- PG-13
- 91 min
- Directed by
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- Rich Lee
- Novel
- H. G. Wells
- Premiered
- July 29, 2025
- Language
-
- English
- Status
- Released
- Country
-
- United States of America
War of the Worlds
- Production
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- Universal Pictures
- Bazelevs
- Patrick Aiello Productions
Synopsis
Will Radford is a top analyst for Homeland Security who tracks potential threats through a mass surveillance program, until one day an attack by an unknown entity leads him to question whether the government is hiding something from him... and from the rest of the world.
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officer Will Radford works for a government surveillance program that can monitor every person on Earth. His relationship with his pregnant daughter Faith and son Dave is strained due to his use of the program to constantly monitor them. While helping FBI agents try to find a mysterious hacker, known as "Disruptor", meteors begin striking all over the planet. When large machines emerge from the meteorites and start attacking humans, Will and his friend Sandra from NASA conclude it is an alien invasion. Will helps Dave and Faith evade the machines before being called to a meeting with DHS Director Donald Briggs, U.S. Secretary of Defense Walter Crystal, and the United States president.
When the president authorizes a military response, other governments do likewise. Will notices the machines are concentrating around data centers around the world, dispersing smaller insectoid creatures to harvest data inside the buildings. The data nourishes the alien machines, and they continue to defeat the human forces attacking them. Will is dismayed to discover that Disruptor is actually Dave, who links him to classified information regarding a surveillance operation known as "Goliath". These classified files reveal to Will that alien ships had previously arrived on Earth, and that the government knew they fed on data. Despite warnings that activating Goliath could attract the aliens, Briggs activated it anyway. Will confronts Briggs, who claims his actions were necessary to keep people safe. Briggs then locks Will out of the DHS system.
Will, Dave and his team of hackers re-enter the system and plant a virus to disable the aliens' machines. The virus fails to stop the aliens, who locate and kill most of Dave's fellow hackers. The military plans to bomb the DHS headquarters (under which Goliath is kept), to ensure the aliens cannot access the system. Using a variation of Faith's cancer-destroying "Cannibal" code concealed in a flash drive delivered by her boyfriend, Amazon delivery driver Mark, Will breaks into the bunker and shuts down Goliath in time, simultaneously deactivating the aliens. The military calls off the bombing.
Will and Dave are celebrated as heroes, Briggs is arrested for his crimes and Faith is credited with using her DNA studies to ensure the aliens' defeat. Crystal gives Will an offer to lead a new surveillance program that will not interfere with people's privacy, but he declines, saying, "Now, I'm watching you." He then leaves to go to Faith's baby shower.
Top Billed Cast
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