War of the Worlds

Continuity mistake: When Rachel runs to her mom, in Boston, in the side shot of Mary Ann she's already gone down the stairs and crossed the sidewalk towards her daughter, yet in the next shot it's Rachel who crosses the sidewalk towards her mom, who is still up at the center of the stairs. (01:47:05)

Super Grover

Continuity mistake: In Boston, when Mary Ann lifts Rachel, she holds her daughter then turns to face Ray and says, "Thank you." Behind them, up the stairs, the left front door is already wide open, yet in the next shot both doors are closed until her parents dramatically open them. (01:47:30)

Super Grover

Continuity mistake: In the end of the movie before his son runs to him Tom Cruise is standing in the sunlight. In the next shot there is no direct sunlight. (01:48:00)

????

Continuity mistake: When Ray is outside at the beginning of the movie during the lightning storm, he says to himself that the wind is moving in the direction of the storm. Yet when he calls to Rachel to come outside and take a look, her hair is blowing away from her face, in the opposite direction it should be blowing.

Continuity mistake: Just before the first alien tripod breaks free from the ground and cracks are appearing in the street, the front of the church cracks, and rocks away from its second half. In that shot, in the view from behind Ray, he places his right foot on the curb, while his left foot is on the road. In the next shot facing Ray, both his feet are on the curb.

Continuity mistake: In the scene when the intersection is rotating, the camera is aimed up towards the church and starts to pan down. Tom Cruise runs into the scene and gets behind a car. The movement of the church shows the intersection is turning counter-clockwise but as it pans to the ground, the intersection is turning clockwise.

Continuity mistake: When Ray and the kids are driving down the freeway, there are several cars stopped randomly so they have to swerve a lot. But when it shows them inside the car, talking, they are driving perfectly straight. When it shows them from the outside again, the random cars are back and they start swerving again.

Continuity mistake: Ray and Rachel are about to walk down into the basement at Harlan's house, the door on the right of the bulkhead is open and the door on the left is closed. In the view from the basement you will notice that the door on the left is open and the door on the right is closed.

Stephen Edmonds 1

War of the Worlds mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When the tripod is taken down, the lights are flickered out on it. But in a couple of scenes later, the lights are working again on the tripod, right before the alien crawls out of the hatch.

Continuity mistake: This movie has to take place over at least 4 to 7 days for them to walk from New York to Boston. When they arrive in Boston, he has absolutely no facial hair growth.

Continuity mistake: When in their home basement, when the lightning starts they take shelter in the utility room and the door is a cross and bible style door that opens out. When Ray shuts the door against the fire he pushes it closed instead of pulling it, and it is a plain flat door. If there were two separate doors the fire wouldn't be burning through the still intact cross and bible door that Ray opens properly in daylight.

Continuity mistake: When they arrive at the ferry port a man throws something at the windshield which hits the top, and the screen around it shatters. In the following shot the car hits a pole and the damage has moved to the middle, and it's now a perfect hole.

Continuity mistake: When the movie ends, Rachel runs to hug her mother and a strong wind blows large amounts of leaves a meter up. A frame later, from a different angle, the wind is milder and the leaves barely move.

Sacha

Continuity mistake: When Rachel is watching the floating corpses in the river, the shots alternate back and forth between a wide angle where she is standing still and wind is not blowing, to a close-up where she is sobbing, moving her shoulders up and down rhythmically and her hair is moving rapidly.

Sacha

Continuity mistake: On the ferry, Rachel wears the purple/pink camouflage hoodie over her orange knit sweater with the colorful stripe sleeves, as usual. Now this is where things become strange. In the first shot as the trio come ashore, she is only wearing her orange sweater, she is not wearing the purple/pink hoodie - note the clear lack of fur hood. In the very next shot as they climb a bit more and then rest, Rachel is wearing the purple/pink hoodie - note the hood, but now it's on under her orange sweater. In the underwater shots she is also wearing it under the orange sweater. (This odd mistake has absolutely nothing to do with the very long wool cloak that Rachel wears in the next scene). (01:02:20 - 01:04:40)

Super Grover

More mistakes in War of the Worlds

Ray: Can you think of a plan that doesn't involve your 10-year-old sister joining the army?

More quotes from War of the Worlds

Trivia: When a group of aliens are exploring in the cellar, one of them spins the wheel of an overturned bicycle, and all are startled when the bicycle falls, making for a moment of comic relief. There's more to it, though. The H.G.Wells book mentions that the aliens probably had no concept of the wheel, as not a single rotating part was found inside the captured tripods. So an upside-down bicycle must have puzzled them a great deal.

More trivia for War of the Worlds

Question: I'm still a bit confused on the tripods' actual height. I can't find it anywhere and I just wanted to make sure how tall the tripods are. Preferably in meters but any measurement is fine.

Answer: They're reported to be about 100 feet tall.

Which is about 30.5 meters.

lionhead

They definitely seemed a lot taller than 100ft in the movies though that's for sure. I would have guessed maybe a few hundred feet.

Answer: In this film, their height is about 150 feet.

Bishop73

More questions & answers from War of the Worlds

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