War of the Worlds (2005) to stream free on Kanopy next month

Collider reports that Steven Spielberg’s 2005 sci-fi thriller War of the Worlds, starring Tom Cruise, will land on Kanopy next month, allowing anyone with a library card to stream the film for free.

The piece highlights the film’s brutal, hopeless tone: unlike many disaster movies it offers no heroic speeches or comforting victories, instead portraying an invasion that leaves people running, hiding and barely surviving. It also calls out the tripods’ horrific blaring sound and lists the cast as Cruise alongside Dakota Fanning, Justin Chatwin, Miranda Otto and Tim Robbins, with Robbins given one of the film’s most unsettling supporting performances and Cruise depicted as a man barely holding it together rather than a superhero.

The review described the movie as a visually striking, tension-filled alien-invasion thriller for much of its runtime but said it ultimately collapses under a famously terrible ending, adding that Spielberg’s grainy, documentary-style look doesn’t fully shine on Blu-ray and that pacing and story problems become more noticeable on repeat viewings. War of the Worlds will arrive on Kanopy next month. Release date June 29, 2005; runtime 116 minutes; director Steven Spielberg; writers Josh Friedman, David Koepp, H.G. Wells.

Key Topics

Culture, Tom Cruise, Steven Spielberg, Kanopy, Dakota Fanning, Tim Robbins