Allegory WotW

In War of the Worlds the aliens are allegorical, linking them to the terrorists behind the 9/11 attacks. For example, the terrorists want to destroy the US and WASPs, similar to how the aliens want to destroy mankind and both are due to alternate ideologies. The ideologies of the alien attackers involved colonising the Earth and overpowering humanity with violence, if we compare this with the ideologies of the terrorists they involved colonising the West in order to spread their religion and ideology by overpowering them using violence.

Spielberg, the film's director, is known for his friendly films, and previous representations of aliens such as "E.T.- The Extra-Terrestrial" and "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" have portrayed them as potential friends, but it is clear that his personal view of both 'aliens' and film making has changed after 9/11 and he has been greatly influenced to begin creating dark films with greater meaning.

The two are also very different from average Americans in terms of appearance, all of the main characters in War of the Worlds are White American, who are also the initial enemy of the terrorists, and this is evidence that the aliens are allegorical to 9/11. To compare the two, they are both outsiders, destructors and killers; the Aliens are from a different planet and attack in their tripods from within the Earth, just like how the Terrorists are from a different country who attacked in their planes from within the US.

There is a lot of iconography which directly references the 9/11 attacks in the film, for example the plane crash that Ray discovers when he comes out of the basement. The scene with the plane contains a lot of iconography. First, when he leaves the house and sees the plane there is a lot of smoke arising from the area, similar to how the setting of 9/11 looked during the plane attacks. Also, there is a lot of wreckage containing household items which is similar to how the wreckage of 9/11 looked because of the destruction caused to the Towers. This scene also shows the threat of transport, terrorists have used buses and planes as weapons to destroy which is similar to the visual significance of the train which is on fire in a later scene, and also the Tripods.

When Ray meets the media and sees footage from their news van, this is very reminiscent of the news of the terrorist attacks spreading across the world. The media enhance Ray's paranoia after informing him of a wider attack and how New York 'went down', followed by D.C. This is similar to the initial reaction of many people worldwide watching the news at that time as everyone was very paranoid of where was to be attacked next and paranoia and fear of outsiders increased dramatically. The Media refer to the aliens as "they" or "them" which shows a fear of the unknown. Alien is a term for someone belonging to a foreign country, this shows that the aliens are very representative both physically and mentally of the terrorists and Islamic terror during 9/11.

The setting of New York in the film is a visual thematic reference to the terrorist attacks, it is a legitimate mood-setting device which makes the film a lot more eerie than just an ordinary Sci-fi invasion film. The iconography expresses the films meaning greatly rather than just using it for entertainment. Further examples of this would be the use of low angle shots during attacks to visually signify the street footage of 9/11, and the various other uses of camcorders and the media.