How were the force fields of the tripods disabled in the War of the Worlds remake?

How were the force fields of the tripods disabled in the War of the Worlds remake? - Horse mounted officers and soldiers with rifles and muskets fighting on field in countryside during reenactment of Napoleonic war

When Tom Cruise sees birds on the alien ship at the end of War of the Worlds, he told the major.

But how/when was the armor of the alien ships removed? That was not described properly.



Best Answer

The "armor" (force fields) of the alien vessels failed after the alien crew inside died from exposure to Earth microbes, which is also how the invasion as a whole was brought to a crippling halt. The idea was that the alien immune systems had no defense against Earth-born viruses, as they had never been exposed to these illnesses before, and so something that would only make a human mildly sick turned out to be deadly to the aliens.

This is the sort of thing that has historically been a very real threat for colonists arriving on a newly discovered continent here on Earth, so it made sense as a science fiction story ending at the time the book was originally written.

The realism of this ending has been called into question more recently, as some people have observed that a virus which can have severe effects on human health will often have little or no effect on other Earth mammals. If a given virus isn't even able to universally infect (no pun intended) all species on this planet, what are the odds one would have any effect at all on a completely alien biology?

Although cross-species transmission is rare here on Earth, those viruses that DO make "the jump" often end up having far more serious consequences in the newly infected species. Memorable recent examples include SARS and the bird flu.

My personal opinion is that it's possible (though very unlikely) that an Earth-born virus might manage to infect the alien population, and having done so, it would almost certainly be fatal. It's close enough that I'm willing to suspend my disbelief, anyway. Also, the extremely low probability of such a transfer would help to explain why the aliens weren't prepared for it (you would think a highly advanced alien race with technology far surpassing our own would have thought to wear hazmat suits during the invasion, unless they had reason to think it wasn't necessary.)




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How do the tripods work in War of the Worlds?

The Great Martian War 1913-1917 The Great Martian War Tripod In this mockumentary of the story of the War of the Worlds, the tripods are described kind of like the ones in the book. They move similar to the movements of an insect. It can fire it's signature Heat Beam to melt objects or set them on fire.

Why did the shields stop working in War of the Worlds?

The shield was probably electromagnetic, as the heat ray and skeleton beams could pass through it untouched. Steven Spielberg put this in his 2005 blockbuster, with similar descriptions as George Pal's movie. Eventually bacteria rendered the shields useless, and the fighting machine was destroyed.

What is the orange liquid in War of the Worlds?

This is shown in the end when the hatch opens up, and you see a large amount of the orange fluid escape, followed by the alien's arm. The orange color could be an indication of immunological compromise in the aliens or their vehicles, perhaps damage to the internal environment in which the aliens work.

What stopped the aliens in War of the Worlds?

In closing, the Narrator explains that the aliens' deaths were due to their immune systems being unable to handle the countless microbes that inhabit the Earth, which "God in His wisdom" placed upon the planet to protect humans naturally co-existing with the rest of Earth's biosphere.



The War of The Worlds (1953) The Martains Reveal Themselves




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