Dir. Steven Spielberg. 2005, 116 mins. 35mm. With Tom Cruise, Dakota Fanning, Miranda Otto, Justin Chatwin, Tim Robbins, Rick Gonzalez, Morgan Freeman. Loosely based on H.G. Wells's science fiction classic, and heavily steeped in Spielbergian family values, War of the Worlds stars Tom Cruise as a divorced dock worker whose weekend visit with his children becomes a fight for their lives when Earth is invaded by alien tripod fighting machines. One of the first major American movies to explicitly reference the tragedies of 9/11, Spielberg's box office smash is more mournful and poignant than it may have seemed at first, and posits a tall tale that nevertheless feels deeply, unsettlingly real.