosely based on H.G. Wells’s novel with a similar title, Steven Spielberg’s War Of The Worlds (2005) follows Ray, who lives a self-absorbed life alone in Brooklyn. After coming home from work, he’s greeted by his ex-wife, Mary Ann, her new husband, and his two children, Robbie and Rachel. Ray struggles to connect with his children after they’re dropped off. His estranged relationship with them illustrates that they don’t consider him to be family.
But just when they all thought it would be another tense-filled weekend, a sudden extraterrestrial attack and invasion on Earth force them to flee for their lives. They must learn to trust each other, despite their strained relationship, as the world around them falls into chaos.
An Invasion On Ray’s Weekend
It quickly becomes apparent that Ray only knows how to look after himself, leaving his boss to sort out the workload and showing up late to meet Mary Ann and their children. His kids’ arrival seems like an invasion of Ray’s everyday life due to there being no food in the fridge and there being a car engine on the dining room table. Ray makes small gestures to bond with his kids, but there is a strong disconnect between them. Ray’s biggest challenge is that he only knows how to act like a friend to them, not a father.
When Ray interrupts Robbie watching TV to playing catch, Robbie responds that baseball season is over. This comment shows how uninvolved Ray is in Robbie’s life. Despite this, Robbie gets up to play catch with him. In the middle of throwing the ball around, Ray attempts to act as a responsible parent. He tries to make Robbie do his school report, but Ray’s accusation of Robbie not having started his project angers him. Ray’s only response to Robbie’s attitude is a cynical defense mechanism. The conversation turns into a tense argument because Ray is unable to cope with having no authority over Robbie’s life.
Even when it comes to Ray’s interactions with his daughter, Rachel, there is a lack of parental responsibility. After Ray and Robbie’s argument, Rachel asks Ray what they’re supposed to eat. It would be expected that Ray would nurture her and take the initiative to cook a meal. Instead, out of his frustration with Robbie, Ray tells her to order food while he goes to sleep. After waking, he sits down with Rachel and takes a huge bite, but is disgusted by the hummus. With Ray not knowing the type of food she enjoys, it again shows his lack of involvement with her life and the distance between them.
An Alien To His Own Children
After Ray and Robbie’s argument, Ray realizes that Robbie isn’t at the house. Rachel tells him that he took off with Ray’s car. Before Ray can react to Robbie’s rebellious act, an unusual storm begins. While Ray, Rachel, and everyone in the neighborhood looks up to the sky, lightning strikes 26 times. Once the lightning stops, all nearby residents go to investigate its aftermath, including Ray. It isn’t discovered until later, but this is the moment in which the alien invasion begins. The ground rises a large alien tripod that sounds off an alarm and starts to shoot a death ray, killing hundreds of people in the area.
After seeing the life-threatening danger of the alien invasion, Ray forgets any frustrations with Robbie. It is this critical event that begins to change the nature of Ray’s relationship with his kids. He instinctively begins to make choices that will get him and the kids to safety.
In contrast to the start of the film, he first thinks of feeding his family and rushes Robbie to grab food from the kitchen. After grabbing essentials from the house, Ray is able to find a working car to leave in but is stopped by the local mechanic. Despite his good relationship with the mechanic, Ray chooses to leave him behind so that he and the kids can escape the invasion.
A Struggle For Peace Among Ray And His Kids
Ray drives straight toward Mary Ann’s house, but they find the house empty once they arrive. Ray reassures Rachel and Robbie that their mom is safe from the invasion and that she is on her way to Boston. On their journey to find Mary Ann, Ray is continuously met with resistance from Rachel and Robbie. Robbie calls Ray by his first name, which reflects the lack of a parent-child relationship. When they make a bathroom stop with Rachel, Ray asks her to stay within sight, but she refuses to do so. When she runs off, she comes to a halt by a lake where she sees countless dead bodies floating in the water, but Ray brings her back to safety.
Robbie then tries several times to join the army to fight against the alien invasion. The first time Robbie attempts to run off, he confronts Ray and tells him that he feels like he is trying to dump both him and Rachel off on their mom so that Ray can only look after himself. While no dialogue follows this specific conversation, Ray seems to understand Robbie’s hurt. This is shown in the following scene when Ray allows him to drive. This is a complete change in Ray’s behavior because he was furious to find out Robbie took his car and was driving without a license before the invasion began.
