War of the Worlds

Ray Ferrier, dock worker, divorced, estranged from kids. Picking up Robbie and Rachel for weekend. Bad father. Disinterested. Immature. Rachel has anxiety. Robbie rebellious. Dysfunctional family. Before crisis forces change.

Robbie to Ray: "You were never there." Theme of failed parenthood redeemed through crisis, protecting children, and becoming the adult they need when world collapses.

Strange lightning storm. No rain. Electromagnetic pulse. Power out everywhere. Ray investigating. Neighbors gathering. Something wrong. Technology dead. Old dodge working. World feels off. Ominous calm before horror.

Tripod emerges from ground. Vaporizing people. Death rays. Screaming. Ash falling - human remains. Ray runs home. Witnessed apocalypse. Aliens buried underground for millennia. Invasion beginning. Must protect kids now.

Should Ray go to ex-wife or run away from city? Tripods everywhere. Destruction complete. Takes van. Fleeing. Can he protect them? Never been responsible. Kids terrified. Every choice life or death. Survival mode.

Leaving city. Mob attacks van. Ray fights them off. Harsh new reality. Tripods hunting. Plane crash into neighborhood. Burning bodies everywhere. Entering world of apocalypse. Civilization gone. Only survival matters. Father finally present.

Ray and Rachel relationship. She traumatized. He must comfort her. Learning to parent through horror. "Sing with me." Protecting her innocence. Robbie wants to fight. Ray choosing children over everything. Family forged through crisis.

Ferry escape attempt. Tripods attack water. Ship capsizes. Survival moments. Hiding from tripods. Rachel seeing bodies float. Robbie rebellious. Promise: alien invasion survival, father protecting children, running from unstoppable enemy.

Military fighting tripods. Robbie wants to join. Ray must choose: let Robbie go or keep family together. Robbie runs to fight. Ray cannot stop him. False defeat: family separated. Must protect Rachel alone now. Stakes: save remaining child.

Ogilvy basement. Hiding from aliens. Probe searching. Rachel kidnapped by alien machine. Ray desperate. Ogilvy losing sanity. Must kill Ogilvy to stay hidden. Rachel taken to tripod. Everything falling apart. Alone again.

Rachel in tripod cage. Ray caught. Together in alien harvesting machine. Blood everywhere. Humans being harvested. Other prisoners. Death imminent. Lost everything. About to be killed with daughter. Failed to protect her. Nightmare realized.

In cage watching aliens harvest humans. Ray and Rachel clinging together. No escape. No hope. Weeks of running end here. Failed as father and protector. Waiting to die. Darkest moment. Apocalypse won.

Ray grenades inside tripod. Escapes with Rachel. Machine crashes. Others dying but shields failing. Aliens weakening. Synthesis: fight back. Protect child at any cost. Father finds courage through love. Resistance possible.

Tripods falling. Aliens dying. Birds on them - shields down. Bacteria killing invaders. "For neither are men prepared to kill them." Nature defeated aliens. Ray and Rachel walk to Boston. Robbie alive! Family reunited.

Ray delivers kids to mother, alive and safe. Bad father became protector. Family whole. Invasion over. Humanity survived. Ray transformed through crisis. Narration: "By the toll of a billion deaths, man earned his immunity." Hope restored.