Characters from War of the Worlds (2005).
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Ray Ferrier
Ray Ferrier
"I can't let my daughter die because of you."
Portrayed By: Tom Cruise
The main protagonist.
- Action Survivor: He's never been martially trained but still manages to survive a lot of dangerous situations in which countless other people die by the hands of the aliens.
- Amicably Divorced: He and his ex seem on pretty good terms, despite things not working out between them.
- Berserk Button: Don't threaten his kids.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: At first. He has trouble relating to his kids, as when he plays catch with Robbie and reacts to his son's criticisms by throwing the ball at a window (which didn't help their relationship). However, despite his selfish behaviour and lack of presence in his kid's lives, it's clear that he loves his children and as the film goes on, he loses the "jerk" part and goes to great lengths to protect them during the invasion, including killing a man.
- Manly Tears: Ray tries to be strong for his children, but the stress of their situation eventually gets to him. Whilst taking refuge in a diner, Ray begins unashamedly crying in front of his kids after their car is stolen by a desperate mob of refugees, who soon begin murdering each other to get at it. He also has tears in his eyes when singing a lullaby to Rachel, and sheds a single tear when she falls asleep.
- Papa Wolf: He'll do anything to protect his children, especially Rachel.
- Parents as People: He comes to realize that he knows very little about being a father, and does his best to make up for it over the course of the film.
- Pragmatic Hero: He'll do anything to protect his kids, even if it means committing morally ambiguous acts such as killing a man.
- Shoot the Dog: He kills Ogilvy to keep him from drawing the aliens' attention.
Rachel Ferrier
Rachel Ferrier
"Are we still alive?"
Portrayed By: Dakota Fanning
Ray's daughter.
- Actual Pacifist: She finds any violence or fighting upsetting, shows no desire for revenge on the aliens, and is distressed when Ray is about to kill Ogilvy despite understanding why he's doing it.
- Admiring the Abomination: She's fascinated by the aliens while they're exploring the basement, despite obviously being scared of them.
- All Girls Like Ponies: She rides horses, and has won an award in a competition.
- All-Loving Hero: She's willing to help people she doesn't even know, innocently asking Ray if they can give a ride to a man who's attacking their car. She's also distressed when Ray is about to kill Ogilvy, despite him being a threat to her.
- Children Are Innocent: Her reactions are pretty accurate for a ten-year old. She often doesn't understand what's happening or why, and Ray is very intent on keeping her from seeing the more traumatic events.
- Cover Innocent Eyes and Ears: Ray blindfolds her and has her sing her favorite lullaby to herself so she won't see or hear as he kills Ogilvy.
- Also occurs in two earlier scenes. While leaving her mother's basement through the remnants of a plane crash that took out more than half the building, Ray briefly has her close her eyes to get in the car. Slightly later, Ray covers her eyes as he pulls her away from a grizzly scene at a river full of corpses. Unfortunately, in the second instance, she'd already seen far too much.
- Cute, but Cacophonic: Her screams are quite ear-piercing.
- Daddy's Girl: She evolves into this as the film goes on, becoming much more open and trusting toward Ray, who in turn would do anything to save her.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: She has blonde hair, and is the most innocent character in the film.
- Harmful to Minors: She's quite traumatized by what she goes through.
- Heroic BSoD: She has quite a lot of these, such as when she sees the start of the aliens' attack, or when she's captured in the tripod basket.
- Innocent Inaccurate: When Ray kills Ogilvy, Rachel seems aware that something went down and goes to comfort him, but it's unclear if she fully understands what happened, and doesn't question him at all.
- I Want My Mommy!: She screams this as soon as the aliens begin their invasion.
- Little Miss Snarker: She gets quite a few snarky lines.
- Meaningful Name: Her name can mean “one with purity” which fits her innocent nature.
- Nice Girl: She's rather aloof from Ray at first, but is very innocent and sweet.
- Troll: She smiles mischievously as she tells Ray that Robbie "borrowed" his car, likely knowing Ray won't be pleased about this.
- Wise Beyond Their Years: She's played by Dakota Fanning, so this is to be expected. She's more mature than Ray at times, she seems aware to an extent that a fatal fight has occurred when she comforts him after he killed Ogilvy (to protect her), and her theory about her splinter ends up predicting the aliens' defeat.
Robbie Ferrier
Robbie Ferrier
Portrayed By: Justin Chatwin
Ray's son.
- Big Brother Instinct: It's very apparent he cares deeply for his sister. He's able to calm her down when she's panicking when their dad can't. A very telling moment is when Robbie and Ray get into an argument about their plans and Robbie's desire to go with the military to fight, Rachel says this.Rachel: Robbie! Where are you trying to go? What are you trying to do? Who's gonna take care of me when you go?
- Calling Parents by Their Name: Because of his anger towards his father he calls him 'Ray' most of the time. He eventually does call him 'Dad' when he tries to get his attention.
- Leeroy Jenkins: He's determined to go off and fight the aliens, despite Ray pointing out that this won't end well.
Harlan Ogilvy
Harlan Ogilvy
Portrayed By: Tim Robbins
A man hiding from the aliens.