During another dangerous alien encounter, Robbie makes one final attempt to leave and join the army. Ray fights Robbie, but Robbie doesn’t show any anger or resentment toward him. Robbie simply tells Ray that he needs to let him go. Against Ray’s wishes, he accepts Robbie’s decision and lets him go so that he can continue to focus on protecting Rachel. In the moments before Ray lets Robbie leave on his own, the two of them seem to come to a silent understanding of one another finally. They take a moment to accept their goodbyes before their paths force them into separate ways.
The Community Turned To Enemies
At the start of the film, Morgan Freeman narrates over images reflecting life on Earth. In his narration, he alludes to the world being watched by an intelligence greater than our own. While people on Earth continued to live their lives, intelligent life from another planet prepared for their attack and invasion on Earth. Though the dangers of these intelligent beings are terrifying, the lengths which people will go to in order to survive are equally devastating.
While Ray’s relationship with his children is strained, he has amicable relationships with his neighbors throughout the film. We see that Ray is able to engage in conversation with them that doesn’t end in an argument, unlike with his kids. This shows that Ray is at least capable of having decent relationships. As the initial storm begins to quiet down from the beginning, Ray runs to investigate. On his way, he sees the local mechanic, suggesting to change the solenoid to get the cars running again. Ray also then bumps into a few of his neighborhood friends, who begin to speculate the storm’s cause with him.
Ray and other members of the community are gathered around where the lightning struck. Suddenly, the streets begin to shake while the aliens rise from the ground to attack. Ray rushes home and gets his kids. Luckily he finds a working car but is stopped by the local mechanic. Ray urges the mechanic to get into the car with them but has to leave him behind to escape the invasion. Despite Ray’s good-standing relationship with his neighbors, he chooses his kids’ safety before the community.
Fear Overpowers The Community’s Will To Be Good
Understanding the dangers of having the only working car, Ray now knows he must avoid people to keep his kids safe. Due to the mass number of people living in Brooklyn, they inevitably run into a scared mob that will stop at nothing to steal their car. Ray resists letting anyone inside but is overwhelmed by the crowd, separating him from Robbie and Rachel. With Rachel still in the car, Robbie gets lost in the crowd. Ray shoots his gun off to get everyone’s attention and to get Robbie back with the family.
Robbie is returned to Ray, but then Ray is met with a stranger pointing a gun at his head. Ray immediately states that all he wants is his daughter. The stranger permits Ray to grab Rachel from the car, but he must drop his gun. Ray willingly drops his gun to retrieve Rachel, and the three of them walk over to a nearby diner as they witness the mob of people continues to fight over the car. This incident serves as evidence that Ray values his children’s safety over the community and how the community has become the enemy.
Trying to escape another alien attack, Ray and Rachel run toward a stranger who signals them to the safety of his basement. The stranger introduces himself as Harlan and lets Ray know that he and his daughter are welcome to stay. For just a moment, Ray feels like he can relax. The feeling dissipates as soon as the aliens come close to discovering them in the basement. Ray must quietly stop Harlan from attempting to fight back against the aliens to protect Rachel. When Ray realizes Harlan’s behaviors threaten Rachel’s safety, he does what he needs to do to protect her, killing a friend-turned-enemy.
Family And Community Can Protect You
Once the invasion of Earth happened, people panicked and stopped at nothing to protect only themselves. However, throughout the film, there were signs of goodness. When Ray tried to stop Robbie from joining the army, a couple noticed Rachel by herself. They stopped and asked if she was alone and urged her to go with them. Despite Harlan’s crazed behavior, he did invite Ray and Rachel into his basement to hide from the aliens’ attacks. After the aliens captured Ray and Rachel, cooperation with other people saved them. Together they were able to stop Ray from being taken, bringing down the alien and breaking free.
At the end of the film, Ray and Rachel survive long enough to make their way to Boston, where they find Mary Ann and Robbie safe at home. As Rachel runs toward her mom, Robbie runs out of the house toward Ray and hugs him. After Robbie spent the entirety of the film rebelling against Ray, only calling him by his first name, the two of them are finally able to begin repairing their relationship. Because of the life-changing events of surviving the alien invasion, Robbie now calls Ray “Dad.” Sometimes all it takes is a few thousand lethal extraterrestrials to bring a family back together.