Plot Error?

[beecus]

Having just watched it on DVD, it suddenly struck me...

If the aliens buried their machines on this planet some thousands of years ago, how come the bacteria didn't kill them first time around?

And surely, if it didn't kill them, they would be ill and even if not ill they would be aware of them and prepared for the eventuality?

What do you think? A plot error or was it covered somewhere in the film that I missed?

[Tripod]

They might never have visited Earth themselves, they might just fired the pods at our planet which then buried themselves over time. It's a bit like in the book.

Tripod

[Lensman]

Well since the movie is so unclear on the details of how the aliens arrived and how long they were buried, we can't be sure. The news crew shows Ray pictures which may be interpreted to mean the aliens were using the "lightning" (which preceded the tripods' emergance) to transport the crew down into the machines. If that interpretation is correct, then the aliens had *not* been exposed to earth bacteria until the tripods emerged.

Why the aliens would have put the tripods into deep burial and then apparently left them there for at least thousands of years, apparently all without ever having one of their race breathe the atmosphere of our planet (or take and analyze samples of our biosphere), is of course an unanswered question.

But then, Wells' Martians-- altho apparently advanced in bio-science (arguably they were advanced enuff to genetically engineer their own species)-- were equally blind to the danger. So if one can justify or overlook the failing of Wells' Martians, surely we can do so for this movie's aliens, since after all that is a plot element taken directly from Wells.

[<[Iron Man]>]

lensman said:

Well since the movie is so unclear on the details of how the aliens arrived and how long they were buried, we can't be sure. The news crew shows Ray pictures which may be interpreted to mean the aliens were using the "lightning" (which preceded the tripods' emergance) to transport the crew down into the machines. If that interpretation is correct, then the aliens had *not* been exposed to earth bacteria until the tripods emerged.

Why the aliens would have put the tripods into deep burial and then apparently left them there for at least thousands of years, apparently all without ever having one of their race breathe the atmosphere of our planet (or take and analyze samples of our biosphere), is of course an unanswered question.

But then, Wells' Martians-- altho apparently advanced in bio-science (arguably they were advanced enuff to genetically engineer their own species)-- were equally blind to the danger. So if one can justify or overlook the failing of Wells' Martians, surely we can do so for this movie's aliens, since after all that is a plot element taken directly from Wells.

I think we have to give credit to Wells. While it has often been criticised of Wells (i'm guilty of this) on the bacteria aspect. He was writing this with the current scientific understanding of his time. While i agree with Lensman, that with their advanced science, specifically 'bio-science' they could've found a way around this.

That they should have at the very least, recognised the dangers of Earthbound bacteria. However the book is only a story, a work of fiction (and a very good one at that). With an important message to be told.

So in light of this, it needs to be overlooked for us to appreciate the wider context of the book, and its meaning.

For me personally, i felt that Spielberg et al tried to approach the alien invasion angle in a new way. Most if not all classic alien invasion films have involved attack from 'space' or the air. This obviously had a lot to do with people watching the skies above, fearing of an attack from the Soviets.

So they probably went ahead with an 'underground launched invasion' without proper thought of why. They just wanted it to be different from ID4 or Signs, where they always come in flying craft.

Ironically Wells had his invaders arrive from airborne craft, but there we go.

[Lensman]

I think there were two reasons Spielberg showed the Tripods emerging from underground, with the implication they'd been there a long time:

1. The analogy with terrorist sleeper cells, with something destructive that lies dormant in our homeland, hidden, and waiting to be activated by its masters. The line in the trailer "They're already here!" goes along with this.

2. The emergence from underground allowed a slow buildup of suspense, was a kewl effect, and is something we hadn't seen before.

In my opinion, looking for some meaning deeper than this is trying to read into it more than the film-makers put there. I think that's all they intended. And I think they let those reasons overshadow the need for the story to make sense, 'cuz the more we talk about this the less sense it makes.

[Killraven]

beecus said:

Having just watched it on DVD, it suddenly struck me...

If the aliens buried their machines on this planet some thousands of years ago, how come the bacteria didn't kill them first time around?

