Steven Spielberg explains how 9/11 informed the making of ‘War of the Worlds’
The great Steven Spielberg, known across the world for being one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, is largely celebrated for such 20th-century movies as Jaws, Raiders of the Lost Ark and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Yet, the director continues to surprise audiences into the new millennium, making a number of modern classics like Catch Me If You Can and War of the Worlds amongst some admitted commercial failures.
Indeed, when Spielberg’s sci-fi successes are discussed, too often do we jump to the likes of E.T., Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Jurassic Park, but 2005’s War of the Worlds was a truly stunning piece of big-budget filmmaking. Adapted from H. G. Wells’ iconic novel of the same name, Spielberg’s updated reimagining occurred in modern-day Brooklyn, New York, where alien invaders created a nightmarish apocalypse.
Starring Tom Cruise, Dakota Fanning and Tim Robbins, the vast sci-fi flick toyed with visceral horror elements, with the sequence in which the extra-terrestrial ten-story tall tripods come to earth being top-quality Spielberg magic. The sequence and the overall film itself were inspired by the horrors of reality, with Spielberg taking notes from the recent tragedy of 9/11.
Speaking in an interview about how the film plays with themes of refugees, Spielberg explained, “It’s an unfamiliar theme to all of us because we don’t often see images of American refugees, except after local and national disasters like hurricanes and people fleeing—and approaching hurricanes in the Florida Keys. And of course, the image that stands out in my mind the most was the image of everybody in Manhattan fleeing across the George Washington Bridge in the shadow of 9/11, which is something that is a searing image that I haven’t been able to get out of my head.”
Continuing, the filmmaker added: “This is partially about the American refugee experience, because it’s certainly about Americans fleeing for their lives, being attacked for no reason, having no idea why they’re being attacked and who is attacking them.”
A terrifying film of great hopelessness, what Spielberg excellently captures is the insidious nature of the alien visitors, who murder the population of Earth with no shred of mercy. Despite their rampant violence, humanity largely bands together to defeat the invaders, with the sheer chemical makeup of the planet’s atmosphere being enough to kill off the aliens who die due to a bacterial disease.
Asked about how the political situation of the early 2000s informed the film’s optimistic finale, Spielberg replied: “I have hope for the future, which is probably why I’m not the best person to tell a story that leaves you with nothing to look for. But I just felt that this movie is a reflection, and there are all sorts of metaphors that you can certainly divine from this story…I tried to make it as open for interpretation as possible, without having anybody coming out with a huge political polemic in the second act of the movie. I think there are politics certainly underneath some of the scares and some of the adventure and some of the fear.”
Take a look at the trailer for Spielberg’s War of the Worlds below.
