Mars, the fourth planet from the Sun, has appeared as a setting in works of fiction since at least the mid-1600s. Trends in the planet's portrayal have largely been influenced by advances in planetary science. It became the most popular celestial object in fiction in the late 1800s, when it became clear that there was no life on the Moon. The predominant genre depicting Mars at the time was utopian fiction. Around the same time, the mistaken belief that there are canals on Mars emerged and made its way into fiction, popularized by Percival Lowell's speculations of an ancient civilization having constructed them. The War of the Worlds, H. G. Wells's novel about an alien invasion of Earth by sinister Martians, was published in 1897 and went on to have a major influence on the science fiction genre.
Alien invasion or space invasion is a common feature in science fiction stories and films, in which extraterrestrial lifeforms invade Earth to exterminate and supplant human life, enslave it, harvest people for food, steal the planet's resources, or destroy the planet altogether. It can be considered as a science-fiction subgenre of the invasion literature, expanded by H. G. Wells's seminal alien invasion novel The War of the Worlds, and is a type of 'first contact' science fiction.
H. G. Wells' War of the Worlds, also known as Invasion and H. G. Wells' The Worlds in War internationally, or simply as War of the Worlds, is a 2005 Japanese-American direct-to-DVD independent fantasy horror film produced by The Asylum, which premiered on Sci Fi Channel on Tuesday June 28, 2005, and directed by David Michael Latt. It is a loose adaptation of the H. G. Wells novel, and a mockbuster of the DreamWorks/Paramount film based on the same source, in addition to the third film adaptation overall.
HMS Thunder Child is a fictional ironclad torpedo ram of the Royal Navy, destroyed by Martian fighting-machines in H. G. Wells' 1898 novel The War of the Worlds whilst protecting a refugee rescue fleet of civilian vessels. It has been suggested that Thunder Child was based on HMS Polyphemus, which was the sole torpedo ram to see service with the Royal Navy from 1881 to 1903.
The fighting machine is one of the fictional machines used by the Martians in H. G. Wells' 1898 classic science fiction novel The War of the Worlds. In the novel, it is a fast-moving three-legged walker reported to be 100 feet tall with multiple, whip-like tentacles used for grasping, and two lethal weapons: the Heat-Ray and a gun-like tube used for discharging canisters of a poisonous chemical black smoke that kills everything. It is the primary machine the Martians use when they invade Earth, along with the handling machine, the flying machine, and the embankment machine.
Many works of fiction have featured UFOs. In most cases, as the fictional story progresses, the Earth is being invaded by hostile alien forces from outer space, usually from Mars, as depicted in early science fiction, or the people are being destroyed by alien forces, as depicted in the film Independence Day. Some fictional UFO encounters may be based on real UFO reports, such as Night Skies. Night Skies is based on the 1997 Phoenix UFO Incident.
Mars Attacks! is a 1996 American black comedy science fiction film directed by Tim Burton, who also co-produced it with Larry J. Franco. The screenplay by Jonathan Gems was based on the Topps trading card series of the same name. The film features an ensemble cast consisting of Jack Nicholson, Glenn Close, Annette Bening, Pierce Brosnan, Danny DeVito, Martin Short, Sarah Jessica Parker, Michael J. Fox, Pam Grier, Rod Steiger, Tom Jones, Lukas Haas, Natalie Portman, Jim Brown, Lisa Marie, and Sylvia Sidney in her final film role.
The Martians, also known as the Invaders, are the main antagonists from the H.G. Wells 1898 novel The War of the Worlds. Their efforts to exterminate the populace of the Earth and claim the planet for themselves drive the plot and present challenges for the novel's human characters. They are notable for their use of extraterrestrial weaponry far in advance of that of mankind at the time of the invasion.
Edison's Conquest of Mars is an 1898 science fiction novel by American astronomer and writer Garrett P. Serviss. It was written as a sequel to Fighters from Mars, an unauthorized and heavily altered version of H. G. Wells's 1897 story The War of the Worlds. It has a place in the history of science fiction for its early employment of themes and motifs that later became staples of the genre.
Superman: War of the Worlds is a DC Comics Elseworlds graphic novel, published in 1998, written by Roy Thomas with Michael Lark as the artist. The story is a rough adaptation of the H. G. Wells 1898 novel The War of the Worlds, but is primarily based on the Superman mythology. Wells' story is transported from early 20th century Britain to Metropolis in 1938, where the Martian invasion is met with a Golden Age-style Superman who is not blessed with the full range of powers that he typically has in modern comics.
