Question: Why do the tripods make a horn sound?
KeyZOid
12th May 2017
War of the Worlds (2005)
Answer: It is a signal to the other tripods. They coordinate their attack with the signals. For instance, a specific horn sound is heard when a tripod discovers a group of humans and other tripods come to assist.
But if it is the case, there would probably be a more efficient way to communicate. They can travel through the lightning but they can't use a walkie talkie.
We know virtually nothing about the aliens or their culture. Using the horns in this manner could be ceremonial. It's also a misconception that a society more advanced than ours must have mastered everything our society has mastered. Just because they built death machines millions of years ago doesn't necessarily mean they ever developed a walkie talkie. The Martians seem to be perplexed by the wheel. The scene with the wheel also occurs in the source novel, wherein the narrator theorizes Martians never invented the wheel, "skipping over" this crucial milestone in human advancement.
In addition, it can be used as a way to intimidate the populace of Earth, to try and make them panic into poor decisions.
I mean, from a cinematic standpoint it definitely darkens the mood even more. A walke talkie wouldn't hold the wow factor as a loud sinister horn sound did.
Each tripod seemed fully capable of destroying anything (and enough) around it. Your idea is as good as any, but it seemed like the tripods just came out wherever they were buried and did their own thing without assistance. Besides, didn't a lot emerge from the water?
Answer: The sound of the said to be *horn* could be a way of asking for assistance or giving off their location to other tripods.
Answer: I thought it happened when the tripods flushed waste. Kind of like grunting is to humans.
Answer: I "thought" (guessed) it was to blow out any dust/debris that may have accumulated while underground and/or "fire up" (energize) their weapons before shooting.
31st Aug 2020
War of the Worlds (2005)
Question: Manny replaces the starter motor on the car Ray steals, and it works fine. Once the engine is running it doesn't need the starter motor, so how did all the cars suddenly stop if all the aliens did was fry the starters? Any cars already running wouldn't have been affected. Yes you could argue that it affected their ECU's, but not all cars have ECU's and some still rely on good old mechanical engineering.
Answer: I got the impression that all the cars had dead batteries. There are even some people who have their vehicle's hood raised and appear to be checking their batteries. Ray asked Manny, "What is it? They dead?" Manny replied, "All of them. Everything. Look at this. The starter's fried." Having dead batteries does not mean that all the cars had fried starters or bad solenoids. Conversely, having a fried starter does not necessarily mean that the battery is bad/dead. Since Manny was working on the vehicle, the vehicle was not running - this may have prevented the vehicle from also having a dead battery. Maybe the bad solenoid was not at all related to the attack - it was just the reason it was at the garage to get fixed. Once the solenoid was replaced, the car would now start because the battery was spared because the motor was not running during the attack. (I'm not sure if my answer makes sense; I never heard the word solenoid until I watched this movie!).
20th Aug 2020
War of the Worlds (2005)
Question: Why did Ray get Robbie and Rachel into the car before he even knew that Manny had fixed it?
Answer: They were in immediate danger and needed to flee. Ray knew that all the vehicles around him had dead batteries, but Manny and his helper were working on fixing the van - which meant that the van was THE only possibility for a working vehicle. Ray was not necessarily certain that Manny had fixed the van, but knew that Manny agreed with his recommendation to try changing the solenoid. The van was not only a good prospect, it was the ONE immediately available chance at getting to flee in a vehicle. If Ray's assumption that Manny DID fix the van turned out to be wrong (the van did not start), little time had been wasted. Ray and his kids would then be running for their lives ("hoofin' it") like everyone else. In short, Ray put the kids in the van because he presumed Manny changed the solenoid and it was now in running condition; fleeing in a vehicle would be much faster than fleeing on foot.
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Answer: Adding a horrifying sound is also intimidating to the people they're attacking.