QWhat happened to Ogilvy?
AIt is assumed that Ogilvy was dead. Ray would not have felt safe going to sleep with his daughter on the couch if Ogilvy was simply knocked out. Also, Ray couldn't take the risk of being found with his daughter there because Ogilvy was making too much noise.
QWhy was the setting in the USA?
AIn the original novel, the story was situated in Victorian England, which was the technological super power of that age. It made the alien invasion that more dramatic, since the Martians were able to defeat the strongest country in the world with relative ease. Also, author H. G. Wells was from England, so he wrote about the country he lived in, purposely situating the action in places and locations that were known by his family and friends. The movie, however, is a US production made with an American cast and crew, and therefore it is primarily geared towards the US. Setting the film in the States would make it more relevant to that audience. Also, in this setting, the US effectively takes the place of England as the modern super power that gets easily defeated by an alien attack force.
QHow do those shields work? How can they deflect weaponry, but humans can pass through it?
ASurprisingly, the concept is quite sound; assuming the shields were some form of electromagnetic shell, they would implement a premature detonation of any weapon entering its range but allow anything else to pass through; the spikes on the tripod legs and head are indeed suggestive of Electric Reactive Armour, an experimental countermeasure against anti-tank weapons. If the tripods were able to generate a large enough charge, an aura of plasma, similar to the one seen in the film would result. Another explanation is that they turned off the shields temporarily when they picked up humans, otherwise it would negate the bird-scene at the end, which indicated that the shields were offline. It's perfectly believable that the aliens, having become seriously ill because of Earth-born disease, simply didn't have the mental capacity anymore to keep the defenses of the vehicles operating properly.
Share this
