War of the Worlds

War of the Worlds (2005) is Steven Spielberg's sci-fi thriller you can watch online on iFILM. Tom Cruise plays Ray Ferrier, a New Jersey dockworker and barely-there father whose weekend with his kids turns into a fight for survival when enormous machines rise from beneath the streets and start levelling everything in sight.

The tripods have been buried underground for centuries, waiting. The moment they activate, Ray grabs his daughter Rachel (Dakota Fanning) and teenage son Robbie (Justin Chatwin) and runs — no plan, no signal, with alien harvesting machines closing in from every direction. The film adapts H.G. Wells' 1898 novel via a screenplay by Josh Friedman and David Koepp; made on a $132 million budget, it pulled over $600 million at the global box office.

Spielberg frames the invasion entirely at street level — no generals, no command centres, just one terrified man trying to keep two kids alive. That choice, and Tim Robbins turning up as a trembling survivalist in a cellar, keeps the tension personal and raw. Stream War of the Worlds (2005) in good quality on iFILM.