And surely, if it didn't kill them, they would be ill and even if not ill they would be aware of them and prepared for the eventuality?

What do you think? A plot error or was it covered somewhere in the film that I missed?

Who knows - the "aliens" (not Martians! ) may have visited the planet before life started, therefore there wouldn't be any bacteria to attack them. And if not, its quite reasonable to believe that the underground pods were totally airtight and immune to bacteriological attack.

In fact, with this movie its pretty much possible to believe anything, given the even bigger plot hole i.e. why the aliens came to earth so long ago and didn't bother conquering it then, but only came back when a race had conveniently developed enough to try and fight against them! But this has already been discussed many times before...

KR

[sunnyrabbiera]

the whole movie was a plot error, taking wells' great idea and turning it into a train wreck

[Tripod Bait]

lensman said:

I think there were two reasons Spielberg showed the Tripods emerging from underground, with the implication they'd been there a long time:

1. The analogy with terrorist sleeper cells, with something destructive that lies dormant in our homeland, hidden, and waiting to be activated by its masters. The line in the trailer "They're already here!" goes along with this.

2. The emergence from underground allowed a slow buildup of suspense, was a kewl effect, and is something we hadn't seen before.

In my opinion, looking for some meaning deeper than this is trying to read into it more than the film-makers put there. I think that's all they intended. And I think they let those reasons overshadow the need for the story to make sense, 'cuz the more we talk about this the less sense it makes.

Another reason for Spielberg to do away with the cylinders and the building of the tripods once the aliens arrived was the fact that he could create a better sense of everyday life being dramatically interrupted and the chaos that ensued. Spielberg likes to get action going quickly and keep it moving through out a film. having the aliens construct their war machines after landing would have been too slow of a build up for his style and taste. Unfortunately in this case jumping into the action by having the tripods being buried for thousands of years raises too many questions. By and large I am one of the few who enjoyed Spielberg's adaptation of the story, but I also feel that it suffers from some glaring issues - this topic being one of them.

My first reaction when the tripod rose out of the ground moments after the lighting storm was "What the hell?" I thought it was rather an interesting concept to have the tripods stored in subterranean cylinders - hence the disruption of the ground above as it unscrews, but how did they get there? The subterranean cylinder could also explain the lack of exposure to Terran bacteria in the tripods (presuming that the cylinders were airtight). One of the most important things to keep in mind when telling a story is not to interject anything that will cause the audience to be pulled away - once this happens they will start asking questions about its validity and bearing to the story. The omission of the aliens constructing their tripods after arriving creates just such a moment in which the audience is pulled out of the story.

By burring the cylinders and pre-built tripods we are left asking:

1.) How long have they been there?
2.) How deep are they buried? And how is it that not a single one was ever discovered in all of the years they had been here?
3.) What kept the cylinders and tripods intact for all of those centuries of tectonic movement?
5.) Did the cylinders arrive prior to man's written history? They must have considering there was nothing that raised anyone's interest about numerous peoples all over the world having similar stories of giant cylinders crashing to Earth. ...let alone even encountering any.
6.) Did alien technology suddenly halt? Did they not advance in anyway in thousands of years? Wouldn't they have had much more advanced war machines by the time they decided to invade Earth? ...and wouldn't the controls and technology in the tripods have seemed "alien" to the invading pilots (assuming their technology did advance)? I kind of see this one as being similar to attacking an underdeveloped plant with B-17s in the year 3022.
7.) Why wait until 2005 to attack... why not just do it when the war machines were first deposited here? The planet would have been cleaner (less pollution), and far easier to conquer.
8.) The ships that carried the aliens to the tripods were pretty small - so where did they come from? And what caused the atmospheric disturbance? Was there a mothership dropping these pods? If so then why not just drop the current model of war machine instead of using the fossils that had been buried for thousands of years? And if there was a mother ship then how is it that it was never detected? And how were none of the small pods detected prior to landing?

I had a few more to add, but my head is spinning

[Commandingtripod]

Well, perhaps our alien friends forgot about us.
The universe is pretty big after all.

