Synopsis-An opening narration explains that Earth was being observed by extraterrestrials with immense intelligence and no compassion. As man dominated the world without doubt, much in the way microorganisms swarm in a drop of water, these beings plotted to take it all from us.
Divorced longshoreman Ray Ferrier works as a crane operator at a dock in Brooklyn, New York, and is estranged from his children: 10-year-old daughter Rachel, and teenage son Robbie. Ray's pregnant former wife, Mary Ann, drops the two off at his house in Bayonne, New Jersey, on her way to visit her parents in Boston. Later, a strange storm occurs during which lightning strikes multiple times into the middle of a nearby intersection, causing an EMP that instantly fries almost all electronic devices. Ray reluctantly joins the crowd at the scene of the impacts, where a massive "tripod" war machine emerges from the ground and uses powerful energy weapons to destroy the area, disintegrating most of the witnesses into a grey ash.
Ray collects his children, steals a van from the local mechanic after he advised him on how to fix it before heading into town, and drives to Mary Ann's empty home in suburban New Jersey to take refuge. That night, they take shelter in the basement, but they soon hear a strange roaring noise followed by an explosion, which destroys the house. The next morning, Ray and Robbie discover that a Boeing 747 had crashed into the neighborhood. Ray meets a wandering news team scavenging the wreckage for food, who explain to him that there are multiple tripods that have attacked major cities around the world, adding that the tripods have force shields to protect them from most of humanity's defenses, and the tripods' pilots traveled to Earth within the lightning storms as a way to enter their machines, which are assumed to have been buried underground for thousands of years.
Ray decides to drive the kids to Boston to be with their mother, but a desperate mob swarms their vehicle, forcing them to abandon it. They eventually get to a Hudson River ferry only to be surrounded by tripods, which either massacre or abduct many of the refugees, but Ray's family manages to escape. They witness U.S. Marines engaging in a battle with some tripods. Much to Ray's dismay, Robbie eventually joins the futile fight against the aliens, while Ray and Rachel quickly flee the scene. The US Marines are obliterated with Robbie presumed to have been killed with them. Shortly after, the pair are offered shelter in a nearby basement by a deranged man named Harlan Ogilvy.
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