“A searing image that I haven’t been able to get out of my head”: Steven Spielberg’s Sci-Fi Disaster Movie With Tom Cruise Has Aged Like Wine for 1 Reason After Director Was Inspired by a Real American Tragedy

Steven Spielberg, the filmmaker behind such original creations as E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, never fails to deliver a packed punch of sage wisdom and nightmarish terror with his films. Crafted out of era-defining tales, most of Spielberg’s films are adaptations of timeless classics. War of the Worlds is no different.

Formulated from H. G. Wells’s classic work of literature, War of the Worlds stands out in Spielberg’s filmography for being as out-of-the-box as possible. Nonetheless, a harrowing real-life nightmare separate from Wells’s novel was also behind the making of this Tom Cruise film.

Steven Spielberg’s Inspiration for War of the Worlds

Despite his extensive expertise in crafting real and original masterpieces, Steven Spielberg’s War of the Worlds stands out for being just as terrifying in its source text adapted from H. G. Wells’s classic novel of the same name. The 2005 film starring Tom Cruise and Dakota Fanning features some of the most hair-raising and chilling moments in live-action as Spielberg uses his expertise behind the lens to bring the horrors of the novel alive on screen.

However, it wasn’t just the source text coupled with Spielberg’s creativity that helped make War of the Worlds a stellar success. A real-life event just as traumatic as the events occurring within Wells’s fictional universe motivated Spielberg to give voice to his nightmares after the world was simultaneously introduced to the harrowing and fateful day of September 11, 2001.

Speaking of how the acts of terror on 9/11 informed the film, Steven Spielberg revealed in an interview with Chud:

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.

A similar image, or at least a fictionalized representation of it, was used by the director in his film after the aliens invaded the Earth. Shot with 500 extras in a packed scene where they are constantly required to push, shove, grapple, and run toward safety through a narrow street, the scene was enough to make Spielberg lose sleep for days over the fear of causing a stampede or an accidental death on set.

Steven Spielberg’s War of the Worlds Aged Like Fine Wine

Not every film in the history of Hollywood is able to rise to the occasion or stand the test of time. With the industry struggling to stay relevant now more than ever, it seems as though more box office flops have been seeing the light of day instead of summer blockbusters and usual successes. However, despite being almost 20 years old, War of the Worlds stands out in one aspect when it comes to relevance.

No period in evolution has ever witnessed a peaceful transition from one civilization to the next. The destruction of one always precedes the genesis of the other and the cyclical process continues. Be it a result of terrorism or natural disaster, the aftermath is always the same: displacement of the people. Speaking of the same, Spielberg revealed:

This [film] 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.

In today’s volatile socio-political climate, humanity can relate to that statement more than ever. With his dystopian sci-fi action film, Steven Spielberg not only granted voice to the creatures of H. G. Wells’s imagination but also gave an outlet to the horrors of the 21st century by pointing out the generic pervading air of despair and helplessness.

War of the Worlds is streaming on Paramount+