In the red land of Mars, a massive explosion erupts from the planet's surface, launching
the first Martian sphere into space. Meanwhile in England, young couple Amy and George see the
plume of smoke through a telescope belonging to their neighbor Ogilvy. After comparing this
discovery to some sightings done during 1894 and 1898, he gifts them a photo of Mars and welcomes
them to the neighborhood. As the object leaves Mars and continues its course through space,
the couple returns to their cottage, hurt by the way other neighbors shun them. The next day George
goes to work at the local newspaper, where he is assigned to do general research on a recent bank
incident. However when he hears another reporter is going to the Admiralty, he volunteers to go as
well because his brother works there and he may have insider information. Moments later, George
waits for the Minister and his brother Frederick to finish giving a speech about the recent Russian
attacks and the "Anglo-Saxon" racial superiority before approaching Frederick to talk in private.
The brothers haven’t seen each other in a while, and George wishes Frederick visited his home to
give Amy a chance. However Frederick is still angry because George brought shame to the family
by leaving his wife to run away with another woman and now he refuses to be seen with them.
In the meantime, Ogilvy continues taking photos of Mars, curious about what the plumes may mean.
Later at home, George gives Amy bad news: it seems Frederick won’t be helping him get a divorce. To
make matters worse, his boss keeps printing George’s articles using another reporter’s
name. Suddenly the couple is startled by a bright light and the house starts shaking. When they go
outside, they see a plume of smoke crossing the sky. Ogilvy doesn’t hesitate to leave in the
middle of the night to investigate and is shocked by what he sees. Meanwhile in a desolate red land,
a strange red robot-likes structure is surrounded by a heavy smoke, seemingly broken. The next
morning, Ogilvy invites the couple to see what he’s found in the forest. There’s a scorched trail
on the ground that takes them to a mysterious sphere that has destroyed all the trees that
surround them. Ogilvy thinks it’s something that fell from space like a meteor and he’s already
called the Royal Astronomer, but the couple worries this may be an attack from Russia. George
takes a few pictures and since the telegraph lines are down, he must go to the office with the news.
Unfortunately, the Editor once again wants to give the story to another reporter, so George snaps and
demands an explanation. It turns out the Lord that owns the newspaper has blacklisted George
because his name now equals a lack of traditional values. Furious, George decides to quit. Afterward
he goes to see his wife to beg her to sign the divorce papers, pointing out they were never happy
together, but the woman refuses, saying she won’t allow anyone to have George as revenge for the
shame he brought to her. Back in the forest, now lots of people have arrived to help dig out the
sphere. When Ogilvy touches it with his trowel, the ground suddenly shakes and the meteor begins
to expand, its top layer slowly cracking open. At that moment the Royal Astronomer Stent arrives
with his own team and a bunch of policemen to take charge of the site. Soon a whole curious crowd
gathers around the excavation, and George arrives looking for Amy. The sphere suddenly begins
grumbling, and Ogilvy notices a clockwork ticking sound coming from it. The cracks on the sphere’s
surface finish breaking and the brown cocoon comes off, exposing a slick black surface beneath.
Stent comes closer to touching the object, which leaves a layer of thick black oil on his hand. His
reflection is still there when he moves back, only for it to go away when the sphere begins
spinning and raises high in the air. At that moment, Stent’s arm suddenly catches on fire,
and as the sphere spins faster, people around it begin bursting into flames. Terrified,
everyone runs away in panic, not noticing that the sphere continues to spin until disintegrates. Its
black dust falls into the crater on the ground, which is still rumbling. George and Amy run back
to their house and help their maid look for their missing sister. When they go outside, they see a
second sphere falling through the sky and landing in a lake nearby. Meanwhile on the red land,
an adult and a child walk through a desolated area filled with mysterious crystals. Eventually
they reach the ruins of a city, looking for a safe spot. The next day, George returns to the forest
to find Ogilvy, only to discover an Artillery unit has cordoned off the area and the incident is
being treated as a simple forest fire. Jane also goes looking for Ogilvy at his house and finds all
the pictures of Mars, which she thinks confirm the sphere is extraterrestrial. In the forest,
the crater suddenly begins glowing and moving, as if revealing something underneath it. At the
newspaper office, Frederick comes looking for George and learns he quit. When he checks the
desk, he finds a picture of them as kids and feels bad for having abandoned his brother in times of
need. The editor shows him a map, explaining that the explosion happened near George’s home. Back
in town, George and Amy reunite to discuss their future, only to be startled by a weird noise. A
bunch of soldiers appear on the streets and urge everyone to run away because something is coming,
but it’s too late: explosions suddenly start happening all over the place. As buildings start
to crumble, George and Amy run to their home to get their maid, but they have to watch in horror
as part of the wall falls on top of her, killing her. At that moment a scared lost horse runs down
the street and George grabs it so they can escape, but the couple barely moves when they hear their
dog crying. George runs to rescue it when suddenly a giant alien machine known as Tripod appears
above town, its blue glowing lights revealing that it was the thing hiding in the crater all
along. Its destruction causes debris to fall and block the road, splitting the couple. George tells
Amy to escape and ask Frederick for help, and she rides away with tears as more explosions
go off around her beloved. Hours later, the entire town has become ruins. In London. Frederick argues
with the Prime Minister about what to do, and they decide not to tell the citizens anything yet. The
palace is taking in refugees and Amy arrives looking for George, but nobody has seen him.
