During a lull before the tripods appear again, we
hear more ambient sounds: Rachel’s shrill screams,
a radio report on the status of the emergency
broadcast system, a passing convoy of army tanks
and trucks, and car horns in the heavy traffic as the
Ferriers approach a ferry on the Hudson River. At
the ferry landing we hear the deafening roar of a
freight train as it passes in the night, the jangling of
the warning bells at the train’s crossing, a female
ferry employee shouting instructions through a
megaphone, and the ferry’s deep-sounding horns.
The crowd there is furious at Ray for having a car
in which to escape and begins to attack it; we hear
loud crowd noises, individual voices, gunshots, and
the sounds of the car’s windows being smashed. In
the midst of this pandemonium, Rachel looks up to
the sky and hears geese honking as they fly by—a
classic omen of the horror to come. There is very
little music in this part of the film (the rising action
of the plot), but we hear from a radio somewhere
the sound of Tony Bennett singing “If I Ruled the
World.” Since viewers know that a new demonic
force now rules the world, it’s a particularly ironic
use of music.
The Ferriers manage to get on the ferryboat, but
their escape is thwarted when the boat is caught in
a whirlpool and capsizes, throwing cars and pas-
sengers overboard. The sounds of this action are
faithful and vivid. We also see and hear people
thrashing underwater as they seek safety. By now,
the tripods are on the scene, their huge tentacles
(with their own peculiar noises) grabbing people
out of the Hudson and gobbling them up into their
nasty “mouths.” Of course, the three members of
the Ferrier family escape all of this.
On the riverbank, we see an Armageddon-like
scene—what might be the final conflict between
the tripods and humanity—and hear the sounds of
the massive tripods crashing through the land-
scape, army tanks firing missiles at them, and heli-
copters and fighter jets above also firing missiles
and dropping bombs. The scene is complete chaos,
with ambient noises of the crowds rushing back
and forth. In the midst of all this, Robbie Ferrier
pleads with his father for independence and
escapes into the fray.
As the crowds disperse, and a semblance of
quiet and order return, Ray and Rachel are wel-
comed into the basement of a nearby farmhouse by
Harlan Ogilvy (Tim Robbins). Soon the sounds of
his sharpening a large blade provide another omen
that the battle is not yet over and that this man may
also become an evil force with which Ray will need
to reckon. Actually, we suspect that Ogilvy is a
murderer and that Ray and Rachel are in harm’s
way, but in fact he just wants to annihilate the
tripods.412 CHAPTER 9 SOUND
Flight from terrorFerrier (at the wheel of a van that he
has stolen) and his two children (who are hiding from danger
on the floor of the car) flee their New Jersey town as it is
destroyed by the tripods. Notable here are the sound effects
of crumbling steel bridges, vaporizing concrete highways,
and debris falling everywhere.
PanicThe tripods cause a whirlpool that capsizes a ferry
overcrowded with people trying to escape. Sounds here
include the hornlike “voices” of the tripods, the screams of
the crowd (those still on deck and those who have fallen or
dived into the river), the buckling steel of the ferryboat,
underwater sounds, and John Williams’s musical score.