The 1953 film "The War of the Worlds" is about a Martian invasion of Earth. It is based on the 1898 novel by English science-fiction writer H. G. Wells (Herbert George Wells). In a small mountain town north of Los Angeles, a meteor lands and is first revealed to be hollow and then to have alien creatures inside it. Similar "meteors" begin landing all over the world. The aliens are identified as Martians as the planet Mars is close to the Earth at the time. A nuclear scientist, Clayton Forrester, is in the area with two friends. He meets a local woman, Sylvia Van Buren, and they form a relationship. The first meteor crew, protected by a ray gun, begin building machines while the area is surrounded by US military troops. The machines lift out of the site and fight the troops with heat rays and disintegrator rays and prove to be invincible. The Martian machines join other machines as they head for Los Angeles to destroy the city. When Los Angeles is evacuated, some people remain and start rioting. A man carrying a suitcase drops it revealing paper money and rolls of coins.

A prologue spoken by British actor Cedric Hardwicke describes Mars as a "dying planet."

The prologue continues with the Martians, having studied other worlds to move to (except Venus), finally select the Earth as their new home.

In a small town located in the mountains north of Los Angeles, a bright meteor falls.

Three scientists on a fishing vacation are in the area. One is Clayton Forrester, reportedly "top man in nuclear physics." He meets Sylvia Van Buren, a local woman.

Forrester has a geiger counter, a device for measuring radioactivity, and tells the others that he and his friends were also going to do some prospecting for uranium. At that time there was sort of a "uranium rush" to find the metal used in manufacturing nuclear weapons.

The geiger counter signal becomes loudest when pointed at the meteor. An official suggests that the meteor is radioactive and that the people should leave the area. The townspeople leave three men at the meteor site and depart. The three men at the site notice movement at the top of the meteor. A circular door unscrews and a device which resembles a cobra's head appears. The three men realize that there are alien creatures in the meteor and decide to welcome them to California by waving a flag.

The aliens immediately fire their ray gun at the men. Soldiers are called in to surround the meteor landing site and news reporters arrive. The events become the subject of newspaper stories and radio programs.

A sailor in a coffee shop pays with some coins while listening to the radio. The Martians continue working and by the next dawn appear ready to come out.

The Martian machines rise from the site. Clayton tells a general that he believes that the machines use magnetic energy to "fly."

Sylvia's uncle, Pastor Matthew Collins, approaches a machine in a misguided attempt to communicate with it and is promptly shot. The machines then begin firing their heat rays and disintegrator rays.

The military can not stop the invaders and the troops retreat. Clayton finds an airplane which he uses to fly Silvia away from the battle but then is forced to land. The pair take refuge in a house but a Martian meteor lands nearby damaging the house.

Martian machines are nearby and one of them sends a camera into the house. Clayton cuts the camera cord with an axe while Sylvia spots a moving shadow.

Sylvia screams and Clayton shines a flashlight on it.

Clayton throws the axe at the Martian and all three leave the house. The narrator then describes the Martian efforts in various countries where they are always defeating local armies. As the machines begin to move towards Los Angeles, the US Air Force sends the Flying Wing to attack them.

The airplane drops an atomic bomb on a concentration of Martian machines, but the machines deploy protective shields and are able to withstand the blast. An order is given to evacuate the residents of Los Angeles into the surrounding hills.

Sylvia and Clayton join a group of scientists in a bus and drive through downtown Los Angeles.

The bus is attacted by rioters and looters and Clayton and Sylvia become separated. Clayton stops to talk to a man and asks him if he has seen the scientists. The man has a suitcase with money and coin rolls in it.

A closer look at the suitcase contents.

The coin rolls appear to be a 40-coin roll of half dollars and a 20-coin roll of silver dollars. The Martian machines arrive in Los Angeles.

A machine gets ready to destroy the Los Angeles City Hall building. Meanwhile, Clayton is searching the downtown area for Sylvia whom he believes he will find in a church.

Clayton, dodging the machines, searches local churches for Sylvia and enters one.

A Martian machine fires it's heat ray near the church causing damage. Clayton finally finds Sylvia.

A machine is in trouble and starts to fall out of the sky.

The machine crashes into a building.

The people in the church go to see what is happening and observe a door opening on the machine.

The narrator explains that the Martians had no resistance to the Earth's germs in the air. Some scenes of Martian destruction follow.

The refugees evacuated into the hills wait to go home.

The last scene is of a church.

The narrator explains that the Earth was saved by the smallest of God's Creations.

Gene Barry as Dr. Clayton Forrester
Ann Robinson as Sylvia Van Buren
Cedric Hardwicke as Commentator (voice)
Les Tremayne as Major General Mann
Robert Cornthwaite as Dr. Pryor
Lewis Martin as Pastor Matthew Collins
Producer: George Pal
Director: Byron Haskin
Writers: Barré Lyndon, H. G. Wells (novel)