Frederick is angry with Amy because he thinks his brother would be safe now if he hadn’t run away
with her, but he shuts up when Amy confesses she’s pregnant. Meanwhile on the red land, it’s revealed
that the two people are Amy and her son George Junior. This isn’t Mars, it’s future London, which
has become a post-apocalyptic city in ruins. Amy checks the notes on the walls left by survivors,
but she doesn’t find who she’s looking for. Afterward she goes to pick up some food from
the drive and Junior finds a little magazine on the floor, telling the story of how the Martians
were finally driven away. Back in the present, a pile of debris starts moving and George comes out
from under it, alive and well. There’s nobody left in town, so George returns to his cottage
and discovers the maid’s body is gone. He can’t find Amy, so he writes a letter to her in case
she ever comes back. Suddenly he hears a whistle, which turns out to be a soldier looking for other
survivors. They’re trying to find a way out of town together when they hear a baby crying nearby,
so they run to rescue him. Unfortunately the Tripod shows up again and the men have to
hide behind a building to avoid it. The Tripod continues to shoot its laser beams and soon the
baby stops crying, indicating he died. The duo keeps going and eventually reaches another town,
which is also in ruins. George wants to keep going and reach London to look for Amy,
but the leader of the Artillery unit threatens him into staying and fulfilling his duty as a British
citizen to defend the land. In the meantime in London, Amy continues to look for George among
the refugees to no avail. Frederick points out he isn’t on the records and that maybe he went back
to his wife. Afterward, Amy presents Ogilvy’s pictures to Frederick and the Prime Minister,
who finally believes the story of alien creatures attacking Earth. He makes an official announcement
in front of a crowd, telling them not to worry because they have the best army in the world. In
the future, Junior continues to read his magazine and Amy tells her his dad had also fought in the
war against the aliens. The text says the army had trouble because normal weapons didn’t work.
Back in the present, the Artillery unit finds the second sphere in the forest and prepares to
attack, ignoring George’s warning that it may not work. As the sphere begins spinning and floating,
they bombard the sphere with cannons and gunfire until it explodes in black dust.
However when they come closer, they find a piece of black metal revealing the sphere had only
been a shell. At that moment a Tripod appears and ignores the general’s attempt to parley,
opening fire and eviscerating all the soldiers. George manages to run away, only stopping once to
look back and discover more Tripods have arrived. Around the planet Earth, thousands of spheres keep
on falling. In the future, Amy is helping feed a group of refugees and steals a can of beans for
herself. One of the men notices this and grabs her hands, announcing she’ll pay with her body.
Later at home, Amy opens the can and discovers her sacrifice had been for rotten food. Back to
the present, a black smoke finally hits London, announcing the arrival of the Tripods. People
begin running away in panic as buildings get destroyed and the Tripods expel more of that
black smoke, which begins covering the whole area and leaves it in darkness. Amy, Frederick,
and the Prime Minister run inside a tunnel and lock the door behind them. However the Minister
suddenly stops moving and a dark liquid comes out of his mouth: it turns out the smoke is poison
gas, and it’s sneaking inside the tunnel through the vents. With the Minister dead, Frederick and
Amy continue to run through the tunnel until they come out on the bridge, where dozens of people are
trying to leave. Outside the city, George makes it to the road and is devastated to watch how London
is also falling. Some survivors that are getting away share their water with George, and Mrs.
Elphinstone points out that people must be running to the beach, so George should look for Amy there.
In the future, Amy receives a visit from a Priest, who reminds him she’s the only one with a living
child and what a miracle that is. He also reveals a survivor has shown up at church asking for her,
which confuses her because she thought all her loved ones were dead. After the priest leaves,
Amy grabs George’s letter to reread it. Back in the present, George helps a sick couple go
down the road and together they reach the beach, where thousands of people are trying to escape on
emergency boats. As everyone fights to get a spot, Frederick asks a soldier for an update and learns
all government buildings have been destroyed. The army can’t do anything because none of their
weapons can damage the Tripods. Amy wants to keep looking for George, but Frederick thinks the baby
is the priority and forces her to leave on a boat. At that moment, George finds Frederick and hears
about the boat, so he begins yelling her name. Amy immediately hears him and both of them jump into
the water to finally reunite. Suddenly another explosion is heard and the Tripods arrive at the
beach too. Many of the boats are hit by the beams and sink, but George and Amy manage to rescue a
little girl called Lilian before running back to the shore, where they watch how one of the Tripods
is finally defeated and falls to the ground. The group reunites with Frederick and begins running
away as more Tripods keep attacking the area and abruptly fall on the sand when they’re shot
down. In the future, Amy waits for the person that asked for her, who turns out to be Ogilvy. He had
disappeared because he had been sick, and then he joined the government to help develop new weapons.