With the 'updated machine' bit, perhaps they had conquered other planets before and thought that these machines were good enough to crush the resistance?

[Lensman]

The machines *were* good enuff to crush the resistance.

[Rocka]

The film mentions something of man earning his birthright by way of a million deaths, (or something), inferring that bacteria, viruses etc evolve. As a human body figures out a way to resist a virus, so too the virus figures out another way to destroy it.
The aliens haven't been here all this time, so they have no built up immunity.
As for why they didnt attack when they first came, well there'd have been no one around to film them and make sh*tloads of money for Paramount, would there?

[<[Iron Man]>]

tripodbait said:

8.) The ships that carried the aliens to the tripods were pretty small - so where did they come from? And what caused the atmospheric disturbance? Was there a mothership dropping these pods? If so then why not just drop the current model of war machine instead of using the fossils that had been buried for thousands of years? And if there was a mother ship then how is it that it was never detected? And how were none of the small pods detected prior to landing?

I had a few more to add, but my head is spinning

From my understanding, they managed to open what appears to be a wormhole, directly in our atmosphere. Which would be more effective than descending from Space in vessels.

Although this method of transportation, leads me to question whether they were from another star system or dimension?

What if they lived in another dimension, on a different 'Earth'? Instead of charting space, they could just hop over to our dimension and use our planet instead. Maybe this could be a reason why they wouldn't consider bacteria?

Maybe they assumed bacteria would be the same for some reason. As Wells states in the book, bacteria was a thing in the past for the Martians. Maybe they didn't expect to encounter it here. Which may account for their ignorance.

[firesorter]

i think everyone is thinking known physics, what about interdimensional space, hey we accept stargate as do able, the aliens use worm holes, so they were buried for 1000`s of years what killed the dinosaurs?? a comet we suspect, maybe our alien friends conquered the planet, sucked them dry, did abit of breeding, R&R then hid their stuff and moved on.

at the end of the day its a movie, its great to get lost in the fantasy but its a bit "comic book guy" to lose sleep over!

[Chris Oakley]

Maybe some Tixylix or Calpol would have sorted them out.

I like the idea of the Martains playing poker like the dogs in that C. M. Coolidge painting. Don't know why I put this comment here, but it just came to mind.

[beecus]

It makes me wonder, if they were on the planet before life existed..... why not stay?

Why wait until they had to fight to control it?

Silly sausages he he ;D

[Commandingtripod]

beecus said:

It makes me wonder, if they were on the planet before life existed..... why not stay?

Why wait until they had to fight to control it?

Silly sausages he he ;D

Yeah, but if they stayed, it would mean one thing - Spielberg would have no movie!!
They'd have killed us the moment we stood on two feet.

And anyway, what sort of alien conquering race wouldn't want to run wild around the planet wiping the humans from the face of the planet and they can't be touched by our weapons?

[Killraven]

Surely if the aliens had the power to manipulate wormholes to fly through, then you'd think they'd be able to find a way to transport themselves inside their tripods, therefore negating the need to bury them in some random fashion like a squirrel burying its nuts for the winter? ;D In that sense, why not just have a cylinder/capsule that folds out into a tripod on hitting the ground, 'Transformers' stylee?

KR

[Lensman]

Killraven: Bingo! Well said.

[Luperis]

jazzyjeff said:

In that sense, why not just have a cylinder/capsule that folds out into a tripod on hitting the ground, 'Transformers' stylee?

KR

That would be cool. ;D

[misschicken]

I thought that one of the possible solution to as why the aliens had the same technology when they arrived as when the tripods were buried as because the aliens themselves had been cryngenically asleep for a couple of thousand years (maybe less) as they travelled to Earth.

Imagine - their planet is doom and they need to find another planet suitable to live on. The launch 100s of small 'unmanned' ships that a suitable place. One ship finds Earth and it seeds Earth with small cylinders that are able bury themselves and use the Earth resources to build tripods. The small ship moves on looking for another world but it sends a message to the mother ship that a suitable planet is available.

This can explain why no man saw the tripods arrived - they were seeds and buried themselves quickly. It also explains why plate tectonics didn't affect them (not buried long enough).