When Ray gets home after the aliens' first attack, he's in a total state of shock. His kids keep asking what happened, clearly scared, and he can't even answer.
Rachel freaking out in the car, as she witnesses the start of the attack.
"What do you mean?" Dakota Fanning's distraught delivery of that line is amazing.
When the car gets stolen, and Ray and his family go into the diner and just collapse in a state of hopelessness. Even Ray starts crying.
When Ray thinks Robbie's been killed in the battle, and screams his name in anguish.
When Ray and Rachel meet Ogilvy right after this and he asks if they're okay, they're both too in shock to answer, and Ray is clearly struggling not to break down.
The scene where Ray sings "Little Deuce Coupe" as a lullaby to Rachel.
Also their entire conversation leading up to that.
Ray asks Ogilvy if he lost anyone. Ogilvy replies, "All of them."
Ogilvy, in general, is a pretty tragic character. Very little of what he says is actually wrong. The aliens really can't win, because they weren't "made for" Earth, running really isn't a great idea compared to seeking shelter underground, and losing their heads really would get them killed. Being unable to tolerate a few days in a basement is exactly what brings Ogilvy down, when Ray is forced to kill him to avert a horrible fate for himself and his daughter.
Rachel singing "Hushabye Mountain."
Ray's reaction before he kills Ogilvy. He makes his way back to Rachel, then rushes up to her and hugs her tight. The look on his face says it all.
During Ogilvy's rant while Ray is preparing himself to kill him, he desperately insists that the Martians can't survive for long on Earth. Ray still has to kill him, but the fact that he ignores this shows how he's lost hope that the aliens can be defeated.
Although Rachel can revert to very childish behavior in moments of stress and fear, she's generally mature for her age, and her response to Ogilvy's death may be one of the best examples in the film. Ray shields her from the reality of what's going on, but she seems to have heard Ogilvy yelling that the Tripods are using human beings as fertilizer for the Red Weed. It doesn't take much imagination to understand what that means, and she may have also heard him yelling that the aliens can take her and Ray for all he cares. While she never explicitly says that she knows Ray is going to kill him to protect her, it's pretty clear from how she sings her lullaby that she's aware that a fatal fight is taking place. The way she approaches her father to comfort him afterward could be either a Tear Jerker or a heartwarming moment, but the fact that the two are found anyway an hour or so later makes it lean toward the tragic end of the spectrum.
The military attempting to make a stand against the tripods. They throw everything they have against the aliens to no effect and even admit to themselves they're only there as a distraction. And then they charge...
Ray and Rachel's reunion in the tripod basket. The way he keeps repeating her name, while she's in a total state of shock... Then, finally, she recognizes him and whispers, "Dad?"
The fate of Sheryl and Norah. When they're first introduced at the Hudson Ferry, it feels like they might become permanent additions to the small roster of protagonists. They're both given names, along with just enough background information to know that Ray is friends with the older woman. They talk, Norah introduces herself to the slightly younger Rachel, and Ray fights like hell to get them on the boat after the Tripods appear on the hill behind the dock. At first, he insists that the boat has room for five more (after correcting his statement that there are only three people with him) and, when that fails, he has them grab hold of him while he makes his way on board through the side ramp. You really think they'll make it...right up until they don't. They're stopped right after the three leads make their way on board, trapping both in a situation where their odds of survival are effectively non-existent. While thousands of unnamed characters are vaporized or harvested, the cruelty of either fate befalling two who were introduced and who were so close to escape feels a lot more cruel.