- Adaptational Villainy: He shares the name of Ogilvy the astronomer in the book, who isn't around for long but is portrayed as a more sympathetic and amiable character.
- Asshole Victim: He's selfish and antagonistic to Ray, even telling Rachel to her face that her father might die, and keeps recklessly putting them at risk of capture. When he goes off the deep end, he even says that he doesn't care if Ray and Rachel are killed by the aliens. It's hard not to feel relief when Ray decides to kill him.
- Ax-Crazy: He goes into this territory after discovering the aliens are harvesting humans. This gets him killed.
- Composite Character: He's a combination of two different characters from the original book, and gets the name of a third.
- Death by Irony: He's determined not to be killed by the aliens, and tells Ray that they'll die if they "lose their heads". He ends up being killed by a human after snapping when he sees a Tripod draining human blood.
- Et Tu, Brute?: He looks rather betrayed when he realizes Ray is about to kill him.
- Face Death with Dignity: Subverted. He tries to invoke this by calmly facing Ray with shovel in hand, but the last we hear is him screaming in fear.
- Foil: He's one to Ray, having lost his family in the invasion. While Ray has become more selfless and caring for his family, Ogilvy has become embittered and self-absorbed.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Having lost his own daughter, it's suggested that he wants to get Ray out of the way so he can have Rachel to himself. This gives Ray an additional reason to kill him.
- Hidden Disdain Reveal: He spends his final moments wishing death on Ray and Rachel.
- Hypocrite:
- He tells Ray they “can’t lose their heads” if they want to survive, but he starts acting irrationally and putting Ray and Rachel in danger.
- He taunts Ray for being afraid, but he's afraid to die himself, as he screams as Ray kills him.
- Jerkass: He becomes increasingly hostile to Ray, taunting him for not having a plan, and attacks Ray for trying to reason with him. He spends his final moments stating that the aliens can take Ray and Rachel for all he cares.
- Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: He offers Ray and Rachel shelter in order to drag them into his fight with the aliens.
- Large Ham: He gets more and more hammy as his mental state deteriorates.
- Laser-Guided Karma: He’s killed by the father of the girl he’s endangering.
- Madness Mantra: "Not my blood!"
- The Millstone: His actions keep putting Ray and Rachel in danger. Ray decides to kill him as a result.
- Oh, Crap!: When he realizes Ray is about to kill him.
- The Social Darwinist: He seems to think that the strong are the ones who survive, telling Ray that when he was a paramedic those who lived kept their eyes open. Ironically he’s the one who loses his mind from the trauma he’s been through, leading Ray to see him as a liability and kill him.
- Sole Survivor: He's the only one of his family who survived the aliens' initial attack. In the end, he also dies.
- Sound-Only Death: We don't see how Ray kills him. We only hear the sounds of the fight while Rachel sings to herself so she won't hear.
- Tragic Villain: He becomes a threat to Ray and Rachel, but it's because he's gone insane from witnessing the invasion and losing his entire family, including his young daughter.
- Undignified Death: He's gone completely insane by the time he dies, ranting that Ray and Rachel can die for all he cares, and he screams in fear as Ray kills him.
- Tempting Fate: He rants that Ray and Rachel are going to be killed, shortly before being killed himself.
- The World's Expert (on Getting Killed): He tells Ray that they'll die if they "lose their heads." He ends up getting killed for that reason himself.
- Would Hurt a Child: Indirectly at least. He doesn't care that his actions are putting Rachel in danger, and when Ray tries to reason with him and stop him from making noise, he rants in the background that the aliens can kill her for all he cares. This removes any doubt that he's too far gone, and makes it more sympathetic when Ray kills him.
The Alien Invaders
The Aliens
Aliens from an unknown world. They invade Earth, killing most humans they come across using their Tripods machines and "harvesting" others to feed an ecosystem they're bringing with them. They seem to be mostly unstoppable.
- Aliens Are Bastards: They're on a planet-wide genocide. They start off by massacring a crowd of innocent people, and keep going from there.
- Asshole Victim: They all die from being infected by bacteria, but it's impossible to feel sympathy for them.
- Bizarre Alien Biology: They have three main limbs with three fingers on each, two little limbs with two gingers on their torso, and a head shaped like a Ceratopsian's head crest.
- Bizarre Alien Limbs: These creatures provide the image for the trope page. On top of having three legs (which they use both to get around and to interact with their environment), there are their two smaller arms, used to pick things up with more finesse and to draw them closer to the alien's body.
- The Greys: Their skin is grey.
- Karmic Death: They die from exposure to bacteria, the lowliest of Earth's organisms.
- Too Dumb to Live: They get out of their tripods on Earth, wearing no protective gear, rummaging through dirty stuff in a damp basement, and one of them even drinks water from a broken pipe. No wonder they all got sick.
- Weaksauce Weakness: They were so advanced and germophobic that they wiped out all microbial life on their native planet. This meant they had no means of developing immunities when they invaded Earth, and died in droves due to simple microbial diseases that humans have no problem surviving.
- Would Hurt a Child: It's clear that they would kill any child in their path, including 10-year old Rachel.