Eventually even government buildings ran out of food, so he decided to come back. When Ogilvy
asks about George, Amy says she lost him during the war and never saw him again. Ogilvy explains
people remember things incorrectly: it wasn’t a great victory in a war, it was a seedling.
His theory says the aliens used the black smoke to kill the planet and transform it into a new Mars,
considering how everything looks red, babies aren’t born, and nothing grows on the ground
except for those mysterious shards. Amy wonders if it truly had been the army who defeated the
aliens, and points out many people had felt sick back then. Ogilvy immediately gathers
some samples and begins doing some research on the matter while chatting with Amy. He explains
he escaped by jumping into the river and asks Amy how she managed to escape too, but she says she
doesn’t remember. In the present, George’s group together with Mrs. Elphinstone returns to town
to hide inside a house while the sky is darkened by a thunderstorm. There’s no water on the taps,
but at least they can rest. Suddenly the buildings begin shaking and everyone runs to hide under the
furniture as a Tripod shoots its searching light through the window. It leaves after it finds
nothing, then the adults make sure to close the doors, unaware that there’s something dangerous
running down the hall now. The next morning, the group wakes up to discover it’s still dark
even if it’s 9 am. When they come outside, they discover the black smoke is smothering Earth and
hiding the Sun. There’s also a fallen Tripod outside the house, and they don’t understand
what killed it since the army isn’t in this area. George and Mrs. Elphinstone aren’t feeling well,
and George wonders if there was something in the water they drank. Amy and Frederick wander
around the house looking for food and when they hear a noise, they think it’s just a broken door
banging. However the alien creature is following them in the darkness. When they make it upstairs,
the noises get worse. Amy walks slowly to enter a room, only to get startled by a body by the
window. Frederick comes to check on her and realizes the roofs have lots of refugee bodies
on them, and only the aliens could’ve thrown them there. At that moment they hear the loud
noise made by the Tripods, so they run back to the kitchen to hide with George and Lilian under the
tables. Mrs. Elphinstone is too weak to move and the light flashing through the window detects her
presence. Soon a grotesque alien creature enters the room, stabs Mrs. Elphinstone with its claw,
then uses a stinger to absorb her life force before dragging the body away. In the future,
Amy worries about Junior because he’s also sick and the hunger makes it worse. All around her,
the bodies of sick people are carried away to be burnt while Ogilvy continues to watch Mars with
his telescope. Amy wonders if it was this sickness that killed the aliens too and asks Ogilvy to take
samples from sick people to create a serum. To convince him, she explains she does remember how
she escaped, she just doesn’t like thinking about it, then she tells him the story. Back in the
present, George and Frederick argue about how they should proceed. Frederick thinks they should make
bombs with lamp oil and fight back, but George thinks the alien invasion is a punishment Britain
is getting for dominating the world. Both men soon lose their temper and Amy has to pull them apart,
pointing out the right choice is to leave. The group slowly makes their way to the door,
where they see an alien walking down the street in a funny way, probably because of the sickness.
Lilian realizes she dropped her toy and goes back to grab it, but at that moment an alien shows up
and kills her quickly. The three remaining adults run away and Frederick confronts the other alien
by throwing his makeshift bombs at it. However the fire doesn’t hurt it and the beast immediately
kills Frederick. George and Amy run to hide in another building, and Amy notices a bunch of spots
on George’s skin indicating how bad the illness is getting. When Amy peeks outside, she sees an alien
eating Frederick’s body, and she realizes they only leave the Tripods when they need to feed.
It’s eating the sick human flesh that is killing them. A few hours pass with no chance to leave
because the creature is still outside, and George begins going mad. Not being able to deal with the
voices in his head, he decides that since he’s sick anyway, he’ll sacrifice himself so Amy and
the baby can escape. Amy tries slapping him to stop him, but he just kisses her goodbye before
going outside. A devastated Amy has to watch how the love of her life is attacked and eaten by an
alien, but she doesn't let his sacrifice go to waste and she runs away. She makes it out
of town safely, and when she finds their old cottage, she comes inside to find the letter,
which makes her cry. In the future, Amy and Ogilvy tell the Priest about their theory, but the Priest
refuses to let them experiment on sick people. Having no other choice, Amy lets Ogilvy take blood
from Junior, and he uses it to create a serum that he sprays all over the fields. A few days later,
Ogilvy calls Amy over to show her it’s working: the mysterious crystals are disintegrating
under the power of the serum, so they talk to the Priest to convince him to plant the last few seeds
available. A few weeks later, Amy tells Junior about the old world and how wonderful it used to
be. Once he falls asleep, she walks outside and notices a solitary shrub rising up from
the ashes. The serum is truly working, meaning they’ll be able to start rebuilding civilization
soon. As the sun finally shines down on Earth again, Amy gets ready to welcome the new world.