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume II is a comic book limited series written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Kevin O'Neill, published under the America's Best Comics imprint of DC Comics in the United States and under Vertigo in the United Kingdom. It is a sequel to the original volume of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and like its previous installment is a pastiche of various characters and events from Victorian literature; though it borrows a great number of characters and elements from various literary works of writers such as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Ian Fleming, Robert Louis Stevenson and Bram Stoker, it is predominantly a retelling of The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells.
The Day the Earth Stopped is a 2008 American direct-to-DVD science fiction action horror film produced by independent studio The Asylum, directed by and starring C. Thomas Howell. It is a mockbuster of the 2008 remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still, which was released three days later. Howell stars as the protagonist, soldier Josh Myron, who witnesses the arrival of giant alien robots that threaten to destroy the Earth unless they are shown the value of human existence.
The War of the Worlds is a 1953 American science fiction thriller film directed by Byron Haskin, produced by George Pal, and starring Gene Barry and Ann Robinson. It is the first of several feature film adaptations of H. G. Wells' 1898 novel of the same name. The setting is changed from Victorian era England to 1953 Southern California. Earth is suddenly invaded by Martians, and American scientist Doctor Clayton Forrester searches for any weakness to stop them.
Battle of Los Angeles is a science fiction action film by The Asylum, which premiered on Syfy on Saturday March 12, 2011, and was released to DVD on March 20, 2011. The film is directed by Mark Atkins and is a mockbuster of the Columbia Pictures film Battle: Los Angeles, which is inspired by the events of the Great Los Angeles Air Raid of 1942. The official trailer uses clips from another Asylum film, War of the Worlds 2: The Next Wave.
War of the Worlds: Goliath is a 2012 Malaysian animated science fiction war film directed by Joe Pearson that was released in 15 November 2012 in Malaysia. The film is voiced by actors Peter Wingfield, Adrian Paul, Tony Eusoff, Elizabeth Gracen, Jim Byrnes, Rob Middleton, Mark Sheppard, Matt Letscher, Adam Baldwin and other voice actors. The film is a loose sequel to H. G. Wells' 1898 novel The War of the Worlds. Its title refers to the human tripod the main characters use in the film. The film was negatively received, with the Los Angeles Times calling it "violent, messily drawn and lifelessly dragging" and The New York Times calling it "remarkably uninvolving".
The War of the Worlds is a science fiction novel by English author H. G. Wells. It was written between 1895 and 1897, and serialised in Pearson's Magazine in the UK and Cosmopolitan magazine in the US in 1897. The full novel was first published in hardcover in 1898 by William Heinemann. The War of the Worlds is one of the earliest stories to detail a conflict between humankind and an extraterrestrial race. The novel is the first-person narrative of an unnamed protagonist in Surrey and his younger brother who escapes to Tillingham in Essex as London and southern England is invaded by Martians. It is one of the most commented-on works in the science fiction canon.
Independence Day is a franchise of American science fiction action films that started with Independence Day in 1996, which was followed by the sequel, Independence Day: Resurgence in 2016. The franchise revolves around extraterrestrials invading Earth and seeking to eradicate mankind while the remaining human resistance uses everything at their disposal to defeat the invaders and take back the planet. Now considered to be a significant turning point in the history of the Hollywood blockbuster, the original film was released worldwide on July 3, 1996, but began showing on July 2 on limited release as a result of a high level of anticipation among moviegoers. The film grossed over $817.4 million worldwide, becoming the highest-grossing film of 1996 and, briefly, the second-highest-grossing film worldwide of all time behind 1993's Jurassic Park. Currently, it ranks 69th on the list of highest-grossing films, and was at the forefront of the large-scale disaster film and sci-fi resurgence of the mid-late 1990s. The film won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Sound Mixing.
The Great Martian War 1913–1917 is a 2013 Canadian/UK made-for-television science fiction docudrama film, produced by Michael Kot, Steve Maher, and Mike Slee, and also directed by Slee. It unfolds in the style of an episode from the History TV Channel.
The Massacre of Mankind (2017) is a science fiction novel by the British writer Stephen Baxter, a sequel to H. G. Wells' 1898 classic The War of the Worlds, authorised by the Wells estate. It is set in 1920, 13 years after the events of the original novel, as a second Martian invasion is chronicled by Miss Elphinstone, the ex-sister-in-law of the narrator of War of the Worlds. Baxter also wrote an authorised sequel to Wells' novel The Time Machine, called The Time Ships.
