History YMMV / WithoutWarning1994

* NightmareFuel: The entire damn thing, but especially the ending [[spoiler: in which it shows all of humanity's attempts at saving itself have been in vain.]]

** The fact that even if [[spoiler: humanity had saved itself in the end, and aliens backed off, millions of people are still dead, and there's been catastrophic damage done to the world.]]

** An entire town in Wyoming goes missing, and we never find out why. It's heavily implied the aliens abducted it, but no confirmation, or reason for why they would do so is ever given.

* CriticalResearchFailure: It is stated repeatedly that the aliens are responding to the plaque attached to the ''Pioneer 11'' spacecraft, which contained information about human life on Earth. However, the illustrations of the "plaque" are actually a graphic of the Arecibo radio telescope message. Anyone who has any knowledge of the history of space exploration (or anyone who bothers to look it up) will know that the two look nothing alike. This is particularly insulting, given that this is an important plot point. On top of it all, the message relayed by the aliens is a parroting of one of the voice recordings sent up with the ''Voyager'' probes, not ''Pioneer'', though the source is correctly identified.

* ViewerNameConfusion: Possible in that two news anchors [[AsHimself playing themselves]] are both called "Sandy" - Sander Vanocur (informally called "Sandy" by others in this movie as he was in real life) and Sandy Hill.

* ViewerNameConfusion: Possible in that two news anchors [[AsHimself playing themselves]] are both called Sandy - Sander Vanocur (informally called "Sandy" by others in this movie as he was in real life) and Sandy Hill.

* AdaptationDecay: Creator/OrsonWelles did it first, and did it better. Real "We Interrupt This Program" newscasts don't have well-known character actors (up to and including Creator/JohnDeLancie) in the role of reporters and talking heads. They also don't have commercial breaks. Justified, however, in that such "breaks from the reality" were [[ExecutiveMeddling mandated]] (along with repeated disclaimers) in order to prevent people from thinking the broadcast was real - a problem that plagued Welles' radio program. It should also be noted that the famous "faux broadcast" part of ''War of the Worlds'' only lasted for about 20-25 minutes, after which there was a commercial break and then the remainder of the broadcast was a straightforward audio drama narrated by Welles.

* AdaptationDecay: Orson Welles did it first, and did it better. Real "We Interrupt This Program" newscasts don't have well-known character actors (up to and including Creator/JohnDeLancie) in the role of reporters and talking heads. They also don't have commercial breaks. Justified, however, in that such "breaks from the reality" were [[ExecutiveMeddling mandated]] (along with repeated disclaimers) in order to prevent people from thinking the broadcast was real - a problem that plagued Welles' radio program. It should also be noted that the famous "faux broadcast" part of ''War of the Worlds'' only lasted for about 20-25 minutes, after which there was a commercial break and then the remainder of the broadcast was a straightforward audio drama narrated by Welles.

* AdaptationDecay: Orson Welles did it first, and did it better. Real "We Interrupt This Program" newscasts don't have well-known character actors (up to and including Creator/JohnDeLancie) in the role of reporters and talking heads. They also don't have commercial breaks. Justified, however, in that such "breaks from the reality" were mandated (along with repeated disclaimers) in order to prevent people from thinking the broadcast was real - a problem that plagued Welles' radio program. It should also be noted that the famous "faux broadcast" part of ''War of the Worlds'' only lasted for about 20-25 minutes, after which there was a commercial break and then the remainder of the broadcast was a straightforward audio drama narrated by Welles.

* AdaptationDecay: Orson Welles did it first, and did it better. Real "We Interrupt This Program" newscasts don't have well-known character actors (up to and including Creator/JohnDeLancie) in the role of reporters and talking heads. They also don't have commercial breaks. Justified, however, in that such "breaks from the reality" were mandated (along with repeated disclaimers) in order to prevent people from thinking the broadcast was real - a problem that plagued Welles' radio program. It should also be noted that the famous "faux broadcast" part of "War of the Worlds" only lasted for about 20-25 minutes, after which there was a commercial break and then the remainder of the broadcast was a straightforward audio drama narrated by Welles.

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: Considering this is meant to be a homage to War Of The Worlds and the aliens idea of first contact was ''planetary bombardment'', it's not a stretch to imagine that the "peaceful" aliens weren't so peaceful after all.
* CriticalResearchFailure: It is stated repeatedly that the aliens are responding to the plaque attached to the Pioneer 11 spacecraft, which contained information about human life on Earth. However, the illustrations of the "plaque" are actually a graphic of the Arecibo radio telescope message. Anyone who has any knowledge of the history of space exploration (or anyone who bothers to look it up) will know that the two look nothing alike. This is particularly insulting, given that this is an important plot point. On top of it all, the message relayed by the aliens is a parroting of one of the voice recordings sent up with the ''Voyager'' probes, not Pioneer, though the source is correctly identified.

* AdaptationDecay: Orson Welles did it first, and did it better. Real "We Interrupt This Program" newscasts don't have well-known character actors (up to and including Creator/JohnDeLancie) in the role of reporters and talking heads. They also don't have commercial breaks.

* CriticalResearchFailure: It is stated repeatedly that the aliens are responding to the plaque attached to the Pioneer 11 spacecraft, which contained information about human life on Earth. However, the illustrations of the "plaque" are actually a graphic of the Arecibo radio telescope message. Anyone who has any knowledge of the history of space exploration (or anyone who bothers to look it up) will know that the two look nothing alike. This is particularly insulting, given that this is an important plot point.

* CriticalResearchFailure: It is stated repeatedly that the aliens are responding to the plaque attached to the Pioneer 10 spacecraft, which contained information about human life on Earth. However, the illustrations of the "plaque" are actually a graphic of the Arecibo radio telescope message. Anyone who has any knowledge of the history of space exploration (or anyone who bothers to look it up) will know that the two look nothing alike. This is particularly insulting, given that this is an important plot point.

* YMMV/DidNotDoTheResearch: It is stated repeatedly that the aliens are responding to the plaque attached to the Pioneer 10 spacecraft, which contained information about human life on Earth. However, the illustrations of the "plaque" are actually a graphic of the Arecibo radio telescope message. Anyone who has any knowledge of the history of space exploration (or anyone who bothers to look it up) will know that the two look nothing alike. This is particularly insulting, given that this is an important plot point.

* DidNotDoTheResearch: It is stated repeatedly that the aliens are responding to the plaque attached to the Pioneer 10 spacecraft, which contained information about human life on Earth. However, the illustrations of the "plaque" are actually a graphic of the Arecibo radio telescope message. Anyone who has any knowledge of the history of space exploration (or anyone who bothers to look it up) will know that the two look nothing alike. This is particularly insulting, given that this is an important plot point.

* AdaptationDecay: Orson Welles did it first, and did it better. Real "We Interrupt This Program" newscasts don't have well-known character actors (up to and including Creator/JohnDeLancie) in the role of reporters and talking heads. They also don't have commercial breaks.

* AdaptationDecay: Orson Welles did it first, and did it better. Real "We Interrupt This Program" newscasts don't have well-known character actors in the role of reporters and talking heads. They also don't have commercial breaks.