A narrator opens the film stating that
extraterrestrials with immense intelligence have grown envious of humanity's dominion of Earth and are plotting against them. Divorced
longshoreman Ray Ferrier works as a crane operator at a dock in
Brooklyn, New York and is estranged from his children, ten-year-old daughter Rachel and his teenage son Robbie. Ray's pregnant ex-wife, Mary Ann, drops the two off at his house in
Bayonne, New Jersey on her way to visit her parents in
Boston, Massachusetts. Later, a strange
thunderstorm occurs, during which lightning strikes multiple times into the middle of a nearby intersection, causing an
EMP that instantly disables almost all electronic devices. On his way to investigate the impacts, Ray suggests his mechanic friend Manny repair a customer's minivan by replacing a
solenoid. He joins the crowd at the scene of the impacts, where a massive
"tripod" war machine emerges from the ground following an
earthquake and attacks the crowd using
energy weapons to disintegrate most of the witnesses into ash. Ray collects his children and commandeers the van Manny has repaired; he attempts to persuade Manny to join them but is forced to leave him behind when the tripod attacks, resulting in Manny's death. Ray drives his children to Mary Ann's empty suburban
New Jersey home to take refuge. Later, a
Boeing 747 crashes into the neighborhood. Ray meets a wandering television news team scavenging the wreckage for food, upon which a correspondent reveals that many tripods have attacked major cities around the world and that they have
force shields that protect them from humanity's defenses. She adds that the tripods' pilots traveled to Earth within the lightning storms to enter their machines, presumed to have been buried underground long ago. Ray transports his children to Boston to be with their mother, but a desperate mob swarms their vehicle, forcing them to abandon it. They eventually get on a
ferry crossing over the
Hudson River before tripods attack the refugees. One tripod emerges from the water and
capsizes the ferry, forcing Ray and his children to swim to shore while the tripods abduct several refugees. They then witness a
US military counter-offensive against the tripods. To Ray's dismay, Robbie joins the futile fight out of hatred for the invaders, leaving Ray and Rachel to flee. The military forces are obliterated, with Robbie presumed dead along with them. Shortly afterward, the pair are offered shelter in a nearby house by a former
ambulance driver, Harlan Ogilvy. The three remain undetected for several hours, even as a tripod's probe and a group of aliens explore the basement. Tensions soon arise between Harlan and Ray, with Harlan insistent on fighting and killing the aliens, having heard that the
Japanese military was successful in doing so in
Osaka, while Ray prefers hiding with Rachel to avoid being spotted and killed by the aliens. They soon discover that the aliens have started cultivating a
red-colored vegetation across the landscape that is quickly spreading. Later, Harlan suffers a
mental breakdown after witnessing the tripods harvesting human
blood and
tissue to fertilize the alien vegetation. Fearing that his mad shouting will alert the aliens, Ray reluctantly kills him. Later in the night, a second tripod probe then catches the Ferriers sleeping, causing Rachel to flee outside only to be abducted by the tripod. Chasing after the tripod, Ray grabs a belt of grenades from an abandoned
Humvee, that has been overgrown with the red vegetation, then intentionally allows himself to be abducted. With the help of other abductees, Ray destroys the tripod from within with the grenades. Ray and Rachel eventually reach Boston, where they find the alien vegetation withering and the tripods inexplicably collapsing. When another tripod appears, active yet unstable, Ray notices birds landing on it, indicating that its force shields have been disabled. He alerts the soldiers escorting the fleeing crowd, who shoot it down with
Javelin missiles. As the soldiers advance on the downed tripod, a hatch opens, and a weak, horribly diseased alien struggles halfway out before dying. Ray and Rachel finally approach Mary Ann's parents' house, reuniting with Mary Ann and Robbie, who survived. Against a backdrop featuring multiple dead and destroyed tripods, the narrator explains that the aliens died because they could not have possibly prepared themselves against the countless
microbes and
viruses inhabiting the Earth, to which humanity has adapted over millennia. ==Cast==