Big-budget adaptation of the classic science fiction novel by H.G. Wells, directed by Steven Spielberg. Divorced father of two Ray Ferrier (Tom Cruise) is looking after his children - uncommunicative Robbie (Justin Chatwin) and precocious Rachel (Dakota Fanning) - while his ex-wife Mary (Miranda Otto) goes to Boston for the weekend. After violent electrical storms start breaking out across the world, Ray goes to investigate the results of a lightning strike further down his block, only to witness a vast armoured machine break out of the ground and start laying waste to everything in its path. Fleeing New Jersey with his children, Ray begins a horrific journey through an America gripped by panic as the alien war machines start to systematically wipe out mankind. While the hot-headed Robbie soon leaves, determined to join in with whatever resistance is possible, Ray must get young Rachel to Boston to be with her mother. On the way he is forced to take shelter with paranoid survivor Ogilvy (Tim Robbins), whose gradual mental breakdown threatens to reveal the hidden family to the aliens nearby...